This time, the Huainan army once again raised troops to attack Yuezhou, and its main purpose was to contain the Hunan army and make Ma Yin unable to interfere with Huainan's action against Jiangxi. Pen × fun × Pavilion www. ｂｉｑｕｇｅ。 ｉｎｆｏ

Therefore, attacking Yuezhou is not the point, trying to contain the Hunan army as much as possible, and delaying time is the main purpose.

In mid-August, Liu Cunming led Leng Ye to lead 5,000 troops to garrison Tangnian County, Li Rao led 5,000 troops to garrison Tunpuqi, and he himself led 8,000 troops as a follow-up.

This arrangement is a very cautious plan at first glance, although the troops are stationed in three locations, they are close to each other, and they can support each other, and they don't have to worry about being broken by the Hunan army.

Since the defeat of Yuezhou last time, Liu Cun has changed his previous style and began to become cautious.

In late August, he sent Xu Dexun, the assassin of Yuezhou, as a general, leading 20,000 troops to resist, and at the same time ordered the general Qin Yanhui to lead 20,000 troops as a backup to respond to Xu Dexun's actions at any time.

Hunan's total strength is naturally more than these 40,000 people, in fact, as early as many years ago, after Liu Jianfeng led the remnants of this Sun Confucian army from Xuanzhou all the way to Hunan, its army reached 100,000 people.

Of course, many of these 100,000 people are just coerced people, and when fighting against the weaker southern forces, these people can still make up the numbers and scare the enemy army; However, if they were used against strong armies such as the Huainan Army, these untrained soldiers might become a burden to the Hunan army.

Therefore, although Ma Yin's territory has expanded rapidly in recent years, the number of troops under his command has not increased much, but gradually trained and eliminated the previously recruited soldiers to enhance the combat effectiveness of the army.

However, even if his army did not increase much, he could use more than 40,000 people, and the reason why he did not use more troops was because the barbarians in southern Hunan were in turmoil again!

Riots by barbarians in southern Hunan are a common occurrence in Hunan; Among the many barbarian tribes, Song Ye, the leader of the Chenzhou barbarians, and Pan Quansheng, Chang Shiyi, and Fu Yantong, the leaders of the Xuzhou barbarians, were the most powerful.

This time it was Song Ye, the leader of the Chenzhou barbarians, who had more than 20,000 troops, known as 100,000, and attacked Xiangxiang, which was extremely powerful and caused Ma Yin a headache.

Of course, the barbarian is the barbarian, although there are more troops, but these uncivilized barbarian soldiers have no common sense of using soldiers, they know that they are simply more powerful, coupled with their backward weapons and combat skills, and there is no military discipline at all, when fighting with Ma Yin's army, often as long as the war is slightly unfavorable, its army will collapse.

Therefore, although the barbarian soldiers rebelled with more troops, it was not difficult for Ma Yin's army to deal with them.

However, these barbarians are easy to defeat, but it is difficult to destroy them. This is because the terrain in southern Hunan is complex, and it is difficult for outsiders to understand the local topography. And these native-born barbarians are extremely familiar with the local area.

Every time they fought with the Hunan army, even if they were defeated, as long as those barbarians drilled into the deep mountains and old forests, the Hunan army had no way to take them.

This is also the reason why Ma Yin has defeated the barbarians many times, but he has never been able to solve the problem of the barbarians.

So this time, in addition to sending troops to resist the Huainan army's attack on Yuezhou and the town. Except for the brutal riots in Chenzhou, there is basically not much spare strength to support Zhong Kuangshi.

Gangneung Castle.

This Jingxiang town has been an extremely prosperous place since ancient times, and it is a good place for separation. Many years ago, Jingnan Jiedu envoy Chengwei was based here, conquered the east and west, and became the most powerful feudal town in Jingxiang.

It's a pity that Cheng Wei later ignored the tense relations with other surrounding feudal towns, but stubbornly led an army of 100,000 down the Yangtze River, wanting to compete with Huainan.

As a result, not long after Cheng Wei's army left Jiangling, Lei Yangong and Ma Yin, who had promised to ally with him, betrayed their promises and sent troops to attack Jiangling, the place where he was based.

Cheng Wei's 100,000 army was also wiped out by the Huainan army of less than 10,000 led by Li Shenfu in the Battle of Junshan at Dongting Lake, and even Cheng Wei himself could only commit suicide by throwing himself into the lake in despair.

After Cheng Xiao's death, the originally powerful Jingnan also collapsed overnight, and all forces vied for the territory left by Cheng Wei, Wang Jian, Lei Yangong, Ma Yin, etc., one by one, they rushed to fight for it.

Because of his closest position, Lei Yangong seized a large area of territory, including Jiangling, while Wang Jian quickly dispatched troops and easily seized all the Dongchuan states that had been fought for many years but had never been able to seize them; As for Ma Yin, because of the remoteness of the place, he only gained a small amount of benefits in this competition.

However, although Lei Yangong captured Jiangling, because of the fire he set before, Jiangling was broken and unable to hold on, and was finally made by Zhao Kuangning by Shannan Dongdao; A few years after Zhao Kuangning captured Jiangling, he was captured by the Liang army.

In just a few years, Gangneung has experienced many baptisms of war, and after several changes of hands, the original prosperous place is now in ruins, overgrown with weeds between the ruins and broken walls, a large number of people have been displaced, and the cries of the people can be heard everywhere.

When the newly appointed Jingnan Jiedu envoy Gao Jichang took up his post in Jiangling under the escort of the 5,000 Liang army, he saw such a scene.

In the battle of the Huainan Army's Northern Expedition to attack Yingzhou, Gao Jichang held the city and blocked the attack of the Huainan Army.

Jingnan has always been a big town, and Gao Jichang originally looked forward to the prosperity after coming here to serve as the envoy of Jiedu, but who knew that it was actually such a desolate situation, and he couldn't help but be disappointed.

In the fact that he was originally just a slave, he was able to climb all the way up from the bottom, and finally reached the position of the current Jiedu envoy, and his mind was naturally extremely firm.

He knows very well that in this troubled era, if you want to make some achievements, in addition to having soldiers and territory in your hands, what is more important is to have people and population. Therefore, after witnessing the tragic situation of the people, Gao Jichang immediately ordered the reassurance of the people, built some temporary shelters outside the city to accommodate these displaced people, and at the same time ordered the distribution of relief food so that these hungry people would not starve to death.

In order to calm the people's hearts as soon as possible, Gao Jichang also specially ordered to appease the displaced people, appease the officials, develop agriculture and commerce, and stabilize the society.

After the devastation of Gangneung was alleviated, Gao Jichang also began to plan how to expand his power.

In the Chengwei era, there were more than ten prefectures and counties under the Jingnan Jiedu, and the strength was the highest in Jingxiang, but now, only Jiangling, Xiazhou and Guizhou are the only three places that can be controlled by Gao Jichang, and they are relatively dilapidated and weak.

In this case, Gao Jichang naturally does not have any ambition to dominate the world, and even has no ambition to divide one side at present; At this time, all he was thinking about was how to expand his power in order to protect himself, so as not to lose his life in this troubled world.

On this day, a middle-aged scribe suddenly came outside the city of Gangneung, riding a group of thin old horses, looking very magnanimous.

The captain guarding the city gate felt that this man was very popular, maybe he was a great person, so he quickly reported it.

"Marshal, there is a middle-aged scribe from the city, who looks like a remarkable figure. The little one heard that the festival commander wanted to recruit talents from all over the world, so he stopped him and came to report to the festival commander! ”

Gao Jichang was worried about the shortage of talents in his hands during this time, so after Jiangling was pacified a little, he ordered the recruitment of talents in an attempt to expand his power; When he heard that a scribe with extraordinary bearing had come, he immediately sent someone to welcome him into his palace of the envoy of the festival.

After some inquiry, I learned that this scribe was a person from Shuzhong, who had been admitted to the Jinshi examination many years ago and stayed in Chang'an as an official.

However, as Zhu Quanzhong pressed on the Son of Heaven step by step, his ambition to usurp the throne was clearly revealed, and Liang Zhen, who was loyal to the Tang Dynasty, was inexplicably sad and indignant, but it was a pity that he was just a powerless petty official, and he was powerless to change the overall situation of the decline of the Tang Dynasty.

Under these circumstances, Liang Zhen, who was a little disheartened, resigned from his official position and planned to return to his hometown, but this time he came to Gangneung just to pass by.

Hearing this reason, his heart moved, he felt that although this Liang Zhen was relatively weak, he was knowledgeable and talked extraordinary, it seemed that he should be a talent, and he immediately started to solicit him.

"Mr. Liang, I can't hide it, if there is chaos today, heroes are rising together, and various feudal towns are competing for land. Although Gao sat in the position of Jingnan Jiedu envoy, he wanted to protect the territory and the people, and guard one side, I wonder if Mr. Liang is willing to stay and help me? Gao must be treated in the position of the deputy envoy of the festival! ”

Gao Jichang is very courageous, as soon as he opens his mouth, he is the position of deputy envoy of Jiedu, if it is someone else, under Gao Jichang's sincerity, he is afraid that he will be grateful immediately, and then agree on the spot; However, he obviously didn't expect that Liang Zhen was a person with a very high spirit, he looked down on Zhu Quanzhong, thinking that he was a usurper thief, how could he look down on Gao Jichang, who was born as a slave?

So Liang Zhen shook his head and politely refused.

Who knew that after he refused, Gao Jichang immediately changed color and said: "Mr. doesn't look down on King Liang, so he abandoned the official and went home; Now that you can't look down on Gao's position as the deputy envoy of Jiedu, aren't you afraid that Gao will take you down and cut off your head? ”

"This ......" Liang Zhen was dumbfounded, the speed of turning his face was too fast, right? He thought that he was just an insignificant person, as long as he insisted on not agreeing, Gao Jichang would definitely have to let himself go back to his hometown in the end.

Who knew that this person suddenly turned his face, which made Liang Zhen secretly complain.