After Meng Zhao, the right general of the Tang Army, came to his senses, it was already the second day of the withdrawal of the army, and soon after, he entered the somewhat dilapidated Siyang City.

The generals of the Tang Army, including Meng Zhao, did not quite believe the situation in Siyang City when they saw the Wumeng report in the front-line camp. But now it seems that the situation is more severe than what Wumeng said.

There were originally more than 100,000 people in the city, but now there are less than 80,000, and a third of the people do not know where they have gone. After their last expedition to the south, this place has stabilized a little, and it is no longer the lively scene of the past, and even the street market is also a trace of people.

The next information, almost did not make Meng Zhao, who was cultivating in Siyang City, angry, and in just ten days, dozens of large and small township and fort counties were destroyed, and these township and fort counties were all killed by this group of Shanyang Mansion generals Tang Jun and the rich households who fell to the Tang Army, and distributed the treasury and private wealth of large households to the people, and for a while, the counties of Liangzhou Prefecture were in turmoil.

"What about Umon? What are you doing now? It has been more than ten days since he came back, and as a result, the enemy army has become more and more fierce, and the more they have been killed. Seeing that his subordinates had sent another piece of information, and another township had been looted, Meng Zhao couldn't help but get angry.

"The general is angry for the time being, Captain Wumeng must be chasing and intercepting him. Now, because the enemy army has broken the city many times, the captured grain, grass, materials and armor and equipment have been sent to the surrounding mountain bandits, so there are large and small bandit armies in various parts of the southern counties of Liangzhou Prefecture. In addition, the Shanyang Mansion army deliberately hidden, and it was broken into pieces during the march. For a while, it was inevitable that it would be difficult for Captain Wumeng to find Li Feng's traces. Yuan Li, the captain beside him, said. Here, he is also in charge of the intelligence work around here, and he also knows something about the actions of Li Feng and his Shanyang Mansion Army in the past ten days. He knew that it wasn't that Wumeng didn't do his best, but that Li Feng was too cunning. Since the fall of Siyang City, it seems that this situation is in the hands of the other party.

Du Wei Chen Chang nodded in agreement with Yuan Li's words, and said: "My subordinates think that what Yuan Du Wei said is very true, this Li Feng is acting strangely, and he has five traces, but he is hiding his whereabouts through this chaotic mountain bandits, and it is not easy to trap them. Not only that, but on the contrary, he even broke Siyang City, Suicheng, Qicheng and other places, not to mention that there was no shortage of food and grass materials, and a large number of armor and equipment also became a means for them to strengthen the surrounding chaotic army. At present, the surrounding mountain bandit army has a great tendency to grow, which is extremely unfavorable to our rule over the southern counties of Liangzhou Prefecture. ”

"In addition, they also wiped out the officials in more than ten small towns and their surrounding townships and forts, as well as those wealthy families who had surrendered to our Tang army. As a result, our army's control over these four counties of Gucheng, Leping, Siyang and Linyi was empty except for the county seat. What is even more difficult to deal with is that those big families demand that we take back from the people who have robbed their families of food and food through the army of Guò Shanyang, and severely punish those mud-legged people. Now the problem is that these rich people who submit to us will be satisfied, but the common people will be hostile to us. If we don't deal with it harshly, the rich will be dissatisfied, but we can't let these big ones be dissatisfied now. Because they are the most important people in our current control of the towns and villages except for the big cities. At least, for now! After all, we didn't have long to lay down the Liangzhou Mansion. ”

Meng Zhao also carefully understood the current situation in the south, and also found a series of troubles caused by this Shanyang Mansion army. Hearing Chen Chang say this, his heart was even more angry. Speaking of that township fort, he couldn't wait to let the Shanyang Mansion army give it all up. These townships and forts are independent towns, but they are all independent of their clans, and they have built their own strong fortresses to protect themselves. The survival of the township fort is naturally extremely unfavorable to the rule of the government, whether it is the Xiaoguo army, the Tang army, or other forces, they are using various means to eliminate it. This kind of township fort, especially in Yuzhou, Xuzhou and Yanzhou, is due to the original Xuzhou rebellion. Of course, in recent decades, natural and man-made disasters have continued, and local people have built fortresses in order to protect themselves, mainly clans, forming unique towns.

"For these mountain bandits, they should have been wiped out in the first place, and they should have taken down the big ones, if it weren't for the fact that we were in a hurry to take them down and conspire with Xu Jie, how could we let them be powerful above the place. I saw that the strategy of the Xiaoguo Army is good, and it will take down the obedience of the rich families of the big clan. Meng Zhao said with a sneer.

The main general is silent, no matter how well this Xiaoguo army does, it is also the enemy, not his own. But then again, the Xiaoguo Army's control over the place is indeed stronger than theirs. Of course, this is also related to the long time that the Xiaoguo army has occupied various places and has a strong military force. Don't you see, the Xiaoguo Army has never expanded wantonly, but slowly moved forward. Now, in order to facilitate the transportation of Youzhou, Qingzhou, and Jizhou, we have directly begun to dredge the river and repair the canal on a large scale. Large-scale manufacturing of inland river vessels, even the Tang army in the north of Yanzhou felt the pressure deeply.

"By the way, the big families in this city also seem to be a little unstable. On both occasions, they levied grain from the rich and large families in the city, and they supplied it on the surface, but secretly moved their clansmen's property out. Yuan Li remembered what was going on in the city.

"Huh? What's going on? We didn't do anything to the rest of the big families? Why? Meng Zhao frowned and asked in a deep voice. This is now the new southern gateway, and although the Bo Ping army did not fight back, there could be no sudden accidents.

Yuan Li said in a sullen voice: "Speaking of which, the sea of affairs here is related to Zhang Yongxue, the left-behind commander of this city. As he spoke, he explained the situation in detail.

"Confused, how could Umon let this man behave like this?" Chen Chang frowned.

"I think that when Brother Wu was stationed here, there was no manpower around him, no armor, and a lack of food, which was also a last resort. Moreover, Brother Wu must be preparing to make this person a scapegoat. It's just that until now, Brother Wu is still chasing the traces of this Shanyang Mansion army everywhere. Captain Xu Feng squinted his eyes and said his opinion.

"This person can't stay, but this is not the time to clear the hidden dangers, if this Shanyang Mansion Army is not removed, no matter how we clean up the mess here, we can't solve the most fundamental problem. Now I still think about where Li Feng, the bastard, ran to. Yuan Li frowned and said.

"Since they are among the counties under our jurisdiction, it is not assuring that he will be able to turn the heavens upside down. But if it's not addressed quickly, the results will only get worse. There are also those chaotic armies composed of mountain bandits, which will only get stronger and stronger if they continue like this, which is extremely unfavorable to us. ”

"Give an order to Linyi and the counties to the north, and let them step up the recruitment of young men and young men to form a new annex army. This time, the treatment that can be given is better. Our right sergeant has suffered a lot of losses, and this time, the remnants of the new annex army, which were withdrawn with us, will be incorporated into the sequence of our right army, together with the garrison in the city, and now we will first restore the combat strength of our right army. Meng Zhao ignored the discussion of the surrounding situation, and first straightened out the army. He knew that for now, if he wanted to solve all the complicated things around him, having soldiers in his hands was the most important thing. However, since the soldiers who returned from outside Boping City, there are only more than 5,000 people who can continue to join the army. Coupled with the thousands of people scattered in Liangzhou Prefecture, the original 25,000 people in the right army are now only about 13,000 people. And beside him, there were only more than 4,000 people. It was only after the reorganization that it was enough to gather 6,000 people.

"Now, I just don't know what the general has done here! Alas...... General Ben has ruined the overall situation of the great general! After giving the order, Meng Zhao couldn't help but sigh bitterly.

The three lieutenants all looked at their noses and noses, and they didn't know how to speak, and they didn't dare to speak. They also knew that the task given to them by the general was to lay down the Liangzhou Mansion and Shanyang Mansion that had negotiated the conditions with Xu Jie, assist Xu Jie's annihilation of the Wuwei Army, and ally with the Yanzhou Mansion Army and the Xuzhou Army to jointly resist Murong Cheng, the king of Qi, the great enemy in the south. In the original plan, they would only be the vanguard, and another army would follow. As a result, because of the abnormal movement and restlessness of the Jizhou Xiaoguo Army, the follow-up army failed to act as expected, and they became the main force.

It stands to reason that if there is an alliance with Xu Jie, half of this Liangzhou Mansion has been decided, and Shanyang Mansion will also be taken with the cooperation of Xu Jie, so there would be no problem. Even if it is the right army all the way, they should complete the task smoothly, but it is precisely this place at the junction of Shanyang Mansion that should be the most smooth, and they have planted their heels.

In Xu Jie's plan, the Tang army besieged Boping, and Xu Jie took this opportunity to order the Shanyang Mansion Army to come to the north, so as to subdue the Shanyang Mansion Army and cut off the hostile forces that were more troublesome to both the Tang Army and Xu Jie. But who would have expected that here, Feng Ziming suddenly rose up and cut off the people arranged by Xu Jie. And the defenders of Boping City seemed to resist far beyond the Tang army's expectations, and then there was a boom and a decline, and it became this point.

Meng Zhao was very bitter in his heart at the moment, he knew that this mission was a complete failure. Xu Jie had already summoned them, and they were afraid that they would not be able to catch up with the time for action. In addition, he also knew that the Shanyang Mansion army that came to the aid at the end that night was not as strong as he imagined. The other party is a mixture of the original government army of Qingzhou, Shanyang Prefecture, and the collapsed government army of Liangzhou Mansion, and the combat power is not as high as imagined. After all, training doesn't last long. But who let him fight hard for a day, and the soldiers and horses in his hands were almost lost under his extreme anger. And the other side has a new army of 10,000. The morale of the city was high, and reinforcements from outside the city arrived. I'm afraid that the morale of the government army has reached its peak at this moment, how can he dare to fight?

"General, my subordinates thought that although this battle was lost, they would not be punished, in the final analysis, first, it was planned that we still had a reinforcement, but in fact we did not arrive. Second, the blame for the changes in Shanyang Mansion is on this Xu Jie's side, and he didn't arrange it well. If it weren't for this Feng Ziming in charge of Shanyang Mansion, he would not have sent this Li Feng to participate in the war. I'm afraid, with the reinforcements brought by Ye Xuan and the defenders in the city, it has been easily taken. Meng Zhao's face was heavy, and Yuan Li whispered.

Meng Zhao smiled faintly, returned to normalcy, took a deep breath, and said, "No matter what, the most important thing in Xi'an is to put down this group of Shanyang Mansion troops flowing within our territory. We can't let him continue to wander and undermine our rule. ”

"It is necessary to draw troops from Shangqiu, Qixiang, Gucheng, and Linyi to the south, and these northern counties have not been harassed by the Shanyang army and harassed by mountain bandits, so they can draw out men and horses to pacify the south. In addition, the defenders of Siyang City could not move, and they needed to stay here in case the Boping enemy army counterattacked north. Chen Chang bluntly expressed his thoughts.

Xu Feng also nodded and said: "I have the same meaning as Chen Duwei on this point, our southern places have been confused by this group of bastards, the soldiers of the counties dare not take it lightly, and those township warriors have also begun to think carefully, unwilling to serve us sincerely, and even some township soldiers still pretend to be mountain bandits and rob others." It is imperative to draw troops from the north. In addition, the northern counties can also step up the training of new annexed troops, and in addition, they are close to the headquarters of our army, and no one dares to play tricks here in these places. ”

Meng Zhao spread out the map, drew on the lands that had been attacked by the Shanyang Mansion army for more than ten days, and said: "You see, the scope of this Li Feng's attack is in the northwest corner, on the surface, he suddenly went north, suddenly south, and even east, but where his purpose is, no one can figure it out until now. ”

"In the end, will he want to go west, and directly break through the territory of our army and enter the land of the Xiaoguo army to the west. Perhaps, they reached some agreement with the Xiaoguo Army. After all, for the Xiaoguo Army, this Shanyang Mansion Army is less dangerous than us. Perhaps, they will protect the thousands of people under Li Feng's department. Xu Feng looked at a narrow circle on the map, and then looked at the southern part of Jizhou in the west, and couldn't help but say.

Everyone looked sideways, it was true, as long as they went more than 300 miles to the west, they could enter the jurisdiction of Jizhou, and at that time, they could only stare dryly.

"To the west...... ...... to the west, looking at the map, a large piece of red and red occupies the three states, but with the land forcibly occupied by the north from Zhuhu, there is enough Xiaoguo army in the four states laughing, Meng Zhao's heart is heavy, compared to it, the territory occupied by the Tang army, in front of the other party, is just a small corner. The Xiaoguo army owns the land of the four states, and there are more than seven or eight million people, but the proportion of soldiers is far smaller than that of other princes, of course, this is the amount of the Xiaoguo army after the population is counted, if it is under the rule of other princes, I am afraid that there will only be three or five million people. As a result, the people under the command of the Xiaoguo Army live better than in other places, and they need to bear less pressure. As a result, the people in the land ruled by the Tang army wanted to emigrate to Jizhou and Qingzhou.

It can be said that if it weren't for the bitter cold in the north and the fact that it lives in the north, I'm afraid that the people under the rule of the Xiaoguo Army now far exceed 10 million. Rao is so, but because of the wars in Yanzhou, Yuzhou, Xuzhou, Yangzhou and other places. As a result, many people went north and moved to Jizhou, which was under the jurisdiction of the Xiaoguo Army. Later, he was arranged by Zhao Xun in Beiding Wufu. The current five prefectures of Beiding, together with the land gradually expanding westward, have gradually approached a small state. Therefore, it is also called Dingzhou. With the increase of the Han people in Dingzhou and the establishment of large and small cities, the Xiaoguo army has basically completed its rule over Dingzhou. It can be said that this Dingzhou is the fourth state under the actual rule of the Xiaoguo Army, and it is also the northern defense line of Youzhou. At this point, Youzhou also has a coat to guard the side of the grassland.

"To the west, close to the Xiaoguo army? If it was said that ten days ago, General Ben would have believed it, but now that our army has withdrawn from Boping, it can even be said that it has retreated from Boping, and he is no longer able to pose any threat to Boping in the short term, so why is he still more than 300 miles away from the Xiaoguo army. Don't forget, there are also heavy guards between us and Jizhou. If you want to enter Jizhou, then you have to break the northwest corner of my Liangzhou Mansion, which is not a simple matter. Meng Zhao looked at the map, and his heart was a little disturbed. It is still unclear why Li Feng is still here.

"General, if this is not the case, since it remains here and does not move, why don't we advance the army to the northwest from the north, east, and south. In this way, the scope of its activities was gradually narrowed, and the bandits along the route of the army were gradually eliminated. Of course, the premise is that the army of the northern counties of Liangzhou Prefecture can quickly arrive here. Yuan Li drew a big circle around the circle, formed a semi-encirclement, and pressed towards the northwest corner.

"So doable! Now, immediately send an order to Shangqiu, Qixiang, Gucheng, and Linyi, and let each county send 2,000 people south to gather in Siyang City. Meng Zhao looked at the map and said in a deep voice.

"In addition, let Wumeng suspend the forcible pursuit of Li Feng's subordinates, and instead clear those bandits nearby, and distribute the seized property to the villagers participating in the battle." Meng Zhao ordered coldly.

"Does the general want to use the mountain bandits' property to alleviate the dissatisfaction of these villagers?" As soon as Lieutenant Chen Chang heard it, he knew what General You's idea was. In addition to alleviating the dissatisfaction of those village warriors mentioned in the Wumeng Song Report, it was also used to consume the strength of these local village warriors, so that they could fight against these mountain bandits and rebel armies assisted by Li Fengjun.

"Give orders to the townships and forts, allowing them to counterattack the surrounding mountain bandit rebels, and all the captures will be their own, and those who are excellent will be given the official army establishment by this general, and thrown under the control of their own clan."

Yuan Li stroked his palm and smiled: "This trick is the best, so there are always people who are tempted by the township." Besides, some of the township forts have been broken, but many of the good things in them have fallen into the hands of these mountain bandits, and many people are interested in these things. Moreover, those who have broken their homes also want revenge. In this way, the strength of these township forts has surfaced. ”

…………

Where is Zhao Xun, who has been chased by Wumeng for more than ten days? It is estimated that they did not expect that these more than 5,000 people have fought so far, and there are no more than 4,000 people left. Although it can be expanded at any time, Zhao Xun rarely recruits unless the loss of manpower in his hands is too great. Now, they have also begun to learn from those mountain bandits and rebel armies, and occupy the mountains as kings.

Under the wanton actions of Zhao Xun's army, and under his instigation, many people rebelled against the Tang army in the name of the former Liangzhou Prefecture Army, and for a while, there were large and small mountain bandits everywhere in the southern part of Liangzhou Prefecture. There are not a few people whose township forts and cities have been destroyed. If you can't beat one family, you can join forces. As a result, in addition to the well-guarded cities and the forts with strong ponds, many of the township forts suffered.

Xilin Mountain, this is the temporary station of Zhao Xun and his Shanyang Army. The current 4,000 soldiers do not have a single piece of government army armor on their bodies, all of them are Tang Army standard armor, of course, most of them are leather armor, cloth armor, light armor, as for heavy armor, only a small number of people have it. It's not that they can't get it, it's that they can't march quickly when they wear it.

In addition, for Zhao Xun, what satisfied him the most was that half of the four thousand people were already cavalry. I have to say that there are not a few war horses obtained by the big families and township forts in Liangzhou, and more of them are exchanged for the mountain bandits. These mountain bandits, more or less have so many horses in their hands, and now, they are all exchanged for Zhao Xun at a high price.

There are 4,000 people and more than 2,500 war horses, which is why Umeng has not been able to catch up. Of course, the war horses here are not as good as the Xiaoguo army itself.

And the mountain bandit gang indirectly controlled by Zhao Xun was also changed from thirteen to eight by Wumeng. If it weren't for the appearance of these mountain bandits, Zhao Xun would not have easily escaped, after all, he only had more than 2,000 war horses and 4,000 warriors in his hands. Among these 4,000 soldiers, only half of them were killed from Boping with Zhao Xun, and the rest were buried on the battlefield in the past ten days. But now these more than 4,000 soldiers are much stronger than when they set off before......