In the eighth year of Tiance, Wang Pu's envoy did not achieve the results that Shi Chonggui wanted, but soon after the beginning of spring, Fu Yanqing was ordered to go south, supervise the military affairs of the Central Plains, integrate the soldiers and horses of Kaifeng, Yingchang and Chenzhou, and get a total of 50,000 people...... Different from the previous gratuitous levy, this time Fu Yanqing brought Zhang Mai's promise that all the families who were drawn would receive a one-year agricultural tax pardon, so although this levy was mandatory, it did not cause adverse social impact. If it weren't for Zhang Mai's calculation of the grain and grass bearing capacity, it was only limited to 250,000 people, and in the end I was afraid that it would be far overflowing.

The 250,000 men were led by 2,500 auxiliary troops sent by Tiance, with a team of 100 people, and spent a month teaching them to act and obey orders, and another month to teach them to be able to advance and retreat with the army.

Whether it is weapons and equipment or training procedures, this group of people is still far from going to the battlefield in Zhang Mai's mind. But in the eyes of many people in the Five Dynasties period, such a man can already be called a "soldier".

The scale of this operation is so large, so everyone in the world knows that Zhang Mai is going to fight Luoyang.

Although there is Tiance's military and political system as support, but when it comes to the dispatch of hundreds of thousands of people, Fu Yanqing can arrange it in an orderly manner.

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In March, spring is coming to an end, and the summer harvest has not yet arrived. As the folk proverb goes: "Mai Chuhuang, hungry and broken!" "That's the time.

At this time, no one in the world dares to move. Shi Chonggui and his subordinates also thought that Zhang Mai would probably wait until after the summer harvest. will raise troops to the south. Unexpectedly, at this time, a large army of people continued to open from Yanjing 6.

In the second half of last year, after solving the military food shortage, Zhang Mai did not continue to transport Zhao Zancun's grain from Dengzhou to the north, but set up warehouses along the canal for the consumption of traders. Therefore, since October last year, the merchant travelers who go up and down the canal do not need to bring their own grain, and there is a customs office, that is, a military town, and a military town, that is, a warehouse, which is a good government, and others do not think of anything when they see it.

The grain sold to merchants in warehouses along the route is always a few points higher than the usual price. But it's nothing, it's better than bringing your own food from home.

The tax customs will card a card business flow, the crowd will gather here temporarily, the thieves near the military town are extinct, the security must be the best, plus there are warehouses and supplies, so the triangle between the three places will naturally form a market. With the market, it will create a profit, less than a month or two. These places have formed a radiation force to the surrounding areas, and all kinds of materials in the surrounding areas, including grain, are concentrated here, and the storage places sell grain to the merchants while buying grain from the surrounding areas - last year, known as the year of the military disaster, the official warehouses were tight, but the people actually still had surplus grain. Especially for large households in townships and counties, which one does not have three or five years of reserves?

Except for a few catastrophic years in history when there was an absolute shortage of food, the shortage of food was sometimes a problem of public psychology. If the situation is tense, families will hold their barns tightly. As a result, the more this happens, the more "food shortage" the whole society will be, and even lead to revolt! You don't see so many peasant uprisings, at a certain stage there will always be a situation similar to "robbing the rich and opening a warehouse", "helping the poor to eat", it can be seen that no matter how big the famine, there is always a store of grain, otherwise where can the warehouse be opened?

Now that the situation is improving, the Tiance government can actually take out grain and sell it to the merchants, so what is there to be afraid of? When the news came out, grain prices in Hebei have a tendency to go down, and the large households that have stored grain are not waiting for mold; just as the so-called will buy up and sell down, and it is better to look at the fall or make a move; although it will not be cleared for money, there is also an endless stream of grain flowing to the "commercial storage warehouses" along these canals.

Now it is the beginning of the troubled times, the flow of business has just started, everyone will feel that "prosperity" is compared with the previous troubled times, the absolute number of merchants is actually far from being comparable with the Sui and Tang dynasties, and the absolute consumption of business travel is actually not much, so after the establishment of these merchant warehouses for two months, the grain reserves have not decreased, but increased.

In the middle of February of the eighth year of Tiance, after Zhang Mai saw the number of warehouses in various places, he issued an order announcing the end of the reorganization of Yanjing.

In addition to those elite numbers, after mixed training and intensive training, a total of 157 military offices, excluding elite numbers, totaling 157,000 people, were assembled on the ground in what is now known as the Yanjing area. Only 30,000 people remained in the Yanjing area.

Because the soldiers and horses were advancing from all directions, they did not cause much uneasiness in all parties under the attention of all parties, and almost most people did not notice that there were soldiers from the 57th Prefecture who went south along the canal and rushed to the Central Plains, aiming at the Yellow River!

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Nowadays it has become a rule for the canal to go down the west line and the south to go east - that is to say, all ships have to keep to the right, and only in the open places are allowed boats, and too large ships are not allowed to appear so as not to obstruct traffic.

At present, such an order is enough to ensure the smooth flow of commerce in the entire Hebei region at this stage, but in the long run, bulk commodities will be divided into small ships for freight transportation through the canal, and they will have to go through more than 20 cents of gold customs customs, and the cost will inevitably face a bottleneck.

But the troop transport boat has no such concerns.

Troop carriers designed to be as long and narrow as dragon boats can carry twenty or thirty people, and forty troop carriers can transport a prefecture. They are not allowed to go ashore until they reach the military towns along the route, and after going ashore, they eat directly in the military towns, and at night they have to live in the camp tents of the military towns, and they are not allowed to go out. But every five days, he could have half a day, and after surrendering his weapons, he went to the market under the supervision of the chief.

So after the middle of February of the eighth year of Tiance, the merchants on the canal saw such a spectacle: countless troop transport boats were connected from the north and tail, drifting down, and each ship had a team leader or deputy at the helm, and two people holding the poles—the sergeants on board took turns to operate them. Everyone else sat in the boat in a neat row, and it was impossible for everyone to keep their waists straight and their noses and noses and hearts all the time during the journey of thousands of miles. But he was just looking left and right to see the scenery along the river, from Yanjing to Baima, except for accidents such as boat leakage, there were no soldiers who disembarked from the boat halfway ashore!

This greatly insighted the businessmen and residents along the line who were accustomed to "passing through the army", and the military morale of the Tiance Tang Army was also spread through this unique march. In the eyes of the Chinese people of this era. After months of major reorganization, the discipline of these new soldiers has become extremely good—at least for their time.

The strict military discipline, the usual transportation capacity and the prepared reserve reception along the way made the cost of this march extremely low, and there was no harassment to the people along the way, and even made this month the safest period of the entire canal, which is simple to say, but all things are based on the four words "order and prohibit", Shi Jingjiao could never have done it at the beginning.

The boats did not move fast or slow, and the first group of men and horses reached the Yellow River after 15 days.

After the group had traveled half the way. Tiance's elite troops suddenly roared south from the 6th Road, and in the center of the iron cavalry, it was Zhang Mai's Daxu!

Seeing this great difficulty, everyone in the world realized-

It's time to start fighting!

Tiance elite no matter how foot to ride, everyone rides horses, the land of Pingchuan, Hebei, is now a domestic march, so the big army is coming so fast!

The southward army was based on the 3,000 dragon and iron armored army as the backbone of the cavalry. The 3,000 Mo sword and battle axe array is the backbone of the infantry, and the 3,000 eagles are on the left. Three thousand sweat and blood on the right, and there are two strikers - Yang Xin's three thousand cavalry as the left vanguard, the three thousand cavalry from the appropriate department as the right vanguard, and Wei Fei with three thousand cavalry shooting as the road response. The elite displayed in the Yanjing military parade is actually more than half!

If it is said that the soldiers and horses of the fifty-seven provinces heading south from the canal are low-key marches. Then these 35,000 elite cavalry going south is earth-shattering!

There were 35,000 men and horses in the seven divisions, plus 10,000 logistics personnel, each with two war horses and one load-bearing horse, and the prefectures and counties along the way were only responsible for the supply of forage. A total of 45,000 horses were dispatched, and nearly 150,000 horses were dispatched!

Onlookers only saw smoke and dust billowing in front and behind, and they could tell how many people there were. All in all, no one doubts that there is an army of 100,000 people, and there are people who believe it when it comes to a million people.

On the third day of the first month of March, Zhang Mai's Daxu appeared at the White Horse Ferry!

Luoyang was still caught off guard in surprise, but the entire Central Plains was already shaking!

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When Zhang Mai went south, Fu Yanqing also waved his army westward, with the Zhede Department as the vanguard, Fu Yanqing's fifth brother Fu Yanneng led 30,000 people to guard Kaifeng to be responsible for logistics, and the remaining 270,000 horses took the Bianhe waterway, and marched to the northeast, and the same as the southbound army, the goal was to Zhengzhou!

Zhengzhou is the meeting place of the northeast and southeast sections of the canal, and since the Sui and Tang dynasties, all the grain and straw transported to the east and west of the two capitals have gathered here, and the most important warehouses of the Qin, Han, Sui and Tang dynasties are usually here.

Zhengzhou is also the westernmost part of the plain in the middle reaches of the Yellow River, and further west is Luoyang, which was designated as the eastern capital of the Zhou, Han, Sui and Tang dynasties.

After Zhedelan went south to occupy Kaifeng, his subordinates kept clamoring to advance into Zhengzhou, but Zhang Mai passed down an order not to allow them to step into Zhengzhou. As a result, Zhengzhou has become a buffer zone between the Tiance regime and the Shi Jin regime in the past few months, and the two sides have been able to have a "peace period" for more than half a year.

On the fifth day of the first month of March, Zhi Cong Shi and Zhi De met under the city of Zhengzhou. The age difference between the two of them is not much, like brothers more than like uncles and nephews, although they haven't seen each other for a long time, but they just smile on the battlefield, and then the two folded flags flutter to the west, hunting and hunting, showing off their might under the city of Zhengzhou!

From the prime minister and general in the Central Plains to the peddlers and pawns, everyone knew that Zhang Longxiang would go south, but they didn't expect him to come so quickly if he didn't move!

Although Zhengzhou has been under the control of the Shi Jin regime in the past few months, no one inside or outside the city thinks that this kind of shape can last long, what is in front of him is the elite of Tiance, and there are hundreds of thousands of troops behind, how can it resist as a plain city? What's more, the Tiance regime has won the hearts of the people of the world, and in contrast, Shi Jin has long been spurned by the world, and it is hell that the state officials are willing to make meaningless stubborn defenses under this kind of form!

Before the 6,000 cavalry reached the city, the banner was changed at the head of the city, and the city gate was opened! The governor and the guard held the seal, and the other took off his helmet and surrendered together.

The uncle and nephew of the Fold family glanced at each other and laughed together.

The two took over the city defenses. News came from Yang Xin's side - he also lightly drank Xingyang, another important town in Zhengzhou.

Zhi Deyan said to his uncle: "Shi Chonggui knew in his heart that Zhengzhou would definitely not be able to hold it, so he gathered the soldiers and horses at the bottom of the box in Bishui Pass. Now we have taken Zhengzhou, and Uncle Yang has taken Xingyang, and the two sides are comparable, so it is better for me to go out overnight and take the water. That's when I saw a little bit of merit. ”

Bishui Pass is the famous Tiger Prison Pass, which was renamed by Li Tang Dynasty to avoid the ancestor Li Hu, and is the most important barrier in the east of the Luoyang Basin. As soon as the water is closed, Luoyang will become a city that is completely exposed.

Zhi Congshi said: "It is easy to ambush the troops overnight, we are the vanguard, and now there are hundreds of thousands of troops behind us pushing over step by step, this battle can definitely be won, there is no need to take risks." ”

Zhe De smiled and said, "It's not dangerous at all. Zhang Congbin, the guard of Bishui Pass, has been secretly communicating with me since the day I occupied Kaifeng, and this time I heard that we were marching into the army. I even sent someone to deliver the letter early in the morning, and I only opened and closed it when I arrived. Therefore, it is a night attack, but in fact, it is also a surrender in the past. ”

Zhi Congshi also smiled: "If that's the case, it doesn't matter." Yang Xin and I are like brothers, we are two families, and we will be friends for a hundred years in the future. ”

"That's what Uncle said." "Then if that's the case," he said. It's better for us to inform Uncle Yang's side, and let's join forces. Overnight? ”

Zhi Congshi smiled: "This can be had!" ”

Immediately sent someone to Xingyang to inform Yang Xin, after the follow-up soldiers and horses arrived to take over the city, the three cavalry continued to go out regardless of dusk, and lit torches after nightfall, like three fire dragons rushing west, it was spectacular!

The strongholds encountered along the way are fortified. Either flee or surrender, the three-way cavalry is like entering a no-man's land! As the saying goes, the two cities are captured in the day, and the eight are cut in the night! At this time, it was not an exaggeration at all, and it took almost no effort for the three cavalry to drive to the outside of the Bishui Pass.

Zhang Congbin, the guard of Bishui Pass, got the news early. Although he had been secretly eye-to-eye with Zhe De for a long time, he was still a little hesitant when the matter came, and mobilized all the generals and said: "Tiance's army is coming!" I was entrusted with the important task by His Majesty, holding the last gate of Luoyang, and I had the intention to fight to the death for the country, but life and death were unpredictable under the war, but I was afraid that I would drag you down. Tiance Tang army attacked all the battles and was invincible, at the beginning, with less to fight more, the siege of the three Liao, Jin and Shu families did not get a good deal, and even the Great Liao was defeated like a mountain. Not to mention that the enemy is outnumbered today, I heard that this time Zhang Longxiang is pouring the country south, behind these three elite horses, there are still four or five hundred thousand troops pushing over step by step, although the Bishui Pass is dangerous, but where can it resist? What do you think should be done? Come up with a good idea. ”

A general shouted: "Fu Yanqing is over there in Kaifeng, and 300,000 people have come, which everyone knows." On the Yanjing side, I heard that there were also more than 100,000 horses going south, and they were all elite soldiers. The opponent's army of 450,000 people, but we only have 30,000 or 40,000 horses in the pass, and the people are less than others, and the strength is weaker than others, how can this battle be fought? ”

Another general said: "Yes, and the news has gone crazy recently, saying that as soon as Zhang Longxiang arrives, he will be tax-free in the first year, which he has implemented in Hebei and Shandong." Now the brothers in Bishui Pass, who is willing to work for Luoyang? If we really defend it, I'm afraid that as soon as the drum on the opposite side sounds, our side will lose our armor. ”

Another general also said: "Now besides switching to surrender, where is there any good strategy!" ”

Zhang Congbin said: "Surrender without a fight, I'm just afraid of laughing for the world." ”

All the generals said: "If you know that you can't beat it, then it's a joke." ”

There is even a subordinate general who said: "Now everyone in the world knows that Zhang Longxiang is the true son of heaven, let's really fight him, it is against the sky, and he will be struck by lightning." ”

Everyone said, "Exactly, exactly!" ”

Zhang Congbin sighed: "If you all think so, then I have no choice but to conform to the will of heaven and the people." ”

After he said this, he peeked at the eyes of the generals in the firelight, but none of them objected, and he sighed secretly in his heart: "Fortunately, there is a plan to surrender, otherwise even if I don't surrender, these people will support me to surrender." ”

At the moment, the door was opened and closed, and after the meeting of the three generals, Yang Xin folded from the leader of the army and retreated half a mile, and Zhe De Yan stepped forward in the light, and ordered Zhang Congbin to come out, and after Zhang Congbin personally came out to lead the way, Zhi De Yan entered the customs to take charge of the defense, and Yang Xin Zhi Congshi was strictly monitored in the back from beginning to end. Just in case.

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At the beginning of March, Zhang Mai's Daxu appeared in the Yellow River, and at the beginning of March, the Jiu Shui Pass changed hands!

The topography of Luoyang is like a box, there are important passes on the east and west sides, and the Yellow River in the north is like a belt to form a natural hazard. With the change of hands of Bishui Pass, Luoyang is equivalent to opening the door to Tiance!

When the news reached the rear, Zhang Mai had also entered the territory of Zhengzhou. successfully met with Fu Yanqing, and said with a smile after getting the good news: "Zheyang is worthy of being my favorite general, this Bishui Pass is the original Tiger Prison Pass." I want to fight Dong Zhuo back then, and the three heroes fought against Lu Bu, and the sky was dark day and night, and it was also up to Dong Zhuo to run away to continue to move forward, but it turned out to be the same pass, but it couldn't stop the three of us from fighting for one night. ”

At this time, several civil officials who had already surrendered on the side praised in unison, and the words were not exaggerated. The voice is not high. Zhang Mai listened to their praise and smiled silently.

Fu Yanqing said with a smile: "Shi Chonggui still put a lot of effort into Bishui Pass, in addition to 40,000 soldiers and horses in the pass, there are also two years of grain stockpile. It's a pity that people have no will to fight, and soldiers have no fighting spirit, so much food was looted, and it was all given to us as wedding dresses. ”

Zhang Mai said: "40,000 soldiers and horses can eat for two years, then our 300,000 horses can eat for three months." That's enough. ”

Fu Yanqing said: "Of course, we can't completely expect to be defeated by food, but today's shape is shì." In a short period of time, it is indeed possible to continue to transport grain from Kaifeng. ”

This time, Zhang Mai's strategic idea for attacking Luoyang was to "make a big show and make a decisive decision".

At the end of last year, when several core generals held a meeting to discuss how to attack Luoyang, some people advocated that the elite troops should win, after all, there is almost no army in Luoyang that can compete head-on with several elite troops of Tiance, as long as one or two elite men and horses pierce the past, there is not necessarily any suspense when they hit Luoyang City. Moreover, the elite soldiers fought and used few people. The military expenditure and grain consumption are also small, which is more in line with the current financial situation of the Tang Army.

However, Zhang Mai finally rejected this proposal, believing that although there was a chance to win by taking the elite route, there were fewer troops, unless he killed on the battlefield to deter Liwei. Otherwise, some people will be lucky, as long as there is a stronghold in the middle to resist hard, it will slow down the progress of the whole battle, and Zhang Mai does not want to kill more. Once the battlefield falls into a stalemate, it will inevitably be protracted, and when the time comes, it will be difficult to save money and food.

Therefore, Zhang Mai decided to go the opposite way, not only did not take the line of elite soldiers and few soldiers, but even made a big show and mobilized hundreds of thousands of people within the limits allowed by the current finances, creating a huge momentum. Sure enough, I heard that there were four or five hundred thousand troops marching westward, not only did the prefectures and counties along the way have no intention of resisting, but even Taiyuan and Chang'an couldn't ignite the idea of rescue! In fact, this is also normal, anyone who hears that Zhang Mai's elite has gone out and mobilized three or four hundred thousand horsemen to surround Luoyang, as long as he is not a fool, he will not rush to his death.

Sure enough, nearly half a month has passed since Zhang Mai's Daxu openly went south, and there has not been a single soldier in Qin and Jin, and once the Bishui Pass is broken, Luoyang has become a lonely city.

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On the tenth day of the first month of March, Zhang Mai's Daxu entered Zhengzhou, and the gentry of the Central Plains greeted him on the road, this scene did not look like a victory, but like the gentry were welcoming Zhang Mai's "southern tour".

Zhang Mai made a statement at the gate of the city, taking the Central Plains of the east of Qin, the south of Jin, the west of Lu, and the north of Jing as Henan Road, and in the summer and autumn of this year, the agricultural tax of the whole road in Henan was exempted.

The decree was issued, and the cry of long live resounded throughout the city.

On March 12, Zhang Mai's Daxu stationed at Bishui Pass and handed down the second order, but this time it was a military order: the army took Bishui Pass as its base camp and advanced westward, and the soldiers and civilians along the way were not allowed to trample on the wheat fields, and violators were beheaded.

Zhang Congbin was about to make a statement, when he heard the order, he came out and said, "Please think twice, marshal!" In this eastward advance, the Jin bandits will inevitably resist. Now that the wheat fields are almost ripe, if they are in ambush in the fields, our army will not be able to detect them, and they will be ambushed. If he is defeated and retreats from the wheat fields, our army will be limited to military orders and will not be able to pursue, and at that time I am afraid that we will be defeated without defeat, and we will not be able to win when we are victorious. ”

Zhang Mai smiled: "It's nothing, you are a martial artist, don't learn this kind of literati tone." It is also possible that this situation you said will arise, but the premise is that Shi Chonggui has the ability to move the war of the sea of people! But now that the hearts of the people belong to me, I will not hesitate to leak a few thieves in order to keep the food rations for the people for the next year. As for the ambush, we don't need to occupy the township and county, we can only take the road to Luoyang all the way, and we don't need to disperse our troops to harass the countryside. Then it was ordered that if anyone dared to trample on the wheat field, during the use of the army, regardless of Tang and Jin, he was allowed to kill him without guilt, and the property on the deceased would be regarded as compensation for trampling the wheat field! ”

Sure enough, when the military order came out, both the gentry and the common people in the entire Luoyang Basin praised each other.

From Bishui Pass to Luoyang, from the Qin and Han dynasties to the Sui and Tang dynasties, there is a wide official road to heaven, Shi Chonggui can still collect only thirty or forty thousand people, among which a considerable part is weak and unbearable, Tiance hundreds of thousands of troops from the official road to drive over, how can there be room for him to ambush?

The scouts of the Tang army had entered the Luoshui valley a few days earlier, and the three major forwards also saw the east gate of Luoyang on March 13.

Elite soldiers are good at destroying strong and sharp points, but a metropolis like Luoyang needs manpower to besiege it. Yang Xin, Zhi Congshi and Zhi De Ran, the three elite suppressed the southeast, south and southwest roads of Luoyang, Wei Fei rode and shot to break through, detoured to cut off the connection between Luoyang and the west, due east is naturally Tiance's middle road army continued to open, but left the north gate not to encircle, it is the ancient precept of the three missing one.

After Fu Yanqing arrived, he sent out more than 200,000 troops, and locked the east, south, and west directions of Luoyang so that water could not be poured and oil could not drip out, but all the sieges were kept at a distance from the city gates and city walls, leaving a battlefield worthy of field warfare.

Zhang Mai's meaning is already obvious: if you want to fight, you can fight, if you want to land, you can run, I even left you the road to Hedong.

When people are not in complete despair, they generally do not go to extremes, after all, the last thing Zhang Mai wants to see is that the defenders are desperate and set fire to the city.

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In Luoyang City, the upper and lower floors are two atmospheres and two feelings.

The people in the lower strata, whether they are military or civilian, do not want to fight, dare not fight, and are unwilling to fight at this time.

Outside the city is an invincible commander, and no one will end well against him; But he is even more a benevolent monarch, and before the soldiers and horses arrived, the tax exemption order was issued first! This battle cannot be won, and it is pointless! The father and son of the Shi family, when did they treat the people below so well?

In the face of such an opponent, backed by a master who has no future, which soldier wants to fight, dares to fight, and is willing to fight?

And the atmosphere at the top is even more weird, the ministers of Luoyang are all looking forward to the court, looking forward to it, looking forward to it - looking forward to Shi Chonggui's decree to surrender!

There are not many people who are willing to say this, but there are very few people who don't think so!

And on the empty palace in Luoyang, at this time, it seemed to be covered with a dull dead gray, and the second emperor of the Shi Jin Dynasty, Shi Chonggui, sat on the emperor's throne that had not yet been hot, looking at Sang Weihan and Feng Dao on the other, facing two completely different opinions, he didn't know where to go for a while. (To be continued......)

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