Chapter Seventy-Four: Distress (Subscription!) )
Even if Li Yu led them on a pilgrimage to Qufu, no one in the southern army would have thought that Li Yu would give them a real New Year. They are all waiting in their hearts for Li Yu to arrange another surprise attack for them. On the New Year's Day of the third year of Xingzhi, on the thousand-mile front, accompanied by heavy snowfall, there was jubilation on both sides. However, there is more joy on the side of the official army, and more worry on the side of Ziqing. After the New Year, who knows how much movement awaits them?
The New Year is approaching, Li Guangyan, Li Yu, and Wang Pei led the soldiers and horses of the army to return to Bianzhou, where the Ziqing camp is located. The deputy marshal of the camp, the envoy of the Xuanwu Festival, Tongping Zhangshi, and Li Jifu, the Duke of Zhao, held a banquet to entertain the generals when he was sick. During the banquet, Han Yu really took the opportunity to ask Li Yu to take time to go to Zou Cheng and Qufu to have a look. Of course, Li Yu happily promised to cooperate. The relationship between the two is healing.
The New Year in Chang'an was no different from previous years. It's just that at the same time, there are still many people who are lost, and many people are afraid. In addition to participating in the New Year's sacrifice and New Year's banquet presided over by Li Yu, the princes of Tan, Jun, and other princes stayed at home at other times, holding the stove with both hands, enjoying the snow and drinking, and avoiding disasters. seems to feel that the rumors are wrong, and some of the sons and daughters of the princes who have always been wild are also much more honest, which makes Chang'an City seem a little deserted, and Jin Wuwei also feels that there are a lot of things missing this year.
After returning to Chang'an, Li Yu immediately sent Wei Guanzhi to Xiangzhou to Xuanzhao Pei Du went to Bianzhou to take up the post of Xuanwu Jiedu envoy Tongping Zhangshi and deputy marshal of the camp. Give the Son of Heaven a sword, two collars of cotton shirts. And specifically asked Pei Du not to come to Chang'an to see His Majesty, nor did he have to wait for the new Jiedu envoy to take office, just take office directly, and the order for Li Jifu was also brought by Wei Guanzhi.
By the eighth day of the first lunar month, Pei Du had already rushed to Bianzhou accompanied by Wei Guanzhi, but this was due to two consecutive heavy snowfalls. Li Jifu got up with the support of Li Deyu, who had come to serve on leave, summoned the civil officials of the camp, and Wei Guanzhi read out the edict, and sent people to inform Li Guangyan, Wang Pei, and Li Yu respectively. In the next few days, Li Jifu and Pei Du completed the handover. Li Jifu returned to Luoyang accompanied by Li Deyu and Wei Guanzhi, who returned to Chang'an to restore his life, and lived next to Zheng Yuqing, who had returned to Luoyang earlier. Li Jifu, Zheng Yuqing, and Li Xun gathered in Luoyang, which also made Luoyang, which had not been concerned for decades, suddenly regain its popularity.
Ziqing made a big fuss about the change of commanders in the official army. Attacking Ziqing for three or four months, this is already the third marshal, what does this mean? It shows that Ziqing is a treasure land, and they have lost the other party's coach. Which one of Zheng Yuqing or Li Jifu is not famous? As a result, one broke his leg and the other suffered a stroke. Pei Du, a nobody, may be able to lose his life when he arrives here.
Whatever is happening once by chance, twice has the meaning of necessity. Three times or four times, that must be inevitable. The morale of the Ziqing Army was indeed greatly boosted for this reason, and the confidence of the officers and soldiers was inevitably affected. In this regard, Pei Du was calm, and Pei Du said to the indoctrination of the army:
"Li Shidao said that there must be two if there is one, but he thinks that there are only three."
At that time, people were superstitious, and although Pei Du was full of confidence, he could not interfere with the spiritual life of the soldiers. In order to shatter the rumors, at the suggestion of Han Yu, the new marshal Pei Du began to inspect the front line. The first thing to go to is the south of Li Yu. Pei Du, Han Yu, and Li Yu met, and they were all embarrassed when they remembered March 3 of that year. Thinking of the two petty officials Bai Juyi and Yuan Zhenlai at that time, Han Yu said:
"These two people are famous in the world, and they are both talents, and now they are being degraded outside, which is not a long-term thing. It's a pity that Han's weight is not enough, and he can't persuade the emperor, which is a pity, a pity. ”
The words are full of regret. Why can't Pei Du hear it? Looking at Li Yu, Pei Du smiled:
And so it was. After pacifying Ziqing, the prime minister wrote to implore the emperor to summon his second son to return to Beijing. Pei thought, with Fu Zhi, this day won't be too long, right? ”
The three of them looked at each other and laughed. Accompanied by Li Yu, Pei Du personally went to Yanzhou and Surabaya to inspect the front lines. On the day he arrived in Surabaya, under Pei Du's nose, Wang Zhixing took the lead in climbing the head of Surabaya City. The officers and troops took Surabaya in one go. This is probably also a meeting gift from Li Yu and Wu Ningjun to Pei Du.
As soon as he took office and arrived at the front line, he reaped a victory, and Pei Du was also in high spirits. As soon as he came to Qufu at Han Yu's suggestion, another edict was issued. It was Li Zongmin who came to announce the edict. It turned out that Pei Du's fellow sect Pei Yan suggested Li Yu in the spirit of not avoiding relatives and saying:
"Pei Zhongli's talent is enough to take on the important task of pacifying Ziqing, but he has just paid homage to the prime minister, and he has no title, and his qualifications are insufficient, and there are several front-line generals and princes, and there are inevitably those who are unwilling to obey Pei Du. Such disagreement from top to bottom will definitely be protracted and without military achievements. Not showing His Majesty's trust in Pei Du is not enough to enhance Pei Du's prestige and enable him to intimidate the people. The minister suggested that His Majesty remove the word 'deputy' in front of Marshal Pei Du, so that he could lead the army in a proper manner. ”
Li Yu naturally happily adopted it. In this way, less than a month after Pei Du took office, he became a marshal, and Li Yu also ordered Li Zongmin to bring 500 blank confessions, and asked Li Zongmin to tell Pei Du:
"As long as the soldiers are meritorious, Aiqing should not cherish the official position for me."
Of course, this sentence was told to the front-line soldiers through Pei Du. The second half of the sentence is:
"But you have to save a little hair."
There is no way, it's not that Li Yu is stingy, after all, Li Jifu has cut three-quarters of the world's officials, and the achievements can't all be given to the emperor's grace just because of a victory. Li Yu's little abacus was ticking, and the soldiers who knew the news were really eager to try, and they couldn't wait to pick up the guy now, win a wife, return to their hometown, and glorify their ancestors.
The marshal is the right, the body is the benefit, the right is in the hand, Pei Du is really full of confidence and sincere fear. I was afraid that I would mess up my errand and I was sorry for Li Yu's trust, so I did my best to inspect the front line. Within one day, two places were finalized to build the city, and even Han Yu's suggestion to worship the Confucian Temple before leaving was politely rejected by him. Pei Du said:
"Respect for saints, in absent-mindedness. The Son of Heaven expects that all the people will be clothed and fed to meet the needs of the army, how can he delay these false things? ”
In today's parlance, taxpayers' money cannot be wasted. Han Yu had no choice but to regretfully give up the plan to visit the Confucian Temple. Before leaving, Han Yu pulled a thin and high-spirited young man and said to Li Yu:
"Fu Zhi, this is Han's little friend, and it is after Zheng Wangliang, whose name is Changji. It is a rare talent to learn excellently and rigorously for talents. He originally followed me to work in the camp, and Zheng Xianggong and Zhao Gong were full of praise for him, but they have always admired you and always wanted to work by your side. I heard that there was one less copywriter next to Fu Zhi, so what did I do with him? ”
Han Yu spoke, of course it was easy to do. In fact, Li Yu didn't like Li He's thinness, in contrast, he preferred to choose Liu Cha, who was scratching his ears and cheeks behind Han Yu's back, and he looked like a military general. But looking at Li He's stubborn eyes full of enthusiasm, his heart actually moved. How similar this temperament was to when I was in the big family of fifteen brothers, wasn't I like this at that time, eager to be appreciated, eager to have a chance to stand out?
"Since the retired brother praised him so much, this little friend's talent must have nothing to say. If he doesn't dislike the poor conditions around his little brother and the hard life, just stay! ”
"Dashuai, Xiaosheng is not afraid of hardship!"
There was finally a hint of joy in his stubborn eyes that he was trying his best to suppress. Li Yu's heart softened, but he immediately hardened again. Looking at Li He, Li Yu said seriously:
"The suffering here is not something to talk about. Anyone who wants to establish themselves in a shogunate, even a scribe, needs the stoic and physical strength of a samurai, and if you can't, it's too late to quit now. ”
His inquiry was greeted with a resolute and stubborn look.
Thirty years later, after hearing the news that Li Yu, the king of Beihai County, died of illness in Chang'an, Shi Li He, the governor of Anxi Prefecture of the Tang Dynasty, came to the foot of the Tianshan Mountain, looked at the east, and stood for a long time. Two years later, Li Heyou moved to the post of envoy of the Zhaobei Jiedu to control the northern part of the original Zhaowu Nine Kingdoms and guard the western frontier of the empire.
Pei Du then ventured to take a straight road from the Ziqing-controlled area to Kaocheng, and there were two cavalry teams from Ziqing passing by on the way. After Xuanwu encouraged the soldiers of the Xuanwu Army, Pei Du came to the front line in Puyang. Before arriving at the front line, he received a battle report, saying that after the New Year, the unguarded Yicheng Army was attacked by the Ziqing Army, losing thousands of people and losing two barriers.
Unexpectedly, his newly defeated Pei Du arrived at the front line, and Li Guang, who felt shameless, greeted Pei Du's arrival with a disgraced face. Liu Cha, who was following Han Yu, suddenly had a strange thought:
"If 'Li Guangyan's face is disgraceful' is the upper link, what is better to use for the lower link?"
Fortunately, although Liu Cha is a big man, he is not a dissolute and invisible person, otherwise if he really said it, Chen Guogong Li Guangyan's black face would only be even darker. Pei Du did not blame Li Guangyan, but said:
"Chen Gong blames himself too much, victory and defeat are a common thing in soldiers, why bother?"
The generals in the west, who were worried about Pei Du putting three fires, put down their hearts. Due to the tacit understanding with Puyang, Li Guangyan besieged Puyang without attacking, built an earthen city in the south of Puyang, and placed his handsome tent there. Looking at Puyang from afar, Pei Du, who had made up his mind not to talk about military affairs today, finally couldn't help but ask worriedly:
"Gong Chen, at the moment, our army is strong, and the thief army in Puyang City will naturally not be able to shrink, in case Li Shidao's strong troops come to attack, and he orders Puyang to die, it is difficult to ensure that he will not come out of the belly and back to attack our army."
Li Guangyan said angrily:
Pei Xianggong taught a lesson. However, Li already has a plan in his heart, and he will wait to tell the public. ”
In fact, many people believe that the reason why the Yicheng Army was successfully attacked by Li Shidao was indeed because Li Guangyan was not very confident about Puyang, leaving a large number of guards and failing to lift heavy troops to press forward. Pei Du didn't want to embarrass him, so he shifted the topic to other issues. When he returned to Tucheng, Li Guangyan said to Pei Du alone:
"Pei Xianggong, the reason why Li stayed in Puyang and didn't fight was because he wanted to 'look at one' and 'fight one' as His Majesty said."
The so-called "look at one" and "fight one" are to encircle the point and send reinforcements, which Li Yu is very proud to put forward as a new tactic in martial arts, but he doesn't want to call it encircling Wei to save Zhao in the art of war in this era, and he is bored. However, for the sake of this name, it still spread in the army. It turned out that the imperial court sent a three-way army to recruit Ziqing, but Li Shidao was arrogant but fearful and sensitive, lacked confidence in his own military strength, and adopted a defensive posture of contraction, gathered heavy troops near Yunzhou, and refused to take the initiative to fight. If the battle continues like this, it will inevitably evolve into a battle around the fortified city. Li Shidao has been operating for decades for several generations, how can the city be easy to attack? The rivers between Puyang and Yunzhou are crisscrossed, and it is impossible to quickly advance and solve quickly, Li Guangyan's method does sound very tempting. Pei Du suddenly woke up and said:
"What Gong Chen said, but the defeat the day before yesterday was just a ploy to lure the enemy?"
Li Guangyan said unhappily:
"Pei Xianggong, you can't say that. Although Li Guangyan is a rough man, he will not trade the lives of his soldiers for victory. The defeat the day before yesterday was indeed Li's negligence in taking precautions, so this defeat was very miserable. However, it was precisely because of the miserable defeat that Li Shidao could become arrogant and dispatch a large army to relieve the siege of Puyang. Tanma reported that Li Shidao had built a city in the Jindi River and River in Taiqian County, and people and horses were in and out frequently in the past two days, and Li estimated that he wanted to send troops. ”
As he spoke, he took Pei Du to the sand table and analyzed the situation for Pei Du. Pei Du was already well aware of these geographical situations when he was camping, and when Li Guangyan finished speaking, he said:
"You always have to see it for yourself to know for sure."
The two agreed to go to Hewan early tomorrow morning to investigate the situation. That night, Li Guangyan warmly entertained Pei Du and his party with a simple banquet in the army, and Pei Du also warmly encouraged everyone not to mention it.
Early the next morning, Li Guangyan personally led a thousand personal cavalry guards and accompanied Pei Du to the bank of the Jindi River. There are many rivers in Puyang, including the Yellow River, Jindi River, Wei River and other transit rivers, in addition, the larger rivers also have the natural Wenyan Canal, the Maji River, the Zhulong River, the Tuxiao River, etc., which is also one of the reasons why Li Guangyan's army is closest to Yunzhou but the progress is slow. Originally, Li Guangyan thought that the two barriers had been pulled out, the Jindi River was close to Yunzhou, and Li Shidao's army was stationed on the opposite bank, so he wanted to bring more personal soldiers to protect him, but Pei Du denied it with a smile. Pei Du Dao:
"I'm here today to check the terrain and understand the enemy's situation, and not to attack the city, what are I doing with so many people?"
The Jindi River is an important tributary on the left bank of the Yellow River, and it is also a large number of tributaries. The river basin is a narrow and triangular triangle shape, wide at the top and narrow at the bottom, it is the old road of the Yellow River in history, because the Yellow River has broken and diverted its course many times, the flood overflows, forming a gang and a depression intermittently, and there are many slopes and sand hills. The terrain is high in the southwest, low in the northeast, the golden embankment fence stands on the high post by the river, guards the key points, is easy to defend and difficult to attack, can overlook the surroundings, monitor and contain the movement of the thief army in front of the stage. After Li Guangyan encircled Puyang and marched eastward, he fell in love with this place at a glance, built a fence as an outpost, and garrisoned 2,000 people. The battlefield he himself chose was also under the Golden Embankment. However, the fog is too big, and I can't see the battlefield clearly. I thought that the fog would gradually dissipate, but it turned out to be bigger and bigger. Li Guangyan persuaded Pei Du to go back, but Pei Du was very unwilling to come to this trip in vain, and said:
"Chen Guogong, the fog is so big today, why don't I wait and dive to the riverside to see the enemy's situation?"
Li Guangyan was shocked when he heard this, but thinking that there was a heavy fog in the sky, it could be used as a barrier, and it was understandable for Pei Du to personally understand the enemy's situation as the new commander, and it was conducive to strategizing, so Li Guangyan no longer insisted, but still ordered the two generals of the Song Dynasty and Tian Hua to each send 500 cavalry as backup. When asking for the golden embankment gate, he also ordered the fence to be on higher alert, and if there was an emergency, troops would be dispatched to rescue immediately.
After feeling that the arrangement was extremely appropriate, Li Guangyan accompanied Pei Du forward. After crossing a few small rivers and ditches, the two came to the bay of the Jindi River and burrowed into a small forest. Looking across the river, look at the other side.
The fog provided cover for their advance, but it also obstructed their view. I could hear the faint noise of people on the other side, and I could vaguely see the appearance of the city, but it was always not real. Although this place is the Yellow Flood Area, but the Ming Emperor of the Han Dynasty Yongping 12 years, under the auspices of the famous water conservancy expert Wang Jing, Puyang repaired the canal and built the embankment for more than 1,000 miles, the river channel was fixed in the south of Puyang City, the Yellow River Anlan was more than 700 years, and the Jindi River was also a piece of wood. Looking at the vague woods on the opposite bank, Pei Du said:
"Look across the river!"
It was useless for Li Guangyan to object, so the two of them only took a few people to cross the Jindi River on ice. At that time, it was already past midnight, the sun came out, and the fog gradually dissipated, and it was clear to see on the other side. I saw that there were many figures, and the sound of horses was incessant. I could only hear someone whispering:
"Put the horse's mouth on!"
"Let's see if the horse's hooves are wrapped."
This is going to send troops! Pei Du and Li Guangyan glanced at each other and said in unison:
"Golden Embankment!"
The only thing worth making such a big deal in these dozens of miles is the Jindizha. As mentioned earlier, the terrain here is high in the southwest and low in the northeast, and the terrain of Jindizha is high, so it is really not advantageous to attack from east to west, but it is another matter if there is heavy fog as a cover. I can't imagine that I am calculating the other party, and the other party is also calculating myself. The two quietly retreated to the ice and retreated to the opposite bank, but unexpectedly, there was a thin ice in the middle of the river, and one of his own soldiers stepped through the ice with one foot, causing a loud noise. A voice came from the other side loudly:
"Who?"
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