"Lord Futai, it's not good! Yuezhou urgent! Zhang Wei's Li Dingguo Department recently suddenly came out of the Tianmen Mountain area, and the Yongding guards of the mountain pass were caught off guard, and more than 1,000 soldiers had no heart to fight, and surrendered in half a day! ”

"Li Dingguo's troops attacked Cili County for a day and a night, and Huang Renyou, the magistrate of the county, surrendered in a cowardly battle, and the defenders of Jiuxi Wei were cut off and surrendered. Now Li Dingguo has entered Shimen and Li County. After passing through Anxiang, you will enter Dongting Lake! This is the news sent back from Yuezhou two days ago! I still don't know if the situation has deteriorated further in the past two days, and whether Shimen and Li counties have been stubbornly delayed. ”

"Zhang Xianzhong's banner appeared two days ago to the east of Taoyuan County, Changde Prefecture, and Taoyuan Zhixian County urgently sent a messenger to Wuling County, Fuzhi County, before the city was besieged."

The first batch of emergency documents was sent to the Jiangling Fangkong Burning Office on the eighth day of June. The content of the emergency report is only as of the sixth day of the sixth month of June at the latest, that is, two days ago.

Therefore, whether the thieves have made new progress in the past two days, and how much progress has been made, Fang Kongzhi still does not know.

When Fang Kongzhi got these bad things, he almost went black.

He also had no choice, he left the governance office in Jiangling before, and the main troops were blocked in Yiling, also because his troops were too small and insufficient, and Yang Sichang did not pay attention to him in the past two years, and he could directly mobilize less than 20,000 people.

Such a few people, of course, have to defend against the danger and hold each other for a long time, so concentrating on the exit of the Three Gorges of the Yangtze River is the safest choice, who would have thought that Zhang Xianzhong would be able to ignore the grain road and cross the mountains and mountains to break out of the encirclement?

In the final analysis, it is the civilian officials who traditionally read military books, and their understanding of military affairs is too stuck in the ancient precept of "soldiers and horses are not moved, grain and grass go first".

But the phrase "grain and grass first" is aimed at the army that needs to transport its own grain.

For Zhang Xianzhong, who kills wherever he eats and eats as long as there are people, this ancient precept will obviously be ineffective in extreme cases.

This really can't be blamed for Fang Kong's pedantic, because of the same mistake, Shao Jiechun on the other side of the Three Gorges of the Yangtze River also made it in history-

Shao Jiechun also asked Zhang Ling to defend the White Emperor City and Qutangwei, and Qin Liangyu advised him to "take the initiative to enter the mountain and not defend the lonely city alone", Shao Jiechun did not listen (not that he didn't want to listen, but he couldn't afford to disperse the grain and grass consumption of the long-term garrison), and finally led to Zhang Xianzhong breaking into Sichuan regardless of the grain road.

Fang Kongzhi just made a mistake that a Ming scholar would make as a governor.

But the matter has already come out, and what is needed now is only to solve it as soon as possible and plug the leak.

Fang Kongzhi immediately convened his staff and subordinates, asked for the opinions of all parties, and worked together to find a solution.

"For the sake of today, what can I do? This official wants to take the Jiangling soldiers and horses south to the Baling and Huarong to prevent Zhang Wei from seizing the mouth of Dongting Lake, and then observe the situation and adapt to the situation, what do you think? Who dares to lead the troops? ”

As soon as Fang Kongzhi asked, there was only one general in Jiangling City, one guerrilla, and a number of capital guards, all of whom looked at each other.

Fang Kongzhi has a total of less than 20,000 people, and more than half of them are in Yiling, how can they go south to rescue the rest of these people?

General Liu Sunchen begged for mercy with a bitter face: "Lord Futai! I can't help it, in my Jiangling City, including the temporarily recruited people who defend the city and countryside, the total number of people is less than 8,000! And to ensure that Gangneung is not lost, at least someone must be left to guard it, right? It's the limit to be able to send 5,000 people.

Since Zhang Xianzhong dared to cross the Tianmen Mountain, it must be a desperate gamble, our soldiers and horses rushed to reinforce, even if we took a boat down the Yangtze River, there were more than 400 miles to the Baling waterway, and the future was unpredictable!

Please also ask Lord Futai to ask for help from Wuchang Shenfutai as soon as possible! Let his soldiers and horses cross the border into the territory of my Huguang to help fight and quell the rebellion! Wuchang is only more than 500 miles away from Baling, and the soldiers of Shenfu Taiwan are strong and strong, and they will definitely be able to protect Baling after they arrive! ”

When Fang Kongzhi heard this, he almost wanted to scold Liu Sunchen for his shamelessness in his heart. Just now, when it came to the distance between Jiangling and Baling, he said that "it will take 400 li to go downstream", but when it comes to the reinforcements of Wuchang, he said that "it only takes 500 li to go upstream".

The soldiers of the Shenshu people want to come to reinforce, not only to walk an extra hundred miles, but also to bear the burden of going upstream, how can you be embarrassed to "only"?

However, Fang Kongzhi also knew that there was no way to find Shen Shuren for help, who made him poor and couldn't afford to raise too many soldiers. The guards under his command are all empty, so they are so ordered. If you don't find foreign help, you will only be dead.

Unlike the Shen Shuren on the other side, there is a way to make money, and the establishment given by the imperial court is fully stuffed, and even extrajudicial recruitment and various black households hide their strength.

As for the insufficient military salaries issued by the imperial court, Shen Shuren directly subsidized them himself, and even the money he controlled for raising soldiers was much more than that of Fang Kongzhi-

Who let Fang Kongzhi control the centigold banknotes, mainly for trade with Sichuan? Zhang Xianzhong has been entrenched in the Three Gorges of the Yangtze River between Huguang and Sichuan for a year and a half, and his business travel has already plummeted by at least ninety percent, and there is no commercial tax to collect.

However, before calling for help, the posture still has to be rehearsed, not for the sake of military accounts, but for political accounts.

Fang Kongzhi knew very well that it was against the law of the Ming Dynasty to ask for help from Shen Shuren. Legally, he is in a hurry, and Fang Kongzhi only has the right to report to Yang Sichang first, ask for help, and then let Yang Sichang assign who to play the role of reinforcements.

Between the two governors, they are on the same level as each other, and they directly ask for help, what kind of system has it become? Isn't it becoming the authority of the Ming court and privately conferred on each other?

was impeached by the imperial historian, and it is possible to directly dismiss the official.

Fang Kongzhi had no choice but to say: "Okay, then the official will first hurry up to Wen Nanyang, ask Yang Ge Lao for instructions, and then Yang Ge Lao Wen Wuchang, let Shen Futai send troops to help in the war."

However, General Liu, you still have to lead 5,000 troops first, and rush to Baling immediately, before the soldiers and horses of Shenfutai arrive, you have to try to preempt Li Dingguo and hold Baling! A few of you, let's go with General Liu! ”

As he spoke, Fang Kongzhi named a few more names, and everyone who was pointed out was shocked, lest the thieves advance too fast and they would not have time to arrive at Baling, and they would be surrounded in the middle of the road.

Liu Sunchen hurriedly softened: "Lord Futai can't help it!" The military situation is like fire, how can you take care of avoiding suspicion at such a time? I beg Lord Futai to ask for help directly from Shen Futai! If you go to Nanyang to find Yang Ge Lao, won't you delay at least five or six more days when you come and go?

The last general and others know your concerns about Lord Futai, or we will jointly sign a blood letter, and say that we can't stand Li Dingguo, so we will ask Shen Futai for help privately! Your Excellency, you are also coerced by the will of the public, and the Imperial Historian will not be held accountable by the law at that time, please bear this heavy burden! ”

Fang Kongzhi saw that everyone had become witnesses, and there would be an explanation for this matter in the future in legal theory, so he pushed the boat down the river, but he went to invite the civil officials in Jiangling City to discuss together.

Including the prefect of Jingzhou and the prefect of Jiangling, as well as a number of subordinate officials of the governor's yamen and professional officials of various provinces, the interests were showdowned.

Everyone saw that the generals were in turmoil, and they didn't want to cause thieves to break a few more prefectures and counties because of pedantry, so they had the courage not to blame the people in accordance with the law, and jointly signed a blood letter, while reporting to Yang Sichang, and directly overstepping their authority to ask Shen Shuren to send troops.

……

Liu Sunchen was finally forced by Fang Kongzhi to lead thousands of people down the river, try to choose a long and narrow fast boat, and arrived in Baling County, the capital of Yuezhou, within two days.

At the same time, some messengers and scouts sat on several sentry boats and continued to go down the river to Wuchang to report the news and directly ask the people of Shen Shu to send troops.

It can be regarded as Liu Sunsin's luck, when he arrived, it had actually been four or five days since Fang Kongzhi received the emergency report. In other words, four or five days ago, Li Dingguo had already broken through Cili County, forced the Jiuxiwei that had been cut off from returning, and approached Shimen County.

In the past four days, Li Dingguo only took half a day to break Shimen County. Then it took two more days to march and lead the attack to take Li County.

In the last two days, Li Dingguo continued to march high, took Anxiang, smoothly entered Dongting Lake, and approached Baling.

Liu Sunsin hurried to hurry, when he arrived, Baling had not yet been besieged, but the vanguard scouts of Li Dingguo's troops had already landed near Baling to patrol, block news, and intercept and kill soldiers and civilians.

Liu Sunchen originally had the opportunity to march directly into Baling City, but he was afraid that he would be suddenly cut off by Li Dingguo's main force on the way to the city, so he chose to camp in Chenglingji, more than 20 miles north of Baling County.

Chenglingji is the mouth of Dongting Lake that flows into the Yangtze River, and there have always been successive dynasties to build river defense fortresses. During the Ming Dynasty, there was also a dock fort here, so there was no need to build your own fortifications to camp here, and you could directly use ready-made ones.

And because his back is on the Yangtze River, he can attack and retreat here, even if Li Dingguo fights, he can escape back to the Yangtze River by boat, and he is not afraid of Li Dingguo, who only has a boat and a raft, to chase and kill.

Liu Sunchen originally had the last trace of conscience, and felt that it was a bit too much to say a word, so he chose a thousand commanders under his command and allowed him to bring ten fast sentinel ships and 100 cavalry to reinforce Baling City, and publicize that the main force of reinforcements had arrived, so as to boost the morale of the defenders in the city, so that Li Dingguo would not surrender without a fight as soon as he besieged the city.

However, what kind of cowardice will bring out what kind of trilogy, that Qian always looks bitter and complains with a well-founded basis:

"General, no! You forgot that Zhang Xianzhong has always been good at letting the thief cavalry pretend to be messengers and reinforcements to defraud the city! Even if we go to Baling City, call the door, and even show the seal. Most of the guards in the city will also shoot us back as Zhang Xianzhong's soldiers!

"The Point Guard Is Here"

When the city refused to open the door, and Li Dingguo's army surrounded him again, didn't he let the brothers die in vain? ”

Liu Sunchen was right when he thought about it, and then he thought of a perfect way to get rid of personal responsibility: if Baling City is defended in the future, then everyone will be happy, everyone is fine, when nothing has happened, don't mention it.

If Baling didn't hold it, the guard would definitely have surrendered to the enemy, and then he would say, "I have sent people to the city of Baling to reinforce and want to enter the city to help defend it, but Zhang Xianzhong is too cunning, and he has cheated the city too many times before, and the guard will be scared into a frightened bird, and he refuses to open the door and let me enter the city, so I have to come back." In that way, he himself will definitely not be questioned by the imperial court.

After thinking about this truth, he still insisted on letting the henchman Qian Zong set off, but secretly explained: "If you don't want to go to Baling City, you can pretend to leave Chenglingji and come back to find out about the enemy." When others ask me later, I will say that I have sent you there, but the city will not open its door. If no one asks about it, it's going to rot in your stomach forever! ”

The henchman Qian always immediately understood and executed this kind of wise and self-protective trick very neatly.

After being stationed in Chenglingji, Liu Sunchen calculated the days, and estimated that it would take at least one and a half days for the messenger to go to Wuchang, and it was estimated that it would take more than three or four days for the army to return. Because a large-scale army is against the epidemic along the waterway of the Yangtze River, it is fast to travel 100 miles a day.

However, what he didn't expect was that he only slept in Chenglingji for one night, and the next morning, the henchman under his command came in to report:

"General! The messenger returns! Reinforcements from the Sinking Trees have arrived! It's going to be there during the day today! After the messenger arrived, he hurried back to report the news! ”

Liu Sunchen was taken aback: "How can it come so quickly?" ”

The cowardly thousand always blew spittle:

"The messenger walked to the second half of the night last night, and as soon as he arrived in Linxiang County, he met the army of Shen Futai! Shen Futai has already organized an army in advance, and first rushed to Linxiang County at the junction of Yuezhou Mansion and Wuchang Mansion to wait! The cavalry of Shenfutai will be able to arrive in the morning! The main force of the follow-up waterway can also arrive in the afternoon! ”

Liu Sunchen was stunned: "How could I, a civilian and military general of the Ming Dynasty, have rescued friendly troops so quickly?" It's Sima Yi in the play who captured Meng Da, and he didn't come so quickly! ”