The people in Jingzhou were not familiar with Li Tai's style of acting, so they were made into a crowd of emotions and lively as soon as he made a casual move.

Originally, Li Tai should have been the biggest suspect in the abduction of the missing three people, but under his operation, his suspicion was greatly eliminated, and he also established his heroic and righteous image to the masses.

Of course, not everyone thinks he is innocent, after all, too much coincidence often means something strange, and it is not a clever trick to catch a thief.

However, even if some people still have this suspicion, they don't dare to talk about it openly, especially the three bitter masters, not only do they doubt the new envoy, but they are still expressing their gratitude to the new envoy.

The earthen platform in the east of Jingzhou City has now become a famous place here, and many people can't help but come here to watch. The silk silk and gold and other rewards placed on the earthen platform are full of visual impact, and from time to time people are rewarded for providing clues, which also greatly enhances their sense of participation.

For a while, the people inside and outside Jingzhou City even forgot their original intentions, hoping that this excitement could continue. And the new envoy did not disappoint them, when the silk rewards on the high platform were decreasing at a visible rate and were about to be exhausted, there were also state officials who drove ox carts to pull carts of silk silk to replenish them.

Since the erection of this high platform, in just a few days, the silk silk that has been distributed in front of everyone's eyes has reached tens of thousands, which also brought great shock to the onlookers, and at the same time, it is also really felt that the new envoy will be heroic.

As for Li Tai, the initiator of all this, of course, he is not really rich and has nowhere to put it and squander it everywhere.

He made such a big show for the people of Jingzhou, and the first thing he gained was to gain a super sense of existence, and I believe that in the past few days, there should not be many people in Jingzhou who have not heard of him.

As a local military and political chief, there is no doubt about the importance of presence and popularity. Without these two points, it would be very difficult for his voice and will to reach the people in the country, not only will he be intercepted and obstructed by the powerful people in those places, but he will not be taken seriously by the people.

Another important point is to sow the seeds of suspicion among these local forces through this incident, and to invest the manpower they have in their hands into this insignificant consumption through the temptation of heavy money, so that they cannot effectively combine and jointly fight against themselves, the new military and political chiefs.

For Li Tai today, the things that can be solved with money are really not called problems, and the money spent is basically left in the territory and can still be returned, and soon these Jingzhou people will be able to appreciate his real means.

When all the forces in the territory were indulging in this and couldn't extricate themselves, Li Tai was not idle.

He himself used this time to take over the affairs of Jingzhou Prefecture and understand it, and at the same time let the men and horses he brought get a full rest, and sent light cavalry scouts to cross the territorial boundary between the two countries and go deep into the territory of Yongzhou in Southern Liang to investigate the enemy situation and geographical conditions, and prepare for the next war.

Time flies in the busyness, and the ten-day time left by Li Tai for the other party will soon be over, and he also has a general understanding of the situation, so he immediately began to prepare for the attack.

Recently, the subordinate officials of Jingzhou have been looking for someone for the considerable bounty, and when the state government's convening order was officially issued, they were shocked to realize that the time to send troops had come so quickly!

Now they have a preliminary understanding of Li Tai's style, and it is useless to persuade the governor at this point, and those who have not completed the assigned tasks are in a hurry to remedy it, and those who have completed the task hurriedly go to the state capital to meet them.

In the straight hall of the state capital, Li Tai changed into a military uniform again, and said in a deep voice in the face of the people in the mansion: "Today's army is not my belligerent, but it is really too much deception by the southerners!" Before taking advantage of the lack of defense in Jingzhen, I gathered people to attack, and after making this provocation, I still had no repentance, and I was deceived by no one in Jingzhou! How can I forgive me for violating my territory and not changing my mistakes! ”

After hearing this, all the generals under his command also responded loudly: "The last general and others must obey the orders of the metropolitan governor, fight bravely to kill the enemy, and be humiliated before the snow!" ”

The other Jingzhou officials saw their high-spirited appearance, and after being infected by this, they also spoke out one after another, although the tone was not unified enough, but the atmosphere of courage was finally created.

As Li Tai gave the order, the generals agreed with a bang, and went to the military camp outside the city to gather troops. Soon, a full 5,000 elite men and horses were assembled outside the moat called Caogou outside the city, waiting to set off.

Although the number of armor led by Li Tai in the south this time was not the 20,000 army he claimed, it was also quite a lot. At the beginning of the war with the southerners, although he had asked others for advice before, he did not have real combat experience, so he also had a slightly conservative strategy, starting with 5,000 elites, and the rest of the men and horses remained in the realm.

Of course, the men and horses who really want to go to Nanliang to fight are not the only ones, and Quan Zhongzun will also lead a thousand elite soldiers from his headquarters to go out with the army. At the same time, all the powerful and powerful Hu chieftains in Jingzhou also received different numbers of orders, and they also gathered 5,000 men and horses, so that it was an army of more than 10,000 people.

When Li Tai went out of the city to inspect the armies, the men and horses of the headquarters and Quan Zhongzun did not talk about the troops for the time being, but focused on inspecting the local troops in Jingzhou, and found that although the number was not 5,000, the gap was not large.

It can be seen that the coin scattering policy pursued by him after entering the country is also quite effective, even if it is only out of the desire for profit, these local tycoons are still obedient to his orders.

More than 10,000 horses were divided into three parts, and 1,000 elite cavalry on the front road were led by Zhu Meng and 2,000 Jingzhou soldiers to form the forward, taking the lead in setting off to open the way for the army.

In the middle of the road, 3,000 cavalry and 2,000 Jingzhou soldiers, plus Quan Zhongzun's department, formed the Chinese army, which was led by Li Tai himself. The rear was commanded by Linghu Yanbao, and in addition to the grain and grass required by the army to go on the expedition, there were many empty vehicles driving with the army.

This battle was also a small test for Li Tai, so he did not formulate too complicated tactical plans and offensive goals, and after the army set off, he went straight to Xiangyang along the west bank of the river.

The distance between the city and Xiangyang is about 200 miles, and the journey is mostly plain, and there are no dangerous fortresses. Only along the coast of the river, there are several forts that double as Jindu wharves. In the face of the transit of the Western Wei Dynasty, these forts were closed and the soldiers and civilians in the forts were ready for battle.

In the face of these meaningless forts, Li Tai did not order to capture them one by one, but went straight to Fancheng on the north bank of the Han River. When the men and horses in the middle were still on the way, the light cavalry on the front road had already arrived not far outside the city of Fancheng, and attacked the dock buildings set up around the city to clear the battlefield for the army to enter the siege city.

Zhu Mengben returned to Kansai from He Batsheng from the Southern Dynasty, so he was quite familiar with the offensive and defensive tactics of the southerners, and knew that in addition to relying on the combat methods of water conservancy boats, the southerners also had long-range weapons such as bows and crossbows that were also very powerful, and no matter how big or small, the defense must have a strong crossbow team.

Therefore, when he selected the first team to attack the dock, he gave priority to his flexible and agile body, good at climbing and using swords and shields, so as to be able to rush to the enemy's defense line in the shortest possible time, and then support the shield in one hand and slash and chisel with the other hand to attack and destroy the defense line.

At the same time, he also personally led the elite cavalry to line up to engage the flanks of the battle, guarding against the enemy's reinforcements across the defensive line. Whenever an enemy dared to cross his own line of defense and rashly enter the plains, he immediately outflanked and attacked with cavalry.

Under Zhu Meng's precise command and the brave fighting of the armor soldiers, they successively broke through the enemy's three docks set up in the dock outside the city, so that there was a gap in the northeast of Fancheng that could reach directly under the city gate.

Although the defenders here were also fully prepared for war, when the actual battle began, they could not help but be surprised by the amazing combat effectiveness of the Western Wei army. When they saw that the forts in the fort were broken one after another and the defenders in the fort were either killed or captured, the other garrisons were also frightened and depressed, and their fighting spirit suddenly disappeared.

However, the Western Wei forward's overwhelming offensive did not last long, and when they launched an attack on the largest fort along the river, they were met with stubborn resistance, and several organized offensives were repulsed, only paying hundreds of lives.

Seeing that the powerful subordinates of Jingzhou in his peers were already embarrassed and had no intention of fighting again, Zhu Meng also knew that it would be futile to attack again.

His vanguard had few men and horses, and he had limited equipment, so he could only burn the three captured docks under the noses of the enemy, and then set up a camp a few miles north of the remaining garrison on the east side, called the Xia Ji Garrison, and sent people to report the results of the battle to the rear.

(End of chapter)