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The topography of Suzhou is dominated by gentle plains, which is the most typical place that is easy to attack and difficult to defend.

Li Cun was definitely not at ease about putting a large amount of money, grain and other goods seized from Suzhou in Suzhou.

Therefore, Li Cun sent people to transport all the money, grain, and other goods he had seized from Suzhou back to Hangzhou as soon as possible, except for those necessary for the war.

Of course, because this amount is too large.

-- The public trial of the Zhu family alone cannot be completed in three or two days, and it will take half a month to send the huge amount of materials seized from the Zhu family back to Hangzhou City.

Moreover, there is more than one Zhu family among the officials and gentry in Suzhou - there are many henchmen of the Zhu family, and they have all made a fortune and saved a huge net worth by taking advantage of the 20-year-old Huashi Gang.

If all the officials, gentry and nobles in Suzhou are tried publicly, and then their homes are raided, and the good things confiscated are sent back to Hangzhou, I am afraid it will take at least two months.

Therefore, Li Cun gave an explanation to Zhang Shi, and left Zhang Shi and Jinwu's army to continue to preside over the public trial in Suzhou, and sent the huge amount of money, grain and materials seized in Suzhou back to Hangzhou, and continued to liberate other areas of Suzhou, recruiting troops, talents, craftsmen, shipbuilders, building soldiers, and so on......

And Li Cun, who only stayed in Suzhou for one day, continued to go north with the front army, the rear army, the Jinwu front army, the Jinwu middle army, and more than 10,000 recruits hastily recruited in Suzhou.

The day after Li Cun left Suzhou, he received a good news sent by Su Dong, and his unit had already conquered Huzhou City with the cooperation of Lu Xing'er and other Huzhou rebels, and then prepared to carry out public trials according to Li Cun's instructions, continue to liberate other areas of Huzhou, recruit troops, recruit talents, recruit craftsmen, recruit boatmen, build ships, build armor, and so on......

Li Cun wrote a handwritten letter to Su Dong and Gu Jian, who was in charge of Huzhou's government affairs, explaining that they must pay attention to ways and means in doing things, not rush into success, and that they must send the seized money, food, and other materials back to Hangzhou City in a timely manner, and that the recruited recruits should be trained according to the methods they trained them, and so on......

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As soon as Tan Zhi arrived in Zhenjiang, he summoned the Jiangyin Army, the Guangde Army, the Xingguo Army, the Xinyang Army, the Hanyang Army, the Tianchang Army, the Gaoyou Army, the Jian'an Army, the Huaiyang Army, the Lianshui Army and the Wuwei Army to Zhenjiang, and gathered 50,000 troops, plus the nearby landlords who took the initiative to vote, known as 200,000 troops, in fact, there were 80,000 horses.

Someone suggested to Tan Zhi that these 80,000 horses could defend against the danger, wait for the imperial court to send a large army, and then go south together to exterminate the rebels.

Some people also suggested to Tan Zhi that the top priority is to train the soldiers and horses, take defense as an attack, and wait for the opportunity to move.

But Tan Zhi came here for the purpose of using Li Cun and their villagers to brush up on their military merits, how could he wait for others to share his credit?

Therefore, Tan Zhi immediately denied the idea of those cowardly generals, and wanted to divide his more than 80,000 people into two, one from the Beijing-Hangzhou Grand Canal to Hangzhou, and the other from Jiangning Mansion to the south to Shezhou, actually wanting to exterminate Li Cun and Fang La at the same time.

But without waiting for Tan Zhi to implement his grand plan, Zhu Mian and other officials and nobles in Suzhou and Huzhou, who fled from Suzhou and Huzhou to Zhenjiang, told Tan Zhi that the Tiger Ben army had gathered 200,000 people to go north, and Suzhou and Huzhou had fallen one after another, and I was afraid that in less than three or five days, the Tiger Ben army would reach Runzhou.

When Tan Zhi heard this, Li Cun took the initiative to send him to death, and he had a whim, and planned to organize a general battle in Runzhou to eliminate the main force of the Tiger Ben Army, and then wave his army to the south to recover the three prefectures of Fuxing, Hu, and Hangzhou in one fell swoop.

In other words, Tan Zhi actually wanted to settle the battle and leave a good reputation as the god of war.

Tan's unrealistic, impatient and aggressive ideas were met with widespread opposition.

Jianghuai, Jingzhe, and other roads were made and shipped to Song Huan, who came up with the two strategies of "Yangwei" and "Holding Weight", saying that the ant thieves were powerful, and the southern soldiers had not experienced battle formations for many years, so they no longer knew how to fight, and advised Tan Shu not to act rashly.

But Tan Zhi laughed and only said: "One general has no plan, and thousands of troops are exhausted; A handsome man has no plan, and he frustrates all teachers. The southern soldiers are losing and retreating, all because of the incompetence of the coach. During the war, I sent 3,000 people to supervise the pro-army, and in the rear of the army, whoever dared to take half a step back would be killed on the spot, and who dared not to fight? ”

Seeing that Tan Zhi didn't take his suggestion at all, Song Huan flicked his sleeves and left.

Tan Zhi convened a military meeting to solicit the opinions of the generals on the battle.

Zhang Maung, the governor of Guangde, spoke: "In the wilderness of the Runzhou Plain, the ant thieves have four or five thousand horse troops, no less than too many of our army, our army has no advantage, and the ant thieves have even gone down to Hangzhou, Suzhou, and Huzhou, and their spirit is flourishing, and our army is difficult to compete with." Our army should defend the city and the danger, train the troops and horses, and wait for reinforcements, and wait for the Western Army and the Gyeonggi Forbidden Army to go south before we can talk about the battle. ”

Tian Sheng, the commander of Gaoyou, spoke: "Zhenjiang City and Jinling City are both erected cities, and there are more than 100 mountains on the left and right, which is conducive to our army's deployment and fortification. Although there are many ant thieves, they cannot be deployed in our defense area. Our army defended against danger and strangled the way of the ant thieves to the north, which was a great achievement. ”

However, most of the civil officials in the Liangzhelu Envoy Department thought that Zhang Maung's opinion was too slow, and Tian Sheng's opinion was too cowardly.

Most of the generals were silent.

Zeng Sheng, who fled to Zhenjiang, agreed with Tian Sheng's opinion and resolutely opposed the battle with the Tiger Ben Army in the near future. ”

Tan Zhi couldn't help but be anxious by the generals, and said sharply: "What you are saying, how can I not know?" However, the ant thieves have developed here in only three or two months, if they are not eliminated early, they will surely sweep the south of the Yangtze River, and when they are gone, the foundation of the Great Song Dynasty will be destroyed, and the country will not be a country, and I am anxious about the situation in the southeast, and the safety of the Great Song Dynasty will have to hold a battle! ”

The military meeting ended unhappily.

After the meeting, Tan Zhi found all the people who opposed the battle and did their ideological work one by one, reiterating that if they did not crush the rebellion of the southeast ant thieves with the power of thunder, they would become sinners of Zhao Song.

Later, Tan Zhi simply put down the cruel words, and whoever opposed the battle would be removed from his official position.

In this way, no one dares to raise objections to the battle, you must know that Tan Zhi is Zhao Ji's minister, and the supreme governor here really has the right to dismiss them on the spot.

As a result, the matter of holding a battle in Runzhou was decided by Tan Zhi alone.

And because Zhang Maung, Tian Sheng and other generals always insisted on their opinions and resolutely opposed the holding of a battle, Tan Zhi forced them to hand over their military power and left him on the Liangzhejiang Road to serve as a staff officer.

But soon, someone slandered Tan Zhi, saying that Zhang Maung and Tian Sheng scolded him for not knowing how to pretend to understand, only talking on paper, and that this battle would be lost, which made Tan Zhi hateful.

Therefore, Tan Zhi liquidated Zhang Maung's responsibility for not rescuing Huzhou, demoted Zhang Maung, and Zhang Maung's henchmen and generals were all punished by Tan Shu; As for Tian Sheng, he was secretly surrendered by Tan Zhi Mingsheng and seized the military power, and most of the senior generals under Tian Sheng were also transferred to other armies by Tan Zhi.

After seizing the military power of Zhang Maung and Tian Sheng, and purging the senior officers of the Guangde Army and the Gaoyou Army, Tan Zhi appointed two of his close generals, Chen Da and Zhao Ming, to manage the Guangde Army and the Gaoyou Army.

Chen Da and Zhao Ming's ability to command the army is unknown to others, but Zhang Maung and Tian Sheng have been running the Guangde Army and the Gaoyou Army for many years, and their roots are very deep, and it is impossible for Chen Da and Zhao Ming to really establish their prestige in the Guangde Army and the Gaoyou Army in a short period of time.

What's even more troublesome is that the Guangde Army and the Gaoyou Army are still the main forces of Tan Zhi in this battle.

Tan Zhi hurriedly held a battle, but he changed generals on the spot, which cannot but be said to be a taboo in the army.

Many Song generals were not optimistic about this battle, believing that Tan Zhi might suffer a big defeat......

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