Chapter 55: Into Yu

On the way out of Yan'an, until Tongguan, Guan Shengyun used a "rolling shutter" march in order to train the team. This is the standard practice of "enemy marches" in this era.

When camping the day before, the Tang cavalry scouts in front and behind the army had to make sure that there was no threat from a large group of enemies within twenty or thirty miles of the surrounding area. The reconnaissance range of the pond cavalry was limited to the main direction, and it was impossible to go down to all parts of the fan-shaped area. However, this is enough, in the absence of instant communication, even if a small force can hide from the eyes of the elite Tang Cavalry, it is impossible to pose any threat to the overwhelming numerical army.

The next day, the auxiliary soldiers dismantled the tents and packed up the supplies, and when the soldiers had breakfast, the Tang cavalry went out to explore. After sending back the safety signal, the horse team first went out two or three miles, choosing an open area to stand in formation, and this mobile force should be ready to deal with emergencies at any time. Then, according to the road conditions transmitted back by the Tang cavalry (such as allowing several people to be in parallel), the battalions formed a team, dressed and armed, and took turns to act as the vanguard troops to pass in turn. Each infantry team was followed by a number of carts, loaded with the armor of the soldiers of the team, deer and horses, and other improvised field equipment. Each battalion protected the auxiliary baggage battalion and the Chinese army in the middle of the ranks, and the battalion that had been the vanguard the day before was changed to the rear guard, and the rear of the palace passed. Finally, the horse team followed again, and the whole army rolled forward in battalion units.

When he came out of Tongguan, it was the turn of You Futian's Nutao Battalion to be the striker. Ru (pronounced "Wen") Township is a small city, and there are few defenders, and they have not received any warning—in fact, even if they do, it will have no effect—rather than taking it, it is better to say that You Futian drove directly into it. Several old and weak sergeants guarding the gate looked at the army that could not see the end and drove straight towards them in disbelief their eyes, and they even forgot to close the city gate, and no one thought to report it. In the blink of an eye, You Futian rode his horse to the front under the protection of more than 30 personal guards.

Since there was no threat, You Futian didn't bother to get along with a few old guys, waved his hand, and asked the guards to quickly pass through the city, blocking the land transportation from Ruxiang to Lingbao, and set up his mount by himself, and talked with the city gate guards. The veterans, who may not be able to eat enough on weekdays, looked at the army that was getting closer and closer in the distance, although they faintly felt that something was wrong in their hearts, no one dared to resist in the slightest, they all knew everything. By the time the army entered the city, You Futian had already understood the general situation in Ruxiang.

At the same time, more than 30 clippers went down the river in the Yellow River in the north, and the arrows generally crossed the county seat of Ruxiang and lined up, pulling out two blockade lines, which also blocked the two sides of the river and Henan Fu (this place at the junction of Henan Province and Tongguan was called Henan Fu in the Ming Dynasty, and was on the same level as the several prefectures mentioned above. Note that Henan Province is under the rule of Henan Province, and the two are not the same thing) The Yellow River waterway traffic within the territory.

Luo Yonghao was not worried about the discovery of the fleet in Shanxi. In broad daylight, there were so many boats and rafts carrying military supplies in the great river that no one could hide it in any case. However, this is not a big deal - there is no Yellow River bridge, there is no telephone telegraph, and the only way to pass information on both sides of the strait is by ferry. As long as a section of the river is controlled, even if an abnormality is discovered, Ruicheng on the Shanxi side on the other side of the Yellow River is a small city of no lower level, and there is absolutely no possibility of making its own decisions, and such a major military situation must be reported to Pingyang Prefecture. Pingyang Mansion will report to the provincial capital Taiyuan again, and Taiyuan Mansion must be verified, right? Jinnan is all mountains, the mountain road bends and the ditch is 3,000, and it takes ten days and half a month to come and go. Even if you are conscientious, well, it is okay to say that it is completely irresponsible, Taiyuan Mansion will not further verify the authenticity of the news, but also report to Jingshi on the one hand, and warn in the direction of Henan on the other - it is still necessary to go around in a big circle: either send Zhangde Mansion, or send Weihui Mansion, or Huaiqing Mansion, and these prefectures will send one copy of the news to the provincial capital Kaifeng, and one to Luoyang, the capital of Henan Prefecture...... After this round, it will take a month to say the least - this is only the first warning message!

Luo Yonghao's only concern was the land route from Ruxiang to Lingbao and from Lingbao to Shaanzhou (now Sanmenxia City).

This section of the road is more than 150 miles long, of which more than 70 miles are narrow mountain roads. It is bordered by the surging Yellow River to the north and cliffs to the south. In between, a small road winds along the valley floor – the old Hangu Pass from the Qin and Han dynasties.

Luo Yonghao's worries are not groundless. During the Anshi Rebellion, the famous Battle of Lingbao took place in Si.

A generation of famous generals Ge Shuhan guarded Tongguan, An Lushan's son An Qingxu could not attack it for several months, but lured Ge Shuhan to abandon the danger of field battles: ordered Cui Qianyoutun to die in Shaanxi County (known as Shaanzhou, today's Sanmenxia City), and the elite troops lay on the top of the mountain in the south. Xuanzong was overjoyed when he received a report that the rebels had "less than 4,000 soldiers, all of whom were weak and unprepared", and forced Ge Shuhan to send troops to recover Shaanluo. Ge Shuhan's opposition was ineffective, so he led the army out of the pass, and it was on this mountain road that he was ambushed - under the attack of the rebels on the mountain, the Tang army on the narrow road for dozens of miles could not avoid it, and suffered many casualties. Ge Shuhan made a desperate bet, and urgently ordered the forward to use the shield car to make a decisive assault, trying to forcibly open the road, but the front road has been arranged by Cui Qianyou A large number of grass carts, the raging fire after ignition completely blocked the way of the Tang army, at the same time, the back road was also blocked by the rebel elite cavalry, the soldiers trampled on each other, threw themselves into the river, tens of thousands of people died, Ge Shuhan hundreds of thousands of troops, and only more than 8,000 people were left who retreated to Tongguan. Later, Ge Shuhan was taken hostage by his generals to Anying, imprisoned in Luoyang, and finally killed by An Qingxu......

Although Guan Shengyunbu is an elite soldier, such a narrow and long ancient road belongs to the textbook-like "dead land" of the art of war. Under this kind of terrain conditions, no matter how many men and horses you have, you can't use them, even if the opponent only has a few hundred people, you only need to block the front road and occupy the commanding heights in the south, and the roaring Yellow River in the north, and the army has only one dead end. Therefore, blocking traffic and isolating news is the first priority, and it is also the task of Guan Shengyun and Luo Yonghao repeatedly mentioning to You Futian during the military meeting the night before.

As of now, the rafts are arranged in the auxiliary barracks. For a while, Guan Shengyun did not have a plan to set up a water camp, and Luo Junshi also agreed with this idea, feeling that it was not too late to make plans when he arrived in Huguang.

However, when going south along Luoshui, Guan Luo and the others still took precautions to arrange for the Tianyi Battalion, which had water in its name, to take turns to take the raft to familiarize themselves with the water battles they might encounter in advance. At first, they didn't want to break up You Futian's troops, and the original plan was to let Zhang Dingbu take a boat. But Zhang Ding is a chicken thief, knowing that his combat power is already in the bottom of each battalion, for fear that when he arrives in Huguang, the marshal and the military division simply organize themselves into a naval army on the grounds of being familiar with the boat raft - the Ming naval army is a second-rate army, and its status is only slightly stronger than that of the auxiliary battalion, and its main task is transportation. Even if there is a battle, it is mostly limited to bows and arrows shooting at each other, and the war of jumping gangs and slashing each other rarely occurs. In the second-rate troops, the generals will not be too popular, so Zhang Ding insisted that the name of his Thunderbolt battalion contained fire in it, and whoever sent him on the ship was deliberately trying to kill him! In this era, this reason is too strong to refute, and Tianyi Camp itself has water, and You Futian can't say anything.

On the day of the Tongguan Pass, it was the turn of You Futian to be the forward, and the water and land were their own soldiers, and they were handy in command, and everyone said that it was providence. You Futian faintly had some new ideas: simply when he set up a water camp in Huguang in the future, he would use Tianyi Camp as the backbone. As he holds two important positions on land and water, whether he charges or retreats, the water camp will not suffer a loss in the headquarters in hand, and maybe he will have the opportunity to do some business, wouldn't it be a great thing!

Everyone understands in their hearts that Ruxiang is not a place to stay for a long time. One place is too small, and a small county town can't afford to raise tens of thousands of extra mouths out of thin air. A few days ago, you can also rely on robbery, a little longer, you have to eat yourself, then you will lose, the second terrain is too dangerous, leaked the news of course, there is no way forward, the door of Tongguan behind you is also closed, there is no basis for advance and retreat, a dead end.

The whole army was temporarily stationed in Ruxiang, and Gong Derungu Baihua had already been handy in the work of arresting officials and collecting property, and there was no need to trouble such a small and broken place, and the two of them were in a city and a countryside, and in less than two days, they had washed the inside and outside of Ruxiang clean.

Guan Shengyun sent Gu Baisong's horse team to hide and go out near Lingbao, and at the same time let Butang climb the mountain to search, and determined that Shaanxi did not set up an ambush with Henan secret news, and left most of the auxiliaries and baggage in Ruxiang, Gao Tengdou's three flying beast battalions only carried weapons, and Guoqing Lin allocated a large auxiliary team to transport armor equipment and three days of rations to raid Lingbao.

In order to save time, Guan Shengyun and Luo Yonghao discussed, regardless of the fact that Gao Tengdou had not yet arrived in Lingbao, the large army drove directly to the east.

On the way from Lingbao to Ruxiang, the pedestrians and postmen in both places were intercepted by the horse team, until Gao Tengdou and You Futian did the same to capture Lingbao and sent a horse team to block the traffic to Shaanzhou, and the magistrate and other officials who became prisoners of the rank woke up like a dream.

At the same time that Guan Shengyun's brigade drove into Lingbao and robbed property door to door, Jingshi received a good news signed by the three divisions of Shaanxi.

In the good news, the adults of the three divisions first boasted greatly about the virtue and integrity of the Son of Heaven, and insisted that this victory was completely due to the induction of the heavens into the virtue of the Son of Heaven (this is called scheming - whoever dares to question this victory in the future will deny the virtue and ethics of the Son of Heaven)! Secondly, the adults also conducted a profound self-examination and corroborated each other, expressing their sorrow for the tragic lesson of Katsura's broken jar and neglect of guard, and even being taken advantage of by "thieves". Subsequently, several adults sent infinite sympathy to the people of Yan'an Mansion who were suffering from the war, and described the tragic experience of the "Holy Sons" with tears in their eyes, and sincerely begged the Holy Son of Heaven to be exempted from the tax for three years, and said that they would lead by example and donate a whole year's annual income to the disaster area, and would rather have the whole family eat grass than help the victims rebuild their homes. In the end, he vaguely and euphemistically expressed a little worry: I heard that several provinces in Henan and Shandong have been dry and rainless for a long time, and there are many displaced people, in line with the full love for the Son of Heaven and the infinite loyalty to the imperial court, he did not hesitate to risk offending his colleagues and thus being "slandered" by everyone, and warned the imperial court: The thieves are in turmoil, Yin Jian is not far away, and the neighboring provinces must be vigilant to prevent the recurrence of similar incidents in Shengliang.

Reporting the specific results of the battle was another separate piece, which vividly unfolded a wonderful battle picture in front of the Son of Heaven. In particular, Li Changfa, a general of Yulinwei, generously led his troops to a decisive assault "when Yanfu was caught by thieves", "the three who were arrowed were still dumbfounded and swords", "angrily slashed and defeated the soldiers to stabilize the army's heart", "finally won a complete victory" and other touching deeds, as well as Chang Wenping, the county governor of Ansai, took advantage of the thief's unprepared sword and the thief chief, held his head high and shouted, the army and the people were united, "all the thieves were frightened, hiding their faces and howling" The vivid scene...... Ladies and gentlemen, they are all experts in dance and ink, and they can compile paragraphs and commentaries by writing a small essay at will, and a bunch of war novels that are jointly polished by a bunch of text masters in retreat for many days directly fascinate the Son of Heaven. According to the news that came out secretly from the father-in-law of the Shang Dormitory Bureau, the Son of Heaven even brought this piece back to the dormitory, and first recited it to the concubine Niangniang in a low voice before he was extremely brave to press the Niangniang down......

At the end of the recital, there is a list of meritorious officials. Moreover, the adults of the three divisions of Shaanxi Province jointly played a concert, and the "Qin Soldiers Exercise" campaign has been vigorously launched throughout the province. The more brave the old Qin piled up, ready to go to any battlefield at any time, like in Yan'an Mansion, defeat any thief, for the Holy Son of Heaven, for the court, the blood of the horse leather shroud stained yellow sand at any cost!

The Cabinet, the Sixth Ministry, and the Metropolitan Procuratorate have all passed the way they should go, and even those most ill-intentioned skeptics have nothing to say in the face of the results of the first-level inquest of the Ministry of War's "real strong thieves." Two hundred and sixty-nine heads with Adam's apple are placed in the courtyard of the military department, such a great martial art, who can deny it!

Shengtianzi Longyan Dayue: Reward! Chang Wenping is the dry city of the country, directly promoted by the county magistrate Yan'an Prefecture Tongju, Li Changfa plus the rank of deputy general, and by the Holy Son of Heaven handwritten "loyal and brave" two words given, Shaanxi three divisions of the adults have not noticed, but it is not too late to make up for the loss, the Ministry of Ministers plan to make a good evaluation, the rest of the people have their own rewards - can be promoted to the promotion, can not be promoted to the shadow nephew reward the world, in addition to the court's bounty by the household department to write off, the Holy Son of Heaven also took out two thousand taels from the inner treasury to let Shaanxi Province distribute it to the meritorious generals, exempted from the military disaster of the county for three years (the first year is exempt, Seventy percent will be exempted in the second year, and fifty percent will be exempted in the third year), and the military expenses reported by Shaanxi Province will be given priority to the household department to be written off leniently......

The culprit Yu Shengliang should have been cut with a thousand knives, and the imperial court, in line with the consistent style of leniency, has died, robbed his officials, confiscated his home, and his wife sent him to the land of Yungui and smoke to exile the army!

As the officials of Shaanxi Province raised their hands and smiled in celebration, the emergency documents from Shaanxi Prefecture were finally sent to Luoyang, the capital of Henan Province (Henan Province is only one of the eight prefecture cities in Henan Province, similar to the concept of prefecture-level cities today). The other seven are: Zhangde Mansion, Weihui Mansion, Huaiqing Mansion, Kaifeng Mansion, Guide Mansion, Nanyang Mansion, and Runing Mansion. There is also a Ruzhou, which is not small in area, and it is considered a Zhili Prefecture. The capital of Henan Province is Kaifeng).

However, this urgent document was sent not from Shaanzhou, which was attacked, but from Mianchi County.