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MTL - Poor Family-v2 Chapter 989 Siege and aid
Chapter 989 Siege and Aid
After five days of forced marching, 30,000 cavalrymen arrived in Liyang County, Hezhou. In half a day, all 30,000 cavalrymen crossed the Yangtze River. They went south from the west of Taihu Lake, circled Taihu Lake and headed towards Huzhou.
Just after the news of 30,000 cavalry crossing the Yangtze River reached Pingjiang Mansion, Li Yanqing personally led 10,000 troops to attack Huzhou.
At present, Zhao Ji has deployed 10,000 troops in Huzhou. These 10,000 troops are the two support troops who came to support Yang Chu before, from Ningguo Mansion and Jiaxing Mansion respectively. Entering Taihu Lake, and Yang Chu's remnant army was also defeated back to Lin'an Mansion.
Zhao Ji simply ordered this army to station in Wucheng County, Huzhou, directly threatening Pingjiang Mansion.
This 10,000-man army is also a new forbidden army recruited the year before last. It is commanded by the commander Wang Dian, and the deputy general is also the commander Ma Wenchun, but Wang Dian's official position is the fourth-rank general, and Ma Wenchun is the fifth-rank general, so Wang Dian is naturally the main general.
The bosses of both of them were both in charge of Wang Yuan in front of the palace, but under the temptation of Zhao Ji's heavy money and Gao Jue, both of them betrayed the emperor Zhao Gou and became Zhao Ji's accomplices and lackeys.
Wang Dian also knew that if Li Yanqing sent troops, Huzhou would definitely bear the brunt. He sent people to monitor every move of Pingjiang Mansion. When Li Yanqing's army just left the barracks, the scouts he sent immediately reported the news by flying pigeons. Wang Dian, Wang Dian also asked Lin'an Mansion for help almost without hesitation.
Received Wang Dian's request for help, Zhao Ji and Zhizhengtang discussed it, and finally decided to send Yuhang military commander Wu Zhan to lead 30,000 troops to support Huzhou.
The distance between Pingjiang Mansion and Lin'an Mansion is not far. There is Huzhou in the west and Jiaxing Mansion in the east between them. Once a war breaks out, all the marching time will be within a day or two.
But Li Yanqing's marching speed was very slow. It was obviously only a hundred miles away from Wucheng County. A quick march could kill them in half a day. However, Li Yanqing's army marched slowly, walked more than ten miles to rest for a while, and left. It took a whole day to march fifty miles, and as soon as they entered the territory of Huzhou, 10,000 troops were stationed overnight.
On the contrary, the new Forbidden Army going north was urged by Zhao Ji's decree. If the rescue was not timely, they would be executed without mercy. Wu Zhan had no choice but to keep ordering to speed up the march.
They originally set off half a day later than Li Yanqing sent troops, and the distance was a little farther away, but they arrived first, and when Li Yanqing's army was stationed fifty miles to the east for the night, they had already arrived thirty miles south of Wucheng County. inside.
At this time, night fell quietly, and a round of bright moon had already hung on the treetops, sprinkled the earth with a layer of silver, it was already September, and the night was a bit cool, the commander Wu Zhan ordered the soldiers to rest for a while, he was a little embarrassed, Now it is only 30 miles away from Wucheng County, whether to stay overnight or rush to the city in one go.
Several generals saw that the soldiers were exhausted, so they persuaded them one after another: "Li Yanqing's army is also staying overnight in the camp. They are far away from us, and they can't catch up at night. It is better to rest for one night and let the soldiers recover their strength. At five o'clock, go north and enter the city."
Wu Zhan saw that the soldiers were indeed exhausted. After walking for thirty miles, most of the night would have passed, so he nodded and agreed, "Rest on the spot for three hours, and set off into the city at four o'clock!"
I heard that there was only three hours to rest, and the soldiers fell asleep one after another, but some generals couldn't sleep, so they got together to chat.
"I heard that there was a palace coup when the Supreme Emperor ascended the throne. Is it true?" A general asked cautiously.
Another general curled his lips in disdain, "You still have to ask this kind of thing. A three-year-old child knows what's going on. If it's not a palace coup, what is it?"
An older general sighed and said, "What everyone cares about now is whether the official is dead? Is he imprisoned or has been poisoned to death? There are rumors that the official has been poisoned to death. If so, then What a pity."
"It can't be helped. The struggle for the throne will not be humane. The strange thing is that Li Yanqing didn't flee back to the northwest, but pulled up the banner on the side of the Qing emperor. He really thought that his tens of thousands of people could beat hundreds of thousands of troops? "
While several generals were discussing, there was a muffled thunder in the distance.
"It seems to be raining!" A general looked up to the sky.
"You are talking nonsense! How can it rain in such a beautiful moonlight?"
"Then why thunder?"
At this time, the ground suddenly trembled slightly, and the muffled thunder was getting closer. The older general came from the Western Army, and his expression changed, "Not good!"
He stood up and shouted: "It's the cavalry, the cavalry is here!"
"Impossible! Lao Yang, have you made a mistake?"
The generals didn’t quite believe it. They all stood up and looked to the west. There was a muffled thunder coming from the west. To the west was an endless rice field, and there was a long and narrow forest two miles away.
At this moment, countless cavalry suddenly came out of the woods, their sabers and spears gleaming in the moonlight, and then a large mass of black cavalry poured out from both sides of the woods, with a huge momentum, like a sea tide breaking a dike, galloping towards this side kill.
"The enemy is coming! The enemy is coming!"
The imperial guards were terrified and yelled, and the soldiers woke up from their sleep one after another. They were so frightened that they didn't even care about the weapons next to them. They got up and ran south in a hurry.
This cavalry is the 30,000 cavalry who traveled thousands of miles from Guanzhong. They arrived an hour ago, lurking like wolves several miles away, waiting for the enemy to show up, but the enemy rested on the spot. Cao Cao He made a decisive decision and ordered the whole army to attack.
This is Li Yanqing's strategy of besieging the city and fighting for reinforcements. He pretended to attack Wucheng County, attracting reinforcements from Lin'an Prefecture to go north, and let 30,000 cavalry attack the enemy by surprise, and wiped out the reinforcements.
Li Yanqing has experienced hundreds of battles, and his rich combat experience is far beyond the comparison of Zhao Ji and a group of civil servants in Zhizhengtang.
Twenty thousand cavalry galloped in the moonlight and shouted: "Surrender without killing!" The fleeing soldiers couldn't run away from the galloping horses. They had only two ways, either kneeling down and begging for mercy, or dying.
At this time, Gao Chong also led 10,000 cavalry to kill from the south, cutting off the soldiers' retreat. In desperation, the soldiers knelt down and surrendered, begging for mercy.
At dawn, Li Yanqing led 10,000 enemy troops to the battlefield. The war had already ended. Except for thousands of people who were killed, the remaining 25,000 soldiers all surrendered. All surrendered soldiers were gathered together and waited for disposal. .
Cao Meng and Gao Chong stepped forward to greet Li Yanqing. They felt very cordial when they met in Jiangnan. Li Yanqing patted the two of them on the shoulder and smiled, "It's been a long journey, thank you for your hard work."
Cao Meng scratched his head and smiled: "Everyone heard that Dutong was in danger in Lin'an Mansion, and they all rushed to come. We were a bit rough, I used a hammer, he used a gun, and everyone was calmed down."
Li Yanqing laughed loudly, and gave him a hard punch, "Next time there is such a chance, I will ask General Hu Feishi to serve you, and see if you can still compete."
Cao Meng's face immediately turned bitter. He was most afraid of Hu Sanniang's flying stones, which were elusive and hard to guard against. Even Gao Chong also suffered a lot from flying stones.
At this moment, Li Yanqing stopped joking and asked again: "How is the battle going?"
Cao Meng hurriedly bowed and replied, "Report to Dutong, a total of more than 25,400 people were captured, more than 3,200 people were killed and wounded, and the remaining more than 1,000 people escaped."
"Where's the enemy general?"
"The enemy general Wu Zhan disguised himself as a small soldier and surrendered. He was reported by other surrendering generals and has been arrested."
Li Yanqing nodded, "Bring him up!"
Cao Meng waved his hand, and several soldiers escorted the general Wu Zhan with his hands behind his back. When Wu Zhan saw Li Yanqing, he knelt down and begged, "I know my mistake, please forgive me, I will definitely serve you!"
Li Yanqing shook his head, "Since you received a salary from the court, you betrayed the emperor. Since you have signed the letter of allegiance, but now you want to work for me, it can be called disloyal and unrighteous. Giving your head to those Those who betray the emperor should sound the alarm! Push it down and cut it off!"
The soldiers pushed Wu Zhan down, and Wu Zhan yelled: "Du Tong, spare your life, spare your life!"
In just a moment, the soldiers brought up a **** human head, and Li Yanqing ordered to put it in a box and send it back to Lin'an. I believe the news will spread soon.
At this time, more than a dozen generals were also escorted up. When they saw Li Yanqing, they all bowed their heads in silence, with shame in their eyes. There were several generals who had followed Li Yanqing to defend Bianliang, but now they have become prisoners of war.
Li Yanqing looked at them, "Wang Yong, Zhang Xiaoliang, Zhang Liang, Yang Daozhi, I did not mispronounce your names! Back then we fought side by side, but now we have become enemies. Who should be ashamed?"
Several generals knelt down and cried: "Dutong, we have a humble official position, and we have no choice at all. I don't want to be an enemy of Dutong from the bottom of my heart!"
"That's right. Wu Zhan signed the letter of allegiance. He was the one who betrayed the emperor on his own initiative, so I killed him. You guys are really different. Let's do it! I'll give you a choice now, and you want to go back to Lin'an. I will not make things difficult, release immediately, but next time you are arrested, don't blame me Li Yanqing for being cruel and merciless, if you want to follow me Li Yanqing, then your officials will be restored to their original posts, continue to lead my troops, follow me to help Song Dynasty, and ask for restitution from the officials To be fair, neither of them are willing, if you want to go home and farm, that’s fine, I will also release you immediately, you choose!”
More than a dozen generals knelt down on one knee without hesitation, "We are willing to follow Dutong Kuang to help Song Dynasty!"
The hearts of these generals are like mirrors. They have no position themselves, but they have interests. If Wu Zhan is dead, they will not end well when they go back. They might as well follow Li Yanqing, and they may have merit in supporting them in the future.
Li Yanqing immediately said to Gao Chong: "Leave the cavalry to Cao Meng. From now on, you will be in charge of the infantry. Reorganize these surrendered troops, and you will be in charge of the command!"
Gao Chong knelt down on one knee and clasped his fists, saying: "I obey the order!"
(end of this chapter)