Chapter 11 Chaos

It is said that Li Changyan relied on the strong attack power of Shatuo iron cavalry and made great achievements. He chased Zhu Cun all the way and was introduced to the area of Daqi Mountain by Zhucun. The mountains are high and dense, and the roads are rugged. Zhu Cun saw that the Shatuo cavalry had entered the ambush circle preset by the Rebel Army. With an order, the ambush crossbow, crossbow and horned arrows of the Rebel crossbowman shot at the Shatuo cavalry like raindrops. The righteous soldiers pried the wooden sticks on the top of the mountain. The boulders rolled down, and the volunteers raised many small stones fiercely. The ground hit the Shatuo cavalry.

Shato cavalry was suddenly attacked and suddenly turned into a mess. They were beaten upside down and killed and injured a large area. The war horse was frightened and rushed around. Many Shatuo soldiers fell into the pit with their horses and were pierced into a hornet's nest by bamboo sticks, iron thorns and other spikes.

Li Changyan was shocked and ordered him to evacuate the valley quickly. Zhu Cun was willing to give up. He waved the wind knife in his hand and roared, "Brothers of Daqi, follow me to kill the Shatuo soldiers!" The rebels came out of the hiding place and shouted to kill the Shatuo soldiers. At this time, many Shatuo soldiers have lost their horses and become infantry. Shatuo soldiers are good at riding and are not good at walking battles. They are killed by volunteers in the valley, with countless deaths and injuries, defeats and losses, and most of the soldiers are defeated. Li Changyan opened a bloody road under the escort of his own soldiers, ran to Zhang Zimian's camp and cried to Zhang Zimian about the tragic defeat.

Zhang Zimian was also surprised to hear Li Changyan's report. Unexpectedly, the rebels dared to attack the Shatuo iron cavalry. This is a trump card in his army of "elimination of thieves"! Now that the ace army has been defeated, he is really faceless as the commander-in-chief of the "suppressing thieves" on the northern line of the Central Plains.

Zhang Zimian had no choice but to comfort Li Changyan: "General Li, although you have lost soldiers this time, there are still hundreds of riders. I think your Shatuo soldiers have been away from home for a long time, and you must be eager to miss your family. Just take them back to Fengxiang and reunite the soldiers and their families. After you return to Fengxiang, you should hurry up to recruit troops and expand your troops. The next time the court is called, you will lead the troops out.

Li Changyan didn't expect Zhang Zimian to be so good to the Shatuo cavalry led by him. After losing the battle and letting them go back to reunite with their families, he was really overjoyed and grateful. Li Changyan saluted Zhang Zimeng and said, "General Zhang is loyal, kind and loves the people. Changyan is very admirable. When I go back this time, I will definitely recruit troops according to your instructions and train them quickly. When General Zhang needs reinforcements, the last general will definitely go through fire and water and quickly come to your camp!"

"Well, Changyan, then you can hurry up and go to Fengxiang. I will write a note for you. Show Liu Jingren when you pass Luoyang. He is my old friend and will let him go. After Zhang Zimian finished speaking, he took a wolf pen from the handsome case, wrote a note and gave it to Li Changyan.

After Li Changyan left, Gui Renshao said to Zhang Zimian, "General Zhang, Li Changyan was defeated, but you let him go back to Fengxiang's nest. Why is that?"

Zhang Zimian smiled bitterly: "One of Shatuo soldiers we invited to reinforce the battlefield of the Central Plains. Now most of the soldiers have been lost, and these hundreds of people are not of much use. It just reflects our sincerity to let them back. Second, there is not much grain in the camp now, and there is also a famine in Zhengzhou. Hundreds of thousands of troops outside the city consume a lot. In this spring and February, where do you want me to go to get food and grass? Other towns have been reluctant to deliver grain and fodder to the army of "suppressing thieves" in the Central Plains and pass the swishment to each other. Alas, they have not been a home, and they don't know how expensive firewood and rice are. I, the deputy commander-in-chief of the Central Plains' anti-thieves, don't want to be at all. Whoever wants to be, can do it. Let me disengthe armor and return to the field as soon as possible!"

When Gui Ren Shao heard this, he knew the reason why Zhang Zimian let Li Changyan go. It turned out that there was not much grain in the army. He thought for a while and said to Zhang Zimian, "General Zhang, since there is not much food and fodder, we have to speed up the time to suppress the thieves. I don't think it's a way for the army to stay in Zhengzhou."

Zhang Zimian and Gui Renshao's personal friendship has always been good. He knows that Gui Ren Shao is a relatively authentic person, unlike Yang Fuguang, who likes to sue the front-line generals with Li Jun and Tian Lingzi, so he said boldly: "The toad jumps around and has to take a rest. It's not that I don't want to suppress the thieves. The last time I conquered the army to reinforce Songzhou, I was busy, and I also lost 30,000 horses of Lei Yinfu. Now, according to the order of the court, I transferred troops back to Zhengzhou, but I was attacked by the thieves, and I couldn't find the main force of the thieves. I really have nothing to do now!"

Gui Ren Shao nodded: "General Zhang is both wise and brave. I believe there will be a way to solve this problem."

While Zhang Zimian and Gui Ren Shao were discussing how to deploy the army, there was a lot of noise outside. A personal soldier came in and reported, "General Zhang, many soldiers are making noise outside because they don't have enough to eat!"

Zhang Zimian and Gui Renshao quickly walked out of the camp. Seeing that the outside of the camp was densely full of soldiers, many soldiers kept shouting:

"We are going to eat!"

"We are going home!"

"The service period is expired, why don't you let us go home!"

"We want military service!"

......

Zhang Zimian quickly comforted the noisy soldiers: "Brothers, you have worked hard! Recently, due to the continuous march and war, the spring rain has led to a shortage of food and fodder supply. The court has always trusted you very much. After verification, those who have completed their service and do not want to continue their service according to the principle of voluntariness can return home. As long as you abide by the laws of the Tang Dynasty, Zhang Zimian will never embarrass you. This time, the soldiers of each department, led by their respective generals, went around Zhengzhou to borrow grain from large families. If any large family refused to borrow grain, they would be detained to violate the law of the Tang Dynasty!"

The soldiers who made trouble heard this, and then slowly calmed down and went back to the camp. Zhang Zimian immediately convened a meeting of his generals to delimit the grain collection area. The generals went around Zhengzhou to collect grain from the people and borrow grain from large families according to Zhang Zimian's order.

In this way, the people in Zhengzhou will suffer. As long as the people's family can eat, they will be swept away by these "thieves" soldiers. Even the old hens and domestic puppies and kittens in the chicken' nest have been robbed. The people cried and scolded these Li Tang's turbulent army as "robbers" and broom stars. Many people simply defected to the Rebel Army. Many large families were also forcibly "borrowed" food, and they were indignant. In anger, some of them went to the Rebels to join the army. Zhu Cun and Zhu Wen's team suddenly expanded to more than 20,000, and their military strength increased greatly.

Zeng Yuanyu stationed in Ezhou and received the military newspaper. It was learned that Wu Yanhong's army was defeated by Wang Chongyin and Xu Tangju. Wu Yanhong and Gao Zhou Yi retreated from Jiangling. Hu Zhen and Gu Yanlang went to Tanzhou, but did not go to Ezhou to meet him. Since Li Fu and Liu Jurong were killed and defeated by Sun Mei and Yue Lingfei, they retreated to Ezhou. They were depressed and drank all day to relieve their boredom. Duan Yanmo and Zhu Jingmei also came to Ezhou with the defeated soldiers. These Tang generals, who were repaired by the Jiangnan Rebel Army, gathered together to drink tea and talk about the government, and put aside the "great cause of suppressing thieves".

Zeng Yuanyu is really anxious this time. Since the killing of Wang Xianzhi, his army has been repeatedly defeated and his morale has become more and more depressed. Now, the total number of soldiers in Ezhou is less than 50,000. If you continue to fight and lose the battle, you will really become a light pole commander, so Zeng Yuanyu has to stay honestly in Ezhou and dare not act rashly.

One day, Zeng Yuanyu had a good breakfast and went to work in the government office as usual. When he was about to arrive at the government office, he saw only a few messengers leaning against the door. When the businessman saw Zeng Yuanyu strode towards the government office, he quickly stood up and said respectfully, "General Zeng, you are coming to work!"

"Hmm!" Zeng Yuanyu snorted and went straight in. The government office was cold and empty. Because of the war in the Central Plains, the government of Li Tang government has not been operating as normally as in the heyday. Many officials carry their belongings to take refuge in places where there is no war, so many states and counties are often soldiers and do government affairs. When there is no war, they go to work at the government office to deal with various civil disputes; when the "thieves" come, they have to hang up and are very busy.

Zeng Yuanyu walked to the side of the handsome case and sat on the Nanmu chair. He was really angry when he thought of the generals procrastinating at work and drinking tea. He immediately called several public messengers to his side and ordered, "Gem my order. Please inform the generals of Ezhou as soon as possible to come to discuss military and political affairs!"

The public did not dare to neglect and hurried out to inform.

In a short time, the generals of Ezhou arrived at the government office. When they saw Zeng Yuanyu's expressionless face and buried themselves in reviewing the documents, the generals knew Zeng Yuanyu's temper and were vigorous. No matter what happened, they were absolutely kind, like a weak scholar. At this time, the generals saw Zeng Yuanyu and knew that there must be lightning, thunder and storm next.

As the generals expected, Zeng Yuanyu looked up at the crowd. When his eyes fell on Gao Xiang, he did not move away for a long time and saw Gao Xiang straight hair. Gao Xiang is the governor who was defeated by Cao Shixiong in Hongzhou. Before the rebels attacked the city, Lord Gao took gold, silver and jewelry and fled to the mouth of the lake with his family and cronies. A few days ago, Zeng Yuanyu specially sent Li Fu to "invite" the Gao adult to Ezhou, saying that he was going to hold a military and political conference and reappoint him to an "important position". Gao Xiang was worried that Zeng Yuanyu would settle accounts with him and investigate Hongzhou's responsibility for his failure, and refused to come to Ezhou for a meeting. Li Fu said that he patted his chest to ensure his life safety, and then Gao Xiang followed Li Fu to Ezhou.

Before leaving Hukou, Gao Xiang specially invited Li Fu to the largest hotel in Hukou and gave Li Fu 50 taels of gold, asking Li Fu to say more beautiful words in front of Zeng Yuanyu and Yang Fuguang. When he arrived in Ezhou, Gao Xiang immediately launched public relations activities and personally went to Yang Fuguang's mansion to send 100 taels of gold. In order to save his life and get promoted, Gao Xiang can be said to have tried his best.

Zeng Yuanyu saw that the generals had arrived and began to speak: "Gentlemen, since defeating Wang Xianzhi, the court thought that everything was fine and ordered all parties to lead troops back to their respective jurisdictions. Unexpectedly, Qilu and the Central Plains thief ants attached to the yellow nest, resurgence, chaos everywhere, and the officers and soldiers were frustrated one after another. After careful analysis and summarizing the lessons, one of the most important reasons is that military discipline cannot be well implemented. Some senior generals and local officials were greedy and afraid of death. When the thief came, they fled, causing serious consequences! Gao Xiang of Hongzhou is a typical representative. He unexpectedly escaped from the battle on the eve of the siege of the city, brought gold, silver and jewelry to the mouth of the lake, and left Hongzhou's military and civilians behind. Gao Xiang seriously violated the law of the Tang Dynasty and should be executed according to the law!"

Gao Xiang was so scared that he was scared. He hurried to the front of Zeng Yuanyu's case, knelt on the ground, couldn't help kowtowing, his forehead was broken, blood flowed, and cried and begged, "General Zeng, Lord Zeng, I know it was wrong, but the thief was really powerful. In order to preserve the military and financial resources of the Tang Dynasty I just ordered to evacuate Hongzhou. General Zeng, Lord Zeng, please forgive me this time!"

"Forgive you? You said it was light. Didn't you think of the consequences when you abandoned the city and fled for your life? If you don't kill you today, where is the majesty of the Tang Dynasty? Knife and axe hand, drag Gao Xiang out and report it!"

Gao Xiang's face was earthy at this time and kept shouting, "General Zeng, please forgive me. I won't dare to do it again next time!"

In front of the knife and axe, he dragged Gao Xiang and ran out.

"Slow down, keep people under the knife!" Yang Fuguang came out and said to Zeng Yuanyu, "General Zeng, what Gao Xiang just said also has a certain reason. In the case of the suppression of the thief and the soldiers, if you fight with the thief, it will also be a dead end. Gao Xiang is a local member appointed by the court. If he wants to be beheaded, he has to tell the court the situation. Only after the approval of the court can he behead him. General Zeng should know this common sense!"

At this time, Li Fu and other generals also pleaded for Gao Xiang.

Zeng Yuanyu saw this posture, and Yang Fuguang also came out to plead for Gao Xiang. What he said was justified and difficult to refute. He had to follow the donkey downhill and said, "Gao Xiang, in view of everyone's love for you, the death penalty is inevitable, and the crime of life is inevitable. Drag it out and beat 30 military sticks again!"