Chapter 3* Blocking the South

Chapter 3

The news brought back by the cavalry scout surprised Song Nan. The thief soldiers actually divided their troops into two routes, attacking Jinghai County all the way to the east, and the other to Xiong County to the west. Moreover, Xiong County, which is the nearest county to Wen'an County, has been occupied by the thief soldiers.

According to Song Nan's judgment, the thief soldiers should not attack separately. After all, their strength is not strong. Together, there are only 7,000 or 8,000 people, and one soldier becomes three or 4,000, which is equivalent to weakening their strength.

This is either a discord within the thief soldiers, leading to lead their respective teams to parting ways, or they have other plans; internal disagreements can be basically ruled out, because this is an uprising army jointly led by two brothers, Liu Liu and Liu Qi, and it is unlikely that it will cause a rift in more than ten days.

After some discussion, Song Nan can basically determine the intention of the thief soldiers to attack. After judging the intention, Song Nan can't help but frown. If Liu Liu and Liu Qi are too shrewd, there are capable people to guide the thief soldiers.

The division attack takes advantage of the weak defensive strength of the surrounding counties. The defensive strength of the two counties is less than 200, and the insurgent army of 3,000 or 4,000 people can easily break through the county. At the same time, capturing several surrounding counties is conducive to faster expansion of influence, greater development and growth, and more conducive to the supply of weapons and food. Collection and supplement. Moreover, the rebel army divided into two separate attacks, which also brought problems to the officers and soldiers who were about to suppress bandits, which was conducive to deal with the officers and soldiers.

The direction of the thief's attack is very tricky. If you attack Jinghai County to the east, you can seize the way to bypass the southern Hejianfu garrison and attack Shandong. There are a large number of small towns in the north of Shandong, which are also densely populated, but they are all inland towns with weak defense, which is more conducive to the survival of the rebel army. On the way to the west, after capturing Xiong County, you can enter the northwest of the mountainous and dense Baoding Prefecture, and then turn to Shanxi, and then attack to the southwest, along the junction between Baoding Prefecture and Hejian Prefecture to the south and enter Henan.

Song Nan looked carefully at the map and analyzed the direction of the thief soldiers. He did not consider the eastward, because they had too many targets to accurately grasp their movements, and the soldier who captured Xiong County in the west could follow.

It should be known that there were heavy troops stationed around Baoding Prefecture during the reign of Hongwu of the Ming Dynasty, which was also under the jurisdiction of the governor's office of the five armies. With the long history of the founding of the Ming Dynasty and the reduction of the number of troops, the focus of the army is also on various border towns. In addition to the intersection of northwest and Weizhou, there are still several guard stations in Baoding Prefecture to defend the southwest of the capital, and the guards in the southeast area are almost dead.

As a balance, in the four years of Jianwen, the imperial court carried out a major expansion of Baoding Prefecture, strengthening the city defense and building enemy buildings and other important defense measures, but after strengthening the city defense, it is bound to reduce the garrison. This practice of reducing soldiers and horses at the cost of strengthening the city defense shows its drawbacks today.

More than 3,000 soldiers and horses of Bazhouwei in the east can only guard in Wen'an County to cut off the connection between the east and west of the thief soldiers. Although more than 13,000 soldiers and horses are stationed in the Zijing Guanwei and Maoshanwei in the north of Baoding Prefecture, their main responsibility is to guard the capital to prevent the northern tars from breaking through the front line of Weizhou. Not to mention the order of the court to mobilize them, it is far away from quenching thirst.

However, Song Nan also judged that it was impossible for the thief soldiers who captured Xiong County to attack the northwest. Although the mountains are high and lush, it is easy to hide their whereabouts, after all, under the eyes of Zijing Guanwei and Maoshanwei, the danger is too great, but anyone with a brain will not go northwest.

However, there is only one way to go south. Tianjin Sanwei is stationed in the northeast of Hejianfu, but with the capture of Jinghai by the thief soldiers on the east road, the three guards must be restrained in the northeast. For the southbound soldier of Xiong County, Hejianfu is weak in the northwest, and it is difficult to protect itself. That is to say, if Xiong County is a thief The soldiers chose to go south through the passage between Hejianfu and Baodingfu to enter Henan, which were unable to stop them.

Song Nan looked along the map. To the south of Xiong County are undefensed counties such as Xin'an County, Renqiu and Gaoyang. Since it was determined that they would take this road to go south, Song Nan decided to take immediate action to block the gap in the south and force the thief soldiers to go northwest, so that they could be driven into a dead end.

Song Nan had no time to hesitate and told Chen Wei to defend Wen'an County and cut off the back roads of the east and west thieves. At the same time, he decided to lead a thousand cavalry to quickly go south and reinforce the counties along the way when the thief soldiers went south. The preferred place was Xin'an County, because he was the closest to Xiong County, but only 100 miles away, he was the thief soldiers of Xiong County. The first attack target.

After reporting the situation to the court again and requesting the court to quickly send troops and reinforcements, Song Nan immediately led a thousand cavalry to set foot on the road to Xin'an County, and sent people to rush to the two provinces of Hejian and Baoding to remind them to take necessary precautions. At this time, Song Nan naturally could not speak any morality and took Liu Yuerong with him. In the past, with Liu Liu and Liu Qi's sister in hand, she may be able to play a role at a critical time. Although this move is a little obscene, Song Nan can't care much when I am a widow in the land of thieves and soldiers.

After a night of running, a thousand tired cavalry finally arrived in Xin'an County at dawn; Song Nan's worried did not appear, and the local order was not be chaotic. Everything in Xin'an County was as before, and even farmers were farming in the fields. When he came to the east gate of the city, the gate was closed to death, and there were many people at the head of the city. The garrison obviously got the news that Xiong County in the north was destroyed.

A thousand cavalry rolled in and scared the defenders at the head of the city. When it was clear that it was Jinyi Wei Ti, Zhou Xiaoyi, the county magistrate of Xin'an County, who heard the news at the top of the city, quickly ordered people to open the city gate to welcome Song Nan and others into the city.

Zhou Xiaoyi's layout is also appropriate. After receiving the news that Xiong County was attacked by rebels last night, Zhou Xiaoyi immediately ordered people to close the gate, collect more than 500 troops in the county into the city, and was organizing people to go to the city to defend the city. Song Nan didn't have time to gasp and climb the wall to patrol, which was not tight. , my heart suddenly cooled down.

The city of Xin'an County has been in disrepair. The city wall, which was only more than one foot high, collapsed in many places, and more than half of the towers on the top of the city collapsed. What's more frustrating is that the moats in the north and west are completely blocked and have become useless. This is an undefense city. If thieves and soldiers come, with the help of simple Tools can break through here in no time.

What's more worrying is that although Zhou Xiaoyi was ready to defend the city, he didn't know the number of thieves at all. He thought there were only 800 thieves, but he didn't know that the number of thieves on the West Road after the division had reached 3,000 to 4,000; he didn't know how much the number increased after capturing Xiong County.

Song Nan explained the critical situation to Zhou Xiaoyi. Zhou Xiaoyi's motivation suddenly dissipated, collapsed like a vented ball, and asked with a crying voice, " Commander Song, what should I do? What should I do?"

Song Nan comforted him and said, "Didn't my thousand people arrive? In addition, your manpower is nearly 2,000, so you can have a fight.

Zhou Xiaoyi said, "But the adults say that there are three or four thousand thieves. Once Xiong County is broken, one or two thousand people are bound to join the gang. How can we resist it?"

Song Nan frowned and said, "Zhou County magistrate, it's not good to be so afraid of the enemy before the war starts."

Zhou Xiaoyi said, "The subordinate is afraid that life will be ruined after the city is destroyed. Why don't we abandon the city and take the people to Renqiu in the south and combine the strength of the two cities to make it difficult for the thief soldiers to advance south."

Song Nan shouted, "Zhou County magistrate, don't blame me for sacrificing your flag. I didn't come here to abandon the city and escape when I came at night."

Zhou Xiaoyi didn't dare to talk any more. Song Nan saw that Zhou Xiaoyi had no idea and did not plan to rely on him to come up with any good ideas. On the one hand, he sent people to the north to explore the movements of the thief soldiers, and on the other hand, he temporarily organized strong men to temporarily strengthen the wall. It was impossible to strengthen it, but at least he had to pile up barriers with mud at the head of the city and Preparing some earth, stone and wood and other things is conducive to defense, otherwise your own thousand soldiers and horses will be useless.

The whole city took an emergency operation and was busy until noon. Finally, some materials and fortifications to guard the city were prepared, but the thief soldiers in Xiong County had no trace, and the scouts sent there were no return. Song Nan was anxious, lack of sleep for several days, and his eyes were red. Under the persuasion of Wang Yong and others, he returned to the county. The government hall took a cold shower, but did not dare to sleep. He was hungry and unbearable. He ordered people to make some snacks. He sat in the backyard of the government hall and spread out the map and chewed snacks while eating.

The snacks were very dry and rough, and Song Nan's choked throat was dry and couldn't swallow. He coughed loudly and the sound of chains. Someone put a cup of tea in front of Song Nan. Song Nan took a few sips like drinking Ganlin. After drinking all, she found that the tea was delivered by Liu Yuerong with a chain in her hand.

Song Nan remembered that she ordered Liu Yuerong, who had been exhausted overnight, to rest in the county government. After all, she was a woman. Although she was a family member of the prisoner, she could not ignore humanity. Song Nan also told the guards around him to arrange Liu Yuerong to follow him for fear that she would be harassed. Zheng Da and these guys are not good birds. If you see her beauty and messing around, will you punish her or not punish her?

Now it seems that Liu Yuerong may have slept, and her mood has stabilized a lot, and her relatives and guards have not been closed. After all, if you want to die, you can't stop her.

"Miss Liu, why did you bring tea for me?"

Liu Yuerong said, "What the slave family asked for is that the adult is a good official, and the slave family saw it all the way."

Song Nanyan would believe her. Maybe Liu Yuerong thought that she could let her go, so she said these words and took the initiative to bring tea and water for herself.

"Have my people ever been rude to you? If you tell me if there is, I will punish them.

Liu Yuerong said with a red face, "No, thank you, General."

Song Nan thought for a moment and decided to stabilize her mood, so she said, "That's good. Think about it. I also scared you yesterday. In fact, things are far from as serious as you think. Unlike Liu Liu and Liu Qi, you may have a chance to atone for your sins. I will help you fight for it."

Liu Yuerong said, "General, the slave family has already thought about it. No matter what kind of torture they suffer, it is just to forgive their sins for their brother, and the slave family will not die. On the way, the slave family also felt very guilty when they saw the disaster they brought to the people."

Song Nan was thoughtful and was about to speak when she suddenly heard the noise of people outside the government. Someone shouted, "Your Excellency, my lord, there is news."

Song Nan suddenly got up and saw Hou Dabiao rushing in.