Three, Flying
10. Recruiting and buying horses
A month later, Fan Zhongyan wrote to Zhao Ze to recruit local soldiers in Dengzhou, Junzhou and Tangzhou for training, and then sent Fubi, Shi Jie and Sun Fu as military envoys to Dengzhou to assist Zhao Ze.
Zhao Ze lived in Dengzhou for two years. In the past two years, he has recruited many warriors.
Among them, the most famous is Xu Zhu, who was born in Heye Village, Xiangzhou. Xu Zhu is nine feet tall, with a tiger's back and a bear's waist, and his strength is amazing. Zhao Ze's army is the best.
Later, Jiao Yan, the head of the new civilian regiment in Pangzhou, and the brothers Jiao Zhenhua came to join again, and Zhao Zejun's strength increased greatly.
Up to 23 generals can be used.
Half a year later, Huang Qihuang County Cheng, an old scholar who had been having no ambition in Nanhua County, Caozhou, also came to Dengzhou to join Zhao Ze with a burden. They were accompanied by Yao Lian's parents, Yao Dalang and his wife, who came to cook for Zhao Ze.
For a while, Zhao Zejun was full of talents, and the speed of training doubled.
After half a year of unremitting efforts, the number of elite soldiers available under Zhao Ze has increased to 30,000 horses, with full armor and sufficient food and fodder. Only when all the siege weapons transported by the capital are in place and all these 30,000 horses are armed, they can go to the battlefield and prepare for a fierce offensive against Xixia.
11. Finance fan Abu
A year ago, the orphan girl Abu saved Xu Zhu. After Xu Zhu was injured, he became Abu's bodyguard.
She took him back to Xiangzhou and dug out the burden of silver from the Buddha statue in the broken temple.
After a few days of rest, Abu said to him, "Okay, I'll take you to Bianliang. Let's go and leave this empty city!"
In this way, Abu left Xiangzhou with Xu Zhu, rowed a boat, and took Nanyang along Dengzhou, Hebei Province to Beijing.
On the way, when I passed by Nanyang County, I happened to catch up with Zhao Ze's recruitment.
Abu came over and took a look. The list at the gate of the city said: I hope that the salary of the soldiers is good, the food and clothing are not worry-free, and the salary of the elders who have a skill can be discussed face to face.
Abu was a money-opener. At the thought of making a lot of money, he pulled Xu Zhu to apply.
Unexpectedly, Zhao Ze happened to work in Nanyang that day. When he saw Xu Zhu for the first time, he thought he was dazzled.
After a while, he made a wise decision to buy Xu Zhu from Abu with a thousand taels of silver.
From that day on, Xu Zhu became Zhao Ze's servant.
And Abu also became Zhao Ze's guest of honor. Shangguan Mei liked this strange girl very much and planned to adopt her. However, Abu was a restless master. After living in Nanyang for half a month, he left a typo letter and left.
After Zhao Ze's deciphering, she knew that Abu had gone to Bianliang. She said that she wanted to see what the capital was like with her own eyes. It was not worth her life to open her eyes when she grew up.
12. Fight side by side with the army
When Empress Cao's son Zhao Yu was one year old, Xixia's army invaded Huanzhou.
Cross the Hengshan Mountain, go out of the Qinggang Gorge, and go straight to Guideburg.
It took only half a day to occupy a large area of the plain between the White Horse River and the De River.
Subsequently, he immediately built a fortress and continued to increase his troops. He planned to use the fortress tactics to encroach on Huanzhou little by little.
Huanzhou Zhizhou and Jingke use the species of Shiheng, also known as the old species, sixty-one years old.
Urgently sent the eldest son, Zhong Gu, to lead troops to attack, along the front line of the Guide River, relying on the fortresses and fortresses behind him, and constantly breaking down.
And shot the poisoned smoke of the Song army into the opposite side with the improved fire duck, poisoning the Xixia city-building army.
In the early days, the ancient tactics were repeatedly successful, but Canglong, the commander-in-chief of the Xixia Army, was a difficult opponent. After the battle of the Zhenrong Army, he was valued by Yuan Hao. After several years of bordering career, he trained Canglong into a resourceful general.
Another point is that Xixia also has a musket. Although its performance is much different from Song Jun's standard equipment, Canglong's use of muskets has reached the peak.
On this expedition, Yuan Hao gave three thousand musketeers to Canglong. As long as he defeats the old species, there will be a gap in the western defense line of the Song army.
Once successful, Yuan Hao's army will break into the weak areas of the Song army, and then swing north to Yanzhou. At the same time, the Xijing Road garrison of Liao will also go south to Ningbianzhou, take the opportunity to seize the Fengzhou and volcanic armies of the Song Dynasty, and then enter Linzhou.
This move is intended to destroy the border towns of the Song army and open up a channel for the future entry into the hinterland of the Central Plains.
It was at this critical moment that Zhao Ze's army left Dengzhou, advanced both land and water, and rushed to the border to support the defense of Huanzhou.
13. Zhong Shiheng died in the battle
The Xixia army came like a tide and killed the army of Huanzhou.
The rain of arrows on the Guide River covered the sky and the sun. The guns sounded in unison, and the shouts of killing shocked the four fields. Zhong Shiheng sent twelve people to forcibly cross the Guide River.
Canglong, a general of Xixia, personally led the army to fight against the city. He set up a 20-li company camp along the river, with three lines of defense. All the elites were concentrated on the front line from Papayaling to Hongdezhai. The army in Huanzhou failed several times, killing and more than 2,000 people were killed or injured.
I had to retreat to the east bank, burned all the pontoon bridges on the river, and I couldn't hold on.
A few days later, the Xixia Army began to counterattack, sweeping the Song army's strongholds on the west bank of the White Horse River and completely eliminating the threat of the right wing of the Xixia Army. After that, it began to concentrate on dealing with the breeding army on the east coast.
After several previous wars, Zhong Shiheng changed his strategy. He believes that as long as the river bank between Papaya Ridge and Hongdezhai is firmly controlled, the Xixia army can be blocked in the valley plain between Guidechuan and Baimachuan with favorable terrain. At most three months, the Xixia army will run out of food and grass, and will naturally retreat.
At the same time, Zhong Shiheng has another trick, which is to unite the Qiang chief who lives in the boundary of Huanzhou, and let him lead the clan to sneak attack from behind and burn the grain transportation team that robbed the Xixia army. As long as these two strategies are successfully implemented, the Xixia army will lose faster.
However, General Canglong of Xixia is also secretly implementing his own strategy at this time.
He selected ten dead soldiers in the army and asked them to change into the horn clothes of the Song army. He crossed the river overnight and sneaked into the east bank of Guidechuan, and ambushed on the mountains not far from the Song army's camp to monitor the movement of the Song army.
After a period of observation, they found that a cavalry of the Song army went back and forth between Hongdezhai and Huidingbao at the mouth of the river every day, with about 500 people guarding an elderly veteran.
According to Canglong's description, the eighth floor of this person is the seed of Huanzhou.
Next, the assassination began.
The ten dead men were divided into two groups. Eight people went to the foot of the mountain to block the road. The two of them ambushed on the mountain and aimed at the cavalry from Whitingborg with a strong crossbow.
That day, Zhao Ze's army just passed through Qingzhou and came from the waterway before crossing Maling Town, and received an unfortunate news.
Zhong Shiheng, one of the three most powerful border commanders in the Song Dynasty, died in the mountains between Huiding Fort and Hongdezhai, with two highly poisonous crossbows in his body.