Yanzhou Prefecture, Caozhou.
Zhang Yi led the Zuoying soldiers to station in Caozhou. After replenishment and reorganization, more than 10,000 soldiers had their combat strength restored to the level before the Battle of Kaifeng. At this time, flags were fluttering inside and outside the camp, and the ministries were not closed at night and messengers were riding horses. , various horns sounded from time to time, and it was very lively inside and outside the camp.
In the large tent of the Chinese army, Zhang Yi was roaring loudly at the three generals Jin Xuecheng, Shi Niuzhong, and Shang Zili.
"What's going on over there in Shuangji Town? All the ministries have been investigating for two days at night. We don't even know how many bandits there are. What do you do for food?"
Jin Xuecheng grimaced and said, "General, the main town is urging us urgently, but we still need to make plans before we move. The situation in Shuangji Town is different from the past. Wherever there is the property of the vassal king in Yanzhou City, it cannot be easily touched."
Zhang Yi said coldly: "So it's not like Ye Bushou didn't find anything. At least it can prove that King Lu in Yanzhou City is related to this group of thieves?"
"General, don't say that. The last general didn't say that!"
"Then what should I say?"
Shi Niuzhong said: "It's like this. There is a house in Shuangji Town. It is said to be the place where King Lu hoarded his wealth. Because King Lu was greedy for money, many of his belongings had unknown origins, so he did not dare to hide them there. In the palace."
Shang Zili continued: "The thieves were smart enough to occupy King Lu's property, but instead of plundering it, they sent people to Yanzhou Fucheng, hoping to use the wealth to buy a family background. Since then, Clear your name!"
At this time, Zhang Yi's face turned even darker, and he said bitterly: "You all know this news, but I don't know, right?"
The three of them were startled, and Shi Niuzhong hurriedly explained
: "The news I just got, I haven't had time to report yet."
"roll!"
Zhang Yi smashed the water bag at hand and shouted loudly: "The whole battalion set off immediately, rushed straight to Shuangji Town, surrounded the bandits, and left no one behind!"
"General, what should we do with King Lu? Should we ask the main town for instructions first?"
"When the request for instructions is over, the thieves and bandits have changed their identities and joined the Rencheng Guards as soldiers. Let's march now! The court's regulations state that the vassal king is not allowed to interfere in politics, so I sent out troops. What can King Lu do to me!"
On that day, more than 10,000 soldiers from Zuoying set out from Caozhou and attacked Shuangji Town, forty miles away to the east.
This group of bandits entrenched in Shuangji Town was already the fifth wave of Zuoying soldiers' encirclement and suppression. The previous four waves of bandits were suppressed very smoothly, but unexpectedly, this group of bandits was very cunning. They retreated in large strides and infiltrated into Shuangji Town. , and also sent a small group of minions to deliver a token from King Lu, asking Zhang Yi to withdraw his troops immediately, saying that the leader of the bandits was accepting the recruitment.
At this time, Zhang Yi seemed to feel that he had been greatly insulted. With more than 10,000 troops, he could not wipe out two or three thousand bandits. If this spreads out, he will stop hanging around Qinglai Town!
In the evening of that day, the Zuoying soldiers arrived outside Shuangji Town and surrounded Shuangji Town.
"General, shall we attack tomorrow?"
Zhang Yi looked at the longing Shuangji Town. It seemed that the thieves were setting up defenses. They were obviously very panicked at the sudden attack of the new army. He could even faintly hear the shouts of many people, seeming to be shouting "run" and "hide". ” and other words.
"Attack now and try to capture Shuangji Town by nightfall!"
Shi Niuzhong said worriedly: "General, it will be dark in less than an hour. Time is too tight.
Is it to give the soldiers a breather? "
"Soldiers are expensive and quick!"
Zhang Yi said categorically: "When we attack tomorrow, the bandits will have enough time to set up their defenses. Now we need to take advantage of the bandits being caught off guard and launch an attack immediately!"
"yes!"
Not long after, the left and right parts of Zuoying launched at the same time, attacking Shuangji Town from the northwest and southeast respectively.
The central part of the left camp is a reserve force, holding the battle line to the west of Shuangji Town.
Jin Xuecheng and Shang Zili ordered the attack at the same time. The soldiers from the left and right formed formations and moved forward. Thousands of gunmen fired volleys to clear the way. The sword and shield men in the two groups kept throwing thunderbolts to block the big guns used by the thieves to block the road. Cars and rocks exploded, and then the spearmen from the two groups swarmed up and rushed into Shuangji Town.
Shuangji Town was originally just a place where merchants and goods gathered. It had a small population, only a few hundred households, but there were four official roads passing through it. Shuangji Town used to be a famous and prosperous place within a hundred miles radius, but now, hundreds of households in Shuangji Town have disappeared, replaced by more than two thousand thieves.
Soon, the sound of killing broke out in Shuangji Town. At this time, among the battalions of the New Army, only the Guards Battalion was equipped with bayonets and had begun to convert spearmen into gunners. The other battalions had not yet carried out the battle due to insufficient bayonet numbers. reform.
So at this time in the left camp, close combat still relied on spearmen to charge in formation. Most of the thieves were equipped with hatchets, wooden spears and other weapons. Among the more than two thousand thieves, there were more than a dozen bows and no armor at all.
This battle was destined to be a one-sided massacre. There was nothing fancy about the battle. After the Zuoying soldiers rushed into Shuangji Town, they formed a formation and moved forward. Soon, more than two thousand people were killed.
The thieves were surrounded and annihilated, and the leader of the thieves also died in the chaos.
Later, Zhang Yi led the central government to station in Shuangji Town and ordered soldiers from all ministries to search around, hoping to find surviving people. Unfortunately, the Zuoying soldiers searched inside and outside Shuangji Town for most of the night, but could not find a single surviving citizen.
"General, we have found King Lu's residence."
Zhang Yi and everyone immediately came to a house. From the outside, it looked very inconspicuous and could not be called luxurious. It was just like the houses of ordinary rural gentry.
But when everyone entered the house, they were all dumbfounded. There was no front yard or backyard at all. All the open space that could be used to build a house had been covered with houses. The Zuoying soldiers opened the doors one by one. After checking, all the houses in the courtyard were filled with neatly stacked silver boxes. Zhang Yi, Jin Xuecheng, Shi Niuzhong, Shang Zili and others looked at them all the way. , are all dumbfounded.
“Take inventory immediately!”
"yes."
"In addition, Shuangji Town was immediately sealed off, and Ye Bushou and his guards were sent out within ten miles of the perimeter. Not a single bandit was allowed to escape."
"Send people to clean the battlefield again. All the corpses of thieves and bandits will be killed and decapitated. No one will be left alive!"
"yes!"
Jin Xuecheng and Shang Zili went to do it separately. Shi Niuzhong asked: "General, should we report it to the general town now?"
"Well, you immediately send someone overnight."
"yes."
In the blink of an eye, at dawn, the silver in the house was counted. It was found that King Lu had more than 159,700 taels of silver stored here, as well as a large amount of silk, silk, jewelry and jade.
Zhang Yi gritted his teeth and said: "King Lu is really rich, he is really a rich man."
The meat-smelling road was so cold that bones were frozen to death. A vassal king was so rich, but the people outside were hungry and cold! "
At this time, the entire area around Shuangji Town had been sealed off, and none of the thieves were left alive. Several people gathered around Zhang Yi, and Jin Xuecheng asked: "General, are these goods transported to Qingzhou Fucheng overnight?"
Zhang Yi said: "It was transported overnight, so you have to work hard."
"yes."
A few days later, Qingzhou Fucheng, the General Military Mansion.
Liu Yan looked at the silver boxes lined up in the front yard and listened to the report from the guerrilla general Jin Xuecheng. He looked a little angry and said, "King Lu is greedy for money. This should be regarded as a lesson to King Lu. What's going on over there in Shuangji Town?" The aftermath?"
"Report to the main town. When my subordinates set out, General Zhang had already ordered the burning of Shuangji Town, and then prepared to report to King Lu, saying that the bandits failed to break out and set fire to Shuangji Town. Our army saw nothing."
"Well, well done."
Liu Yan said to Yue Ming, the Minister of Finance who was counting and checking: "After the counting is completed, all will be minted into silver coins and stored in the warehouse."
"yes!"
On the same day, Jin Xuecheng led his troops back to Yanzhou Prefecture and continued to follow Zhang Yi to encircle and suppress the bandits in the territory.
Liu Yan also continued to receive reports from Wang Yue and Chen Xun.
At this time, Liu Yan dispatched the front camp, rear camp, guard camp, and left camp to encircle and suppress the bandits in various prefectures. Except for Miao Shao, who had led his troops to wipe out all the bandits in Qingzhou Prefecture, and had led his troops to return to Qingzhou Prefecture to station, several others were still there. Leading the troops in combat.
The situation on Chen Xun's side is better. He is leading his troops to encircle and suppress a group of bandits in the mountains north of Laizhou Prefecture. This is also the last group of bandits in Laizhou Prefecture.
But Wang Yue was in some trouble. The thieves in Dengzhou Mansion were still in trouble.
There are some, and the larger ones include three groups. At present, Wang Yue has divided his troops to suppress them, and is preparing to pacify all parts of Dengzhou Prefecture within a month.
"In one month, everything in Qinglai Town will be basically stable. After that, it will be time to provide relief to the people and resume production."
Liu Yan looked at the official documents in his hand, but he couldn't feel happy in his heart.
Because just two days ago, Yan Jizu once again sent a letter asking for help, hoping that Liu Yan would send troops to raid Dongchang Mansion to relieve the pressure on Jinan Mansion.
But on the same day, Hong Chengchou also sent an urgent message on horseback, saying that this was a critical period of discussion between the DPRK and China, and Liu Yan must not act rashly to avoid being caught by the officials in the DPRK.
Liu Yan is naturally not afraid of those Yan Guan who can only yell, but behind the Yan Guan is the Donglin Party, which is the clean stream in the DPRK. This is a huge and intricate force. Even with Liu Yan's power at this time , and are unwilling to compete with it.
Therefore, Liu Yan thought over and over again and decided not to send troops for the time being. However, in order to win over Yan Jizu, Liu Yan ordered Xu Ming to lead the cavalry battalion to the north of Yanzhou Prefecture and set up camp at the junction of Yanzhou Prefecture and Dongchang Prefecture to intimidate the bandits in Dongchang Prefecture and force his troops to stop advancing towards Jinan Prefecture.
As for the effectiveness of this move, Liu Yan is not sure. After all, those bandits are mostly thieves from various places and victims of the disaster who cannot survive. They have no strategic concept at all. Maybe the arrival of the cavalry battalion will actually cause those bandits to swarm in. Jinan Prefecture.
"It all depends on God's will."
Liu Yan sighed, not knowing whether Yan Jizu could survive this disaster.
A few days later, Yan Jizu stood on the wall of Jinan City. At this time, there were already people outside the city.
Seventy to eighty thousand bandits gathered. Although most of them were agitated victims and only about 10,000 were bandits from all over the country, the momentum was terrifying enough.
At this time, there were only more than 700 people left in the Fubiao camp in the city. Yan Jizu temporarily recruited more than 8,000 young men to help defend the city. At the top of the city, the city defense was almost breached by an army of thieves.
Fortunately, those bandits lacked siege equipment and had no tactics. They just fought blindly in a swarm. This allowed Yan Jizu to deploy troops to demolish the east wall and make up for the west wall, and he persisted until now.
As a last resort, Yan Jizu had no choice but to ask for help from Liu Yan, and at the same time, he sent people to break out to the north and sent an urgent report to the capital: Jinan was in danger and the vassal king was about to fall!
Yan Jizu hoped to use the vassal king's safety to awaken the adults in the court and mobilize reinforcements as soon as possible.
"I hope it's not too late."
Yan Jizu said this in his heart, but his eyes revealed deep fear: The bandit army is about to attack again!
"Thanks to the book friends for their monthly tickets, Dongxian will continue to work hard."
