Chapter 1438: Rebellion in Jiaozhou
Seeing Sun Jian retreating without a fight, Liu Xiu was relieved. After all, Jingnan was also not suitable for a war.
The four counties in Jingnan have just received barbarian population replenishment, which is a great opportunity to concentrate on development. At this moment, fighting Sun Jian will only lead to losses for both sides even if they win.
Therefore, Sun Jian took the initiative to stop fighting, which was in line with Liu Xiu's wishes, but he also knew that Sun Jian would never give up Lujiang County, and there would be a war between the two families in the future.
Jiangdong is much richer than Jingnan. Of course Liu Xiu also wants to occupy Jiangdong, but he also knows that it is extremely difficult to occupy Jiangdong with only the four counties of Jingnan. But if Jiaozhou is unified, he can use Jiaozhou and In both directions of the Lujiang River, he sent troops to attack Jiangdong, allowing Sun Jian to take care of the head but not the tail. It would be much easier to occupy Jiangdong in this way.
In order to achieve his strategic goal of fully occupying the south of the Yangtze River, Liu Xiu took a defensive position in Lujiang in the east and Nanjun in the north. While cultivating himself internally to accumulate strength, he also collected intelligence on Jiaozhou and alienated its officials. He used all means to prepare for the capture of Jiaozhou. Prepare.
A year later, Jingnan initially digested the Wuling barbarians and the new Lujiang County, and ushered in great rule. Liu Xiu took advantage of this to expand his army to 150,000.
At the same time, changes occurred in Jiaozhou, and Shi Xie, the prefect of Jiaozhi, raised troops to rebel against Hong Xiuquan.
After Hong Xiuquan led his army into Jiaozhou, he relied on Yang Xiuqing, Shi Dakai, and Li Xiucheng, three famous generals during the Yellow Turban period. Although Hong Xiuquan used absolute force to suppress all opposition to his taking over, he only occupied the territory. Although they occupied most of Jiaozhou, they did not completely occupy the entire Jiaozhou.
Of the seven counties and 57 counties in Jiaozhou, Hong Xiuquan only occupied the four counties of Nanhai, Cangwu, Yulin, and Hepu, and most of Jiaozhi County. The remaining half of Jiaozhi County, as well as the two counties of Jiuzhen and Rinan, were occupied by The original Han forces headed by Shi Xie, the prefect of Jiaozhi, took over.
At first, Hong Xiuquan defeated the local Han forces in Jiaozhou and drove them all to the remote and impoverished south. He originally wanted to annex the remaining forces in one fell swoop, but at this time the Baiyue ethnic groups in Jiaozhou launched a rebellion together.
In desperation, Hong Xiuquan could only temporarily bypass Shi Xie and turn his guns to suppress the Baiyue rebellion. On the way to suppress the Baiyue rebellion, the Han forces headed by Shi Xie surrendered.
At that time, Hong Xiuquan was busy suppressing Baiyue and had no time to talk to Shi Xie, so he naturally accepted his surrender.
After suppressing Baiyue, Shi Xie's behavior has always been very submissive, and he will do whatever Hong Xiuquan says.
At that time, Hong Xiuquan's trustworthiness had not yet been wiped out. Seeing Shi Xie being so obedient, he thought he had completely surrendered and wanted Shi Xie to set a good example by surrendering. He did not settle the accounts after the fall, and still retained Shi Xie's military and political autonomy, but He nominally accepted the allegiance of Shi Xie and other Han officials.
Later, Hong Xiuquan personally led the Northern Expedition to Jingzhou. Not only did he not win, but he was defeated miserably. Even his sister was snatched away by Lu Bu.
After this battle, Hong Xiuquan's ambitions gradually disappeared, and he never mentioned the matter of going north to the Central Plains. He indulged in drinking and sex all day long, and naturally he couldn't care less about Shi Xie.
Although Liu Xiu's actions against Jiaozhou were secretive, it was impossible to completely hide them from Hong Xiuquan.
When he learned that his neighbor to the north, Liu Xiu, was coveting his territory, and that his total military strength was 150,000, this greatly aroused Hong Xiuquan's sense of crisis.
Although Hong Xiuquan no longer had the ambition to continue the war, he still wanted to guard his one-third acre of land and become a local overlord.
But when he learned that Liu Xiu was so powerful and was ready to attack him, Hong Xiuquan was naturally on pins and needles.
Hong Xiuquan finally stopped enjoying himself decadently. He tried every means to increase his strength to resist Liu Xiu's invasion soon and to protect himself. The fastest way was naturally to completely annex Shi Xie. After all, Shi Xie had ready-made troops.
The reason why Shi Xie surrendered to Hong Xiuquan was to nominally submit to him, just so that he could retain the right to autonomy. Now that Hong Xiuquan wants Shi Xie to hand over his military power, it is like directly grabbing Shi Xie by the throat. How can Shi Xie be willing to do it?
After several fruitless negotiations, Shi Xie chose a drastic approach and directly raised troops to fight against the flood.
Shi Xie, who had a military force in Jiaozhou, was naturally one of Liu Xiu's targets.
Shi Xie also knew that relying solely on his own troops to fight against Hong Xiuquan was a mantis-like challenge. Only when another force intervened and completely muddied the situation in Jiaozhou could he have another chance of survival.
So Shixie agreed to Liu Xiu's solicitation and formed an alliance with him, agreeing to divide Jiaozhou equally after defeating Hong Xiuquan.
You Shixie went forward to attract the main force of the Taiping Army, and as expected, most of the Taiping Army was lured over. Liu Xiu took advantage of the opportunity to personally lead the army into Jiaozhou.
Although Liu Xiu wanted to capture the entire territory of Jiaozhou as soon as possible, he did not dare to take away too many troops. After all, there were many princes around who coveted his territory. He did not want to gain Jiaozhou but lose Jingnan.
Therefore, to be on the safe side, Liu Xiu only led 50,000 troops into Jiaozhou, leaving 100,000 troops to guard various places.
Since the main force of the Taiping Army was attracted by Shi Xie, after Liu Xiu led his army into Jiaozhou, he did not encounter much resistance and occupied 6 counties in Yulin County with almost no casualties.
Liu Xiu's 50,000-strong army attacked Jiaozhou and captured half of Yulin County. This naturally frightened Hong Xiuquan.
Hong Xiuquan immediately ordered Yang Xiuqing and Li Xiucheng to lead 30,000 Taiping troops and 30,000 Taiping troops composed of hundreds of Yue ethnic groups to quickly return to resist Liu Xiu's invasion. At the same time, Shi Dakai continued to lead the army to suppress Shi Xie.
In order to avoid being flanked by Liu Xiu and Shi Xie, Hong Xiuquan's Taiping Army could only choose to fight on two fronts, which was undoubtedly extremely dangerous. A slight mistake could lead to the defeat of both fronts.
It will take time for Yang Xiuqing's army to return for reinforcements, and it will also take time for Shi Dakai to suppress Shi Xie. The Taiping Army must seize the time to race against time.
At this time, Hong Xiuquan's younger brother Hong Ren took the initiative to ask for orders to persuade Sun Jian to send troops to attack Jingnan to force Liu Xiu to withdraw.
After Hong Ren arrived in Jiangdong, he stated his interests to Sun Jian. Sun Jian deeply hated Liu Xiu for taking Lujiang, so he could not watch Liu Xiu capture Jiaozhou, so he sent 60,000 troops to attack Lujiang County.
After persuading Sun Jian, Hong Ren rushed to Jiangxia County without stopping, and persuaded Huang Zu to also send troops together. Huang Zu led his son Huang Xie to lead an army of 30,000 to attack the Changsha army.
Afterwards, Hong Ren prepared to go to persuade Yue Fei, but before anyone else arrived in Xiangyang, Yue Fei had already taken the initiative to get involved and personally led an army of 70,000 to capture Nanjun.
While Qin Hao was recuperating, although Qin Hao didn't want to start a war lightly, he also didn't want Liu Xiu to occupy Jiaozhou, so it was inevitable to directly send troops to stop him.
Yue Fei's attack on Nanjun was also the only battle fought by the Qin army after two years of training, and it was at the end of the two-year training period.
