[The Central Army will be defeated at the first touch]
Although the transfer order was issued, the efficiency of the bandit suppression work was still very worrying.
The main components of the so-called official army are local armies, that is, the armies of the vassal and town areas ordered by the central government, such as the Huainan Army and the Zhenhai Army mentioned earlier, as well as a small number of Tibetan soldiers, such as Shatuo, Tuhun and other tribes.
After receiving the mobilization order, the local vassal towns must mobilize and assemble their own troops, and then the generals will lead the troops to report to the agreed gathering place. As for the allocation and transportation of grain and grass baggage, it was also subcontracted and coordinated by various local vassals and towns.
Therefore, before the assembly is completed, the commander-in-chief is often in an embarrassing situation, and many of them are mere commanders. The "master of all Taoism" and the "hundreds of thousands of troops" often remain on paper.
For example, Kang Chengxun, the commander-in-chief of Xuzhou's anti-bandit campaign, is currently stationed in Xinxing (today's north of Woyang County, Anhui Province), with only about 10,000 troops around him. This is the main force in suppressing bandits, Army Group Center.
To the east of him is Liuzi Village guarded by Yao Zhou, one of the "Four Dogs of First Righteousness".
After discovering Kang Chengxun's falsehood, Yao Zhou decisively broke away from the group. Kang Chengxun was forced to retreat and retreated to Songzhou (now Shangqiu City, Henan Province), where he continued to wait for his troops.
The main force and backbone of the bandit suppression force collapsed at the first touch and was vulnerable to a single blow.
Pang Xun was overjoyed. It seemed that the so-called imperial court was just a paper tiger, a powerful one but a weak one. So Pang Xun dispatched his generals to attack Shuzhou and Luzhou in the south, and invade Yizhou and Haizhou in the north, conquering Shuyang, Xiacai, Wujiang, Chaoxian, Chuzhou, and Hezhou...
The thieves are wreaking havoc, as if they are in an uninhabited land. Today, prefectures, cities, counties in Anhui, Jiangsu, Shandong and other places have fallen into the hands of thieves.
Almost all the areas north of the Huaihe River fell. Pang Xun's claws even extended to the south of the Huaihe River, and a large area of land on the south bank of the Huaihe River fell into the hands of thieves.
Sizhou City was deeply trapped in the hinterland of the rebel army, with all water and land transportation cut off, making it completely an isolated city. The food supply in the city was almost cut off. "When the food is exhausted, people eat thin porridge."
If this continues, all the soldiers and civilians in Sizhou City will starve to death.
At the critical moment, Xin Tan took the initiative to ask for help again, willing to move to Huainan and Zhenhai to recruit reinforcements.
After the thief general Wu Jiong was frustrated in successive sieges, he also changed his siege strategy and adopted siege tactics to trap Sizhou to death. He then set up roadblocks and trenches on land, buried iron cables in the waterways, and surrounded Sizhou City like an iron barrel.
Xin Tan can no longer be a lone hero. He recruited ten men who dared to die, armed with big axes, driving a small boat, cutting the iron ropes in the water under the cover of night, and forcibly breaking through.
After daybreak, the rebels discovered Xin Tan's traces, so they sent warships to intercept him in front, and sent 5,000 infantrymen to chase him from behind along the river bank.
The thieves' warships were huge, deep-drafted, and inflexible. Relying on their skilled driving skills and unswerving faith, Xin Chen and his ten-man death squad took advantage of the lightness and flexibility of the boat to deal with the pirate ship, swerving and moving, fighting and walking, fighting hard for thirty miles, and finally succeeded in breaking through. .
Four days later, Xin Tan arrived in Yangzhou and met with Huainan Jiedu envoy Linghu Gui. The next day, he arrived in Runzhou and met with Zhenhai Jiedu envoy Du Shenquan.
At that time, the bandit army was raging on both sides of the Huaihe River, and Sizhou was blocked and no news came out for a long time, so people thought that Sizhou had fallen.
Xin Chen and his death squads, like the dove of peace that appeared on Noah's Ark with an olive branch in its mouth, appeared in the public eye, announcing an exciting news: Sizhou is still there! Xin Chen used practical actions to strengthen everyone's belief in fighting against the bandits.
Not long ago, the 4,000 reinforcements of Zhenhai Navy were destroyed by the regiment on the south bank of the Huaihe River. Now, Du Shenquan, the governor of Jiedu, sent another 2,000 soldiers and promptly allocated 5,000 dendrobiums of rice and 500 dendrobiums of salt to relieve the urgent need and rush to help Si. Zhoucheng.
【Southern Route Army, a flash in the pan】
Dai Keshi, commander of the due south front army, assembled an army of 30,000 troops and approached the Huaihe River. It brought hope of victory to the people on the south bank of the Huaihe River.
The battle plan formulated by Dai Keshi was: first retake Huaikou, control the waterways of Si River and Huaihe River, and then relieve the siege of Sizhou.
From Huaikou to the west along the Huai River, the siege of Sizhou can be solved; along the Si River to the north, one can penetrate directly into Xuzhou and dig out Pang Xun's heart. The plan seemed perfect, but there was a problem: no matter whether it was going west or north, it was all against the current.
Dai Keshi is known as the "Wolf Commander", he is brave and bloodthirsty, and has quite a reputation.
When the bandit army heard that Dai Keshi was leading his army, they immediately gave up their stronghold south of the Huaihe River and retreated without a fight.
According to the plan, Dai Keshi led his troops to Huaikou. There are still a small number of bandit soldiers in Duliang City on the south bank who will not have time to escape. The bandits and soldiers knelt at the top of the city, kowtowed like chickens rushing to break rice, and begged the commander for some time so that they could prepare and leave the city to surrender.
In order to show the court's mercy and generosity, Dai Keshi immediately ordered a retreat of five miles to give the rebels enough time to surrender calmly and decently.
There is a river to the north of Duliang City, so Dai Keshi surrounded it on three sides five miles away, hoping that the enemy would have no escape.
At dawn the next day, Dai Koshi was surprised to find that Duliang City had long been an empty city, with only a few sick old ladies in the city. It turned out that the creek to the north was only up to the waist and the bandit army had already waded into the water to escape last night.
Dai Keshi underestimated the enemy and did not arrange any investigators after entering Duliang City, as if the bandits would just flee.
The next day, heavy fog fell and visibility was extremely low. Dai Keshi calculated with his fingers that it was not good for him to leave. The Huaihe River is wide and forms a T-junction with Sishui. In addition, the heavy fog makes it difficult to discern the direction, so the military operation to recapture Huaikou was postponed.
Dai Keshi's entire army was relaxed and prepared to take advantage of the foggy weather to rest and wait for the fog to dissipate before making plans.
Dai Keshi was very drunk, but suddenly countless thieves appeared in the heavy fog and rushed to Liangcheng.
The Southern Route Army was unprepared and collapsed at the first touch. Countless people were squeezed into the Huai River and trampled on each other, and countless soldiers were squeezed into the Huaihe River and drowned...
Of the 30,000-strong army, more than 29,000 died, and only a few hundred people escaped alive. Among the hundreds of survivors, not including Dai Keshi, his supervisory eunuchs, and generals, they were all killed, their heads cut off, and sent to Xuzhou to report their merits and receive rewards.
All the grain, grass, weapons and baggage, armor and horses carried by the Southern Route Army fell into the hands of the enemy.
The thieves are victorious!
The person who commanded the complete annihilation of the Southern Route Army was Wang Hongli, one of the "Five Tiger Thief Generals".
Wang Hongli was very lucky. At the beginning of his campaign, he received the task of attacking Haozhou. Kaicheng, the governor of Haozhou, surrendered and occupied Haozhou without spending a single soldier. However, his close comrade-in-arms, Li Yuan, encountered an enemy in Sizhou. Resist tenaciously. Subsequently, Wang Hongli was sent to Sizhou for support by Pang Xun. Not long after his arrival, he completely annihilated the imperial court's South Road Group Army and gained a lot. He even directly killed the commander-in-chief of the group army, "Wolf Commander" Dai Keshi.
Immediately afterwards, Wang Hongli used Huaikou as a seesaw, headed westward up the Huaihe River, and took advantage of the victory to attack Shouzhou. This is the temporary residence of Wang Yanquan of the North Route Army. Wang Yanquan was also caught off guard and was defeated one after another.
Shouzhou was a water transportation transit station for the imperial court's southeastern tribute and was also a hub for business, travel and trade. At this point, the rebel army completely cut off the tribute from the southeast and blocked the north-south trade routes.
Wang Hongli became the most famous general among Xu thieves.
The bandits also regained control of the areas on both sides of the Huaihe River.
Dai Keshi died, but his arrogant spirit did not die, nor did his arrogant soul that underestimated the enemy. They soon found new hosts, Wang Hongli and Pang Xun, and they would soon make the same mistakes again.
