Xue Wangzu died, and he died with full despair, which made Xu Tong quite emotional.
He was touched by the personal loyalty of traditional scholar-bureaucrats, and heard that Xue Wangzu had achieved great political achievements in the county and had done many good deeds, so he ordered Xue Wangzu to be buried generously.
But things have reached this point, and it doesn't make any sense whether Xue Wangzu dies or not.
Because Qi Fang and his army were bound to be doomed, and the Southern Song Dynasty court's expedition had also failed.
Xu Tong did not feel that Zhao Yucheng could not achieve even a tie, so he won one draw and one victory. The peasant army once again withstood the Song army's attack and won.
Another crusade organized by the Southern Song Dynasty also failed and suffered heavy losses. The rear area was attacked by the peasant army, and the war potential was seriously damaged.
Can they still organize the next siege?
Xu Tong didn't know.
But Xu Tong has a temper.
There is no such thing as you being allowed to hit me but not me being allowed to hit you.
If you come to hit me, I must respond to you, lest you think I am easy to bully.
So Zhao Guanjia, I have to come and see you! Bring you some gifts!
After destroying Quzhou's treasury, Xu Tong continued to lead the motorized infantry, which was all mules and horses, toward the northeast, enjoying good food and drink all the way.
It was November 16, and on this day, Qi Fang's army was on the verge of collapse under the attack from the peasant army.
Qi Fang learned the news that the grain road was cut off on the first day of November. He was shocked and quickly blocked the news, then tried to find out the reason and led his troops to retreat.
The Nanfeng County Peasant Army was led by Zhou Qiang, the instructor of the Second Division. After he discovered that Qi Fang was preparing to retreat, he immediately guessed that Xu Tong's plan was likely to succeed, and Qi Fang's grain road had been destroyed.
So he decisively led his army in pursuit.
At this moment, Qi Fang's army only had five days of food reserves. He was anxious and sent elite troops to counterattack the peasant army. For a time, he stopped the peasant army's pursuit. However, then there were rumors in the army that the food route was cut off and the rear was destroyed, which caused chaos in the army. Qi Fang Despite efforts to suppress it, little results were achieved.
As food and grass continued to decrease, he was unable to control the army's collapse due to lack of food and grass. Seeing the army's collapse unstoppable, he could only take the lead in withdrawing north with a small number of personal guards, trying to leave here as soon as possible and seek refuge in a safe place. Take the chance of survival.
However, when he retreated to Nancheng County, he was attacked and surrounded by peasant troops who had prepared an ambush in advance.
He was surrounded on a small hill and relied on the desperate defense of the guards to survive. However, he had no food and no reinforcements, and had lost any possibility of escape.
The peasant army in Nanfeng County withstood the most arrogant and crazy period of the Song Army. After the collapse of the Song Army, the peasant army in Nanfeng County also rushed to attack bravely, regardless of casualties, and forced the Song Army under Qi Fang's command to death. Dragging life and death until collapse.
Not only that, they also pursued the remnants of the Song Army all the way to the vicinity of Nancheng County, surrounded the remnants of the Song Army in Nancheng County, and made dumplings for them.
On November 16, the Peasant Army launched a general offensive. The Song Army, which had retreated to the south of Nancheng County, collapsed with numerous casualties. The remainder surrendered, and the Peasant Army won a complete victory.
General Qi Fang tried to break out of the encirclement for the last time among the rebellious army.
He led the last one hundred or so guards to attack the Peasant Army's blockade, trying to break through a gap to survive, but the Peasant Army withstood his attack and did not let him rush out. After less than half an hour of fierce fighting, Qi Fang's men All soldiers died in battle.
Seeing that he was defeated like a mountain, Qi Fang was extremely desperate. Although he had the intention to kill himself to show his "loyalty", he suddenly remembered that he was originally a military thief and had rebelled against the Song Dynasty in his early years. Why should he be loyal to the Song Dynasty? Woolen cloth?
Just for that dead eunuch Zhao Gou?
What a joke!
So he chose to surrender, threw away his weapons, knelt on the ground and cried bitterly, begging the peasant army not to kill him.
The red-eyed peasant army hated this bastard who killed countless of their comrades. However, due to the discipline of the peasant army and the policy of the Renaissance Association, they did not take action. Instead, they arrested Qi Fang and prepared to wait for Xu Tong to return. Then hand it over to Xu Tong.
After Qi Fang's defeat and surrender, the Eastern Route Army of the Song Army's attack on the Peasant Army was completely defeated. Not only that, it also ended with the entire army being annihilated. At least 7,000 people were killed, and the rest were basically captured.
In order to win this battle, the Peasant Army also suffered heavy losses. After the war, the instructor of the Second Division Zhou Qiang did a little statistics and learned that the Second Division suffered a loss of more than 4,000 soldiers, and almost 4,000 people were left alive. People are wounded and exhausted.
Two brigade commanders and brigade instructors were killed, seven battalion commanders and battalion instructors were killed, and more than 20 junior officers were killed.
It can be said that the casualties were heavy.
However, Song Ting's losses will only be greater, because this matter is not over yet. Xu Tong is a grudge-bearing person. He said that he would bring some gifts to Zhao Guan's family, so he must bring some gifts to Zhao Guan's family.
He led his army to advance rapidly, first conquering Longyou County, then Lanxi County, and then turned southeast to attack Jinhua County, winning successive victories.
Jinhua County organized a certain amount of defense force because someone reported the news quickly, but this defense force was not enough. The peasant army captured the county seat in less than half a day.
The peasant army entered the county seat, killed the resisting Jinhua County magistrate, captured the Wuzhou governor, and then beheaded him.
After replenishing ordnance, food and vehicles, Xu Tong's subordinates shouted slogans of victory and demanded to continue attacking in the northeast direction. They had already boosted their morale and prestige, and did not take the weak prefectures and counties in the Song Dynasty into consideration. .
But Xu Tong made a decision that surprised them.
"This road is not easy to walk. Since the other side is on guard, they must have sent people back to report the news. If we continue to fight, we will encounter more and more resistance. The soldiers are very fast. We cannot stop and cannot fight with They are entangled, and this road has come to an end."
The subordinates were surprised and asked what to do next.
Xu Tong walked back and forth several times, looked at the map he had seized from the treasury of Jinhua Mansion, and pulled the captured local officials over for questioning, and quickly made a decision.
"Collect the ships, go north along the Lan River, capture Jiande in a surprise attack, then merge into the Zhejiang River, follow the Zhejiang River all the way to the northeast, pass Tonglu County, to Fuyang, and then go north to Lin'an."
Xu Tong punched the map with his fist, his eyes full of passion for progress.
"Guan Zhao's family must be waiting for us in Lin'an! How can we not go to Lin'an to say hello to him!"
Several instructors in the army slowly regained their composure from the fanatical passion, and one after another pointed out the dangers of this tactic to Xu Tong.
"Forget about other places, there are not many soldiers, but Lin'an is the imperial capital of the Southern Song Dynasty, and there must be a Forbidden Army. We only have a few thousand people. If we are entangled by the Forbidden Army, it will be troublesome. Whether we can come back is a question."
Xu Tong smiled.
"I know what you are saying, but I have to tell you that no one can stop us when we go all the way. It may be a little troublesome to come back, but what do we eat with the iron footboards we trained by running in the mountains? Isn't that right? For this?
Zhao Guan's family attacked us several times in a row just to kill us. You can swallow this breath, but I can't. Don't think too scary about the Southern Song Dynasty. Many times, how strong the enemy is depends on how afraid we are! "
With that said, Xu Tong got on his horse and laughed: "But I'm not afraid at all! Let's go! Let's go say hello to Zhao Guan's family! It's rude to come and not return!"
Xu Tong laughed loudly and galloped.
And his laughter obviously infected the peasant army soldiers around him.
They were filled with pride and followed Xu Tong's pace one after another, and no longer had any fear of the Southern Song Dynasty in their hearts.
So in an instant, the world was wide!
Xu Tong led the army to collect many ships from the Jinhua County area. There were soldiers in the army who could operate the ships, so he took the soldiers on board and headed north along the direction of Lanxi and entered the boundary of Yanzhou.
The junction of Lanxi River and Zhejiang River is Jiande County, the capital of Yanzhou, and the current governor of Yanzhou is Tang Situi, the former prime minister of the Song Dynasty.
Tang Si, who once held the power of prime minister, had also experienced several ups and downs in his career, so he didn't care too much about being reprimanded.
In his opinion, this was the rule of the political game in the Song Dynasty. There were only a few ups and downs, and he was embarrassed to say that he had been a prime minister. How could a prime minister have not experienced ups and downs?
Such a high status and such power will certainly arouse envy, jealousy and hatred. Just as Tang Sidei once defeated Zhang Jun, it is not strange for Zhang Jun to defeat him in turn.
So when he was forced to quasi-retire, he remembered Zhang Jun's quasi-retirement, so he returned to his hometown to recuperate, entertain his grandchildren, read and write, and wait for his recovery.
