Summer will be over in a blink of an eye. That day, Li Dan had just returned to the small house where he worked as a pledge house. He saw Li Biao, who had just sent Sanlang back to Wannian, and had come back after a long journey. He stood up with a smile and said, "Defense, do you think who is here with me? "
"Master Han, Mr. Zhu, why are you two here?" Li Dan went up to greet him in surprise.
"I have some things to discuss and communicate with Sanlang, so I came here. I didn't want to meet A Biao at the contact point of Wannian." Zhu Qing explained with a smile.
"How are you, Master?" Li Dan asked them to sit down and said to Han An: "We have been out for two months and saw that the autumn wind will rise in a few days. But for some reason, even Shangrao has relieved the siege, but the government has not dismissed the people. There's nothing important for me to do while I'm languishing here.
Only the day before yesterday we sent a team of civilians to transport some ordnance to Guixi. Is everything okay at home? How is Yu Gan doing? "
He asked a series of questions happily, but Han An pressed his hand down and said, "Sanlang, Yu Gan's situation is not good. The two of us are actually entrusted by the county magistrate to come to see you, it's really..." "
"Ah?" Li Dan was stunned: "Why, what happened to Yu Gan?"
Ever since he crossed Tianzhu Mountain to the west, General Yang He of Guiyi seemed to be in a state of change and started to shake!
When he suddenly appeared in Luxi County in broad daylight, everyone was stunned. The officials even forgot about escaping, and just watched as his subordinates walked into the court and took away the county magistrate's seal.
Now he became more courageous, and immediately sent his general Feng Zicai to lead a thousand men back. Under the guidance of several local miners who were familiar with the route, he took the Ma Tou Mountain Trail and captured Guangze County without any blood.
Although Guangzhi is only a hundred miles away from Shaowu (the governor of Jianchang Prefecture), half a month later, Shaowu was still ignorant of the unknown, giving Yang He time to quietly expand his territory, collect grain, and recruit troops.
The government's carelessness gave Yang He a chance to rest and breathe at the junction of the two governments.
Not only did he seize a large amount of grain that would not be transported in the future from the warehouses and several large grain merchants in the occupied counties, he also recruited more than 3,000 miners and prisoners from the two places to join his gang, and he even obtained cloth from nowhere to provide for himself. The troops uniformly put on summer clothes with reddish-brown trousers and jackets, and were known as the Heshan Army (a homophony of the word "Brown Mountain").
After Guangzhi was successfully obtained, Yang He, who had been chased by the Fujian army and lost his temper, straightened up. He handed over three generals to his son Yang Xing and allocated 7,000 main troops to him to attack Fuzhou.
As a result, Xiao Yangshuai lived up to his high expectations and captured Jinxi as soon as he went out. Then he ducked in front of the Linchuan Gate of Zhouzhi, turned around and captured Dongxiang.
When the Dongxiang County magistrate was escaping, he panicked and fell into the swamp. Yan Yan was fished out by Yang Xing's men. This is how Li Su learned from the third master Li Yan the whole story of the bandit army's occupation of Dongxiang.
Now he was very obedient. Fuzhou's urgent documents were delivered by express delivery to Jiangxi Chengxuan Si Yamen in Nanchang three times a day, which made Yang Tao, the leftist chief minister, jump to his feet with anger.
He is the elder brother of Ge Lao Yang Zhen. In less than three months after taking office, he encountered emergencies from Shangrao and Fuzhou one after another. For a while, he didn't know how to deal with them.
Previously, Yang Tao had been working in the Ministry of Rites and the Ministry of Household Affairs. He never thought that it would be easy to get a "fat job", but it turned out to be a hot potato!
This is no wonder Yang Zhen. Sitting in the garden of the capital, he couldn't predict the day when Lou Zishi would raise troops. He really didn't expect such a situation to occur.
However, since he is in his position, he needs to plan his political affairs. After being reminded by his staff, Yang Tao quickly found the capital commander Gao Chu and asked him to send an urgent document to notify the large troops reinforcing Shangrao to turn around immediately.
When the messenger caught up with the army, they were almost at Yingtan, which meant that they were only three and a half days away from Guixi in Guangxin Prefecture.
Qiu Tianlu, a fellow commander, was so angry that his nose was twisted when he saw this unreasonable order, but he had no choice but to carry out the order.
The front team changed to the rear team, and the ten thousand people hurried back and rushed to Anren County, preparing to cross the Jinjiang River from here (the section from Yingtan to Yugan of the Xinjiang River is commonly known as Jinjiang, just like the section from Geyang to Shangrao is called Geyang River ) and then recapture Dongxiang.
But there was a little hiccup here.
The county seat of Anren County is in Xing'an Town. It was founded in the first year of Duangong in the Northern Song Dynasty (988). At the end of the former dynasty, Xu Shouhui's general Xiang Pulu was captured when he attacked Raozhou Road.
After being destroyed, the city walls and gates were rebuilt in the early years of this dynasty, so that the people could gather in peace and gradually thrive.
Therefore, the population is still small to this day, with a total of more than 19,000 Dingkou in the county. It borders the Yingtan Inspection Department and Guixi County from Tieguan Ridge to the east, faces Dongxiang across the Baita River in the west, and borders Fuzhou in the south. Jinxi County, reaching Yuganhuangbu in the north, can be described as a vast area with sparsely populated areas.
Although this place is the hub of water and land transportation between the north and the south, it is only a small county with a city wall of about four miles in circumference. Therefore, there is only a magistrate (a magistrate in a large county is called a county magistrate) and no county magistrate.
This county magistrate was sent down just after the end of Guanzheng. He was young and inexperienced, so he focused on listening to the opinions of the county registrar on many matters. The chief bookkeeper, Gong Xiao, was born into a local wealthy family, and his family was the largest landowner in Huangxi Town.
Qiu Tianlu led his troops to Anren. He entered through Yunjin Gate in the southwest and stationed his own soldiers and part of his troops on the campus inside the gate. Most of them were along the south gate (Gexun Gate), Yunjin Gate, and Xingxian Gate ( Camp near the city wall near the Confucian Temple).
In the evening, I walked through Academy Street to the county government office located in the southeast of the city to attend a banquet hosted by the magistrate. During the dinner, we talked about crossing the river and the need for the county to dispatch boats and boatmen.
It turns out that there are usually two ways to cross the Anren River: go out of the North Gate (Gongji Gate) and cross the Jinfeng Bridge, get on the boat from Lijia Bay and go down the river to Jiangfang or Meigang. The North Road is the fastest way to cross the river. Detoured far away.
The second option is to get on the boat at Shigang, disembark at the opposite ferry, then pass through Huangxi Town and then cross the Baita River.
The Palace Master was afraid that his army would trample his crops and ruin the autumn harvest when he crossed the border, so he immediately said that it would be better to directly mobilize the merchant ships at the docks outside Mengjin Gate (Southwest Gate) and Guanlan Gate (West Gate) and let them connect the ships side by side. Build pontoons directly on both sides of Tazhou (a sandbank formed by alluvial erosion) in the middle of the river, and then go to Weizhou Ferry to cross the Baita River. In this way, the team does not have to go back south to Shigang and can cross the river nearby, and use pontoons instead of boats. Much faster.
He said this, but the calculation in his heart was that this way, the army would not need to pass through most of his own fields, thus avoiding losses to the greatest extent.
However, this good strategy was actually adopted by General Qiu, who asked the county to make preparations immediately to cross the river with an army within three days!
The county was in a hurry to requisition ships and timber. How could Yang Xing hide such news? He was not in a hurry, and ordered Yan Yan to repair the city walls and gates urgently, shouting the slogan "Oath to fight to the death with the army at the foot of Dongxiang City."
The Dongxiang city wall is made of rammed earth, which is about one foot high and seven feet wide. Because it had been in disrepair for so long that some of the battlements were missing, it was reasonable to build the city wall.
After Qiu Tianlu heard about it, he believed that the enemy was indeed going to fight to the death. He also held a meeting to arrange how the officers and soldiers would besiege the city and launch an attack under Dongxiang City, while waiting for the completion of the pontoon bridge.
The young magistrate was very sincere in his work. He came to report in the evening of the next day that the pontoon bridge had been built and the planks were laid out during the night. The army could cross the river early the next morning. Qiu Tianlu was very happy and even praised him.
They didn't know that on that night, Yang Xing led his team to take control of the newly built Weizhou Ferry pontoon, and then marched overnight to Huangxi Town to ambush them. Originally, he thought that the army would cross the river from Shigang, and planned to attack halfway across the river.
But that night at Weizhou Ferry, he heard reports from sentry detectives that a pontoon bridge was being built on the downstream side of Tazhou, so Yang Xing instead carried out a side attack on the army brigade, and sent another unit to outflank and seize the Tazhou pontoon bridge, cutting off the army's return to Anren. retreat.
The next day, when Qiu Tianlu led a large force of officers and soldiers toward Weizhou Ferry, Yang Xing's men suddenly burst out of the fog, and the officers and soldiers were suddenly cut into several sections without warning.
Qiu Tianlu hurriedly ordered to return to the pontoon, but he didn't expect that Yan Yan and his troops had already occupied the ferry. Hundreds of people even rushed to Tazhou, killing the police officers and militiamen on the scene to pieces. With no way out, we had no choice but to escape. ap.
Qiu Tianlu led the defeated army to fight and retreat. Unexpectedly, the defeated army behind them suddenly shouted. It turned out that everyone had arrived at an area surrounded by water on three sides, and there was no way out...
At the end of the day, even the water flowing into the Xinjiang River from the nearby rice fields is said to be red. With no way to go, the officers and soldiers had no choice but to return and fight to the death. However, their loss of organization and unfavorable terrain put them at a disadvantage.
When Qiu Tianlu's body collapsed on the pile of corpses of his guards,
, the battle gradually ended.
Ten thousand officers and soldiers, the elite soldiers who came out of Nanchang City, except for more than 300 who were captured and 200 who were good at swimming to Zhongzhou to escape, all fell on this land!
Led by the commander Qiu Tianlu, one deputy general, two staff generals, two guerrillas, and six thousand generals were all killed.
For Yang Xing, this was a tragic victory. He paid for it with the loss of 3,000 people, which was almost half of the number of people who participated in the battle, and many of them were experienced soldiers!
But no one expected the impact of this battle. Soon after hearing the news, more than 5,000 people from all over the country rushed to Jinxi and Dongxiang to join Yang Xing's troops. The combat effectiveness was not as good as before, but at least he was not reduced in numbers. increase.
This was a disaster for Nanchang and the imperial court, because one of Jiangxi's most elite mobile forces was gone.
Yang Shizhen, who was seriously ill, was so angry that he died that night after listening to his brother Yang Shi'an, the left minister of the Ministry of War, read the battle report. Two days later, censure and criticism flew to the cabinet. Yang Zhen was helpless and had to take the blame and submit his resignation.
The emperor did not find it difficult for him. After more than two months, he ordered Yang Zhen to be reinstated as a bachelor of the Hanlin Academy in the Deqing Pavilion and still lead the cabinet, saying, "Since there is no better candidate, we should give top priority to state affairs." However, he was not reinstated to his political position in the inner academy.
At the same time, the emperor issued an edict severely reprimanding Yang Tao, demoting him one level and keeping him in office to see the consequences.
On the other hand, the decree also concerned about the safety of King Peng in Nanchang City, and specifically ordered the Nankang Prefecture to dispatch 2,500 Jianchang Right Guards to Nanchang to strengthen the guard.
This battle caused Nanchang to lose an important field army, and the army had to shrink its front line. Shaowu, Jianchang, Fuzhou, and Nanchang were under martial law.
But Yang Xing did not attack Fuzhou immediately, but calmly occupied Anren County, whose morale was shattered, and then his sentry cavalry began to poke their heads in Huangbu.
This is why Han An and Zhu Qing did not take the road of Anren, Yingtan and Guixi, but took a detour of ten thousand years to Geyang and met Li Biao.
However, this was not the reason why County Magistrate Yugan asked them to come to Li Dan.
The reason is that the result of this battle inspired all the forces that are and are trying to rebel. The iron ore and coal mines in the mountains of Huangbai and Dexing have exploded, and the lake bandits are also ready to move.
A large number of officers and soldiers received orders to retreat to Poyang City, the prefecture of Raozhou, but Yu Gan never saw even a hundred-man reinforcements.
The county magistrate was worried all day long, so he sent his staff to Xiaoxiaochang. He hesitated, hoping that they would send someone to look for Li Sanlang and ask him if he could try to go back first.
Li Dan thought that his aunt was sick, or that the eldest brother, the third wife, and the Gao family (the second wife's wife, Li Mu's widow) were causing trouble again, but he didn't expect that Fan Xianzun wanted to go back by himself after the quarrel for a long time.
He didn't understand until Han An and the others finished talking. It seemed that Fan Xianzun was frightened by Yang He and Yang Xing's father and son's occupation of Anren.
It's no wonder that Anren is only a few days away from Yugan. In this era, it feels like a neighbor on the other side. There is a thief at the opposite door. How can I not be anxious while sitting at home?
Li Dan suddenly remembered something and quickly asked Zhao Jingzi to send a response team to Guixi and Yingtan to find and bring back Jia Mingjiu and others.
He probably found that Anren couldn't get through, and the team that retreated early was in a dilemma!
"This is Fan Taizun's letter to you." After opening the bag, Zhu Qing took out an envelope and handed it over, saying, "I heard that Fan Taizun can't eat or sleep every day. He's scared every day. He's afraid that one day the city gate will open. The rebels are forming formation outside the city."
"Isn't that true?" Li Dan laughed out loud at what he said. Seeing that he didn't look like he was joking, he turned his face and asked Han An: "Sir, is the situation already so bad?"
"Brother Dan, the thieves have already appeared in Huangbu. They are only more than sixty miles away from the White Horse Temple. Do you think this situation is bad?" Han An smiled bitterly and said to Li Dan, whose expression changed:
"Now the county is really in shock. Even if anyone yells in Dongcheng, it will cause a huge panic."
"White Horse Temple?" Gu Da and Yang Yi, who came here specially after hearing that Han An and Zhu Qing came, both gasped.
Mouth is cold.
"Sanlang, the manor we bought is in Baima Temple, we can't let them destroy it!" Yang Yi immediately reminded. He was in charge of managing the manor, so of course he didn't want to see it being harmed by thieves.
"Here, we can wait until the autumn harvest, and we agreed with the great monk that we can use the rice to pay for the money..." He murmured softly.
Li Dan hugged his shoulders and said nothing, then stood up and motioned to Mao Zaidi: "Bring me the atlas (map) of the whole territory of Jiangxi."
These words attracted Han An's attention, because not everyone in any era had a map in their hands. At most, they just relied on their brains to remember a rough route from where to go.
Therefore, people who know the way are also talents, and good guides will be eagerly hired by caravans and travelers. Li Dan actually has a map of the entire Jiangxi Province. This is not an ordinary or simple thing!
"Brother Dan, where did this picture come from?"
Han An saw Mao Zaidi pull out a large picture and put it on a wooden shelf with bamboo clips. He walked over and took a closer look and found that the picture was made of several small-sized rice papers. A new piece of paper was pasted on Shangrao's place. , obviously painted in more detail than elsewhere.
"This place is carefully drawn because you have been there, right? What do the symbols marked here in Shangrao mean?" he asked.
"There are more detailed maps around Shangrao. These are Arabian numbers. Jia03 is the third map of "A". The detailed map of Shangrao is found. Ge Yang is Jia02. They are all for finding It's a convenient mark." Mao Zaidi introduced proudly.
"This method was invented by Zhao Xianfu, and it is very convenient to use." Li Dan smiled and said, "Sir, I just asked where this picture came from. The original picture is in Guangxin Garrison.
After we found out, we made a copy first, then scaled it up to look like this and then spliced it together. Because the original map is too simple, many villages, towns, passes, and roads are not marked. Contents can be added at any time after enlarging the map. "
As he spoke, he leaned over (because there was not enough light in the room) and took a closer look. He pondered for a moment, then waved and said, "Sir, Lao Gu, Brother Yi, come and see, this Anren location is very good!"
"Anren?" Several people came up to look at it, and Yang Yi asked, "Sanlang, are you referring to its convenient transportation?"
"Of course it goes without saying that Anren is an important road between the north and the south!" After several days of fighting, Gu Da also started to learn to read maps and knew what an "important road" was.
