The envoy who came to the imperial camp to report was named Wang Yu. He was a military officer under Zhao Hui and was in charge of the Shaanzhou soldiers and horses. The horse's face was full of stubble, which was very eye-catching, and the wind of marching was very strong. Faced with Liu Chengyou's inquiry, he very ably reported the battle situation in the river, which was almost the same as the battle report.
What is written in the military newspaper is concise in description, focusing on results and omitting the process. Basically, Zhou Hui led the Xiaodi Army to advance towards Hedong City, unable to attack the city, and launched a sudden counterattack for the defenders in the city. The officers and soldiers could not stop them for a while. He Hui and Fan Aineng, the commanders of the second and fifth armies on the right side of the small bottom, fled timidly before the battle. This led to chaos and the entire army was defeated. Yang Ye led the Tong'an army to support them, and the defeat was stopped. Xiaodi's army lost more than 1,300 soldiers.
In the battle report, many aspects, especially regarding the antecedents, were unclear. It seemed that all the blame was placed on the army commander He Hui.
Liu Chengyou noticed something wrong in the military report at a glance, stared directly at Wang Yu, his eyes seemed to be releasing a brilliant light, and asked: "Who asked the Xiaodi Army to attack the city alone?"
Unknowingly, Liu Chengyou's aura was strong enough. Wang Yu subconsciously lowered his head and replied in a loud voice: "The rebels have withdrawn from Fenglingjin to the north, and our army has crossed north. After the military discussion beforehand, Baidu's deployment decided to take a temporary rest. , the commander of Zhoudu decided to take advantage of the situation to attack the city urgently, and led his troops there."
Hearing what he said, Liu Chengyou didn't understand what was going on, and he suddenly became angry. However, he restrained himself from venting his anger in front of a messenger and asked in a deep voice: "What is the situation on the front line now?"
"The Xiaodi Army retreated to Fenglingjin Camp, regrouped, and Baidu deployed to prepare for morale recovery before heading north again..."
"Your name is Wang Yu?" Liu Chengyou thought for a moment and asked with his usual expression.
"Yes." Wang Yu couldn't help but reveal a little joy on her face.
Nodding his head, Liu Chengyou waved his hand and said, "It's been a hard journey all the way. Let's go down and rest first!"
As a result, Liu Chengyou's originally happy mood suddenly dissipated. Subsequently, reports came one after another about the battle in the river, especially the details of the defeat. Zhou Hui went to the court to plead guilty, and at the same time impeached Bai Wenke for his inaction. He supported his troops and watched his defeat. When he retreated, he stood still.
In addition, the secret reports from Liu Chengyou's supervisory troops stationed in Xiaodi Army and various states completed the details of the incident. Then, Liu Chengyou was really angry!
"This Zhou Hui, I entrusted him with the old generals from Hedong, the great Han Yuan Cong, and the Xiaodi army. When he went to the battlefield, he was so entrusted with great responsibility, unruly and willful. Bai Wenke was personally appointed by me to deploy the army and camp. , How dare you ignore his military orders and march privately, you are so defeated!" In the imperial tent, Liu Chengyou punched the commander's desk hard and rebuked angrily.
"Your Majesty, please calm down. General Zhou is also eager to fight and wants to capture the rebel city and offer it to Your Majesty." Feng Dao comforted him.
"You don't have to speak for him!" Liu Chengyou waved his hand directly: "Hedong City is strong, what can he use to fight it? Why should he break the city and smash the city gate open with his head? After marching for hundreds of miles, the division's veterans are tired and have no time to rest and recuperate. When he comes to the door, he has violated all the taboos of military strategists, but he still dares to go out and make excuses, blame others, do you think I can bully him?"
Considering the difficulty of attacking the city, Liu Chengyou was certainly well prepared and had a large number of craftsmen in the camp. Heavy equipment such as artillery carts and cloud carts were localized and made from local materials. However, other ordnance such as heavy crossbows and weapons such as rockets and fireballs needed to be transported by water and land.
Zhou Hui used a weak force and carried a few ladders to charge Hedong City, just to capture it. It was simply a wishful thinking.
"The arrogance of the Changdao vassal is hard to control, I see..." After half a sentence of emotion, Liu Chengyou said obliquely to the several ministers who were accompanying the army standing in front of the emperor, and swallowed the second half of the sentence himself. Don't say the second half of the sentence. If it spreads, it will have a bad impact.
Taking a deep breath, Liu Chengyou changed the target of the attack again: "Bai Wenke is in charge of the camp deployment, and Zhou Hui disobeys the command and marches into the army privately. Why doesn't he do anything?"
Hearing this, Fan Zhi came out of the queue, clasped his hands and said: "The Forbidden Army is under the personal control of Your Majesty. Although Duke Bai is deployed for all armies, he has no clear command and control over the Xiaodi Army..."
This sentence made Liu Chengyou feel a little embarrassed. He looked at Fan Zhi respectfully, raised his hand, put it down again, held it in for a while, and finally said: "Then I made the wrong arrangement?"
"That's not what I meant. It's just that I feel that since the matter has come to this, we should implement remedial measures as soon as possible. As for the frontline generals, how to deal with them, whether they are punished or demoted, requires His Majesty to come and make further decisions." Fan Zhi said seriously.
Taking a deep breath, Liu Chengyou turned his head and gave the order very quickly: "Pass the imperial edict, tomorrow the army will speed up and march westward into the river!"
"yes!"
Regarding Bai Wenke, Liu Chengyou felt a little confused, but it was not because he failed to suppress Zhou Hui.
What really dissatisfied Liu Chengyou was Bai Wenke's subsequent handling.
The rebels' withdrawal back to Hedong City was an obvious move to shrink their troops. Zhou Hui was arrogant and underestimated the enemy. Even if he couldn't control it, why didn't he report it and make second-hand preparations? His actions before and after seemed a bit deliberate, to secure the Fenglingjin camp and sit back and watch its defeat.
Fenglingjin was only fifty miles away from Dongcheng. When he learned of the defeat, he still stood still and did not send troops to rescue him. If Yang Ye hadn't led hundreds of cavalry under his command northward to defeat Wang Jixun, block the bandit's counterattack and give Xiaodi's army a chance to breathe, the final losses would have been much more than that!
Of course, Zhou Hui's self-assertion and arrogance were the root cause of the incident. As for He Hui and Fan Aineng, two people who seemed to have heard of it somewhere had murderous intentions in their hearts.
"A defeat is not necessarily a bad thing. The arrogance in the army is growing day by day, so it can be calmed down a little..." Liu Chengyou murmured with a heavy breath of depression.
He pretended to be calm, but the tone of his voice was too obvious to comfort himself. As far as Liu Chengyou was concerned, it would be the best if he could defeat Li Shouzhen successfully and show the strength of the imperial court.
However, after Zhou Hui's defeat, the effectiveness of the previous efforts to suppress the rebel armies was greatly reduced, even if they did not turn into water. The originally precarious rebel situation was immediately stabilized, at least for a short period of time.
If Li Shouzhen and his rebels have the confidence to survive, they can really cause big trouble to the counter-rebellion army with the help of the fortified city. From the very beginning, Liu Chengyou had expected that breaking the city would be the biggest test to defeat Li Rebellion.
He, the emperor, had to clean up the stalls in the river himself.
...
In the evening, west of the imperial camp, the East and West squads are stationed.
The East-West Ban was a military trumpet left over from the Later Jin Dynasty. During this western expedition, soldiers from two armies and four battalions accompanied the expedition. The commander was Zhao Hongyin, who was deployed and commanded by Li Hongjian, the Marquis of Yu, who returned to the camp, horse and infantry capital.
"Father, you are back!" Zhao Hongyin returned to his tent with his helmet under his arm, and was immediately greeted by a young man with a heroic appearance and extraordinary bearing.
The young man has thick eyebrows and big eyes, with a little stubble, his face seems to be a bit dusty, and his eyes are particularly bright. He is wearing armor and has a long knife at his waist.
It's Zhao Kuangyin!
"My son looks decent in this outfit." Looking Zhao Kuangyin up and down, Zhao Hongyin's rough face showed an expression of satisfaction.
Zhao Kuangyin's life trajectory has not changed much. He traveled to various states and surveyed the world in order to pursue his ambitions. In the more than a year since the founding of the Han Dynasty, he traveled to many places and was used to seeing the turmoil of current affairs and the suffering of the people. This time he returned north from Dong Zongben, the governor of Suizhou, and it happened that Li Shouzhen rebelled, and his father followed the expedition, so he simply came to surrender. He chased all the way to the west and caught up with him when he reached Mianchi.
When he first met Zhao Kuangyin that day, Zhao Hongyin almost didn't recognize him because of his embarrassed appearance.
"Come into the tent and talk." After patting Zhao Kuangyin on the shoulder, Zhao Hongyin pulled him in.
"Marquis Li Duyu summoned you, has something happened?" Zhao Kuangyin asked after offering Zhao Hongyin a glass of water.
"Nothing, it's just the emperor's order to set off tomorrow and speed up to the river!" Zhao Hongyin said casually.
Hearing this, Zhao Kuangyin took it seriously and thought: "The river is already in front of us. Why did this order come suddenly? Could it be that something happened on the front line?"
Seeing the eldest son's troubled look, Zhao Hongyin secretly nodded and said suddenly: "Sooner or later, we will know. This time the imperial court mobilizes troops to suppress the rebellion, Li Shouzhen will undoubtedly be defeated. You come here to vote and see if you can have a chance to make meritorious service in the Forbidden Army. Find a career."
Zhao Kuangyin obviously didn't care about this. He came to join the army with the ambition of making contributions. His dark eyes rolled around twice and he said: "The imperial court mobilized this large army, and the emperor personally conquered it. It is easy to annihilate Li Shouzhen, but if you want to get rid of it quickly, it will take some effort... "
