The bright nave is brightly lit.
Li Xuan welcomed Captain Zhechong Shi Jin in with a gentle expression, and then asked him to sit down on the chair on the left side of the central hall. At the same time, he asked slightly curiously: "I heard that Captain Shi participated in the annihilation of Chen Shuozhen's rebels." Is there such a thing as a battle?"
Behind the friendly and curious smile on Li Xuan's face, sharp eyes were already examining all the changes in expressions on Shi Jin's face.
Shi Jin, the captain of Zhechong in Xinlin Prefecture, is now in his fifties. His unkempt beard almost covers half of his face. Although he is not old, his hair roots are very white.
He arrived in a hurry today, wearing a gray gold-rimmed robe, a black hat on his head, and an ordinary look.
But he was a tall man with strong limbs.
Just standing there gave people a strong sense of oppression, like a tiger that was about to pounce at any time.
Hearing Li Xuan's question, Shi Jin's face was visibly startled, but he quickly stood up and said with his hands in his hands: "Yes, this is the case. The lower official did participate in the annihilation of Tianyin with his father under the command of the house chief Shi. Teach war.”
"Captain, please forgive me for being curious, what did the Tianyin cult members look like back then? What I mean is that they went to the battlefield. Are those people a mob and vulnerable, or are they fanatical and fearless? Die?" The smile on Li Xuan's face faded, and she became serious, looking like she was discussing.
Shi Jin's face straightened and his heart sank slightly. He knew that the King of Nanchang did not ask questions randomly.
When he heard that the Prince of Nanchang County was about to leave for Wuzhou and stay in Yangzhou for three days, Shi Jin had a feeling that the other party must be here for him.
This is the intuition of a veteran on the battlefield. Nowadays, east Zhejiang is stormy and everyone knows something is going to happen.
Everyone knows to prepare in advance.
How could a smart person like the Prince of Nanchang let go of a warrior like him on the battlefield?
"To say they were a mob is to underestimate them. After all, with just two thousand people, they conquered the capital of Muzhou and its counties, shocking both the government and the public. Afterwards, they had several stalemates with the government and the army on the battlefield.
If a meteor hadn't fallen from the sky on the last day and crashed into the rebel formation, our army might not have been able to win a great victory.
This is a sign from heaven that the rebels will be defeated.
Therefore, we worked together to directly defeat the main force of the rebel bandits, thus achieving success in one fell swoop. "
As he spoke, Shi Jin raised his hands to the sky to show respect.
But then he said: "But it is in vain to say that they are comparable to the elites of the imperial court, otherwise they will not be completely captured in the end."
"I have read the Wuzhou memorial back then." Li Xuan's light eyes fell on Shi Jin, and the underlying coldness made him feel a little uncomfortable.
Li Xuan waved her hand and said gently: "Shi Duwei, please sit down. There is no need to be so serious."
Yangzhou Xinlin Prefecture Zhechong Duwei, with an official rank of the fourth rank, but when Shi Jin saw Li Xuan, a Wuzhou Biejia, Tongyi doctor, inspector Zuo Qianniu Wei Zhonglang general, he was as nervous as a mouse seeing a cat.
In the final analysis, it was because Shi Jin was a barbarian and was naturally afraid of Li Xuan's status as the current county king.
The Hu people were more afraid of the Li Tang royal family than the Han people and officials at all levels.
Shi Jin bowed his hands to Li Xuan respectfully, then sat down aside and quickly calmed down.
After all, he is a veteran on the battlefield, so he still has some mental qualities.
At this time, I heard Li Xuan speak and read word by word: "One day, a meteorite landed and crashed into the rebel formation. Cui Governor of Wuzhou created public opinion, saying that if the rebel leader fell, he would definitely die, and then the morale of the army was greatly improved. , so he worked hard.
After the first battle, they fled, beheaded hundreds of people, and captured tens of thousands of people.
Just at this time, Yangzhou's chief Shi led his army to arrive. They attacked from both front and back. Tens of thousands of rebels participated in the battle. In the end, 10,000 people were captured. The rest were all killed, and the rebels were defeated. "
Li Xuan looked at Shi Jin, her scrutinizing eyes seeming to look directly into his heart.
Shi Jin subconsciously shrugged, but lowered his head slightly, not daring to look at Li Xuan.
Li Xuan pursed her lips with a sneer: "Captain Shi, if my count is correct, only about 10,000 of the rebels were captured in the end, so it was he who captured the 10,000 people before Chief Shi arrived. After arriving, those 10,000 people also participated in the battle against the rebel bandits. In the end, counting the battle damage and subsequent new captures, the total is 10,000 people?"
"It's the latter!" Shi Jin didn't hesitate at all this time, his tone was decisive.
Li Xuan nodded and said calmly: "I also believe it is the latter. After all, Chen Ni had only tens of thousands of bandits under his command. When he attacked Shezhou, he lost thousands. When he finally attacked Wuzhou, he lost thousands more. In the end, In the battle outside Wuzhou City, more than 10,000 of the bandits were captured and hundreds were killed or injured. In the last battle, the bandits resisted stubbornly. House Chief Shi and Cui Governor drove the bandits in the vanguard and strangled them, leaving only 10,000 bandits."
Every time Li Xuan read a word, Shi Jin's face became gloomier, and in the end it was even frighteningly cold.
Drive bandits as pioneers. Is it so easy to drive bandits into pioneers? Are we not afraid that they will join the bandits again?
Unless those people voted for the army very early.
He was eager to make meritorious deeds, so he fought with all his strength. In the end, the officers and soldiers took advantage of him.
At this moment, Li Xuan suddenly smiled and said: "Actually, I still believe the reports of the elders, but now it is my turn to face the situation of the elders, and I must know the true strength of the rebels. , especially after more than 20 years have passed, they must have learned enough lessons to become even more difficult to deal with."
When Li Xuan said this, Shi Jin suddenly looked stunned, then he breathed a sigh of relief and relaxed completely.
After taking a moment to calm down, Shi Jin looked at Li Xuan, raised his hands and said, "Thank you, Your Majesty, for your understanding! Your Majesty, Duan Gong, the governor of Yuezhou, is already gathering troops and is ready to respond to the situation at any time. The rebels are no better prepared now than they were back then. The court is more prepared.”
Li Xuan nodded, he agreed with this point.
Duan Baoxuan has been a veteran for many years, how could he not be clear about the joints?
After all, once the situation gets out of control, he will definitely be dealt with by the court in the end.
For example, the governor of Muzhou back then, no one knows who he is now.
"I can't control Yuezhou. I only care about Wuzhou. I don't want the entire Wuzhou to be devastated with casualties after a battle, so I need a stable Wuzhou." Li Xuan raised his head and looked at Shi Jin. He said with deep meaning: "This depends on the captain's help."
Shi Jin nodded subconsciously, but then his face tightened. He finally understood what Li Xuan wanted to do.
He wanted to know the real secret why the imperial army defeated Chen Shuozhen's rebel army.
For a moment, the entire nave became quiet.
The wind and rain outside kept beating against the windows, which was unusually clear and loud.
Li Xuan picked up the teacup placed aside and took a sip. He was not anxious at all.
During the period from Luoyang to Yangzhou, Li Xuan conducted more in-depth research and understanding of Tianyin Sect.
Although he had had fierce confrontations with Ye Wanwan, Thousand-Faced Buddha and others before, those people were just the external tentacles of the Tianyin Sect, and they couldn't be further from the real army.
Especially people like Li Xuan, who always like to gather elite troops and kill enemies in formations, know this even more clearly.
Therefore, when he read the report in detail, he discovered something fishy.
The Ministry of War finally recorded that the soldiers of the Yangzhou Dudu Mansion and the officers and soldiers of the Wuzhou Governor's Mansion counted only 10,000 Tianyin cultists on the battlefield, but they had as many as 30,000 enemies killed.
Chen Shuozhen raised an army that year. At the beginning, there were only 2,000 people and 2,000 elite troops. He directly captured the entire Muzhou, and then captured several nearby counties. The number of troops increased rapidly, and the force soon grew to more than 60,000 people.
By this time, the force had reached its limit, and later they reduced it themselves. Coupled with battle formations and various losses, there were only more than 40,000 people left in the end.
Everything was normal up to this point, but something abnormal soon appeared.
During the stalemate in Wuzhou, a meteorite suddenly fell from the sky and hit the rebel camp directly.
Cui Yixuan immediately created public opinion, saying that this was the fall of Chen Shuozhen's star, and that Chen Shuozhen was bound to die.
The morale of the Tang army was immediately boosted, while the morale of the rebel army was low.
The two armies fought, and Chen Shuozhen's army was defeated. Hundreds of people were beheaded, and as many as 10,000 people surrendered.
Up to this point, it still makes sense. Although meteorites falling from the sky like Liu Xiu is a bit absurd, after all, it has happened before. Destiny is in the Tang Dynasty!
But then, there was a fierce battle between the two sides in Muzhou. More than 10,000 rebels had surrendered, but they still maintained a strength of more than 40,000. It was really surprising.
What was even more surprising was that afterwards, the rebel army, which had already been demoralized, actually engaged in a fierce fight with the official army. In the end, there were only 10,000 prisoners left in total.
This is somewhat interesting. In such a brutal battle, according to official files, the number of casualties among the officers and soldiers was only a few hundred.
It was an extremely brutal fight, and the officers and soldiers suffered only a few hundred casualties. What kind of brutal fight was this?
This was either to drive away the previous prisoners and force them to fight with their previous companions; or to start a bloody massacre after other bandits surrendered.
The last remaining prisoners were either those who died after the First World War, or those who had been captured in Wuzhou before.
What happened in the middle.
If it was the latter, then who could have issued such a cruel order and dared to do Bai Qi's deeds in the Tang Dynasty?
Li Xuan could see the strangeness in the battle report more than 20 years later. How could Li Zhi and Empress Wu not see it back then.
However, they all acquiesced.
More than 30,000 members were massacred, but what did they get in return? Twenty years later, the Tianyin Sect made a comeback.
Just thinking about how deep the hatred is makes Li Xuan feel horrified.
So this time, we can get a glimpse of how dangerous it is for him to go to Wuzhou.
Therefore, he wanted to know the secret of that year even more.
In this way, he can turn danger into safety and even achieve great success in battle.
(End of chapter)
