Late Tang Dynasty Floating Life

Chapter 940 Gaotang and Deshengdu
It was a bleak morning.

The sun was hanging in the sky, with only a very faint red light, which could not even dry out the fog.In the wet city, there are sergeants fleeing in panic.

Li Gongquan, who had an army of 8000 in his heyday, now has only [-] people left.Most of the sergeants were not wiped out by the enemy, but ran away by themselves.

There were three battles before and after, and the first time was under the city of Weizhou. The vanguard was defeated by the Yamen, the general Zhang Shenzhai was beheaded, and more than [-] people were lost.The second time in Shen County, the battle was unfavorable, and two thousand soldiers were lost.It was the third time to go to the west of Bozhou City. Li Gongquan gathered the main force and tried to fight to the death. As a result, some people turned their backs and fled in a big defeat.

This defeat took away the last bit of Li Gongquan's popularity.The sergeant either fled to the opposite side, or went home by himself, and there were even some ruthless people who wanted to take Li Gongquan's head as a contribution.

So he didn't dare to stay in Bozhou City anymore, and hurriedly took his family and tribesmen to the north and rushed into Gaotang County.

"The yamen soldiers ran away, the town soldiers ran away, and at the end of the day, the one who didn't run away was the Tutuan villager." Li Gongquan smiled wryly, and sighed to the sky.

The Tutuan countryman, carrying a heavy package on his back, followed the convoy and hurried on his way.If you count carefully, there are more than 2000.There are more in the fog in the distance. Whether they can keep up with the large army or run away depends on their luck.

There are also some sergeants with a Huazhou accent in the team. They came to serve after hearing about Li Gongquan's incident.

At the beginning, Zhu Quanzhong was defeated by the Jin army and ran away in a hurry.General Han Qing was killed, Li Zhen was captured and beheaded, Wei Zhao also died in Weizhou, and Jing Xiang and Wang Yanzhang were unknown.More than half of the Huazhou Legion brought by Zhu Quanzhong was killed or injured, and the rest collapsed.

Among the scattered soldiers, some took off their military uniforms and worked as customers for local people in Wei and Bo prefectures, while some scattered in the wilderness and became bandits.After Li Gongquan's incident, these people got wind and came to vote one after another.

It's a pity that they came too late. Li Gongquan had already lost two battles in a row, and he had no way to recover. He was about to run away. It was impossible to bring these Huazhou people the wealth they wanted.

"Don't leave, Mr. Li, borrow your head, I'll use it urgently." There was a dense sound of horseshoes not far away, and dozens of horsemen swarmed after him, laughing loudly.

Li Gongquan cursed and asked someone to fetch a big lance, got on his horse, and planned to fight.

If these people are not repulsed, under the panic of the people, I don't know how many people will be scattered.Even if you want to flee to Henan, you have to have some capital, right?

At this moment, Yiqi suddenly jumped out of the thick fog, stabbing with a long spear like lightning, instantly killing the two of them.

Li Gongquan opened his mouth wide and asked excitedly, "Who is this?"

The entourage looked at each other, it was foggy, who could see clearly?

After the cavalry rushed into the fog, there were constant shouts, screams, arrows piercing the air, and weapons clashing.Not long after, the man came back again, soaked in blood, followed by several riders, his face full of shock, after chasing for a while, he gave up.It seems that the fight just now really left them with lingering fears.

Some people, if you give him tens of thousands of troops, he may not be able to fight well, or even lose more than win.But if you give him thousands of people, he will often be unstoppable, often beheading generals and capturing the flag.Obviously, they had better not get into trouble when they met such a fierce general.Li Gongquan was lucky to be able to recruit such a fierce person.

Several people looked at each other unwillingly, and saw that the horseman turned his head back again, so frightened, he turned the horse's head and turned away.

"What's your name?" Li Gongquan excitedly took off his sword and bow, and asked his soldiers to bring a gleaming silver armor, saying: "A strong man doesn't even have armor. How can this be done? These equipment, armor Tool, oh, by the way, there is also this steed, you can use it first. When we get to Qizhou, I will settle down and reward the strong man again."

"Going to Qizhou..." The strong man looked complicated, and after a long time he sighed, and said, "There is nowhere to go, so it's better to go back to Henan."

"Don't worry, the old man Xia Wang has always treated his descendants kindly. It's better for me to join him than to be a lonely ghost." Li Gongquan also sighed, as if he was persuading and comforting himself.

"My name is Wang Yanzhang, and I'm from Yunzhou. It's okay not to mention the past." Wang Yanzhang was a little disappointed.

A man was born between heaven and earth, and always has the idea of ​​doing a career.At the beginning, King Liang was very famous and had the potential to dominate Henan.And people like Wang Yanzhang didn't even have the chance to serve as soldiers in Yunzhou, so he went to Bianzhou to join the army in a rage.

What happened after that—well, it was like a dream.Now that he was going back to Henan after going round and round, what happened to the struggle for so many years in the past?Did you take a detour? People in their 30s have accomplished nothing, and every time they think about it, they feel sad.

"The ferry is here! General Zheng's men are still there, and the pontoon bridge is also here." Someone shouted in front.

Li Gongquan was refreshed when he heard this, and said, "Hurry up! Hurry up! After crossing the river, there will be nothing for Luo Shaowei."

The sound of horseshoes sounded again by the side of the ferry, and more than 200 warriors rode on the tall horses of the gods, wandering on the shore and watching.Unfortunately, it was so foggy that I couldn't see anything clearly.

After a while, the leading general came galloping up on his horse, approached, reined in his horse lightly, and asked condescendingly, "Where is General Li?"

Li Gongquan looked at him suspiciously.This man was very young, and he didn't look like a general. He was holding a horse spear in his hand. There was no secondary weapon in the sheath next to the saddle, but a few short spears for throwing neatly placed.

Wang Yanzhang glanced at the general.General Li Si'an of the Liang army has the unique skill of flying a spear, but I don't know how capable he is.

"This is Li Gongquan, dare to ask the general's name?" People had to bow their heads under the eaves, and Li Gongquan also put away his rebellious temperament, and said to this Xia Jun military academy in a low voice.

"Qizhou Ten General Wang Jiao, how many people are there in your department?" Wang Jiao looked at the shadowy figure in the fog in the distance and asked.

"This..." Li Gongquan was speechless for a while, and said vaguely: "There are still thousands of people."

"Do you have all the armor and equipment?" Wang Jiao asked again.

"This……"

"The establishment is in chaos?"

"Maybe."

"Trash!" Wang Jiao yelled angrily, and said, "No wonder you've been defeated. I don't know what Your Highness means to take in you useless people. I think it's a waste of money. Cross the river quickly, don't hesitate."

After all, he roared up with the cavalry behind him, and got into the thick fog, as if he wanted to stop some pursuers.

Wang Yanzhang looked at the energetic cavalrymen of the Xia army in rapt attention, and then at the demoralized Weibo Tutuan peasants beside him, and shook his head. People are more deadly than others.

"Let's cross the river!" Li Gongquan was choked up so much, his face was a little bit uneasy, and he got on the pontoon bridge angrily.

The sergeants also cheered up, quickened their pace, and flocked to the ferry.

Someone stopped before crossing the river and looked towards the west of the river.

I don't know if there will be a chance to call back in the future.In order to become a martial artist, he had to sacrifice his family and leave his career. The sacrifice is not insignificant. I just hope that everything is worth it.

******
Desheng crossed the north bank, and the Shengjun was fetching water for cooking.

Weibo was in chaos, and soldiers from all over the country were mobilized, and there were not many people in the key point of defense such as Deshengdu. Zhu Zhen took advantage of it-two thousand pioneers crossed the river at night, attacked and seized the north bank ferry, and killed hundreds of Wei soldiers. More than 3000 people crossed the river and began to camp.

According to King Xia's order, they should contact Li Gongquan and cooperate with each other in fighting.But that guy lost too quickly, too simply, and lost all courage, and even ran to Gaotang, which made Zhu Zhen very helpless.

To be honest, he didn't want to fight, he didn't want to fight Wei Bing.With such a small capital in hand, how many people pay as much as their hair, and if one is missing, the superior will dare to stop a person's salary, Zhu Zhen has no doubts about this.

"It's not a good job for He Gui to serve as an envoy in the Dingyuan Army." Zhu Zhen walked in the camp and said, "One of the old troops started by King Xia was dumped by such an outsider. I guess they are all old-fashioned."

A promotion like this often involves not just one person, but a series of people.When the person at the top is gone, the people at the bottom can follow suit and move up a bit, which can be said to be a promotion for all.After He Gui left like this, the people in the Dingyuan Army who wanted to move their positions were probably scolding their mothers. Whether they can organize the troops well or not is a test of the level of army management.

"Taiwei..." Gao Shao hesitated to speak.

Seeing his sad face, Zhu Zhen smiled and scolded: "Shao Shude willfully expends and surrenders people, eliminates dissidents, and complains a little bit? Zhang Yun and Guo Shaobin led the army to fight. Although they are not very brave, but It's quite satisfactory. After more than half a year of fighting, the team is gone, and the two of them are going to Kansai to be the governor, and this governor even struggles to appoint a general of the state army, so I don't know what the meaning is."

The appointments of Zhang Yun and Guo Shaobin have already come out. The former is appointed as the governor of Qingzhou, and the latter is appointed as the governor of Junzhou.Zhang Yun and Guo Shaobin were "tearful of gratitude" when they heard that they were rewarded with [-] bolts of silk each before leaving, but that was on the surface, and only they knew what they were thinking.

Anyway, Zhu Zhen felt worthless for them.

"The king of Xia really killed the vassals." Gao Shao was also filled with emotion: "I heard that after the founding of the country, the king of Xia will give Zhang Yun and Guo Shaobin the titles they are satisfied with. They are probably county marquises. The old rule of the Yuan Dynasty is that no demotion will be made for three generations. , for appeasement. However, the two are not very old, and they may be activated after a round or two on the governor's seat."

"You say that in front of me, do you have a deep meaning?" Zhu Zhen laughed.

"Taiwei, the time is over." Gao Shao said: "With Taiwei's many years of experience in managing and using soldiers, isn't it easy to get a little credit? It is very possible to be promoted to the county or even the county in the future."

"This is asking me to exchange my old brother's life for the position of prince." Zhu Zhen sighed: "The Holy Army has been wiped out, and it is gone. I have accomplished the credit of my Zhu family. Such a rich man, this is forced It's everyone's choice."

"Taiwei, this is actually the only way out right now. If this goes on, King Xia might be scolded." Gao Shao reminded.

"Let's take a look at the situation in the two battlefields of Qingzhou and Weizhou first. If King Xia can really eliminate Wang Shifan and Zhu Jin, defeat Luo Hongxin and his son and even Li Keyong, I will put aside all kinds of messy thoughts and fight hard." Zhu Zhen said: "With so many descendants from Liangdi, Hu is really determined. Ge Congzhou, Xie Yanzhang and his son also seem to be relatively submissive. Dai Siyuan, Wang Tan, Hua Wenqi, Liu Zhijun, Ding Hui and others, I think they are also very respectful. Contradictions have not yet been completely resolved. Sometimes I hope that Shao Shude will lose a game or two, which will make people's hearts turbulent."

Gao Shao smiled wryly.He is a scribe, not as courageous and ambitious as warriors.

King Xia revoked the designations of Tianxing and Jianrui in one go this time, and his intention to gather military power can be said to be undisguised.Cut down the vassals, the vassals of the prefectures and counties are vassals, and the vassals of the military leaders are also vassals.Through these few days of observation, it seems that no big waves have been caused. Shao Lun, He Gui, Zhang Yun, and Guo Shaobin all acquiesced, and it seems that they have passed through smoothly.

The success this time must have inspired King Xia, and I don't know what methods he will resort to next time.

(End of this chapter)