Taiping Inn

After Qin Qing personally led an army of 120,000 to break through Yuguan, he marched all the way to the imperial capital. Read

On the fifth day of May, the imperial capital was under martial law. The court issued an order to promote Zhao Bingyu, the governor of Jingzhou, to the governor of Jingchu, and summoned the three governors-general of Jingchu, Qinzhong, and Youyan to send troops to defend the king.

After receiving the order from the court, the three armies rushed to the imperial capital.

The governor of Youyan was the closest to the imperial capital. As a member of the royal family, Xu Zaiyuan traveled day and night and was the first governor to arrive.

Among the three governors-general, the governor of Youyan was the closest to Liaodong. In those days, the Golden Horde harassed every year, looting food, property, able-bodied men, and women, burning, killing, and looting, causing great suffering to the military and civilians. The court had to add two governors in the north, one was the Liaodong governor who was in charge of military affairs in Liaozhou and Fengzhou, and the other was the Youyan governor who was in charge of Youzhou and Yanzhou. This arrangement was to prevent the Liaodong governor from taking advantage of the opportunity to become powerful and establish a separatist regime. Therefore, Youzhou, which was close to the imperial capital among the three states of Liaodong, was separated to serve as a check and balance.

Later, the former Liaodong governor Lu Guangbi, who was experienced in military affairs, stepped down and was replaced by the new Liaodong governor Yuan Nanhai, who was a pure literati and did not know military affairs. Strategic carelessness and mistakes directly led to the loss of the entire Liaozhou and half of Fengzhou.

In such a dangerous situation, the Liaodong border army was almost gone, and the court had no time to care about the Youyan governor to check and balance the Liaodong governor. After Lu Guangbi was reinstated, he directly led the remaining troops to retreat to Youzhou, including the later reconstruction of the Liaodong border army, which was also carried out in Youzhou, which was considered to be rooted in Youzhou. Later, Lu Guangbi proposed the strategy of "Liao people guarding Liao land", using Youzhou as the base camp and sending troops to recover Liaozhou and Fengzhou. Youzhou has become Youzhou of the Liaodong border army and has nothing to do with the Governor of Youyan.

After Xu Zaiyuan took over the position of Governor of Youyan, the Governor of Youyan only had the land of Yanzhao, not Youzhou. The so-called checks and balances on the Governor of Liaodong have long been nonsense. Instead, Liaodong has been constantly infiltrating Jinzhou. Many Jinzhou gentry and wealthy businessmen have close contacts with Liaodong dignitaries such as Jingxiu. These gentry and merchants also have a characteristic, not overly dependent on land, but mainly trade, and frequent trade with Liaodong.

As a neighbor of Liaodong, Xu Zaiyuan knows the horror of Liaodong the most. Yuguan City cannot be defended, and field battles are not opponents. However, the imperial capital is of great importance. Even if he is defeated, he cannot escape. He only hopes that the other two armies can arrive earlier and use their numerical advantage to break the siege of the imperial capital.

Xu Zaiyuan came to help this time, with a total of three towns of soldiers, that is, three generals. Most of Xu Zaiyuan's standard soldiers and the generals' regular soldiers were cavalry. After gathering together, there were more than 10,000 cavalry, everyone had a horse and everyone was wearing armor. Because of the fire virtue of Wei, the armor was painted red, and the iron helmet was decorated with red feathers. Looking around, it was a fiery red color. It was completely different from the dark Liaodong army.

In fact, the fire virtue of Wei was red and the water virtue of Liaodong was black, which corresponded to Confucianism and Taoism respectively. Confucianism was as strong as fire, and Taoism was as kind as water.

On the ninth day of May, Xu Zaiyuan led the army to the outside of the imperial capital.

In the early years, the imperial capital had a square outline with only nine city gates. The central axis of the city started from Zhengyang Gate in the south, ran through the imperial palace, and reached the bell tower in the north.

In the early years of the Wei Dynasty, the country was strong and Emperor Taizong took the offensive against the Golden Horde tribe and led his army to the north five times, but the problem was not prominent. Later, the power of the Wei Dynasty declined and the Golden Horde army came to the city many times.

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During the Ming and Yong years, some officials suggested building an outer city with a circumference of about 80 miles outside the imperial capital for safety.

The construction of the outer city began in the 32nd year of Ming Yong. Because the southern suburbs were more prosperous at that time, and there were royal altars such as the Tiandi Altar and Sheji Altar, the outer city was first built from the south line. However, not long after the construction started, it was difficult to continue due to insufficient funds.

As a last resort, the court could only change the plan and only build the southern line of the city wall, and the other three sides would be built when there was money in the future. The length of the southern line of the city wall was also reduced from the original 20 miles to 13 miles. Its east and west ends bent northward and met with the southeast and southwest corner towers of the inner city. But no one expected that the so-called "let's talk about it later" has not been mentioned until today when Liaodong entered the pass.

In the 43rd year of Yongzheng in the Ming Dynasty, the outer city of the imperial capital was built, with a total length of 28 miles and seven city gates. Because the motivation for building the outer city was to strengthen the safety of the imperial capital, the names of the city gates mostly carry the meaning of "stability" and "peace", such as "Zuo'an Gate", "You'an Gate", "Guangning Gate", and the main gate of the outer city "Yongding Gate" means "eternal stability".

After the outer city was built, the central axis of the imperial capital extended from Zhengyang Gate to Yongding Gate, and it was 16 miles north of the bell tower.

Since only the southern part of the outer city was built, the plane outline of the imperial capital city formed a "convex" shape. Moreover, the name "outer city" is not worthy of the name. It is not outside the inner city, but to the south of the inner city, so the outer city of the imperial capital is also called "South City".

Xu Zaiyuan was stationed outside the southern city at this time, not far from Yongding Gate. The officers and soldiers of the Beijing Camp defending the Yongding Gate area were the Shenshu Camp and part of the Shenji Camp of the Beijing Camp.

At this time, the vanguard of the Liaodong army was less than a hundred miles away from the Imperial Capital. The night guards sent by the vanguard were already wandering not far from the Imperial Capital. Although the officers and soldiers of the Beijing Camp had an absolute advantage in numbers, they did not dare to leave the city. They only dared to hide in the city and shoot arrows. The people were in panic until the troops from the three towns led by Xu Zaiyuan arrived and settled down.

Xu Zaiyuan had no order and could not enter the city, so he could only stay outside the city. Outside the city is a plain, and there is no danger to defend. Xu Zaiyuan is the only one in the royal family who knows about the army, but he can't imagine it. He can only set up camp first, arrange defense along the line of the south city, dig trenches, set up horses, and create simple things. Fortifications.

That's fine, but the problem that even more troubles him is food and grass.

The grain supply in Dijing only comes from Jiangnan and is supplied by the Grand Canal, which is closely related to the East China Sea.

Why did the Qin family work hard to manage Liaodong for many years and dare not enter Beijing for a long time? After Li Xuandu takes power, he immediately puts the entry into the pass on the agenda? The key lies in the Li family.

Over the past years, Li Daoxu took charge of the Qing Weizong and the Li family, and supported Xie Zhi behind the scenes. As a result, the sea route was blocked and Liaodong could not use Qizhou. Unless Lu County was captured, it would be impossible to block the canal transportation at all. He could only choose to forcibly break the barrier. , the battle against the kings and soldiers in the world outside the imperial capital was unpredictable. If you lose a lot, you will be doomed.

Now Li Xuandu is in charge of the Li family and agrees to Liaodong's adoption move, which means that Liaodong can enter the pass in two ways. At the same time, Li Xuandu divides the fleet into two ways, forcing Bohai Prefecture and heading south into the river. Block the canal transportation.

While Liaodong knocked on the gates, the Qingweizong blocked the river and blocked the canal transport south of the river. The Qian family of Jinling Prefecture had the control.

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The Cao Gang was eliminated. In this case, even though the Liaodong army had not captured Lu County at the northern end of the Grand Canal, the grain in the imperial capital had been cut off. As for shipping, I don’t even think about it. Not to mention the fleet of Qingweizong, even if it can break through the blockade of Qingweizong’s fleet, where should we dock? The Bohai Mansion has been surrounded, but the Imperial Capital City is not by the sea.

To this day, it is very difficult for the Imperial Capital City to only maintain the supply of food for the people and the Beijing camp in the city, not to mention the foreign guest troops such as Xu Zaiyuan who were serving the king. After Xu Zaiyuan arrived outside the city, although the court symbolically allocated a batch of food and supplies to Xu Zaiyuan, it was a drop in the bucket and could not last for a few days.

It is said that hungry soldiers are not bad when fighting. The Wei army owes wages for many years. The generals eat empty wages and drink blood from soldiers. The camp is full of gangsters and scoundrels. Now the food and grass are not enough, the firearms are outdated, the armor is corrupt, and everyone is depressed. What kind of combat power can be expressed, so how can they fight to the death?

On the other hand, the Liaodong army has no essential difference from the Wei official army. It has the same official positions and the same tactics. In addition to the color of armor, the Liaodong army is a Wei official army with sufficient funds, well-equipped, clear rewards and punishments, and mainly composed of good families. .

However, the Liaodong army seemed to be intentional about doing things. The Qingweizong fleet blocked the southern end of the Grand Canal and was not satisfied. They wanted to block the northern end of the Grand Canal before they could stop. Shortly after Xu Zaiyuan arrived in the southern city, it was actually a direct person. Come to Lu County.

The court quickly realized that Liaodong was not to block the Grand Canal, but after occupying Lu County, it could transport grain from Luzhou and Jiangzhou through the Grand Canal, which was to turn the guests.

On the one hand, the court ordered the Governor of Jingchu to cut off the grain transportation, but on the other hand, Xu Zaiyuan wanted to defend Lu County. In the eyes of the imperial court, the imperial capital city was high and deep, and the three camps of the capital camp could be firmly defended by the three camps. Xu Zaiyuan's troops in the three towns did not have to be blindly defended, and it would be better to take the initiative.

Xu Zaiyuan complained in his heart. A group of scholars who only know how to talk about war on paper were unrealistic. They had to defeat these tens of thousands of war-capable soldiers in one battle. Without these old soldiers, the new recruits were even equipped with muskets. Unstable, even horses can't ride. How can you resist the elite army in Liaodong?

He was not allowed to rebel from the court's orders. If he was disrespectful to the orders, it was against the cabinet and the court. If he did not want to follow the footsteps of King Jin, King Tang, and King Shu, he could only follow the orders.

The court also knew that there must be a brave man under heavy rewards, and issued an order to behead one level and reward ten taels of silver.

In the past, the head of the bounty tent was not very similar to that of the Jinguan people, and it was easy to identify, but the Liaodong army was no different from the Central Plains. Many people in the Liaodong army even fled from the Central Plains. In order to prevent killing good people from making achievements, the Liaodong armor was black, so the helmet of the Liaodong armor was used as a certificate.

With a reluctance, Xu Zaiyuan led the army away from the trench camp that had just been dug and rushed to Lu County.

At this time, Qin Qing's central army tent was less than fifty miles away from Lu County.

After hearing the news that Xu Zaiyuan led his army to Lu County, Qin Qing said to Qin Su beside him: "Xu Zaiyuan is one of the few people in the court who knows about soldiers today. Unfortunately, the hermits are good at palace conspiracies, but they are not engaged in military affairs. The scholars use military force sooner or later. Let this only royal family who can lead the army repeat the mistakes in the 'Tian Chess Game'."

(This chapter ends)