Chapter 598 Return to Jingzhou

Chapter 598 Return to Jingzhou

After half a year, Li Tai returned to Jingzhou City again. As soon as he entered the town, news of all kinds of changes came to him overwhelmingly.

The first and most important point is that the defenders of Yingchuan finally failed a month ago. Before and after the Eastern Wei Dynasty, the envoys sent 200,000 troops to besiege and attack the city with water. Gaocheng of the Eastern Wei Dynasty personally visited Yingchuan City to supervise the battle, and envoys recruited Wang Sizheng to surrender, ending the year-long Battle of Yingchuan.

After the news of Yingchuan city's destruction and Wang Sizheng's surrender came back to Guanzhong, Daxingtai Yuwentai immediately ordered Li Tai, the general manager of Jingzhou, to control the former Henan Daoxingtai troops nearby. It was up to Li Tai to decide whether to abandon or defend the remaining Henan provinces.

So after Li Tai returned to town, his burden increased again. On the one hand, he had to be responsible for presiding over the implementation of his Hanshui strategy, and on the other hand, he was also responsible for the mess left after Wang Sizheng's army was defeated and surrendered.

Historically, after the defeat of Yingchuan City, the Western Wei Dynasty Hegemony simply ordered the armies in Henan to withdraw and abandon the lands they had previously occupied. They honestly admitted the failure of this military campaign into Henan. The conflict between the two Wei Dynasties in the Henan region The offensive and defensive operations came to an end temporarily.

But now the situation that Li Tai is facing is different. The most important point is that during the period when Yingchuan City was besieged, the Eastern Wei Dynasty general Murong Shaozong did not die outside Yingchuan City.

Probably because Liu Feng was killed by Li Tai in advance, no one went on a boat patrol with Murong Shaozong, so Murong Shaozong also saved his life.

Due to this change, the personnel arrangements of the Eastern Wei Dynasty in Henan have also undergone great changes.

Although the main army besieging Yingchuan followed Gao Cheng back to Hebei after the city of Yingchuan was defeated, Murong Shaozong and several generals led their troops to stay in Henan.

Murong Shaozong had never served as the commander-in-chief of an important war zone in the Eastern Wei Dynasty before, so his achievements were not obvious. However, after taking charge of the army this time, he first defeated the Southern Liang Northern Expedition army in Huaibei, and then defeated Hou Jing's rebels in Woyang. In the battle to seize Yingchuan, he also supervised the battle from the beginning. It can be said that his military exploits are outstanding and unparalleled.

Therefore, when the dust gradually settled in Henan, Murong Shaozong, who stayed here, was very likely to take over the military and political power in Henan and further plot against Huainan.

Of course, it is not ruled out that Murong Shaozong will turn his attention to the Hanmiang area, hoping to further attack the possibility of expelling the forces of the Western Wei Dynasty and eliminating potential competitors.

Historically, the Western Wei Dynasty did not send troops to Jianghan as soon as the Nanliang Rebellion began. This is probably related to the fall of Yingchuan. Now this risk has to be faced by Li Tai.

Compared with the more troublesome situation in Henan, the situation in Jianghan is also not quiet.

After Hou Jing captured Jiankang Taicheng and took control of the imperial center, people from various towns in Jianghan and Han Dynasties also returned to their own towns, and a dog-eat-dog fight officially began.

The first to break out of conflicts were Xiao Yi from Jiangling and Xiao Qi from Xiangyang, an old enemy of uncle and nephew.

Previously, the imperial court appointed Zhang Zan as the governor of Yongzhou to replace Xiao Jin. As a result, Zhang Zan was detained in Xiangzhou for several months by Xiao Yu's brother Xiao Yu. Finally, when Xiao Yu led his army south along the Yangtze River to attack Qin Wang, Zhang Zuan finally got the chance to escape from Xiangzhou.

Zhang Zuan did not dare to go directly to Yongzhou, fearing that he would fall into the tiger's mouth as soon as he left the wolf's den, so he had no choice but to go to Jiangling. Just when Xiao Yi was annoyed that Xiao Jin was losing more and more respect for him, he used the reason that King Xiao Jinqin was not active, so he sent people to escort Zhang Zuan to Xiangyang to take office, and ordered Xiao Jin to be dismissed immediately and leave the country, and lead his troops to build the country. King Kangqin.

Xiao Jin usually disliked the one-eyed dragon, and Li Tai was behind him to provide him with military support. In addition, the life and death of the Second Palace of Jiankang was still unknown, so he simply sent people to sneak attack the troops escorting Zhang Zuan in Jiangling halfway, and captured Zhang Zuan. They directly robbed Xiangyang, and also tonsured the uncle and enshrined him in the temple in Xiangyang City.

If there was an undercurrent between them before, but now Xiao Jin dared to directly send troops to attack Jiangling's army, it was undoubtedly a complete rift.

Xiao Yi of Jiangling was furious after hearing the news, but he had already sent Wang Sengbian, the prefect of Jingling, and others to lead an army to Jiankang, so he did not dare to attack Xiangyang directly with a large army.

What followed was the complete fall of Taicheng. Wang Sengbian and others surrendered to Hou Jing, and were later released by Hou Jing. Next, the news reached Jiangling that Emperor Liang Xiao Yan had passed away and that Prince Xiao Gang had ascended the throne with the support of Hou Jing.

Xiao Yu, the governor of Xiangzhou, also showed a lot of disrespect to Jiangling after returning to town, which made Xiao Yi, who was caught between their brothers, even more aware of the crisis. So on the one hand, he appointed his son Xiao Fangju as the governor of Xiangzhou, and made his son Xiao Fang and others lead the leadership. Twenty thousand elite soldiers were sent to Xiangzhou.

On the other hand, Xiao Yi appointed Liu Zhongli, who was also released from Jiankang by Hou Jing and came to Jiangling, as the governor of Yongzhou, hoping to use this strategy to drive away tigers and swallow wolves to get rid of Xiao Qi who was entrenched in Xiangyang.

However, when Liu Zhongli was building Kangcheng, he saw his father in danger and could not help him. How could he be driven by the King of Xiangdong lightly? Although he accepted the appointment given by the Jiangling Military Mansion, he only led his troops to settle down. Lu, other than that, he didn't take any other action. He was probably waiting to see the situation.

Despite this, Liu Zhongli's return to the town also had a considerable impact on Li Tai's Handong strategy.

When Jiankang City was captured at the beginning of the year, many local tycoons were frightened and expressed their willingness to surrender to Jingzhou. However, during that time, Li Tai was still stranded in Guanzhong, but ordered Cui Qian and others to respond to such requests with some comfort and not to rush into any military operations.

However, when Liu Zhongli returned to Anlu to take charge, such voices suddenly disappeared. On the one hand, this is of course because Liu Zhongli is indeed very prestigious, but on the other hand, the Western Wei Dynasty is still not attractive enough to these local tycoons.

However, it is not worth regretting that these wallflowers have ceased to exist. Their previous declaration of affiliation did not necessarily mean that they wanted to accept the rule of the Western Wei Dynasty. They were simply using the support of the Western Wei Dynasty to break away from the rule of Nanliang and gain a certain degree of regional autonomy.

Therefore, if you want to truly seize Handong, you still need to fight, whether it is Liu Zhongli or these local tycoons, or all of them combined.

At the same time, changes also occurred in Hanzhong. Due to the civil unrest in Nanliang, which affected the operation of the Hanshui trade route that had just been opened and started operation, some stakeholders also experienced some instability. Li Qianzhe, a powerful man in Ankang, ordered his younger brother Li Xian to enter the country to complain. It had been a long time since he arrived.

Li Tai had just returned to Jingzhou, and he was faced with such a complicated situation, not counting the backlog of military and political affairs decisions that the state government itself had made due to his departure.

No matter how complicated the situation is, there must be priorities. After understanding all the situation, Li Tai first ordered Commander Shi Cuiqian and Yang Zhong to receive the 10,000 horses that Zhao Gui had brought to Jingzhou to rescue Yingchuan.

Bafu has always been short of troops and supplies. Although the Han River strategy was extremely ambitious, the troops and supplies that could be invested were also very limited.

When Li Tai first took office in Jingzhou, he led about 10,000 soldiers, and more than 3,000 men and horses affiliated with Bafu. The rest were his own private affairs with his generals.

For this strategy of Han River, the Bafu provided 20,000 troops, including the 10,000 troops that Zhao Gui had brought to Jingzhou before, and handed them over to Li Tai to receive them on the spot, and Zhao Gui could return to Guanzhong himself.

In addition, Li Tai brought another 7,000 people directly from Guanzhong, plus the 3,000 people who entered the town before, which was enough for the 20,000 horses assigned to him by the Bafu.

In addition, Daxingtai also generously provided Li Tai with 10,000 shi of military rations. In addition, the rents and transfers of the prefectures and counties under the jurisdiction of the Jingzhou General Administration this year were collected for military use on the spot. All character support given.

These investments were extremely shabby compared with the 200,000 troops invested by the Eastern Wei Dynasty and the year-long consumption of the army in order to conquer Yingchuan City. But the national conditions are such that since you are living in the Western Wei Dynasty, you have to learn to spend small money to do big things.

Putting aside the personal support provided by the Tai government, the power Li Tai can mobilize is his own troops plus the Jingzhou state army and the barbarian soldiers of the barbarian chiefs. If he sweeps the land into troops and the mobilization intensity is maximized, he can mobilize nearly three soldiers. Thousands of horses and horses. But if such extreme mobilization is carried out, Jingzhou's people's livelihood and other aspects of development will basically come to a halt.

Therefore, any power in hand must be used with caution and must not be wasted in unnecessary places. Although Wang Sizheng has been captured by the Eastern Wei Dynasty and headed to Hebei, the rest of the people must also make good use of him.

So Li Tai sent envoys to Quan Jingxuan, Guo Xian and other Wang Sizheng generals, ordering them to retreat and re-defense around Mianbei. Guo Xian and other troops returned to garrison Sanya Road, while Quan Jingxuan withdrew to Biyang, East Jingzhou, and temporarily stayed there with Hou Zhi.

Although the Eastern Wei army had just experienced the long siege of Yingchuan and might not launch any large-scale fierce war in the future, Li Tai was more or less secretly in awe of Murong Shaozong, a famous Eastern Wei general, and worried about this guy They might take advantage of the gap between Jingzhou troops and horses to steal his home, so they guarded several key points from Henan to Mianbei.

Then Li Tai did not directly summon his old friend Cai Dabao, but first introduced Li Xian, Li Qianzhe's younger brother, into the mansion. The overly complicated situation meant that he had to start a small game first and deal with one aspect before calmly dealing with the others.

Happy holidays to the comrades of the People's Liberation Army! ! !