Chapter 652 The Gate of Loyalty

Chapter 652 The Gate of Loyalty

In early September, the Chinese and Foreign Affairs Office issued the specific schedule of the expedition to the General Manager of Jingzhou, and Li Tai was about to lead his troops to officially go on the expedition.

This time, the Chinese and Foreign Affairs Office did not issue specific recruitment tasks to Jingzhou. The order only said that you should try your best, which means that while ensuring the stability of the defense zone, of course, the more troops the better.

The situation in the area under the jurisdiction of Jingzhou General Administration is relatively stable. The Shannan area is guarded by the local powerful Li family of Ankang and the Kaifu Linghu Yanbao, Quan Zhongzun, Yu Wenqiu and many other people. Even if the local Qiang barbarians intend to cause trouble, they will not be able to overturn it. What a storm.

As for the Handong area, because Li Tai thoroughly disgraced Liu Zhongli through public trials, both the people and the local garrison forces were much more obedient to the general administration. Coupled with Li Tai's comfort and preferential treatment to the local powerful people, Handong has now had positive personnel interactions with the Miobei area, and there is no atmosphere of confrontation at all.

If there are any hidden dangers that need attention under the entire General Administration, they come from the external area bordering Nanliang.

Since the beginning of this year, some new changes have taken place in the local power and order in Nanliang.

First of all, Xiao Lun, the king of Shaoling who fled to Jiangxia from the Sanwu area, gradually established a foothold. Not long ago, he also disintegrated a local military conspiracy against him in Yingzhou, Nanliang. It seems that he has regarded Jiangxia as his new home base. In business.

However, Xiao Laoliu's good days are gone for a few more days, because something happened downstream again. Xiao Fan, the king of Poyang, who had voluntarily abandoned the important town of Hefei, was trapped in the Jian River. After moving to Huancheng, he had an enmity with Xiao Daxin, the king of Xunyang who was sitting in Jiangzhou on the other side of the river.

Xiao Daxin is the second son of Xiao Gang, the current puppet emperor of the Jiankang court. He and King Poyang are attacking each other, and neither side has the energy to attack Hou Jing downstream. After all, it was Xiao Daxin who took advantage of the landlords and blocked the trade in Jiangzhou, leaving Xiao Fan's tens of thousands of troops with nothing to eat. Xiao Fan died of grief and anger, and his subordinates were also torn apart.

At this time, Hou Jing had already controlled the Sanwu area and was transferring his troops to the west. Taking advantage of the two towns to attack, he ordered his general Ren Yue and others to attack Jiangzhou.

Xunyang King Xiao Daxin still had two thoughts because his father was now the emperor in Beijing. After the battle was unfavorable, he surrendered from the state, allowing Hou Jing's power to advance to Jiangzhou, and the next target was to invade Jiangxia just now Soon after, Xiao Lun, the king of Shaoling.

Even without the advance of Hou Jing's rebellious army, Jiang Xia's life would have been difficult.

Li Tai had communicated with Jiangling about the issue of Xiao Laoliu a few days ago, but it just happened that Xiao Ji, the King of Wuling in Shu, sent his son Xiao Yuanzhao to lead 30,000 troops eastward out of Shu. In the name of obeying Xiao Yi's control, in fact Wait and see to test.

Xiao Yi first dissuaded the troops from Shu and resettled them in Baidi City, and then took advantage of Ren Yue and other rebels to invade the west. He ordered Wang Sengbian to lead 10,000 troops to go east along the river, in the name of fighting Ren Yue, but in reality the main purpose was to fight against Ren Yue. Still in order to seize Jiangxia, he also announced that he would move Shaoling King Xiao Lun to Changsha to serve as the governor of Xiangzhou.

It's just that when he sent troops to attack Xiao Yu in Changsha before, he just declared that I, uncle, want to discipline this naughty little boy like you.

Xiao Liang and other vassal kings along the Yangtze River interacted very lively, but in fact the most important personnel change this year and the most profound impact on the situation in the south of the Yangtze River was not them. The Lingnan area is about to reach the most turbulent area in Jiangnan!

Of course, this matter is still quite far away from Li Tai. Chen Baxian's group of old Lingnan cousins ​​are far from enough to become the opponents of Jingzhou General Manager's Office in terms of geography and strength.

Although there are currently no hidden war dangers inside or around that are enough to contain the movements of Li Tai's army, Li Tai does not plan to invest too much manpower and material resources in this time's eastward and northward expedition.

He only organized 5,000 elite infantry and cavalry. As for the generals, he brought Gao Le, Shi Jing, Dou Yi and Guo Xian who were still in charge of Sanya Road. The rest were a group of trusted generals such as Shuofeng and his nephews. , let these young men go north to Heluo to see the world, especially to feel the powerful fighting power of the elite Jinyang soldiers of the Northern Qi Dynasty, and to temper their impatience.

Before leaving, Li Tai arranged the military and political tasks of the General Manager's Office.

Various industrial and agricultural production and commercial activities within the territory must continue to promote development. For example, the strategic Shuzhong trade that Li Qianzhe is responsible for must spare no effort to support it. Cui Qian has been in charge of the palace for a long time, and of course he knows the priorities of various internal affairs. Li Tai is relatively relieved about this.

As for the military, since most of the people in Jingzhou still stay in charge of the town, they can still adapt to changes even if any changes occur. There is nothing that needs special emphasis.

Therefore, Li Tai only ordered Hou Mo Chen Qiong, who succeeded the governor of Fangcheng, to urge the troops not to relax in daily drills, and at the same time not to short-circuit the personnel supplies of Yiyang, Sanguan, Anzhou, Yingzhou and other important border defense towns.

In mid-September, Li Tai personally led 5,000 cavalry northward into Sanya Road, and met up with Guo Xian's troops in Luyang. After a short rest, he sent Gao Le to lead 1,000 cavalry to attack eastward with Guo Xian. Xiangcheng.

"Excuse me, General, there are not many men and horses dispatched for this expedition. We should rush into Yishui with elite troops and win by surprise. Why do we have to separate here and attack Xiangcheng? Are we going to attack other cities in Henan?"

Hearing that Li Tai had made such an arrangement, the governor of the tent standing next to him, Shuifeng, couldn't help but ask. Several other young confidants also looked suspicious, obviously having the same doubts.

Li Tai led them to broaden their horizons and experience. After hearing this, he pointed out the map and explained: "Xiangcheng is a key place to control Henan. In the past, our army was self-reliant in the north of Mianyang, and we only needed to defend Sanya. Even if there were strong troops wandering around in Henan, they would not disturb us. Now, we are advancing north through this, and Xiangcheng is a key place to defend our advance and retreat. We can eliminate the disturbances from the side and guard the road to avoid losing our advance and retreat."

This principle is still relatively simple. Li Tai explained it briefly, and all his trusted disciples could understand it. But then someone asked: "Since you know that you need to divide your troops to guard the fortress, why don't you use more people and horses before you go? If everyone is divided, I'm afraid that the combat power will be insufficient when we reach the front line!"

This time, the question was asked by Li Tai's eldest nephew, Li Yuxiang, the son of his cousin Li Pei, who also looked at his uncle with curiosity.

"The Three Crows Road is a strange way of fighting. If you use more men and horses, the logistics and baggage will inevitably be bloated and complicated, and the advance and retreat will be slow. In addition, there are many barbarians in this area. When they see a large army entering here, they will gather in the mountains and set up barriers to defend themselves. One or two barbarian tribes are not a concern, but if the group is frightened, their movements will be restricted. Barbarians are easily agitated and difficult to calm down. It is more convenient to send envoys to persuade them than to gather them to attack them." Before, Li Tai also had a temper that he was strong and unscrupulous, so he would never take the mountain barbarians seriously. However, as he took charge of the military and political affairs of a region, he had to consider the cost-effectiveness of marching strategies more and more. The barbarians have been migrating and multiplying in this mountainous area for hundreds of years. There are countless barbarian tribes distributed in the dense mountains. It is impossible to kill them all. Killing too many will deepen the hatred. Therefore, when you can communicate, you should try to maintain peace and kill a few troublemakers. Even if you kill all these barbarians at the cost of manpower and money, who will be sent to live and develop in this vast mountainous area? In the end, it was just to clear the field for other barbarian tribes.

After Gao Le and others left, they led their elite cavalry back the next day, while Guo Xian led his troops to temporarily garrison Xiangcheng. The reason why the battle ended so quickly and the city was captured was not because the soldiers of Jingzhou were particularly brave, but because Xiangcheng itself was almost undefended.

After the Battle of Yingchuan last year, the Eastern Wei left Murong Shaozong in Henan to take over the land of Henan. But after a long battle, Henan could not provide Murong Shaozong with enough supplies, so Murong Shaozong led his army south, but was defeated by Li Tai in Shouyang and drowned.

As for the remaining troops, some of them fled to Huainan and were incorporated by Li Bomu, the governor of Hezhou, and some were under the control of Xin Shu, the governor of the Southeast Road of Northern Qi, and the rest were scattered in various areas of Henan.

At present, the Northern Qi did not have a strong commander in Henan. There was only one governor of Northern Yuzhou, Feng Zihui, who was guarding Hulao as a representative of the Hebei tyrants. As for other prefectures and counties in Henan, most of them were appointed by local tyrants, so there were no strong troops in the local area.

With Xiangcheng temporarily captured, the scouts sent by Li Tai to investigate Yichuan also brought back a team of troops, led by Li Renjie, the nephew of Li Yisun, the founder of the government.

Li Renjie was in his early twenties. When he saw Li Tai, he knelt on the ground and cried: "I finally waited for the general to lead the army north and return to Yiluo. My uncle was ordered to guard Fuliu City, but was besieged by the strong army of the Eastern Bandits. He fled to the mountains and died of his injuries. Fortunately, with the help of the righteous men in the south of Yi, I and my relatives were saved..."

Before the Eastern Wei army besieged Yingchuan last year, in order to prevent the surrounding Western Wei forces from rescuing Yingchuan, they focused on sweeping the Heluo area, and Li Yisun was stationed in Fuliu City at that time and was also among the clearing.

After hearing this, Li Tai was also quite sad. He had fought side by side with Li Yisun between He and Luo before, and had seen the high reputation he had among the barbarians between Yi and Luo, but he didn't expect that the farewell before would become a farewell forever.

"The family of loyalty and righteousness is not only protected by the heroic spirits of our ancestors, but the court will never ignore the heroic sentiments of this family!"

Li Tai hurriedly stepped forward to help Li Renjie up, and patted his shoulder to comfort him: "The loyalty and righteousness have been preserved, and you can follow the army and kill the enemy happily!"

Although their family is only a powerful family in Yichuan, they have also served the Western Wei for many years like Shangluoquan. Li Renjie's grandfather Li Changshou, father Li Yansun and uncle Li Yisun all died in the battle with the Eastern Wei. It can indeed be said that they are full of loyal heroes.