Chapter 802 The Sense of Overlord
Since the Wuhu rebellion and Yiguan's southward migration, Jingkou has become one of the important towns in Jiang defense. It has deterred the three Wus internally and checked all parties in Huainan externally. From this, the famous Beifu soldiers were born, and Emperor Wu of the Southern Dynasties and Song Dynasty emerged. Liu Yu is a great hero of his generation.
Today, the people guarding Jiangling are also outstanding people of the generation. Even Chen Baxian's life experience is quite similar to Liu Yu's, but the situation Chen Baxian faces is a bit worse than Liu Yu's. People in the country are divided and there are constraints everywhere. Outside, there are powerful enemies directly approaching the river. Even the important town in Jiangbei, which is mutually exclusive with Jingkou, has been lost.
Without Jingkou, which echoes Guangling, its strategic value and river defense functions have been reduced by more than half. Standing here will not accomplish much. This is unbearable for Chen Baxian, a late bloomer and ambitious hero. of.
Whether it is for the future of himself and his subordinate generals, or the safety of the people in Jiangdong, Chen Baxian also needs to capture Guangling to consolidate Jiang's defense and further obtain a large base to enter Huainan.
Therefore, since entering the town of Jingkou, Chen Baxian has continuously launched attacks on Guangling overtly and covertly, either sending people to instigate soldiers and people to rebel against the city, or personally leading his troops across the river to besiege the city.
However, due to the lack of positive attitude of the Jiangling generals, and the fact that Liang Emperor Xiao Yi did not want to completely turn against the Northern Qi Dynasty, Chen Baxian was also restrained and could not fully display his strength. After several attacks, he could only look at the Guangling Fort and was helpless.
This time, when Wang Sengbian's army defeated Guo Yuanzhen in Hefei, Chen Baxian also sent people here to successfully instigate the powerful Dongfang Bai'e in Jiangbei Suyu City, and sent Du Senming to the north to Suyu to coordinate the defense. After cutting off the southern route of the Northern Qi reinforcements, Chen Baxian led his army across the river again and besieged Guangling City.
At the same time, Yan Chaoda, the governor of Qinzhou who was stationed in Qin County, also took the opportunity to launch an attack on Jingzhou occupied by the Northern Qi Dynasty. Hou Qi, the governor of Southern Yuzhou, and Zhang Biao, the governor of Wu County, also cooperated, making this counterattack unlikely. It got up with great momentum.
But this is just a look. The people in Yan Chaoda's city have been harassed by the Qi army for a long time. Although they have fighting spirit, their fighting power is limited. They have been besieging Jingzhou for a long time but it is difficult to conquer it. Hou Yi and Zhang Biao each had a large number of supporters, but they only stayed away from the battlefield to build up their momentum, but did not participate in the actual war.
For Chen Baxian, there is another fatal problem, which is the lack of food and grass. He led his army across the river in January and besieged the city for more than two months. Because Guangling City was tall and strong, and the Qi army in the city had a tenacious fighting spirit, no breakthrough results were achieved after a long attack. On the contrary, the grain and grass he carried gradually declined. insufficient.
Zhang Biao of Wu County did carry a lot of food and grass. Chen Ba first sent someone to borrow it, but he was refused. He said that because he had a large number of people in his headquarters, he also needed enough food and grass to prepare, but he just waited and watched for his many people. Zhan never mentioned it.
Huainan has already suffered many raids, and local supplies are simply not possible. In desperation, Chen Baxian could only send people back to Jiangnan to raise food and grass. However, the places he controlled such as Jingkou and Jinling had also been raided by the rebel army for a long time. Only by going south to his hometown Wuxing County further away, he finally managed to raise 20,000 shi of food and grass with his reputation and support from the village. Keep fighting.
However, before the 20,000 stones of military rations could be transported out of Wuxing County, they were detained by Du Gong, the prefect of Wu County. Even his subordinates and several of his disciples were arrested together, and they were detained in a coercive village. The crime of robbing the villagers.
Chen Baxian was very angry about this. When he went north from Lingnan, he carried 500,000 shi of military rations. Because Wang Sengbian and other armies were short of food, he directly distributed 300,000 shi of rations to the armies with the overall situation in mind. As a result, after Hou Jing's rebellion was settled, the generals in Jiangling ostracized him because he was not a direct descendant of the military government. Wang Sengbian's close followers like Du Gong were not angry with him and other Yi Wang Sengbian and repeatedly made things difficult for him.
If it were just a small fight on a daily basis, Chen Baxian would have tolerated it, but the 20,000 shi of military rations were urgently needed by the tens of thousands of troops in Jiangbei, and Du Gong dared to withhold them without releasing them, which shows his arrogance.
So he ordered his general Hou Andu to stay here and command the army, while he personally led a group of troops across the Yangtze River to prepare to teach Du Gong a lesson. As soon as he returned to the town, his subordinates who stayed behind came to tell Wang Sengbian's son, Wang Pang, and his officers were visiting and were waiting in the city.
Chen Baxian was about to go find Wang Sengbian's son-in-law for trouble, but he didn't expect his son to arrive first, so he immediately ordered the people to be brought in.
"Junior Wang Fan, I would like to pay my respects to Uncle Shi. I was at General Li's office in Taiyuan, Mianbei Province, but I didn't have time to receive his teachings in person. Now I come to pay my respects to Uncle Shi. I sincerely ask for your forgiveness."
When Wang Huan saw Chen Ba, he first bowed respectfully. The two families had not had any friendship before, but they had formed a lot of friendship during the pacification of the Hou Jing Rebellion, and they were engaged to each other, but their children were both married. Of course, they couldn't get married immediately since they were not yet weaned, but Chen Baxian was considered Wang Fan's elder, so they had to meet each other with courtesy.
Seeing that Wang Fan was still polite, Chen Baxian's gloomy expression improved slightly. He gave a few words of encouragement and then turned his attention to Li Zhen, who was walking into the hall with him. After a brief look, he asked with a smile: "This gentleman is very handsome, but I don't know which family he belongs to?"
Wang Fan stood up and quickly introduced Li Zhen's identity to Chen Baxian. Li Zhen also stepped forward, bowed deeply to Chen Baxian as a gift, and handed over the letter that his uncle Li Tai ordered him to give to Chen Baxian with both hands.
Chen Ba first heard that Li Zhen was the envoy from Mianbei, and his face suddenly showed surprise.
Although he was invincible in all the battles in Lingnan, he did not dare to neglect Li Tai, who defeated a series of famous generals from the north and south such as Murong Shaozong and Liu Zhongli. He first responded politely and invited the two of them to take a seat in the hall, and then with a serious face After opening Li Tai's letter and browsing it, the surprise on his face became even stronger.
"It's really an honor for me to be known by General Li despite my humble name!"
After reading the letter, Chen Baxian put away the shock on his face, looked at Li Zhen and said: "General Li has the world in mind, and he is so concerned about the war in Jiangbei. Unfortunately, the war here is not going smoothly, and the people of Qi are still The arrogance is difficult to control, which makes General Li, a famous general in the world, laugh. But General Li's army is far away in Mianbei, so why is he eager to interfere in the war here? "
"My uncle told the younger generation Chen Sikong that although we are both righteous and evil thieves, we are involved in two countries after all. If we only say that we work together for righteousness, I am afraid it will not be trustworthy. It is absolutely impossible for Qi thieves to have a feud with our country. A friendly country. Previously, my uncle led his army to kill the traitor general Murong Shaozong on the Huaihe River, and gained the support of Yiyang. The eastern thieves often resented this, and sent envoys to the west to Jiangling, spreading rumors to confuse the emperor of the Liang family. They want to conspire to seize our border town..."
When Chen Baxian heard this, his expression suddenly changed. The previous time he failed to siege Guangling, he was hindered by Northern Qi's hypocritical peace talks. This time, he had obvious advantages, but he didn't want to encounter such a troublesome thing again. Before Li Zhen finished speaking, He quickly looked at Wang Ban and asked quickly: "Does Lieutenant Wang know about this?"
After Wang Fan heard this, he shook his head and said, "After the battle at Dongguan ended, my father returned to Jiankang, and there was a communication blockage between him and Xifu. It was also only after Governor Li came in to speak that he knew about this."
After hearing this answer, Chen Baxian's expression improved slightly. If Wang Sengbian knew about it but didn't tell him, and still allowed him to fight hard in Guangling, then he really had ulterior motives.
However, the current situation is not optimistic. Once the Jiangling court and Northern Qi reach a consensus, his attack on Guangling will once again withdraw his troops and return without success.
At present, Li Tai from Mianbei proposed that he would attack Hefei and block the Northern Qi reinforcements that might appear in the middle for Nanliang. He just hoped that Chen Baxian could insist on taking Guangling City.
This was naturally a great help to Chen Baxian, and it was a good thing that he had never dreamed of. He also knew that Wang Sengbian had wanted to cede Hefei and other places a few days ago in order to ask Li Tai to send troops to attack the Qi army with him, but was rejected, but he did not expect that the other party would now take the initiative to discuss the matter with him.
Now the war in Jiangbei has fallen into a stalemate, the army has become exhausted after a long battle, and reinforcements from the Qi people will arrive at no time. If Li Tai, a general from the Western Wei Dynasty, strongly joins the Huainan battle at this time, and is on the side to help him, this will definitely boost morale!
Although it was only their first contact with each other, Chen Baxian could not think of any reason for Li Tai to deceive him. Even if his army did not go out, he was just a senior teacher who had withdrawn. On the contrary, if they cannot capture Guangling, Mianbei may suffer retaliation from Northern Qi.
The only difficult thing about this matter is what the Jiangling court means. If His Majesty the Emperor intends to liaise with the Northern Qi Dynasty, but ends up capturing Guangling here, it will inevitably undermine the established national policy and may be criticized by Jiangling.
However, this thought only fleetingly passed through Chen Baxian's mind. If he had some ideals of helping the country when he led his army from Lingnan to the north of Qinwang, now he has seen through it. It is better to rely on oneself for everything. !
If you continue to stick to Jiangling's laws and restrain your hands in everything, you will only sink with the already declining Daliang Guozuo, and there will never be a revival! And if Guangling can be captured in one fell swoop, the situation before Chen Baxian will suddenly become clearer, and how Jiangling reacts is actually not that important.
"Although General Li doesn't praise me for his righteousness, this act of righteousness has touched the heavens. If his wish can come true, all Jiangdong elders will be grateful! He is an ordinary man in the first place. Since he has been favored, he should work hard to achieve this plan together!"
After pondering for a while, Chen Baxian expressed his position directly, and then pointed to his head and said to Li Zhen: "Please ask Governor Li to cross the river with a certain person to join the army in the future. After General Li captures Hefei, if I don't break Guangling, If you want to return, please behead this unjust person and return it to General Li!"