Chapter 822 Yuchi is killed

Chapter 822 Yuchi is killed

When Liang Wang Xiao Zhao received a notice from the city asking him to come in to discuss the attack on Jiangling, he was immediately excited and hurried into the city with several subordinates and followers.

In the lobby of the City Lord's Mansion, Xiao Zhao did not see Zhongshan Gong Yuwen Hu, but was received by another Wei army vanguard general Wu'an Gong Li Mu. In addition, there was another person who surprised him, that is, Li Tai's general Liang Shiyan.

Seeing Liang Shiyan in the hall, Xiao Zhao's face inevitably flashed a little embarrassment.

Liang Shiyan had been stationed in Wuning for a long time, which was also considered to be helping them Xiangyang to guard the southern border. Originally, the Jingzhou General Administration Office had increased its troops in Wuning and reached tens of thousands, which was not inferior to the vanguard troops led by Yuwen Hu. However, because Liang Wang Xiao Zhao led the Xiangyang troops to join Yuwen Hu's side, Liang Shiyan was forced to withdraw from the city and station in the marginal areas.

Liang Shiyan naturally had no good impression of the treacherous and temporary rebel King of Liang Xiaozhao, but the other party was the King of Liang appointed by the court after all, and he would rely on him for the next thing, so he could only stand up and greet him respectfully.

King of Liang knew that he was in the wrong, and after simply perfunctorily greeting Liang Shiyan, he quickly turned his gaze to Li Mu and said with a smile: "Excuse me, Lord Wu'an, where is Lord Zhongshan? My Xiangyang soldiers are ready to fight at any time, eager to kill the great thief of the country, and we can go straight to Jiangling as long as Lord Zhongshan gives an order!"

After hearing this, Li Mu smiled and said: "Your Highness King of Liang hates evil and does not want to live with the thieves for a day. This sentiment is admirable. Lord Zhongshan has other important matters and has no time to come to see you. This time I invite Your Highness King of Liang to come to the palace to discuss matters."

As he spoke, his gaze shifted from the puzzled King of Liang to Liang Shiyan, and said again: "Doesn't Liang Kaifu have a letter to present to Your Highness King of Liang?"

After hearing this, Liang Shiyan He took out a handwritten letter from General Li and handed it to the desk of King Liang, saying in a deep voice: "My master has known about this matter. I will present this letter to His Royal Highness King Liang. My master was fighting outside recently, and it was difficult to communicate with His Royal Highness King Liang in time. Perhaps misunderstandings have arisen because of this. Now that my master has returned to the town, and the pillar of the country, Changshan Gong, has fallen ill during the expedition and authorized my master to lead the expedition army..."

"Is this true?"

After hearing this, the embarrassment on King Liang's face suddenly turned into panic. He hurriedly took the letter with both hands and quickly read it. His face kept changing, but his mind was full of thoughts like a galloping horse, and he couldn't sort out a clue for a long time.

Li Tai's letter did not explain anything important, or threaten or condemn him. It just briefly recounted the experience since they met. King Liang looked at the content of the letter, and the past scenes also emerged in his mind.

After a long while, he lowered his head and sighed deeply: "I was eager to kill my enemies, but I broke the agreement with my good friend. I really let Boshan down. I am really ashamed to meet you. I am willing to retreat back to Xiangyang and wait for Boshan's army to return triumphantly. Please forgive me!"

The power struggle within the Western Wei Dynasty was unknown to the King of Liang, and the change caught him off guard. But it seemed that Li Boshan had won and regained the initiative to conquer Jiangling.

But this was obviously not a good thing for the King of Liang. On the one hand, he had just broken the agreement with Li Boshan, and on the other hand, he felt that Li Boshan was too shrewd and capable, and he was afraid that he would not give him too many opportunities to take advantage of the opportunity. Moreover, Li Boshan had just regained the initiative, and he was afraid that he also needed to establish his authority. Under such circumstances, the King of Liang felt that it was safer to temporarily avoid it and wait and see what happened.

However, how could Liang Shiyan give him a chance to retreat? He immediately took out another letter and handed it to King Liang, saying, "Since Your Highness King Liang has led a large army to the south, Xiangyang must be under defense. Fearing that it would be disturbed by foreign enemies, our Xingzhou fleet came south along the Han River and entered Xiangyang to defend the city for Your Highness King Liang. This letter is sent from behind by Your Highness King Liang's benevolent handwriting. What do you want to do? You should read the letter first before making a decision."

"What? You actually took my Xiangyang!"

When King Liang heard this, he stood up in shock, picked up the letter and read it through. His face suddenly turned ashen, and he glared at Liang Shiyan with wide eyes. Liang Shiyan was not afraid at all, but just looked at King Liang calmly.

After a long time, King Liang sighed dejectedly, bowed his head and said, "What do you want me to do?"

Li Mu and Liang Shiyan looked at each other, and then put forward their request, which was to cooperate with King Liang to control Hou Mochenshun.

Houmochenshun was mainly responsible for supervising the battle of Xiangyang this time. He did not bring many troops with him. After coming south, he had been staying with the Xiangyang army. In order to get better arrangements in the next battle of Jiangling, King Liang had been bribing Houmochenshun with money and silk.

Houmochenshun knew that he was only a foil in the south this time. The overall situation was controlled by Yu Jin, the pillar of the country, and the specific execution was completed by Yuwen Hu and other confidants of Yuwen Taishi. He had little room to play, so he was arranged to supervise Xiangyang troops, a marginal force. Therefore, he did not pursue military exploits too much, and he accepted all the bribes from King Liang with a smile and was happy.

When King Liang personally led his followers to send a batch of money to Houmochenshun today, Houmochenshun did not doubt him, and asked people to invite King Liang and his party into the tent with a happy face.

However, today, swords, knives and sticks were buried under this batch of money and silk. After the Liang Wang's attendants entered the tent, they quickly grabbed the weapons and controlled all the people in the tent.

Then Liang Shiyan also led the armored soldiers to march in, and said to the shocked Hou Mo and Chen Shun: "General Li, Duke of Taiyuan, has taken over the army in Shicheng. I have specially ordered the last general to invite Duke Anping to Shicheng to discuss military affairs."

"Li Boshan, how dare he!"

After hearing this, Hou Mo and Chen Shun suddenly stared and exclaimed in shock. He never expected that the situation would turn around like this.

After Liang Shiyan heard this, he sneered and said, "Why don't we, the loyal and brave men of Jingzhou, dare to conquer other countries and expand borders for our country? Duke Anping is in a position of great importance, but he only has a good reputation. If you ask for bribes too much, you will definitely end up with General Li in vain. Let him decide!"

As brothers Yu Wenhu and Hou Mochen were controlled one after another and sent to Shicheng, Wuning's army was completely controlled by Li Tai. Next, they no longer stagnated, and Li Mu finally became a veritable vanguard. He first led the fine cavalry all the way south, detoured from the west of Jiangling to the river bank, and blocked Jiangjin. As for Liang Shiyan, he sent troops together with the uneasy Liang Wang Xiao Jin and slowly pressed towards Jiangling.

While the control of the frontline armies was handed over quickly and quietly, the struggle in the rear seemed a bit bloody and out of control.

Although the army from the south passed through Rangcheng without entering and went straight south, the military and administrative functions of Rangcheng as the capital of Jingzhou were also deprived and transferred to Xinye where Yuchi Jiong was stationed.

Including those former government officials recruited by Yu Wenhu in the name of Guandong Daxingtai, they were also forced to assist Yuchi Jiong in managing various matters of the Jingzhou General Manager's Office.

It is now October, which is an important time for all parties under the General Manager's Office to pay taxes. It was the right time for Yuchi Jiong to enter the country at this time. He could collect tax materials from all parties on the spot. On the one hand, he would lay a material foundation for taking over the affairs of the Jingzhou capital in a more comprehensive manner in the future. On the other hand, he would also need to raise material supplies for the frontline army. .

In particular, the latter is more important at the moment. Although Yu Wenhu previously provided a plan for the armies to be dispersed and feed on all parties, this was only a flexible power plan after all, not a normal military supply plan.

The armies must eventually gather around Jiangling to launch an attack, and Jiangling is an important town in Jingxiang that Nanliang has operated for many years. It is difficult to predict when it can be conquered. Once the frontline troops are short of food and cause any riots, the consequences will definitely be very fatal.

Therefore, Yuchi Jiong, who stayed behind, also needed to urge all parties under the General Manager's Office to turn over this year's grain supplies as soon as possible, so as to raise enough supplies for the army.

Because the area managed by the Jingzhou General Administration Office is very broad, the management systems implemented in different areas are also different.

The Miobei area under the original rule of Jingzhou was the main place where household equalization of land was implemented, so the amount and date of money and grain handovers were also the most stable. In addition, it was the headquarters itself. Even if the upper-level rulers had changed, the subordinates The administrative management system of the county is still running, so money and food are available as soon as possible.

However, in addition to the developed irrigation system and the considerable scale of agricultural production in the Miobei area, there is another special point, that is, the number of people employed in the handicraft industry is also very large. These handicraft industries also require a huge amount of food consumption and do not produce food themselves. Therefore, they can only obtain food through market transactions and state government subsidies.

The Jingzhou General Administration will purchase a large amount of goods for these workshops. In addition to delivering part of the orders with money and silk, another part will be delivered with the new grain collected that year, so that a public-private balance can be achieved. Some order transactions have already been carried out in the first half of the year, and those workshops have already delivered their products to the state capital. They are just waiting for the balance to be paid with grain this autumn to complete the transaction.

But things have changed in Mianbei this year, and naturally all aspects will be affected, including the final payment for the grain that should be delivered.

When the prefectures and counties in Mianbei successively delivered this autumn's taxes, Yuchijiong was naturally overjoyed to see that the treasury was gradually filling up. He couldn't help feeling grateful that Li Boshan had managed Mianbei well and everything was running in an orderly manner. Make his task easier too.

But soon the creditors from the workshops flocked to Xinye with IOUs from the state government, hoping that the new chief executive Yuchijun would fulfill the previous agreement and pay the balance due. The craftsmen in their respective workshops were still waiting for the rice to be cooked. Woolen cloth.

When he learned that there was such a thing, Yuchi Jiong was a little dumbfounded. With the previous lessons in Shu, he did not dare to treat these debt collectors roughly. Instead, he ordered his cronies to summarize and record these debts, and found that only the grain debts that needed to be delivered within this month were owed. The amount reached hundreds of thousands of stones!

It seems that if these debts are to be paid, the newly filled treasury will be emptied immediately, and the military rations of the frontline soldiers will also disappear!

Of course, Yuchijiong cannot accept this situation, not to mention that these IOUs were signed by the Jingzhou General Manager's Office. At present, he has neither seen those goods nor officially entered the Jingzhou General Manager's Office. How can he take these burdens by force? Upper body!

So he ordered that he was not allowed to meet those who were collecting debts, and that those debts would not be paid, and he asked these people to negotiate with whomever signed the agreement. As for the taxes collected by Jingzhou this year, not a single grain of rice will be used in this regard!

If the old debts of the previous government can be dismissed, then the next thing is within Yuchi Jiong's duties.

Since Mianbei did not have enough food reserves, the armies split their routes southward and ate along the way, which inevitably caused a lot of nuisance to the local area. Especially in Suilu, the nuisance is even more serious.

Suilu has not yet carried out a relatively thorough household registration and land granting, and many county governors are simply held by powerful local families. They have become accustomed to obeying the management of General Li and the General Manager of Jingzhou over the years, but they are relatively unfamiliar with the newcomer Yuchi Jiongze.

When the armies from the Western Wei Dynasty came to the south, they divided their routes and lived in different places. Those who suffered the most troubles and losses were these rich local tycoons, and they took over the local administrative responsibilities.

Although he didn't dare to clash with the army in person, he couldn't swallow it secretly, so he thought of running to Mianbei to file a complaint, hoping that the Jingzhou General Manager's Office would uphold justice for them. But when they arrived in Mianbei, they discovered that things had changed here. General Li was still not in the town, and the Jingzhou General Manager's Office didn't even have a person in charge, so they had no choice but to head to Xinye and ask Yuchi Jiong, the newly appointed general. The left-behind commanders could provide them with shelter.

It happened that Yuchi Jiong was also looking for these people and asked them why all the money and grain from the counties in the north of Mianbei had been delivered to the treasury, but there was still no movement among them in Suilu?

Yuchi Jiong also learned from the former staff of the General Manager's Office that there were differences in the management of Mianbei and Suilu by the General Manager's Office, but in his opinion, this was nothing more than Li Boshan's move to win people's hearts.

The land east of the Han Dynasty had been obtained for several years, but the old method was still adopted. It was really unreasonable. It was time to take advantage of the moment when the army was passing through and frightening all parties to implement the new method, not only to solve the military needs, but also to establish his authority.

As for whether it would arouse resistance from these local tycoons, Yuchijiong was not worried about this. He did not come alone. Although the entire 60,000 elite army was mainly to attack Jiangling, it was more than enough to deter the powerful Suilu forces who were close at hand. Moreover, some of the more powerful ones who followed the mainland were sent to Huainan by Li Boshan, so those who were left behind probably wouldn't have the guts to cause any trouble.

Therefore, Yuchijiong not only failed to uphold justice for these powerful people as they expected, but instead detained them, reprimanded them severely, and ordered them to transport money and food to Xinye quickly. Otherwise, if he waited until he led an army to patrol the countryside, , not only will the punishment be increased, but they will even be deprived of their official positions!

Naturally, such a crude approach inevitably caused complaints. Whether it was the workshop owners who were refused to pay their debts or the rich people in Suilu who were extorted for money and food, they all frowned and were gradually gathered in Hongbin Tower in Rangcheng by interested people.

Hongbin Building is the official guest house of Jingzhou Governor's Mansion. In addition, it also receives customers from the outside. Now that the Jingzhou General Manager's Office has been completely shut down, there is naturally no official guest reception task, and it has become a lively news distribution center in the city.

"Brother Xu Shi, how are you injured?"

In Hongbin Building, someone looked at a young man who was walking slightly lame and asked.

The young man's name was Xu Huaizong, who came from a powerful family in Anlu. His elders served as officials in the countryside, while he took care of the workshop industry in Mianbei. Xu Huaizong was also unlucky. First he went to Xinye to ask for the remaining money and was kicked out. Soon after, Yuchi Jiong was arrested and tortured in the city because he demanded money and food from the powerful men in Suilu. The family members urgently sold the products of the workshop in exchange for money and silk. Then he redeemed it.

Hearing his friend's question, Xu Huaizong suddenly looked sad and angry. He couldn't help but cursed in a low voice: "Although he is not dead yet, with that stupid official in charge, his livelihood will be difficult! I am here today, I want to know when will General Li return? Are we going to continue to allow these ignorant officials to do evil in the country and destroy the old peace of Jingzhou? "

After everyone heard this, they couldn't help but sigh. Most of them gathered here for this purpose, and each of them was harmed like the young man Xu Huaizong, and some were even worse than Xu Huaizong.

"I heard from an old official in the state that General Li's achievements were too great and he was jealous and framed by traitors in the country, so he sent tens of thousands of troops and the traitor Wei Chi to seize power while the general was out on an expedition. If he didn't go out, Unexpectedly, I am afraid that it will be difficult for General Li to return to the town to manage affairs, and the current mismanagement will continue..."

"I'm afraid it's not the worst case scenario right now! Do you know who this Yuchi Jiong is? He is the general who led an army to attack Shuzhong and massacre the city in Chengdu. It is said that there were corpses everywhere in Chengdu, and there were countless casualties. Even that The Jinjiang River is swollen with blood. Now that he has come to Mianbei, what good can the people of Mianbei expect?"

Everyone in the building was talking about the situation they had learned from various channels, but the more they listened, the colder they became. It seemed that the good days in Mianbei were coming to an end!

Just when the masses were pessimistic and depressed, some people were indignant and yelled: "General Li is wise in governing affairs and the masses are working hard to achieve the peaceful and prosperous situation in Mianbei today. Do we really want to let these evil thieves go?" We, the villagers, have no courage to defend our homeland. How can we expect anyone to save us?"

"If Yuchi Jiong is the only one, why should we be afraid? When the common man is angry, he lays two corpses down and bleeds for five steps! But now tens of thousands of troops have entered the country. If they are angered, those warriors will do evil in the countryside and massacre the people. !”

Someone sighed again.

"What about tens of thousands of troops? All those troops went south, but few stayed in Mianbei. Now that General Li has been exiled, a certain class of countrymen have been favored for many years and don't know how to repay them. Now they have gathered together to attack and kill Evil disciples, welcome the general back to the town! With General Li, a famous general who has always led the countrymen to resist the enemy, there is no need to be afraid!"

Suddenly someone shouted again, and the originally noisy environment in the hall suddenly became silent. Everyone looked around in fear, not daring to continue the discussion, and each stood up and left in a hurry.

Although the gathering here dispersed, many small-scale gatherings appeared in other places in the city, and everyone who attended was full of indignation and determination.

On this day, Yuchi Jiong led a group of soldiers to leave Xinye and inspect a warehouse south of Rangcheng. He was going to report the results of the supplies he had collected during this period to the front line and asked Yu Jin to arrange for soldiers to come and transport them. Get to the front.

He was still carefully checking the inventory here, when suddenly a subordinate came to report that there seemed to be signs of large groups of people moving a few miles to the west. When Yuchijiong heard this, his brows suddenly furrowed, and he quickly arranged for people to go to investigate. He also walked out of the warehouse and inspected the defenses here.

Before the dispatched men and horses returned, smoke suddenly rolled in from the direction of Rangcheng in the north. Yuchijiong was shocked when he saw this. This was clearly a sign of a large group of men and horses galloping in!

After Yuchi Jong thought for a moment, he immediately led his soldiers and rushed out of Cangcang City, preparing to go to Xinye and other places to mobilize troops to deal with changes. However, when he rushed out of Cangcheng, he saw large groups of people emerging from the countryside. These people were not well-armed, and they all waved simple weapons and staffs, but they were all filled with indignation, and their ferocious expressions were frightening.

"What is going on? Who is inciting the people to cause trouble?"

Yuchi looked at the noisy crowd rushing toward the formation. It could be said that there were at least tens of thousands of people. However, there were only a few hundred soldiers around him this time. Even including the troops stationed in Cangcheng, the number was less than two thousand. Apart from those In addition to the agitated mob that was difficult to deal with, it was also difficult to guard against the people and horses galloping from the north.

The rebels were coming very quickly. When Yuchijiong was about to ride around the rebels and call for reinforcements, the cavalry team from the north also appeared in his field of vision. The leader, Yuchijiong, looked familiar, but he couldn't remember it for a while. Seeing that these armored soldiers were well-armed but had no obvious signs, he still guessed that this was probably Li Boshan's back-up plan.

"You, the thieves, are robbing the people and want to cause trouble for your lord, Li Boshan!"

While shouting and cursing loudly, he led his troops to go around and prepare to avoid the enemy's edge.

Li Xiaoyong did not answer, but just ordered: "Kill, no one will be left alive!"

Following his order, thousands of elite soldiers behind him rushed forward on horseback, chasing and fighting with Yuchi Jiong's men. Yuchi Jiong and his troops were naturally very brave, but due to the haste of the incident, they were attacked without enough time to make adequate preparations. They did not even have basic bows and arrows and armor, so they naturally suffered heavy casualties.

"My lord, please go first, I will stay here to stop the enemy!"

Seeing that nearly half of his own troops were dead and wounded, but the pursuing enemy still had not escaped, Yuchi Jiong's captain raised his sword across his hand and shouted loudly, preparing to use his life to stop the enemy for Yuchi Jiong.

As these people stopped fleeing and stopped fighting to the death, Li Xiaoyong and other pursuers were also stopped. Yuchijiong knew that there was no point in staying, so he could only grit his teeth and continue to ride at a fast pace towards Xinye. He also secretly thought that with such a big chaos, the people left behind in Xinye would definitely be too. Be alert, as long as they arrive, you will be saved.

However, there were too many chaotic people in the wilderness, and Yuchi Jiong could not resist it alone. He could only try his best to avoid and take detours. Suddenly, without warning, the front hooves of his horse fell steeply into a pit in the wilderness. Without noticing, Yuchi Jiong also fell off his horse and rolled into the ravine ahead.

The nearest group of rioters was still several miles away. Yuchi stood up in embarrassment, returned to his mount and tried hard to pull the horse's feet out of the mud pit, and then got on the horse and left before the rioters rushed up. However, the more anxious he became, the more chaotic he became. He used all his strength here, but the horse's feet sank deeper and deeper under the struggle of the horse.

"The Yuchi dog thief is here, kill him!"

A team of rioters had already rushed forward, each waving their bamboo and wooden staffs and surrounding them. When Yuchijiong saw this, he also gave up his efforts. He pulled out the saber from his waist and placed it across his chest. But suddenly there was a sudden sound of wind from the side. He looked sideways and saw a flying stone coming towards him, and he hurriedly lowered his head to avoid it.

The boulder brushed against the back of Yuchijiong's head, but immediately more earth and rocks hit him. Before he could turn around, Yuchijiong was submerged. Sticks, sticks and hoes rained down on him, and gradually his body became silent.