Chapter 831 Great Reward for the Troops

Chapter 831 Great Reward for the Troops

As soon as these words came out, the atmosphere that had relaxed slightly suddenly became tense again. Everyone held their breath and concentrated, looking down at Li Tai's expression with squinting eyes.

Li Tai was stunned when he heard this question. After entering the city, he also met many Nanliang civil and military officials. However, after seeing him, these people not only flattered him to the best of their ability, but also raced against time to ask questions about their respective fortunes and the fate of the families behind them. As for the questions about the fate of Emperor Liang Xiao Yi, this was the first time they heard him. .

It seems that Nanliang is not full of people who are full of personal agendas and have no integrity. There are still a few ministers with integrity.

After thinking about it, he looked down at Zhou Hongzheng and said: "It is indeed a pity that the Lord Liang failed to kill his country. But since God has not killed him yet, I will not harm him rashly. But he abandoned his people first, Then we and other Wei soldiers entered the city. It is human nature for Zhou Shangshu to feel sorry for his old master, and it is unkind to blame him. However, if you just dwell on the past and resist the general trend, you will die!"

"Hongzheng also heard about General Li's benevolent and righteous actions outside the city. It was not unexpected that Jiangling was in danger and difficult to defend, and the city and territory were lost. The people who came to occupy it were the benevolent and righteous troops commanded by General Li. This is also the heaven's mercy on Jiangling. Soldiers and civilians, if you are still stubborn and resist, you are going against the will of God and destroying the world! Although Hongzheng is unruly and ugly, he also deeply appreciates General Li's kindness and justice. It is an honor for a certain class of people who have survived this disaster!"

After Zhou Hongzheng heard Li Tai's answer, he bowed to him again and then stepped aside. When everyone around them saw this, they all breathed a sigh of relief.

The capture of Gangneung was not the end of an event for Li Tai, but a new beginning. After occupying the city, he issued an edict to appease the soldiers and people in the city, telling them to stay at home and not to go out into the city easily. A curfew was implemented in the city, but other than that, daily life should remain as before.

Although Jiangling itself was under control, there were still some nearby cities and strongholds occupied by the Liang people, and they were still well armed.

Among them, the closest one to Jiangling is Matoudu, which is only across the river from Jiangling. Ma Tou Du is located on the south bank of the Yangtze River, opposite Jiangjin. Two troops, including Liang generals Xu Shipu and Ren Yue, are stationed there.

As early as Li Mu led the elite cavalry to the south to occupy Jiangjin, Liang Jun of Ma Toudu tried to move north to recapture Jiangjin and restore the connection with Jiangling City. However, most of these two tribes were reorganized from the Shu army that was defeated at the mouth of the gorge when King Wuling Xiao Jidong came out. Although they were able to control boats and were proficient in water warfare, their combat effectiveness in land attacks was only so-so. Several attempts to land on the beach were repelled by Li Mu, and the city gates of Jiangling City were closed before, making it difficult to achieve effective cooperation with the beach grabbing troops. Therefore, this detachment could only be trapped at Ma Tou Ferry on the south bank. Can move north to support Jiangling.

There is another Nanliang army at the mouth of the gorge to the west. The commander is Xiao Shao, the king of Changsha in Nanliang. He is also the army that was driven out of Badong by He Ruodun and Li Qianzhe.

With the fall of Jiangling City, Li Tai sent Li Mu to lead his troops westward to join forces with Li Qianzhe and others who had entered Badong to attack this army in order to disarm Nanliang in the upper reaches of Jiangling.

As the waters of Yunmengze receded and dried up, many large and small tidal flats and islands appeared around Gangneung. There are hundreds of so-called Zhijiang Islands. Some of these river islands also have certain military value, so some fortifications and fortifications were set up. The garrison can be said to be part of Jiangling city defense. When Jiangling is attacked, these Hezhou garrison can also play a certain defensive and containment effect.

However, Li Tai led too many men and horses, which could not be restrained by just a few hundred soldiers in Hezhou. Jiangling City was breached so quickly that these Hezhou defenses had no effect at all. .

After Jiangling City was under control, Li Tai sent his generals and troops to attack these Hezhou city garrison. It only took a few days to capture Jiangling, but it took ten days to dismantle the fortifications.

This is because some river islands are the family properties passed down from generation to generation by the garrison generals in the city. Their lives and property are all here. If they lose, it means losing everything. Of course, they have to fight to the death.

When these Hezhou city garrison were captured and demolished one after another, there were no longer any strongholds garrisoned by the Nanliang army on the entire north bank of the river. Xiao Shao, the king of Changsha who was stationed at the mouth of the xiakou, also showed the usual skill of the Xiao family. When the army led by Li Mu had just arrived at the mouth of the xiakou, he directly abandoned the camp at the mouth of the xiakou, went boating on the river and sent envoys to ask for surrender. After getting Li Mu's promise to guarantee his personal safety, he went ashore and surrendered, and all the garrison at the pass also disarmed.

At the same time, Li Qianzhe, who had already stationed in Badong, also sent a boat to the east, made contact with the troops attacking Jiangling, and completely opened the river channel from Sichuan to Jiangling.

After Li Tai encouraged Li Qianzhe, he sent him back to the Xiakou to guard. The opening of the gorge channel was also of great significance to him. He Ruodun, Li Qianzhe and other armies that had previously been sent into the Bashu area and now controlled the Sanba area were no longer fighting alone, and were finally connected with Jingxiang. .

If it was said that a good relationship with Yu Wengui was needed before to ensure control in Badi, then now Yu Wengui, who is guarding the Chengdu Plain, will look at Li Tai in turn. Once they turn against each other, the city of Chengdu will be surrounded by Jingzhou legions from all sides in a matter of minutes!

Although everything is going smoothly, there is still a long way to go before the real overall situation is determined. Although the area around Jiangling was under control, the Nanliang troops who had returned to King Qin also arrived one after another.

Among them, the biggest threat is Wang Lin who returned from Guangzhou. Wang Lin's headquarters has tens of thousands of elite troops, and he has captured many local armed forces along the way south. This time when he returned to Jiangling to aid, Xiangzhou and others were The troops of King Zhu Luqin were elected as the leader of the alliance, with a total strength of more than 30,000 soldiers.

After hearing that Jiangling City had fallen, Wang Lin entered Changsha City and continued to accumulate strength in the name of King Qin's rescue. She also sent troops to occupy the surrounding prefectures, counties and cities one after another, and set up her navy camp in Dongting. lake.

Fortunately, Li Tai sent Xu Wensheng to move from Xiakou to Baling first, and Xu Wensheng lived up to expectations and repelled the invading Wang Lin's army in Baling. In this way, Wang Lin's army was trapped on the south bank and could not reach the river directly. However, the existence of Wang Lin's troops was also a huge threat to the Western Wei Dynasty as it continued to expand its power to Xiangzhou and other places on the south coast.

In the original history, the strategy adopted by the Western Wei Dynasty after capturing Jiangling was to plunder all the people and goods in the city, and then leave Liang Wang Xiao Qi in Jiangling as a puppet, and cooperate with some garrison troops to return with a full load of troops. Therefore, they basically turned a blind eye and ignored the remaining forces such as Wang Lin, and did not continue to carry out in-depth suppression.

But Li Tai naturally could not adopt such a strategy. He seized military power and captured Jiangling. In addition to hoping to avoid the tragedy in Jiangling's history, he also wanted to build Jiangling into a bridgehead for continuing to conquer the lower reaches of the Yangtze River and the Jiangnan region. Therefore, he cannot let the threats around Jiangling go unchecked. Even if they cannot be completely eliminated, they must be weakened to a level that will not easily shake Jiangling.

Therefore, the next period of time is also critical for Li Tai. In addition to continuing to quell the counterattacks of the remaining forces in Nanliang, he also has to deal with internal threats from behind.

Li Tai knew very well what kind of person Yuwentai was. Although this wave of counter-operations made him very angry, he was still far from complete collapse. Even if his father and brother died, Yu Wentai still took up the family business. Faced with Gao Huan's extreme pressure, he was able to persist in resisting and reversing the situation. These challenges made by Li Tai would only provoke more ferocious revenge from others.

Of course, Li Tai is not a vegetarian, and he has also considered various possible coping strategies that Yu Wentai may have in the future.

The worst-case scenario is that Yu Wentai personally leads an army south to attack this rebellious boy of his, but in this case it will really be a life-or-death battle, and the fists are afraid of young people, so it is difficult to predict who will win and lose. Even if Yuwentai had such an idea on impulse, he would definitely give up the idea soon.

The old guys have struggled for so many years just to have a grudge with the young guys? Relying on the wealth, power and other means accumulated over the years to bully and coerce is the normal way of thinking. Once such a roundabout strategy is adopted, Li Tai can't say that he has more tricks than Yuwentai. At least he can make a come and go. And he has one of the biggest advantages that Yuwentai does not have, and that is time.

Therefore, Li Tai is not in a hurry to make any progress at the moment. The first thing is to stabilize the current situation and avoid making mistakes while busy. If he can stabilize it, he will have won more than half.

The most likely problem at the moment is actually the 60,000 troops coming from the south of Wuguan. Although Li Tai gained control of the army and led them to create a brilliant victory, these people were based in Guanzhong after all, and if Yuwentai did not come directly south to conquer, then he would most likely start from this aspect.

So Li Tai had to guard against this, and his way of guarding against it was very simple, that is, giving money! The basic reward for the soldiers who participated in the Battle of Jiangling is one hundred bolts of silk each. As for other merits, they will be awarded separately, and they will be more generous than the basic reward.

The total number of people participating in the Battle of Jiangling was tens of thousands, and even if it was just a basic reward, it would be tens of millions of pieces of silk, but coupled with some notable military achievements and soldiers such as being the first to capture the battle, With more generous rewards from the governors and generals, this number will be increased several times. If you really want to calculate it carefully, it is simply a terrifying astronomical number, thousands of Gao Aocao!

Such a huge amount of wealth is not impossible to get out of Li Tai's years of accumulation and the materials accumulated in Jiangling's public and private treasury that he just acquired.

But the problem is that even if it can be obtained, the human cost of transporting, managing or distributing such a huge property is huge, and it is obviously impossible to actually distribute it.