Chapter 144: Renhuai Fort Suppresses Rebellion
Now, five years have passed, Dali is united internally, its economy is developing steadily, especially its huge foreign trade revenue, which has given them the capital to reorganize their troops and replace them with new weapons. The little emperor has become a little hot-headed and wants to take back what belongs to him.
Because of the battle of Mahujiang, the Gao family and the Chai family were forced to surrender to the young emperor and hand over power, but they never gave in and kept clamoring, looking for opportunities to take back what they had lost.
When they learned that the emperor in Lin'an was going to transfer the Shenwei Army from Mahu to Renhuai Fort to quell the rebellion, they felt that the opportunity had come.
Therefore, with the Dali Kingdom frequently mobilizing troops in the north to reinforce the army, the Dali army in the direction of Yongshanzhai had reached as many as 30,000 people.
Zhao Yulin is going to Renhuai Fort to quell the rebellion, and he must ensure the safety of the rear.
He replaced the crown prince with a cat, transferred the local government soldiers in , and at the same time sent the border soldiers out. Then he went to Xinshi and Yongshan again to tell the young emperor of Dali that his soldiers had not left and were still here.
The young emperor asked his beloved ministers: Now that the Shenwei Army has not left, Zhao Qier has already smelled our intention to attack, and has personally come to the border to inspect the defense, which is clearly to encourage and boost the morale of the border troops. What should we do ?
The people opposite him began to whisper, and the Chai family felt strange. Why didn’t the Shenwei Army leave yet?
There is news that Zhao Qi'er was so bold that he went and killed a group of high-ranking officials in Jiading Prefecture. The emperor in Lin'an even praised him. How long will this man wait before he takes action to quell the rebellion?
Although the Gao family wanted to take revenge, they were still frightened by the beating they received from the Shenwei Army last time. Seeing Zhao Yulin still traveling in Yongshan and Shimen, they were worried.
The Prince of Zhennan originally did not want to fight this battle. Firstly, most of the income from the land had been distributed to his palace, and his wife was a member of the Shenwei Army. It was not easy to break up with him.
Secondly, although the Dali army has made a lot of progress, it still feels that it lacks the energy to go against the Shenwei Army, a powerful army that dares to fight to the death with the Mongolian army and snatch food from the tiger's mouth.
However, his brother intended to give the throne to him, so he had to cheer up and follow him.
At this time, Duan Xiaolin, who was sitting next to the little emperor, spoke up. He thought that the Shenwei Army was bluffing and that Zhao Yulin's border patrol was just to tell us that he was there.
He told the elders that Zhao Yulin always spoke with strength, and would do what he could when he got the chance, without any empty talk. Now he came to Yongshan Village to build momentum, telling us that we cannot fight this battle.
Everyone looked at Duan Xiaolin in surprise.
Logically, he was not qualified to participate in such a high-level discussion, but the young emperor liked him and intended to pass the throne to the Prince of Zhennan.
In this way, he will be the next King of Zhennan.
Although the young emperor knew that his nephew knew Zhao Yulin best, all the ministers, including him, judged that it was not the right time yet.
Because Zhao Yulin is still wandering around Shimen Village and Yongshan Village, it is impossible for him to ignore his own safety and he must be on guard against Dali.
So after the court discussion, Dali immediately issued a military order to the border to actively prepare for war and be ready to attack.
After Zhao Yulin arrived in Luzhou, he immediately convened a military meeting that evening and ordered the Luzhou prefect to go all out to support Renhuai in suppressing the rebellion. He also ordered the Shenwei Army to set out immediately to capture Fuxingchang occupied by the rebels and gain a forward base for suppressing the rebellion.
The team took immediate action. The large and small warships that had been mobilized to Luzhou quickly removed their camouflage, swam out from the hidden river bay, and marched towards the Chishui River in a mighty manner under the cover of the mist on the river surface.
Zhou Ping assured him that he could go to Fuxing Field for tea in the afternoon, as the rebels were all "fragile".
Zhao Yulin glared at him and yelled, "Be careful and you will be safe."
Looking back, he instructed Zhang Qi to pay attention to the situation in Luzhou City. The cost of suppressing the rebellion this time was very high. How could he report to his sister-in-law if he didn't bring back some military funds?
Cuiping Mountain is under great financial pressure now.
Zhang Qi understood it immediately and immediately dispatched a group of brothers who were familiar with Luzhou to go there.
At noon, Zhao Yulin led his troops to Jiuzhi City. Although the city lord had received the punitive document from Luzhou, he refused to allow the Shenwei Army to station there on the grounds that the city was small. Zhang Qi said that if the troops moved forward quickly without logistical supplies, it would be difficult for the brothers.
He didn't need to say that. Zhao Yulin glared at Zhang Qi and asked him how to deal with those who refused to be transferred since this was already a rebellious area?
The guy understood it immediately, and immediately led his men to force his way into the city, captured the city lord and beheaded him on the charge of delaying military affairs.
Zhao Yulin walked into the yamen and sat down, telling them that from today on, the land that the Shenwei Army had fought so hard for must be controlled by us ourselves, and anyone who disagrees must get out immediately.
Li Yunqing reported to Zhao Yulin that he and Bao Wenli had disguised themselves and gone over to investigate. They found that the rebels were a pure mob, completely bewitched by the charlatans under King Miao. They magically believed that they were protected by gods and could be invulnerable to swords and guns, and were unstoppable in every battle.
Zhao Yulin said that he would beat them hard to wake them up and let them know that the pot was definitely made of cast iron.
The two main generals immediately led their brothers to work.
He told Zhang Qi to remember that no matter where he went, as long as he stood on the side of the people and did things for the people, there was nothing wrong. He quickly cleaned up the nine branches of the government.
The Shenwei Army quickly moved from the Yangtze River to the Chishui River on large ships. Jiuzhi became a busy transit station and had to operate efficiently.
But problems followed one after another. First of all, the military officer from Luzhou did not follow military orders, and the shipbuilding officer was not effective in mobilizing ships, resulting in the inability to keep up with the logistical support, delaying the advance of the Shenwei Army and disrupting Li Yunqing's combat plan.
Zhao Yulin ordered an immediate reprimand to be issued to Luzhou, recording all the mistakes they had made and warning them that if they violated the rules again, they would be punished according to military law.
However, these officials did not take Zhao Yulin's documents seriously. Luzhou and Yibin were not on the same road, so they could ignore Zhao Yulin's orders.
He brought up the imperial edict from Lin'an to argue, but people said the task was too heavy and Luzhou could not do it, so they sent people and ships to do the work in a sparse manner.
Zhao Yulin had anticipated what these people would do, but he didn't allow them to be so absurd and treat marching and fighting as a joke. A real rebellion was still far away across the river. If it really came to that, could these officials just go to the Lin'an court to cry to the emperor?
However, Zhao Yulin still had to issue orders in the name of the governor-general to suppress the rebellion, and documents quickly flew to various places.
In the afternoon, battle reports arrived from the front that the Shenwei Army had captured Liuyuan.
Zhao Yulin immediately moved his command post forward.
Luzhou City had already become bustling, with military ships, horses, and soldiers coming and going. Documents flew into the government office like snowflakes, and the prefect was as anxious as an ant on a hot pot because of the poor performance of the subordinates.
Shi Ruyu, a guest of the aide, handed the tea bowl to the prefect and told him that although Deputy Envoy Zhao wrote that the matter was extremely urgent, they had their own ships constantly shuttling back and forth, so it was obvious that they were still prepared.
However, this time, the suppression of the rebellion made it clear at a glance who in Luzhou was taking action and who was dragging their feet.
He suggested to the prefect that the requirements of the Shenwei Army should be passed down according to the original division of labor, and whoever failed to complete it would bear the consequences.
The prefect glared at him and said, "Although Deputy Envoy Zhao is young, he is a frontier official leading more than 200,000 troops. How could he be unprepared to quell the rebellion?"
Then he muttered to himself helplessly, saying that this was Luzhou's business. He quickly assigned tasks and went down personally to supervise the mobilization of ships. Because the Chishui River was narrow, more small boats had to be prepared for travel.
If Zhao Yulin wants to end this war as soon as possible, he must advance quickly with super-fast delivery capabilities and capture the rebel's nest, Guci, in one fell swoop.
There were no highways in that era, and asphalt roads were still a thing of the past. It was obviously not possible to travel by land, and strong water transport capabilities were required.
Logically, Luzhou has well-developed water transportation, so there should be a way to solve this problem. However, people are trying to delay it with many excuses, saying that the incident happened suddenly and it is difficult to transfer funds.
Zhao Yulin had already entered Liuyuan, and the grain and grass in Luzhou had not yet arrived. He issued military orders one after another, and it was up to these people to see how they would perform.
But it didn't matter, his navy had already had strategic reserves. Zhao Yulin had another trick up his sleeve, which was to settle the score later.
Late at night, Li Yunqing and Bao Wenli came over to discuss adjusting the battle plan.
Li Yunqing knew very well that the little tiger of Dali Kingdom had been eyeing the fat piece of meat in Xinshi Town. If the suppression of the rebellion in Renhuai was delayed for too long, it would definitely put the Shenwei Army at a disadvantage.
He suggested immediately recruiting nine groups of civilians to work with the army to open up the Kuzhu Road to facilitate the march, and moving the army's transit station to Liuyuan for better mobilization.
Bao Wenli said that Fuxing Field was very close and the rebels would cause panic among the people if they escaped there, so he suggested attacking it immediately.
Zhao Yulin looked at Zhou Ping.
This man was a warmonger. He boasted that his warships could easily get up there and that his catapults could hurl ten-pound thunder bombs to deal with the problem.
Li Yunqing said that there were just a few ships. If there were enough ships, all the troops of the Second Garrison Column could be transported to Fuxing.
The Second Garrison Column is a direct descendant of Bao Wenli. He said that even with 5,000 people, they can conquer Fuxing and there is nothing to be afraid of.
Li Yunqing explained: What he meant was not just the issue of revival, but to use the revival troops to divide into two groups to attack Guci, and if they take down the rebels' lair, they will be finished.
Zhao Yulin thought it would be better to kill a group of enemies. At present, defeating Liu Yuan in one battle did not seem to hurt the rebels. He had to beat him hard so that they would scatter.
Otherwise, if we gnaw on each bone one by one, how much time will it take and how many unnecessary sacrifices will be incurred?
After the plan was drawn up, everyone went their separate ways.
Zhang Qi came in to report to him that there were spies from the Northern Barbarians and Dali in Luzhou and Renhuai, and the news was bound to be leaked.
Zhao Yulin took a sip of tea and said that the suppression of the rebellion had already begun. Everyone must know that they had been preparing for so long, and the purpose was to end the war as soon as possible.
Once the war starts, we can only leave it to fate. He said, "Let's take a break."
Zhao Yulin had been up all night for several nights in a row, so he turned around and went to the inner room to rest.
Guci is also called Wudu City. It was occupied by the Nanyi people who rebelled. Their leader was a Miao man who had proclaimed himself king and built a palace here.
At this time, King Miao was eating Zhao Yulin's grains in his palace, drinking and having fun with his beauties on both sides.
