Chapter 216: Beat Him to Subdue Him
Just this morning, Zhou Ping had led all the troops out of the city to pursue the Mongolian army. Now the soldiers in the city are all from Xiangyang, and they are still led by the hero Guo Jing whom they trust. The wife of the hero Guo, the leader of the Beggars' Sect, has become the chief steward of Xiangyang, and everyone is happy.
At this time, an old man raised his hand and asked him tremblingly, "Some people say that the Shenwei Army will demand communism as soon as it arrives, and distribute the rich people's land to the poor to cultivate. Is this true? The old man earned his land by running a private school."
Haha, when Zhao Yulin heard him calling the poor "poor ghosts" at the beginning, he thought it was inappropriate and immediately corrected it. This shows that his thinking is progressing .
He smiled and said that the Shenwei Army would take back the ill-gotten gains from corrupt officials and those who cheated and deceived others, and would support and protect those who engaged in legal business.
Of course, if some wealthy families have too much land , we will take the initiative to negotiate and mobilize them to sell it to the government, and then the government will distribute it to the landless people for cultivation. These matters will be presided over by the general manager in the future, please discuss and decide.
After Zhao Yulin's explanation, these people felt more relaxed during the discussion.
A scholar who was about the same age as Zhao Yulin stood up and asked him, "May I ask, Commander, will a female leader be in charge from now on? What if Zhao Paopao, the governor of Yanjiang, comes back again?"
Haha, interesting. This guy directly changed Zhao Fan’s name to Zhao Paopao, which is very consistent with Lord Zhao’s personality traits.
However, the question he asked was a bit sharp.
The Shenwei Army is still the army of the imperial court. The rank of Yanjiang Zhizhishi Zhao Fan is higher than that of Zhao Yulin. It is said that a higher rank can crush a person. What if he changes again when he returns?
Everyone stopped talking and looked at him with confusion, including the female gang leader beside him.
Zhao Yulin thought for a moment before saying: "The Shenwei Army will not accept the command of a well-read coward who escapes. I believe the emperor is also very clear-sighted. Xiangyang was bought back with our lives and blood, and we must not let these people mess around again."
He clearly told everyone that to the south, the navy of the Shenwei Army was chasing Li Bo far away, and they would station troops wherever they caught him. To the north, the Shenwei Army was going to drive the Mongolian army back to Nanyang and across the Yellow River, and they would beat them hard and recapture them in the future.
Zhao Yulin's powerful speech aroused everyone's enthusiasm. They imitated the Shenwei Army and clapped their hands. He also clapped along with the others...
In the Lin'an court, the emperor is furious.
A report from Xiangyang arrived. Zhao Fan, the governor of Yanjiang, said that the Mongolian army was approaching and that the main general Li Boyuan and a group of surrendered generals had surrendered to the Mongolian army. He had no choice but to abandon the city and go to Jingmen.
The Xiangyang Imperial City Office reported to him that the governor, Lord Zhao, ignored military affairs and spent his days gambling, drinking and whoring with the rebels. When the Mongolian army arrived, these rebels turned to the north for money and official positions. Zhao Fan fled to Jingmen, and Li Boyuan, the defender of Xiangyang, surrendered to the Mongolian army.
The emperor was so angry that he vomited blood. The silver he worked so hard to earn was wasted by these worse than pigs and dogs.
Minister Li Zhongmian said that this would not work. In the past, the northern barbarians would only come down to rob, steal food and arrest people during the cool autumn season. Now that they have occupied Henan, they have become even more unscrupulous.
Xiangyang is the barrier of our Song Dynasty north of the Yangtze River. It stores weapons and countless food supplies. If the northern barbarians obtain it, it will be like a tiger with wings, and they will come to plunder more fiercely. Once Jingzhou is lost, the northern barbarians will cut off the river, and the court will lose contact with Sichuan and Shu, which is equivalent to losing the northwest.
After his crying, the old ministers in the court cried even more as if their parents had died. There was a lot of noise and the emperor was very upset. He looked around and slapped the dragon throne hard.
At this moment, the eunuch shouted loudly: "Good news from the military, good news from the Sichuan-Shaanxi military."
The eunuch ran too fast and his feet became dizzy, and he fell in the lobby.
The eunuch in charge came down hurriedly without paying attention to etiquette, grabbed the memorial in the hand of the eunuch and read it, then immediately read aloud: Cao Youwen of the Sichuan-Shaanxi Administration Office reported that the Shenwei Army was attacked by the Mongolian army in Guyuan and Luochuan and was repelled. The campaign to retake Yan'an Prefecture has now been officially launched.
Deputy Envoy Zhao Yulin went south alone, stationed in Zhejiang and Sichuan to resist the enemy, and vowed to keep Xiangyang safe.
The emperor was confused when he heard the memorial, so he grabbed it and read it again. There was much more written on the memorial than what the eunuch read. It reported in detail the situation of Sichuan and Shaanxi defending against the enemy, but there was only a dry sentence about Xiangyang.
The emperor is nervous. It's because of Mag that we only have this little information. Where is my Xiangyang?
What I want is accurate information.
The emperor was in a bad mood. He stood up and left, forgetting to adjourn the court and leaving all the ministers waiting in the hall.
He returned to the harem absent-mindedly and saw Concubine Jia, who was wearing gauze and was barely visible. He asked her to be served well, and after venting his anger, he collapsed on the bed and fell into a deep sleep.
The imperial concubine was delighted at first but then felt very strange when she was favored by the emperor. Although she had tried every means to ignite the emperor's evil fire and he could obviously feel that he was in a bad mood, she was surprisingly capable in doing that thing. She was simply an uneducated wolf.
As soon as the woman had dressed up and went out, the eunuch in charge came to find the emperor proudly. The imperial concubine said coldly that the emperor felt weak and was taking a rest.
The eunuch said happily that he had a good recipe and he was sure that the emperor would be so happy to pick it up after taking a look at it.
Princess Jia had just done that with the emperor, and she thought the eunuch was holding something dirty and was going to bring harm to the emperor, so she slapped him in the face and cursed: "You are so outrageous, you shameless thing, get out!"
The eunuch in charge was stunned, covering his face and crying, "Xiangyang was a great victory, Xiangyang was a great victory, Commander Zhao of the Shenwei Army personally led the death squad to climb the Xiangyang City, defeated the rebels who entered Xiangyang, and repelled the northern barbarians."
The emperor had been awakened by the noise outside long ago. When he heard the eunuch shouting "Great Victory in Xiangyang", he jumped up immediately and hit his head on the dragon bed. When he woke up, he found that his clothes were in disarray and he was naked underneath. The palace maids around him were so shocked that their faces flushed and they raised their hands to cover their eyes.
The emperor was so happy that he was dizzy and shouted without caring about anything else: Take a bath and change clothes, I want to take a bath and change clothes.
The emperor was delighted after reading Zhao Yulin's report on the recovery of Xiangyang and the defeat of Hubili. He took two refreshing pills and slept soundly after tossing and turning in the harem all night.
I was awakened by the eunuch in a daze: Zhao Fan of Jingzhou urgently reported that the rebel Li Boyuan was willing to be a running dog of the northern barbarians and was the vanguard to attack Jingmen. I had no choice but to retreat to Jingzhou again.
The emperor was going crazy. What kind of ministers were these that Magog forced upon him? Couldn't they even resist a rebel who was fleeing in panic?
After the excitement, the emperor felt weak all over and fell flat on his back on the dragon bed with a plop.
Returning to the battlefield of Jingxiang, Zhou Ping personally led an army of 7,000 and followed the 40,000 Mongolian troops slowly northward. When they arrived at Xinye, the vanguard reported that the county gate was wide open and there was no one in the city.
After Xinye is Nanyang. Tachaer thought that they retreated too quickly because the Shenwei Army was slow and the people in the city were afraid of the Mongolian army and fled.
But he was not careless at all and ordered scouts to go in and investigate carefully.
It was not until three waves of scouts went in and came out to report to him that all the people had fled, all the valuables had been taken away, and even a large amount of straw had been moved away, leaving the place in a mess.
Even though they were unstoppable and managed to enter Xinye without any bloodshed, Takaer was still angry. It was all Mag's fault. These little barbarians were too stingy. They even took away the straw and didn't even leave some for his army to sleep on the floor?
Although he was angry, it was already dark, so he waved his hand and ordered the army to go into the city to rest.
At least there is a room and a bed, so I can get some sleep.
Unexpectedly, an accident happened when the soldiers were using the civilians' stoves to cook. As soon as the rice was put into the pot and the water boiled, the stove exploded violently, followed by a series of explosions one after another and houses burning.
When Tachaer heard the deafening explosion, he knew it was not an accident but definitely a conspiracy of the Song army, and he immediately shouted to prepare for battle.
He was still shouting. Shrapnel and incendiary bombs were fired at the west, north, and south of the city. The city was mostly crowded with thatched houses, and it was the dry season. How could they bear it? Xinye quickly became a city of fire, with firemen howling everywhere.
This is what Zhao Yulin told Yang Xingyun to do: burn Xinye and fight him without contact.
Zhao Yulin left a secret letter to Yang Xingyun, analyzing that if the Mongolian army lost the initiative and failed to occupy Xiangyang, they would return quickly through Xinye. Yang Xingyun must have been paying close attention to the battlefield. When he learned that the Shenwei Army had occupied Xiangyang, he began to prepare to burn Xinye.
He selected veterans to take over Xinye and do ideological work among the people, promising to repair their houses in the future.
These common people hated the brutal Mongolian army and knew they would have to flee for their lives if the enemy attacked Xinye. Now that the Shenwei Army offered to protect them and promised to repair their houses after the war, they followed them happily and even helped the soldiers carry firewood as camouflage.
Flames shot up into the sky in Xinye City. The Shenwei Army blew the charge horn and rushed in from the west gate shouting.
Seeing the army in chaos, Tachaer panicked and decided to flee. He called on Hubili to break out, and they immediately broke out. They found the relatively safe East Gate and rushed to the Baishui River.
The men and horses were already thirsty from the smoke and fire, but fortunately the river was not deep, so they all went down to drink water. For a while, the ditch was very lively with the sound of people shouting and horses neighing.
Suddenly, the river water rose sharply, and the flood from upstream rushed down like a dam bursting. Tachaer was standing at the front enjoying the first sip of clean water. He suddenly saw the flood coming and hurriedly retreated . Behind him were soldiers and horses, and they were soon submerged in the chest-deep river water and drifted with the current.
There is a big fire in front, and there is a flood here.
Following Zhao Yulin's suggestion, Yang Xingyun sent a group of soldiers with 10,000 sacks to build a dam in the upper reaches of the Baihe River. In the first few days, the river was not blocked so that the downstream could not feel it. Only after the Mongolian army entered the city did the flow of water be completely cut off and the water was stored.
