Chapter 507: Occupation of Banqiao Town
The female gang leader was delighted and invited all the officials to the cafeteria for dinner. She also made it clear that today was a banquet hosted by the state government and it was not against the rules to drink. They should just drink Shaoxing Nv'erhong and were not allowed to get drunk.
Fairy Banban, Zhao Yulin was already drunk even before he drank any alcohol, and the officials of the government office followed him to the cafeteria like stars surrounding the moon.
During the dinner, he brought Chen Chen and Yuqi to toast the female gang leader and Guo Jing and his wife in public as juniors. The female gang leader toasted happily one after another, and Guo Jing quickly reminded her in a low voice not to get drunk.
The female gang leader suddenly became alert and immediately calmed herself down.
After Zhao Yulin and the others left, the female gang leader immediately made arrangements, asking Guo Jing to dispatch 15,000 elite soldiers and have her senior brother Qu take them to Jiangbei to obey the orders of Commander Yang.
Off the coast of Banqiao Town in Jiaozhou, Shandong, the navy of the Shenwei Army is constantly gathering. The Marines have begun to land on the beach with the support of artillery fire from the large sea ships, and the red flags of the Shenwei Army have all landed.
This was because Zhou Ping's navy had been prepared in advance. After receiving Zhao Yulin's military order, they immediately implemented the plan that had been rehearsed. The Marines of the Shenwei Army quickly rushed into the bay in countless small boats. In less than half an hour, the shadows of the Shenwei Army soldiers were everywhere in Banqiao Town.
The Banqiao Town at that time was the famous Qingdao City in later generations. It was still called Jiaozhou Banqiao Town at that time. This place was deep in the bay of the peninsula and was a natural sheltered harbor in the southern part of Shandong Peninsula. Zhou Ping, the commander of the Shenwei Army Navy, had been coveting it and had long been planning to set his sights on this place. Naturally, he knew the waterway of the port very well.
The navy's fleet entered the bay without any trouble. When Zhou Ping saw the flag of the Shenwei Army rising at the dock, he immediately ordered his flagship to enter.
In Pizhou, east of Suqian, Cao Youliang's troops of the Eastern Group of the Shenwei Army were also advancing eastward according to Yang Xingyun's plan, with their troops heading straight for Yizhou. They were going to cross Mizhou and go to Banqiao Town in Jiaozhou to meet up with Zhou Ping's navy, thus forming a situation of overwhelming the Mongolian Army Li Quan Group.
After the Shenwei Army Navy captured Banqiao Town, it took advantage of the situation and sent speedboats into Yianze, threatening northern Shandong.
Yi'anze is located in Mizhou, northwest of Banqiao Town, and is connected to Weizhou and Laizhou to the northwest. If the Shenwei Army’s navy wants to completely control Yi'anze, then Weizhou and Laizhou will fall within the attack range of the Shenwei Army.
In the western part of Guangnan, Huo Fenghuang arranged military affairs and reached a consensus with the appeasement envoy Shi Ruyu, so that the military supply and logistics support were strongly guaranteed. The Shenwei Army marched into the State of Yue in two routes. One route was led by the navy and directly attacked the Thang Long Imperial City. The other route was led by her personally and marched into the State of Yue from Fangchenggang, echoing the navy from afar.
The Chen Dynasty had collapsed due to internal strife in the Yue Kingdom, and the country was in disarray. With the help of Li Shu as their guide, the Shenwei Army did not encounter any major resistance along the way and finally met up at the foot of Thang Long City with great momentum.
However, the problem arose again. The secret agent of Shunfengsi who was in charge of gathering military intelligence reported to Huo Fenghuang late at night: Li Shu had second thoughts and wanted to become the emperor of Yue State. He was secretly summoning various tribes to conspire to establish the Li Dynasty and expel our Shenwei Army in order to restore the country.
Fire Phoenix sneered, thinking that his brother Yulin was right. That guy was clearly using our Shenwei Army to usurp the throne for him.
Yao Qirui, the military advisor, believed that if Li Shu wanted to establish himself as a pseudo-emperor, he must have made preparations in advance, so we might as well be prepared to be tight inside and loose outside. He took two steps forward and whispered a plan to Fire Phoenix. The female general was overjoyed and clapped her hands repeatedly, saying it was wonderful. If Brother Yulin knew about it, he would definitely be amazed.
If this matter is accomplished, there will be a huge reward.
Then he asked Yao Qirui to get it done.
The Shenwei Army ignored Thang Long City and spread out to the surrounding areas to suppress the rebellion. While fighting, they spread the word that Vietnam had surrendered and Le Xiang had submitted to the New Song Dynasty.
At this time, Zhao Yulin had sent Chen Chen away and had already arrived in Xuzhou with Wu Yuqi.
Yang Xingyun sent him the military report of Guangnan West Road. Zhao Yulin saw that Li Shu was exposed and the various factions of Yue State were fighting each other. He felt that he had been deceived.
Fell into Li Shu's trap.
He handed the information to Yuqi and asked her to pass a message to the Central Court in Chengdu, asking the king to issue an edict to the Dali Kingdom: Yue Kingdom has become a part of the New Song Dynasty, and the Dali Kingdom must help maintain good order on the border.
Wu Yuqi understood immediately that this was a warning to Dali not to take advantage of the situation, so she went to do it immediately.
Zhao Yulin asked Yang Xingyun how the war was going on the front line.
Yang Xingyun reported: Cao Youliang's troops had occupied Yizhou, and after annihilating Li Quan's main force of more than 10,000 people, the southern defense line of the Mongolian army collapsed and they fled north in different directions. He had ordered the reinforcements from Liangzhe to be transported to Banqiao Town by sea, and after landing there, they would recover the eastern counties.
Zhao Yulin nodded and ordered the troops to stop advancing towards Jinan Prefecture and switch to defense on the spot.
Yang Xingyun nodded excitedly and reported to him: The central military tent is already drafting a statement, asking Li Quan to submit to our New Song as soon as possible.
Zhao Yulin nodded, took a sip of tea and said: "Let's start with psychological warfare, which is the main event at hand. We just need to use paper and pen to call Shandong back and make Li Quan surrender."
He asked: Is there any news from Da Kui?
Yang Xingyun said no: the movement of Mongolian troops in Hebei has been under constant surveillance, and no unusual movements have been found.
Zhao Yulin estimated that it was because the enemy had poor communication and was slow to react, so he asked Yang Xingyun to spread the news that he had arrived at the front line and to strengthen contact with Li Dagui and make sure to keep a close eye on him.
He thought that it was time to let the Mongolian army know that he was in Jiangdong. If the Mongolian army knew that he was in Jiangdong, they would be afraid and would not push all their forces into Shaanxi.
In Thang Long City of Vietnam, Le Shu conspired with the leaders of 72 tribes at Xiaxia Palace outside the city, intending to rally troops from all over the country to fight against the Shenwei Army, encourage the young people to restore the country, drive the invaders like Huo Fenghuang out of Vietnam, and support him to establish the Le Dynasty of Dai Viet.
This guy sneaked out of the city and asked the guards to take off the white towel on his arm to prevent being attacked by the Chen Dynasty's imperial guards scattered outside the city. He was about to reach the palace gate.
Suddenly, a group of masked killers dressed in the uniforms of the Chen Dynasty's imperial guards fell from the areca palm trees on both sides of the official road. They caught Li Shu and his guards and hacked them fiercely, ending the battle quickly.
Then, a burly young general called on his men to quickly take out towels and tie them on the arms of Li Shu and several dead men. Then he led this group of people into the Xiaoxia Palace. He took out a proclamation from his arms and read it out: Vietnam was originally a vassal state of the Song Dynasty, but now the court has collapsed. People across the country voluntarily give up their nationality and join the new Song Dynasty, requesting the new Song court to lead the people of Thang Long to live a good life .
The cave master, island master and others in the hall were immediately stunned.
Didn't someone send a message saying that the Prime Minister of Le summoned them to discuss the reconstruction of the Dai Viet court? Why did it change? Are they going to support the New Song as the mother country?
These people began to talk and murmur.
At this moment, an injured imperial guard stumbled and broke open the door, pointed at the soldiers who had just entered and said that they were spies, and that Li Xiang had been killed by them. Li Xiang had died for his country, and that Li Xiang wanted everyone to support him in rebuilding the Kingdom of Yue.
Now the people inside were even more confused. What was going on?
The tribal leaders immediately started clamoring.
The young general who had entered earlier kicked the man to the ground and asked him where the spy came from. Prime Minister Li wrote a notice and asked me to ask all the island owners and cave masters to sign and seal it. How could it be wrong?
The guy yelled: He is talking nonsense, Prime Minister Li has already died for his country, when did he write a statement?
The young general pretended not to believe it and told everyone to go out and take a look. They followed him and ran two miles outside. They saw the ground was full of corpses. A small number of soldiers had white towels tied on their right arms.
When the young general found Li Shu's body, he burst into tears and roared, ordering his men to kill the messenger. He then yelled at the top of his lungs, cursing the remnants of the Chen Dynasty for killing Prime Minister Li, and demanded that all of them be killed.
The cave masters and island masters around were also stunned when they saw the bloody scene. A few brave ones went over to check on Li Shu in the young general's arms, only to see that their Prime Minister Li's face was covered in blood and blood was still gurgling from his mouth.
Li Xiang said with difficulty, "Follow - New Song." After these three words, his head drooped and he died. The young general hugged Li Xiang, shook him violently, and cried loudly.
After a large number of Shenwei troops arrived, the military doctor examined Li Shu's wound and shook his head.
The young general put Li Shu down, walked over and kicked the body of the imperial guard who had just reported the news twice, cursing that this thief had a terrible conscience and must be a spy of the Chen Dynasty.
He asked everyone to take a closer look. Li Xiang had a white towel tied on his arm like them, and his heart was on the side of the Shenwei Army. Unlike that guy, who wore the same clothes as the Imperial Guards but did not have a white towel tied around his arm.
Those who don't wear white towels are the imperial guards of the Chen Dynasty. Don't you understand?
The Shenwei Army soldiers who came later were already cleaning up the scene and quickly lifted the bodies onto a cart and towed them away.
The young general accused Emperor Chen of being incompetent and tyrannical with tears. Prime Minister Li had been working hard to help the people of Yue live a good life. Now there is no leader in the court, and Prime Minister Li invited the Shenwei Army to help us live a peaceful life. Why don't we follow the Shenwei Army?
He shouted, "Sign and seal."
After saying that, he asked the island owners and cave masters to use a big stone as a table and raise their buttocks to sign and seal.
The burly master of Piluo Cave cursed and said that he would not sign, that Piluo Cave would not care about the Shenwei Army and would not be a subject of the New Song Dynasty.
The young general was so angry that he laughed and said: It's easy, just chop off the hand that doesn't want to sign.
The guy immediately drew his sword to defend himself, but the soldiers on both sides kicked him to the ground. After the backs of two swords pressed against his face, the guy immediately got angry and shouted, "He'll sign, he'll sign."
Then, the cave master of Hanoi Cave shouted: "Prime Minister Li wants us to follow the Shenwei Army and join the New Song Dynasty. The New Song Dynasty believes that everyone is equal. Very good, let's sign." Then he wrote his name.
People lined up and rushed to sign the statement.
Seeing that all the signatures had been received, the young general picked up the document with satisfaction, blew away the ink, carefully put it in his arms and said, "General Fire Phoenix, the chief discipline inspector of the Shenwei Army, is here. Let's go to her to discuss how to govern our Dai Viet."
Everyone thought that yes, it was not enough to just sign the document, they still had to make money to live.
A group of people rushed to the palace in the city.
Fire Phoenix was gathering officials in the palace to discuss matters. The young general led everyone in to present Prime Minister Li's proclamation, then immediately knelt down and kowtowed, shouting that the State of Yue had submitted to the New Song State, and begged General Phoenix to help them, to avenge Prime Minister Li, and to bring the murderer to justice.
