Volume 1 Chushan Bandits Chapter 88 Yu Liang appears in doubt
When Cai Ying was in charge of military affairs in Hexi, Zheng Hui had already served as a clerk under him and boasted that he was quite familiar with military affairs.
However, it is precisely because of this that he is more aware of the importance of people's support and morale.
The Tongbai Mountains have a large population and limited land, and serious annexation has forced thousands of young and strong people to leave their homes and struggle to make a living at the bottom of a foreign land.
Zheng Hui ordered Chen Zixiao to lead his troops to rob and kill people on Zou Ma Dao twice. In addition to intimidating Deng Gui and others, the deeper purpose was to block the trade route, making those who relied on Zou Ma Dao for their livelihood more difficult, and thus making them more resentful and cruel.
This was the key to the rapid development of the situation in Tongbai Mountain.
In the past two or three months, in addition to the frequent thefts and looting in the villages and towns, there are also many people joining gangs. If there were not more and more people who were desperate, how could the number of people in Hutouzhai expand so quickly?
In the past ten years, on the one hand, they were intimidated by Wang Xiaocheng and were afraid of being killed; on the other hand, after the military system in Tangzhou was changed, the big clans and the Huaiyuan military camp supported each other. Even if small groups of stubborn bandits were unwilling to surrender, they had to hide in the mountains and forests and compromise and coexist with the big clans.
The hardships in the deep mountains caused the stubborn bandits to accumulate unspeakable hatred in their hearts, like an active volcano.
Before capturing Zhongjiazhuang yesterday, Zheng Hui had already made up his mind to let Zhong Changqing and Gao Xiangzhong's troops kill as many people as possible - doing so was to shake people's hearts, and at the same time to release the hatred in the hearts of the three-camp coalition forces and the many desperate young and middle-aged men in Tongbai Mountain, and make them doubly brutal.
Throughout history, many famous generals have experienced tough battles and often allowed their soldiers to plunder. This is the reason.
Zheng Hui thought that by doing this, the morale of the people in Tongbai Mountain would be destroyed like a rotten wood, and like-minded people would gather together, and the situation would be completely under his control.
At that time, he only needs to gradually test the sword with a few small and medium-sized forts, slightly integrate the coalition forces of the various camps, sharpen the blade, and it will be effortless to eliminate the Huaiyuan military camp. After killing Wang Bing with a chaotic blade, he can let the coalition forces of the various camps attack Yuhuangling and Xiema Mountain, and he can completely solve the hidden dangers left by the unsolved case of that year.
At this point, the coalition forces of the various camps have established a base in Tongbai Mountain, and are beyond the control of the prefectures and counties. They can withdraw and wait for the real show to begin.
He didn't expect that when he thought he had won, this "Chushan Yaksha Fox" would hit him right in the face with another chess piece.
By sending a reckless general to kill six bandits from Laoyatan in the street, he changed the morale of the people in Huaiyuan that was about to collapse at any time. What a powerful move!
Zheng Hui felt a bitter taste in his mouth again.
The coalition forces of the three strongholds of Hutou Village, Shixi Village and Taibaiding, plus those who were forced to join in the past two days, have a total of 1,700 to 1,800 people. With large-scale recruitment, it will not be a big problem to further expand the number of people to 2,000 or even 3,000 in three to five days. They can also contact more strongholds to advance and retreat together.
But Zheng Hui knew that at this stage the coalition forces of the various camps were still a motley crowd.
The people of Huaiyuan have not yet collapsed, and there is even a tendency for them to unite further. As long as Deng Gui can gather three to five hundred militiamen to help defend the military camp, Zheng Hui does not think that Chen Zixiao and his men will have much confidence in successfully capturing the Huaiyuan military camp.
It just so happens that the coalition forces of the various villages are still a motley crowd at this stage. The various villages have joined forces for the sake of interests, and they can share wealth but not adversity.
If the attack on Huaiyuan failed, Zheng Hui was worried that the so-called good situation would deteriorate rapidly.
No, we must not let this happen.
"Go directly to see Chen Zixiao and call him, Pan Chenghu, Zhong Changqing and others to Yushan Posthouse for a discussion," Zheng Hui whispered to Dong Qifeng, "In the next two days, we need to surround the Huaiyuan military camp and cut off its contact with the outside world..."
"So urgent?" Dong Qifeng asked in surprise.
The coalition forces of the three camps were still a motley crowd. Even if they could use their absolute advantage in numbers to besiege the Huaiyuan military camp, the troops of the coalition forces of the three camps would still need some time for training and running-in.
According to the original plan, they should first practice with those isolated and relatively weakly defended small and medium-sized clan forts, rather than directly besieging the Huaiyuan military stronghold, which seemed to have few defenders but could be reinforced by large groups of local soldiers at any time.
Zheng Hui didn't know that the big clans were still thinking about protecting themselves. Even if he knew, he wouldn't dare to take the risk. He said:
"The support of the people is too important. If Deng Gui is asked to gather enough troops in Huaiyuan, not only will the big clans send local soldiers to reinforce, but the prefectures, counties and roads may even borrow the road from Xinyang to send reinforcements to Huaiyuan. We must first surround Huaiyuan. If we cannot attack, we will establish a stronghold outside Huaiyuan and plunder the mountains and fields!"
Even though Xinyang was closer to Huaiyuan, and even in summer and autumn small boats could sail directly to the Baijian River estuary in Huaiyuan, Xinyang was under the jurisdiction of Huainan West Route, so it was impossible for it to send troops directly to reinforce Huaiyuan. Even if Deng Gui sent people to Xinyang and Guangzhou to ask for help, Guangzhou and Xinyang would have to ask for permission from the Huainan West Route General and Pacifier Office, and would not dare to use troops without authorization.
However, Tangzhou and Biyang County might not dare to send troops to attack Yushan Post, but as long as they knew that Huaiyuan Military Camp could be defended, they would take passage from Ying, Guang and other places and send two or three hundred reinforcements to Huaiyuan Military Camp, which would only take four or five more days.
Therefore, the quality of the situation depends to a large extent on how likely it is that the Huaiyuan military camp can be defended in the minds of the prefectures, counties and major clans.
As long as they think that the Huaiyuan military camp cannot be defended, the prefectures and counties will not dare to act rashly, and the clans of the big families will form camps to protect themselves and form their own formations, so they can be defeated one by one.
If the prefectures, counties and major clans believe that the Huaiyuan Military Camp has a high chance of being defended, they will continuously gather people and supplies to the Huaiyuan Military Camp to form a stronger force.
This is what people are thinking.
Zheng Hui could not let this happen. Even if he could not attack the Huaiyuan military camp by force for the time being, he had to adopt the strategy of besieging the camp and attacking the reinforcements to prevent people and supplies from gathering in the Huaiyuan military camp.
Dong Qifeng also knew about the military conflict. After listening to Zheng Hui's brief explanation, he realized the harm of not curbing the momentum. He immediately asked Zheng Hui to meet Gao Xiangzhong first, and he took the two of them back to Zhongjiazhuang to meet Chen Zixiao, Pan Chenghu, Zhong Changqing and others...
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More than a hundred bandits, led by Pan Chenghu, swam across the Baijian River from Tiaohutan in the afternoon and detoured to Yingzizui.
Yingzizui is about eleven or twelve miles away from the market, but the road is all gentle slopes, and it only takes a stick of incense for a horse to gallop from Yingzizui to the market.
Although there are four or five dirt roads extending deep into the Tongbai Mountains to the east of the Baijian River, and a ferry leading to the Beiling Mountains north of the Huai River, the road from Yingzizui to the west is flat, and more than a hundred bandits are staying at Yingzizui and refusing to leave, which means that the passage to the east of Huaiyuan has been cut off and no one dares to roam around freely anymore.
The people who hesitated and did not evacuate did not dare to leave at this time even if they did not pass through Yingzizui .
Xu Huai pulled the sweaty horse and looked up at the Yingzizui Cliff, which seemed to be covered with a layer of golden luster under the setting sun.
There were three or four families living scattered in the valley on the west side of Yingzizui Cliff. At this time, the place was occupied by Pan Chenghu's troops. The residents could not escape, and of course they were not killed. Instead, they were being driven to cut down trees with axes and saws, and dragged them to Yingzizui with mules and horses. It seemed that Pan Chenghu wanted to block the gap in Yingzizui with roadblocks such as chevaux de frise.
"Master Xu, can we go back now?" Zheng the butcher, who had been trying his best to please Xu Huai since last night and even asked for a job to help Xu Huai lead his horse in the afternoon, said with some concern.
Pan Chenghu's troops will not be mobilized just because Xu Huai is coming.
If that were the case, Xu Huai alone would be able to harass them to the point of making their entire family restless, but they also couldn't ignore Xu Huai's close reconnaissance.
Immediately, more than twenty or thirty bandits rode over and spread out in formation on the grass slope more than a hundred feet away, ready to raid at any time.
Zheng the butcher usually acts like a bully in the streets, and has never seen such a scene. If he says he is not afraid, he is simply lying to his mother who has been dead for many years.
"It's okay, my horse runs fast!" Xu Huaihun said nonchalantly.
"But Chen Gui and I can't run fast!" Zheng the butcher was about to cry. Xu Huai and Yin Peng rode a horse each, but he and Chen Gui walked here. How much milk would they have to drink to escape to the street market five or six miles away before the bandits caught up with them.
"Pan Chenghu, the Soul-Snatching Spear, was once killed by me. Even if you give him ten times the courage now, he would definitely not dare to chase us out. If you don't believe me, you can ask them if they feel their legs and feet trembling and they want to shrink into their crotch when they see me, your young master!" Xu Huai said.
Butcher Zheng thought that the four of them were crazy, as they would provoke the bandits who were several times more powerful than them.
"It's getting late. We have already known the movements of this gang of thieves. We should go back and report to Lord Deng!" Yin Peng's heart was beating fast. He grabbed the reins and advised Xu Huai not to be too reckless. "To prevent the thieves from attacking with bows and arrows, you take Zheng the butcher and Chen Gui and go first. I will follow behind."
"I failed to get the thief's head in exchange for the reward today. I wonder if they dare to catch up with us!" Xu Huai said with a smile, holding the longbow horizontally in front of him.
After Pan Chenghu led thirty or forty remaining bandits to join Hutouzhai, although a lot of manpower was added, most of them were new bandits who had just joined the group.
Especially the twenty or so riders in front of him, all of them had pale faces, the horses they were riding were ordinary livestock, and they were carrying hunting bows that were only slightly threatening within thirty to fifty steps, and their long swords were just thin pieces of iron.
It was obvious that these people were just baits used by Pan Chenghu to lure him into his trap.
If Pan Chenghu and other stubborn bandits hadn't been staring at this place covetously in the valley behind, Xu Huai would have been absolutely sure to fly a kite and kill these twenty-odd new bandits one by one...
