Yue Fei kept his word, and the military camp seemed to have been well prepared. He made a promise to Zhang Jun in the afternoon of that day, and set out in the rain early the next morning.
The army was divided into two, among which Li Kui led an army of 2,000 people to attack Gulouzhai directly... Yes, that Yang Guang really rebelled for the fourth time; and at the same time, in the continuous rain, the commander-in-chief of the front army of the imperial camp, that is, Yue Fei himself, also personally led the main force of Huarong camp with more than 10,000 people and several generals, and marched westward in the rain.
Almost only the military scholars and logistics personnel were left behind in the entire army.
Zhang Jun was kind of a man of his words, he really followed them, but he didn't ride a horse - the rain was too heavy and the road was muddy, riding a horse was simply a joke.
In this way, both Zhang Jun, the Prime Minister, and Yue Fei, the Jiedushi, personally wore a straw hat, a raincoat, and straw sandals, and trudged forward on the muddy roads in the south of the Yangtze River. They led their troops in a counterclockwise direction along Dongting Lake westward, and successfully arrived at Anxiang, Lizhou, more than 60 miles away, on the same day. Then they did not enter the city, but crossed the Lishui River and came to a large camp on the opposite bank.
This is another core camp established by the Song army on the north side of Dongting Lake. More than 10,000 people led by Deputy Governor Ma Gao and several commanders were waiting here early.
When the two armies joined forces, the number of troops here had reached 25,000. The main force of Yue Fei's imperial camp's front army had completed its assembly in the rain, but because of the heavy rain, the enemy was completely unaware.
Taking into account that Li Kui delivered the head of the rebel general who had the same name as Emperor Yang of Sui at night, the battle results of the front army of the imperial camp on this first day exceeded zero combat achievements. At least one of the forty camps, four states and seven counties had been eliminated.
On the next morning, despite the fact that the 60-mile forced march in the rain yesterday had already caused considerable casualties in the troops, Yue Fei once again ordered the selection of 20,000 combat-capable soldiers from the entire army to set out together, advancing westward and southward respectively in the slightly less severe rain.
Among them, the troops of the former Anxiang camp were directly divided into two groups and headed west. Wang Shan and Zhang Yong each led 2,000 soldiers to take Qinghua and Aoshan, two inland fortresses respectively. Ma Gao himself and his wife Yizhangqing led 5,000 people to attack Wuling County, one of the so-called seven counties, the capital of Dingzhou which had fallen before.
As for the troops from the original Huarong camp, they once again began an arduous march. They still advanced counterclockwise along Dongting Lake, but crossed the border of Lizhou when the rain eased a little in the afternoon, arrived in Dingzhou, and then came to Chongxiao Town, and semi-surrounded a large rebel water stronghold located there.
The reason why it is called semi-encircled is that this village has a waterway leading to Dongting Lake and a small port, which the Song army cannot deal with at all.
Of course, there was no need for that… After all, Yue Fei’s troops took advantage of the rain to march quickly over two days, covering a total of nearly 120 to 130 miles. Although this was far inferior to Li Su’s attack on Caizhou on a snowy night, it was still commendable. Facing such a large-scale surprise attack, the reaction of the rebels in Chongxiao Water Stronghold was no better than that of the Caizhou defenders.
More than 10,000 front troops of the imperial camp seemed to descend from the sky, and suddenly half-surrounded the Chongxiao stronghold with only 3,000 rebels in the rain. The stronghold was in chaos that was almost visible to the naked eye, but Yue Pengju only let the entire army gain a foothold, and he personally led a small number of central army infantry to settle on a small slope beside the lake on the side of the water stronghold, and did not order an attack... Sure enough, soon an envoy came out trembling with fear and asked to see Yue Fei.
"It's Han Xiaoyi. If you come, it will save us some trouble." Seeing the man kneeling down in the mud with a plop, Yue Fei, who had just taken off his hat, stared at the fine rain and looked at him disdainfully.
"Over the past month, this person has been running around Anxiang and Huarong to make contact with the various villages in western Hu."
Although Zhang Jun claimed that he would not ask any more questions, that was because he was a proud leader. How could Yue Fei not know what was going on and not leave a professional commentator for the highest military commander in the country? Therefore, Bi Jin, Yue Fei's personal school in the central army, had been accompanying the prime minister. When he saw this person, he directly reported in a low voice. "And this person is the confidant of Huang Zuo, the leader of this camp. As for Huang Zuo, he is the leader of the Lizhou area among the rebels. He is very powerful and prestigious. He is one of the big leaders of the rebels second only to Zhong Xiang and Yang Yao. He was defeated by our Jieshuai in the north before, and the land along the lake in Lizhou was lost. He retreated to Dingzhou with the rest of the Lizhou rebels to set up a camp... and Dingzhou is Zhong Xiang's hometown."
Zhang Jun imitated Yue Fei and took off his hat, but his face was expressionless and he ignored Bi Jin's explanation.
"Xiao Yi."
A few dozen steps away, when Han Xiaoyi was about to speak, Yue Fei raised his hand to interrupt him, and then said solemnly, "Now I will tell you, you just need to go into the camp and tell Huang Zuo everything, no need to interrupt."
Han Xiaoyi immediately kowtowed in the mud.
After a short pause, Yue Pengju imitated the method of listing numbers in the court newspaper and said a few words calmly:
"First, I am sending my army here to fight Zhong Xiang and Yang Yao for life and death. I will not delay any longer, nor will I give them room to hesitate.
Secondly, tell Huang Zuo that I only have one vacant military position for the position of commander in chief for surrender. If he surrenders, it will be his.
Thirdly, regardless of whether he surrenders or not, all the innocent women and children from Lizhou in the stronghold can be returned to their hometown in Lizhou for resettlement. I will guarantee it with my life and official position, and there will be no pursuit of responsibility after the war.
Fourthly, if he wanted to know about my character, the fighting ability of my subordinates, and my sincerity, he should have known it a few months ago... Therefore, I now give him a deadline of two quarters of an hour to wait for him to surrender. If he comes, he will be an officer of the vanguard of my imperial camp; if he does not come, I will have no choice but to send a large army to break into this camp, find him, and drag him here to execute him according to the law!
Finally, there is a head here, take it, go quickly!"
Han Xiaoyi said nothing, but kowtowed heavily in the mud, then he got up, lowered his head and took a wooden barrel from Wang Gui on the side. He didn't dare to look at it, and ran towards the village like a flash.
Looking at this scene, Zhang Jun, who stood in the line of Yue Fei's army in the drizzle, did not change his expression at all. However, after all, he was a famous local boy, a young Jinshi, and an imperial elite who became a prime minister at the age of 34. He had already completely awakened in his heart:
How could he not know? Huang Zuo should be the leader of a big group among the rebels, that is, the original leader of the Hubei region that was recovered by the government army. Now he has lost his foundation and is curled up in the west of the lake. He can't even enter Wuling City. It can be seen that he is quite dependent on others. And this kind of talent is the most suitable object for pacification, and it should be what Yue Fei really focused on in the past few months. As for Yang Guang of Gulouzhai, it is better to say that he is a pawn to show sincerity and deceive the rest of the rebels... Don't you see that even people like Xi Yi and Ma Shen have been deceived?
With such good intentions, coupled with the sudden spring rain today, just when these people were completely relaxed, the government troops suddenly sent out a large army in the rain to surround them. Yue Fei was so kind and powerful that if Huang Zuo was not a fool, he would surrender quickly.
Sure enough, just when Zhang Jun understood, as Han Xiaoyi delivered Yang Guang's head and Yue Fei's words into the village, only an incense stick of time later, a tall and strong man wearing leather armor, half of his arm bare, holding a large spear, led dozens of fishermen dressed similarly out of the village, and then, led by Han Xiaoyi, walked directly towards Yue Fei. It should be Huang Zuo.
Huang Zuo, leading a dozen officers and guards from the stronghold, stopped when they were a few dozen steps away from Yue Fei. Then he threw away his spear in public and prepared to take off his armor again... It was obvious that he was going to turn against his enemies and surrender with courtesy.
But at this moment, Yue Fei, who had been squinting at Huang Zuo and his group, suddenly said proudly from dozens of steps away: "Don't take off your armor!"
Huang Zuo was slightly startled, but immediately withdrew his hand and wanted to come over empty-handed.
"Bring your weapons!" Yue Fei narrowed his eyes and spoke again.
Huang Zuo was stunned again, but still chose to obey the order. He picked up his spear from the mud and walked forward. When he was seven or eight steps away from Yue Fei, he took the initiative to hold the spear upside down and was about to kneel down and beg for surrender.
"You don't have to kneel." Yue Fei interrupted for the third time. "General Huang, since you have surrendered, you are the commander of the front army of my imperial camp. Why do you have to take off your armor, abandon your soldiers, and kneel? There is a difference between the upper and the lower. Just say hello to me."
Huang Zuo finally felt relieved, and he leaned on his spear and bowed to Yue Fei, then bowed his head and said: "General, I am grateful for your kindness and patience for several months, so I surrender. I hope you will forgive me for what happened before."
"I have forgotten everything that happened before." Yue Fei narrowed his eyes and looked at him from above. "Besides, there are important national issues ahead, so you and I shouldn't talk about these things... Deputy Governor Wang!"
Wang Gui immediately stepped out and stood side by side with Huang Zuo, bowing.
"I will give you 5,000 soldiers. Cross the Yuan River to the south and attack Chenyang!" Yue Fei gave the order sternly without changing his expression. "You must take this city with me!"
"Yes." Wang Gui responded and left, and several generals followed him without stopping.
"General Huang." Yue Fei continued to give orders from his high position on the hill.
"Here!" Huang Zuo, who couldn't help but steal a glance at Wang Gui, was suddenly startled.
"To the east and southeast of here, there are two camps along the lake, they are Hanwanzi Camp and Fushui Camp, each of them has no more than four or five hundred soldiers. I will now give you a military order, asking you to lead your troops eastward immediately. Whether you try to pacify them or attack them by force, you must capture them before tonight! Otherwise, I will punish you according to the military order!" Yue Fei gave the order as usual, as if the person in front of him was an old subordinate who had followed him for many years.
Moreover, of those two forts, one was set up by the defeated army of Lizhou, and the other was sent by Zhong Xiang to the pass of Dongting Lake to monitor and guard against the people of Lizhou. How could Huang Zuo not know about them? And he was a rebel a moment ago, and now he was going to be a government army to conquer. How could he adapt?
However, just as Huang Zuo raised his head and opened his mouth to say something to refuse, he saw Yue Fei standing in front of him, looking down at him, with one eye larger than the other, looking down at him in the rain. He was shocked, and the words on his lips suddenly turned around, leaving only one word:
“Yes!”
"Do you need military subsidies?" Yue Fei kept asking.
"don't want."
"Do you need military assistance?"
“No!”
"Then do it quickly."
Huang Zuo saluted again with his spear, then turned around and returned to the camp... At this time, Wang Gui had already begun to lead his troops south, and an obvious encirclement gap had appeared around the Chongxiao camp. Soon, Huang Zuo led about two thousand subordinates, divided into two, and attacked by land and water, directly passing through the government army formation that was just the enemy, and went east along the waterway.
In such a situation, both the troops in the front line of the Imperial Camp and Huang Zuo's headquarters felt it was strange, but they had nothing to say.
But no matter what, after a while, seeing that all the troops had left the village, leaving only the elderly, the weak and their families in the village, Yue Fei said nothing, and directly set up camp outside Chongxiao Village, waiting for news.
That evening, Huang Zuo persuaded Hanwanzi Village to surrender, defeated Fushui Village, and brought back the head of Fushui Village's commander. Before that, Ma Gao, Wang Shan, and Zhang Yong also reported their respective victories. Qinghua, Aoshan, and even Wuling City were all easily captured under the surprise attack of the Imperial Camp's vanguard.
On this day, the front army of the imperial camp broke five strongholds and captured a county, which was considered a smooth progress.
After a night of silence, the next day, the weather cleared up. Yue Fei summoned Huang Zuo and the leader of Hanwanzi Village, Guo Tai, again and asked them to continue southward along Dongting Lake to sweep, attack, and surrender the water villages along the lake. Then he personally led 5,000 troops to follow them. At the same time, he also ordered Ma Gao and other generals to immediately go southward to the Yuanjiang River and the Shushui River, and march towards the Hunan area and the Xiangshui River by land to capture cities and territories.
On this day, Huang Zuo and others again surrendered two camps and broke through the two camps. Among them, the leader of another large camp, Yang Qin, also chose to surrender when he was caught off guard. At the same time, Wang Gui also defeated Chen Yang.
On the fourth day, Yue Fei, who had crossed the Yuan River, did not go to Chenyang City. Instead, he did not stop for a moment and ordered the entire army to mix with Huang Zuo, Yang Qin, Guo Tai and others, and attack the eight water forts between the Yuan River and the Shu River at the same time. He once again led Wang Gui in the front and marched towards Yiyang County on the bank of the Shu River, while he continued to supervise the army behind and kept advancing.
At this time, the Song army was able to ride horses, and Zhang Shuxiang was able to fulfill his promise and sit upright on his horse, advancing with Yue Fei's central army.
The Prime Minister had relaxed a lot at this time, but as news of the capture of water strongholds came one after another, Yue Fei once again spoke wildly:
"From this point of view, it won't take ten days, but seven or eight days to succeed. We can fight a decisive battle tomorrow or the day after tomorrow and defeat Zhong Xiang."
Zhang Jun had agreed not to speak first, so he just frowned when he heard this.
Yue Fei, of course, had to take care of his leader's mood, so he took the initiative to ride side by side and explained to Zhang Deyuan: "Zhong Xiang is originally from Dingzhou. He is currently in Yuanjiang (the name of the county, the location of the old mouth of Yuanjiang River, on the peninsula sandwiched between Dongting Lake and Chiting Lake, not the river water). He moves slowly. If he could not have noticed his actions the day before yesterday, he should have noticed his behavior yesterday, but there was no movement at all. This is something I did not expect. Therefore, if we can successfully sweep the eight strongholds today, Zhong Xiang will be in a desperate situation, and we can defeat him tomorrow!"
Zhang Jun finally showed his joy: "If we can capture Zhong Xiang, this battle will be a victory!"
Yue Fei shook his head repeatedly and seriously corrected:
"What you don't know, Prime Minister, is that even if we take on the bandit leader, we're only halfway there. We still have to see what Yang Yao does."
Zhang Jun didn't understand again, but he didn't dare to ask, so he turned around to look at Bi Jin behind him.
Bi Jin did not dare to delay and immediately stepped forward to act as a tour guide.
It turned out that Zhong Xiang was a shaman passed down from the ancestors of Dingzhou, known as the Great Sage Grandpa. He also set up a community near Dongting Lake, collecting money and grain in good years and helping the poor in bad years. His influence was huge, so he was a natural rebel leader, the kind that could not be shaken.
But to be honest, such a person, in essence, could not break away from the situational mentality of the gentry and the witch family... Therefore, when the rebellion was at its peak, its influence once affected more than a dozen state armies in Hunan and Hubei. But under that situation, he did not think about making progress, and only handed over all the front-line affairs to Yang Yao. Instead, he hurriedly proclaimed himself king in his hometown of Dingzhou, built a palace in Yuanjiang County, and selected a princess for his son Zhong Zhiyi. He wanted to find a woman with a special horoscope to carry on the family line, so that his family's foundation of the King of Chu could be passed down from generation to generation.
Therefore, there were actually two actual leaders of the Dongting Lake Rebellion, one was Zhong Xiang and the other was Yang Yao.
"Prime Minister, you don't know that when we first came to Hubei, we heard a joke." Bi Jin was young after all, and he was getting more and more familiar with Zhang Jun. After explaining Yang Yao's special leadership status, he kept talking. "It was said that Prime Minister Zhong had a large family, and after becoming king, he wanted the whole family to enjoy the good life together. The beds for the family to sleep on must be inlaid with gold and jade, but they couldn't get enough after conquering more than a dozen counties, so they always asked people to find them from the rebels everywhere... In the end, the rebels in Xiangyin were harassed by him so much that they had to recruit craftsmen, collect gold and jade, and build a batch of gold-inlaid jade beds for the King of Chu, and that was the end of the matter."
Bi Jin's words seemed to express his disdain for Zhong Xiang. However, when Zhang Jun heard this, he was not only unhappy, but also frowned, making the former embarrassed for a moment.
In this way, the vanguard of the Imperial Camp advanced towards Yuanjiang County in great strides. Good news came one after another along the way. First, under the mixed attack of Huang Zuo and other surrendered people in the front and the vanguard of the Imperial Camp in the back, the rebel water strongholds along the lake in Dingzhou could not hold on. Three of them surrendered and five were broken. As expected, only the isolated army, isolated city and isolated stronghold of Zhong Xiang in Yuanjiang remained in Dingzhou. Yue Fei's military progress fully met expectations.
But that was not all. As Yue Fei's troops entered Yuanjiang County, in the afternoon, Wang Gui suddenly received an even more exciting news:
While attacking Yiyang, the deputy commander of the imperial army suddenly discovered that Yang Yao was leading the main force of the rebels in the Xiang River Basin to cross the Zishui River from the lower reaches, apparently to rescue Dingzhou and Yuanjiang River. Wang Gui pretended not to know and continued to attack the city even though he had already controlled one of the city gates. When Yang Yao hurriedly led 7,000 to 8,000 troops to rescue Yiyang after crossing the river, Wang Gui turned around and met him. The two sides fought fiercely in the field. Yang Yao only held out for half an hour before his army was defeated and driven to Yuanjiang River by Wang Gui.
Just now they were saying that only by capturing Zhong Xiang and Yang Yao together could the rebellion be ended, and now Yang Yao has walked into the trap himself... Naturally, everyone was excited.
However, when Zhang Jun heard that the war situation at the front was beyond his expectations, he was not happy at all. Instead, his face became even uglier, as if he had other ideas in mind.
Soon, as Yue Fei did not take any emergency measures and only sent out messengers to order the troops from all locations to gather and encircle the enemy and not to advance without permission, the prime minister who had not spoken actively throughout the whole process finally could not bear it anymore.
The grass was green and the birds were singing. The waves of Dongting Lake were rippling slightly. Zhang Deyuan suddenly stopped his horse beside a reed marsh that was unknown how many acres wide. Then he called out to the other party:
"General Yue!"
"I am here." Yue Fei seemed to have expected this. He simply reined in his horse, turned around and bowed.
"Do you know what I want to ask?" Zhang Jun's face turned pale.
"I can roughly guess it."
"Tell me about it." Zhang Jun's breathing gradually became unstable.
"The Prime Minister has many doubts in his mind, but for now, the small doubts are probably why they didn't seize the county seat of Yuanjiang, but instead deliberately indulged and allowed Yang Yao to move freely in Yuanjiang? The big doubts, which are also what the Prime Minister has been patient with, are that the rebels are so vulnerable and can be crushed with ease, but why did the front troops of the imperial camp remain idle? Why didn't they quell the rebellion from the beginning, and why did they waste their time trying to appease them? In my opinion, these two..."
"Did you know that too?!"
Before the other party could finish, Zhang Jun was completely furious. "I have already seen it. It doesn't matter if it's ten days, five days, or even a month. The key is that the rebels are so vulnerable, why is there any need to appease them? When they are defeated, you can just ask for a pardon document. Why do you have to submit a special petition to change it to appeasement? If you had directly entered Huxi and Hunan at that time, this rebellion would have been over years ago! The emperor has been very kind to you. In the past few years, you have been promoted from a criminal to a military governor. Is this what you did? I tell you, if you don't give me a reason that convinces me today and return to the central government, no matter how you, Yue Fei, use your great victory to shut up the people of the world, and no matter how the emperor is biased in favor of you, I, Zhang Jun, will not want this position as the central government, and I will drive you, who are playing with the enemy, out of the army!"
The soldiers around were all panicked, but Yue Fei was silent for a moment, but continued to bow and said frankly: "Prime Minister, I have never played with the enemy. As for the reason why we stopped in Hubei before, there was a reason... It was really that the government troops could not defeat the rebels! And forgive me for being presumptuous, not only the front troops of the Imperial Camp, but also the other troops of the Imperial Camp, I am afraid they can't defeat the rebels on the lake."
Zhang Jun was stunned for a moment. He didn't know if he didn't hear clearly, or if he was extremely angry. He grabbed the reins and said in a daze: "What did you say? Say it again."
"We can't defeat the rebels." Yue Fei reined in his horse and stood still, his voice clear and unmistakable, even saying it twice. "Prime Minister, I just said that we can't defeat the rebels!"
Zhang Jun was so angry that he simply waved his whip and scolded: "Wuling City was taken in one battle, Chenyang City was taken in one battle, Yiyang City was taken in one battle, and the seventeen villages in the west of the lake were razed in three days. Yang Yao's main force of 8,000 people was defeated by your 5,000 troops who were halfway through the siege. In addition, you went south from Xiangyang and won battles in various places in Hubei... Now you tell me that the government army can't beat the rebels, so you changed the military attack to appeasement... Do you think I'm blind?!"
"Prime Minister, please don't be angry." Yue Fei responded calmly, not afraid at all. "Prime Minister, please think carefully, in these battles, were all the lakeside forts really taken down by the government troops?"
Zhang Jun opened his mouth to scold, but suddenly he shuddered, then pulled the horse's head and circled in place. After he stood still, the thundering rage he had just shown was gone.
Yue Fei sighed when he saw the other side coming to its senses, and then spoke sincerely: "Prime Minister, you have seen clearly with the army that this battle went smoothly because the land battles were all fought by the government troops, and the water strongholds near the lake were all captured by the local rebels of Dongting Lake... Water battles and land battles are completely different. In land battles, whether it is capturing a city or a stronghold, or winning a decisive battle in the wild, I am sorry to say that it is a piece of cake for the government troops; but as for the water strongholds near the lake, I am sorry for my incompetence. Since I arrived at the lakeside last year, no matter how I think or see it, I have no chance of winning." "Even if we can break the fort for a while, we can't completely wipe out the bandits. If we can't wipe them out, and let them come and go freely in the lake, and set up water forts all the time, then we can't win, right? Therefore, I will say what I mean. If we can't win, we can't win! But there are too many people in the court and the local areas who don't know how to fight. They only saw that I conquered Hubei so easily before, so they naturally thought that fighting by the lake would be that easy. Little do they know that if you want to break the water forts along the lake, you can only use water forts to fight water forts, and use lake people to fight lake people. There is no other way!"
Zhang Jun said nothing, but after thinking it over for a while, he completely believed what was said.
Because there are so many intuitive examples.
The Jin cavalry was invincible on the plains, but was helpless against fishermen and merchant ships in Liangshan Lake and the Huai River respectively; the Western Army was chased like chickens by the Jin army on the wild plateau, so it turned around and held its ground in the mountains of northern Shaanxi, where it was able to defeat the Jin army with a great victory.
In the past few days, he personally followed Yue Fei along the lake and saw with his own eyes that the hundreds of miles of Dongting Lake had numerous forks, swamps, and ditches as the water level rose and fell, which was exactly where it was difficult to deploy troops. However, he was too tired to think about it in the first two days due to the continuous march, and the battle went so smoothly in the next two days that it was so dazzling that he ignored these things.
"In that case, you deliberately did not take Yuanjiang City in the hope that Yang Yao would rush in. Once he entered the city, it would be easier for your troops to surround and eat him?" After thinking for a while, Zhang Jun coughed dryly and asked tentatively again.
"Yes." Yue Fei answered sincerely. "If he can enter the city, it would be best if even Zhong Xiang stays with him, then God will help the government army."
"Although there were many battles in the past few days, the only crucial one was whether we could force Huang Zuo to surrender that day, and then let him lead his Lizhou rebels to attack the Dingzhou rebels? And whether it was the previous raid in the rain, the wandering for several months, or the driving of all the Lizhou rebels to the Huxi area, in fact, they were all intentional on your part. Why don't you work hard on him?" Zhang Jun continued to "awaken", or pretend to be awakened.
"Yes!" Yue Fei answered with a bow. "In fact, after Huang Zuo led his troops to attack other water forts that day, I knew that the battle was already won. It was only a matter of time. The only thing I was worried about was whether Yang Yao would escape to the wild island in the lake and revive in the future."
Zhang Jun nodded repeatedly, then sighed, and opened his mouth to continue to cover up his embarrassment: "So, Pengju has been delaying again and again, from winter to spring, and then to now, in order to deliberately show weakness to the enemy, and at the same time to avoid disturbing Huang Zuo?"
Yue Fei nodded, then shook his head: "It is necessary to show weakness to the enemy, and it is also inevitable to prevent disturbing Huang Zuo, but the reason why I have not launched the attack until today is mainly to avoid delaying the spring plowing..."
"What?" Zhang Jun was stunned and ridiculous again.
However, this time, while he felt that the other party's words were absurd to a certain extreme, he also felt a little guilty and short of breath.
Zhang Jun left Beijing this time because many local officials impeached Yue Fei, which triggered a political uproar. Among the reasons for these impeachments and oppositions, the biggest one was that Yue Fei delayed the deployment of troops, which delayed the spring ploughing... This was a very fatal issue for both public and private reasons, and it was also the moral basis for Zhang Jun to be so righteous in front of Yue Fei and repeatedly scolded a general in public.
Just now, Zhang Jun already knew that Yue Fei did not advance at a very fast speed because there was indeed a huge military risk, and he actually had no complaints in his heart. He was just making small talk to avoid being too embarrassed.
However, the other party now told him that the reason why he had delayed the advance was not only due to military needs, but also because he did not want to delay the spring plowing.
What is this?
"I won't hide it from you, Prime Minister."
The weather was fine, the lakeside was covered with lush grass and birds were singing, and the blue water was refreshing. Yue Fei took a glance at the spring scenery before continuing to explain. "As for Huang Zuo, I was already confident at the beginning of this year. From a military perspective, I could have used troops at the beginning of the year to end this battle. But the spring in the south of the Yangtze River came very quickly. It was at that time that spring plowing began in various parts of Hunan and around Dongting Lake. The government was plowing, and the rebels were also plowing. Moreover, because the rebels were divided into rich and poor and the land was divided, the scale and area of ​​spring plowing in various places west of Hunan seemed to be more prosperous than in the government area... This was a rare sight in the chaos."
Zhang Jun stood on his horse and turned from the lake to his back . It was then that the prime minister of the empire noticed for the first time that the crops by the lake were lush and the paddy fields were endless. Although no one came out to take care of them because of the marching army, after the spring rain, it was a natural spectacle.
Looking more closely, they saw that the troops in front of the imperial camp were obviously marching carefully. All of them were marching along the lakeside and on the ridges of the fields, and no one dared to step on the young crops, which made them even more shocked.
"In fact, how could I not know the difficulties faced by the local officials? The rebellion has lasted for half a year, the population has fled, the wasteland is seriously abandoned, and tens of thousands of troops are stationed here, making it difficult for the local supply. It is normal for the local officials to have grievances. But I think that the people in the Hubei government's jurisdiction are the people, and the people in the Hunan Huxi rebels' jurisdiction will sooner or later become the people of the Song Dynasty. The spring plowing in the government's jurisdiction in the north cannot be delayed, and the spring plowing in the rebels' jurisdiction in the south should not be delayed either."
Yue Fei talked non-stop today, and his conversations with Zhang Jun exceeded the total in the past few days. It can be seen that he was still somewhat depressed about the impeachments and accusations.
"If I had used the army at that time, the central and local officials, as well as the people of Hubei, would probably be happy. But what about the people in the west of Hunan? Would they really dare to come out to plant rice when the two armies were fighting? By then, I would have abandoned this place, taken the military merit and left. Who would care if they became hired laborers or even continued to be lake bandits in the future? That's why I delayed a little, determined to wait until after the spring plowing and planting, and before the spring flood to make the result, but I didn't expect that the prime minister had already gone south... I hope the prime minister will forgive me for this matter."
Zhang Jun's face turned red on his horse. He wanted to get off the horse several times to hold the man's hands and praise him as "a pillar of the country" and "it is a blessing for the emperor and the country to have such a general". However, he thought of the confident words of Ma Shen and Xi Yi before, and of how he had repeatedly rebuked the people in front of him, and he wished he could find a crack in the ground to crawl into. How could he do such a thing?
The troops continued to advance. That evening, the vanguard reported that someone had escaped from Yuanjiang City, saying that Yang Yao had entered Yuanjiang County, and asked Zhong Xiang and his son to go with him on a boat into the lake to take shelter for a while, but they refused.
However, this information was no longer important, because at this point, even if Yang Yao and Zhong Xiang and his son tried to leave the city, they would only be intercepted by the Song army that was desperately trying to catch up with the city and Dongting Lake.
Moreover, Yue Fei knew from the beginning that the water forts next to the lake and the cities that were not next to the lake were a matter of life and death for the rebels. The water forts connected to the big lake were what the government troops feared the most, while the cities were something that the government troops could take away at any time. He also knew that the two groups of leaders, Yang Yao and Zhong Xiang and his son, were a matter of life and death for the rebels. Yang Yao was the real leader who stood out in the rebellion, while the latter was only a spiritual leader.
However, this know-it-all commander pretended to be ignorant and just drove the rebels to their death.
In fact, the rebels were not without a way out. After Yang Yao was defeated in broad daylight, he didn't care about Zhong Xiang and his son or any city. He just dived into the lake. Even gods couldn't capture him. If he couldn't be captured in one day, the rebellion would be temporarily quelled. In the future, with this man's prestige and ability, he would surely be able to rise again relying on his strong witchcraft foundation and the local people's hearts.
But the problem is that the rebels themselves didn't know. They always thought that the city was strong and the water fort was weak... Even Yang Yao himself, after being defeated by Yue Fei in Hubei, thought that the Monkey King was the most important.
This is really helpless.
Back to the present, on the fifth day after Yue Fei sent out his troops, not to mention the outer mopping-up work and the removal of water strongholds in Hunan area, Yang Yao and Zhong Xiang were surrounded in Yuanjiang County.
Half of the soldiers outside the city were imperial troops, and half were rebels who had just surrendered. Up to this point, Zhong Xiang and Yang Yao had no idea why they had suddenly ended up in this situation... Of course, His Royal Highness the King of Chu had always been an official match against the enemies on all sides, and I think the Monkey King knew that.
In the morning, Yue Fei politely declined all requests from the surrendered soldiers to fight and to serve as lobbyists, and only told them to watch the battle with peace of mind, citing the hardship of fighting for days. In the afternoon, the commander-in-chief sent out all his troops, equipped with extremely simple battering rams, ladders, ropes, and a few gunpowder bags wrapped in oilcloth, to launch a full-scale siege.
The rebels in the city were all cronies of "King of Chu" Zhong Xiang, and 80% of them had never been on the battlefield. The city walls, which were not very tall to begin with, had a lot of building materials dug away when Zhong Xiang was building the palace in the city.
Therefore, more than 10,000 soldiers in the front of the imperial camp rushed forward, carrying soil to fill the ditch, suppressing with bows and crossbows, climbing the wall first, and the Yuanjiang County City was almost captured in one go. The surrendered rebels watching around could only marvel at the strength of the government army and feel that they were lucky to have chosen to surrender.
After all, such a city was taken down in one fell swoop. How could their own shabby water fortress possibly withstand such a powerful government army?
The difference between strong and weak is clear at a glance.