Guiyi Fei Tang

Chapter 356 Jiazhou Falls
"Damn it! After we lost three states, they gave us four states and asked us to guard two passes with one army. What was the court thinking?!"

On the first day of July, in the military camp outside Chengdu City, Zhang Lin, who had just learned from the Xichuan government office that the court had redistributed the four prefectures of Wen, Fulong, Mianzhou and other states back to Dongchuan, and intended to garrison the Dongchuan army at Jiangyou Pass and Songling Pass and transfer the Fengxiang army to Gutao Pass, walked into the camp cursing with Wang Zhongren, who had come to assist in the defense.

Wang Zhongren sat in the main seat and calmly poured a cup of tea for Zhang Lin. Zhang Lin became even angrier when he saw this.

"Bingwen, aren't you angry?"

"Damn it! We've only been in Chengdu for three days, and now they've transferred us to Mianzhou and Longzhou."

"According to the court, they want us to recapture the three states of Wen, Fu and Long, and at the same time defend Songling Pass and Jiangyou Pass."

"Before we came here, the commander-in-chief said that we should not try our best and it would be better to make the situation in West Sichuan more dangerous. Only in this way can the commander-in-chief get the banner to control the troops of East and West Sichuan."

"But now we need to garrison two passes. After the division, each unit only has 5,000 soldiers. Yang Fugong, Li Changyan, Wang Fuyan and other tens of thousands of soldiers are gathered at Taoguan. If the foreign bandits want to break through the pass, they will definitely choose Songling Pass and Jiangyou Pass."

Zhang Lin talked a lot, and Wang Zhongren's expression did not change until his last sentence.

After pushing the teacup towards Zhang Lin, Wang Zhongren said, "I will never forget the commander's order."

"But don't forget, Dalang, that Marshal Ji told us not to be too passive, lest the officials in Xichuan notice it."

"That is why I am happy to accept the transfer of the four states of Wen, Fu, Long and Mian to Dongchuan."

"As long as it is assigned to Dongchuan, we can take over Jiangyou Pass and Songling Pass. But whether to send troops to recapture the three states is not up to the court, but it is up to us."

"We can just pretend to attack and retake Jiangyou County, then keep our troops in place, or find some foreigners in Longzhou to kill and hand them over to the court as their heads."

Wang Zhongren's words were eye-opening. After thinking for a while, Zhang Lin said with satisfaction, "You are so resourceful. I never thought you could do this."

"But the head is easy to get, but where can we get the armor?"

"With only the head but no armor, the imperial court may not believe us."

"Is it not easy to make a foreign armor?" Wang Zhongren chuckled. "We can get some craftsmen to make some broken foreign armors. We only need to make a few hundred sets and then lie that we killed thousands of bandits and got a few hundred armors. Isn't that enough?"

"Okay! Let's do it!" Zhang Lin smiled heartily, but Wang Zhongren continued to laugh:

"But before we do that, we need to let the commander know about this, and also transfer troops from nearby Zizhou to increase the number of troops at the two passes, so that the bandits will retreat and not lose too many troops."

"Of course!" Zhang Lin nodded quickly.

However, just as the two finished their words, footsteps were heard outside the Yamen, and a general walked into the Yamen, bowed and said:
"Two military commanders, the commander sent someone to deliver a message."

"Please come in!" Zhang Lin urged subconsciously, and Wang Zhongren nodded.

Seeing this, the general bowed, then walked out of the gate and personally led the person into the gate.

A lieutenant colonel walked into the Yamen holding a military disc of Dongchuan. After entering the inner hall, he presented the military disc to Wang Zhongren and the other two.

"Send the military order to the commander-in-chief, asking the two military commanders to move their troops to Songling Pass and Jiangyou Pass. The commander-in-chief has already dispatched troops from Zizhou, Lizhou, and Puzhou to the two passes."

"General Jie, please remember the secret order..."

"Receive the order!" Zhang Lin and Wang Zhongren bowed, then took the general's disc, confirmed it was correct and returned it to the captain of the light cavalry. After having someone arrange accommodation and meals for him, the two discussed the matter of moving camp.

The imperial court threw the hot potato to Dongchuan, but gathered heavy troops to go to Gutaoguan, obviously wanting to recapture the three states of Wei, Yi and Mao.

This is not surprising. After all, Pengzhou is behind Gutao Pass. If the foreign soldiers break through Gutao Pass, they can completely ignore the Pengzhou troops and directly attack Chengdu Prefecture behind Pengzhou.

In comparison, Songling Pass and Jiangyou Pass have Mianzhu Pass and Luoshui River for defense between them and Chengdu, so their importance is naturally greatly reduced.

With this in mind, the two men ordered the three armies to break camp the next day, and head north the next morning.

As they moved camp north, Liu Jilian learned about the court's adjustment of the ownership of various states a few days after the imperial edict was issued.

He summoned all the generals to the Pandi County Government Office, and only after everyone was seated did he tell them about the court's adjustment of the ownership of the various states.

"If the imperial court's move is not to warn us, then it is preparing to send troops to attack us."

Sitting in the main seat, Liu Jilong did not say anything final.

The court used very rigorous terms; the three terms "appease", "recruit and attack", and "suppress" all sound similar, but their actual meanings are very different.

Appeasement is the lightest measure, but it cannot be used against Longyou because Longyou nominally belongs to the Tang Dynasty.

The threat was a bit heavy, meaning that as long as Longyou met certain conditions of the court, the matter could be resolved.

The most serious challenge is to pacify the enemy, which basically means that the imperial court and Longyou will fight to the death. Unless Longyou can drag the imperial court to the point of peace talks, the imperial court will not easily change its attitude.

However, for young and strong people such as Li Ji, both recruiting and suppressing are the same thing, which is nothing more than threatening Longyou.

"General Jie, since the imperial court wants to fight, then we will fight with them!"

Shang Duoluo stood up and bowed without thinking. Li Ji was even more radical. He stood up and said immediately:

"General, I will lead the attack. We should immediately send troops to capture the six states and drive Shang Moyan to attack Xichuan with us. Before the court can react, we should first capture Xichuan and Dongchuan, then occupy Shannan West Road, and then go north to capture Qin and Long states, and march straight to Guanzhong and Huanglong!"

"General, I second Deputy Protector General Li's proposal!" Ma Cheng chose to agree with Li Ji, and the other generals also clamored to agree.

Facing the crowd, Liu Jilong calmly asked Li Ji: "Do you know how many troops the court has in Sanchuan?"

"There are only about 70,000 or 80,000 of them. Our army is strong and can easily defeat them!"

Li Ji answered without hesitation. Liu Jilong asked again: "If we take Sanchuan, our army will border Jiangnan West Road, Qianzhong Road and Dali, and we will be surrounded by enemies on many sides. What will you do then?"

Faced with this question, Li Ji was silent for a moment, and then continued: "We will offer him a great gift of appeasement, promise him the lands of Lingxi, Annan, and Qianzhong, and send heavy troops to garrison Fuzhou to guard against invasion from Shannan East Road."

Li Ji's answer didn't pose many problems, but Liu Jilong shook his head and said, "What if the court uses huge profits to win over Dali, or offers a higher price?"

"Also, have you ever been to Sanchuan? Do you know if our troops will suffer from acclimatization problems when they go to Sanchuan, like the immigrants who went north?"

"If the three armies are unable to adapt to the local climate and are unable to fight, then our main force will be trapped in Sanchuan, and what about Longyou?"

"I...this..." Li Ji didn't know how to refute what Liu Jilong said.

He had been fighting in Helong for many years, so naturally he had never thought about the problem of acclimatization.

Seeing that Li Ji was speechless, the generals fell silent immediately.

Seeing that they had nothing to say, Liu Jilong finally spoke: "The world is vast. The northwest and the two deserts are mostly grasslands and dry. Youzhou has plains and mountains. Although Bashu has plains, it is mostly hilly and humid."

"The Yangtze and Huaihe Rivers have many water systems and many lakes, while the south of the Yangtze River has many swamps and dense mountains and forests..."

"Everywhere in the world is different. Don't apply the Helong military tactics to other places, otherwise it will inevitably bring disaster to the three armies."

The regional characteristics mentioned by Liu Jilong are all the regional characteristics of the east, west, south and north of this era.

Each region changes its regional characteristics with the times, and Liu Jilong did not apply the regional characteristics of later generations to this era.

Over the years, he learned about the characteristics of different regions of this era from Wang Tao, Yu Conghui and other merchants under his command in Longyou, so he was very cautious about overseas operations in this era.

Many people, after seeing the desolation of the Northwest, assume that the Northwest was also desolate a thousand years ago, but they do not think about the vicissitudes of thousands of years and cannot apply them mechanically.

The art of war should be adapted to local conditions, which means that a general should not blindly copy and paste and try to conquer all the world with one trick.

Li Ji and others thought that since they were well-versed in the northwest, they could apply the northwest experience to Bashu.

If Liu Jilian had really listened to his advice, countless soldiers would have died.

Thinking of this, he continued to reprimand Li Ji: "Furthermore, although our army has a large number of troops in Longnan, doesn't the court have a large number of troops in Guanzhong?"

"If our army takes the initiative to go to war with the imperial court, without knowing the deployment of their troops, and is stuck in Shu and unable to extricate themselves, then with less than 30,000 troops remaining in Longyou, can they withstand the heavy attack of the imperial court?"

"If you can't figure out these things, don't start a war without authorization and endanger the lives of the soldiers!"

Li Ji's face flushed red after being told this by Liu Jilong, and the generals all lowered their heads, their mouths dry. Chen Ying glanced at them, and couldn't help but sneer in his heart.

He finally understood that Chen Jingchong, Geng Ming, Zhang Chang and others were no longer involved with Li Ji and his group.

When it comes to military strategy, it is hard for any of the generals in Longyou to be better than the commander-in-chief. The gap is huge.

No matter how good you are at forming cliques and accumulating prestige in normal times, it will all be in vain on the battlefield.

Strength is the most important thing in the military. If you don't have the corresponding strength, no matter how highly you are praised, you will fall hard.

Of course, Liu Jilian did not target Li Ji, but used Li Ji to tell the generals that marching and fighting was not that simple, and victory could not be achieved just by talking.

"Sit down."

Liu Jilong looked at Li Ji. Li Ji and everyone else could only sit back in their seats awkwardly, waiting for Liu Jilong to continue speaking.

After watching them sit down, Liu Jilong looked at Chen Ying and said, "Send a message to Gao Jinda. After the fourteen towns have recruited enough soldiers, the military workshop will continue to forge armor and improve the training of the state soldiers to the same level as combat soldiers, and they will have the same meals."

"Also, tell Gao Jinda to continue selling old grain to the court, and don't let the court see anything wrong."

"Yes!" Chen Ying responded neither humbly nor arrogantly.

Seeing that he agreed, Liu Jilong glanced around the hall and then said in a deep voice:
"Don't rush to intervene in the Six States for now. Let's first see how the imperial court dispatches its troops. After Shang Moyan has repelled several counterattacks from the imperial court, we can decide whether to intervene in the Six States."

"Yes……"

The generals no longer had the same enthusiasm as before and did not dare to offer rash suggestions.

Seeing the attitude of the crowd, Liu Jilong stood up and left the main hall. The other generals also followed Li Ji, Ma Cheng and Shang Duoluo out of the main hall one after another.

At the same time they left, news that the Dongchuan Army had received orders to take over the defense of Mianzhou, Songling Pass and Jiangyou Pass also reached Chang'an.

Also sent to Chang'an was military intelligence from Xichuan and Shannan West Road.

Lu Yan, Xu Shang and Gao Qu walked into the Xianning Palace again. This time, the palace was much cleaner than before.

"Your Majesty, after receiving the order, Dongchuan Jiedushi Gao Pian dispatched the Left Military Commander Wang Zhongren and the Right Military Commander Zhang Lin to garrison Songling Pass and Jiangyou Pass, and also sent 2,000 more troops from various places in Zizhou."

"At present, Songling Pass and Jiangyou Pass each have 7,000 soldiers guarding them. Gao Pian, the governor of Dongchuan, requests the court to reimburse the three armies for the military pay they were owed last year to boost their morale."

Xu Shang spoke slowly, and Li Yi on the Golden Platform heard him and asked, "How much is the military pay for Dongchuan?"

"Dongchuan has 35,000 soldiers and horses, including 7,000 cavalry and 28,000 cavalry and infantry. They should be paid 950,000 strings of cash..."

After Xu Shang finished speaking, Li Yi frowned slightly, then looked at Lu Yan and asked, "Are there any outstanding taxes and grains in the various provinces?"

"Your Majesty, the prefectures and counties also have a lot of debts. After the money and grain they paid were reduced to less than 5 million strings of cash, the outstanding amount is more than 1.64 million strings of cash."

"At present, the outstanding military pay owed to the imperial guards and the various garrison troops is about 7.4 million strings of cash."

After the tax increase this year, the Ministry of Revenue and the Ministry of Finance did have a lot of money and grain, but the court has been in arrears of military pay for a long time, and the amount of arrears is staggering.

Li Yi frowned slightly when he heard this, but thinking of the huge amount of autumn taxes, he immediately said, "We will collect the arrears of taxes owed to the prefectures and counties. As for the arrears of military pay, we will first allocate the pay to the imperial army and the six garrisons in the northwest of Beijing, as well as the garrisons in Shannan West Road, Xichuan, Dongchuan, etc., and then allocate it to the garrisons depending on the situation."

"I obey your order..." Lu Yan bowed in response.

Seeing this, Xu Shang immediately bowed and said, "A report has been received from Shannan West Road. Wang Xiaonian checked the registers of the various towns and armies in Shannan West Road and found that nearly 30% of the troops were empty. He has ordered the soldiers in the various towns to pay tribute to atone for their crimes and to confiscate more than 600,000 strings of money, grain, silk and other materials."

"Wang Xiaonian has dismissed the old and weak and recruited young and strong soldiers to train in various places. In addition to Wang Fuyan's troops who are leading the army to Xichuan, Shannan West Road has also recruited soldiers. Now we have 20,000 soldiers, and they still need to be trained. Please ask the court to pay the military pay."

"Your Majesty has just given instructions on the military pay, so I will not bother you any more."

"In addition, after the state's planning, Gu Taoguan currently has 8,000 soldiers from Xichuan, 4,000 soldiers from Fengxiang, 3,000 soldiers from Shannan West Road, and another 7,000 soldiers from Qianzhong Road, totaling 22,000 soldiers."

"I think that Yang Fuguang should lead the army to try to recapture Duanyuan County west of the old Taoguan Pass and repel the 3,000 foreign cavalry stationed outside the pass."

As soon as Xu Shang finished speaking, Li Yi said without hesitation: "Let's follow what Prime Minister Xu said. Order Yang Fuguang to lead the troops of all the garrisons and recapture Duanyuan according to the order."

"Yes..." Xu Shang bowed respectfully and then returned to the team.

Seeing that he had no advice, Li Yi took the initiative to ask, "Have Wang Xianzhi of Dabie Mountain and Pang Xun of Lushan come out of the mountains to surrender?"

"Your Majesty, there is no news from the various towns. Huainan Jiedushi Kang Chengxun is still commanding the troops and besieging Lushan."

Gao Qu walked out coughing, bowed and reported to Li Yi.

Seeing him cough, Li Yi nodded and said, "Prime Minister Gao, you still need to take care of yourself and don't fall ill here."

"Thank you for your concern, Your Majesty..." Gao Qu slowly returned the greeting and thanked him, then continued:

"At present, the court is still purchasing grain in Longyou, and there is no problem with the grain in Longyou. I think no court official has privately told Liu Jilong that the court wants to fight against the bandits."

"Good!" Li Yi applauded, and Gao Qu continued:
"I think that since Liu Jilong didn't notice anything, it means that Hexi has indeed broken with Longyou. Otherwise, given the backgrounds of Zhang Yichao and others, it is impossible that they would not have told him about this."

"In this case, the imperial court should continue to purchase grain from Longyou to achieve a situation where one side gains while the other loses. When there is enough grain and fodder, we can send troops to attack Longyou and catch them off guard."

Gao Qu's words made Li Yi very satisfied. What he wanted was a quick victory.

"In that case, we will wait until the autumn harvest is over and allocate money and grain to buy more grain from Longyou. When the imperial court sends troops to Longyou, Longyou will be left with no food!"

"Your Majesty is wise... cough cough!" Gao Qu hurriedly complimented him, but his movements were too big and he couldn't help coughing a few times.

After he stopped coughing, Li Yi continued, "The Prime Minister of Qi came to me a few days ago and said that the imperial guards could be transferred to Xichuan at any time. What do you think?"

"This..." Lu Yan and the other two looked at each other. The emperor didn't know, but they knew what this so-called imperial guards were like.

It was nothing more than recruiting good young men into the army, and these new soldiers had just been trained for more than a month.

If this kind of troops were sent to the battlefield in Xichuan, it would probably only make the generals of various towns look down on the imperial guards.

"Your Majesty, I think that there is no need to bother the Imperial Army with a long expedition to Xichuan. It would be better to dispatch the Imperial Army to Fengtian for training and wait until enough food and fodder are stored in Guanzhong before using them in the war to pacify Longyou."

Xu Shang politely rejected Li Yi's suggestion, while at the same time giving Beisi enough face.

Li Yi nodded after hearing this, thinking that there was nothing wrong with what Xu Shang said, but when it came to the battle to pacify Longyou, he spoke again:

"I think that the troops to suppress Longyou are too few. It would be better to mobilize troops from Hedong, Heyang, Duji, Zhaoyi and other places to fight a quick battle and win a quick victory."

"Your Majesty is wise..." Since Xu Shang knew the details of the Imperial Guards, he naturally did not intend to rely on them to fight.

In his opinion, the 150,000 troops mentioned by Wang Shi would probably have to be dispatched from outside the capital.

The eunuchs in the Northern Division would definitely be reluctant to mobilize the assets of the Shen Ce Army.

The Shence Army only has about 10,000 or 20,000 soldiers who can fight. They will not obey the emperor's orders at critical moments, so they still have to rely on troops from other garrisons.

However, it is still early now, so there is no need to rush to dispatch troops.

Thinking of this, Xu Shang bowed and said, "Your Majesty is wise, but the food and fodder are still insufficient. Dispatching troops in advance will only make Longyou suspicious."

"I think we should wait until the autumn harvest to buy the remaining grain in Longyou, and then dispatch troops in the spring of next year, and attack Longyou while the summer taxes are being collected..."

"What you said is very true..." Li Yi wanted to praise Xu Shang, but suddenly he saw Tian Yun hurriedly walking in from outside the hall, holding an urgent silk book in his hand.

His footsteps echoed in the hall, and Lu Yan and the other two turned to look.

"What happened?"

Li Yi frowned and asked, with a bad feeling rising in his heart.

Tian Yun knelt down and presented the urgent silk book with both hands:
"Your Majesty, urgent news from Xichuan: Jiazhou has been captured by the southern barbarians, and Chengdu Prefecture... is in danger!"

(End of this chapter)