Chapter 256 Strength and Weakness
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 word, 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 post for the position of commander in chief for the purpose of recruiting surrenders. If he surrenders, it will be his.
Thirdly, regardless of whether he surrenders or not, 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!
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