All Heavens and Worlds Modified History System

Chapter 297: Conspiracy against Wei Bo, taking into account the right time, place and people

Outside Zhangqiu City, the Wei Bo Army Camp.

"What? The food supply is cut off?!" Han Jian, who led the troops to destroy Huang Chao as the military commander of Weizhou Town, was full of disbelief. "How is it possible?!"

"That's true." Military advisor Chen Ken reported, "A bandit army under the banner of justice has seized Linyi and the floating bridge across the Jishui River!"

"Damn it!"

Han Jian was furious. "Why couldn't the defenders hold the position? They all deserve to die!"

Everyone in the big tent was speechless. In order to attack Zhangqiu City, you only left a few hundred people to guard the floating bridge on the Ji River.

How can hundreds of people defend it?

"It took a lot of effort to trap Huang Chao in Zhangqiu City." Han Jian scratched his head. "Everyone, what do you think?"

Immediately, a general stepped out and bowed, "Sima, we must quickly return to retake the pontoon bridge."

"Return to the army." Han Jian looked unwilling. "But Huang Chao in the city can take the opportunity to escape."

Even at this time, he was still thinking about Huang Chao.

After all, as long as he could capture the city and kill the bandit leader, his merits would be enough for him to smoothly take over the post of Jiedushi of Weizhou Town.

"Sima." General You Ya said dissatisfiedly, "The camp has more than ten days' worth of food and fodder. If we can't open up the food supply route as soon as possible, we'll be finished if we run out of food."

Han Jian asked in return, "How about collecting grain locally?"

"What are you talking about, Sima? Don't you know that the autumn harvest has already passed? Not to mention that every place has been swept by thieves, even if there is still surplus food in every place, we go to grab the food, they are not made of wood, how can they give it to us for nothing!"

This is the place where Qizhou and Zibo meet, and was originally the territory of Ziqing Town.

However, the defenders of each city closed the city gates and watched the fight between Wei Bo Town and Huang Chao coldly, with no intention of helping at all.

On the one hand, it was because everyone was not from the same vassal state and they were very wary of each other.

In addition, after the arrogant Wei Bo soldiers entered Ziqing Town, they plundered the local area and demanded insatiable gains, and also occupied many cities, which had already offended the local people.

The Pinglu Army showed sufficient restraint by not leaving the city to help Huang Chao fight the Wei Bo troops.

"Why not send a messenger back to Weizhou as soon as possible?" Han Jian was still reluctant to give up the military merit that was about to be achieved. "Please ask the Jiedushi to raise troops to help, defeat the enemy and send food up."

Weizhou Town has more than 100,000 soldiers and horses, ranking among the top three towns in the world.

Among them, the provincial soldiers stationed in various prefectures and counties accounted for more than half, plus the outer garrison soldiers stationed in key positions connecting with various vassal states, the real guard troops who could maneuver in field combat, totaled about 50,000.

Han Jian brought more than 20,000 combat soldiers this time, and more than 10,000 auxiliary soldiers drawn from various places.

As for militia such as the Tuanjie Soldiers, they can only be civilian laborers at best and are not counted.

Weizhou can also mobilize tens of thousands of combat troops and auxiliary troops to come to the rescue, which is also an option.

The only concern is that the distance is too far and the arrival is too slow.

The generals were helpless, "This place is quite far from Weizhou, and we may not have enough time to wait for the reinforcements to arrive."

"Then we must capture Zhangqiu City first!"

It was obvious that Han Jian was angry. "Huang Chao is so good at running that we finally trapped him. If we let him run away just because the bandits had reinforcements, how would we be able to put down the rebellion? If we can't put down Huang Chao, how can we take over Ziqing Town!"

Now that things have come to this, it's not time for anyone to say anything more.

Han Jian immediately selected a team of guards, rode his horse to the bank of the Jishui River, crossed the river by boat, bypassed Linyi, went straight to Bozhou (Liaocheng) in the west, and rushed to Weizhou (Daming) at full speed.

He arrived at the city gate, revealed his identity, and shouted that he wanted to enter the city to submit urgent military information to the governor.

Unexpectedly, the defenders not only did not open the city gate, but instead released a rain of arrows to shoot them.

The royal guards were horrified and had no idea what was going on. They were their own people!
As for why this happened, it was naturally because Chen Ran used a strategy of sowing discord.

He read the history books and knew that the current Weizhou Jiedushi, Han Yunzhong, would die of illness within the year.

Historically, it was indeed Han Jian who took over the post of Jiedushi, but the generals of Wei Bo were not convinced at all and were ambitious enough to reshuffle the cards.

The most outstanding among them were the general Le Yanzhen and his son Le Congxun.

Le Yanzhen was a proud and daring man, but his son Le Congxun was indeed more arrogant than his father.

A few years later, Prime Minister Wang Duo passed by Weizhou Town. Le Congxun saw the beauty of his concubine and the wealth she possessed, so he killed Wang Duo and hundreds of his followers and took away the beauty and wealth.

He is the prime minister. This is undoubtedly arrogant, extremely arrogant.

Chen Ran, who learned about this, sent people to Weizhou at the same time as he sent troops to spread rumors secretly.

It wasn't a sophisticated strategy. It just meant that Le Yanzhen had ulterior motives and wanted to take advantage of Han Jian's dispatch of troops to other towns to seize power in Weizhou Town.

The story of the inferiors overthrowing their superiors is a traditional tradition in Wei Bo Town.

Once the rumor came out, everyone believed it.

Le Yanzhen was also caught off guard.

He did have this idea, but he didn't think of doing it so soon because he was not ready yet.

If Jiedushi Han Yunzhong had not been seriously ill and almost unable to get up, he would probably have been attacked immediately.

Not long after, news came that Linyi had been lost, the floating bridge had been seized, and the food supply route had been cut off. Chen Ran also exaggerated the false news that the Wei Bo army had been defeated and Han Jian had died in battle. The news spread so much that it actually reached the ears of the seriously ill Jiedushi Han Yunzhong, who was so frightened that he died!

Now Le Yanzhen had no choice but to take action. Instigated by his son Le Congxun, he immediately raised an army and occupied Weizhou City.

Le Congxun was extremely murderous and directly massacred the soldiers and their families who were loyal to the Han family. The blood flowed like a river.

The strategy of sowing discord is only effective against forces that are internally unstable and uneasy from top to bottom.

Coincidentally, Weizhou Town was the most unstable and internally chaotic place in the world at the end of the Tang Dynasty.

The remaining military messengers learned the truth from people outside the city. In grief, they hurried back to the outside of Zhangqiu city to report.

Time has already passed by in this back and forth.

Han Jian originally thought that he could quickly capture Zhangqiu City and seize the food and military supplies in the city.

Unexpectedly, Huang Chao was a die-hard anti-Tang element.

Although they were unable to defeat Weizhou Town in the field battle, they managed to hold out for ten days by fighting desperately to defend the city.

The soldiers in Weizhou Town suffered heavy losses and their morale was very low.

Moreover, they were all professional soldiers. Naturally, they had inferred that the food supply route had been cut off since there had been no food transport teams entering the barracks in recent days, and they had already started to make a fuss.

When the messenger to Weizhou hurried back, Han Jian was so shocked that he forgot to block the news. As a result, the whole camp knew about the changes in Weizhou.

In order to let his son achieve military merit, he could legitimately inherit the position of Jiedushi.

When Han Jian sent out troops this time, Lieutenant General Han Yun sent most of the troops loyal to them father and son.

Almost all of these people's families were killed by Le Congxun.

The Wei Bo army camps were almost going crazy.

He was filled with anger and had no way to vent it, so the first thing he did was to kill the incompetent Han Jian.

Immediately, the Wei Bo soldiers and the outer soldiers rushed to the floating bridge on the Ji River like crazy, wanting to return to Weizhou to take revenge.

As for the auxiliary troops drawn from the prefectures and counties, and the civilian laborers working in the Tuanjie Society, they all dispersed and sought their own way out.

"Wei Bo's soldiers are arrogant and conceited."

In the military camp beside the floating bridge, Chen Ran was reviewing the situation.

"They have no food or reinforcements. They are trapped in a pincer attack and are blocked on the other side of the Ji River. It can be said that they have no favorable conditions. If we make a promise to them, win them over and then go to Weizhou to help them take revenge, we will have a chance to subdue them."

The topic changed, and he went straight to "But! The eunuchs of Wei Bo are too arrogant, to no end. As the saying goes, 'The emperor of Chang'an, the eunuchs of Wei Bo' means that the emperor of Chang'an is often replaced by eunuchs, and the governors of Wei Bo are also often replaced by eunuchs."

"They don't submit to anyone and form their own interest group."

"If you want to truly subdue them, instead of constantly worrying about the rebellion of the teeth soldiers, you have to knock down their arrogance! Remove their group pillars! Abolish common interests! Completely transform them into real soldiers."

Chen Ran looked at Wang Yanzhang and said, "So the only option now is to subdue the Wei Bo soldiers. This can only treat the symptoms but not the root cause. Only by fighting hard and defeating them completely can we have a chance to subdue them completely!"

Wang Yanzhang, Liu Xun and others listened attentively and nodded in agreement from time to time.

"Although we should not stop the returning troops." Chen Ran sighed, "But right now, these Wei Bo soldiers are indeed at their lowest strength."

"We have been besieging Zhangqiu for many days but have not been able to take it. We have lost military strength and morale, and our combat effectiveness has dropped by at least 10%."

"Without replenishment of food and military supplies, the combat effectiveness has dropped by at least 30%."

"The auxiliary soldiers and civilians are scattered, and no one is doing the dirty work, which reduces the combat effectiveness by 10%."

"General Chongtian is not stupid. He will definitely send troops to contain the pursuit, which will drag down another 10% of the combat effectiveness."

"The terrain of the floating bridge on the Ji River will at least limit their combat effectiveness by 20%."

"General." Liu Xun, who was well-versed in military books, took the initiative to speak, "The Wei Bo soldiers came with the intention of revenge, and their fighting spirit is probably increased by 30%."

"That's right." Chen Ran said with a smile, "In total, we are facing Wei Bo soldiers who are only half combat-effective."

"General." The young Wang Yanzhang was not willing to be outdone and immediately said, "They have no food to eat. They can only fight for three to five days at most."

"That's right." Chen Ran nodded. "Three days is the limit. As long as we can hold out for three days, we can send people to recruit them."

On the bank of the Jishui River, the desperate Wei Bo soldiers and foreign soldiers rushed to the floating bridge in groups.

With the Ji River blocking their way in front and Huang Chao's pursuing troops behind, the local people in Ziqing Town treated them as a scourge.

The family in their hometown was destroyed, the general was killed by his own people, and the various tribes were unwilling to submit to each other and were not under the same command.

There was a shortage of food, weapons and military supplies, auxiliary soldiers and laborers, and so on.

Despite so many misfortunes, both big and small, happening at the same time, the Wei Bo Army was able to maintain its organization and even fight. This is enough to be called a strong army!
Unfortunately, this powerful army never fought against any foreign enemies from beginning to end, and eventually disappeared in the long river of history due to internal friction.

There were about 20,000 Wei Bo troops who reached the shore.

Each city had different troops and without a leading general, they were no longer under the command of each other.

However, they were not like a certain Mandarin-speaking military town. They stood still like a mountain when their friendly forces were in trouble, advanced on the enemy like the wind, outflanked the enemy like a forest, and plundered money and invaded like fire.

Instead of blaming each other, the Wei Bo troops rushed to launch the offensive first and seize the pontoon bridge.

What is a brave soldier?
Wei Bojun is it!
(End of this chapter)