Guiyi Fei Tang

Chapter 257: Pushui River
"Throw the scales, distribute the land equally, and distribute money and food, Hu Hanchang!!"

"Throw the scales, distribute the land equally, and distribute money and food, Hu Hanchang!!"

On the third day of the twelfth month of the twelfth year of the Dazhong period, Wang Shouwen and Wu Wei were supported by the generals and soldiers of the Tianping Army and appointed as the Jiedushi of the Tianping Army and the Jiedushi of Yun and Pu states.

Wang Shouwen adopted the suggestion of Zhu Huai, a death row prisoner in Daning County, spread slogans, and issued recruitment invitations to the surrounding barbarians with a monthly military pay of ten strings of cash.

The Hu people in Hedong Road made a living by herding horses and sheep. There were more than 100,000 of them. They were bullied by officials from various states and counties all year round. They could not even afford to buy new clothes all year round and suffered from hunger and cold.

Upon learning that Wang Shouwen was recruiting soldiers, many Tatars, Dangxiang, Tibetans, Uighurs and other Hu people who had been relocated to Hezhong came to join the army.

In just five days, several thousand soldiers joined the army, many of whom brought their own horses.

Seeing that Wang Shouwen's momentum on the west bank was growing, the punitive envoy Li Chengxun was not anxious yet, but the Hezhong Jiedushi Cui Yu was anxious.

"How many more days do we have to wait?"

"If we wait a few more days, the rebels will probably be able to match our army!"

On the east bank of the Pu River, Cui Yu questioned Li Chengxun in the government army tent.

Li Chengxun was not in a hurry when he heard this, but motioned him to sit down and explained:
"The infantry of the four towns have already arrived in Fenxi, which is only a hundred miles away from here. They will arrive here in two days at the latest."

"By then, the troops from the five towns will be assembled, and there will be more than 17,000 infantrymen alone. Why should we fear the rebels?"

As Li Chengxun said this, Cui Yu said, "That being said, if I continue to let the rebels go, His Majesty will definitely punish me!"

Cui Yu knew better than anyone why the Hu people in Hezhong responded so actively to the call of the rebels.

After all, it is because these officials have been exploiting the people too much, which has long aroused public anger.

Seeing this, Li Chengxun could only appease:
"Although they conquered Daning County and Pu County, the money and food they captured were limited."

"Although we have recruited several thousand Hu soldiers, how long can we keep them going?"

"Let's surround them for now. When their food and supplies run out, they will definitely try to break out."

"It won't take much effort for us to take care of them then."

After he finished speaking, Li Chengxun added: "As for the matter in the river, Envoy Cui does not need to worry."

"I will then send someone to tell the court that the Hu people in Hezhong are planning a rebellion and are colluding with the rebels."

"Thanks to Envoy Cui's advice, I was able to lead the troops to suppress the Hu people here and save Hezhong from disaster!"

Seeing Li Chengxun's promise, Cui Yu's face gradually improved, and he immediately bowed and said:
"In that case, thank you very much, Suppressing Envoy..."

"Haha, no problem..."

Seeing that Cui Yu was no longer anxious, Li Chengxun smiled and poured a cup of tea for Cui Yu, saying:

"This is Longyou's stir-fried tea. Although it's not as good as other teas, it's better in terms of sweetness and aftertaste."

"I led the troops to fight against the rebels this time, so I was not able to bring back much. Envoy Cui can have a taste."

"If you like it, then after the rebellion is suppressed and I return to Qinzhou, I will naturally send someone to buy it and send it to Envoy Cui's residence."

"Okay..." Cui Yu had no intention of sipping tea. While Li Chengxun was sitting firmly on the throne, he was thinking about how to deal with the rebels.

However, when he was thinking about dealing with the rebels, in the rebel camp on the other side of the Pu River, Wang Shouwen, Wu Wei and others were having fun with the Hu people recruited by the army.

"In just five days, more than 4,000 Hu people have surrendered. If this continues, our army will be no worse than the government troops!"

Wang Shouwen was greatly encouraged and laughed heartily as he looked at the bustling military camp.

Seeing this, Wu Wei reminded him in time: "That being said, all the captured cloth and armor have been used up."

"We have enough money, but the food and fodder can only sustain the army for a month. If we continue to recruit the army but get nothing, then our army..."

When Wu Wei finished speaking, Wang Shouwen smiled and patted him:
"Da Lang, what are you worried about?"

"Don't forget, you and I have the Helong catapult in our hands. As long as we are determined to attack the city, how can the Hedong rammed earth wall stop us?"

"The only thing I'm worried about now is Jiang's faction, Lu Dan, Zheng Zhu and others in the north."

"I thought we would have to train them for a few more days, but now it seems that as long as these barbarians put on armor, they can become combat soldiers."

"What do you want to do?" Wu Wei's eyes flickered. Wang Shouwen snorted coldly:

"Since they won't let us cross the river, let's mess up the river!"

"Tonight I will lead three thousand elite cavalry north and go around behind Jiang Xi and others."

"Leave 300 light cavalry to monitor the movements of Li Chengxun and Cui Yu, and then lead the rest of the troops south to attack Taiping, Zhengping, Jishan, Longmen and other counties!"

"Whether Chiang's faction moves south or Lee Seung-hoon crosses the river, I can attack them from behind!"

Wu Wei was delighted when he heard this, and then he looked Wang Shouwen up and down:

"Wang Lang, I didn't expect that in such a short time, you have become like Li Jieshuai (Li Shidao) in the past."

"Haha!" Wang Shouwen laughed loudly, and then patted Wu Wei:

"I'm not Li Jieshuai, I'm your brother, Wang Lang from Xuchang County, Yunzhou!"

Wu Wei smiled when he saw this, and the two of them hit it off and immediately decided to divide the army.

However, after deciding to divide the troops, Wang Shouwen dispersed all the generals and specifically called Wu Wei aside.

Compared to when he talked about dividing the troops before, Wang Shouwen was more cautious at this time.

Without waiting for Wu Wei to speak, Wang Shouwen whispered:
"If Li Chengxun sends his elite cavalry to attack, you don't have to worry about those Hu soldiers. Lead Tianping's old brothers to break through to Qinshui County."

"Then you..." Wu Wei looked at him in surprise, and Wang Shouwen said:
"Don't worry, I have my own way to break through!"

Hearing this, Wu Wei had mixed emotions, but still nodded.

That night, Wang Shouwen sent out five hundred elite cavalrymen carefully out of the camp every half hour, and then sent one hundred elite cavalrymen back to the camp in the dark, so that the Tang soldiers on the other side of the Pu River would mistakenly believe that it was their own Tang cavalrymen running back and forth.

By dawn the next day, Wang Shouwen had led three thousand elite cavalrymen ten miles west, heading north along the Luliang Mountains, and hid in a valley after finding one.

At noon, Wu Wei moved his camp south and ordered his soldiers to put straw men on the carriages to maintain the number of flags in the team in order to confuse Li Chengxun.

Upon learning that the rebels were heading south, Cui Yu immediately found Li Chengxun.

"The rebels are heading south. I'm afraid they are running low on money and food. They are preparing to attack the city from the south!"

"I already know!"

When Cui Yu walked into the tent, Li Chengxun had already put on armor.

As soon as he finished speaking, Li Chengxun immediately made arrangements:

"I will lead 5,000 elite cavalry from the Tianxiong and Pingxia tribes southward."

"If the rebels attack the city, I will wait for an opportunity to cross the river and attack them."

"Envoy Lao Cui led 1,500 elite cavalrymen from the three towns of Fengxiang and 5,000 infantrymen from Hezhong to wait for Jiang Xi and others to come south."

"I have sent a fast horse to inform the Jiang faction. He will then go south to help the army cross the river."

"Envoy Cui, you only need to lead the army south, and I will naturally go north to join the Lord."

"When the troops from the five towns meet, the rebels will be doomed!"

After Li Chengxun made some simple arrangements, he led Tuoba Sigong and five thousand other elite cavalrymen south along the Pu River.

At the same time, the light cavalry distributed on the west bank of the Pu River were also reporting the rebel movements to Cui Yu, who then passed it on to Li Chengxun.

On the fifth day of the twelfth lunar month, Wang Shouwen found a small path from Luliang Mountain and walked into the mountains, while Wu Wei led his troops to surround Taiping County.

When Li Chengxun learned that Wu Wei and Zhu Huai had surrounded Taiping, he thought that Taiping County was tall and solid and could hold out for several days, so he could use the opportunity to delay time and wait for Chiang's faction to move south.

"Smash!!"

"Boom bang bang-"

On the sixth day of the twelfth lunar month, Wu Wei and Zhu Huai built more than ten catapults overnight.

They brought the trebuchets close to the city wall and continued to hurl stones at a distance of fifty paces.

At that time, there were 500 defenders in Taiping County, and the county had a large population, so Li Chengxun was not worried about the fall of Taiping County.

"Send out 800 elite cavalrymen from the army to capture all the civilians within a 20-li radius and force them to build catapults for our army and fill the moat!"

In the outer tent of Taiping County, Wu Wei was commanding in an orderly manner, while Zhu Huai was responsible for supervising the army on the front line.

Under the attack of 800 elite cavalry and more than 4,000 Hu soldiers, the rammed earth wall of Taiping County was so fragile that it was broken and damaged in just one day and one night.

Upon learning that the Tianping Army was besieging Taiping, many Hu people from the surrounding areas and south of Taiping fled north to join the army. Even though the Tianping Army attacked Taiping County every day, its numbers continued to grow rapidly.

Tens of thousands of captured civilians filled the Taiping County moat with sand, and Zhu Huai led more than 4,000 Hu soldiers to push cloud chariots, well poles and other siege equipment to launch a violent attack.

At 15:30 on the seventh day of the twelfth lunar month, Taiping County was captured and the defenders in the city surrendered.

Wu Wei and Zhu Huai plundered the wealthy families in the city and put their warehouses under the management of the army. After giving each soldier ten strings of cash, they marched south to Zhengping.

By the time the news reached Li Chengxun, it was already after nightfall that day.

"Damn it! These rebels must have learned the Helong catapult from Suo Xun!"

After learning that Taiping County had been captured, Li Chengxun immediately decided to change his plan. He went west and east, crossed the Pu River from Jishan County, and attacked Wu Wei to the east.

"Envoy, Envoy Cui has military intelligence."

Before the army could move camp, new military information came from the north.

Li Chengxun frowned and motioned for the general to speak, and the general said, "In the afternoon, the troops from Fengxiang, Jingyuan and other towns left Luliang Mountain and are resting in the southern part of Fenxi County." "Envoy Jiang sent a message saying that the army will arrive in the southern part of Linfen tomorrow and will be able to lead the army on the east bank across the river the day after tomorrow."

"Good!" Li Chengxun was cheered up. After fighting for so many days, he finally heard good news.

Upon seeing this, he immediately ordered: "Send a message to Envoy Jiang and Envoy Cui, and have them send out elite cavalry to alert the rebels in the south, so as to prevent the rebels from attacking them halfway across the river!"

"Yes!" They all agreed, and later when they saw that Li Chengxun no longer made any arrangements, they immediately prepared to retreat.

However, not long after he left, another general entered the camp.

"Envoy, the imperial court has sent light cavalry to ask when we can wipe out the rebels!"

Hearing this, Li Chengxun felt a little annoyed.

During these few days, the imperial court sent two or three groups of light cavalry to question him every day.

Although our troops are far superior to the rebels, the rebels are now deeply supported by the Hu people in Hezhong.

He himself had no idea how many days it would take to suppress the rebellion.

Thinking of this, Li Chengxun took a deep breath and said:
"Tell the court that there are tens of thousands of barbarians in Hezhong who support the rebels and are now as strong as our army."

"It will take at least half a month to wipe out the rebels, or at least more than a month!"

After he finished speaking, everyone was stunned.

The number of rebels is clearly only eight or nine thousand, how come they are now equal to ours?
However, he was only stunned for a moment, then responded yes and left the tent.

The imperial cavalry returned to Chang'an with military intelligence, and Li Chengxun also ordered the three armies to prepare to move westward 120 miles and cross the river to enter Jishan County tomorrow.

In fact, he was less than thirty miles away from Zhengping at that time, but building a floating bridge and crossing the river for thirty miles could definitely not be completed in one day, and the distance between Taiping County and Zhengping County was only more than thirty miles.

At the speed of the rebels, they would be able to surround Zhengping County by noon tomorrow at the latest, so he could only take a detour to the farther Jishan County.

In addition, he also wanted to see whether the rebels really wanted to encircle Zhengping County or were preparing to cross the river to the east bank of Pushui.

Therefore, he must observe the movements of the rebels on the south bank of Zhengping County tomorrow, then rush to Jishan County at night, cross the river and catch the rebels off guard in the early morning of the ninth day after tomorrow.

While he was thinking this, Wu Wei and Zhu Huai were setting up camp and continuously receiving calls from Hu soldiers who came to surrender from all directions.

The next morning, the two men broke camp and headed south. Their force grew to eight or nine thousand men, and nearly fifty thousand civilians were captured.

At two o'clock in the afternoon, the two men led their troops to Zhengping County, and at the same time saw the elite cavalry of the government army looking at the north bank from the south bank of Zhengping County.

"Damn it, they're here so fast!"

When Wu Wei and Zhu Huai's army surrounded Zhengping County, they rode to the north bank of Pushui and looked at the government troops on the south bank.

Li Chengxun led 5,000 elite cavalry, of which 2,000 belonged to the Tianxiong Army and 3,000 belonged to the Pingxia tribe.

After all, these two elite cavalry units are armored cavalry from the border areas and ethnic minorities. They are more numerous and more powerful than the elite cavalry from the three towns of Fengxiang. Even Wu Wei and Wang Shouwen are deeply wary of them.

Wu Wei withdrew his gaze and looked westward towards Zhengping County.

The Pu River is not wide, only about twenty or thirty feet wide.

However, since there were always elite cavalry of the government army on the east bank, Wu Wei, who was worried about being attacked halfway across the river, could not make up his mind to cross the river.

He originally wanted to seize the ferry in Zhengping County, but at this moment the ferry was ablaze. The government troops of Zhengping County had burned all the boats at the ferry before they arrived.

If they wanted to cross the river, they had to build a pontoon bridge.

However, Li Chengxun on the east bank was always watching, and they had no way to build a floating bridge calmly.

Even if a floating bridge is built, it may not be possible to cross it.

Thinking of this, Wu Wei calmed down and thought of Wang Shouwen who was waiting for an opportunity in the north.

"Hmph!" Wu Wei snorted, then looked at Zhu Huai:

"Zhengping County has no more than 800 soldiers and no more than 40,000 people. Now our army has nearly 9,000 soldiers and has captured tens of thousands of civilians."

"Today you will supervise the laborers in building the catapults, and I will lead the army to capture the people around Zhengping County!"

"Yes!" Zhu Huai bowed in response, turned his horse around and began to command the Hu soldiers and supervise the civilians to build catapults.

Li Chengxun, who was on the south bank of Pushui, saw this and said with a sullen face:

"The number of rebels is no less than 8,000, and they have taken over tens of thousands of civilians."

As soon as he finished speaking, Tuoba Sigong, who was standing beside him, bowed and said:
"Don't worry, my cavalry is brave and good at fighting. As long as you give the order, I will lead the army to take down Wang Shouwen's head!"

"Good!" Li Chengxun smiled when he heard Tuoba Sigong's words to stabilize the military morale.

"We will set up camp here during the day to confuse them. At the same time, we will recruit civilians from all around and have them wear war jackets to confuse the rebels in the camp so that they will not dare to cross the river."

"At night, our elite cavalry will take a detour to Jishan County from the south and then attack the rebels."

Li Chengxun gave the order and immediately ordered Tuoba Sigong to lead elite cavalry to recruit able-bodied men from all around.

However, for the Pingxia tribe, this job can be said to be a lucrative one.

They didn't care about conscription, but just arrested and robbed anyone they saw.

For a time, the people on both sides of the Pu River suffered.

The north was robbed by rebels and the south was robbed by government troops.

Before dusk, Tuoba Sigong had captured tens of thousands of strong men and countless cattle, sheep, carriages and horses.

Li Chengxun didn't say anything when he saw this, and Tuoba Sigong was very sensible and gave all the stolen money and silk to Li Chengxun.

Li Chengxun was very satisfied and did not mention his looting.

At the instruction of Li Chengxun, military intelligence from the south was sent to Chang'an and Linfen. It was already night when the news arrived in Linfen.

Although it was already night, the banks of the Pushui River several miles south of Linfen were brightly lit.

Before dusk, Fengxiang Jiedushi Jiang Xi led his troops to Linfen, set up camp on the west bank, and sent troops with Cui Yu to build a pontoon bridge overnight.

Standing by the Pushui River, the cold wind blew up Cui Yu's robe, and he frowned and said:
"Who is the garrison commander of Zhengping County?"

The cavalry officer standing beside him bowed and said, "My Lord, this is my son Wang Chongrong."

"It's your Silang?" Cui Yu was surprised, then he put his hands behind his back and walked back and forth, saying:
"This is difficult to handle..."

The cavalry general beside him was Wang Chongying, the son of Wang Zong, the governor of Fenzhou, and the brother of Wang Chongzhang, the governor of Shizhou.

Wang Zong was born as a cavalry general in Hezhong. He is now sixty-three years old and has five sons. The eldest son is Wang Chongzhang, the second son is Wang Chongjian, the third son is Wang Chongying, the fourth son is Wang Chongrong, and the fifth son is Wang Chongyi.

Among them, Wang Zong and Wang Chongzhang were rewarded for their contributions in suppressing the Uighurs and were sent to Lingzhou and Weizhou as governors respectively.

However, due to the sudden rise of Liu Jilian in Longyou, the imperial court transferred the father and son back to Fenzhou and Shizhou to serve as governors in order to strengthen the military forces in the western border.

Among the other four sons of the Wang family, Wang Chongjian stayed in Hezhong Prefecture as a cavalry commander, while the younger Wang Chongying and Wang Chongrong served as generals in the army due to their bravery.

The youngest, Wang Chongyi, followed his father to Fenzhou to take up his post, but he did not hold any official position.

It can be said that the Wang family is one of the more famous commoner families in Hezhong in recent years.

If Wang Chongrong were to fall into the hands of the rebels, Cui Yu would inevitably become estranged from the Wang family.

Wang Chongying obviously knew Cui Yu's worries, so he bowed and said:
"Don't worry, sir. My Silang is the bravest of the three armies. Even if the enemy army attacks the city fiercely, they will not be able to take Taiping County for a while."

"What's more, the envoy has already led his army to secretly cross Chencang, preparing to attack the enemy army."

"Even if Taiping is lost, my Shilang can still fight his way out of the vast army!"

Cui Yu didn't know whether Wang Chongying's words were meant to elevate Wang Chongrong or to comfort himself.

In short, with Wang Chongying's words, he no longer had to worry about creating a rift with the Wang family.

So he looked at Wang Zhongying and said, "Okay, after this battle, I will definitely report your contributions to the court!"

"Thank you very much, Your Excellency!" Wang Chongying bowed and saluted. Seeing this, Cui Yu looked at the ferry bridge that was still under construction.

"I'll leave this matter to you, General Ya."

"Don't worry, sir. I will repair the bridge with the troops on the west bank before dawn tomorrow!"

Seeing that Wang Chongying was very serious, Cui Yu nodded with satisfaction and left.

As he nodded and left, a group of Tang riders also walked into a river valley in the dark in the Luliang Mountains, more than 20 miles away.

When they walked into the mountains, they saw sparse campfires in the distance.

The campfire was hidden by the dense forest, and if they had not walked four or five miles into the valley, they would not have been able to find it easily.

They were brought to the campfire, and sitting opposite the campfire was Wang Shouwen, who had been hiding in the mountains for more than five days.

"General, the government troops set up camp south three hours ago and are currently guiding Cui Yu and other troops across the river!"

After the soldiers reported, the two generals behind Wang Shouwen immediately bowed:
"General Jie, let's send out troops at this time!"

"That's right!"

Faced with the urging of the two, Wang Shouwen was not in a hurry.

His face was gloomy under the light of the campfire, but his tone was very calm.

"No rush. If we can't build a pontoon bridge in three hours, we should take a good rest now. We will send troops tomorrow when they relax during their march southwards!"

(End of this chapter)