Poor Family Chapter 990

  Chapter 990 Watching the wind and falling

At noon, Li Yanqing led an army of 10,000 and 30,000 cavalry to Wucheng County. The guards of Wucheng County, Wang Dian and Ma Wenchun, had received the news that Wu Zhan's army had been wiped out. They were terrified and sent pigeons to Lin'an at dawn. He wrote to ask for help, but before he heard back, Li Yanqing's 40,000 troops approached the city.

   "It's actually a cavalry!"

  Wang Dian cried out in fright when he saw the overwhelming cavalry, and the guards at the top of the city were also trembling. Once the city was broken, their lives might be lost.

  At this moment, a cavalryman galloped up, shot a letter into the city with an arrow more than a hundred steps away, and then rushed back.

A soldier found the letter and rushed to report to Wang Dian. Wang Dian was startled when he received the letter. It was Li Yanqing's ultimatum. Half an hour later, the rebellious army would attack the city. The chief general Wang Dian and the deputy general Ma Wenchun will be beheaded for public display and will never be forgiven. If they surrender before the siege, Wang Dian and Ma Wenchun will be spared the death penalty and dismissed as civilians.

  Ma Wenchun stepped forward to take a closer look, and immediately said angrily: "This is Li Yanqing's sincerity? If you want us to surrender and be exiled to the people, who the **** is willing to surrender? It's better to fight to the death."

Wang Dian didn't say anything for a while, Ma Wenchun was worried that Wang Dian would be tempted, and quickly persuaded him: "The opponent has no siege weapons. Although they have a large number of troops, most of them are cavalry, so they can't attack the city at all. We can completely hold the county seat and wait for the Supreme Emperor to send troops to rescue us." , At that time, we made a lot of contributions, and high rewards are absolutely indispensable."

  Wang Dian nodded, "You are right. Why don't we divide the work and guard the city? You are in charge of the North City and the West City, and I guard the South City and the East City."

"So much the better!"

Ma Wenchun was overjoyed, turned around and left. At this moment, Wang Dian suddenly pulled out his sword and pierced Ma Wenchun's back heart from the face. The long sword pierced through his chest. Ma Wenchun screamed and fell to the ground immediately. .

  Wang Dian said coldly in his ear: "Since you want to die, then I will send you to the west first!"

   He drew his long sword, blood spurted out, and Ma Wenchun was killed on the spot.

  Wang Dian wiped the long sword clean on his body, and ordered: "Open the door and surrender!"

The city gate of Wucheng County opened slowly, ten thousand troops marched out of the city gate, put their weapons and armor aside, and the soldiers raised their hands to gather on one side, Li Yanqing gave Cao Meng a wink, Cao Meng immediately led thousands The rest of the cavalry stepped forward and directed the surrendered troops to gather in the open space to the west.

  At this time, the Lord tied Wang Dian Wuhuada out, knelt on the ground and begged for punishment.

  Li Yanqing nodded, and said to him: "You betrayed the Lord and begged for glory. Although you deserve death, but I hope you will surrender voluntarily and save the lives of the soldiers. I will spare your death and allow you to pack up your belongings and leave."

  A soldier stepped forward to untie him, Wang Dian kowtowed and said in thanks, "Thank you Dutong for not killing him!"

  Wang Dian got up and returned to the city, and took a few soldiers to pack up his things.

In just two days and one night, Li Yanqing wiped out 40,000 new imperial troops, and at the same time reorganized and surrendered the army, and obtained 30,000 new troops. In addition, 30,000 Jingzhao cavalry came to help the battle, and the number of Li Yanqing's army jumped to 110,000. People, while Zhao Ji's army quickly dropped to 90,000, and the balance of troops has undergone a substantial change.

In the early morning, a fleet of 300 segoing ships was slowly sailing into the mouth of the Yangtze River. This was a segoing fleet sailing from Mingzhou Harbor. Du Chong spent three years building the fleet after serving as a shipbuilder. Sea ships range in size from 6,000 shi to 3,000 shi. Although they are not super big ships of 10,000 shi, they are also very strong, able to withstand the wind and waves at sea, and can travel between Southeast Asia and Japan.

  The purpose of Zhao Gou spending a lot of money to build these segoing ships is to form an official merchant fleet to conduct overseas trade, make huge profits, and solve financial constraints.

The original plan was to go to sea for the first time after the ceremony for the establishment of the prince, and the materials and personnel were all ready. Once the registration was completed, he would sail to Japan, but the change was not as planned. All of the 100 new segoing ships were requisitioned for military use.

  Liu Guangshi's request for help gave these segoing ships their first use. Three hundred segoing ships sailed to Taizhou to take a 50,000-strong army across the Yangtze River.

Zhao Ji finally became a little anxious. Li Yanqing wiped out 40,000 troops in one fell swoop in Huzhou, beheaded Wu Zhan, and released Wang Dian, which shocked the entire Lin'an Prefecture, especially the hegemony of those who follow me prosper and those who oppose me perish. The means made the generals panic and changed their minds.

  Although Li Yanqing did not immediately lead the army to the south, but reorganized and surrendered the army in Huzhou, this method of attracting and not sending out made the army even more unstable.

  In this case, Zhao Ji urgently needed Liu Guangshi to lead an army to attack from the north and attack Li Yanqing's back, forcing Li Yanqing to return to Fangpingjiang Mansion.

  The Yangtze River Estuary in the Song Dynasty was quite different from today. Chongming Island was not fully formed. There were only three small islands. A small town called Chongming Town appeared on one of the small islands. The residents on it lived on fishing.

Three hundred segoing ships had just sailed into the mouth of the Yangtze River, when a fleet of warships appeared in front of them, lined up on the Yangtze River, blocking the way of the segoing fleet, and at this time, more than a dozen warships appeared behind the fleet , Cut off the sea fleet's retreat, and played a semaphore for the first battle ship, asking the sea fleet to move closer to the south bank of the Yangtze River.

  At this time, there were explosions one after another on the river surface. The water waves were surging, the smoke filled the sky, and the huge explosion sounded thrilling.

There are not many troops in the three hundred ships, and each ship has only 20 sailors and two or three **** soldiers. Under the strong threat of the enemy warships, the ships had to compromise with each other and turned their bows one after another. Drive to the south bank.

At this time, 30,000 elite soldiers had assembled on the south bank and were on standby. Commanded by Cao Sheng, at the same time as the 300 ships were leaving Mingzhou Port, the intelligence scouts in Mingzhou urgently sent pigeon letters to Pingjiang Mansion. Based on Liu Guangshi's suggestion, Li Yanqing judged that the 300 segoing ships must have rushed to the Yangtze River to pick up Liu Guangshi's army across the river.

  He immediately made a careful plan, and Cao Sheng led 30,000 people to go north again, and Ruan's Sanxiong was responsible for intercepting the 300 ships.

  In the afternoon of that day, 30,000 elite soldiers boarded the ship at Taicang Port on the south bank, and 300 segoing ships turned around in the Yangtze River immediately, and sailed mightily to the south.

   Three days later, the grain transport ship from Pingjiang Mansion arrived in Jiaxing Mansion. With sufficient logistical support, Li Yanqing led 40,000 infantry and 30,000 cavalry to Lin'an Mansion.

The situation was no longer optimistic. Zhao Ji also transferred 20,000 troops from Shaoxing Prefecture to Lin'an Prefecture. Except for the 20,000 troops guarding the capital, the remaining 70,000 troops were all deployed on the Huantang River-Canal line. Unified command, ready to fight to the death with Li Yanqing.

  Li Yanqing's army is stationed in Linping Town, confronting the new imperial army twenty miles away. Li Yanqing is not in a hurry to launch an attack, and he is still waiting patiently for news from Cao Sheng.

  The situation was very strange at this time. The prefectures and counties that had publicly expressed their support for the Supreme Emperor Zhao Ji were silent or rebellious.

   Immediately, Qingyuan Mansion, Shaoxing Mansion, Jiaxing Mansion, Huzhou, Huizhou and other prefectures responded one after another, publicly demanding that the Supreme Emperor return power to the Son of Heaven.

Lin'an City is full of tension. Teams of soldiers are patrolling the streets and alleys, arresting passers-by who are suspected of being Li Yanqing's spies. The city is under martial law, and ordinary people are required to stay at home. A carriage slowly drives through the street, There were four cavalry guards on both sides of the carriage, and an apricot-yellow pennant was planted on the top of the carriage. This was called a passage flag, and there was a number on it, allowing soldiers to allow vehicles with such flags to pass through the city.

  The number of this flag is No. B8. Although it is not a top person, it is still an important person.

The owner of this carriage is Qin Hui. At present, Qin Hui is the Minister of Rites and Zuo Cheng of the Minister of Rites. is in name only.

When the carriage entered the imperial city, the imperial city was deserted and deserted, and there were basically no officials. This made Qin Hui secretly sigh. Since Li Yanqing wiped out 40,000 troops in Huzhou, the situation has reversed, and the states that support the Supreme Emperor have turned against each other. In addition, North Korean and Chinese officials also found various reasons to ask for leave, and the entire court affairs were at a standstill.

  Although Qin Hui didn't know what to discuss with himself, he could guess that apart from how to deal with Li Yanqing, there were basically no other issues.

  The carriage stopped in front of the gate of Zhizheng Hall, Qin Hui got out of the carriage and walked directly to the gate.

   "Qin Shangshu, someone called him from behind."

  Qin Hui turned around, and it turned out to be Xiangguo Fan Zongyin. He stopped in his tracks and said with a smile: "I thought I was late, but I didn't expect Fan Xianggong to be even later."

  Fan Zongyin smiled wryly and said, "I'm not feeling well today. I wanted to ask for a day off, but the Supreme Emperor forbade it, and sent someone to urge me. I had no choice but to come here."

  Qin Hui smiled faintly, "At this time, don't expect to avoid problems by asking for leave. I don't want to come either, but I dare not not come."

  (end of this chapter)

Chapter end