Chapter 1212 A wave of unrest
Chapter 1212 A wave of unrest
When Zhou Xun, the general of the left army and the commander of the fourth battalion of the Jianye navy, heard that his wife and children had been killed, he vomited blood on the boat.
His wife and children were killed by Qian Feng outside Wuyi Lane.
The Zhou family of Yangxian, the Shen family of Wukang, and the Qian family of Changcheng lived next to each other and were all local tyrants in the old Wuxing County (Yixing was separated from Wuxing).
The relationship between the two families was good at the beginning.
During the Chen Min Rebellion, the Zhou family of Yixing sent troops to quell the rebellion. At that time, Qian Guang of the Qian family was serving as a Sima in the mansion of Chen Min's brother Chen Chang. Zhou Qi sent people to persuade Guang to kill Chang, and the Chen Min Rebellion was finally quelled by Zhou Qi.
However, the fact that the two families initially followed Chen Min (Qian Guang and Qian Duan) and the other one followed the Jin Dynasty (Zhou Qi) itself explains a lot of problems.
Later, Qian Kui of the Qian family was ordered to lead his troops north to resist the Huns. When he arrived in Guangling, he changed his mind and rebelled. Wang Dun, who was accompanying him, quickly fled and ran back to Jianye to report the news.
Finally, Zhou Qi led his army to defeat Qian Kui and completed his great feat of "Three Conquering Jiangnan". At that time, the Zhou family of Yixing was as loyal as a dog, while the Shen and Qian families hated Zhou as a traitor.
Of course, Zhou Qi conquered the south of the Yangtze River three times but gained very little. He was suppressed by the ruffians who had established their foothold. In the end, his rebellion failed and he died of grief and anger, leaving behind his last words: "Those who killed me are the ruffians."
The Qian family was jumping back and forth. Sometimes Qian Guang and Qian Duan defected to Chen Min, and sometimes they rebelled against Chen Min. Sometimes Qian Qiuxian agreed to go north to help Sima Yue resist the Huns, and sometimes he changed his mind and rebelled.
Qian Duan also defected to Sima Yue, but his official position was low. After Sima Yue's death, he disbanded and returned home. Historically, Qian Duan first rebelled with Chen Min's brother Chen Hui, and then returned to Jin. During the Battle of Ningping City, he was ordered by Wang Yan to fight against Shi Le and was defeated and killed.
Not to mention the Shen family, their rebellion was just suppressed and Shen Chong died.
The three "new nobles" Zhou, Qian and Shen were clearly played by the scholars who migrated south and the "old money" in Wu, and were dizzy - when it came to suppressing the lowly local tyrants in the south of the Yangtze River, the scholars who migrated south and the old-established Jiangnan gentry such as Gu, Lu, Zhu and Zhang had a tacit understanding.
It’s not that Zhou Yan couldn’t figure out this problem, but the Yixing Zhou family had already been tied to the ship of the Jin Dynasty and had invested too much. Many members of the family didn’t want to change their ways at all, including himself.
Now I have received retribution...
"Governor, please accept my condolences." Seeing Zhou Yan almost vomiting blood and fainting, Sima Yan, the Prince of Jiyin who served as the military supervisor, sighed.
Zhou Yan slowly came back to his senses and whispered, "Qian Feng..."
"Commander-in-chief, let's go ashore and fight. We will cut the villain Qian Feng into pieces to avenge him." The officers gathered together and asked for a fight.
Sima Yan's face changed. He wanted to say something but couldn't. He could only sigh.
Fortunately, Zhou Yan shook his head and said weakly: "Don't act rashly. Now we should focus on national affairs."
Not all the officers were Zhou's followers, so they just stood up to express their stance. After Zhou Yan said so, they naturally followed suit.
After a while, more than a hundred ships of the Fourth Battalion Navy began their routine patrol again.
From Shitou City, Xuanwuyuan to Wumadu and Puzhoujin (Jiangchengdu) in the east, they are all their patrol areas. No ships are allowed to enter or leave. They will go up and check them on sight, and any resistance will be immediately besieged.
The blockade certainly could not be extremely tight, especially at night, but they had already tried their best. They did not believe that under such circumstances, the Liang people would dare to take the risk of sneaking across the river - in fact, the Jiangdong navy still hoped to see the Liang people sneak across the river, as they could easily eliminate them on the river, but it would be difficult to kill them once they reached the shore.
It was gradually getting dark, and traffic on the north and south sides of the Yangtze River in northern Jianye had been cut off.
******
In fact, part of the Liang army in Shouchun had already moved, mainly Yang Tao, the captain of the Xiquyang military farm.
At its peak, Yang Tao's army had more than 6,000 households and over 7,000 soldiers (including adult males). After several years of farming in Xiquyang County, the number was less than 5,000.
After the ten battalions of cavalry moved south, as the counties surrendered, Yang Tao conscripted five thousand strong men, brought five hundred horses, and received some supplies. He followed behind and took over Yinling and Dongcheng counties. Now they are about to arrive in Quanjiao.
According to Zhang Shuo's order, the Xiquyang garrison troops will be stationed in Quanjiao County, awaiting the next order.
As for the safety of the Xiquyang nest, it was handed over to Liang Gong (formerly known as Liang Xun), the captain of Ping'a Tuntian.
Liang Gong's troops had been cultivating in Ping'a and Wokou, and there were currently over 4,000 households. After receiving the order, Liang Gong selected 2,000 infantry and cavalry, took the floating bridge south to Shouchun, collected food and supplies, and then went to Xiquyang.
Zu Yue's troops stationed in Xiacai participated in the Battle of Hanzhong last year, sending out 4,000 troops, but only 3,000 returned. However, Zhang Shuo ordered them to send 4,000 infantry and 500 cavalry south, led by Xu Liu, to attack Qunqiu County.
There was a reason why the number of soldiers increased instead of decreased. To put it bluntly, when the families of the soldiers of Zu's army were lost in Xuzhou, Shao Xun remarried them with wives, most of whom were Xiongnu people with children. The extra 1,500 soldiers were Xiongnu teenagers who were gradually growing up.
Zhou Mo, the Minister of Gardens of Huainan, led a thousand able-bodied gardeners and a thousand farmhands of the Yang family into Lujiang County and easily captured six counties (today's Lu'an).
Like the cavalry, the infantry also moved in all directions. In fact, they just followed the cavalry to take over the territory. If the enemy did not surrender, they would try to attack, but they would not fight hard.
Zhang Shuo himself led 3,000 Huainan County soldiers to train day and night as the general reserve.
This was just an attack.
Zhang Shuo's wildest fantasy was just to take advantage of the opportunity to grab more territory in the north of the Yangtze River and push his troops to Huaiyang Hill to threaten the two important military towns of Liyang and Hefei.
But if he wanted to capture these two places, the troops he had were not enough, far from enough.
The main force of Wu's Liyang Town was still there and had not suffered a devastating blow, but was rather passive and did not dare to go out of the city to fight in the field. But when spring came and the inland rivers thawed, their navy would become active, and the infantry could maneuver by boat, while the cavalry would be greatly restricted, and the situation would change.
Therefore, he must take advantage of this rare cold winter to occupy more territory, considering the future and even more so his own future.
On the eleventh day of the first lunar month, Zhang Shuo, who went south to Chengde County for inspection, suddenly received a piece of news that surprised him extremely: Pugu's loyal minister suddenly arrived in Guabu, and on the ninth night of the first lunar month, he sent a group of people to cross the river south to harass Jianye.
Zhang Shuo was stunned for a long time, and finally uttered: "Mad man! You're looking for death!"
Yu Bin, who was appointed as the Chengde magistrate after returning from mourning, was also stunned for a long time, but he quickly reacted and said, "Commander-in-chief, we have to put a bridle on this wild horse, Pu Gu Zhongchen. He is too reckless. If too many casualties are incurred, it will be embarrassing."
"How do you get on the bridle?" Zhang Shuo asked back.
"Order them to meet the soldiers who crossed south and return north, and then withdraw the troops." Yu Bin said seriously.
Zhang Shuo hesitated for a long time and finally shook his head.
In fact, he didn't worry much about Pugu Zhongchen's gang. Although the emperor valued them very much and wooed them and treated them with favors, Zhang Shuo thought that they were just Xianbei people. So what if they died? He would not deliberately send them to die, but Pugu Zhongchen wanted to die, so who could he blame?
But on the other hand, Zhang Shuo might be thinking of waiting and watching the situation, and taking the opportunity to expand the occupied area.
The world is about to be unified, and there are few opportunities to make achievements.
If we make an effort now, our descendants can save themselves one or even several generations of struggle.
Shouchun directly faces the two major cities of Hefei and Liyang in the Southern Dynasties. It does not have very powerful troops at hand, and most of them are soldiers who are both farmers and soldiers, just like in the Wei and Jin Dynasties.
Although he was stronger in head-on combat, he was not strong enough to completely crush the enemy. So although he had a certain advantage over the years, he was never able to break through the defense lines of Hefei and Liyang and push his troops to the north bank of the Yangtze River - he couldn't even completely capture Lujiang.
In short, the response of the Jianye court was effective. After the summer every year, Shanxia even sent navy troops to the north and west to carry out small-scale harassment, making it difficult for Shouchun to farm.
Although Shan Yanlin, the old rival, cannot be called a famous general, he is also a qualified talent in some aspects. Over the years, he has made a certain degree of progress and is much stronger than when he first took office.
Is now an opportunity?
Zhang Shuo stood in the wilderness, thinking silently.
Yu Bin was very tactful. He just looked at the irrigation canals that stretched in all directions in the distance and did not disturb him.
After a long time, Zhang Shuo let out a long sigh.
Yu Bin turned around and looked at him.
"If I..." Zhang Shuo paused, "I will recruit the men and nobles from Ruyin and Qiao counties and march south in large numbers. What do you think?"
"I am just the decree of Chengde, the commander-in-chief can make his own decision." Yu Bin bowed and said, "I just don't know where the commander-in-chief wants to attack?"
"Let's clear Huainan first. If the war goes well, we will fight eastwards and attack Xuzhou." Zhang Shuo said.
"What if Shanxia goes north from Hefei and Liyang?"
"That's great. Let's surround and shoot them and block them in the field. In this way, Hefei and Dongguan may be taken without a fight, and Liyang may also be captured. This is something that the Wei and Jin dynasties could not do. Isn't it good?"
"If the governor wants to fight, then we can fight. But..." Yu Bin thought for a moment and said, "The governor holds great power and can decide everything with a single word, but this matter is of great importance and must be reported to the court."
"That's natural." Zhang Shuo said, "First, we will go south from Qiao County, capture Yicheng and Zhongli, and then..."
******
The battle, which was full of surprises and drama, finally came to the moment of respite.
After nightfall on the tenth day of the first lunar month, the fire in the southeast of Jianye was gradually extinguished.
On the morning of the 11th, Danyang County reported: Qian Feng was so crazy that he set fire to the streets, burning more than 170 houses and killing dozens of people.
The death toll in the east of the city is still being counted.
Because the magistrate of Jianye had run away, the county magistrate and the county lieutenant hid at home, and all the minor officials disappeared. Only two or three cats and dogs had the courage to come to the county government office, making it difficult to carry out work for a while.
However, according to reports from the imperial guards who had entered the area east of Qingxi, they had collected more than 300 bodies. Some were killed by swords, guns and arrows, while others were trampled or even drowned.
Several mansions with weak defenses were breached, and the entire yard was filled with corpses.
There were also many casualties in the north of the city.
The entire family of Sima Shuo, the King of Changsha, was killed, and the entire family of Sima Xiong, the King of Pengcheng, was abducted...
Due to one negligence, hundreds of people were allowed to cross the river. Jianye was in shock for a whole day and night, and hundreds of people died. It was a tragic event.
In the afternoon of the 11th, the Jianye Imperial Guards split into two groups. One group headed east out of the outer city, passed Yanque Lake, and headed towards Jiangcheng County.
This small county actually housed four counties (overseas counties) namely Langya, Dongping, Lanling and Donghai, and accommodated a considerable number of people who moved south - these people came from these four counties.
General Zhao Yin of the Left Guard led 4,000 imperial guards, more than 2,000 Jianye men who were temporarily recruited, and thousands of vehicles, a total of 6,500 people, and marched towards Jiangcheng. After arriving at the place, they would recruit men from the four overseas counties to completely wipe out Qian Feng.
General Liu Chao of the Right Guard led 3,000 imperial guards to the manors outside the city to recruit soldiers from the wealthy families, especially strong men who could ride horses and shoot arrows. They set off together and chased in the direction where the Liang cavalry disappeared.
Wang Shu was stationed in Jianye and set up checkpoints in various places.
For a time, Jianye City was full of chevaux de frise and deer horns, and the atmosphere was quite tense.
On the 12th, under the strong persuasion of the empress, the Emperor Sima Fei of the Great Jin Dynasty and the empress Shan Yinan left Taicheng and led all the officials to publicly mourn the dead. They tied up two Liang cavalrymen who were accidentally captured alive, and dug out their hearts and livers in front of the collective tomb of some of the victims.
This move immediately turned the panic and fear of the people of Jianye into hatred for the Liang cavalry who killed innocent people.
People's hearts were slightly united.
The core of the battlefield seemed to have shifted from Jianye to Jiangcheng and Jincheng, dozens of miles to the east.
Wait? Seems? You're overthinking it.
On the afternoon of the 12th, Zhou Zha, the Grand Chamberlain, took advantage of the moment when no one was paying attention and ran to Moling with his family. He contacted his friends and fellow villagers, attacked and killed the county magistrate, and occupied Moling.
Zhou Zha recounted the grievances of the Zhou family of Yixing and scolded his nephew Zhou Yan, saying that he was a loyal dog of the Jin court.
Of course, these are nothing. The key point is that Zhou Zha's article also cursed the Qian family of Changcheng...
This operation is really speechless.
But no matter what, the second rebel jumped out.
(End of this chapter)