Chapter 1215 Adjustments

Chapter 1215 Adjustments

Chapter 1215 Adjustments
On the seventeenth day of the first lunar month, there was laughter and joy in Guangcheng Palace.

The Cuiyuan run by Yang Xianrong many years ago has become larger and larger, but the core area is still the part close to the hot springs.

There is no other reason, it is good to eat some green vegetables in the middle of winter. As the saying goes, "The people in the inner garden are given warm soup, and melons are available in mid-February."

This was a top luxury item in ancient times, which only emperors and generals could enjoy.

After lunch, Shao Xun spent some time with the children in the yard.

After the exclusive VIP seats on both hands, two legs and neck were filled with people, a large group of children shouted "Grandpa", which made Shao Zei laugh out loud, although he could no longer tell which child was born to which woman.

However, when it comes to women, the ones who are now bearing the main brunt of his fire are Empress Yu Wenjun and five of the nine concubines: Concubine Yin, Concubine Guanqiu, Concubine Yu, Concubine Xiuhua Xun, and Concubine Liu.

These five people are of similar age, around thirty-six or thirty-seven years old.

Among the beauties, Jing was too old to be used, Song could be used, but she was not young either. Cui, Zheng, and Jin were in their prime.

Among the talented women, Fan, Xuan, Liu, and Wang were also in their prime. When Pingyang and Chang'an were captured, they were generally under 20 years old, and some were only 15 or 16 years old. The age structure was quite reasonable.

After defeating Li Cheng, Shao Xun got a group of concubines, daughters of the royal family, and wives and daughters of nobles, most of whom were given away as rewards. Among the twenty or so people left, most of them spun yarn and wove cloth in the palace, and finally only two women were left by his side, namely Li, the wife of Ren Diao, and Yan, the wife of Li Shou.

These two women are Shao Zei's new toys in recent times.

The reason why a toy is a toy is the process of playing, not the result.

At 3 p.m., after Shao Xun finished soaking in the hot spring, he lay comfortably in the rocking chair, enjoying himself just like Uncle Cao thirty years ago.

"I wonder how Xiaohong is doing. Is she still alive?" Shao Xun stretched out his hairy calves and placed them on Li's smooth thighs.

Li looked aggrieved and bit her lips tightly.

In her heart, the woman had actually surrendered, but Shao Xun had a mischievous thought in mind and had not yet enjoyed her.

Yan knelt aside.

Because the hot spring was warm, she wore a gauze skirt that was a little small for her figure, which was extremely tight and very eye-catching.

After expressing his feelings, Shao Xun stretched out a hand and stroked Yan's big white buttocks.

Yan had been paying attention to his movements and subconsciously stretched out her hand to stop Shao Xun from insulting her.

"Li Shou should have arrived in Luoyang." Shao Xun pretended not to see it and stroked her big buttocks firmly with his hand.

The hand that Yan stretched out had completely lost its strength and was gently pushed aside by Shao Xun, who firmly covered the big buttocks and gently kneaded them.

"Look, no one knows what you did in the palace. Outsiders only know that you worked as a weaver in the Shaofu, weaving Shu brocade to please the queen. It is possible that one day the queen will let you out of the palace and reunite with your husband if she is happy." Shao Xun said softly: "Few people know about what happened here, so who would say anything?"

Yan's body trembled slightly.

Li was massaging Shao Xun's legs, and occasionally she would steal a glance at her sister-in-law with a strange look on her face.

Yan couldn't stand the gaze of her uncle's sister (or younger sister-in-law, both refer to her husband's sister), and turned her head slightly, feeling extremely embarrassed. But the feeling from her buttocks eroded her heart bit by bit, and while she tried her best to endure it, she felt so ashamed that she wanted to cry out loud.

Shao Xun observed the situation and decided to stop while he was ahead. He gently withdrew his hand and closed his eyes to take a nap.

The female officials and historians stood by, preparing tea for him to enjoy when he woke up.

This is life! Shao Xun sighed.

In fact, being a tyrant is pretty cool, but it's painful to have a sense of responsibility, especially when you want to do something but face great resistance. It's completely against human nature.

It had unknowingly become colder outside, with the wind howling and snowflakes flying all over the sky.

The hot spring pool is filled with steam and is warm like summer.

The royal guards, wearing bear-skin hats and fake bells, were everywhere, doing their job meticulously.

The palace ladies and female officials were dressed in cotton clothes and fur coats, and walked around like butterflies flying among flowers.

Guo brought four female historians and walked slowly to the hot spring compartment.

She took off her fur coat, put on a cool shirt, carried the wooden box, and walked into the hot spring barefoot.

"Your Majesty." Guo called softly.

Shao Xun opened his eyes and hummed.

"Governor Zhang of Huainan reports..." At Shao Xun's signal, Guo read out Zhang Shuo's memorial.

Shao Xun hugged Li into his arms.

Li screamed, her face turned redder than ever, and she was too frightened to move.

Fortunately, Shao Xun did not take the next step. He just held her soft and petite body, stroking it gently like a cat, staring at the water vapor in the air, as if he was thinking.

Li didn't dare to move at all.

His head rested on Shao Xun's chest, his heart pounding, and his face was turned sideways to face his sister-in-law Yan.

Yan looked at her sister-in-law with a little surprise.

Li was so embarrassed and anxious that she closed her eyes.

Yan glanced at Guo out of the corner of her eye again.

Guo waited quietly, without looking around, not caring at all about what was happening here.

"It is really hard to imagine that Pu Gu, a loyal minister, is so bold." Shao Xun sighed lightly, not knowing whether to laugh or cry.

I asked you to conduct fire reconnaissance, where have you been?

"Alas, this has given me a difficult problem." Shao Xun gently put the "pet cat" down, stood up, and said to Guo: "Draft an edict."

Guo turned her head and signaled, and the lady brought over a desk and writing brush, ink, paper and inkstone. Guo knelt down behind the desk and picked up the brush and dipped it in ink.

"Zhang Shuo should do his best to seize Lujiang and Huainan counties, and at the very least, capture Huaiyang Hill and march down to Liyang City. If he can capture either Hefei or Liyang, it will be a great achievement."

"Send 10,000 Di and Qiang people from Runan, and 20,000 people from the five counties of Chen, Liang, Nandun, Xincai, and Jiyin to reinforce Huainan."

"Jiang Ke's troops from the Silver Spear Left Camp will move south from Bianliang, and the hostage troops will move south from Luoyang to provide backup."

"These 40,000 people are all under the command of Zhang Shuo."

After saying this, Shao Xun paused to give Guo time to write it down.

Seeing that she had almost finished writing, he continued, "Xuzhou Beigong Chun should recruit men from all the counties as soon as possible, wait for an opportunity to march south and suppress the rebel army. The soldiers of Taiyang family have returned from Youzhou, right? Recruit 10,000 people to Xuzhou to listen to orders. The Fu family of Fangtou should also gather 5,000 soldiers and put them under Beigong Chun's command."

"Generals Zhang and Beigong must know that this opportunity will never come again. If you can take all the land north of the Yangtze River, why should I be stingy with my rewards?"

"Also, Prince Fan of Lu will go to Qiao County immediately to coordinate the surrender of the people."

"That's it." Shao Xun waved his hand and said, "Divide it into three copies, polish it, seal it, and send it to the cabinet and the three courts to be implemented as soon as possible."

"As you wish." Guo quickly finished writing and handed it to Shao Xun, who checked it and issued it with a seal. Shao Xun lay down again, picked up his "pet cat", stroked it gently, and said casually, "What do you think of the concubines in Jianye compared to those in Chengdu?"

Yan turned her head away.

Li looked at Shao Xun with some grievance.

Shao Xun patted her face gently, then gently stroked her waist and hips, as if to comfort her.

Seeing that her sister-in-law didn't notice, Li quietly buried her face in Shao Xun's arms. She hesitated for a moment, but didn't dare to put her hands on Shao Xun's waist.

Shao Xun closed his eyes again.

Only then did he remember the group of people who had already crossed the river. According to the report, there were only about one or two hundred riders. It was a bit reckless. If they could not find a way to withdraw in time, the annihilation of the entire army would be inevitable.

Pugu Zhongchen was really reckless, and it was fortunate that he did not find enough boats. If he had crossed the river with 2,000 cavalry at once, he might have caused greater chaos. But if no one cooperated, the entire army would have been wiped out.

Wouldn’t that make me become Li Keyong?

In order to deal with Zhu Wen, that guy kept sending Shatuo cavalry to assist Zhu Wen's opponents, with up to several thousand cavalry at a time. As a result, they were cut off on their way back. These several thousand Shatuo cavalry followed Zhu Jin south to join Yang Xingmi.

Bad luck! I have to teach these people a lesson when I come back, and tell them not to be so reckless in fighting.

After leaving the hot spring, Guo took a carriage to deliver the imperial edict to the Bixiao Hall of the Suyu Palace. Most of the officials from the three provinces, six ministries and three academies of the imperial guards who were accompanying the emperor were there. Seeing this, they did not dare to delay and completed the process as quickly as possible, sending out several batches of messengers to various places.

In the vast snow, there were sounds of horse hooves.

As a result, countless people were dragged into the war again.

However, although it might be a huge scale for the small court in Jianye, for the Daliang Dynasty, it only mobilized troops from two places, and there were not many main forces.

Judging from the information we have received so far, the enemy is very weak, and the various units in northern Jiang are divided into isolated cities, which creates conditions for siege.

As for those who crossed the river to the south, there were too few of them, and perhaps they might cause some chaos, but that was all.

Shao Xun's strategic goal was to take advantage of the favorable opportunity when people were in turmoil and the enemy forces in Jiangbei were divided, to seize more territory and provide favorable conditions for the next stage of operations - a goal temporarily added because of the collapse of the Jianye court.

******
Also on the 17th day of the first lunar month, General Zhao Yin of the Left Guard of the Jin Dynasty arrived at the south of Jincheng with a large army and set up camp.

It was only a few dozen miles, but it took several days to get here. It can be said that we had to "take every step carefully."

The local big families were very cooperative and often sent people to inform the Liang army of the cavalry's movements. Although most of the information was outdated, it allowed the imperial guards to be prepared.

Just go slow, safety is important.

On the 16th, Jianye sent 1,500 soldiers who had returned after the rout on the night of the 9th, as well as 2,500 strong men from Jianye and Jiangcheng. Therefore, by the 17th, Zhao Yin had more than 10,000 soldiers and 2,000 chariots.

However, there were only a hundred cavalrymen among the more than ten thousand soldiers, which was completely disproportionate.

Under the pressure of the army, more than a thousand soldiers of Qian Feng's army finally retreated into Jincheng.

Sun Song and Shi Zhen also returned with newly recruited soldiers. In fact, there were only a hundred people, but it was better than nothing.

Thus, there were a total of 1,900 infantry and cavalry, most of whom were a motley crowd, and the people were in a panic.

Fortunately, the opponent's combat effectiveness was not that good either, and it was just a fight between two weaklings.

On the 17th, Qiu Xiaozhong led 200 cavalrymen out of the city, braving the enemy's arrows and disregarding casualties, repeatedly charged and defeated a group of reckless Jin soldiers, beheaded more than 300 of them, and finally drove all the enemies to the south bank of the river - this river was actually part of the Yangtze River, but due to years of siltation, it has become very narrow, and the sandbar where Jincheng is located is almost connected to the land.

When Qiu Xiaozhong led his troops back to Jincheng, everyone looked at them as if they were gods, and their morale also rose.

Sometimes, having a group of brave comrades around you can really boost your confidence.

Zhao Yinze looked unhappy.

The imperial court was pressing very hard. If Jincheng was not taken quickly, people's hearts would change and no one could afford the consequences. But there was no other way. The army was only this strong. What could they do?

He sighed secretly, and ordered the soldiers to deploy along the river and build siege equipment as quickly as possible.

The bodies of the enemy soldiers on the other side of the river were collected by the Jincheng side, and even the dead and wounded horses were dragged away.

Zhao Yin had counted them before and found that about fifty Liang cavalrymen had died, most of them killed by bows and crossbows when charging into the formation. After breaking into the formation, the casualties were not great.

Zhao Yin felt a little regretful. He shouldn't have saved his strength and should have joined the Imperial Guards from the beginning.

The servants of the nobles in Jianye were simply not capable of fighting a tough battle. They were fine at shooting arrows and firing crossbows from a distance, but they were doomed in close combat. A total of 2,000 people were overwhelmed by 200 cavalrymen, and 300 died in the battle. They were simply too ashamed to face anyone.

"General." Langya Prime Minister Zhuge Yi walked over from behind.

"What's the matter, Mr. Ge?" Zhao Yin said unhappily.

It was this guy who appointed Shi Zhen as Langzhongling, in charge of the palace guards. Now, he has surrendered to the enemy. If you still have any shame, you should kill him instead of jumping around here.

"I have brought 10,000 bushels of rice to meet the military needs," said Zhuge Yi.

"You should keep an eye on the people from Langya Kingdom." Zhao Yin said sarcastically.

"General, you are right." Zhuge Yi said calmly, "In fact, the sudden arrival of the enemy army and the rebellion caught the Langya army and civilians off guard, leading to the fall of Jincheng. However, not all the people in the city are crazy and mad. General, you only need to attack the city quickly and kill as many enemy soldiers as possible. When they are exhausted and unable to hold on, the loyal and brave people in the city will rise up and respond, and it will not be difficult to recover the city."

When Zhao Yin heard this, his expression eased slightly.

The logic is correct.

Langya State suffered because it was in the New Year period, the Royal Army had not been mobilized in time, and the Imperial Doctor was a traitor, so it lost Jincheng. But what about the hundreds of households in the city? Did they all surrender to Shao? Obviously, it was impossible.

"We have to attack quickly." Zhao Yin nodded and said, "The Zhou family in Yixing in the south may have rebelled. The Tao, Xu, Ge, and Dai tribes in Danyang have already recruited soldiers. We may have a better chance of winning, but we can't delay for too long. Jincheng will have to rely on us. If there is still..."

Zhuge Yi understood what he meant.

As far as the current situation is concerned, the imperial court seems to be able to keep it under control, but if someone else jumps out, it will be hard to say what will happen.

The longer it is delayed, the more likely it is that the first, second, third, fourth, or even fifth rebellion will follow.

This is the accumulation of long-term conflicts between the scholars who migrated south and the natives of Jiangdong, and between the Jiangdong gentry and the new rich and powerful. In fact, it has been gradually resolved in recent years. The natives of Jiangdong now account for half of the court. Although the overall official positions are not high enough, it has improved compared to ten years ago, and it has greatly improved compared to twenty years ago.

Unfortunately, they don’t seem to have more time to merge, as the thief Shao has already arrived.

Zhuge Yi looked at the terrain around Jincheng again and asked, "General Zhao, can we send the navy to land at Puzhoujin from the middle of the river?"

Zhao Yin thought for a moment and said, "The navy is patrolling the river to stop the enemy from crossing south from Guabu, so I'm afraid they can't spare any manpower. Perhaps we have to wait until the land and sea troops of the He, Lu, and Zhu tribes arrive."

"How long will it take?" Zhuge Yi asked.

"I don't know either." Zhao Yin said with a wry smile.

Zhuge Yi was also speechless.

At the critical moment, it was the Jiangdong nobles who helped a lot. Without them, the situation would have deteriorated to an unknown extent.

(End of this chapter)