Chapter 1222 Chaos turned into a pot of porridge
Chapter 1222: Chaos turned into a pot of porridge
The cold air had subsided in mid-February and the temperature had risen slightly, but it was not actually hot, especially at night. As a result, the cavalrymen from the Zhenwu, Xuanjia and Maqian battalions (one hundred each) who crossed the river felt a little uncomfortable - not necessarily because of the temperature, but more likely because of the environment.
It was almost dawn, and more than 500 infantrymen had already quickly packed up their things and gone ashore. Nearly 300 cavalrymen were still sending horses ashore one by one, busy and sweating.
Well, horses are also "northerners" and not very comfortable. From this, it can be seen that it is very costly to maintain a cavalry unit of appropriate size in Jiangnan. In the big selection of adapting to the environment, a considerable number of horses will die.
Everyone was busy until noon before they left the dilapidated little ferry and headed to Shicheng County to rest.
This county was abandoned during the Taikang period of Emperor Wu of Jin and merged into Xuancheng County. It was restored during the reign of Sima Rui and is now occupied by the Ji family, a prominent family in Xuancheng County.
Ji Shihe stood outside the city to welcome the Liang army crossing the river. After some greetings, he looked left and right but didn't see Huan Yi, and was a little disappointed.
"General Han, General Guo." Ji Shihe saluted the two generals who crossed the river.
The two of them quickly returned the gift.
"General Han" is naturally Han Zhongzhi.
"General Guo" to be precise is Sima Guo, the nephew of Sima Guo Song and Li Ju of Runan County.
He once served as the head of Mi County, but later quit the job and joined the Zhuosheng Army with his own troops through Yu Chen's connections. Unfortunately, he did not make any achievements, and eventually went to Runan County to serve as the county Sima.
The 600 infantrymen who went south this time were selected and led by him personally. Most of them were bandits from Fengyi who had migrated to Runan to share land and settle down. In order to boost morale, he promised that as long as they crossed the river, they could serve as government soldiers regardless of victory or defeat. If he died in battle, he could choose one of his sons or nephews to take over. Guo Song himself even got a promise from the governor of Runan - starting as a governor, there is no upper limit, depending on your performance.
Therefore, when the two met Ji Shihe, they did not want to delay, and Guo Song asked directly: "Excuse me, Lord Ji, where is Sima Chong?"
Ji Shihe was stunned and said, "In Wanling."
"Lead the way." Guo Song said.
"Don't you want to rest for a day or two?" Ji Shihe asked.
"No." Guo Song said, "Let's fight them first while they still have strength. What if they delay for too long and fall ill?"
"How can they be so unlucky?" Ji Shihe laughed and said, "There are many immigrants along the river between Shicheng and Ruxukou, but not all of them died of illness. I saw them reclaiming wasteland and planting crops along the river bank, and the number of people has not decreased in the past 20 years."
"But the number of people hasn't increased, has it?" Guo Song said impatiently, "Lead the way quickly. How many people can your family gather?"
"There are more than a thousand people in Shicheng, and there are accomplices in Lincheng, so we can open the city gate. Jing County is a bit troublesome, but we can bypass it. Xuancheng County is where my ancestral home is, but in recent years Jianye has sent a county magistrate who specifically exploits my noble family without any family background—"
"That's enough! Lead the way." Guo Song said, "Prepare all the supplies along the way. I want to attack Wanling directly."
Ji Shihe was about to say that the broken road in Xuancheng was difficult to travel, but after thinking about it, he didn't dare to take the river, so he had to give up and replied yes, then called his sons and nephews to stabilize the situation in Shicheng, especially to keep an eye on the direction of Jiangzhou in the west.
He personally led the way and returned to Xuancheng County to reunite with his troops.
The attitude is very positive. At this time, what are you waiting for if you don't quickly climb up to Huan Yi's high branch? No, you should climb up to your great nephew Huan Wen's high branch.
If the Jiangnan nobles want to redeem themselves, this is their last chance.
I don’t know what the Kong family in Kuaiji thinks. I heard that Mao Lun married the daughter of the Kong family through the introduction of a member of the Huan family who settled in Kuaiji. Huan Ye, the uncle of Huan Fan, moved to Kuaiji during the Chuping period of the Later Han Dynasty.
At noon on the 15th, after lunch, Guo Song, Han Zhongzhi and others, led by Ji Shihe, headed eastward along the dilapidated post road that had been in disrepair for many years, and headed straight for Lincheng (near Qingyang County, Chizhou today).
******
If the bumpy post road was tolerable, then the river on the left and the stream on the right were extremely annoying.
Swamps were everywhere, and the dense reeds almost blocked their vision, making these warriors from the north very uncomfortable. They always felt that there were ambushes in the reeds.
"This is the land." Ji Shihe, who led the way, said a little embarrassedly while sitting on the ox cart, "Shicheng County was abolished during the Taikang period because it was sparsely populated. There are not many people now. If there were no overseas Chinese, the county would not have been re-established."
"Aren't there any hometowns and counties for overseas Chinese?"
"Not all northerners have set up overseas counties." Ji Shihe said, "The late emperor - uh, Sima Rui once spent a lot of effort to control Xuancheng. This place was also his fief, maybe he felt that there was no need to set up overseas counties. I'm not sure, I haven't been out for many years, and it's not easy to do business now..."
Guo Song was too lazy to listen to his chatter and just looked around.
In his opinion, Xuancheng County had more than 20,000 households on paper, and even if the number doubled to 50,000, it would be difficult to fill the area. Jiangnan was really too desolate, and only Kuaiji and Wu County were relatively prosperous, and even these two counties still had a lot of wasteland.
If I were to build a manor in Jiangnan in the future, Xuancheng seems to be a good place.
Six hundred infantrymen, three hundred cavalrymen and hundreds of Ji's followers, totaling more than a thousand people, marched like this.
There were only swamps, rivers and lakes along the way, so the marching speed could not be increased at all. From time to time, large flocks of birds soared into the sky and watched the warriors heading south from the north.
On the 17th, Shicheng reported that another 200 cavalry and 500 infantry had successfully crossed the river.
The messenger also brought some news from the outside world: Zhuge Hui sent more than 10,000 soldiers and horses by land and sea to Anfeng, and defeated the prefect of Yiyang, Fan Jun. Jun was defeated and killed, and the Anfeng soldiers went west to attack Yiyang again.
It seems that someone fled to Poyang to report the news. Recently, there have been scouts from Poyang County observing near Shicheng. There have also been more and more boats on the river. Judging from their flags, they should be the Jiangzhou Legion under the command of Wang Bin who is guarding the mouth of the Peng River.
The Zhou family of Xunyang sent troops to attack Wankou City, but was defeated and retreated.
In a word, people have noticed this. After receiving this news, Guo Song and Han Zhongzhi's attitude towards Ji Shihe also improved a lot.
People are so realistic.
Without the Ji family's help, could they really survive in this vast swamp and dense forest? After walking for so long, they didn't see many villages. Even if they robbed all the refugees from Jiangbei, there would not be enough food, let alone to persist for a long time.
If Xuancheng is developed for a few hundred more years, it will be much easier to cross the river from here.
On the 20th, everyone finally saw Lincheng County. The Wu people seemed to be prepared, but they had few soldiers. They just closed the city gates tightly and looked at the group of northerners who came from afar with trepidation.
Fortunately, just as Ji Shihe said, someone secretly opened the city gate after nightfall.
Guo Song and Han Zhongzhi rushed into the city, quickly killed dozens of military officials in the county, and easily controlled the entire city.
At this time, what Guo and Han wanted to do most was to quickly change their military boots that were almost completely covered in mud and wash their feet that had turned white from being soaked.
It had only been five days since they crossed the river, and the men were still holding on, but the horses had already fallen down due to being unable to adapt to the environment.
Guo Song sighed secretly.
Horses are actually much more sensitive than humans. It would be fine if they lived in the south of the Yangtze River for a long time, but most of them come from grasslands, and their power begins to become apparent in the south in mid-to-late February.
When Cao Cao was plotting to seize the south of the Yangtze River, he mostly gave seals and ribbons to the Shanyue chieftains and rarely sent large groups of troops to sneak across the river.
You have to hurry up! Don't let yourself be sick and lie down without being killed by the Wu people.
During the rest period in Lincheng, they also received news from the east -
Near Guangde County in Xuancheng Prefecture, some people from the Fuchun Sun clan gathered 2,000 soldiers, but were defeated by troops sent by Yu Tan, the prefect of Wuxing. They built a memorial with human heads as a deterrent.
The old house of the Zhou family in Yixing was attacked and many of their descendants died. Zhou Zha held a soul-calling funeral in Yangxian to encourage the Zhou family's descendants to fight to the death.
The remnants of the Qian family are still active, and some of them have fled to the border of Xuancheng.
Shen didn't move, and seemed to be still hesitating.
The most difficult thing was the news from Jincheng. It was heard that the river was blocked so badly that it was difficult to send people across the river. The Jincheng defenders had been besieged until today, with less than a thousand soldiers and almost all horses used up. Some people in Lincheng County talked about them and laughed at Zhao Yin's incompetence, but Guo Song and Han Zhongzhi did not dare to think so. They just sighed that the situation of the Jincheng defenders was worrying.
On the 22nd, the second group of people who crossed the river came to join the group, and the force expanded to 1,500 to 1,600 people. According to them, the third group of people who crossed the river had bad luck and suffered heavy losses. Only a hundred cavalry and three hundred infantry crossed the river, and probably no one came after them.
Ji Shihe listened silently and said nothing.
Unconsciously, his united front value was further enhanced. Without his support, the three groups of people crossing the river would face endless swamps and reed marshes, and they would not know where to rob. By then, the cavalry would first become infantry, and some would die of illness, some would starve to death, some would get lost, and some would be killed or wounded in the desperate attack on the fortress...
On the afternoon of the 22nd, Guo Song and Han Zhongzhi discussed it and decided that the latter would lead the cavalry first.
On the morning of the 26th, Han Zhongzhi, Ji Shihe and others traveled more than 200 miles and finally arrived at Xuancheng County. With the help of both inside and outside forces, they killed the county magistrate and captured the county seat.
The descendants of the Ji family gathered 3,000 people and arrived outside the county town, preparing to formally launch an uprising and return to the right path.
At the same time, Sima Chong, the Prince of Langya who had been stationed in Wuhu, urgently recruited 3,000 soldiers, plus 3,000 imperial guards, and sailed upstream to attack Xuancheng. After learning that the city had been replaced with a large flag with the word "Liang", he quickly turned to Wanling and defended the city.
Liyang Governor Shan Xiashan Yanlin urgently mobilized troops, crossed the river from Ruxukou, landed on the south bank, and headed towards Xuancheng.
After he left, the defenders of Qiuzhuzhai in Huaiyang surrendered one after another in despair.
Wang Bin of Jiangzhou also led his troops eastward from Pengze, first broke through Shicheng, and then pursued all the way.
Even the troops of the Xuancheng nobles who were suppressing the remnants of the Qian family in Wuxing returned from Ningguo and Guangde.
For a time, Han Zhongzhi and Guo Song, who had just arrived in Xuancheng, were faced with the dilemma of being surrounded on all sides.
There was no way. Marching by land was too slow and their mobility was far inferior to that of the Wu soldiers who came by boat.
But their efforts to penetrate deep into enemy territory were not without effect.
On the 28th, in the misty drizzle, the magistrate of Wukang County was assassinated in the government office, and a large banner with the word "Liang" was hung on the top of the Wukang County city wall that day.
The Shen family acted brazenly and controlled the entire Wukang territory within a day, and then attacked Wucheng directly.
The Zhu and Shi families (descendants of Zhu Zhi and Zhu Hou) of Guzhuang County (Wuxing Commandery) rose up in arms to respond.
The Zu clan, descendants of the Shanyue chieftain in Lingyang (Xuancheng County), also raised an army to respond.
The Shi family of Yongshi County did not obey Liu Chao's orders. After a fight, they retreated to their old house and defended it.
The three counties of Yixing, Wuxing and Xuancheng were in chaos...
(End of this chapter)