Chapter 1012: All things are suddenly calm, the mind is incomprehensible, and human affairs are uneasy and turn into confusion (Part 2)
The process of resisting the Jurchens’ fourth southern expedition lasted for two years. In the first half of the period, various forces in Jin and Shandong fought epic battles with the Jin army; in the later half, it was the war in Jiangnan and Southwest that attracted the attention of most people in the world. But in addition to this, there are naturally large and small waves in the Central Plains region north of the Yangtze River and south of the Yellow River.
In the first half of the 10th year of Jianshuo, Xuzhou once became the last blocking point before the Jurchens launched the Jiangnan War. The causal connection on this battlefield must also be extended to the actions of all parties before the war began. At that time, the Huaxia Army launched a strategy to kidnap the puppet Qi Emperor Liu Yu in Bianliang, and then put Liu Yu's blame on the Wu Dynasty. Jun Wuze, who was still the prince, secretly contacted Xuzhou Prefect Li Anmao and asked the Huaxia Army for a large amount of money and materials. Sending troops to help, it also dragged the Chinese army into the forefront of the war.
The two sides seemed to be blaming each other, but in fact their purpose was to fight against the Jurchens. In response to Jun Wu's move, Ning Yi ordered Liu Chengzong to lead more than 8,000 people under his command to enter Xuzhou to help Anyway, defend the city. In the 10th year of Jianshuo, when the Jurchen East Route Army arrived in Xuzhou, Liu Chengzong led his own army and more than 50,000 troops under Li Anmao to defend the city for three months, and then broke through and headed north. Since Zongfu Zongbi was not determined to start a war here, the war did not develop to such a tragic level.
Of course we can fight side by side when we are defending the city together, but when it comes to breaking out and fighting, some things will separate you and me. Li Anmao, the prefect of Xuzhou, was originally under Liu Yu and was loyal to the Wu Dynasty. At the beginning of the war, he invited the Chinese army to send troops for the overall plan. When Xuzhou fell, he naturally wanted to lead his army back to the south of the Yangtze River.
——This was not a big deal at first. The Chinese army did not value many elites in combat, and they did not covet the 50,000 miscellaneous soldiers under his command. However, before the battle with the Jurchens, the two sides had been getting along in Xuzhou City for half a year. In order to To prevent these armies from holding us back, propaganda, infiltration, and recruitment work must begin. After evacuating from Xuzhou and seeing the combat power of the Huaxia Army, some middle- and lower-level officers of the Li army had already made plans to join the Huaxia Army after more than half a year of infiltration work. Therefore, as the retreat progressed, Li Anmao After being directly seized of power, more than 50,000 people changed hands and changed their hands to black flags.
After the initial reorganization in Xuzhou was completed, due to the critical situation in Shandong, Liu Chengzong and others moved north to support Zhu Biao, Wang Shanyue and others in Liangshan. However, due to the plundering and raiding by the Jurchen East Route Army on their way south, Shandong was starved to death for thousands of miles. Although Liu Chengzong had troops, there were insufficient supplies. The supplies on Liangshan were also extremely poor. In the end, he borrowed them from Jin through Zhuji. A batch of food and baggage supported thousands of Liu Chengzong's men to cross the Yellow River and face Wan Yanchang.
The tens of thousands of Li troops who had just been recruited had no choice but to stay on the south bank of the Yellow River and fend for themselves.
In order to lead this army for subsequent reorganization and survival, Liu Chengzong left behind a leadership team of more than 20 people who are good at political work and organization. The leader is the deputy staff officer of the division. Chang Zou Xu. This is a leader among the young officers of the Huaxia Army. He rose to prominence during the battle against Xixia, and was later taught and trained by Ning Yi. Although he still serves as the deputy chief of staff at the division level, he handles things neatly and already has the ability to stand alone... …
……
"Zou Xu, I have a deep impression on this person." Qin Shaoqian said as the night wind blew through the military camp outside Hanzhong City. "He is one of the most talented among your early disciples. He has a decent name and behaves like you." Very similar. After the Xixia War, the Jurchens came to demonstrate and brought Lu When the shopkeeper comes, he is one of the main receptionists. He can be said to be neither humble nor arrogant. You said at the time that this person is worthy of use."
Ning Yi nodded: "The original batch of Xiaocanghe. There have been many outstanding people, but today, there are not many left. , many people unfortunately died on the battlefield. Now Chen Tian has the highest position. He is partnered with Qu Zhengyan as the chief of staff. Below Chen Tian, there is Zou Xu. He is very capable and has been the reserve chief of staff for a long time. The candidate for the teacher, because I taught him, so I have to improve him in this aspect. I actually postponed the promotion intentionally. I should be aware of these things, so this time in Xuzhou, Liu Chengzong gave him this opportunity to stand alone... I also neglected it..."
Qin Shaoqian nodded, He read the information Ning Yi gave him again.
Zou Xu took over this army of nearly 50,000 in the autumn of the 10th year of Jian Shuo. This was nearly two years ago.
……
No matter from which point of view, the initial recruitment and placement of the tens of thousands of troops originally under Li Anmao was not an easy task.
First of all, after the establishment of the puppet Qi, Xuzhou was already the territory of the puppet Qi Liu Yu. The establishment of the puppet regime was originally to exploit the Central Plains. Li Anmao's heart was with the Wu Dynasty, and when the time came, he sought a solution. However, the so-called army under his command was originally a puppet army with no combat effectiveness. After the victory, in order to expand its combat effectiveness, the method adopted was to plunder young people wantonly. If the weapons are used in vain, their combat effectiveness may only be slightly better than that of the Han army in the late Southwest War.
Liu Chengzong led 8,000 people to defend Xuzhou with him. In order to be safe, he must grasp the power of command and control. Although Li Anmao was hot-blooded, he was always loyal to the Wu Dynasty. After defending Xuzhou for three months, , what he meant was to crucify everyone in Xuzhou and defend until the last soldier, so as to minimize the pressure on the Jiangnan defense line. It was impossible for Liu Chengzong to accompany him, so he directly knocked out Li Anmao during the meeting, and then seized power and transferred it.
In this way, although the transfer of upper-level command authority has been completed, within this motley army, people are not mentally prepared enough for the disruption and complete reorganization of the entire army's ecology. After Liu Chengzong and others decided to go north, what was left to Zou Xu's working group was a force that did not have enough food and grass, no combat effectiveness, and not even enough centripetal force. The literal number was close to 50,000, but in fact it could explode at any time. Set off a time bomb.
Of course, under the circumstances at that time, no force in the world had an "easy" living space.
The Jin region experienced turmoil following Tian Hu's death and Liao Yiren's betrayal. Lou Shuwan and others also hid in the mountains and struggled to survive.
Zhu Biao and Wang Shanyue experienced a tragic rescue in Damingfu, suffering heavy casualties. Countless of their companions were captured and massacred. After Liangshan was besieged, there was no food in all directions and they were starving.
Jiangnan, the Jurchen East Road army is knocking at the pass and is about to overthrow.
In the southwest, the main force of the Chinese army needs to face the threat of the strongest army in the world led by Zong Han and Xi Yin.
This army can only be thrown away like abandoned children. Even at that time, Ning Yi did not have too optimistic expectations for the future of these 50,000 people. He made some suggestions to Zou Xu's working group thousands of miles away, and at the same time gave them the greatest freedom. Zou Xu struggled to reorganize the army under such circumstances.
On the one hand, for more than a year, Zou Xu contacted local landlords and powerful families, adopting a one-on-one approach to support war with war, and tried to obtain external resources as much as possible to maintain his own survival;
On the other hand, without the support of the main force of the Chinese army led by Liu Chengzong, he made huge adjustments to the army. Reorganization and downsizing first eliminated some people through battles, and also lost some people during long-distance transfers. Then, active disarmament was carried out to maintain the core combat strength at more than 20,000 people. Coupled with the two splits along the way, by In the winter of the eleventh year of Jianshuo, this army traveled thousands of miles and was covered with wounds. It took root near Funiu Mountain in the southwest of Luoyang.
Being able to achieve such an effect, Zou Xu’s leadership ability is undoubtedly demonstrated. At that time, the Jiangnan War was over, and the Southwest War was about to begin. Although this army relied on fighting and fought some elites, its overall strength was far inferior to that of the Jurchen West Route Army. In the past year, it had been fighting endlessly and was lacking supplies. , its own vitality has been injured, Ning Yi ultimately does not intend to put it into combat, but to let it recuperate and prepare to use it as a key force in attacking Luoyang, Bianliang and other places in the future.
A fierce internal schism broke out in January this year. At that time, the original working group with only eight people left faced off. It is said that a small-scale "rebellion" broke out, and was subsequently suppressed by Zou Xu. Two members of the working group fled with dozens of soldiers wounded. At that time, Fang Chengye, who had returned from the North, was ordered to go near Luoyang. After learning about the situation, he contacted Zhuji Force to initiate investigation procedures.
At that time, when the Southwest War was intensifying, Ning Yi was constantly gathering strength to make preliminary preparations for the subsequent Battle of Wangyuan Bridge. Regarding the changes that occurred near Funiu Mountain, he was naturally unable to judge for a while, so he could only order the remaining external personnel to conduct verification according to the procedures while keeping it as confidential as possible. The entire investigation process has been confirmed by many parties, and at the end of April, the dust has just settled.
The investigation results show that the Chinese army entrenched in Funiu Mountain at this time has completely transformed into a one-spoken organization controlled by Zou Xu. This is not the biggest problem. The real problem is that Zou Xu has been under the control of Zou Xu for nearly a year. , has been Controlled by material desires and hedonistic emotions, he once killed a landlord and took away his wives and concubines near Ruzhou. After arriving at Funiu Mountain, he relied on each other in tandem with Luoyang Prefect Yin Zong and others, and some accepted a large amount of materials and even women sent by them. situation occurs.
According to detailed investigation results from all aspects, after arriving at Funiu Mountain, the local squires prepared several villas for Zou Xu in nearby counties. Zou Xu seemed normal in the army, but he often went to the city to enjoy himself. . These things were only vaguely noticed at first. Since Zou Xu was quite strict in managing the army, no one said anything rashly. In January of this year, the war situation in the southwest was tense. After the news came that Huangming County had been breached, other members of the working group believed that they could no longer sit back and watch the war situation develop. Now that they had taken a breath, they should make further plans. Both sides Finally, they got into trouble at the meeting and started a tit-for-tat confrontation.
Zou Xu himself is very capable and powerful, but the other people in the working group are not economical lamps. The two sides made things clear, and the working group began to impeach Zou Xu. Among the eight people at that time, stood There were only two people left on Zou Xu's side. So Zou Xu launched an attack, and three of the five people who confronted him were later killed. Hundreds of Chinese soldiers died in this internal strife.
After Fang Chengye and others intervened, Zou Xu once tried to catch all the insiders, but finally gave up after the possibility was shattered. He had a meeting with Fang Chengye and others, and then kicked them out without further explanation. Fang Chengye immediately sent back the message, and Ning Yi realized that while such a fierce battle was going on in the southwest, such a bad act of betrayal had broken out in the north.
……
"What I brought with me is just a summary." The soldiers patrolling in the front came over and saluted Ning Yi and Qin Shaoqian, and Ning Yi returned the salute, and then said, "Fang Chengye's investigation in that area is relatively detailed, and Zou Xu is in control After gathering 50,000 troops, since Liu Chengzong's troops had left, Therefore, he did not have the bargaining chip to suppress forcefully. Within the army, he could only rely on power checks and intrigues to divide the original middle-level generals in order to maintain the command authority of the working group. In terms of means, he did a very good job. "
"On the outside He understands that he does not have the advantage of harmony, so he always unites the forces of one group of squires to fight another group; fighting is constant, so he can maintain external pressure and maintain relative internal stability; and in such battles, division and Streamlining the troops is actually similar to what the Jin State did If he treats the 50,000 miscellaneous soldiers equally, it will be difficult for a working group of more than 20 people to maintain the stability of power. Therefore, he draws circles, makes appointments, adjusts layer by layer, and divides the army into three groups. Sixty-nine and so on, although in the end there were only more than 10,000 core troops left, the entire The combat power of the army has far exceeded the 50,000 people in the past. If this kind of operational ability is used in the right way, it can do great things."
Qin Shaoqian smiled when Ning Yi said this. He smiled and said: "In some aspects, I really have inherited your mantle. "
"Privately, I did look a bit similar to me earlier. First of all, he looked very handsome, right?" Ning Yi said, and both of them laughed, "Then It is the method of doing things. The early group of people first considered how to do things and how to teach them. Duan is very radical, and some even go to any extreme. But Zou Xu’s actions are not only effective, but also generous and relatively sophisticated in many aspects. This is something I admire very much.”
Ning Yi. After a pause: "Moreover, on the private side, resources were scarce earlier. Zou Xu can endure hardships, but at the same time, he knows how to enjoy hardships. How can he make something delicious with limited resources? When it is harmless, he attaches great importance to appetite... This is actually very similar to me. Now that I think about it, this is one of my weaknesses.”
Qin Shaoqian said: "It's normal to be hungry when you have nothing to eat. In the future, when the world is better, I don't think it's a big deal..." He was also a playboy who came from the prosperous age. He had already enjoyed what he should have enjoyed in his early years. I don't think there's anything wrong.
Ning Yi sighed slightly, then patted him on the shoulder and said nothing more.
“The Central Plains is indeed very barren, but there are still people who can survive. Zou Xu joined forces all the way, pulling one side against the other, and had frequent contact with some wealthy families and landlords. . Last autumn in Ruzhou should be regarded as a turning point, a concubine of a family , they were supposed to be the children of an official family, and the two of them fell in love with each other, but it was later exposed on the spot that it was probably the first time that Zou Xu dealt with such a personal matter. At that time, he killed the whole family and then made a name for himself, alas... ..."
"Then go to Luoyang...Actually, the Central Plains is still The fighting strength of the few surviving families has been reduced to the extreme. They are just some local rich people and some gangs of bandits. Zou Xu led the Chinese army to survive in that area, even if they were beaten. Go, but the reputation has always been good. He will pull one side to fight the other, and will never be wrong to his own side. The boss takes action. So for these people, paying protection fees to Zou Xu is not too uncomfortable in such a war-torn situation..."
Qin Shaoqian smiled: "Instead of paying protection fees to others, , how to pull people over and become one of our own? ”
Ning Yi nodded: "Yes, things in Ruzhou are now difficult to trace. It is difficult to tell whether these people led by Luoyang Yin Zong took the initiative to design and corrupt Zou Xu, or whether Zou Xu came to this step naturally. But in general He said that Zou Xu had already had a showdown with Fang Chengye. He would not accept the result of returning to the Huaxia Army and then being tried. Then he could only make up his mind and unite with some corrupt people in the Central Plains The King of Hudang Mountain. Zou Xu himself is capable in running the army, and he is also very clear about the rules, rewards and punishments, and various things within the Chinese army. If there are continuous blood transfusions from people like Yin Zong, he will not be ignored. , it is indeed possible that he will become a... weakened version of the Chinese Army in the next few years..."
"...What are you going to do?"
" At this point, it's impossible to forgive him." Ning Yi shook his head, "If I hadn't thrown Tang Minjie to the Kingdom of Jin, I really wanted to throw him to Funiu Mountain and have a ring with Zou Xu. Now. ...Leave it to Fang Chengye first and explore the surrounding situation. If it can be solved properly, of course it would be best. If not, in a few years, we can wipe him out together. The world is too big to come here to join in the fun, anyway. A lot."
The two walked along the military camp. Qin Shaoqian nodded and thought for a long time: "I now understand why you were so worried before."
"One. Years of time, if we don’t watch, what should be corrupted will be corrupted... In the next few years, this will be the most serious problem we face.”
"Understood...classes, meetings."
"Comrade Shao Qian...you are a bit enlightened..."
The stars spread in the night sky, and the two people in the military camp were talking and laughing. Laugh, even though they are talking about serious things that may even determine the future of the entire world, they occasionally hook up.
The Han River flows south of the military camp. A war that shocked the world has ended. Countless people are still listening to the news across the land of China, which is thousands of miles away. The subsequent impact is about to set off waves among the crowd. These waves will merge into huge waves and wash away the affected people. everything.
Fourteen years have passed since the Jurchens first went south. The whole world is fragmented, and countless city walls are changing with various flags. At this moment, new changes are about to begin. start. (End of chapter)