Chapter 326: How to play
After Sima Yue died, the undercurrent immediately surged.
According to his last wish during his lifetime, he should have wanted to invite Sima Pi, the general of the Zhenjun Army and the eldest son, so that everyone could assist him and continue to control Yan and Xu states.
He Lun, Wang Bing, and Liu Qia, who hold military power, all expressed their willingness to serve the crown prince as their master.
The three of them are not from the clan, their status is not high enough, and they are not well-known yet. Assisting the Crown Prince is their best choice and can best protect their interests.
The most important thing now is to take over the crown prince.
Before the prince came to Fan County, the military and political affairs of Yanzhou could not be left alone.
Government affairs should either be done by the king of the clan or a famous scholar like Wang Yan, and no one else is suitable. Everyone pushed and pushed, and finally decided that Sima Fan, the king of Xiangyang, should act as the agent for government affairs.
He Lun did not agree very much with this, but all the shogunate officials agreed, and in the end they could only acquiesce.
Military affairs are nominally jointly managed by Liu Chou, the left chief of the palace, and He Sui, the chief secretary.
He Lun and Wang Bing were sons of soldiers and servants, so they were not suitable to be chief officials due to their status. Even if they come from a noble family, as long as they join the service, become soldiers, train soldiers, and lead troops to fight, they are willing to be humble and degenerate, and they are only worthy of being driven by the shogunate's scholars.
Considering that Liu Chou was from Pengcheng and He Sui was from Donghai, He Lun, Wang Bing and even Liu Qia could accept it.
Power was divided up in this way.
Now we are just waiting for the crown prince to come back and "return power".
If the crown prince does not come, the shogunate will be disbanded and the army will fall apart.
In fact, some people have already left the mansion, most of them are foreign scholars who are not from Qingxu Prefecture.
They either go back to their hometown or go to Jianye, with the latter being the majority - to put it sadly, Situ served as the shepherd of Yanzhou twice, and also deliberately attracted Yanzhou scholars and gave many official positions with real power, but in the end Qingxu scholars are still the most reliable.
When Wang Bing left Fan County, he saw many leaving scholars, and he immediately sighed to himself: As soon as Situ left, the shogunate was in an unsustainable posture. If a foreign enemy attacks at this time, Even though there are more than 30,000 troops in Fan County, most of them will be defeated in one blow.
He took more than a hundred riders and hundreds of horses and headed south from Fan County, detouring to Jiyin. He got the help of the Jiyin Bian family of the former shogunate chief secretary Bian Dun (now the Sima of the Shanjie shogunate). After gathering a group of horses and some supplies, they headed west.
When we entered Chenliu, it was already six or seven days later.
As far as the eye can see, there are dilapidated cities and fortress walls everywhere.
Occasionally, when I see Wubao still alive, others act as if they are facing a formidable enemy and shoot arrows to tell them to get away.
Wang Bing sighed, and when he arrived in Waihuang County, he was running out of food and water. Fortunately, the magistrate of this county was still there, and he raised a batch of food for them with great difficulty. However, when they were about to leave, they encountered the Huns army who were looting everywhere and were forced to stay in Waihuang.
Wang Bing was a little anxious.
The shogunate is beginning to fall apart. If we wait any longer, even if we succeed in bringing the crown prince back, we may not have much strength left.
What's more, the longer you delay, the easier it will be for the enemy to know about it. What will happen when the time comes to kill him?
He now understands the importance of the backbone more deeply.
The backbone does not need to be very strong, but it must be there. As long as it can be recognized by the people around it, then the group will have cohesion. Otherwise, it will be a mess and will not help.
The prince must be picked up quickly.
******
Just two days after Sima Yue died of illness and Wang Bing was still on the road, heavy snow fell in Xingyang and Yingchuan areas.
Wang Sang looked at the east sadly, wondering what was happening to his hometown of Donglai.
I heard that Cao Yi and Gou Xi fought in a battle and were severely defeated.
After so many years, he still couldn't climb the mountain of Gou Xi. Wang Sang suddenly felt a little discouraged.
Today is November 16th. The army has been marching south for several days and is about to cross the Wei (wěi) River and advance towards Yingchuan.
At this moment, several riders rushed up from the other side of the river. After passing through the ice, they reported: "General, there are officers and soldiers coming from south to north, carrying the general's flag with the word 'Shao'. Forward. They started fighting."
Wang Sang was frightened and asked quickly: "How far is it?"
He didn't ask how many people were coming, but how many more people there were. Far away, you can see his thoughts.
“Ten miles.”
“My maidservant!” Wang Sang yelled: “I only came ten miles away to report, what are you doing for food?”
The scout hesitated to speak.
"How many soldiers does Shao Thief have?" Wang Sang calmed down and asked.
"There may be 20,000 people, mostly infantry and very few cavalry."
Wang Sang put down his snack for a while, but his heart soon picked up again. The Shao thieves don't have any cavalry, and neither do they.
Among these foreign generals, Shile has the most cavalry. Everyone else is just like a bird, with more than a thousand or two thousand cavalry reaching the sky. This time they went south with a total of only 10,000 infantry and 500 to 600 cavalry. In terms of the number of cavalry, they were on par with Shao Thief.
No, you have to contact Lu Ming and others.
They have a bunch of miscellaneous cavalry under their tent. Only with their help can they have the confidence to face the Shao thieves.
The messenger set off soon.
Wang Sang looked at the gloomy sky, hesitating.
The two armies are ten miles apart. If they withdraw at this time, I am afraid it will turn into the big rout that happened in Gongxian County. Moreover, with so much property captured, the march would be very sluggish unless it was abandoned.
He looked up at the sky. The snow had stopped long ago, leaving only the howling north wind.
This is more advantageous.
Strong north winds often blow in winter, which can greatly offset the advantage of bows and arrows on the opposite side.
But Wang Sang still didn’t dare to fight.
"Come here!" Wang Sang immediately ordered: "Smash the ice on the river and smash more to deter the enemy."
After the general received the order, Wang Sang thought for a while , and said: "Throw away the looted goods, do not slow down the marching speed."
The person who took the order was a little hesitant this time.
Isn’t it just for money and food that you work hard as a soldier? What do you mean by letting people throw away their belongings?
“Is the general planning to use the legacy money scheme?”
"What's the plan to leave money behind?" Wang Sang waved his hand and said, "You don't need to throw away the silk. Throw away all the other things that are in the way. I see there are people carrying two bronze tripods. It's just nonsense."
< br>"General, those two bronze tripods are worth a lot of money. They are related to the military rewards of dozens of people. They have agreed to return to Yecheng and sell them at a valuation in exchange for some food and silk." The general reminded: "There are also those cattle. , each cow is divided equally by several people. If you throw it away casually, it may damage morale. "Bang!" Wang Sang slapped the table hard and said angrily: "Money or life is more important?"
The general was too shy to speak.
"Go quickly and deliver the order without any hesitation." Wang Sang raised his voice and said.
“No.” The general turned and left.
After a while, the temporary camp became busy inside and outside.
The veterans who had seen the combat effectiveness of the Silver Spear Army were holding various tools and hammering away at the ice surface quickly. The new recruits recruited in the past year are a little confused. After receiving the order, they just do it subconsciously and are not as active as the veterans.
On the whole, this order was carried out fairly well. Another order, which asked people to give up their looted property, was met with great resistance.
Not only did the recruits not understand, but even the veterans complained.
It is human nature that it is difficult to part with good wealth.
Rumors began to spread among the army: The Silver Spear Army was close at hand, so they had to listen to it.
As for how far this "close at hand" is, the various versions that have been circulated are very scary. The most exaggerated ones even say that it is only a mile or two, and someone can rush over at any time.
The whole military camp was in commotion.
After Wang Sang heard the report from his subordinates, he broke out in a sweat.
This is actually no one’s fault, only him.
As the commander-in-chief, he conveyed to the soldiers the thoughts of "we can't fight" and "we must start running for our lives now". If you have done this, how can you expect the morale of the soldiers?
Not blowing up the camp on the spot is a sign of hard training and effective organization in the past year.
Wang Sang was sweating more and more on his head. He found that he seemed to have made a mistake, but he had no choice. He was beaten too hard by Shao Thief before. The capital is constantly being consumed, and every time it has a little bit of fighting power, it is immediately defeated, so that now it no longer has the courage to face the enemy head-on.
In the final analysis, Shao Thief is still to blame.
Wang Sang thought for a while and realized that he would have to personally suppress this matter. So he ordered more than a hundred soldiers, left the tent with murderous intent, and began to purge the military camp. At this moment, the scouts ran back panting.
Wang Sang already knew what was going on without them talking.
On the southern horizon, a large cavalry team appeared.
Hooves rumble and flags fly.
The cavalry team was not large in number. There were only about two or three hundred people rushing at the front, but each person carried two horses and the speed was very fast.
The sergeant who was smashing the ice on the river subconsciously stopped what he was doing and stared blankly across the river.
"Long Sword Army..." A veteran who had fought in the Battle of Dayang swallowed and murmured.
The Long Sword Army quickly rushed to the south bank of the Jishui River and found a high ground in the distance to dismount.
What follows is a dazzling moment.
There were less than three hundred people in total. They quickly unpacked their luggage from the pack horses, took out their armors, and put them on each other.
Others who were not prepared to join the battle quickly gathered their horses, retreated far away, and disappeared behind a small forest.
The fully-dressed Long Sword Army, fully armed, formed an array on the other side of the Jishui River where the ice had just been broken, and took out their crossbows.
The whole process takes very little time, and it can be seen that it is the result of hard work.
After they were ready to fight, more than a thousand riders came from the south, still one man and two horses.
This time they did not dismount, but galloped directly across the river a little further away. After a long circle, they dismounted two miles to the north and formed a formation.
Wang Sangru fell into the ice cave.
What kind of play is this? Can heavy armored infantry still play like this?
(End of this chapter)