Chapter 412 Qin, Ming and Dong Ping made great contributions (two-in-one, 400 monthly tickets this month)
At this time, Zhao Zhen had received an order from the imperial court, ordering Zhao Zhen to command a group of soldiers and horses, pass through Xianyuan and Sishui, attack Pingyi, and then go north to attack Mengyin, Xinwen and Xintai counties, and meet up with Huyanzhuo in Laiwu.
When Zhao Zhen received the order, he was taking stock of the situation in each county.
After seeing off the angel, Zhao Zhen summoned Wu Yong, Zhu Wu, and Liu Huiniang to discuss countermeasures. This expedition does not take the annihilation of Song Jiang as its primary task. It only needs to force him back to Qingzhou and give an explanation to the court.
Finally, the personnel for the expedition were decided. Lu Zhishen, Guang Hui, and Wu Song, who were stationed in Zhongdu County, led the Jianrui Battalion of 2,000 people.
The Shenji Battalion, Scout Battalion, and Heavy Front are all in full force.
The artillery battalion only carries light artillery and flying divine thunder.
Yizhou is mountainous, so the cavalry army only chose the pro-military camp, the forward camp, the Zuo Xiao cavalry camp and the female cavalry led by Hu Sanniang to accompany the army. After hearing this, Chen Liqing ignored Zhao Zhen's intention to avoid Zhao Zhen before the marriage. She asked Hu Sanniang to speak for him and also went with the army.
A total of 8,000 horse and infantry sergeants, with uniforms and armor and weapons, were assembled in Zhongdu County.
Zhao Zhen took Qin Ming and Dong Ping as the main and deputy vanguards, commanding the Qianfeng Battalion and Zuo Xiaoqi Battalion to advance first. Zhao Zhen led the central army himself, with military counselors Wu Yong and Liu Huiniang, and mage Qiao Daoqing accompanying the army.
After passing through Xianyuan and Sishui, Zhao Zhen ordered to recruit two thousand civilians to replace the civilians in Liangshan County.
In Xianyuan County, [Tianmu General] Peng Qi led more than a thousand soldiers to stay behind to recuperate. Zhao Zhen recruited civilians, but Peng Qi did not stop him. He also told Zhao Zhen the news that although the treasuries of Sishui and Xianyuan counties had been emptied, the autumn taxes had not been collected this year.
When Zhao Zhen heard about it, he immediately sent a letter to Zhongdu County, asking Xu He to lead troops to collect taxes. Some of them would be sent to the front of the army, and some of them would be sent back to Liangshan.
Because of this benefit, Zhao Zhen recruited half of the doctors in the prefecture, bringing many wound medicines, and under the leadership of An Daoquan, came to treat the sick and wounded soldiers in Xianyuan.
But it was said that Zhao Zhen only stayed in Xianyuan for three days before setting off to camp. Qin Ming and Dong Ping led the troops first, and 1,000 horse troops went straight to Pingyi along the official road.
Yizhou is mountainous, and access to Yanzhou depends entirely on this official road, while everywhere else is a misty mountain road.
Pingyi is located on an important transportation road. To the south is Fei County, to the north is Xinwen and Xintai, and through Xintai to the north is Laiwu Prison.
Regarding Pingyi, Song Jiang also left two leaders stationed there, one named [Qianzhangkeng] Xu Pingsheng and the other named [Bingshan] Han Tongyin.
Xu Pingsheng and Han Tongyin, who were from unknown origins, gathered a group of scoundrels and occupied Yuanyang Valley. They exploited all business travelers who passed by and often harassed the villages.
This made heaven angry and people resentful. At that time, the emperor ordered all the state capitals to clear out the bandits in their territory because of the four big bandits. The two of them together were small in number and could not resist the enemy.
Hearing that Song Jiang was powerful in Qingzhou, he simply abandoned Yuanyang Valley and brought people to join him. These two men were both bodyguards, with good martial arts skills and some experience in traveling north and south. Therefore, they were left by Song Jiang to station in Pingyi. They commanded 3,000 people and took charge of the four cities of Pingyi, Xinwen, Xintai and Mengyin.
In addition, there are 500 troops everywhere to protect the city and maintain the place. In each place, several subordinate officials who were left by well-known big families were appointed, given names, and forced to take office to maintain order and collect autumn taxes.
On that day, Han Tongyin was drinking and having fun in the county government office. When he heard that the officers and soldiers outside the city were fighting, he couldn't help but became furious and ordered people to put on armor and mount their horses with swords and cards in hand.
Han Tongyin defeated many officers and soldiers and was so arrogant that he didn't take the officers and soldiers seriously. Hearing that the government troops were coming to suppress the attack but did not defend the city, they ordered the people to put down the drawbridge and personally lead thousands of people out of the city to form an array.
The two armies formed their formations, and Han Tongyin was the first to mount his horse and shout: "Where are you, the bird man, who dares to tease grandpa? You also need to know that this is the territory of [Timely Rain] Song Gongming. If you don't get off your horse, you will anger grandpa and kill them all." You are such a thief.”
Qin Ming was impatient and did not answer. He waved his mace and rushed over.
The two horses intersect, and the sword and stick are raised together.
With only three combinations, Qin Ming exploited his flaw and let Han Tongyin slash with his sword, but it was all in vain. Qin Ming took advantage of the situation, raised and lowered his stick, and smashed half of Han Tongyin's Tianling Cap into pieces.
When Dong Ping saw it, he struck out with his spears and his thousands of horses rushed towards the opposite side.
I was already frightened when I saw the leader being killed on the other side, but when I saw the other side charging towards me, there was nowhere to stop me. The formation was immediately in chaos, with people and horses trampling on each other. Those who could not move forward were killed, and most of them were killed. Taking advantage of the situation, he grabbed the suspension bridge and occupied the west gate.
When the bandits in the city heard about it, they abandoned their helmets and armor and fled through the north gate under the leadership of several leaders.
Qin Ming and Dong Ping discussed and left Qin Ming, Huang Xin, and Luan Tingfang to lead an army of 300 horses to occupy the city and support the large group of troops.
Dong Ping led his lieutenants Ou Peng and Ma Lin to lead the remaining horse troops to drive away the defeated troops.
At the moment, the two of them acted separately. Qin Ming gathered the prisoners and guarded the city, while sending people to report the victory.
Dong Ping led his men in pursuit, and when they saw small groups of soldiers and horses along the way, they all knelt down on the roadside to beg for work, but Dong Ping ignored them. Leave a group behind and gather up along the way.
Besides, Zhao Zhen received the victory report from Qin and Ming Dynasty and urged his troops to move quickly. After entering the city, he set up a list to calm the people. After hearing that Dong Ping was chasing the defeated troops, Zhao Zhen immediately asked Lin Chong to lead the pro-military camp to respond.
Even if Song Jiang is as good as Zhao Zhen, there is no one available, and the county is in chaos. Fortunately, Qingzhou's affairs were handled by Song Jiang himself, which was fairly orderly.
Here in Yizhou, the manager, Han Tongyin, and Xu Pingsheng were both former bodyguards and warriors, and they were not very clean. Therefore, people in the city resisted from time to time, relying on the soldiers and horses in their hands, but there was no big trouble.
Xu Pingsheng went to Xintai to suppress a village that was resisting taxation. Everything was fine here, but unfortunately, a leader in the city went to the countryside to supervise autumn taxes in various places, and the district chief was not able to entertain him at home. When the leader went to the toilet, he saw the daughter of the family and became lustful. On the second day, he took advantage of the mayor's visit to collect taxes from each household and raped the daughter of the mayor's family.
This daughter was also a violent person, so she threw herself into a well and died.
There is only one daughter in the family, and she regards her as a treasure. The leader left three pieces of money as compensation. The commander did not attack on the spot. During the banquet at night, he cooked a pot of chicken soup with poisonous mushroom juice and coaxed these people to drink it. Together with the leader, 25 soldiers were captured and poisoned to death.
Then the chief here did nothing but cut off the heads of these people, picked up weapons and armor, and led the villagers to openly resist taxes. Twenty-five soldiers died in one fell swoop. The leader of the Xintai garrison didn't know what had happened, so he had to send a messenger to Pingyi to ask for help.
But after Xu Pingsheng heard the news, he hurriedly led thousands of people to exterminate them. In just one day, they slaughtered a whole village of young and old, which shocked the surrounding villages. Xu Pingsheng was also very proud and sent someone to Songjiang in Laiwu to ask for credit.
Xu Pingsheng took the looted goods and escorted a batch of grain and grass, and happily led his troops back. On the way, they met a defeated army and heard that they had lost Pingyi and Han Tongyin had been killed. They were so shocked that they peed.
He wanted to return to Xintai, but he was afraid of Song Jiang's punishment. Going to Pingyi, I only have a thousand people under my command, and I don’t know who my enemy is.
After careful interrogation, the literate minions said that the flag was flying the Liangshan banner. The two leaders, one wielding a mace and the other wielding double spears, recognized that the one on the general's flag was Qin and the other Dong.
After Xu Pingsheng heard this, he immediately thought of the two people Song Jiang once said: [Thunderbolt Fire] Qin Ming and [Double Gun General] Dong Ping. While he was hesitating, he saw a puff of dust and smoke rising from the front, and even the defeated soldiers shouted that the army was coming. Suddenly, the sparse marching team was dispersed by the defeated troops. Xu Pingsheng was furious. He led more than a hundred of his confidants, drew their swords and shouted in formation, killing more than ten sergeants who were wandering around, but he couldn't stop it.
It was too late, but it was too late. Before Xu Pingsheng could restrain his subordinates, Dong Ping had already rushed into the formation, and with one swing of his two spears, the minions were killed.
Xu Pingsheng finally had some courage, so he went straight to Dong Ping with his spear in hand.
Dong Ping had long since looked at him and pretended not to know. When Xu Pingsheng came closer, he shouted: "Hold on."
The two horses crossed each other, and Xu Pingsheng dropped his gun, covered his neck, and knocked off the horse.
More than 600 cavalry troops rushed into the formation, trampling on each other, and more than a thousand minions fled for their lives.
Dong Ping dismounted, cut off Xu Pingsheng's head, carried it with a gun, and shouted: "Liangshan General Dong Ping is here. He kneels down and surrenders if he doesn't want to die."
Ou Peng and Ma Lin heard this and asked the sergeant to drink together.
When Lin Chong arrived, the three of them were cleaning up the battlefield.
After cleaning the battlefield, escorting the prisoners, and collecting the weapons and armor left on the road, everyone rushed back to Pingyi County.
When Zhao Zhen saw Xu Pingsheng's head, he laughed and said: "Two commanders, they won the first battle, and their achievements will be recorded in the book. After returning to the army, they will discuss their merits and reward them."
In the first battle, with less than 30 casualties, they captured Pingyi County and killed the two leaders.
Wu Yong immediately wrote a request for merit, and after printing it, he asked Shi Qian to take the two heads with him, and join Lehe and Yang Lin from Jingyang Town to go to Tokyo to report the victory and ask the imperial court for a reward. Secondly, Yang Lin and Lehe were invited to go to Tokyo to buy fireworks, medicine and other materials, and to inquire about news about Bianjing.
Shi Qian obeyed the order, put two heads pickled in lime in two wooden boxes, said goodbye to Zhao Zhen and left.
After seeing off Shi Qian, Wu Yong hurriedly stepped forward and said to Zhao Zhen: "Officials, we have already interrogated clearly. Pingyi, Mengyin, Xinwen, and Xintai are the only places where large troops are stationed in Pingyi. The remaining three places only have five or seven hundred troops stationed in each place." I don’t have anyone to lead me. If we attack when Song Jiang doesn’t react, we will be able to defeat him in one fell swoop.”
Zhao Zhen looked up at the sky. It was already the time to apply for the plaque, and said: "If we send troops at this time, the horse army will have to gallop all night. The people and horses are exhausted, and it is inconvenient to attack the city, which adds many variables. Tomorrow I will leave Guanghui to lead 1,000 troops to garrison here. I will prepare food at the fourth watch and set out at the fifth watch to attack with three battalions of horsemen. The rest of the sergeants will also bring two days of dry food and abandon the baggage. The artillery battalion and the civilian men will follow with the baggage. "
Wu Yong also looked at the sky and said helplessly: "This is the only way."
There was nothing to say that night. After resting for the night, Zhao Zhen and others gathered the sergeants as planned and headed north along the official road.
As for Pingyi, perhaps Songjiang was stationing troops and horses, and Laiwu was on the front line, so all the money and grain from the four counties were transported to Pingyi for storage.
Zhao Zhen wrote a letter yesterday and asked several sergeants to go to Zhongdu County with the letter and ask Shi Xiu to mobilize carts to transport half of the money and grain back to Liangshan.
After traveling for hundreds of miles, the horse army rushed for a day. At nightfall, they arrived at a three-way intersection. The prisoner who led the way said that Xinwen is to the northwest from here, and the Chaiwen River flows westward into the Wen River. To the northeast is Xintai, and more than 20 miles north of Xintai is Laiwu Prison.
Lin Chong, Qin Ming, and Dong Ping discussed it and let the sergeants rest for half an hour. Lin Chong led the Qinjun camp to attack Xinwen, while Qin Ming and Dong Ping led the Qianfeng Battalion and Zuo Xiaoqi Battalion to attack the Xintai Camp.
After the break, the three divided their forces.
But it was said that the Laiwu Prison was stationed here with three people: [Tie Luohan] Fa Tong, [Flying Centipede] Wu Qian, and [Pan Hailong] Qin Hui. There were some minions who fled back to Xintai overnight and fell Pingyi City. The leader [ Qianzhang Pit] Xu Pingsheng, [Bingshan] Han Tongyin was killed and reported to the leader stationed in Xintai. The leader immediately sent a messenger to pass the news to Laiwu Prison.
After hearing this, the three supervisors from Laiwu sent messengers to deliver the news to Laiwu while packing up their troops.
When Song Jiang received the news, he sent [Death-killing Ghost] Wang Feibao with 3,000 troops and [Flying Centipede] Wu Qian with 2,000 troops to rescue Xintai.
5,000 men and horses galloped all the way, arriving at the north and south gates of Xintai almost at the same time as Dong Ping and Qin Yong's cavalry troops.
Qin Ming and Dong Pingping arrived at the south gate and saw that the city gate was closed and many people and horses were lined up on the wall. Both of them were horse soldiers. Qin Ming stepped forward to fight, but only fired arrows from the top of the city.
The two had no choice but to set up camp when they came to report that reinforcements from the north gate had arrived. The two knew that the opportunity to attack the city had been lost, and they were trapped and out of horses, so they had to retreat ten miles and set up camp at the three-way intersection where they came from.
On the way back, I met a messenger sent by Lin Chong, saying that Xinwen had surrendered. It turned out that early this morning, some soldiers who had broken up fled to Xinwen. Several soldiers shouted, and the news spread in Xinwen.
The leaders stationed in Xinwen were timid and the reinforcements did not arrive. The officers and soldiers arrived first. There was a rumble in the city. Seeing that his 500 men were old and weak, the leader did not have the guts to defend the city. He was also afraid that someone in the city would liaise with the government and soldiers and open the city gate secretly. As soon as Lin Chong's troops arrived, he ordered the city gate to be opened and surrendered.
After hearing this, the two of them rode directly to Xinwen.
On the second day, Zhao Zhen arrived with his troops, and Lin Chong and the others told the news that the Xintai reinforcements had arrived. Zhao Zhen heard about it and said to Wu Yong: "Xuetuo, it seems that it is too late after all."
Wu Yong said: "Although it is a step late, it is not without benefits."
After hearing this, Zhao Zhen said: "What do you mean by studying?"
Wu Yong gently shook his feather fan and said: "The officials have now captured Pingyi and Xinwen. Mengyin is in the valley on the east side and there are no reinforcements. It is easy to capture these three places. In this way, we can capture these three places. The place is just right, it won't make us useless, and it won't shake the foundation of Songjiang. It's best to have a stalemate with the Qingzhou thieves in Xintai."
"Privile Tong has an explanation. We don't have to fight with Song Jianglang and lose our soldiers. The province's cunning rabbits will die and the lackeys will be cooked. It's better to raise the bandits and respect ourselves."
Zhao Zhen listened and nodded silently. Zhao Zhen sent a messenger again to report the victory.
At Wu Yong's suggestion, Zhao Zhen's army was not stationed in Xinwen, but was still stationed at the Sancha intersection.
After resting for a day, Zhao Zhen ordered Wu Song to lead a thousand infantry and ten mountain-splitting cannons to capture Mengyin.
Then he sent people to Shijie Lake and ordered Ruan Xiaowu to lead the Hailo Camp up the Wen River to Xinwen to listen.
After Zhao Zhen's army and horses rested in the camp for a day, Wu Song sent someone to deliver good news. The leader stationed in Mengyin was killed by the people of Mengyin County.
After another day, Zhao Zhen sent a messenger to Tokyo to report the victory.
Along with the victory report, there was also a stalemate with Qingzhou thieves in Xintai, and they asked the court to allocate ordnance, craftsmen to accompany the army, and appointed officials from the three counties of Xinfu.
(End of chapter)