And outside the city of Pengcheng, Xuzhou. Zhu Lao San and Zhu Cun, who had already met with each other, had mixed feelings and hugged each other as soon as they met, and made all kinds of incoherent shouts. After all, although they have been communicating continuously over the years, they have never stopped contacting each other, but they have met each other for the first time after many years, under the busy and busy affairs in the army.
Of course, Zhu Cun, who is now one of the few high-ranking members of the Taiping Army, is no longer the ordinary Volunteer general who was frivolous but greedy for money and profit; and Zhu Laosan, who had suffered from trouble and once owned the foundation of the Central Plains hinterland, It is no longer the bold, sturdy, and righteous little boss at the beginning; but with a similar stand and camp, their brotherhood in blood has become more and more stable.
However, for the Wuning Army (Xu Si Town) Jiedu Envoy and Han King Shipu, who were besieged in Pengcheng by two armies from afar and suffered a great loss in several counterattacks that took the initiative to leave the city, It's not so pleasant anymore. In particular, he and his men also saw the full set of flags and flags of the captured Taining army. After leaving the city in this way, the army's spirit and morale were even more shaken.
Not to mention the buffer of this period of time, enough for him to get some of the whole story before and after the city fell from the mouth of the surviving soldiers who had escaped from Xiaqiu City. Therefore, the first thing he did after the siege of Pengcheng was to launch a counterattack against the weak points of the Taiping Army and the Eastern Capital Army that had not been coordinated from afar, and at the same time sent many waves of envoys to rush out.
After that, the various people in the city were reorganized and reorganized, especially the thousands of old units of the Caizhou Army, which were newly advanced and attached, were disarmed on the spot with lightning speed, and then they were scattered and reorganized. To support the local army. The former Caizhou army generals, headed by Long Xiang commander Liu Jianfeng, were also summoned to the innerya under collective house arrest on the grounds of a banquet.
Therefore, although it seemed that there were at least tens of thousands of powerful enemy soldiers approaching the city and surrounding them all, Shi Pu was not so worried and anxious on the bright side. At least he still has Pengcheng, the world-famous giant city; compared to the Taining Army, which has become exhausted and extremely weak after years of battles, the Taining Army, the predecessor of the Wuning Army, also It used to be one of the famous strong forces in the Central Plains.
In the early years, it bordered the unruly separatist forces Huaixi Town and Ziqing Town; and it was the hub of the Central Plains connecting the Jianghuai River and the site of the Fourth World War. For a long time, the Wuning Army has been the most active and stable area supporting the central government of the Tang Dynasty. The resources and support received are very strong, and a well-known Huai Shang army has been trained.
Only in the second year of Emperor Mu Zong of the Tang Dynasty (822), the general Wang Zhixing captured the Wuning Army Jingjie by force. Since then, Xu Sizhen has escaped the full control of the court and changed his commander in thirty years until Yizong Xiantong. After the three-year (862) appointment of Jiedushi Wangshi, he almost killed all the anti-rebellion soldiers in Wuning, and abolished Xusi Town, leaving only three thousand guards in Xuzhou, and the rest belonged to Yanzhou Haizhou and Suzhou.
As a result, soldiers who lost their belongings became grass bandits, and combined with Jianghuai salt thieves, one of the four major harms in Henan, which caused serious social problems; and because of the problems of the southwestern border at that time, the Xuzhou soldiers who fought far to the southwest were in Xiantong. In nine years of rebellion, he broke through the southern half of the Yangtze River all the way from Guilin, and returned to Xuzhou to join the bandits and stand on their own. It was called the "Pangxun Rebellion" in history.
Although it was suppressed and calmed down after only a year, the imperial court mobilized a large number of military forces for this, and even used Shatuo and Tuyuhun cavalry to make a decisive victory; this also allowed these city-side tribes, which were originally Datang eagle dogs, to see. The weak side shown in the hinterland of the Tang Dynasty gradually broke the fear of these faculty members for the Tianwei of the Tang Dynasty.
Therefore, the current Wuning Army was after the settlement of the Pangxun Rebellion, in view of the balance of power in Jiezhen and the shortage of local soldiers. In the eleventh year of Xiantong (870), the imperial court renamed Xuzhou Lijie as the "Probation Army". During the selection of soldiers from various towns in the Central Plains and emigration, it was obvious that they hoped that this place could be transformed by the imperial court and become a new one. Support and support the assistance of Datang;
Of course, the original vision was good, but the reality was cruel. During the Battle of Surabaya, the army of the five towns in the Central Plains jointly intercepted the army of Huangchao from Huainan and North; the Wuning army, which was the first to go without war, became the collapse of the Surabaya line of defense. At the beginning of the battle, with all the people and horses competing to avoid the battle, as the only lone army fought to the end, the Tianping army was completely destroyed, which also opened the prelude to the collapse of the final rule of the Tang Dynasty in the Central Plains.
Therefore, it is only time for the Wu Ning army to accept the late costs and consequences for the reasons caused by the original short-sightedness and selfishness. But in any case, the current Wuning Army still has 70,000 foot soldiers on the books; and Pengchengzhi is at least 30,000 armored men who guard Han Wang Shipu, and re-enlisted more than 20,000 civilians. And the united soldiers; there are more variegated people gathered from nearly ten thousand parties.
Although they had repeatedly fought against the Taiping thieves in the countryside, they lost thousands of people; but shrinking and retreating behind the icy battlements, the firearms of those Taiping thieves were greatly restrained and weakened, and they were able to rely on them. Old-fashioned weapons such as bows and arrows, bed crossbows, stone cannons, etc., have had to deal with each other back and forth and fight offense and defense.
In addition, through the messengers who broke out, he has already explained that the local guards and generals in the town will stick to the spot. Don't rush to rescue and attack the enemy forces in the besieged city; instead, you must use the good location and the convenience of the familiar place to harass. It is the most ideal result if the enemy’s back road and the grain road are too harassed to support and maintain, and even unsustainable to retreat and lift the encirclement. Even the Ping Lu army rushes in time is the most ideal result.
Of course, at that time, the main force of the Wu Ning Army, who has the extra energy to stand behind the closed city, can wait for the opportunity to launch a counterattack and strike a good time in the wind and snow. Therefore, compared to the intermittent small-to-medium-scale confrontation and engagement on the wall, he is more concerned about controlling the situation in the city, and not giving the enemy outside a chance to take advantage of it.
As a result, in this kind of top-down, layer-by-layer high-pressure situation, the more than 200,000 people in Pengcheng began to have a hard time. Almost every day, there are people who "pass the thieves from inside and outside" and "collaborate with the enemy for trouble". They are arrested and left by sergeants and officials who broke in. There are also so-called "reverse chaos" groups that are constantly being investigated; even like some wealthy and wealthy groups. , The official house is not spared either.
Even later, Shipu became more and more suspicious under the agitation and movement of the left and right. If he did not see the list of arrests and pending decisions every day, he would be a little restless and wonder if anyone was negligent and carrying. , Sternly reprimanded and left and right. Therefore, in a short period of time, this movement to investigate internal troubles and spies has turned into a disguised carnival feast for officials and soldiers in the city to take advantage of people's homes.
In this state, the already merged Dongdu Army and Huainan Discussing Army had no intention of laboring to mobilize the crowd to attack. Instead, they mobilized civilians and auxiliary soldiers to continue to build and pour fortifications in the snow, completing the blockade corresponding to the seven gates of Pengcheng, Xuzhou; and dividing the troops over and over to break down the outskirts of Xiaoxian, Fengxian, Peixian, Lvliangcheng, etc. in Xuzhou. Strongholds and cities.
As the surrounding area is gradually cleaned up, and above the frozen Huai River, the civilians and materials organized by the aftermath ambassadors from the east and west roads of Huainan Road are also occupying the area along the Caohe opened by the attacking army/security The area is continuously transported from Hao, Shou, Gwangju and other places to the vicinity of Pengcheng. But in the midst of a scene of enthusiasm, the defenders in the city hoped to be weakened and trapped by the wind and snow, and there was no chance to become a reality.
Therefore, when the siege of Xuzhou reached the eleventh day, the Pinglu reinforcements that were given high hopes had not yet arrived; the mule and horse team formed by the Dongdu Army and the Huainan Attacking Army was led by General Zhu Zhen. Infiltrated into Hong County in Sizhou; then on the second day, with the cooperation of the Taiping Boat Division, which turned to be active on the ice, lined up between Fuling Lake and Pofu Pond and made a big break from Linhuai, the city of Zhouzhou. Four thousand people from the other divisions of the Wuning Army met.
Then, Linhuai City, which had lost its main defensive force, was also in the mountains and plains caused by the bluff caused by the boat division and the transporter. The fighting spirit and fighting spirit were completely eliminated, led by the Sizhou governor Xu Zhengyan to go out of the city and beg for surrender. Therefore, within a short period of a month and a half at the end of winter, most of the territory of the Three Towns Alliance of Huaishang has changed hands, and only an isolated city in Pengcheng and the Ping Lu Army, which is justified by internal strife, are left. (End of this chapter)