The thick smoke from the other side of the city wall spread into the military camp in the wind. The black smoke floated in the air, and the whole sky seemed to be covered with gloom, just like Guo Shao's mood at the moment.
The smell of the black smoke was very strange. Guo Shao had an illusion that he was not in the Five Dynasties and Ten Kingdoms period, but in the suburbs of a modern heavy industrial city. The smell in the air was similar to the exhaust from a car factory mixed with the smell of burning plastic, which was very strange.
As soon as he reached the gate of the Central Army, he saw the emperor in a purple round-collared official robe coming out. Those who didn't know him might think he had met some important official. The emperor's dress was not much different from that of the prime minister and ministers around him. Then he was followed by a group of civil and military officials.
Guo Shao knelt down on the side of the road and said, "I am Guo Shao, the commander of the left wing of the Hujie Army. I have been ordered to lead the army to Huainan. I pay my respects to Your Majesty. May Your Majesty live a long and healthy life."
Stand up. Chai Rong replied casually. He obviously knew Guo Shao and probably had a deep impression of him.
So Guo Shao got up from the ground and waited for the emperor and the ministers to go over first. He knew several of them, such as Li Chongjin, whom Guo Shao had met more than once before when he and the generals of the Imperial Guard Division confirmed the order to mobilize troops; and Shi Yanchao, the tallest one. Shi Yanchao was the Imperial Guard Sima Bu Du Yu Hou. Guo Shao thought that he was a Xiang Du Xiao, and his rank was lower than his, so he cut in line behind Shi Yanchao and followed the others.
As soon as he left the camp, Chai Rong saw a pile of stones outside. Without saying a word, he walked up to pick up a large stone and walked forward calmly. Seeing this, the other generals came forward to pick up stones. Shi Yanchao picked up the largest stone. Guo Shao had no choice but to pick up stones as well.
The scene suddenly became very funny. The king and his ministers became porters, carrying stones to a catapult and throwing them down one by one.
Chai Rong turned his head and looked at the Shouzhou tower for a while, then said: I will go to Chuzhou tomorrow, Li Chongjin will be the commander of Huainan; Shi Yanchao has made great contributions, so he should be appointed as the deputy commander of the cavalry and infantry.
I am here. Guo Shao hurriedly clasped his fists in response, lowered his head, and felt very bad.
Chai Rong said: "You have also made contributions. I will first appoint you as the Shouzhou Recruiting Envoy. If you can capture Shouzhou, I will definitely reward you handsomely."
The emperor's words are golden, he didn't ask you if you are willing or not. Guo Shao said with a stiff upper lip: "I accept your order and thank your majesty for your grace."
Why did this hard task fall on me? If Shouzhou could be captured, the battle would have lasted for more than a month from the end of May to July. At the peak, hundreds of thousands of people surrounded it. If it could be captured, it would have been captured long ago. Guo Shao believed that he could only surround the city from all sides, fight for reinforcements, and then wait for the people in the city to eat up all the food and then surrender.
How long does it take to fight a war by starving the enemy to death
The Battle of Chuzhou seemed to have been won by Zhao Kuangyin, so he should have been in Chuzhou. Li Gu also said that he had learned from espionage that Yangzhou, the eastern capital of Southern Tang, did not have many garrisons, so Zhao Kuangyin would take part in the Battle of Yangzhou. This would be a huge achievement that would be delivered to his doorstep, and he might even be able to annihilate several Southern Tang reinforcements in the field. The Zhou Dynasty army was strong in field combat, and Zhao Kuangyin's people were almost certain to win.
Compared with the fat of Yangzhou, Guo Shao felt that Shouzhou was not even a bone, but a piece of hard stone. Guo Shao was going to Huainan to make merit, but now he felt the deep malice of this world.
Chai Rong must have disliked him, so he assigned him to fight in such a poor place. Guo Shao was not only disappointed with the Huainan group, but also worried and afraid to meet Chai Rong. He couldn't help but reflect on his performance when he rescued the queen in Chenzhou. At that time, he was in a poor mental state and anxious, so he said some wrong things, especially when he expressed his loyalty to the queen.
Guo Shao couldn't help but recall what he said at that time. Although those words sounded loyal, if Chai Rong liked the queen very much, he would definitely be jealous. When a man cares about his woman and loves her more, he will be more possessive and can't tolerate any sand in his heart. When a man lets go and gives a woman freedom, it is not necessarily a good thing, because he thinks it doesn't matter, it's something he doesn't care about anyway. Guo Shao felt that the emperor had no reason not to love a queen like Fu.
At this time, Guo Shao was becoming more and more frightened. If Chai Rong really wanted to kill him, he could just kill him with just one word if he was unhappy. Would he need any other charges? The little actions he had done in Tokyo were also very dangerous, but Chai Rong had no way of knowing that.
He could not help but think of a saying: "To serve the emperor is like serving a tiger." He was very scared and thought: I have to be careful when attacking Shouzhou, because this place is really a den of dragons and tigers.
After the group inspected the area, Chai Rong rode back. Li Chongjin stayed behind, and as the sun was setting, he said to Guo Shao: "I will take you to the camp ahead, and let the generals come to recognize the people. From now on, the deployment of the siege of Shouzhou will be handed over to Guo Dushi."
Guo Shao thanked him and followed his superior Li Chongjin, who mounted his horse and rode forward along the road. Li Chongjin was about thirty years old, of medium build, thin and strong, with an ordinary face with regular features, a straight nose and a small mustache. In Guo Shao's aesthetic view, he looked quite handsome.
Not far away, they suddenly saw a group of soldiers escorting a large group of people coming towards them, at least more than a hundred people. Li Chongjin stopped them and asked, and a general said: These people were eliminated during the reorganization of the imperial army and were sent to the fields to work half-farming and half-fighting. We finally filled a section of the moat and let them build ladders to attack the city, but they turned around and escaped after a while. They were afraid of military law and wanted to flee to the west without permission. I took people to capture them and sent them to the central army to ask for orders for punishment.
Li Chongjin was furious and said: Deserters are all cowards. If the government knows about it, just kill them. There is no need to go to the central army. Just execute them on the spot.
As expected, these tied-up people were not very strong, either they were older or short and weak. An old soldier with gray hair fell to his knees on the road, choking with sobs: I have fought in battles for most of my life and rarely run away, but I have to die in a way that I can. The place is so small, and the Tang soldiers have gathered on it and are ready. Not to mention that I can't attack it, even if I climb to the top of the city, I will be killed by a group of people. I didn't think I could climb up. As soon as I climbed up the ladder, black oil was poured down from above, and a rocket was fired. Life and death are worse than that fierce fire oil. It can't be extinguished by water, and I can only be burned to death.
When Guo Shao heard him speak in a miserable way and saw his weather-beaten appearance, he could tell at a glance that the man had suffered a lot in his life, and now he was going to be beheaded by his own people in humiliation. He immediately felt pity and felt very uncomfortable.
Guo Shao walked forward and saw that a soldier's clothes were still stained with that kind of black oil. He picked up a little with his fingers and smelled it in front of his nose. Isn't this petroleum? No wonder he smelled the smell of exhaust gas in the thick smoke.
He couldn't help but turn around and plead: Li Dushi, can you forgive them this time
Li Chongjin looked embarrassed and snorted coldly: "How can military law be treated as a joke?"
Guo Shaodao: Please give me some face. I will record the crimes of these people. When there is a chance, let them rush to the front. It will be considered that they die a worthy death.
After hearing this, the old soldier and a group of people all knelt on the ground and said: Give us another chance.
Li Chongjin no longer insisted and said: You are the Shouzhou Recruiting Envoy. For your sake, you can deal with these people. However, you cannot deal with Guo Dushi. We are military generals leading troops. How can a woman's kindness help the government? You'd better take care of yourself. Li Chongjin shook his head.
After hearing this, Guo Shao felt frightened.
Chai Rong had already arranged the affairs of Shouzhou and decided to rush to Chuzhou tonight in advance to avoid delaying the battle. He did not think Shouzhou could be captured, but he needed someone to keep putting pressure on Shouzhou City to lure the reinforcements of Southern Tang to come, mainly to fight the reinforcements.
It is obviously not a good job for a general who exerts pressure to attack a city, and it does not require much ability. The only generals who can really make achievements are those who fight in the field to fight reinforcements, and those who attack the weak links of Southern Tang, such as the upcoming attack on Yangzhou.
The assignment to attack Shouzhou fell to Guo Shao. Chai Rong did the job, but then he remembered that Guo Shao had participated in the Battle of Gaoping and the Campaign of Jinyang, and had done a good job in fighting against Hou Shu. He felt a little sorry for him.
As for showing loyalty to the Queen, although Chai Rong felt vaguely unhappy about it, this was also the direct reason why he appointed Guo Shao Shouzhou Recruiting Envoy; but Chai Rong did not care. Fu had already had sex with Li Shouzhen's son countless times and had been a wife, so why did he care about her so much.
It was unlikely that the Queen would have the mind to do anything that was unbecoming and unworthy of her status, and the ministers and generals under her would be even less courageous. It was just because Guo Shao behaved better than himself in front of the Queen in Chenzhou that Chai Rong was a little dissatisfied with Guo Shao, but he did not think he had any improper thoughts.
Letting the queen manage the harem would make Chai Rong less worried, and Chai Rong also felt that he couldn't let her do whatever she wanted, so he placed an eunuch in the Ministry of Internal Affairs to keep an eye on her. It wasn't to keep an eye on Fu, but mainly to monitor other concubines, those who could give birth to him. Chai Rong felt that this was enough, because the concubines would also be jealous and fight for favor, and keep an eye on each other.
If Guo Shao could work diligently in Shouzhou City, Chai Rong would not make things difficult for him; after all, people in the court said that he was very talented in using troops when he attacked Shu. Chai Rong needed such a person and would not abandon him for a little trick. Guo Shao did not do anything to embarrass the emperor. Chai Rong believed that his feelings about him were all personal prejudices. If it was completely based on preference, Chai Rong felt that he disliked Li Chongjin even more.
Chai Rong sometimes speculated that Li Chongjin was the person who could actually threaten his power.
Even Li Chongjin could be reused, and Chai Rong was too lazy to bother with Guo Shao. He had struggled for so many years. In those years, Chai Rong's wives, concubines, children and others were killed, and he might have been humiliated before his death. If he had cared about these things, he would have been angry to death. Besides, Chai Rong grew up in this era and knew that power and force were the most important. The loser would encounter even more unbearable insults, such as Shi Chonggui of the Jin Dynasty.