Chapter 93 A subtle greeting

The world outside is very chaotic, and the situation in Xiangfan is very delicate.

In the past, the information sent by Zhao Jin was relatively brief, and the information sent by Li Ping himself was relatively fragmented. Therefore, Li Ping's grasp of the information was very imperfect and inaccurate.

Because it takes a while to get into the city from the suburbs, there is relatively plenty of time. Although Zhao Jin also thought about what he said along the way, he wanted to be more detailed. It is not for nothing that this old guy is bubbling up at the upper level every day.

, and Zuo Liangyu Group’s attention to information from the north is obviously very high.

Li Ping also understood that Kaifeng was lost but was not occupied by the peasant army.

Kaifeng finally became a hell on earth under Li Zicheng's half-year siege.

The imperial court strictly ordered the surrounding armies to go to the rescue. Even Liu Zeqing from Shandong was transferred, but everyone was half-hearted.

On September 15th, the Yellow River was dug up by someone unknown. Some said it was done by the bandit army, while others said it was done by their own people, fearing that the city would be destroyed and they would be held accountable.

The reason why this incident spread like wildfire is because the bandits were said to have drowned more than 10,000 people and were unable to find a ship to attack the city for many days, which was so unreasonable.

As a result, many people suspected that the officers and soldiers themselves had done it, and many officials brought their complaints to the capital, but they still didn't know how the emperor would resolve it.

Anyway, Kaifeng has become a vast ocean. The floods entered the city, and the water was several feet deep. Countless soldiers and civilians were buried in the belly of the fish. Only 20,000 or 30,000 of the hundreds of thousands of people in the city survived. The entire Kaifeng Prefecture has a population of nearly one million. Official statistics require disaster relief.

The population is not even enough to reach 100,000.

Moreover, the flood not only submerged the city of Kaifeng, but also destroyed all the way, even thousands of miles away in Gushi County. I heard that pedestrians passing through Gushi County saw no one for six days in a row, and only wealthy wolves were everywhere.

At the end of September, the peasant army finally boarded Kaifeng City, but left quickly. Because there was really nothing to rob or occupy, the entire Kaifeng City was underwater and was buried by the massive sediment of the Yellow River.

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Sun Chuanting, the trilateral governor of Shaanxi, received the news relatively late. Under the strict orders of the imperial court, he led less than 20,000 Qin troops out of Tongguan and entered Henan at the beginning of this month (October). He heard that Kaifeng was flooded and then turned to Nanyang. It is said that a few days ago

They took the initiative to attack Li Zicheng's troops who came to fight.

According to the latest news just received, Sun Chuanting's troops have been completely defeated by Li Zicheng and Luo Rucai in Jiaxian County, Henan Province, and Sun Chuanting has led his remaining troops back to Shaanxi.

Li Zicheng's troops are currently attacking Nanyang, and it is estimated that Nanyang will be lost soon. Now some of Zuo Liangyu's troops are mobilizing north to cope with the worst situation.

However, according to analysis, Li Zicheng's troops will not go south immediately for a while, because the terrain from Nanyang to Xiangyang is very unfavorable to the attackers, and supplies are even more difficult. If they lose, they will easily be shut down and beaten.

Therefore, Li Zicheng's choice may not be big, and they should still have some time.

It is said that regarding the situation in the north, Zuo Liangyu sighed many times and said: "I had known this, why bother!".

This word has spread, and now the generals of all the armies, big and small, are praising the general for his wisdom and foresight, and for not sending them to die in vain.

Also, according to reliable information, our former boss, Governor Yang Wenyue, is currently recuperating in Runing (most of today's Zhumadian area). It is not clear whether his old superior Zhao Qian is still with him.

Currently, Zuo Liangyu is stepping up his efforts to build ships and has gathered all the completed ships in Fancheng. The various ministries are further increasing their raids on the local area, and most of the looted materials and women have also been piled in.

Fancheng.

This may be due to the fact that all official institutions such as the government and the royal palace, the princes and nobles are basically in Xiangyang City, and there are no nobles in Fan City. No matter how bastard Zuo Liangyu is, he will always avoid taboos.

However, Zuo Liangyu's plunder has already led to a lot of slander against him in the official circles, deep resentment, and extremely serious confrontation between the officers and soldiers and the people. Attacks on lone officers and soldiers continued to occur, and almost no officers and soldiers outside the city dared to be alone.

After walking, even small groups of troops did not dare to run around outside the city at night.

Therefore, Zuo Liangyu moved his tent to Fancheng a few days ago on the grounds of urgent military situation. He probably did not want to be bothered by those civil servants and nobles, so he only left his son Zuo Mengeng to take charge in Xiangyang City.

As for the affairs in the court, it was a mess. Zuo Liangyu's bunch of stupid soldiers couldn't understand it at all and knew very little about it. Zhao Jin also listened in confusion.

No matter what, the right way is for them to step up training of their troops and prepare to run away.

However, their current situation is nothing to worry about. Zuo Menggeng is still more willing to take Zhao Jin or even Shi Ming with him when going out now, which shows that after what happened last time, Zuo Menggeng is still more interested in introducing new loyal forces.

They had ideas, so the supplies provided by Zhao Jin and others were pretty good.

Of course, this also involves the composition of Zuo Liangyu's troops.

At present, Zuo Liangyu's army mainly consists of three forces.

One is the troops that have rapidly expanded from their original remaining strength, such as Wang Yuncheng, Li Guoying, etc. The troops of Zhao Jin and Li Ping have also been included in this category;

The second is the rapidly expanding troops from other ministries and troops temporarily under his control, such as Fang Guoan's troops;

The third is the surrender of troops and generals, bandit armed forces and their expanded troops, such as Jin Shenghuan, Ma Jinzhong, etc.

Zhao Jin has keenly discovered that Zuo Liangyu's core troops are actually very few, and Zuo Liangyu himself also has many subtle thoughts about these three forces.

Why do you say that?

Judging from the situation Zhao Jin knows, Zuo Liangyu's original elite replacement soldiers and old base have indeed been almost completely lost in Zhuxian Town. There are really no clean elite soldiers in his hands. Now he can fight almost

They were all surrendered soldiers and generals, like Jin Shenghuan.

This is also one of the reasons why Jin Shenghuan was rushed to the rescue after Zuo Menggeng's daughter-in-law was attacked, and it also shows that Zuo Liangyu has no generals available.

Zhao Jin was promoted to guerrilla by Yuege at the beginning, and then he was promoted to general, and Li Ping was also promoted to guerrilla. This speed of promotion is actually not normal, but it only proves that Zuo Liangyu seriously lacks reliable generals and is eager to expand his own army.

Basic disk.

And Zuo Liangyu handed over all the remaining and expanded troops to his son Zuo Menggeng to control and command, which in itself further illustrates his attitude. It is not easy for Zhao Jin and Li Ping to take the lead so quickly.

Also, Zuo Liangyu seems to be very trusting and generous in surrendering soldiers and generals, but he also has a lot of Xiao Jiujiu in his heart.

An obvious situation that everyone knows is that all the armed forces who surrendered their troops and generals were deployed outside the city, and only troops with authentic official and military backgrounds were allowed to be stationed in Xiangyang and Fancheng.

In addition, those currently supervising the construction of ships outside the city are all miscellaneous armed forces, while those guarding the completed ships are all Zuo Mengeng's troops.

Although non-direct official and military units such as Fang Guoan, who were temporarily under Zuo Liangyu's control, could be stationed in the city, only a small number were allowed, and their supplies were not so smooth, at least not as good as those of Zhao Jin.

of.

This is why they robbed so fiercely and tried their best to curry favor with Zuo Liangyu.

The above are the main reasons why Zhao Jin was able to gain a foothold with Zuo Mengeng. As for the soap, it was just the icing on the cake. Such vulgar items could not catch the eye of a general like Zuo Liangyu.

As for Li Ping, I haven't heard anyone talk about him now, and it seems that everyone has forgotten about him on purpose. This is understandable, after all, no one can afford to expose Fang Guoan's scars, and Fang Guoan is also a general soldier after all.

After listening to Zhao Jin's brief introduction, Li Ping suddenly became enlightened, and more doubts began to be solved. Otherwise, in an era of frequent wars, Zhao Jin and Li Ping's achievements were really not that big of a deal, at least compared to what they had achieved.

are not proportional.

…

When he went to the deputy commander's house to meet the superior officer, Li Ping didn't bring any gifts. He just put on a Ming iron helmet and black cotton armor to show that he was ready for call at any time.

With Zhao Jin taking him along, Li Ping's visit to Zuo Mengeng again went very smoothly. This time Zuo Mengeng did not meet him in front of the generals waiting outside, but met him alone in the central hall.

Li Ping's time to listen to the instructions was not long, but not short either.

Although Zuo Mengeng was very polite and did not put on any airs, he was not very enthusiastic, at least not as enthusiastic as when he came to say thank you before.

Although Li Ping felt a little weird in his heart, he couldn't help but keep in mind. He never forgot to maintain a restrained and humble attitude, and never mentioned his role as a guard. He talked about Zuo Menggeng's generous treatment and his sincerity and fear as planned.

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Regarding Li Ping's cautiousness, Zuo Mengeng just told him twice that he should not be nervous and just relax, but he could also gradually see a bit of joy showing up, and gradually started chatting.

model.

Li Ping felt relieved a little from his uneasiness.

During the chat, Zuo Mengeng not only cared about whether Li Ping's injuries were fully recovered and said a lot of words of encouragement, but also discussed women with Li Ping.

Although Li Ping was a little strange, he was someone who had experienced it after all, so he could handle it easily.

Finally, Zuo Mengeng expressed that the current situation is unstable and he needs loyal people like Li Ping. Therefore, Li Ping's top priority now is to start a training camp team after he recovers from his injury. There is no need to come to his place to take orders on weekdays.

If necessary, he will send someone to give him orders.

Li Ping hurriedly expressed his position, stating that he was not afraid of hard work and was determined to serve the deputy commander eagerly. But Zuo Menggen just smiled and expressed his opinion again, and Li Ping could no longer persist.

After leaving the inner courtyard of the main hall, you can see many generals wearing various armors gathered in the outer courtyard, among whom Zhao Jin is chatting and joking with others.

Only this time, Zhao Jin did not come up to him again. Instead, he turned around and glanced at Li Ping, then continued to joke with the people beside him. Many people around him also looked at Li Ping, but no one said anything.

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So, Li Ping walked out of the deputy commander's residence without stopping.

Riding on the horse, Li Ping didn't speak for a long time. He was silent all the way and thought about his thoughts. The purpose of coming to the city this time was obviously not achieved. Zuo Mengeng was a little weird today. He needed to make a good calculation with Zhao Jin.

He felt that he would have to do it again tomorrow and it didn't seem right to just go back like this.

Just as he was thinking about it, a large group of Ming soldiers without armor came from the opposite side. Looking at the leggings they were wearing, Li Ping suddenly realized that all the ordinary soldiers he saw in the city today seemed to be wearing leggings.

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Note:

Regarding Zuo Liangyu's military deployment and troop command structure when he was in Xiangyang, no detailed information has been found, so we can only make speculations. In the later period, where the butterfly effect has not yet affected various places, we can only make simple speculations due to incomplete information.

, if there is any discrepancy with history, no special explanation will be given.
Chapter completed!