xymnovel Chapter 11 Silver Spear's Loyalty to Wei Bobing
Chapter 11 Silver Spear's Loyalty to Wei Bobing
In the afternoon, two children approached Gao Xingzhou and asked him to teach them marksmanship. After practicing, they pestered their father to tell them the rest of yesterday's story.
"Where should I begin..."
Gao Xingzhou recalls the past.
After a fierce battle, the Guangbian army subdued Yuan Xingqin. Li Siyuan then recommended Gao Xinggui to be the prefect of Daizhou, leaving Gao Xingzhou by his side. Gao Xingzhou and Li Congke each led their own troops and followed the army in various campaigns. (Note 1)
The guards, these incredibly powerful and unruly fellows, were only subdued thanks to Gao Xingzhou's renowned bravery and undeniable strength in his great battle against Yuan Xingqin.
I remember that year was the tenth year of the Tianyou era of the Tang Dynasty. Li Cunxu, with Zhou Dewei as his chief general, pacified Youyan in December of that year and captured Liu Rengong and his son Liu Shouguang.
The following spring, Li Cunxu first executed Liu Shouguang, and then escorted Liu Rengong, who had been under house arrest for many years, to Daizhou, where he offered his heart's blood as a sacrifice at Li Keyong's tomb, before beheading him as a ritual offering.
On his deathbed, Li Keyong left behind a vow with three arrows: "One arrow to punish Liu Rengong, for without you taking Youzhou first, Henan could not be conquered; one arrow to strike the Khitan, for Anbajian and I swore an oath of brotherhood, vowing to restore the Tang dynasty, but now he has broken his promise and sided with the enemy, you must punish him; one arrow to destroy Zhu Wen, if you can fulfill my will, I will die without regret!"
Anbajian is a homonym of Yelü Abaoji.
Li Cunxu hid three arrows in the temple courtyard. When he raised an army to attack Youyan, he ordered his staff to offer a small sacrifice of sheep and pig to the temple and request one arrow, which he placed in a brocade bag. He then personally carried the arrow on his back as the vanguard. On the day of his triumphant return, he placed the arrow in the ancestral temple, thus fulfilling a wish of his late king.
Since the Khitan were not to be attacked for the time being, Li Cunxu formed an alliance with Prince Rong of Zhenzhou and Prince Chuzhi of Dingzhou to jointly resist the powerful Liang Kingdom.
The story of the struggle for supremacy between Jin and Liang was what Er Tong loved to hear most since he was a child.
Gao Xingzhou meticulously analyzes and deduces the behind-the-scenes decisions, turning points, and key factors in the victory or defeat of the campaign. As a firsthand witness, he recounts many little-known details, subtly imparting his wisdom on military strategy.
……
In the twelfth year of the Tianyou era of the Tang Dynasty, the first year of the Zhenming era of the Liang Dynasty, two years had passed since the Battle of Youzhou.
At this time, Zhu Wen, the founding emperor of the Liang Kingdom, had been murdered by his son Zhu Yougui. Of the three towns in Hebei, Lulong had been pacified and Chengde had sided with Li Cunxu. As a solid stronghold of the Liang Kingdom in Hebei, Weibo became the next target of the Jin army's conquest.
The Emperor of Chang'an, and the military officers of Weibo.
Over a period of 150 years, there were 18 regional governors, who were either deposed or installed, each accounting for half of the total.
Military governor Luo Shaowei, fearing the power of the military garrison, colluded with Zhu Wen to cut bowstrings, remove armor straps, and execute over a thousand people lodging in the garrison city. Eight thousand families were exterminated, leaving the city virtually empty. The military garrison of Weibo suffered a severe blow.
Afterwards, Yang Shihou, the military governor appointed by Zhu Wen, reorganized his personal guards and established the 8,000 Silver Spear Elite Army. The power of Weibo was restored, and it repelled the Jin army several times.
After Yang Shihou's death, the Liang ruler Zhu Youzhen planned to split the Weibo army into two garrisons, Wei and Xiang, and to establish another garrison by taking over the three prefectures of Xiang, Wei, and Chan.
To prevent the Weibo army from rebelling, Zhu Youzhen dispatched Liu Xun, the Prefect of Kaifeng, with an army of 60,000 to take the route through Weizhou and garrison at Nanle. The pretext was to attack Zhen and Ding prefectures, but in reality, it was to threaten and suppress them.
He then ordered Wang Yanzhang, the prefect of Chanzhou and commander of the vanguard infantry, to lead 500 Longxiang cavalrymen into Weizhou and garrison at Jinbo Pavilion.
When Gao Xingzhou mentioned the names Liu Xun and Wang Yanzhang, his expression remained unchanged, but his heart stirred slightly—he had complicated relationships with these two men, and some things were even more difficult to explain.
Upon hearing that Wang Yanzhang had appeared, the very man who had killed the old man, the two children immediately perked up their ears. They didn't seem to care much about who Liu Xun was.
"Liu Xun was a famous general of the Liang Kingdom, known for his cunning strategies in every step of his military campaigns."
Gao Xingzhou briefly introduced the background of this strategist: "He originally served under Wang Shifan, the military governor of Pinglu Army in Qingzhou, and was an enemy of Zhu Wen."
Back then, while Zhu Wen's elite army was besieging Li Maozhen in Fengxiang in Guanzhong and the troops in various prefectures were weak, Wang Shifan boldly planned to order his generals to disguise themselves as merchants and launch uprisings simultaneously in dozens of prefectures under Zhu Wen's control, including Bian, Xu, Yan, Yun, Qi, Yi, Meng, Hua, Henan, Hezhong, Shan, Guo, and Hua.
The strategy is extremely grand and ambitious; once it succeeds, the world will change.
However, the news leaked out, and all the armies were defeated. Only Liu Xun, who was then serving as the military commander, successfully captured Yanzhou with a light cavalry raid.
Zhu Wen sent his general Ge Congzhou back to besiege Yanzhou again. Liu Xun resisted until his lord Wang Shifan surrendered, at which point he opened the city gates to obey orders.
Zhu Wen admired his integrity and thought he had the style of Li Yinggong (Li Ji) in the early Tang Dynasty, and appointed him as the chief yaman of the Yuan Cong.
All the generals under his command were former retainers of Zhu Wen's four garrisons. Liu Xun, a former official who had been away from home, suddenly rose to the top of the group and was deeply trusted and relied upon.
Liu Xun lived up to expectations and repeatedly achieved great merit. With him leading a large army to suppress the situation, Zhu Youzhen believed that even if the Weibo army had any disloyal intentions, there would be no major problems.
Fifty li outside the city was Liu Xun's army. With the Iron Spear General Wang Yanzhang in the prefecture, the military governor He Delun felt emboldened and, by imperial decree, transferred half of the Weizhou army to Xiangzhou, relocating them along with their families.
Forced to march, the troops and their families bid farewell, and cries filled the streets.
The Weibo army, which has always been rebellious, refused to accept the punishment. Once they were moved to another prefecture, separated from their relatives and clans, they felt that life was worse than death. So they raised an army to rebel, setting fires and looting, and first attacked the Longxiang army.
Wang Yanzhang was suddenly attacked, but he relied on his personal martial prowess to break through the encirclement and escape.
He Delun's five hundred personal guards were all killed and imprisoned upstairs as puppets. The Weibo army refused the Liang ruler's offer of amnesty and forced He Delun to send tribute to Taiyuan, surrender to Jin, and beg for military assistance.
Taking advantage of this opportunity, Li Cunxu advanced eastward from Jinyang and ordered Li Cunshen, the deputy commander of the cavalry and infantry, to march south from Zhao Prefecture, so that the two armies would meet at Linqing.
Li Cunshen was also one of the Thirteen Protectors of Li Keyong's Adopted Son Army. His original surname was Fu, and he was the father of Fu Yanqing. He and Li Siyuan were both known as veteran generals in the army.
Initially, Li Cunxu suspected that this was a trick by the Wei people and held back his troops.
He Delun, who was under house arrest, sent his envoy to the army to secretly report the riotous behavior of the soldiers and request that the Weibo soldiers be executed, saying that if this scourge was not eliminated, he feared he would regret it.
Li Cunxu then marched into Yongji. Zhang Yan, the leader of the mutinous troops, accompanied him with five hundred soldiers of the Xiaojie Army, all of whom were armored and armed for self-defense.
Li Cunxu ascended the tower to deliver a proclamation, directly questioning the guilty parties: "You have indiscriminately killed civilians and seized their wives and daughters in the city. In recent days, many have come to plead your case. You shall be executed to appease the people of Ye."
He then read out the names one by one and ordered the execution of Zhang Yan and seven of his accomplices, leaving the rest unpunished.
Those fierce and unruly men were not about to surrender and came fully armored, precisely to guard against Li Cunxu turning against them. Although surrounded on all sides, if the five hundred men fought back, the Jin army would suffer heavy casualties.
"Commander of the Guards, Xia Luqi of Qingzhou, is here! I alone can capture you all. Do you dare to fight me?"
Just as the tension was about to escalate, a fierce general, with a voice like thunder, stepped forward, pushing aside his soldiers. He stood firm, his two-man spears planted on the ground, as imposing as Mount Tai. What a magnificent Shandong man!
Zhang Yan and the other seven people whose names were called exchanged glances, their faces contorted in rage.
They looked at their hundreds of colleagues, hoping that if Li Cunxu sent a large force to surround and kill them, they could incite a mass uprising. But since the enemy had only sent one general, many were adopting a wait-and-see attitude.
Having fallen into a trap, their only hope is to survive. Zhang Yan encouraged his comrades, saying, "We even beat Wang Yanzhang so badly that he fled in disarray. What chance do we have against Xia Luqi?"
"Kill him, and we'll have a chance to survive!"
The soldiers of Weibo were all fierce and brave. The fact that Zhang Yan and the other six were selected by Yang Shihou to join the Silver Spear Loyal Army and become leaders of the rebels shows that their martial prowess should not be underestimated. Their fierce and arrogant nature, which was like sucking blood from a knife's edge, was ingrained in their bones.
The seven men formed a crescent shape and slowly approached from three sides, intending to use a combined attack to deal with Xia Luqi.
Zhang Yan's scars flushed red as he suddenly shouted, "Go!"
He led the charge and threw himself into the fray. Nobody's a fool; it's better to rely on yourself than to expect others to risk their lives.
Zhang Yan was tall and muscular, not much smaller than Xia Luqi, and with his iron armor, he weighed at least 200 pounds.
A large spear swept in with a strong wind. Zhang Yan tried his best to parry, but he felt an immense force that he could not resist. The spear whipped his armor plates, and he spun around like a top for half a turn before collapsing to the ground, spitting out blood.
Xia Luqi followed the gun forward, transforming into a whirlwind, and with the remaining force swept an enemy on the flank into a rolling gourd.
The Northern Overlord Six Harmony Spear is so powerful that both its tip and shaft can injure the enemy, making it truly domineering!
The six harmonies are hands, feet, eyes, heart, courage, and spirit. The heart is Zhao Yun's upright heart, the courage is Jiang Wei's daring, and the mighty spirit of Xiang Yu, the Hegemon-King, is combined with the inner and outer strength, hence the name.
The remaining five rushed into the circle, three spears aimed at the throat and ribs from the left, center, and right, a long knife slashing at the ankles along the ground, and a spear that moved erratically, trying to distract the opponent and wait for an opportunity to strike.
Xia Luqi neither dodged nor evaded. He used the Iron Ox to plow the ground, blocking the blade's momentum, and raised his spear, lifting himself into the air to block the three spears.
The man was stabbed by three spears. Before he could even scream in pain, several muffled thuds were heard. It was the sound of his companion's head being smashed.
The One-Word Spear Smash! A unique move of the Northern Overlord Six Harmony Spear, it involves grabbing the enemy's head and smashing them with the force of a chop.
As the gunman closed in on Xia Luqi, he discovered that six of the seven men were gone, leaving only himself. Gritting his teeth and steeling his resolve, he knew that no matter how skilled the marksman, close combat was ineffective. He was going to fight!
puff.
At some point, Xia Luqi switched to holding the gun in one hand, drew his sword, and stabbed him to death.
In a short while, Zhang Yan and the other seven were dead or wounded in disarray, and the five hundred silver-spear soldiers trembled with fear, their eyes filled with awe as they looked at Xia Luqi.
Li Cunxu ordered the seven half-dead men to be beheaded as a signal, and personally comforted the remaining men.
The following day, the Prince of Jin, wearing a light fur coat and looking calm, still ordered the soldiers of Weibo to wear armor and carry weapons, and to follow him on horseback. The soldiers were greatly impressed and renamed him the Silver Spear Commander in Front of the Tent.
The Jin army then attacked and captured Beizhou. Wang Yanzhang, the Iron Spear King, was also afraid and abandoned the city, fleeing with his wife and children captured.
Is Charucci really that amazing?
The two children had witnessed their father's elite soldiers, all selected for their physique, courage, combat skills, and experience. They figured the renowned Wei Bo soldiers would be no less formidable. It was hard to believe that Xia Luqi could so easily defeat seven men in a single battle.
"It's a piece of cake."
Gao Xingzhou did not answer his son's question and continued talking.
Li Cunxu then led over a thousand cavalrymen to Weizhou, accompanied by only a hundred or so guards, to scout the Liang army's camp.
Unexpectedly, Liu Xun had already dispatched 5,000 elite troops to ambush Li Cunxu in the reeds and bushes of the river bend. When Li Cunxu entered the ambush, the Liang army rose up in a great commotion and surrounded him in multiple layers.
"That was Charucci's claim to fame."
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Place Name Comparison
Nanle: present-day Nanle County, Puyang City, Henan Province
Linqing: present-day Linxi County, Xingtai City, Hebei Province
Yongji: Now Jiucheng Village in the northwest of Qinghe County, Xingtai City, Hebei Province, named after the Yongji Canal, not Yongji in Yuncheng City, Shanxi Province.