Final Volume Chapter 84
Chapter 84 of the final volume
Xiao Xiang retired hundreds of thousands of family soldiers under the command of the twelve princes and used them all as labor to dig canals. It can be said that she killed two birds with one stone, eliminating the hidden dangers of Chuan State and solving her own worries, while also benefiting the people in the south of Chuan State. Piaotian Literature
On the third day after Xiao Xiang completely disbanded her family army, the ministers of Chuan State began to persuade Xiao Xiang to ascend the throne with great fanfare.
Xiao Xiang now has a firm grasp of the military and political power of Chuan State, and she herself has the intention to inherit the throne. The persuasion of the ministers is actually just a formality.
Of course, Xiao Xiang is also unavoidable. The ministers persuaded her to ascend the throne three times, and she declined three times. It was not until the fourth time that Xiao Xiang "reluctantly" accepted it.
So far, the new monarch of Chuan State was officially born. What is rare is that Xiao Xiang also became the first female monarch in the history of Chuan State.
After Xiao Xiang ascended the throne, the first thing she did was to eliminate the potential threat to her from the royal family.
She conferred the title of marquis to all of Xiao Yuan, Xiao Yu, Xiao Peng and other brothers and sisters. On the surface, she seemed to be very kind and righteous. She did not kill her brothers and sisters indiscriminately, and conferred them all the titles of marquis. But in fact, she did not give them half an inch of fiefdom, nor did she let them master any substantial rights, and she also strictly prohibited them from leaving the capital. The titles of marquis of these princes and princesses became completely empty titles. On the contrary, she was placed under house arrest in the capital by Xiao Xiang, and lived completely under the control of others.
After Xiao Xuan died of illness, the vigorous struggle for the throne of Chuan State came to an end. Xiao Xiang stood out among many brothers and sisters. This was certainly related to her own extraordinary ability, but also luck and coincidence.
After Xiao Xiang dealt with various hidden dangers inside and outside the court, she turned her hands to deal with the rebellion in Zhendi.
After being delayed for so long, the situation of the rebellion in Zhendi is now very different from before.
Since Li Shu received secret funding from Feng State, he has been able to obtain sufficient military equipment and money and food, and his strength has expanded rapidly. In a short period of time, his military strength has increased to more than 200,000.
At this time, Li Shu's self-confidence has also expanded unprecedentedly. He is no longer satisfied with the competition for a city or a county, and his spearhead has begun to point directly at the three counties of Jinggu, Fantiao, and Bainan in Zhenxi.
Li Shu had long ago set up a strategic concept of taking Zhenxi as the foundation, and then gradually expanding eastward, and finally completing the recovery of the entire Zhendi. However, these three counties are stationed with a large number of Sichuan Central Army, including the 9th, 11th, 16th, and 17th Corps of Sichuan, with a total force of more than 400,000.
If you want to defeat the more than 400,000 Sichuan Central Army with more than 200,000 troops, even the Zhen people will find it difficult to do so. However, Li Shu has such determination and courage. He led his rebels to attack Bainan County first.
The 17th Corps of Sichuan State was stationed in Bainan County. Among the four corps in Zhenxi, the 17th Corps had the least troops, just 100,000 people, and the weakest combat power. The commander was not a very famous general, a lieutenant general named Dong Bo, who was unknown.
In addition, what Li Shu despised most about the 17th Corps was that it had no defensive center in Bainan County, and its troops were all scattered in various counties and towns. It was easy for the rebels to defeat them one by one.
For these reasons, Li Shu took the lead in attacking Bainan County and launched a head-on confrontation with the 17th Corps of Sichuan State.
The rebels in the central part of Zhendi actually fled to Zhenxi and took the initiative to attack Bainan County. This was indeed something that the Sichuan Army never expected. At the beginning of the war, the rebels led by Li Shu were unstoppable and drove straight into the hinterland of Bainan County.
Although the 17th Corps and the defenders of Bainan County had a desperate resistance, they were eventually forced to withdraw from their garrisons because of too few troops and being outnumbered.
In just half a month, the rebels fought from the easternmost part of Bainan County to the westernmost part of Bainan County. Going further west, they had already left Zhendi and entered the foreign country bordering Zhendi - Chiyue.
After opening up the border, Li Shu immediately sent envoys to Chiyue to meet with the king of Chiyue, Xu Yiman, and asked him to send troops to reinforce.
In those days, Zhen State was constantly fighting with foreign countries in the west. Chiyue was one of the many enemy countries of Zhen State. However, in the subsequent battles, the Chiyue army that invaded Zhen State was defeated by the Zhen army. The Zhen army took advantage of the victory and pursued, and entered the territory of Chiyue in one fell swoop. They burned, killed and looted all the way from the border, and directly attacked the capital of Chiyue. Finally, they forced the king of Chiyue to hand in a letter of surrender and a table of submission, and surrendered to Zhen State. After Chiyue surrendered, Zhen's army withdrew to their own country without occupying any city or town in Chiyue. First, the place was too small, and the ambitious Zhen Kingdom at that time did not take it seriously. Second, although Zhen Kingdom was considered a barbaric country in the eyes of other principalities, similar to the barbarians of foreign countries, Zhen Kingdom itself had a high opinion of itself and disdained to occupy such an uncivilized barbarian land as Chiyue.
Chiyue was very grateful for Zhen Kingdom's "magnanimity" and became friends with Zhen Kingdom. Moreover, Chiyue was really scared by Zhen people, and was afraid of Zhen people from the bottom of his heart, and also respected Zhen people.
Later, Zhen Kingdom was destroyed, and Chiyue, which had always been peaceful, began to make trouble again, and sent troops to invade the border from time to time. Chuan Kingdom had no choice but to station a legion in Bainan County, which bordered Chiyue, to guard the border.
Although Zhen was annexed by Chuan, the Chiyue people were not afraid of Chuan, and had no respect for them. However, when Li Shu, a rebel, sent envoys to Chiyue, he was treated as a distinguished guest by the Chiyue people and treated as a state guest. The king of Chiyue also personally received the rebel envoys. Hearing that Li Shu, a descendant of the royal family of the former Zhen, wanted to recover Zhen and rescue Chiyue, Xu Yiman made a promise on the spot that he was willing to send 30,000 elite soldiers to assist Li Shu. As long as Bainan County was under the jurisdiction of Li Shu, Chiyue would never offend in the future.
The successful borrowing of 30,000 elite soldiers from Chiyue greatly improved Li Shu's strength. Afterwards, the rebels swept the Chuan army all over Bainan County, directly driving the 17th Corps of Chuan out of Bainan County and* fleeing to Fantiao County.
The conquest of Bainan County in one fell swoop inspired the rebels, and the local Zhen people came to surrender one after another. For a time, the rebels were in full swing. Li Shu, who was fighting smoothly, was more confident and began to prepare for the attack on Fantiao County.
The rebels were not all Zhen people, but also Feng people. According to the agreement between Tang Yin and Li Shu, Feng State had military supervisors in the rebels. The most important military supervisor was Tao Yuanfeng, who started his career with the military order of Feng State. Although he was young, only in his early thirties, he had participated in too many battles. He had followed Tang Yin since the battle against Ning, and could be regarded as a "veteran" who had experienced hundreds of battles. After so many years, Tao Yuanfeng had grown from an unknown person to a dignified lieutenant general.
When Li Shu attacked Bainan County, Tao Yuanfeng supported him, but now that Li Shu wanted to attack Fantiao County, Tao Yuanfeng opposed it.
Fantiao County was the county with the largest number of garrisons among the three counties in Zhenxi. There were originally two legions stationed there. Now the remnants of the Seventeenth Legion have fled to Fantiao County, where the strength is equivalent to three legions.
The rebels defeated the 17th Corps in Bainan County, but in the battles, the casualties of the 17th Corps rarely exceeded a thousand people. After seeing that they were defeated, their soldiers immediately chose to retreat. Therefore, in so many defeats, the main force of the 17th Corps was not injured, and the number of troops was still as high as 80,000 to 90,000. Now, the 9th, 11th, and 17th Corps of Sichuan State gathered in Fantiao County. It would be extremely difficult for the rebels to win if they attacked Fantiao County again.
Tao Yuanfeng's opinion was that they should bypass Fantiao County and first take Jinggu County where the 16th Corps was stationed. After taking Jinggu County, they could send troops from Bainan and Jinggu counties at the same time, attacking Fantiao County from the south and north, and disperse the Sichuan troops in Fantiao County to the maximum extent.
Li Shu still attached great importance to Tao Yuanfeng's suggestions and listened to them carefully, but in the end he thought that he was overthinking. His side was now in a winning position and had great momentum, while the Sichuan Army was now in a losing position and had low morale. Even though the Sichuan Army in Fantiao County had a large number of troops, they were not to be feared.
Li Shu did not adopt Tao Yuanfeng's tactics, but insisted on his own opinion and resolutely launched a full-scale attack on Fantiao County.
However, in this battle, the rebels encountered huge resistance at the beginning of the attack. The Sichuan Army in Fantiao County fought desperately and launched a bloody battle with the rebels.
In the battle of Fantiao County, the two sides fought extremely fiercely, and it was really to the point of every inch of land and every inch of blood. The rebels were pressing forward step by step, while the Sichuan Army refused to give up an inch of land. Both sides invested heavily in the fight for every city and even every village.
After a month of this battle, the rebels had only advanced more than a hundred miles in Fantiao County.
At this time, the rebels were already showing signs of weakness, and the continuous offensive battles also made the rebels feel very headache. Coincidentally, at this critical moment when they were in a dilemma, the Sichuan Army had the intention of fighting a head-on decisive battle. The entire Ninth Corps of Sichuan, half of the Eleventh Corps, and half of the Seventeenth Corps, totaling 200,000 troops, all gathered in Wangxi Plain in Fantiao County. Upon hearing the news, Li Shu thought that the opportunity for war had come, and immediately ordered to recall the troops from all directions, gather them together, and rush to Wangxi Plain to fight a decisive battle with the main force of the Sichuan Army.
The Sichuan Army arrived early and was waiting for the rebels to tire themselves out there, while the rebels came from a long journey and after a series of battles, the whole army was exhausted physically and mentally. It can be said that the rebels had already lost three points before the battle started.
Li Shu didn't care about this. In his opinion, the forces of both sides were equal, and this alone was enough. Under the condition of equal forces, he was confident that no army in the world could defeat the Zhen Army head-on.
In this battle, both sides put all their main forces into it, with about 200,000 troops on both sides. This was also the largest-scale battle since the Zhendi rebels started the rebellion. Even the unknown Wangxi Plain in Fantiao County became famous because of this battle.
When the battle between the two sides officially started, Wangxi Plain became a veritable meat grinder. The tit-for-tat battle between the two legions turned the entire plain into a hell on earth.
In the battle, the soldiers of a corps seemed so insignificant. When they were thrown into the battlefield, they were like a stone sinking into the sea. After one or several hours, the soldiers carried down were either corpses or seriously injured soldiers with missing limbs.