Chapter 417: Phoenix Sings in Yanyun, Zhou Kingdom Is Rising

Khitan Liao Shangjingcheng.

The Liao army has completed its assembly, and the vanguard has set off.

At the same time, the great monk Benyuan also began to go with the army. When the Khitan army went on an expedition, there were often monks accompanying the army. These monks came to appease the soldiers. The Khitans believed in Buddhism, and having monks accompanying the army could give them psychological comfort and stabilize the morale of the army.

Guo Rong led the army to attack. The Sixteen States of Yanyun were originally Han territory, and there were many grievances with the Khitan before. Although they occupied the Sixteen States of Yanyun, their rule was not stable.

In order to control this place, many powerful people in the Sixteen States of Yanyun were asked to send hostages. At the same time, many troops were stationed, and these Khitan garrisons usually oppressed the local people.

In the past, the Khitans were powerful, and although these people had resentment in their hearts, they did not dare to resist. But now, the Central Plains army is close at hand, and any man with blood still wants to take revenge.

At the same time, the Khitan army also found something strange, so the Khitans were on guard against it, forbidding the Han people in the city to gather, forcibly confiscating their weapons, and sent people to guard them. For a time, undercurrents surged in the city.

Guo Rong's army soon arrived here. At this time, the Great Zhou Imperial Army had won consecutive battles and their morale was high. Guo Rong was also a good fighter, and the Han people in the Sixteen Prefectures of Yanyun contacted each other.

The Northern Expedition Army can be said to be unstoppable. In April, the Northern Expedition Army took Cangzhou to the north, and tens of thousands of infantry and cavalry drove straight into Ningzhou. When it arrived in Ningzhou, Ningzhou Governor Wang Hong directly opened the city and surrendered.

Then the entire Sixteen Prefectures of Yanyun were like dominoes. Wherever the army went, they opened the city and surrendered.

When the army arrived at Yijin Pass, the defender Zhong Tinghui opened the city and surrendered. When it arrived at Waqiao Pass, the defender Yao Neibin surrendered, and the governor of Mozhou County Liu Chuxin surrendered the state. The army marched north all the way, and wherever they passed, they surrendered.

In May, Yingzhou Governor Gao Yanhui surrendered the city, Yiwu Jiedushi Sun Xingyou conquered Yizhou and captured Yizhou Governor Li Zaiqin. In the same month, the vanguard commander Zhang Cangying defeated hundreds of Liao cavalry at Waqiao Pass and captured Gu'an County.

Only one and a half months after the army went out, Guo Rong recovered three passes and three states, and the Northern Expedition was booming.

"Sir, the army is unstoppable, and the enemy surrendered at the sight of the wind. This time we will definitely be able to recover the Sixteen States of Yanyun in one battle!" Guo Rong said excitedly in the tent.

Richard's face did not relax at all. During this period of time, he has been paying attention to Guo Rong's health, but Guo Rong's body has always been very strong and has not had any diseases.

In addition, in order to prevent him from getting sick, Richard made strict requirements for the army camp. All the water used was dug from wells, and then boiled before drinking.

There are strict regulations for everyone to eat and drink, and the whole camp is in order.

Because Richard personally took action this time, few people in the army went out to fight and there was no acclimatization.

This made the generals who had originally complained about Richard convinced by this situation.

After the army arrived here, the Khitan army finally arrived. After a small battle that afternoon, the Khitans retreated. So Guo Rong summoned all the generals to discuss the capture of Youzhou.

But what surprised Guo Rong was that he thought that the situation of the generals working together to fight the Northern Expedition had changed, and many generals were unwilling to continue the attack.

Richard watched coldly from the side. Guo Rong's face was still calm, but he was very angry in his heart. He thought that he had given these arrogant soldiers money and they were satisfied. Now it seems that he is still too naive.

The emperor of Chang'an and the soldiers of Wei Bo are indeed like this. The soldiers in the Five Dynasties and Ten Kingdoms period were arrogant and domineering to the extreme.

The governors of each town looked at the scenery, but if they could not satisfy the soldiers below, they would kill them. Now these soldiers just paraded around armed and occupied a lot of territory, and they began to ask for rewards.

Guo Rong didn't seem to have changed on the surface. He personally comforted the soldiers and sent a large number of copper coins and cloth. In ancient China, cloth could be used directly as currency for a long time.

This is because there was often a shortage of money in ancient times. In ancient times, copper coins were never enough, because those noble families, powerful people, and wealthy families liked to store copper coins in cellars.

In addition, many dignitaries would be buried with a large number of copper coins after their death. The foreign countries around China would use the copper coins of the Chinese Dynasty because of their poor casting technology or inability to cast coins. In addition, some people would melt copper coins to make various copperware and many other reasons. Ancient copper coins were basically not enough.

Guo Rong recast a large number of copper coins this time because of the rectification of Buddhism, which gave him the power to march north.

With the reward of a large number of copper coins and cloth, the soldiers who were clamoring to go back settled down.

Guo Rong was very clear about the nature of these soldiers. At this time, part of the imperial army of the Great Zhou Dynasty and the guards under other Jiedushi were all of this kind.

Since he ascended the throne, Guo Rong has recruited a new batch of imperial guards, and then eliminated the old and weak. After several major battles, he established his prestige, which ensured the loyalty of his imperial guards.

But the other imperial guards and soldiers were not so good.

"Sir, do you have any good ideas to solve the problem of soldiers?" Guo Rong asked.

Richard naturally has a way. The first one is the method used by Zhao Kuangyin in the future, which is to give those generals high positions and generous salaries, let them give up their military power, and then gradually eliminate them. In this process, it is necessary to maintain his combat power to suppress others.

With the military power in hand, he would clean up those soldiers, lay them off, and then recruit new soldiers. In the end, the soldiers and generals were not even familiar with each other.

This approach allowed him to control the army, but without good generals to lead, the strength was greatly reduced.

The second way was to recruit good family children. These people had land, family and business, and usually would not rebel. With the help of military regulations, rewards and punishments were clear, and it was not difficult for him to win the hearts of the army.

Richard told Guo Rong the method, and told him that the army should not be in arrears, and rewards and punishments should be clear.

"Even if you become an emperor, you must control the army. If you have an army, you are a real emperor. Without an army, you are just a puppet."

"You can inspect the three armies every three days to let the soldiers know that you are the emperor and their commander. It is best to come in person to distribute the silver every month to let them know who pays them."

Richard's method is simple, but the effect is very good. If you can do this, basically the soldiers under your command will not rebel. Even if there were generals who rebelled, these soldiers might just chop off his head and run to report their merits.

Richard's method seemed simple, but not many emperors could do it. People are lazy. It's okay once or twice, but it's not easy to do it for decades, especially for the emperor.

After pacifying those soldiers, Guo Rong led his army to the north again. At this time, the Khitan army was just some vanguard cavalry. Facing Guo Rong's tens of thousands of infantry and cavalry, they could not take any advantage.

The vanguard cavalry were basically armorless or leather cavalry, and even the bows and arrows were not necessarily made of iron. Facing the cavalry of the Zhou Kingdom, they could only be driven away. As for attacking infantry, that was courting death.

It was not too easy for infantry with cavalry to fight these light cavalry. The Khitans could only harass from a distance.

Guo Rong's army marched straight in. Even if the Khitan army arrived at this time, it was still no match for the Zhou Kingdom army. You can say that the soldiers and generals who came out of the chaotic Five Dynasties and Ten Kingdoms had no bottom line and were capricious, but you can't say they were weak.

The warriors of this era can be said to be the most abundant era of martial virtue.

Hundreds of thousands of troops fought in the land of the Sixteen Prefectures of Yanyun. The Khitans' 100,000 cavalry were beaten back under the attack of the Zhou army. In the end, they could only rely on the constant harassment of the cavalry to barely stabilize their position.

Guo Rong commanded the army to attack the Sixteen Prefectures of Yanyun, and ordered the Zhaoyi Jiedushi to attack the Northern Han to contain the Northern Han from sending troops.

The Khitans could not gain any advantage on the battlefield, so they wanted to lure the enemy deep into the territory, and then use cavalry to bypass the main force of the Zhou to attack the logistics. However, because the three prefectures and three passes in front all surrendered, the Zhou Kingdom obtained a forward base for attacking the Sixteen Prefectures of Yanyun, and it was very difficult for the Khitans to cut off the logistics of the Zhou army.

In addition, the number of Zhou cavalry was also large. If they were not careful, the Khitan's light cavalry would be surrounded and solved by the Zhou Kingdom. On the other hand, in order to prevent the Khitans from cutting off the logistics, Guo Rong also used water transportation to transport food and grass, advancing by land and water. The Khitans could not find any way for a while.

Richard did not intervene in the war. He could see from his full view that the Zhou army had the upper hand. Guo Rong suppressed the Khitan under the deployment of troops. As long as nothing unexpected happened, the Khitans would lose.

And he came to the Northern Expedition to prevent accidents.

In the Khitan camp, in a tent located in the center of the army, Benyuan was blessing the Khitans to stabilize the army's morale. Soon after sending the last Khitan soldier away, a monk hurried in.

"Brother, those Central Plains monks haven't taken action yet! Are they playing tricks on us again?"

"Benzhi, be patient!" Benyuan said calmly: "Now it's not us who are begging them, it's them who are begging us."

"They are more anxious than us."

"Why is there no movement now?"

"It's nothing more than wanting more benefits." Benyuan held the Buddhist beads and kept turning them.

"Go tell them that after the matter is done, give them five states to spread the Dharma, so that they can practice with the help of national fortune!"

"Brother, this is too much."

"Go if I tell you to go!" Benyuan said: "After you go, remember to bargain with them, the more intense the better, increase it little by little, so that they don't disbelieve it!"

Hearing this, Benzhi's eyes lit up, and he immediately understood something. He immediately put his hands together and saluted, saying: "I understand, brother."

Then he turned around and left in a hurry.

An inconspicuous temple in the Sixteen States of Yanyun. This temple occupies a very small area, but there are only twelve houses in front and back, and the houses are also very dilapidated. There are not many monks in the whole temple. There are only a dozen acres of thin land outside the temple. It can be said that it is poor.

But today, there are many more people in this temple.

Chenghui sat in the main seat, surrounded by several of his junior brothers. Just now, a team of Khitan cavalry had just left.

"Let's talk about it. Do you want to take action now!" Chenghui said.

"Brother, the arrow is on the string and has to be fired now!" Chengfei said.

"Yes, brother, Benyuan has already promised us the land of five states."

"Stupid! As long as the promise is not fulfilled, it will always be false!" Another monk next to him suddenly said.

"Then we won't do it?" Chengfei said angrily.

"Barbarians can't be trusted! I think it's better to support a new emperor! Anyway, those unruly guards have done this a lot in recent years!"

"The emperor of Chang'an, the guards of Wei Bo! There are many such generals in the Zhou Dynasty now!"

"But then we can't help Long Ting"

"There is still a chance! As long as he can control Zhou, he will naturally unify the world!"

"Amitabha, if that's the case, don't hesitate any more!" Cheng Fei said.

"Go do something!" Cheng Hui said.

Richard was sitting in the tent compiling books. These books were the enlightenment books he prepared and the books specifically used for local governance. Richard was going to compile all these books and then have the bookstore print them.

In addition to these, Richard also wrote mathematics, natural sciences, and agronomy.

These books are all written in vernacular, without those who are so-called, and do not need people to annotate or explain their meanings. As long as you can read, you can understand them.

These books were prepared by Richard to train officials and officials in large quantities.

To govern the world, at least tens of thousands of officials and officials are needed. In many cases, the ancient court had to rely on local tyrants and wealthy families to rule the local areas. With these people, the court can reduce the influence of local tyrants and wealthy families.

At this moment, the phoenix Qingxuan flew back and landed on Richard's desk.

"Master, I found the plague in the river. Someone must have taken action."

"Sure enough, these people are cuckolds who check out - they can't hold it anymore!"

Richard sneered: "I've been waiting for them to come. I haven't taken action for so many days, and I feel itchy!"

"Master, I'll go and disperse the plague and force them to take action!" Qingxuan said.

"Go!" Richard waved his hand.

The phoenix is ​​the king of birds and a divine beast. It is born to be the nemesis of those evil arts such as filth, sin, plague, and poison. If those people want to take action secretly in this way, they are making a wrong calculation.

Qingxuan immediately spread her wings and flew high, and a phoenix cry resounded through the sky. The next second, the phoenix's true form appeared directly, and many soldiers in the camp saw it, and countless soldiers cheered for it.

"Phoenix! Look, it's a phoenix!"

"The phoenix is ​​flying over our camp!"

"The auspicious phoenix has appeared! A sign of great fortune!"

The whole camp cheered, and Guo Rong, who was in the meeting, was also startled. When everyone heard the noise, they thought it was a mutiny in the army, but when they came out, they saw the phoenix flying in the sky.

"Your Majesty, good luck!"

"The phoenix sings in Qishan, King Wu defeats King Zhou, and the Zhou Dynasty prospers! Now there is a divine phoenix singing here, and our Zhou country will surely prosper!"