Chapter 6: Weizhou (1) The massacre in Beizhou was completely beyond Zhou Zhiyu's control.

  When the soldiers of the Jianzuoying army entered the city, they found that the so-called "inner and outer cooperation" among the wealthy households was just a scam. Their emotions were already out of control, and as their comrades fell one by one beside them, these young men from Yan and Zhao who had just joined the army were on the verge of exploding. After breaching the city, the intense resistance put up by all the people, regardless of age or sex, added fuel to the fire of their indignation, and chaos erupted, with everyone behaving like madmen.

  This matter was not what Liu Renjing, the military governor of Lulong, had in mind.

  Lü Longjun's expedition to the south was about territory, people, and supplies, not just a barren city. Now that they have taken Bei State, what use is an empty Bei State City? So Liu Ren'gong set off a huge fire after entering the Bei State government office.

  Fortunately, the rapid occupation of Bei State City won precious time for the army's southern campaign. As the commander-in-chief, he couldn't be too harsh on his generals who had risked their lives in battle. Rewards were still given out, but during the two days spent reorganizing at Bei State, Liu Ren'gong had to once again issue strict orders, demanding that such incidents not happen again in future battles.

  He was scolded by General Dai, and Zhou Zhiyong also felt very wronged. After returning to the front camp, he beat the drum and gathered all the soldiers, venting his anger fiercely.

  More than 200 vanguard soldiers who participated in the night raid and siege survived, with only about 70 people left. These people felt very wronged, while those who did not participate in the siege were scolded for nothing and felt even more depressed.

  Fortunately, after Zhou Yu vented his anger, he announced the rewards for this battle, and finally boosted morale again.

  Zhou Zhiyuan himself made great contributions in this battle, and was promoted to General of the Vanguard, finally entering the ranks of fifth-grade officials. At the same time, he concurrently served as Commander-in-Chief of the Five Regiments of Elite Soldiers.

  Among the more than 70 people who survived after participating in the war, more than a dozen were disabled and ordered to retire from the army and return home, with additional rewards and travel expenses.

  The remaining sixty people were all rewarded with money, and some who made greater contributions were promoted one rank.

  Li Chengzhong and Jiang Miao played a crucial role in the siege, among the dozen or so people who reached the city gate, except for Ren Dou being unconscious and unknown whether he was alive or dead, everyone else had already died in battle.

  The two were rewarded with 10,000 coins and promoted to Deputy Lieutenant of the Imperial Guard, ranking below the ninth grade.

  It may seem like a small step, but it's the difference between being an official and a soldier. This means that from now on, they will be military officers, with troops under their command.

  The reward money is very heavy and according to convention it will be issued after the war is over.

  The officer's promotion takes immediate effect.

  As there are no new recruits at present, and the five battalions of strong soldiers have lost more than 700 men in the battle of Bei State, the two can only be empty-headed battalion commanders with no soldiers under their command, and their posts remain in the original team.

  Due to the severe injury of Ren Dou, Zhang Jiao took over and directly controlled the remaining 70 or so men under him, who were divided into ten groups, two of which had only the group leader himself.

  As a traverser, Li Chengzhong was in a dilemma during his two-day stay in Bei State, for no other reason than the massacre.

  As for the right and wrong of it, he was deeply conflicted in his heart. In a situation where if you didn't kill people they would be killed by others, what Lu Longjun's brothers did made him hate them but also unable to agree with them.

  It's all because of this lawless and chaotic world.

  As for Li Chengzhong's entanglement, Jiang Miao was quite open-minded about it. He just lightly said a sentence: "In chaotic times, it's not easy to survive, and when the future is peaceful, everything will be fine."

  So Li Chengzhong could only sigh in the end and try his best not to think about it.

  As there were no attendants, the two of them squeezed into a tent together and continued to keep each other company, which was quite relaxing and spacious.

  The two men suffered only minor injuries in this battle. After nursing for two days, the wounds scabbed over and solidified, with no impact at all.

  The army rested in Bei State for two days and continued to advance, attacking Wei State from the south.

  Weizhou was the seat of the Weibo Military Jiedushi and also the central location that controlled the six prefectures of the Weibo garrison.

  For a hundred years, the famous Weibo Garrison has been stationed here, especially the elite Silver Gun Battalion, and many officers' families live in this city.

  Once Weizhou is taken, the other states will be easily pacified by mere proclamations.

  Although the Weibo army did not disintegrate as expected, but instead concentrated in Wei State City, both the upper and lower ranks of the Lulong Army believed that this army, even if it was as elite as before, had now become a spent force. With only 8,000 troops, they could not compete with the 100,000-strong Lulong Army.

  With just 8,000 cavalrymen from Baizhou, their combat strength is no less than that of the Weibo army at its peak in the west. Not to mention the presence of other elite troops such as the General's personal guards, the sons of the mountains, and the Silver Gourd Army.

  Even the newly formed five regiments of Jianzu now look quite formidable in terms of combat effectiveness, which has been proven in the battle to capture Bei State.

  So, all along the way, the army was full of confidence and high morale.

  When they arrived at the foot of Weizhou City, when they saw the Dawning Martial Army's great banner fluttering on the city tower, the various units of the Lulong Military were somewhat stunned.

  The time advantage won by the brothers in the first battle of Bei State was rendered useless in the face of Xuanwu Army's rapid reinforcements.

  The morale suddenly turned and fell, and everyone's heart seemed to be pressed down by something, heavy.

  "The Xuanwu" great banner represents what, like today who doesn't know? The "Xuanwu Army" is also the " Bianjun" that everyone often says, and it's also the strongest army in the world today.

  In recent years, the Bian army has been fighting east and west, coming and going north and south, and has indeed fought out a great reputation. The only one that can resist the Bian army head-on is the Jin army of Hedong.

  This premature encounter with this army was really not what the upper and lower ranks of the Lu Long Army had wished for.

  Even if we are going to fight, it should be after annexing Wei Bo and nourishing our strengths.

  "Can you see what's written on top?" Li Chengzhong looked up at the city wall from the edge of the camp, squinting his eyes as hard as he could, but couldn't make out anything clearly, so he asked Jiang Miao beside him.

  Li Chengzhong's naked eye vision is 0.8 and 1.0 for the left and right eyes respectively, which does not affect his daily life, but it would be difficult for him to see clearly the words on a large flag two miles away.

  To say it, he should also be one of the people with the worst eyesight in this era.

  Jiang Miao looked at Li Chengzhong curiously and said: "The banner with the word 'Zheng' on it should be the commander's flag of Wei Bo Luo."

  On the left is Ge, on the right is He... What's wrong with Li Lang's eyes? Was he injured in Bei State?" Li Chengzhong explained: "He wasn't injured, it's just nearsightedness, oh, and a bit dizzy."

  Jiang Miao nodded after listening, and his admiration for Li Chengzhong deepened even more in his heart.

  In this era, most people who suffer from eye diseases are scholars who have read extensively. As for Jiang Miao's experience of secretly studying in a private school for several years, Li Chengzhong has already been labeled as a "scholar who has read extensively" in his eyes.

  Li Chengzhong had no idea what Jiang Miao was thinking, and it was even more impossible for him to tell Jiang Miao that he himself had developed mild myopia from reading a large number of martial arts novels. He just sat there deep in thought, muttering to himself: "Ge... He? Ge... He?" With his experience of graduating from high school and then serving in the military, he might be able to answer who Li Bai was, and maybe even know some general facts about Zhu Wen and Li Ke of the late Tang Dynasty. But trying to figure out which one was surnamed Ge and which one was surnamed He was really too difficult for him.

  Of course, the Tang Dynasty was destroyed by Zhu Wen's hands, and the time was in 907 AD. After that, Zhu Wen established the Later Liang, etc., which he also knew. These things were learned in elementary school history class, and Li Chengzhong certainly remembered them.

  But... what year was Guanghua 2 in the Gregorian calendar? This question was too difficult for him.

  So until now, he still hasn't figured out when the Tang Dynasty will perish.

  Jiang Miao has always been a figure at the bottom of society in this era, even if he was promoted to Pingrong Deputy Captain two days ago, from the ninth rank down, he still hasn't escaped the category of being at the bottom of society, and naturally doesn't know who Ge He and He Ge are.

  Li Chengzhong couldn't figure out where these two came from, and he had no one to ask.

  The entire Lulong army was going south for the first time, and most people were not very familiar with the two Xichuan generals named Ge Congzhou and He Delun. Even high-ranking officials like Liu Ren'gong probably only knew some rumors about them, knowing that they were quite formidable, but no one would take it to heart how formidable they really were.

  Li Chengzhong, who couldn't remember, didn't care how formidable these two were. What he cared about was that he couldn't effectively utilize the advantages of a traverser, such as making suggestions based on his opponent's personality or setting up ambushes in advance according to the details of battles recorded in history.

  If he were to travel back to the Three Kingdoms, he could advise Cao Cao not to casually link ships together and not to shoot arrows at a boat in the middle of the night when people's shadows are unclear. He could even remind him not to take the Huaxiong Road when escaping.

  It's just... this is the late Tang Dynasty. In my memory, this period of history jumped directly from Huang Chao's rebellion to the collapse of the Tang Dynasty, and there was a blank space of thirty or forty years in between! If only I had brought a book on the history of the late Tang Dynasty with me, even if it was just to read some introductory posts about this aspect in the forum, wouldn't that be much better? Li Chengzhong regretfully patted his own head, filled with remorse.

  Li Chengzhong, still immersed in deep regret, would not know that these two Bianjun generals would bring such a profound impression to the Lulong Army in this battle of Weizhou.

  Jiang Miao was still preoccupied with the scene of smoke and fog rising from Bei State City that day, often asking Li Chengzhong what had really happened.

  Li Chengzhong could only helplessly spread his hands and tell Jiang Miao with an innocent face that he wasn't too clear about it either.

  The smoke bomb in his hand had been exhausted, and Li Chengzhong was completely bidding farewell to that era. He certainly couldn't explain what happened on the city wall of Bei State that night to anyone.

  The confused Jiang Miao was a bit dazed and often muttered to himself.

  Li Chengzhong also couldn't hear clearly, he just felt that Jiang Miao's eyes were looking at him in a way that was not quite right, but he couldn't put his finger on what it was.

  This time the siege of Wei State and the previous attack on Bei State are different. The entire Lulong Army marched south, and the Weibo vanguard army also concentrated within the city of Wei State. It can be said that the Battle of Wei State is a decisive battle for whether the Lulong Army can annex the Weibo Prefecture. Both sides will determine victory or defeat in one battle, so the two armies are facing each other without haste to start fighting.

  The city wall of Wei State is more than one zhang higher than that of Bei State, and the moat outside is also as deep as one zhang, which can be described as "the city is high and the pool is deep".

  Inside the city, there were not only 8,000 Wei Bo's soldiers, but also an unknown number of Bianjun troops to assist in the defense, and it was impossible to attack in a short time.

  Lu Longjun besieged Weizhou City on all sides and began to organize civilians to rush and build various climbing tools.

  Sometimes there were not enough civilians, and often a group of strong soldiers would be dispatched to the front lines to help out. Li Chengzhong had gone twice and it was also a great opening for him.

  Ludragon's construction mainly used cloud cars, gate-breaking cars, stone-throwing cannons and arrow towers. The building was much more solid than Li Chengzhong had imagined.

  As the siege engines were completed, the morale of the Lulong army also rose with the arrival of the Bianjun troops to assist Weizhou, and the soldiers' spirits gradually lifted, seeing that their morale was usable.

  After ten days of camping and besieging the city, the commander-in-chief Zhou Zhiyong finally issued a military order to attack the city on the second day. That night, the whole camp slaughtered pigs and sheep, had a good meal, and everyone was in high spirits, drinking meat soup, gnawing bones, talking loudly, and laughing. It seemed that with a snap of their fingers, the enemy's flags would be destroyed! Especially among the troops from the capital, the examples of Li Chengzhong and Jiang Miao were right there, and everyone looked at them with some red eyes, making the two men shiver with fear.

  Who doesn't want to get promoted and become rich? As for whether one can stay alive - since you've joined the army and eaten this bowl of rice, this question cannot be considered anymore!