Chapter 380: Withdrawal of troops to head north?

Dong Zunhui's troops won two great battles in succession, Guadai won two great victories, defeating Li Jingda and Chen Jue's troops and capturing most of them. After this battle, Li Jingda fled back to Jiangnan with the support of Bian Hao, and never dared to go north to cause rebellion in a short period of time.

Guo Rong was very happy after receiving Dong Zunhui's victory. He immediately ordered Dong Zunhui to be promoted to the governor of Kuang** and appointed him as the commander-in-chief of the Palace Front Office. Guo Rong was originally planning to personally reinforce Yangzhou, but he marched into Jiangnan in one go, but was stopped by Fan Zhi, Dou Yi and others.

Especially recently, Dou Yi, who was in charge of logistics and supplies, ordered people to bring a thick account book and reported to Guo Rong: Since the war, His Majesty has achieved fruitful results, annexed most of the land north of the Huai River, and occupied some areas south of the Huai River. It can be said that the goal set before the war has been achieved. It is time to withdraw the troops, otherwise the treasury will be out of money again!

Guo Rong was very angry and said angrily: "I put all the money I obtained from destroying Buddha into the national treasury, and did not allocate a slight amount to the inward treasury. I let you take care of it and never supervise it! As a result, you have spent all the money to me! Incompetence and greed, you must be!"

Dou Yi was also trembling with anger. Although he had gained some benefits from the treasury, it was a hidden rule benefit that officials all had. To be fair, he was already trying his best to help Guo Rong manage the treasury, and there was basically no waste! Guo Rong actually ignored his achievements and blamed me instead. Is it because I offended his confidant Dong Zunhui (see Chapter 290, demoted two levels), and Dong Zunhui took the opportunity to retaliate? Otherwise, why did Guo Rong just praise Dong Zunhui and be impatient with me!

The more Dou Yi thought about it, the more angry he became. He actually spoke to Guo Rong. In anger, Guo Rong ordered someone to drag Dou Yi out to behead him and show him!

At this time, Fan Zhi hurriedly stepped forward to plead, but Guo Rong ignored him and stood up and was about to leave.

Fan Zhi quickly ran to him, kowtowed repeatedly, and said to Guo Rong: "Although Dou Yi has been wronged, he will not die. As the prime minister, I cannot stop His Majesty from committing an unjust killing and close deployment. It is all my fault!"

After being persuaded by Fan Zhi for a few words, Guo Rong ordered someone to take Dou Yi back. Fan Zhi quickly said Dou Yi a few more words, asking him to apologize to the emperor first, and then explain to Guo Rong.

It turned out that although Guo Rong made a fortune by destroying the Buddha, it also required money to fight. Recruiting soldiers requires settlement fees, and building weapons and armor requires money. During the war, the soldiers' salary must be paid in time, and the soldiers' winter clothes, bedding, etc. all require a lot of money. Of course, during the capture of the prefectures and counties in Southern Tang, the Zhou army also seized a lot of money. However, in order to win the hearts of the people, Guo Rong announced that local taxes would be exempted. In this way, the newly occupied prefectures and counties could not provide financial support to the Houzhou, but also required Houzhou to take out money from the treasury to provide relief to the victims and pave bridges and roads. In order to calm the hearts of the people, Guo Rong was basically not prepared to withdraw any money from the treasury in the newly occupied area.

Not only that, Guo Rong also recruited a large number of young and strong people from Songzhou, Haozhou, Chenzhou, Xuzhou, Suzhou, Xuzhou, Caizhou and other places to serve labor service. Although the daily consumption of these people is very small, the total number is also considerable. Moreover, April and May are already in the busy farming period. If the pillars of these people's families continue to be soaked in the Southern Tang Dynasty, the seven or eight prefectures and counties south of the Later Zhou Dynasty will have a poor harvest. Once this happens, not only will the lives of the people be affected, but the taxes collected from the Later Zhou Dynasty will also be greatly reduced, not to mention a series of other impacts!

After listening to the explanations of Fan Zhi, Dou Yi and others, Guo Rong realized that he had faced two major crises and had to start considering withdrawing his troops. At this time, Dong Zunhui's memorial further strengthened Guo Rong's idea of ​​withdrawing his troops.

Dong Zunhui said in his memorial that if the air warms today and it starts to rain from time to time, the water level of the Huaihe River and the Yangtze River continues to rise, and the water level of some tributaries has changed significantly, and some small rivers can also accommodate the Tang army's warships. Although the Tang army suffered repeated blows, their fleet was not seriously damaged. They often sneaked into the hinterland at night and launched surprise attacks on the Zhou army. The catapults arranged in advance by the Zhou army at night were basically of little effect, and the hasty naval army was not the opponent of the Southern Tang Dynasty at all, and the situation was very critical. Dong Zunhui led his army to fight with the Tang army fleet several times, and they had a victory or defeat, and they could not completely defeat them.

After reading Dong Zunhui's memorial, Guo Rong recruited several generals to understand the situation with everyone. Seeing that the emperor had noticed it, the generals quickly vomited sour water. It turned out that the Tang army's naval army was much more capable than their army, constantly harassed the various troops of the Later Zhou Dynasty and achieved many results. The Later Zhou generals were afraid of the emperor's scolding and did not report it truthfully. Now Dong Zunhui has lifted the lid first, and no one has concealed it anymore.

When Guo Rong heard this, he sighed inwardly: It’s still my family’s caring heart. Dong Zunhui is worthy of being my brother-in-law, and only he tells the truth to me at the first time. The Tang army’s naval army is really hateful, but it’s a pity that his newly established naval army is no match for others at all, and can only serve as a relaxed job covering the floating bridge. It seems that he can only consider withdrawing his troops.

Guo Rong then said to the generals: "Since that's the case, we are ready to withdraw our troops, send a signal to the Southern Tang Dynasty to lure the Tang army to attack. After killing the Tang army in large numbers, let's evacuate calmly!"

When the generals heard about the withdrawal of the troops, they were surprised at first, and then breathed a sigh of relief. The battle had been fought for more than half a year. Although everyone was determined to make contributions, they were exhausted. The withdrawal of the troops was just in line with everyone's wishes.

Soon, Li Jing, the king of the Southern Tang Dynasty, received the news that the Zhou army was about to retreat. At this time, he also learned the truth about the tragedy of the ** war and Guaday. Long Yan was furious and immediately ordered the defenders from all over the country to dispatch to pursue the retreating troops of the Zhou army.

So, on April 17, Han Lingkun defeated the Southern Tang Chuzhou in Wantouyan and attacked more than 10,000 soldiers and horses, and captured Qin Jinchong, the governor of Lianzhou alive; on April 21, Zhang Yongde defeated more than 10,000 soldiers and horses in Sizhou in Quxiyan and captured three thousand prisoners alive.

The Southern Tang Dynasty defender shouted that he had been deceived and would never dare to send troops to pursue him again. So Guo Rong appointed Xiang Xun, the envoy of the Southern Court of Xuanhui, as the governor of Huainan and the envoy of the pacification along the river. He also ordered Li Chongjin to be in charge of the Jiangbei battle situation and also as the defensive envoy of Shouzhou. At the same time, he ordered Dong Zunhui and others to hand over the defense and lead the army back north.

When Guo Rong and others were about to return to Kaifeng Prefecture, Li Jing, who had become a frightened bird, believed the news that Guo Rong had returned to Beijing. He quickly sent someone to send a large sum of money to seek peace, and presented a memorial to seek peace to Guo Rong. Li Jing wiped the sweat from his face and finally wrote love poems with peace of mind to soak up his sister...

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Chapter completed!