A Journey Through the Worlds of Film and Television.

Chapter 475: Taking Over Xijin Prefecture

Taking advantage of the battle between Liangshan and Hu Yanzhuo, Lu Cheng recruited Xu Ning, and now he had another capable general under his command.

As for Hu Yanzhuo who was fighting against Liangshan, Lu Cheng was not very interested in him. Not to mention Hu Yanzhuo's personality, his age of over 50 years old alone made Lu Cheng lose interest in recruiting him for his own purposes.

Even if a general in his fifties is a good fighter, how many years can he continue to fight?

Moreover, for a general who is too old, even if you give him strengthening pills to help him improve his strength, it will not be of much value.

Now, the education system of the entire southern Liaoning region under Lu Cheng has been established. In another two or three years, a group of young and outstanding military talents will be trained in the military academy in southern Liaoning. Those talents will be the backbone of Lu Cheng's command in the future.

As for the 108 generals on Mount Liang, except for some useful people with no major blemishes in their character, most of the others are mediocre and evil people, bandits who occupy the mountains and act as kings, scum who run black shops selling human meat buns, grave-digging scum, idle scoundrels, and so on.

Therefore, Lu Cheng did not pay too much attention to the situation on Liangshan Mountain. He would only ask the intelligence department to report when he was interested.

In comparison, Fang La from Jiangnan interested Lu Cheng more.

Fang La's family had lived in Qingxi County, Muzhou, which is Hangzhou City in later generations. His family had a lacquer garden. They were originally a wealthy family, but they were often robbed by local officials, so they held a grudge against the government.

At the same time, the people in the south of the Yangtze River had long been resentful of the imperial court because they had suffered greatly from the harm caused by the Hua Shi Gang.

Fang La seized the opportunity and used the "Eating Vegetables and Serving the Devil" religion to organize and mobilize the people, thereby gaining the support of the majority of the people.

The so-called "eating vegetables and serving demons" refers to a sect active from the Five Dynasties to the Song Dynasty. This sect believed in Mani as the god of light, so it was also called Manichaeism or Mingjiao. Because this sect believed in eating vegetarian food, it was officially called "eating vegetables and serving demons", and Mani was also translated as demon.

This is an unorthodox secret. The folk organization is mainly spread in rural areas, and the believers are mainly poor people.

Fang La used religion to gain a group of loyal fans and supporters, and then continued to develop his power and expand his influence, preparing for future uprisings.

It is impossible to find out where this "Ming Cult" originated from, but what is certain is that this Ming Cult does not have any martial arts such as "The Great Shift of the Universe". Although Fang La is proficient in spears and sticks and has extraordinary martial arts, he is not beyond the scope of Lu Junyi.

Even Huang Shang, the prefect of Fuzhou who was in charge of revising the Wanshou Daozang, was just a weak civil official.

Asking people to investigate Huang Shang and Fang La was a casual move made by Lu Cheng. He wanted to see if there was anything strange about these two people and whether it could have any impact on his own martial arts progress. The result was not unexpected, and Lu Cheng was not too disappointed.

After improving his martial arts to the Baodan level, although Lu Cheng never stopped tempering his qi and blood and strength, he had little success and it seemed that his future was blocked.

After persisting for a while, Lu Cheng temporarily gave up on improving his personal martial arts. After all, he still had a long future and many opportunities to study martial arts, so there was no need to rush.

If the road is blocked, stop and rest, or try another route.

However, while investigating Fang La, Lu Cheng also sent a group of people to join Fang La's sect and act undercover.

In fact, the Fang La uprising in history lasted only half a year before Fang La and his entire family were captured alive and taken to the capital to be executed. Fang La's generals held out for nearly a year before they were gradually put down.

Fang La in the Water Margin world may be stronger, but he is ultimately destined to fail.

By making some arrangements in advance, we can secretly control the situation, plant seeds in Jiangnan, and prepare for the future.

Since he had a fixed base, he could focus on development and cultivate his own talents. Lu Cheng had more and more people he could use, so he could naturally play chess everywhere.

In addition to the Liaonan region, Lu Cheng also placed a lot of people in the Western Army through Dong Ping. Although those people are still only the most basic officers and can't play a big role for the time being, if Lu Cheng confronts the Western Army one day, it will also be able to have more internal support.

In Jeju Prefecture, Wu Song has now grown up. Once there is a problem, he can control the situation in the entire Jeju Prefecture with the troops in his hands alone.

After the spring of the seventh year of Zhenghe (1117), the Yangwei Army in southern Liaoning and the Jin Army, as if they had agreed, headed west together, one in the south and one in the north, and began to attack the Liao territory.

Among the five capitals of the Liao Dynasty, Tokyo Liaoyang in the southeast had already fallen into the hands of the Yangwei Army.

Now, the Jin Kingdom was targeting the Liao Kingdom's Shangjing Linhuang Prefecture, while Lu Cheng's Yangwei Army was targeting the Liao Kingdom's Nanjing Xijin Prefecture, which was later known as Yanjing.

In this battle, although Lu Cheng was present at the front line, he did not fight in person. Instead, he stayed in the central army, supporting generals such as Yang Zhi, Xu Ning, and Lu Fang, and watching how they performed.

As everything was ready, Yang Zhi led 20,000 troops drawn from Jinzhou, Laizhou and other places all the way to the city of Xijin Prefecture.

The 20,000-strong army deployed outside the city. There was no fancy fighting, but the firearms battalion assembled dozens of catapults, and then launched three cannons, aiming at the Xijin Prefecture in the distance.

At 9:00 a.m., when everything was ready, Yang Zhi rode on his horse, drew out his long sword and swung it forward. The prepared catapults were fired together, and three cannons were ignited at the same time. Dozens of explosive packs and three artillery shells flew straight towards Xijin Prefecture.

"Boom boom boom" accompanied by continuous explosions, the walls of Xijin Prefecture of Liao Kingdom suddenly became chaotic and the guarding soldiers scattered in all directions.

After more than a dozen rounds of volleys, the inside and outside of the Xijin Prefecture city wall were in chaos. Some explosive packs that flew into the city ignited the houses near the city wall. A big fire broke out in the city, and it was in complete chaos.

There is no doubt that this is a siege battle that requires little skill and relies entirely on technology.

The moment the city gate of Xijin Prefecture was completely blown open, it also heralded the arrival of a new era.

By the evening, the fire in Xijin City had been extinguished, and the flag of the Yangwei Army was hoisted on the top of the city wall. Soldiers were maintaining order on the streets, and officials were counting the losses and taking inventory of the supplies of the entire Xijin City.

Because they were defeated so quickly, Xijin Prefecture was relatively intact overall, except for the severe damage to the eastern city wall that was attacked and a number of houses that were blown up.

Lu Cheng walked on the street with Yang Zhi, Xu Ning and others, and casually gave instructions for some post-war arrangements: "Yang Zhi, Xijin Prefecture will be guarded by you and Xu Ning. Lu Fang and Guo Sheng will guard Laizhou. As for Jinzhou, leave it to Lu Da. Now the war between Jin and Liao is also quite intense, you must also cooperate with the civil officials and manage well.

When you encounter fleeing Liao soldiers and Liao civilians, carefully identify them and properly place them. When you encounter a suitable opportunity, take action decisively. Don't be afraid of failure, we can afford to lose now..."

Yang Zhi has followed Lu Cheng for several years, experienced many battles, and has grown up completely.

After the Yangwei Army captured Xijin Prefecture, Zhongjing of the Liao Kingdom was to the north.

With the Yangwei Army and the Jin Army attacking from both sides, the Liao Kingdom would certainly perish earlier than in history...