"I will leave the town of Hezhong to my brother," Yue Fei said to Li Qiong, cupping his hands. "This city is the hub of the grain road. We cannot send out troops easily. Even if we want to rescue General Li's troops, we should leave enough soldiers to defend the city. General Li has already
He wrote back and said that he could hold on to Wen'an Town for at least ten days. Because he only has ten days of food for the army, the Jin soldiers will definitely cut off his food route."
Li Qiong smiled and said: "You go as soon as possible. Within ten days, I will never lead the troops out of the city. Even if the Jin soldiers are barking outside the city, I will treat it as a pack of barking dogs."
Yue Fei said: "I have sent fire rifle soldiers to support General Li."
"It should be." Li Qiong didn't care about this, since he was just defending the city anyway.
This is a grain road hub. According to the Ming Dynasty's calculation method of military merit, holding an important military grain stronghold will be a great achievement.
"Farewell!" Yue Fei said goodbye.
Historically, although the two were from the same hometown, their friendship was not deep.
This time and space is different. They fight against the Jin under Zongze together, and they are the regular partners of the main and deputy generals all year round.
Ju Ming didn't have much dislike for Li Qiong, because the Huaixi Mutiny was nonsense.
At that time, Liu Guangshi was deprived of military power, and Zhao Gou asked Yue Fei to take over those troops. But he was worried that Yue Fei would be difficult to control, so the relevant appointments were kept secret. He also warned Yue Fei not to be public. To put it bluntly, the appointment could be changed at any time - if Yue Fei obtained Liu Guangshi's troops,
This is equivalent to controlling five-sevenths of the main force of the Southern Song Dynasty.
Prime Minister Zhang Jun wanted to take charge of the army himself, so as not to be overthrown by generals, and let him take charge of the overall counterattack plan.
Qin Hui also didn't want Yue Fei to become powerful, otherwise how could he negotiate for peace?
As a result, the emperor, the leaders of the war faction and the peace faction did not want to hand over the army to Yue Fei.
With such an important appointment, the court was so capricious that Yue Fei was so angry that he resigned.
Before resigning, Yue Fei had told Zhang Jun that there was a conflict between Wang De and Li Qiong, and no one was suitable to be the general. However, Zhang Jun didn't take it to heart at all, and promoted Wang De, who had fewer soldiers, to be the general (to facilitate control).
This caused Li Qiong to become increasingly dissatisfied.
Zhang Jun was also afraid of a mutiny and quickly separated the two troops.
In fact, separation was enough, but Zhang Jun went the extra mile and asked Lu Zhi to serve as a supervisor to stabilize the army.
The bad things that happened before have made the generals extremely resentful.
When Lu Zhi arrived in the army, he not only failed to appease the generals, but also arbitrarily replaced Liu Guangshi's old generals. He also made sarcastic remarks and intensified the conflict between Li Qiong and Wang De. These were all for the purpose of installing trustworthy generals for the court and replacing those who were not very good.
Drive away all the obedient ones.
Perhaps Li Qiong complained, or perhaps he made rude remarks that angered the supervisor Lu Zhi. Or perhaps this was Zhang Jun's goal. Lu Zhi then went to Emperor Shu to request that Li Qiong be dismissed from his post.
It's just sparse, but it's not rigorous in doing things.
The scribe next to Lu Zhi actually told Li Qiong about this.
Li Qiong was frightened and angry, fearing that he would be accused of being unreasonable and would end up miserable without military power. So, Li Qiong discussed with the resentful generals and took an army of more than 40,000 people and 200,000 people to directly defect to the Jin Kingdom.
Puppet Qi regime.
At that time, the Southern Song Dynasty could mobilize only 200,000 troops, and nearly a quarter of them were suddenly lost.
If Zhang Jun and Lu Zhi hadn't angered all the generals in the army, how could Li Qiong have the ability to take away so many soldiers and civilians?
The Huaixi Mutiny belonged to the collective will of the generals, and Li Qiong was just the leader.
Moreover, because Yue Fei left the army, Zhao Gou sent people to persuade him many times before returning. The honeymoon period for Zhao Gou and Yue Fei ended.
…
But it was said that Yue Fei led his troops to leave Hezhong County without taking the three main routes.
Instead, Han Chang, the commander-in-chief of the Bohai Sea, served as the guide. He spent four days walking back, making a large circle and crossing Shiziling (a mountain range in the north of Pingquan City) to the north.
Before crossing the mountains, they resupplied once in Zezhou City (a few miles south of Pingquan City).
Then, along the eastern foot of Yanshan Mountain, we walked around Dadingfu City day and night.
Han Chang, a general of the Northern Han people, was very familiar with this area. He pointed to the map and said: "The Jin soldiers transported grain and grass. Although they did not mainly transport food and grass by ship, they must still come along the Tu River. Because they have countless war horses and livestock.
, it’s easier to get water by going south along the Tuhe River.”
"This place is fifty miles away from Dadingfu City and forty miles away from Wen'an Town. Whether the Jin soldiers want to attack the city or go south for reinforcements, it is the most convenient and safe place for food to be piled up. The food and grass for the Jin soldiers must be here!
"
The location pointed out by Han Chang, which later became Ningcheng County, was still a rural area at this time.
Yue Fei looked at the map again and said: "Wanyan Zonghan is a veteran, so he must keep a close eye on the military rations. Moreover, sentries will inevitably be sent out everywhere. You have to be extra careful along the way. Once discovered by the Jin soldiers, you will have nothing but blood.
Fight back to Dadingfu City."
They even changed their flags, and they were all Jin Kingdom flags.
When on the road, light cavalry must be sent to explore the road every time. These light cavalry are all dressed as golden soldiers, without even wearing helmets, and have Khitan hairdos - pretending to be herdsman cavalry.
Wanyan Zonghan's elite was limited, and the cavalry sent out to cover the battlefield must be mainly prairie cavalry.
However, there is a lack of unified management among various grassland departments.
Even if the light cavalry sent by Yue Fei to explore the road were discovered by the Jin soldiers, they would probably be regarded as some kind of herdsmen cavalry.
In addition, the entire army marched day and night, so no matter how cautious Wanyan Zonghan was, it would be difficult for him to detect this surprise attack force.
When Yue Fei led his army around sixty miles north of the target location, the light cavalry exploring the road even encountered a Jin Kingdom grain transport team.
"Which unit are you from?" asked the general escorting the grain and grass.
Han Chang dressed up as a Khitan herdsman and spoke fluent Khitan: "Which movie are you from?"
The general who was guarding the grain said: "Jie Labu."
Han Chang suddenly raised his nostrils to the sky: "We are the Jurchen tribe of the ancient Southern Tang Dynasty. We have been ordered to explore the front to prevent the southern thieves from coming around and killing us."
"Thank you for your hard work." The general in charge of the grain immediately became three points shorter.
Most of the ancient Tang people lived in the Monan grassland.
The ancient tribes of the Southern Tang Dynasty were scattered in the vast grasslands from Changchun to Songyuan, and there were even some in the south of Changchun.
Initially, they were all direct slaves of the Liao royal family. Mainly Jurchen, there were also Shiwei, Bohai, Goryeo and other tribes.
Although Khitan customs are still preserved, in recent years they have been regarded as Jurchens by the Jin Kingdom.
Han Chang claimed to be an ancient Jurchen of the Southern Tang Dynasty, and the prairie cavalrymen who were guarding grain immediately became respectful to him.
"You guys all go out to investigate, don't stay here and be lazy!" Han Chang asked his Qingqi to disperse so as not to stay too long and expose any flaws.
The Ming Qingqi quickly dispersed, staying away from the grain transport team in front of them.
Han Chang asked casually: "Is the food and grass shipped almost? Why are they still being shipped?"
The general who held the grain charge said: "We don't know how long the fight will last."
"I'm afraid the horses won't be able to move fast with this much grain on their backs. Can it be delivered before dark tomorrow?" Han Chang began to make insinuations.
The general in charge of the food said: "It's not too slow. It will arrive tomorrow afternoon."
Han Chang said: "Then don't talk about it, don't delay the army rations."
The two chatted for a while and then said goodbye. Han Chang asked his Qingqi to be on guard and ran back to see Yue Fei hiding in the hilly area.
Yue Fei asked: "Have you encountered an enemy?"
Han Chang said: "I met a grain transport team from the Khitan tribe south of Linhuang Mansion. After a few test questions, I can basically confirm that the Jin Bing grain and grass are located at the place we guessed before."
Yue Fei said: "Then continue to go east tonight. There are more mountains there and it is better to hide. I will have a good rest during the day tomorrow. I will eat all the food I brought and feed the horses enough beans. Tomorrow night, go directly to the Jinbing Food Station.
After burning the food, we will wait for the opportunity to attack. If we can fight, we will fight. If we cannot fight, we will immediately retreat to Dadingfu City."
…
Wen'an Town.
Li Yanxian has been surrounded by groups. Except for the 600 heavy cavalry, all the elite cavalry under his command are not here. Some were taken away by Li Bao, some were lent to Yue Fei, and some went to Jinzhou.
Wen'an Town is surrounded by mountains on one side and water on the other.
The chariot relied on mountains, rivers and houses to surround Li Yanxian's troops.
There was only ten days of food and fodder for the army, and the civilians had already sent most of them back, and asked the follow-up food transport team not to come again, lest they be raided by Jin soldiers and rob the food.
"Retreat your troops and fight again tomorrow!"
Wanyan Zonghan was extremely depressed.
There was just an abandoned town in front of me. Not to mention the city walls, even the houses were in a state of decay.
In the past, whether it was fighting the Liao Army or the Song Army, a small town like this could be captured with a single charge.
But now we can’t attack it!
He also cut down trees nearby and made artillery arrays to bombard the vehicles.
But Li Yanxian's tribe actually also has artillery, and the number is more than that of Dadingfu City!
The Jin soldiers' returning artillery was bombarded by artillery before they even entered the range.
The Jin cavalry sent further south to run out of food has not encountered the Ming army's food transport team until now.
Wanyan Zonghan always felt that something was wrong, as if he had been seen through and all his actions could not achieve his goal.
Several light cavalry rushed back from the southwest: "Marshal, our army couldn't find the grain transport team, so we fought all the way to the county towns. No matter how we called for formation, the defenders in the city did not come out."
After hearing the news, Wanyan Zonghan became more and more irritable.
The Ming troops in other cities were unable to defend themselves. Do you want to stay here and surround the Ming troops in front of you until they run out of supplies?
We cannot continue to besiege Wen'an Town, who knows what the other Ming troops are doing.
Wanyan Zonghan ordered: "Send more Qingqi to investigate in all directions, and search for signs of the Ming army within a radius of 150 miles."
He planned to pretend to retreat tomorrow to see if he could attract Li Yanxian to pursue him, or if he could turn around and kill the Ming army here - Wanyan Zonghan didn't know yet, but Li Yanxian's army was almost out of food and grass, and he could hold on for three more days at most.
If the consumption continues, Li Yanxian can only kill the mule pulling the cart.
Wanyan Zonghan is not a god, how could he guess it?
Li Yanxian was really too calm, as if he was going to hold on to Wen'an Town to the end. He also ordered the grain transport team not to come again. It seemed that the army had more than enough grain and grass.
"Marshal, twenty Zhennan cannons have been rebuilt!"
"Okay, the craftsmen will be rewarded heavily!"
Wanyan Zonghan suddenly regained his energy: "Push the Zhennan artillery quietly tonight. The Ming army's artillery will definitely not be able to fire accurately. First, use rocks to smash the car formation. Then each army will attack from several sides. We will also send people from the other side of the mountain to climb over.
Hang a rope to the rear of the Ming army camp and make a surprise attack!"
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This chapter has been completed!