The name Yiluoshui comes from Yishui and Luoshui. These two rivers originate in the southwest of Luoyang and flow northeast. They meet at Yanshi City and then merge into one river. This is the Yiluoshui.
In other words, Yanshi City is actually located at the confluence of the Yiluo River and is the most typical impact plain.
Therefore, the Khitan army went up the Yiluo River, walking along the narrow river section between Mang Mountain and Song Mountain.
Only outside Yanshi City is there a large open basin, suitable for a decisive battle involving hundreds of thousands of troops.
When Yelu Deguang wanted to come in, Zhang Zhao would certainly not let him in, and the Khitan people's far-reaching scouts were quite good at stopping Zima.
Under their cover, the Yiluo Waterway between Songshan Mountain and Mangshan Mountain could not be ambushed at all.
Zhang Zhao then followed the original plan and let the Khitans in.
In mid-July, Yelu Deguang led an army of 75,000, and defeated the seven water forts established by Zhang Zhao on the Yiluo River. The army advanced to the southeast of Yanshi City.
The Yongliang army, which had already broken through the western city of Yanshi, could only begin to retreat.
Yelu Deguang then led a large army to Yanshi City, with the left and right Pishi troops as the main force, stationed in the city.
The right army was mainly composed of the Shan army commanded by Yelu Pode and the tribal army cavalry, accompanied by 3,000 Xi infantry.
The left army was dominated by the Jin army's reduced generals, with Xiao Han and Li Shouzhen as commanders-in-chief and deputy commanders.
They used Yanshi City as their main camp, with Mang Mountain as their back, and the village below the mountain stretching for more than three miles. They cooperated with their infantry and cavalry, and their troops were in good order.
Zhang Zhao's Yongliang army retreated to the vicinity of Jinyong City, using the repaired Jinyong City as the main camp, Hanshandu, the left and right Yulin Guards and the Hanhai Town 7,000-strong central army.
With Yan Jin as the formation envoy of the left army, he was in charge of the four towns of Wuwei, Xiongwu, Yingyang, Fengan and the first section of the Zhangwu Army in Yanzhou. In addition to the recruited Guanzhong volunteers, righteous cavalry and united archers, there were 4,000 people.
A total of twenty-one thousand.
With Bai Congxin as the right army formation envoy, he took charge of the three towns of Lingwu, Dingyuan and Yucheng, as well as a small number of rebels, Yicong and Unity Archers, plus the Baoyi, Fengguo and Ningguo armies who had taken refuge, totaling 20,000 people.
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All the main forces of Zhang Zhao's 48,000 troops were present except for Yin Yaozi and Liu Zaisheng who were left behind, as well as the Heyang army guarding Luoyang City.
....
In Yanshi City, Yelu Deguang also began to hold a military meeting after the entire army safely descended into the stronghold.
The Liao army came from Gong County and encountered not much resistance along the way. This allowed Yelu Deguang and the soldiers to regain a lot of morale.
The main reason for this situation is that they only encountered Yi Cong Xiaoqi from the Yongliang Army.
As a non-main force levy, the Yi Cong Xiao Cavalry is still far from the real Yongliang Cavalry in terms of war horses and weapons.
At this time, the Hexi Fold Horse, which was already famous all over the world, actually had a relatively small population.
Because Zhang Zhao plundered the entire upper reaches of the Xindu River and only got a few thousand horses, and only more than 2,000 horses were brought back to Liangzhou.
Although after ten years of breeding, the folded-eared horse has been localized in Hexi, it does not mean that every horse born can be used as a war horse.
Even if they can all be used as war horses, in order to maintain the genetic stability of the horses in the military horse farm, they cannot all be used as war horses.
At least in the military horse farms in Shandan, Changsong and other places, the stock of at least 3,000 horses must be guaranteed.
Therefore, there are only about 7,000 high-quality folded-eared war horses in the Yongliang army, which is not enough for the main force. Naturally, only a very small number of elite Yicong Xiaoqi have folded-eared horses.
In terms of equipment, they were rarely equipped with horn crossbows, let alone divine arm bows. In addition, Yicong Xiaoqi basically did not wear armor, so it gave Yelv Deguang and all the Khitan people a feeling.
That is to say, the Yongliang cavalry is indeed very powerful. It is the only cavalry they have seen that can compete with Daliao in terms of cavalry, but it is not much higher. The two sides are only between equals.
Now the Great Khitan is fighting 75,000 against 48,000, and the supply line is even shorter. The advantage lies with me!
However, it is not that there are people who understand. Yelu Wuzhi, who was also known as the commander-in-chief of the Liao Kingdom at this time with Gao Song, felt that Gao Song was a veteran and brave general who had experienced many battlefields, and he would not write thousands of words to Yelu Deguang inexplicably.
's report.
So, when everyone in the house was full of confidence and said that they would go out to capture Zhang Zhao right away, Yelu Wuzhi poured a basin of cold water on everyone, and then said to Yelu Deguang.
"If the Yongliang thief Zhang was really so vulnerable, Your Majesty would have killed him when he was in Datong.
If Zhang thief was unprepared, how could he dare to use all his elite troops to march eastward to compete with me in the Liao Dynasty for the world?"
"It makes sense!" Yelu Deguang nodded. He also felt that if Zhang Zhao was so useless, then if Yelu Deguang treated Zhang Zhao with such caution before, wouldn't he have also lowered his 'power level'?
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So, Yelu Deguang looked at Yelu House and smiled and said: "Dakistan Wen actually understands Zhang Zhao so well. I guess he must have a strategy to defeat the enemy. Why don't we come and listen."
Yelu Wuzhi raised his hand and said to Yelu Deguang: "Since Zhang Thief entered the pass, I ordered people to collect Zhang Thief's character and preferences.
I discovered that Zhang Thief is indeed as cunning as a fox and as ferocious as a jackal, but he is not invulnerable. He has a fatal weakness, which is that he likes to take risks personally."
"I'm going to take the risk for myself?" Yelu Deguang asked hesitantly, his face a little uncomfortable. Did he think Yelu Wuzhi was connoting him?
Isn't it just because Brother Guang likes to personally risk the arrows, so he commanded blindly in the Bai Tuanwei Village of Yangcheng and was beaten badly?
Yelu Wuzhi did not expect so much at all. He continued: "I discovered that whether it was the Zhang thieves who defeated the Kara Khan Uighurs Saktu Khan, or the troops who attacked Li Yiyin, or the Gaochang Uighurs, all of them were personally risked.
Yaishi is on the front line.
Even during a battle with the Dingnan Army, he was almost killed by the Dingnan Army's serial horses in Baishui Yanchi."
Yelu Deguang's eyes lit up when he heard this. Now he didn't care whether Yelu House was connoting him, because Brother Guang also remembered that Zhang Zhao really liked to risk his own life.
So the Khitan emperor simply walked up to Yelu Wuzhi and asked loudly: "What's the plan?"
Uh...why does everyone know this?
Of course, it was King Zhang himself who did it. In order to improve his image in the hearts of the people of the Central Plains, King Zhang often asked merchants to praise his heroic deeds.
Among them, the highlight moment of killing the enemy with his subordinates, such as Yaishi, naturally requires a lot of publicity.
Therefore, through the big mouth propaganda of the businessmen, Yelu Housezhi was able to easily sort out a clue from these deeds and discover King Zhang's weakness.
Yelu Wuzhi pondered for a moment, and then clicked on the map toward the Yellow River.
"Your Majesty, please see, the key point of this battle is actually whether the main force of our army can unite with Takamatsu?
If we completely control the Heyang Bridge, we can ensure the smooth flow of the north and south of the river, and even be able to outflank Zhang Thief's water village by the river.
Luoyang was in ruins, and Zhang's supplies also relied on big rivers, transported from Shaanzhou, Hezhong and even Guanzhong.
On the contrary, if our army cannot open up the connection with Gaosong, Zhongli City will definitely not be able to defend it for a long time. By then, Zhang Thief will gain the advantage of the river, and we may die in Henan.
Of course Zhang Thief also knew the key, so he stationed thousands of elites at the intersection of Mang Mountain and Dahe, and also asked his most powerful general Yan Jin to guard it.
If our army can attack here together with Gao Song, but secretly prepare 20,000 elite troops, if Yan Jin is in danger, Zhang Thief will probably lead his army to rescue him personally.
He thought that the elite cavalry came and went like the wind and was unstoppable, but he didn't expect that I had already made preparations. As long as I blocked Zhang Thief and killed him before his army came to help, then everything would be settled!
Even if it fails, I can retreat to Mang Mountain and look for another opportunity."
"Hahahaha!" Brother Guang held Yelu Wuzhi's shoulders and looked up to the sky laughing.
"Zhang Thief is about to die soon! All matters are carefully prepared by the general. There is no need to report to someone where to send troops, just select the best."
....
At the end of July, Yelv Deguang first raised the tricolor flag on Mang Mountain and summoned the Gaosong tribe according to the secret code.
Then Yelvwuzhi was sent out with 10,000 fine cavalry, but only 5,000 were sent to fight, attacking northwest along Mang Mountain, pretending to open up the connection with Gaosong's headquarters in Zhongli City.
Secretly, 20,000 elite troops were mobilized and were on standby in Mang Mountain.
Yan Jin, who was guarding the left army, learned that Yelu Wuzhi was leaving Mang Mountain in the west, so he immediately led Wuwei with 3,000 people from Xiongwu Town, 1,000 righteous cavalry, and 2,000 united archers to intercept them at the northwest end of Mang Mountain.
Gao Song from Zhongli City also organized dozens of large and small ships to transport two thousand archers to land on the Yellow River and launch an attack.
The two sides fought for two days, and Yan Jin's troops were besieged. Zhang Zhao sent his right-wing Lin Wei to attack several times, but they failed to relieve the siege of Yan Jin's troops.
Seeing that the situation was critical, Zhang Zhao decided to personally lead Li Cunhui, Zhe Deyuan and others, as well as Lin Wei's 1,500 elite cavalry and Xianshandu's 1,000 heavy infantry troops to the rescue.
He ordered Zhu Jing and Murong Yanzhao to organize six thousand soldiers and horses as backup.
Of course Zhang Zhao didn't know that this was a trap, nor did he know that the Khitans had erected dozens of towers on Mang Mountain, and that there were also a large number of sentinels hidden by the Yishui River, constantly observing the situation in Jinyong City.
Seeing Zhang Zhao's movement, he actually led his troops to assist. Yelu Deguang immediately ordered Li Shouzhen to mobilize 5,000 Jin army elite infantry. Yelu Pode personally led 15,000 Shan army cavalry to encircle him.
At the same time, Xiao Han's troops from the Khitan left army also launched a diversionary attack against Bai Congxin's troops from Yongliang's right army.
....
Heyang Bridge on the south bank of the Yellow River is about twenty miles away from Jinyong City.
When Zhang Zhao arrived with his army, Yan Jin, the commander of the army, led 6,000 men and was stuck between Heyang Qiaotou and Mang Mountain. It was not in serious danger.
Zhang Zhao immediately sensed something was wrong, because in order to defend the Gaosong headquarters in Zhongli City, Zhang Zhao set up three warning forts along the Yellow River, and the first fort had three trebuchets.
If he were Gao Song, his first combat goal would definitely be to burn these three trebuchets, instead of using all the transportation capacity to deliver the elite to Yan Jin at the last fortress.
"Sir, this is indeed wrong!" Li Cunhui also leaned over and said.
"General Yan has 6,000 soldiers and strongholds, and the 2,000 armored men from Wuwei Town are the elite of our army.
Gaosong's troops in the Yellow River only have 3,000 men, and the 5,000 elite cavalrymen of Yelu House are only 8,000 men. It is impossible to surround General Yan's 6,000 men tightly."
"What do you think of Duojin?" Zhang Zhao turned sideways and asked Qiongre Duojin beside him.
Qiongre Duojin raised his head and looked around, only to see the Khitan cavalry blocked by Yan Jin at the foot of Mang Mountain. Although they shouted one after another, there was not much contact, and the fighting was not fierce.
"Your Majesty, this must be a trick by the Khitans to lure the enemy. I invite you to the rear. Your Majesty, your Majesty, will speed up your army and rush back to Jinyong City."
Zhang Zhao was also frightened. It was impossible to say that he was not panicking at all.
But he definitely couldn't show his timidity in front of the generals, so he shook his head decisively.
"If someone retreats before the enemy arrives, won't he be ridiculed by everyone in the world?
Cun Hui'er, please quickly send a messenger back to Jinyong City and order Zhu Jing and Murong Yanzhao to set off immediately.
Let the horses be killed before bringing three thousand more horses. I want to see how capable these Khitans are?"
－－－－－－Digression－－－－－
It's a bit stuck. I reached the climax, but I don't know how to write it. I deleted more than 2,000 words, so I'm updating it late.
This chapter has been completed!