Chapter 465 Decisive Battle (5) (Monthly Pass at the beginning of the month)
Faced with the sweet fruits of victory, Li Po patiently waited until dawn before ordering Yu Chixin and Yu Wenhuo to lead the troops forward and enter the Tang army's camp.
The Henan surrender troops made a commotion, but soon calmed down. They held their swords and guns nervously and carefully observed this group of enemies who seemed to be very strange to them from beginning to end.
After a night of fighting, the Henan Army was exhausted. They slowly retreated like waves, revealing the Kansai Army surrounded in the middle.
It's over, everything is over.
The voice of persuading surrender rang out in the camp where more than 100,000 Tang troops were stationed. Whether it was the surrendering troops in Henan or the troops in Guanxi, they all laid down their weapons one after another under the orders of the generals, knelt down and asked to surrender. The courage to resist had already been in the nightmare.
It was wasted in one day and one night.
Of course, the most important thing is that the generals who led them did not have the determination and will to die here.
The infantry of the Dai army began to collect the surrendered prisoners and count the captured baggage.
Under Li Po's order, the cavalry army gathered to pursue the defeated Tang army. On this day, from the Tang army's camp to the outside of Queshu Valley, within a range of seventy or eighty miles, those who abandoned their weapons were spared death, and those who lay prone were not killed.
One after another.
The cavalrymen who came and went, like herding sheep, drove back the large group of defeated Tang troops.
A great victory, this was destined to be an unprecedented military victory for the Bingdai army. In these three months, they defeated more than 200,000 Tang troops and almost wiped out Li Tang's troops in Jin.
In the face of such a glorious victory, Li Po also showed a bright smile that he had not seen for a long time. Naturally, no one offended him this time. Before such a great victory, he was also very happy.
The feeling of competing with the world's heroes is enough to make any man intoxicated.
More and more were captured, and the number of captured Tang soldiers soon exceeded 100,000. It would probably take a day to count the captured grain, grass and baggage.
There were more than twenty named generals in the Tang army, and they were escorted to the infantry one after another. Among them were several governors from Hedong states, plus generals such as Sima Canjun, which accounted for more than half.
The other ones are the Kansai generals starting from Li Shentong and Jiang Baoyi.
One after another, prominent Kansai surnames appeared in Li Po's ears.
And Li Po was not in a hurry to see these defeated generals. Apart from gaining some psychological satisfaction, it was of no use to the current situation.
He just ordered the prisoners to be escorted back to Jinyang, and left Xue Wanjun to lead his army to guard the captured prisoners. After noon, the army broke out of camp and headed south to Jiexiu.
The man guarding Jiexiu was an acquaintance of Li Po. He was the former Mayi Gongcao who joined the army, and now the general Ying Yanglang is Li Dingfang. He is Li Jing's nephew and is still related to Li Po.
Needless to say, Li Jing never rose to prominence, and Li Duan, who was attached to the Yuwen family, was not deprived of his title and went home to retire. Li Dingfang was not a prosperous official in Yingyang Mansion, but he was steadily promoted.
Now following Li Shentong to Jin to conquer Li Po was something Li Dingfang wanted to do, so he rushed to come. In addition, he once lived in Mayi as a meritorious official and was familiar with the northern part of Jin, so it was natural for him to come with the army.
As for those who are not relatives, the Li brothers have been at odds with each other for a long time and have no contact with each other. Even when Li Jing was living in Chang'an, Li Dingfang and others still wanted to kill him. Even Li Yuan has heard about these things, so needless to say
Someone else.
Otherwise, Li Shentong would not have handed over Jiexiu to Li Dingfang to garrison him.
For Li Dingfang, he would never have imagined that the little refugee who was whipped by him that day would rise up on the edge of Mayi and become the world in less than ten years.
One of the princes.
What is even more unexpected is that he came with the army and took advantage of the situation. He did not capture and humiliate this rebellious official, but the army of more than 200,000 was defeated in a single battle.
Of course, there are some things that people like him can't understand.
Speaking of which, Li Dingfang saw the opportunity quite quickly. When Xue Wanjun and Wang Zhibian came at night to besiege Jinyang, he already felt that something was wrong. He had been cut off from news about the army for many days, but now they came in groups.
of enemy cavalry.
Not only him, but others were also horrified.
The one who fled first was not Li Dingfang, but a leading military officer from Shangdang. Fortunately, no one thought of dedicating the city. Otherwise, a Kansai general like Li Dingfang would be their best gift to the enemy.
.
But the morale of the army was in chaos, and with Li Dingfang's prestige and talent, there was nothing he could do. He and Pei Ji were similar, they both came here to gain credit, and maybe take the opportunity to avenge themselves, and they didn't have much desire to kill the enemy.
So the result can be imagined.
Li Dingfang wanted to take a look at the situation. After all, abandoning the city and fleeing was a serious crime. If the army ahead was clear, he would abandon Jie Xiu and run away. After returning, he would be charged with beheading, and his family might also be affected.
But someone fled first. With the morale of the troops in the city unstable, the thousands of Kansai troops under his command were also in panic.
Seeing that the city was becoming more and more unstable, Li Dingfang became afraid, and after waiting until the middle of the night, the defeated troops of the Tang Army's rear army finally arrived at Jiexiu one after another. These were all fish that slipped through the net, and most of them bypassed Jiexiu and continued running.
, only a few still want to enter Jiexiu to have a rest.
The troops of Xue Wanche and Wang Zhibian outside the city were not in a hurry. The Tang army's defeat was a foregone conclusion and they could not afford to chase these scattered escapees all over the mountains and plains at night.
At this time, the two of them actually missed a big fish.
Pei Ji, who had disheveled hair and had abandoned his war horse and took off his shirt, passed by Jiexiu miserably and fled toward Queshu Valley under the guard of more than a dozen soldiers.
Thus, for the first time, Jiexiu City received an accurate battle report. The army may have been defeated.
Li Dingfang was already frightened. After hearing such news, he immediately led his confidants out of Xicheng at night and left Jiexiu behind.
At this time, the so-called Jiexiu garrison was in pieces, and Li Shentong's so-called advance, attack, retreat, and defense seemed like a living joke at this time.
Even if the army is not defeated, news has been cut off for a long time, and a large group of enemy troops are approaching, it will cause unparalleled psychological pressure on the Tang army who stayed behind.
The Tang army's retreat seemed dangerous, but in fact it was weak and vulnerable.
By the time Li Po led his army to Jiexiu, the flag of the sun, moon and stars was flying over the city of Jiexiu again.
Xue Wanche and Wang Zhibian led their troops to pursue them to the north entrance of Queshu Valley, and gathered more than a thousand captured and surrendered soldiers. Then they stopped outside Queshu Valley and confronted Pei Shiqing's troops stationed in Queshu Valley.
Nearly 100,000 troops gathered in Jiexiu again.
This is a truly victorious army, its morale is so high that it seems like it can break through the sky.
Li Po ordered the army to rest for a day in Jiexiu. The whole army cheered loudly. They fought in March and finally won a big victory. The joy that had been suppressed for a long time erupted like a volcano.
That night, there were bonfires everywhere outside Jiexiu City, and the aroma of wine and meat was everywhere. The military camp was filled with the smell of joy. To reward the three armies, wine and meat were the best.
The soldiers, who had been banned from drinking in the army for a long time, drank to their heart's content
But Li Po did not have a banquet with the generals in Jiexiu City, because in his opinion, the war was not over yet. Although the fruits of victory were sweet and sweet, he still needed to pick more fruits.
Because the fundamental goal of this battle is not to defeat Li Tang's army. Like many battles, for a commander, the war itself is of little significance. The goal that needs to be achieved in the war is always on the battlefield.
outside.
In fact, the purpose of most wars is not much different. Territory, only more territory and more population are the ultimate goals.
Amidst the cheers of the army, Li Po's eyes had turned to Queshu Valley
After Queshu Valley is Linfen County, and behind it is Jiang County, the home of the Pei family in Hedong. These are the only roads leading to the merger of the two states.
And the broader world has also opened its arms to the two states.
To the west is Shangdang, and to the south is the coast of the Yellow River. The route Li Yuan took when he raised his army is very clear.
In fact, at this time, Li Po was thinking about where to stop this year's army. The empty southeastern part of Henan Province was placed in front of him like a tempting cake, but it was destined to be filled with food.
some sand.
How to pick out the sand or swallow it alive was what Li Po needed to think about.
That night, Li Po still didn't sleep much. After the joy of the victory gradually faded away, he rubbed his forehead and leaned on the railing in front of the window to look. One by one, the rather troubling choices began to emerge and gradually became clear.
This is undoubtedly a rather annoying cycle, and may be experienced many times in the future, even endlessly. For him now, the joy of victory is too short-lived, because every time he wins, the burden on his shoulders seems to be
Will it get heavier again?
Haha, Ah Cao considers himself a relatively peaceful person, with no regional or racial discrimination. Ah Cao just constructed a background of the troubled times in the late Sui Dynasty. When writing, everyone must conform to this background setting.
In Ah Cao's writing, the powerful families have their shortcomings, and the same goes for the peasant rebels. Ah Cao is just writing a wonderful story seriously, without any intention to target anyone.
The rich and powerful families and the common people at the bottom constitute the main body of this troubled world. Are they hateful in A Cao's works? In fact, they are not. A Cao is just narrating the origin and process of this troubled world. Each character must match their identity and origin.
Is the protagonist a good character? The same is not true. Every person in Ah Cao's works who starts a war and survives in troubled times has a dark and cold side.
So there is no need to worry about these, this is just a story. As long as each character can be clearly portrayed, Ah Cao will not care how history evaluates them. In Ah Cao's story, they are like this.
Haha, everyone in Henan, I'm sorry. To be continued.