Cao Shixiong, Cao Shili led Shuozhou to rebel against South Vietnam, raided Datong City at the heart of Xijing Road, and almost captured the outer city without a single blow. The defenders had only four to five thousand remnants left to retreat to the inner city. This news had a great impact on the Khitan in Jincheng, Huairen and other cities.
The defenders undoubtedly smashed the huge boulder into the calm lake, suddenly causing shocking waves and changing the color of the situation.
At this time, no one of the Khitan garrison troops in Jincheng, Huairen and other cities thought of gathering troops and horses to rush over to reinforce Datong.
Even the main force of the Khitan people in Yingzhou immediately gave up the confrontation with the Dayue East Route Army on the south bank of the Huangshui River. After hastily withdrawing into Yingzhou City, they closed the four cities tightly to wait and see the situation.
Although majestic mountains such as Yanshan Mountain, Yinshan Mountain, and Changshan Mountain (Hengshan Mountain) crisscross the land of Yanyun, the Huihe River winds more than 200 miles in depth after leaving the northern foot of Guanxun Mountain, and it is an open river valley plain.
The sky was slightly overcast, and the sun was as thin as a paper cut. It tilted weakly to the west. The Tianxiong Army's reconnaissance horses galloped on both sides of the Huihe River, clearly seeing the defense situation on both sides.
The remnant enemies on both sides of the Huihe River did not even dare to open the city gates. Of course, the main force of the Tianxiong Army was no longer afraid. Together with the surrendered Qingshun Army and the accompanying Xiang Army, they totaled nearly 40,000 troops, like several blue and black strands.
A torrent surged on the withered yellow land, rushing towards Datong.
Among them, the fastest advance was the 3,000 Qing Shun army infantry led by Meng Ping, the general of Cao's army. They arrived at Datong City at dusk.
There were more than 7,000 cavalry in the vanguard. Except for Cao Shili's 2,000 cavalry who set off directly from Shuozhou City and attacked for 200 miles in two days and one night, which was not too strenuous, the other troops, including the soldiers of the military envoy, were almost there.
A journey of four hundred miles in three days and two nights.
This level of deep marching can be said to consume a lot of physical energy of the Imperial Guard generals.
Therefore, after the vanguard troops entered the city, in addition to clearing out a few areas as garrison areas in the afternoon, the focus was on rest and recuperation.
In addition, the main task is to dispatch small teams of soldiers and horses to search for remaining enemies in the West City area, and establish nodes for subsequent advancement in key areas from the West City to the South City, North City, and close to the inner city.
Most of the generals were exhausted when they arrived in Datong. Except for clearing a few areas and driving the civilians away with threats of swords and guns when they were stationed, most of the generals did not let them go out wantonly. Naturally, military discipline was neither good nor bad.
By driving out the households and clearing out the settlements, it was impossible to distinguish between Han and Tibetan people.
Therefore, in addition to the expelled people, other Khitan people, Tibetan people and the vast majority of Han people in the Xicheng area still closed their doors tightly and watched the development of the situation with anxiety.
Even though there were a few break-ins and robberies in the afternoon, they did not cause any major commotion.
After Meng Ping led the Qing Shun Army's 3,000 infantry to arrive in Datong City, Ge Huaicong directly arranged his troops to the area close to the inner city and was responsible for preparing to storm the inner city.
Ge Huaicong did not set up his headquarters at Shengde Gate. Instead, he took his eldest son Ge Yu directly to a private home in Xicheng and set up his headquarters there during the war.
As the supervisor of the Datong battlefield, Zhu Hang naturally took Zhu Zhi, Lu Wenhu and several generals to live in the camp with Yue Hailou, who was not responsible for commanding troops, in order to be able to discuss military plans with Ge Huaicong at any time.
Five hundred cavalry were also stationed at the camp as guards.
Xu Huai and the others did not undertake combat missions. Ge Huaicong did not want them to come out to enforce military discipline. Zhu Hang did not need them as personal guards, so they were left alone in the corner of the west city.
…………
…………
After nightfall, Datong fell into an eerie silence.
The Qing Shun Army's 3,000 infantrymen marched 200 miles in two days to reach Datong City. They certainly did not want to launch a night battle against the fortified inner city. The defenders, with only 4,000 to 5,000 remnant soldiers, were in panic and had no guts to launch a counterattack at night.
By early morning, all the generals had rested.
The night sky was covered with lightness, and the stars and moon were looming behind the thin clouds. The sky and the earth were dim. Xu Huai stood on the turret and looked at the whole city of Datong in silence.
The Dai Viet Imperial Army is weak in combat strength, but as a frontier army, the Thien Hung Army can still maintain basic training.
Standing on the turret, Xu Huai could see the forward camp of more than 10,000 soldiers and horses outlined by guard torches, and the order was quite orderly.
However, under the strange and silent night, undercurrents are surging in the South City, North City and East City.
Even though it was mostly covered in pitch-black night, Xu Huai could still make out something with just a few scattered lights.
Especially the shimmering light that resembled the movement of a lantern, Xu Huai could see that there were people escaping from the other three city gates overnight, and there were also people escaping from the east gate of the inner city into the inner city. At the same time, there were also a large number of shadows walking frequently in the streets and alleys.
Even without Xu Wuqi and Zhou Jing entering Datong a day and night in advance to inquire about the news, Xu Huai could still see that the Khitan people and Tibetan people staying in the outer city area were quickly uniting in the face of a huge survival crisis.
It is a pity that the forward troops and horses have rested for a long time, but Ge Huaicong still does not want to send his direct troops and horses to control the south city, east city and north city at night.
And they only have this few manpower. Even if they act without caring about Zhu Hang's feelings, they are not qualified to wade into troubled waters.
Before heading north, Xu Huaidi could not imagine that senior generals such as Ge Huaicong could make such poor tactical mistakes one by one.
This made a bad breath block in his chest and he could not let it out.
However, Xu Wukun directly bypassed Zhu Hang and ran to Ge Huaicong. On the pretext that the northwest corner of the city wall was right above their head, he asked to be included in the surveillance range of the military envoys. Ge Huaicong was very talkative this time and made it easier for them.
.
Ge Huaicong also agreed that they could enter and leave the city freely so that he could arrange for manpower to lead the horses out to graze.
However, it is not difficult for Xu Huai to guess the root cause.
Although the Nuanxiang Tower incident made everyone very unhappy, after all, Ge Huaicong was not the young and energetic Ge Yu who insisted on competing with them.
In the eyes of Ge Huaicong and the others, victory was already within their grasp at this time, and there was endless glory and wealth waiting for them. Why should he have trouble with the Military Supervisory Envoy, who had the power of inspection?
If the dispute is too tense, Wang Fan and his father and Ge Boyi will find some minor faults and write them into a book, which will attract those who are guilty of pinkeye in the court to criticize each other.
Cai Qing, who was the most successful in the expedition to Yan, was the sworn enemy. Xu Huai believed that Ge Boyi and Ge Huaicong, the father and son who were better at being officials and generals, would not take it seriously.
If the northern expedition against Yan succeeds, Privy Councilor Cai Qing will definitely be in the limelight for a while, and he may even follow the instructions of his ancestors and be granted the title of county king. However, in Dai Viet, Cai Qing is more popular, regardless of the ancestral family precepts, or other factions in the government and the public.
The generals and ministers absolutely did not want to see Cai Zheng and his family dominate the court.
Wang Jinqi returned to the court and allowed him to check and balance Cai Qing in the court. In fact, all parties were happy to see the situation happen.
After Wang Fan's secret envoy Chi Hu returned home, he immediately served as the deputy envoy to the military and horse capital of the conquering Yan army. Together with Liu Shizhong and Cai Yuanyou, they came to Hedong with the decree to supervise the army. This matter must be promoted secretly by someone with intentions, and it must be in line with the law.
Holy will.
After arriving in Hedong, Liu Shizhong and Cai Yuanyou asked Wang Fan to go to the West Route Army alone to supervise the battle, so they must have some idea of the Holy Spirit.
Could Ge Boyi, Ge Huaicong and his son not see the strangeness in this, and understand such a strong signal here?
The Nuanxiang Tower incident involves the Duke of Lu. The Ge family will never allow any accidents. They will not hesitate to go to the Supervisory Army Envoy Court to ask for help, and will not allow the slightest clue to fall into the hands of outsiders. But other than this, is there any need for the Ge family?
Are you having trouble with Wang Zhen, Wang Fan and his son?
When the prisoners gathered at Huanglongpo Station over grain matters, Ge Huaicong was responsible for leading his troops to garrison Kelan City. He should have learned a lot about the behavior of Wang Zhen and the people in Tongbai Mountain.
Wang Fan is nominally the supervisor of the military envoy, and Zhu Hang is in charge, but Ge Boyi, Ge Huaicong and his son will obviously not forget that if Wang Zhen and Wang Fan and his son can gain power in the court in the future, Wang Zhen will be the core; they
I will also never forget that when Wang Zhen went to Lanzhou Stone Field to be the supervisor, he was escorted thousands of miles by the people of Tongbai Mountain.
At this juncture, he would ask Xu Wukun to represent everyone in Tongbai Mountain, bypass Zhu Hang, and go directly to Ge Huaicong to make a small request. Why should Ge Huaicong refuse?
At this time, Xu Xin'an climbed the rope from the side of the city to the turret. He held an iron drill in his hand, shook his head and said: "This city wall is extremely solid, and the bottom is five or six feet wide. With our few people, we can only
For three to five days, it is impossible to dig a hole. We can only prepare extra ropes and bamboos, and build a rope ladder to get in and out in case of emergency!"
Xu Huai sighed. Xiao Linshi and his troops were still slow. They would definitely attack Shengdemen at night. They would cooperate with the defenders in the city, the agitated Khitan people and the young Tibetan people to attack Tianxiong who was delayed in the west city.
If they can secretly dig out a doorway for soldiers and horses to enter and exit from this section of the city wall before this happens, they may not be able to give Xiao Linshi a surprise.
It's a pity that the time left for them was too limited, and he couldn't do it in a big way. Firstly, it would not be able to achieve the effect of a surprise attack, and secondly, he had no reason to explain this to Zhu Hang and Ge Huaicong.
They had enough ropes and materials to quickly build several ladders in the city, which was already their limit.
Speaking of which, the strength they directly control is too weak.
If he had two thousand elites in his hands, history could be rewritten!
It's a pity, if it can never withstand the cruel reality...
