The golden-red sunset hung over the top of the Western Mountain, filling the sky with brilliance. However, under the clouds, in the southeast corner of Jincheng, the capital of Zezhou Prefecture, after a day of fierce fighting, hundreds of soldiers had no intention of temporarily truceing.
Once again, storm the city wall from this direction.
The defenders on the city wall were so exhausted.
After the year, hundreds of thousands of soldiers and civilians in the city were in a state of semi-starvation, and most of the soldiers were so hungry that their faces were yellow and thin. The main force of the Japanese troops retreated north and surrounded Jincheng. They fought hard for more than ten days. At this time, they raised their swords and shields and all
I feel like the last bit of energy in my body is being squeezed out.
However, they had no escape route behind them, so they could only grit their teeth and fight to the death with the captive soldiers. The blood had already stained the city top red, and there were corpses with broken limbs and bones all over the city walls.
Yue Hailou and Xiao Qian, surrounded by many guards and generals, reined in their horses and stopped on a hill in the southeast of Jincheng to watch the battle.
This is only about two thousand steps away from the southeast wall of Jincheng. Standing on the hilltop, you can clearly see the battle situation on the southeast wall of Jincheng.
Yue Hailou held down the shoulder knife at his waist, looked at Xiao Qian with a solemn expression, and said calmly: "The defenders of Jincheng are at the end of their strength. Let us work harder and we will be able to capture Jincheng in a few days! But we don't know how to attack it."
After descending to Jincheng, should the Yunzhou soldiers and horses go to Yangcheng, Qinshui, and exit through Taiyue Shanxi, or should they stay with us at Shangdang and wait for the Southern Dynasty reinforcements to move north?"
Due to the second northern expedition against Yan, Xiaosheng, and Xuanwu armies were defeated, and the defense in the northeast of Hedong was empty. Lu Si urgently mobilized troops and horses from Ze, Lu, Jin, Pu and other prefectures to rush for reinforcements, but the DPRK and China were delayed in rushing to the rescue of Hedong.
He was so determined that when Xiao Qian, Yue Hailou, Cao Shili and others surrendered their troops and marched south through Zezhou, Jincheng, the prefecture's capital, only had more than 2,000 Xiang troops and rural soldiers with weak combat effectiveness.
However, the surrendered troops were eager to cross the river south to participate in the siege of Zhengzhou later in the year, and missed the best opportunity for the Affiliated City to storm Jincheng. This gave Jincheng the opportunity to reorganize the weak defenders in the past three or four months, and also
Choose brave men and women from among the people to make up for the shortage of troops.
However, Yue Hailou didn't think it would be very difficult for them to take over Jincheng or even all of Zezhou as soon as possible.
Zezhou is also known as Nanshangdang. It crosses Taihangxing in the southern section of Taihang Mountain to the south. When entering Huaizhou, you can see Bianliang across the river. Even if they retreat north, Yue Hailou and Xiao Qian hope to capture Jincheng (Zezhou).
Zhoucheng), destroy it so as not to become an obstacle for them to move south again.
Because of the importance of Zezhou, especially Zezhou Prefecture in governing Jincheng, Yue Hailou, Cao Shili, and Xiao Qian were ordered to lead their main force southward to cooperate with the main force of the East Route Army in attacking Zhengzhou and other cities later in the year, but they still left a lot of troops behind.
, besieged and harassed Jincheng and surrounding areas.
Therefore, after the main force of the surrender army passed through the Taihang Mountains and crossed the Yellow River and headed south, the cities on the Shangdang Highlands such as Shangdang, Changzi, Lucheng, Huguan, and Xiangyuan that had not fallen all got a chance to breathe. Only Jincheng remained connected to the outside world.
Cut off contact.
In the early days of the war, a large number of refugees fled into the strongest city in southern Shanxi. They could not be evacuated for five or six months. In order to support the war against Yan, a large amount of supplies in the city were transported to Taiyuan, but they were not received in time.
To make up for this, nearly 200,000 soldiers and civilians were besieged in Jincheng. They lacked clothing and food, and were in a state of semi-starvation for a long time. It was difficult for Yue Hailou to imagine how much fighting power the defenders still had.
After withdrawing to the north, Yue Hailou led his troops to capture Lingchuan and other cities first. Although he did not have to mix with the Yunzhou troops, considering the importance of Jincheng, he took the initiative to lead his troops to Jincheng and jointly completed the attack on Jincheng.
Encircled and assisted Xiao Qian in attacking Jincheng.
Seeing Xiao Qian driving the Yunzhou soldiers to conduct tentative attacks on Jincheng for several rounds, and seeing that the defenders' will to resist was acceptable, Yue Hailou was still a little surprised, but that was all. He was now more thinking about where to go after capturing Jincheng.
.
At this time, several soldiers on horseback carrying the messenger flags came galloping from the valley on the west slope. Seeing the messenger cavalry rushing to the foot of the hill and negotiating with the guards in a hurry, Yue Hailou frowned slightly.
To the west of Jincheng, including Yangcheng and Qinshui, is the area where Xiao Qian's troops are responsible for attacking. Theoretically, the defenders are all county soldiers and rural warriors, and their combat effectiveness is not strong. However, the Fenshui Valley to the east of Taiyue Mountain is currently also
There is no sign of a large-scale Western Army crossing the river. What will happen in the west?
"Yesterday at noon, soldiers and horses rushed from Jiangzhou to Qinshui? What did Liu Jinzhong do for food? Why did he not come here until now?" Xiao Qian received the letter and was so angry that he wanted to whip the messenger with a whip.
"There is an enemy force rushing to attack Qinshui? How many troops are there?" Yue Hailou asked in shock.
Qinshui City is located in the Taiyue Mountains. With Qinshui City as the dividing point, the Hengcheng Ridge and Wuling Mountains to the west have dangerous terrain. Along the Qinshui River Valley to the south to Yangcheng, you will pass through a series of slopes, valleys, ridges and hills when you enter Yangcheng County.
, which is Jincheng County.
If Xiao cadre general Liu Jinzhong could not capture Qinshui City, he even asked the Yueting to send a large number of reinforcements south along the Qinshui River Valley, which meant that their flanks would be completely exposed.
The question is, where did this enemy force come from?
After they withdrew from Zhengzhou and Xingyang across the Hebei River, the main force of the Western Army's reinforcements took advantage of the trend to recover Hulao, Xingyang, Zhengzhou and other cities from west to east.
However, the Yue court was still debating the war. In addition to a small number of soldiers and horses under the leadership of Zheng Huaizhong, they crossed the Yellow River, recovered Mengzhou and other empty cities on the north bank of the Yellow River, and relieved the siege of Huaizhou and other cities. The main force of the Western Army's reinforcements was still stationed in
South Bank of the Yellow River.
It was difficult for Yue Hailou to imagine that the Western Army would have a force capable of crossing the river at this time, crossing the Fenshui River Valley and Taiyue Mountain, and directly attacking Qinshui on their west side.
And the large number of reconnaissance cavalry and scouts deployed by the Chihu West Route Army in the Fenshui Valley did not notice anything unusual?
There is another question. Xiao Qian directly questioned the messenger. The soldiers and horses in Qinshui encountered enemy troops at noon yesterday. How come the message was not sent until now?
With such urgent information, Qinshui passed through Yangcheng and then to Jincheng. The horse was galloping. Even if it took three hours, it was considered slow. Now it has taken fourteen or five hours. No wonder Xiao Qian was furious.
"Yesterday before noon, a small group of enemy troops raided Qinjingyi. Liu Jinzhong did not realize that this was a trick to lure troops. He was careless and sent people to rescue Qinjingyi. He suffered a big loss and lost six to seven hundred people in one fell swoop. This grandson is too careless now.
"It has only been a few days since I retreated north, and I have forgotten how to fight a war, thinking that the Southern Dynasties are all incompetent people."
Xiao Qian lowered his head to read what the letter said, and quickly introduced to Yue Hailou the situation of the Qinshui attack written in the letter. After reading the end, he breathed a sigh of relief and said to Yue Hailou,
"Fortunately, Liu Jinzhong did not continue to act recklessly. Seeing that he could not find out the details of the attack on the enemy in a short time, he promptly gave up the siege of Qinshui City last night, withdrew his troops and horses, and re-defended along the river. Now he can almost judge
About three thousand people joined the Qinshui garrison..."
"I don't know where this army came from, but it wouldn't be too surprising if there are only four to three thousand people."
Yue Hailou had served in the Western Army for many years and knew that the disputes over the peace talks between Yue and Ting were so fierce that some generals of the Western Army led their troops to cross the river without authorization, or that the peace-seeking faction in the Western Army had to make concessions and agree to a small number of
It is reasonable for the vanguard troops to cross the river to test.
Of course, Yue Hailou was still more concerned about the issue Xiao Qiangang mentioned. He stared at the messenger and asked,
"You knew about the incoming enemy troops at noon yesterday, why did you send the message just now?"
"General Qianhu sent people to report the message several times, but he did not expect the thieves to be cunning, and they were all robbed and killed halfway. It was the Yangcheng defenders who noticed the abnormality and sent reconnaissance horses north along the Qinshui River to open up the message route - of course
, Fortunately, it was delayed until now to find out the enemy's situation, otherwise the unknown situation of the enemy would also disturb Commander Xiao and Commander Yue..." The messenger, sweating profusely, explained the reason for the delay in the summons.
"They are all idiots. They thought they had a chance to win. They thought Qinshui and Yangcheng were under control, but they didn't send out enough scouts." After Xiao Qian withdrew his troops to the north, he became content with pleasure and slacked off on military affairs.
He was quite at his wits' end and shook his head and said, "It's funny how this enemy army has gone to such great lengths to think that if they delay telling us about this for just one day, they can kill Liu Jinzhong's troops?"
Seeing Xiao Qian's relaxed tone, he knew that there were only three to four thousand people attacking the enemy. He thought that Liu Jinzhong, who had suffered a lot, could handle it. However, Yue Hailou smelled danger sensitively and strongly, and frowned and said to Xiao Qian
: "Shuai Xiao must not forget that the army guarding the mausoleum led by King Jing Zhao Tuan in Gong County is about 3,000 people! These methods are too similar to the actions of Tongbai Mountain soldiers. They may really be fighting for this day's time...
