Although he could enter the city with a rope, Cao Shixiong did not escape to Lanzhou. Instead, he fled along the low ridge on the east bank of Fen River to Qipan Mountain in the north.
Qipan Mountain is a mountain in the northern section of Luliang Mountain that connects to Guanlui Mountain in the west. Although the mountain is not high and cannot be said to be very steep, it is the boundary mountain between Kelan and Ningwu, and also the boundary between Fenshui River and Huihe River.
watershed.
Across Qipan Mountain is the territory of Ningwu County. After winter, the Huihe River has not been completely frozen and flows meandering between heaven and earth.
Standing on a hill in Qipan Mountain, looking at Lanzhou City under the setting sun, and then looking at the hundreds of defeated soldiers gathered around him to flee, Cao Shixiong wanted to cry without tears. All his ambitions and ambitions in this life were almost gone at this moment.
It was about to collapse, leaving only a heart-pounding pain, but he still refused to give in.
The main reason why he did not go to Lanzhou City at this time was because in Lanzhou City, apart from the hundreds of soldiers who hurriedly entered the city and were killed in fear, there were thousands of military children who could not form an army to leave the city to fight in a short period of time.
combat effectiveness.
When he returns to Lanzhou City, he will be unable to do anything except being trapped in the city.
This is the main force of the Qing Shun Army. Except for the four to five thousand cavalry led by Meng Ping and Cao Cheng, they are mainly in Ningwu and Langu.
When he goes to Ningwu, he can gather all the soldiers and horses from Langu, Guangwu, and Minglu Walled City. He will also have eight or nine thousand troops in his hands, so that he will not completely fall into a passive situation of being beaten.
"The enemy has occupied Qipanshan Post—Commander Jie, let's go!" Two guards returned from riding horses from a distance, reporting the news that Qipanshan Post had been occupied by Chu Shanqi.
Qipanshan Post is located in the western section of Qipanshan. It is on the post road from Ningwu to Kelan (Lanzhou City). Its geographical location is extremely important, and there are only a hundred soldiers stationed there. As long as the Chushan Cavalry goes north from Huanglongpo, its fall is inevitable.
things.
Knowing that there were still thousands of enemy soldiers gathering in the direction of Qipanshan Post, but there was no sign of sending troops beyond Qipanshan Post to Ningwu territory at this time, Cao Shixiong became more and more sure that Xu Huai appeared in Lanzhou at this time.
He came here just to attack Taiyuan.
However, after Cao Shili was ambushed on the Zhufeng Gorge Road, he waited in Lanzhou City until yesterday evening before sending people to Shuozhou, Yunzhou and other places to report the news. He did not know whether the messengers had arrived in Yunzhou City (Datong) at this time.
); He currently has too few people around him to even send out new messengers.
If the previous messengers were intercepted, it means that Shuozhou is likely to be kept in the dark, not to mention Yunzhou, Yanzhou, Yingzhou and other places further away.
Thinking of this, Cao Shixiong did not dare to stay in Qipan Mountain. He took the pitiful defeated troops gathered together and climbed over the hills of Qipan Mountain and fled to Ningwu City in the north.
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The cold wind made the tent shudder, and Niu Er walked in with a basin of water. He saw Xu Huai, Wang Ju and others crouching at the desk, staring at the Lanzhou Kantu map and studying something.
The basin of water was placed on the ground, and the urn said: "This basin of river water has been blowing for half the night, and it has formed such a thin ice. I don't think it can be completely frozen tonight - Junhou asked Niu Er to keep an eye on this basin of water.
What are you going to do with the ice, or do you want to burn the ice residue to make tea? It doesn’t have to be so troublesome, I can go to the mountain next to it and bring back some clean snow in a leather bag!”
The snow near the ferry was mixed with blood and was trampled by horses and horses until it became muddy, but the large areas of snow between the low ridges on the left and right were still clean.
Niu Er remembered that Xu Huai had said that the ice and snow were very clean after melting, and thought that Xu Huai asked him to step out of the tent from time to time to see if the water in the basin was frozen because he wanted to get clean water to make tea.
"How long has this basin of water been left outside to blow?" Xu Huai reached into the basin, picked up the thin ice, took a look, and asked.
Jiang Xie picked up the document on his desk, glanced at it, compared the inscriptions, and said: "It's been a quarter of an hour. The water will freeze three minutes faster tonight than it did the day before!"
"What does it matter whether the ice will freeze quickly or slowly? Maybe we have to wait for the big river in the east to freeze over and then cross the river on the ice?" Niu Erweng asked in a loud voice.
"Go and cut a horse leg over and roast it for everyone to have a meal!" Xu Huai sent Niu Er to do things to save him from asking endless questions like a curious baby.
Lanzhou is still too far from Hehuai.
Now the central and southern parts of Hedong are almost occupied by the Chihu people. If you want to know the movements of the soldiers on both sides of the Yellow River, you need to take a detour from Luoyang and Guanshan, which will lag for about ten days.
The most critical thing here, and the information that Xu Huai is most concerned about, is the freezing period of the Yellow River.
The freezing period of the Yellow River will change with the southward invasion of the northern cold current and is not static.
As for the section of the Yellow River between Luoyang and Weizhou, because the Yellow River turns northeast after passing Bianliang, the downstream section farther north often freezes first every winter.
This also caused large-scale flooding to occur frequently in the middle and lower reaches of the Yellow River a few years ago.
The DPRK also consciously drove the boats on the north bank of the Yellow River south, which meant that the main force of hundreds of thousands of Red Husbands was still on the north bank of the Yellow River at this time, making it difficult to cross the river on a large scale.
They need to wait until the Yellow River is completely frozen before they can sweep towards Bianliang.
Xu Huai is now unable to accurately judge how long it will take for the main force of Chihu to capture Bianliang after crossing the Yellow River. It may take a while, or it may be defeated in one blow, but one thing is certain.
Before, they would never divide their troops to return to Taiyuan.
Xu Huai is now paying attention to the freezing phenomenon of rivers in Lanzhou and other places, and the strength of the cold current intruding southward, mainly to estimate the freezing period of the Yellow River, so as to judge how long it is relatively safe for them to fight near Taiyuan, and
Use this to adjust combat deployment.
These things can only be roughly estimated at present, and there are no accurate records in various places. Xu Huai only arranged for Jiang Xie, who served as a clerk in the army, to pay attention to this area. There was no way to explain it clearly to Niu Er, so it would be easier to distract him.
.
However, Niu Er asked Xu Huai to send someone away for a while, then walked in carrying a bloody horse leg.
"You idiot, if you don't add salt and spices, how are you going to roast the horse's leg?" Xiao Yanhan smacked her lips and cursed Niu Er when she saw the horse's blood dripping on the tent floor.
"Officer Qiao is here! I'll run over and tell Junhou." Niu Er muttered.
"Daguan" is a respectful title for senior eunuchs.
Xu Huai did not expect that Qiao Jien would come to Lanzhou on behalf of King Jing at this time. He hurriedly walked out of the tent with Wang Ju, Xiao Yanhan, Chen Zixiao and others. He saw Qiao Jien, who was wrapped in a fur shirt outside his official robe, and was in charge of the trial of Gu Jian and others in Fuzhou.
Accompanied by Xu Wujiang, Zheng Tu and others who he arranged to stay in Fuzhou and keep in touch with the Gu family, they had already walked into the camp and walked towards the tent.
"When did Senior Officer Qiao arrive in Fuzhou? Why did he come to Lanzhou in this icy and snowy place? If anything happens, Senior Official Qiao will send someone over and just say it." It was cold outside, so Xu Huai directly sent Qiao Jien and Gu Jian to him.
Wait for the people to be welcomed into the big tent and then ask for warmth.
"According to His Highness's order, I arrived at Fugu this afternoon. I was about to ask Gu Shijun to send someone to inform you, but the messenger you sent arrived at Fugu first and detailed the situation of Chushan soldiers and horses in Lanzhou.
The combat arrangements also say that you will be able to annihilate another enemy force in Lanzhou today,"
Qiao Jien said,
"Gu Shijun and Ji'an didn't believe that you would go so smoothly. Cao Shixiong is not a simple person after all, so I dragged Ji'an to Lanzhou to watch the battle. Xu Huai quickly told Ji'an how many enemy troops you had annihilated in the afternoon battle.
?”
Although the situation in Bianliang is precarious, the situation on King Jing's side is developing as expected and with good momentum.
The beginning of all this was when Xu Huai met King Jing in Yanling and persuaded King Jing to rush to Gongxian County.
Qiao Jien's mentality has now completely corrected, and he is determined to help King Jing ascend to the throne. Of course, he treats Xu Huai very kindly.
Now he cordially grabbed Gu Jian's arm and sat down beside the table, showing that he and Gu Jian had a very good personal relationship.
The Gu family is considered a very special entity among the generals of the border states. Several generations of people have been carving out land and ennobling lords in Fuzhou, but each generation will follow the usual practice of arranging some core children to serve in Beijing, Jianghuai and other places.
Gu Jian had served in Beijing for twelve years when he was young. He was familiar with Qiao Jien, and also knew King Jing Zhao Tuan and Qian Shangduan.
Even at this time, support was still an extremely sensitive topic. Xu Huai was mainly responsible for commanding the troops in Fuzhou and would not take the initiative to discuss this matter with Gu.
Now that Qiao Jien had arrived in Fuzhou, he would not talk to Gu Jiqian directly about the matter, so he first grabbed Gu Jian, who had a personal relationship in Beijing, to build up his relationship.
Of course, the prerequisite for all this is that Xu Huai's military operations in Lanzhou can proceed smoothly; in addition, Qiao Jien rushed to Fuzhou on the order of King Jing to urge the Gu family to more actively support Xu Huai in uniting the troops in Lanzhou.
.
"In the afternoon battle, not many heads were harvested, less than 2,000. Our manpower was still too small, so we could only watch a large number of defeated troops fleeing to Loufan, Ningwu and other places; we also knew that Lanzhou City
There are not many men left, but we are unable to attack by force!" Xu Huai glanced at Gu Jian by the candlelight and smacked his lips.
"...cough!" Gu Jian was taking the hot tea brought by the guard without taking a sip. Hearing Xu Huai say a number, he was so frightened that he started to count, spilled the hot tea on his robe, and asked in surprise, "
How many heads did the military marquis capture in the afternoon battle?"
"It's less than two thousand. I don't have the patience to count the exact number. I'm asking someone to cut off the ears and prepare to send them to Gu Shijun's case in Fuzhou early tomorrow morning." Xu Huai said.
After the battle in the afternoon, Xu Huai had not sent anyone to report the results of the battle to Fuzhou. He thought of cutting off the left ears of the enemies he killed and sending them to Fuzhou for counting, in order to urge Fuzhou to send troops. However, he did not expect that Qiao Jien had already killed him.
In an instant, Gu Jian was dragged to Lanzhou.
"Cao Shixiong had five thousand defenders in Lanzhou City. He captured two thousand heads in a battle in the afternoon. Does this mean that Cao Shixiong's five thousand defenders in Lanzhou City were completely wiped out?" Gu Jian asked in shock.
"What's wrong? Gu Tong blames us for not taking the opportunity to attack Lanzhou City?" Xu Huai asked pretending to be confused, "If we have done everything, what else will the soldiers and horses of Fuzhou do?"
"No, no," Gu Jian suppressed the shock in his heart and explained, "We thought that Cao Shixiong was a person. Without him, we would be so vulnerable in front of the military princes. We were really surprised just now!"
"Surprise doesn't matter, the Gu family still needs to send out real troops - Chushan Cavalry's vanguard troops have left for Taiyuan overnight. I will lead the rest of the troops to Taiyuan early tomorrow morning to fight. I don't know if Lanzhou can
Leave it to the Gu family?" Since Gu Jian had already arrived in Lanzhou, Xu Huai naturally showed off his cards to him and asked.
