Xu Huai lurked to Fuzhou and brought a plan to raid Taiyuan, but the Gu family did not object.
On the one hand, they had been stationary in Fuzhou for a long time, and they also knew that this made the court suspicious.
On the other hand, although the situation faced by Bianliang was bad, it was not completely despairing. They would not surrender to the Chihu people unless they had to.
The arrival of Xu Huai's troops also reduced the space for their opposition to the minimum; and staying together with the remnants of the Khitan clan for warmth was also a situation that the Gu family was happy to see.
However, the Gu family supported the plan to raid Taiyuan, not because they thought Xu Huai could really accomplish anything. They even believed that Xu Huai's plan to raid Taiyuan was doomed to fail.
Brothers Cao Shixiong and Cao Shili had been in charge of Shuozhou for more than ten years, and they were separated from Fuzhou by Xishan; during the time when Fanhu in Xishan surrendered to the Cao family, Fuzhou and Shuozhou intersected at the western section of the border wall of Caocheng River - Gu
He still has a deep understanding of the capabilities of Cao Shixiong, Cao Shili, and the Qing Shun Army generals such as Meng Ping and Zhou Huan.
In their view, the Qingshun army occupied Lanzhou with dangerous mountains and rivers, a solid city, and an absolute advantage in military strength. As long as they did not make fatal mistakes, what benefits could Xu Huai gain by leading three to five thousand troops into Lanzhou as long as he did not make fatal mistakes?
Not to mention that Xu Huai also wanted to cross the Luliang Mountains and raid Taiyuan.
Therefore, the Gu family did not oppose or even supported the plan to raid Taiyuan, handing over the Shengjun Fort and other east-wing strongholds to the Chushan Army, and clearing the entire Linfu Road to assist the Chushan Cavalry in lurking and combating the infiltration of Lanzhou scouts.
As well as assisting the Chushan Army in transporting grain, fodder and other supplies, and releasing the northern area of Linzhou to accommodate some remnants of the Khitan tribe to move in in advance, they refused to let go of the matter of directly sending troops to fight in Lanzhou.
They thought that when the Chushan Army failed in the battle into Lanzhou and had to withdraw, Gu would be able to explain everything.
However, Xu Huai led his troops eastward and fought three battles in two days, annihilating more than one-third of the Qing Shun army in Lanzhou. How could Gu Jian and several of the Gu family's disciples who followed him to Lanzhou not do this?
Shock?
Are the Qing Shun Army all papery?
However, it was getting late now, and Xu Huai still had to plan for tomorrow's march. It was impossible to take them to test the results of the battle in the dark, so he just arranged for them to take a rest in Huanglongpo Station.
Gu Jian and the others did not rest well at night, but in the camp and post house controlled by the soldiers of Chushan, they were unfamiliar with the place and could not move around freely. They waited until dawn to wash up and eat some grass before going to find Qiao Jien.
, learned that Qiao Jien rushed to the ferry to see Xu Huai off.
At this time, new prisoners of the Tianxiong Army came one after another from Caocheng Village to take over the defense of Huanglongpo, while the Chushan Cavalry who had been temporarily resting here had already left.
Gu Jian and several Gu family members, surrounded by guards, wanted to go to the ferry to find Qiao Jien. They rode their horses not far from Huanglongpo Station, bypassed a low ridge, and had an unobstructed view towards the ferry.
The battlefield yesterday afternoon unfolded before their eyes.
Gu Jian was also used to people who saw iron and blood, but seeing more than two thousand corpses abandoned in the river valley was still so shocking.
Although the Fenshui River has not been completely frozen, there is no rain in the upper reaches, and the shallow water areas of the bay branches are already covered with thin ice. The river is basically still, and hundreds of drowned corpses are piled on the water.
This scene is even more shocking.
The Chushan Cavalry, the captured soldiers of Tianxiong's army, Zheng Jinqing, and Yang Qiye's troops totaled more than 5,000 troops. They were divided into troops to guard Taohuachong Village, Caocheng Village, Huanglongpo Village, Heiyan Post, and Qipanshan Post. Each tribe also took on the responsibility. The heavy and intense combat missions left no room for capturing prisoners and cleaning up the battlefield.
Therefore, in several fierce battles, people were basically killed when they could, and if they couldn't be killed, they were allowed to flee the battlefield.
The main reason why the Zhufeng Gorge Road battlefield was tidied up before was that the Gorge Road was too narrow and the corpses would freeze and solidify, which would affect the subsequent march.
On the battlefield south of Lanzhou City, Xu Huai would not let the generals waste their energy to clean it up, and let the corpses fall on the battlefield in disorder; some seriously injured Qingshun Army generals abandoned the battlefield without anyone to treat them, even if they did not take the last hit. , they basically freeze to death or bleed to death.
The gates of Lanzhou City are closed, and hundreds of horsemen are stationed on a flat hill in the southwest corner, monitoring the movements of Gangzhou City.
Gu Jian rushed to the ferry, where he collected dozens of boats, dismantled the boat awnings overnight, connected them with thick ropes, and built a simple pontoon bridge on the shallow water beach, crossing the water only two to three hundred steps wide on the south side of the ferry.
Hundreds of people and horses have already crossed the river, and more people and horses are waiting quietly in front of the river beach to cross the river.
Xu Xin'an and Yang Qiye have led the vanguard troops and horses to set off to Taiyuan overnight.
Yang Guang's old road was too narrow and large groups of soldiers and horses could not pass through quickly.
And no one knows what kind of evil battle is waiting for them next.
Therefore, it is not necessary or advisable to directly force a cold river to be crossed with thin ice.
Xu Huai and Qiao Jien were not at the ferry. Gu Jian led his people and rushed to the flat hill in the southwest corner of Lanzhou City, where they met Xu Huai and Qiao Jien.
They galloped up to Pinggang. They were only five or six hundred steps away from Lanzhou City. At this time, they could vaguely see the defenders at the top of the city. They all had young faces. It can be seen that the defenders of Lanzhou City were really massacred by Chushan Cavalry yesterday. , at this time we could only force the children of military households to climb the city wall to defend.
"Where has Cao Shixiong gone? Is he still in Lanzhou City?" Gu Jian asked.
"Cao Shixiong fled to Ningwu. He transferred all the soldiers and horses from Yangkou and Guangwu to Ningwu overnight yesterday. Maybe he is trying to counterattack Qipan Mountain from Ningwu?" Xu Huai said calmly as he looked at the rolling mountains to the north.
Gu Jian smiled slightly and said: "Under the blade of Chu Shanqi, the Qing Shun Army's five thousand soldiers and horses were unable to sustain for half a day. How confident does Cao Shixiong have that he dares to attack Qipan Mountain before reinforcements arrive?"
"Fuzhou sent troops to attack Lanzhou City. Cao Shixiong took care of the women and children in the city, so he might send troops to attack Qipan Mountain." Xu Huai said.
Seeing that Xu Huai refused to leave the prefecture to send troops, Gu Jian was speechless for a moment and didn't know how to reply to Xu Huai's words.
At this time, Fuzhou sent a large number of troops to attack Lanzhou City, which was only defended by women and children. Whether Cao Shixiong could be forced to send troops from Ningwu to the south is still a matter of debate, but Fuzhou and Lanzhou would definitely be in a fight to the death in the future.
How could Gu Jian easily agree to send troops without permission?
Furthermore, the general manager of the Linfu Road Military and Horse Department was his cousin Gu Jiqian, who was nominally the general magistrate of Fuzhou.
"Cao Shixiong is so cunning, I want to lure him into his trap again, I'm afraid it will be difficult!" Gu Jian said with a laugh.
"Are these the children of the Gu family? Have you ever seen blood?" Xu Huai glanced at the young generals behind Gu Jian, narrowed his eyes and asked with a smile.
The Gu family's children were shocked by Xu Huai's illustrious martial arts, but Xu Huai's disdainful tone still made them quite unhappy.
"Several war prisoners will be executed in front of the city later. Gu Tongpan, please lend these Gu family children to me as executioners," Xu Huai said calmly, "The Gu family will not execute several Qingshun military prisoners in a row.
Soldiers, all have to avoid suspicion, right? Or maybe they really haven’t seen blood and can’t even lift the knife to execute the prisoner?”
"Marquis Xu Jun, Gu Minghai can't even lift the knife used to execute prisoners!" A young man beside Gu Jiqian shouted with a frown.
Gu Jian frowned, but he had to admit that the young man in front of him, who was two rounds younger than him, gave him an extremely strong sense of oppression at this time, making it impossible for him to tell Gu Minghai and the others to calm down, and they could not stand up to such a crude and violent general.
count.
Xu Huai waved his hand and signaled Shi Hu to take Gu Minghai and the others to execute the war prisoners.
"Official Qiao came to Lanzhou yesterday and said that the hundreds of thousands of soldiers and horses of the Red Army were once again drinking horses. The troops and horses on the north bank of the Yellow River, Weizhou, and the east of the river were all invincible, so they could only temporarily retreat to Qizhou and Puban, and the imperial court once again issued an edict to all the troops.
There are many soldiers and horses on the road, but the responder is Liao Liao. No matter how much we do in Taiyuan, it should be difficult to attract the main force of the captive soldiers back. Bianliang is really doomed this time!"
Gu Jiqian nodded sadly.
"...Even if the situation in Bianliang is difficult, the foundation of Dai Viet is still there, Ji'an," seeing Xu Huai's gesture to retreat, Qiao Jien persuaded Gu Jian and said, "Zheng Huaizhong and Gao Junming each have 30,000 elites accompanying King Jing at this time.
Retreating to Guanshan, Luoyang, Qingzhou, and Qizhou, there are also 780,000 elite troops led by King Lu who retreated from Weizhou to the south. However, Jianghuai, Jiangdong, Liangzhe, Jinghu, Sichuan, and Lingnan are still the territory of Dayue, with hundreds of millions of subjects and food supplies.
Tian Yiwan was simply beaten up by the captive soldiers in a hurry and was unable to concentrate on the Hehuai River. If the imperial court could make a decision at this time and move the capital to the Jianghuai River, King Jing would lead Luoyang, Guanshan, Sichuan, Sichuan, and Jinghu.
We sent the King of Lu to lead the troops from east of Jingdong and Huainan to seize the dangers of the mountains and rivers, and before the Hulu cavalry fell into the swamps and dangerous ridges, how could there be no chance to calmly conquer the mountains and rivers?"
We certainly can't talk about support directly now, but the erosion of the Hehuai River is a foregone conclusion, and the Red Husband's troops march directly into the Hehuai River, so the situation in the mountains and rivers of Dayue will naturally be divided into two parts: east and west.
They are now looking for soldiers and horses from Luoyang, Guanshan, Sichuan, Shu, Jinghu and other places to be under the command of King Jing Zhao Tuan. It can be said that they are providing advice to the imperial court.
This is also the first step they need to do under the current situation.
Of course, once this step is completed, many subsequent things will fall into place.
Gu Jian has been immersed in official circles for many years, so it is impossible not to hear the subtext behind it.
Xu Huai saw that Gu Jian did not show any surprise when he heard what Qiao Jien said. He thought that the Gu family had already studied the matter of King Jing leading the Xuanwu army across the river and then retreating to Puban, but they naturally did not want to think about it.
It's just that it was involved in this kind of thing earlier.
"By the way, I forgot to tell Gu Tongpan just now. Among the war prisoners who were to be executed in the city, two of them were the sons of Cao Shixiong. The Gu family had escorted them to Bianliang before, but somehow made them escape back.
Lanzhou. If it falls into my hands this time, of course I won’t give them any advantage." Xu Huai said.
"..." Gu Jian looked at Xu Huai in surprise.
Gu Jian did not expect that Xu Huai would play such a dirty trick on the Gu family at this time, and even wanted to borrow the Gu family's sword to kill Cao Shixiong's son. He subconsciously wanted to call Gu Minghai and the others back.
"Gu Tongpuan can call back the Gu family's children at this time," Xu Huai said calmly, "but Gu Tongpuan needs to know that I, the three thousand children of Chushan, attacked Taiyuan, and how many people died on the battlefield for Vietnam, all of them have no complaints.
I regret it, but if the attack on Taiyuan failed because the Gu family was reluctant to send troops, then what I used against the Gu family would definitely not be the trivial tricks I used today! Gu Tongpian didn’t blame me for speaking harshly.
Thousands of passionate disciples followed me to the battlefield without hesitation, and all I can do for them now is just say a few cruel words!"
After saying this, Xu Huai motioned to Wang Zhang to bring his horse over, bowed his hands to Qiao Jien and Gu Jian, and said: "I will leave this matter to Senior Official Qiao and Gu Langjun. Xu Huai will go to Taiyuan now. I hope to see you again..."
