Xu Huai got on his horse and took the lead in galloping down the hillock with his whip raised.
The great cloak he wore had long been stained with large blood stains, and the background color that once competed with the ice and snow could no longer be seen. It was like a dark red flag dancing in the morning light; Wang Ju, Xu Wuqi and others were surrounded by guards.
They also got on their horses and followed.
The galloping horses' hooves kicked up a cloud of snow on the hillside.
Gu Jian looked at all this with a gloomy face. No matter how well-educated he was, he was still unhappy with Xu Huai's last naked threat. Anger was boiling in his chest. He wanted to reprimand Xu Huai for not knowing how high the sky was. But seeing the corpses all over the river valley, he couldn't tell if he was reprimanding him.
It's stuck in my throat and I can't speak.
Qiao Jien glanced at Gu Jian's expression and laughed and said:
"Xu Junhou's words are not very pleasant, but you have to understand his feelings in Ji'an - Yang Qiye is the son of Caizhou's military supervisor Yang Lin, the adopted son of Caizhou's defense envoy Hu Kai, and Zheng Jinqing is the direct nephew of Zheng Gong Huaizhong.
, Princess Xiao is Xiao Shuai's sister-in-law. They led their troops to follow Xu Junhou into the bloody battlefield of Lanzhou. Are they happy to see the Gu family stay in Fuzhou and stand still? Ji'an, if you just say a few words to Xu Junhou
If you feel unhappy, you can call Gu Minghai and the others back."
Gu Jian took a long breath and said in a slower tone: "I can't make the final decision on sending troops. I can only try my best to persuade my clan brothers..."
"Ji'an, can you persuade me from the side? I believe Gu Shijun will not ignore the overall situation. This matter should not be delayed. Let's rush back to Fuzhou immediately and let Gu Minghai and the others play in Lanzhou for two days?" Qiao Jien looked at it
Asked Gu Jian urgently.
In addition to Cao Shixiong who could gather eight or nine thousand men and horses in Ningwu, Chihu people could also mobilize a group of cavalry reinforcements in Shuozhou, Yingzhou, and Yunzhou north of Ningwu.
Xu Huai led the main force of the Chushan cavalry eastward to raid Taiyuan. There were only 2,000 Tianxiong Army infantry and a small number of cavalry left in Lanzhou. Even though Qiao Jien did not know about military affairs, he knew that the sooner Fuzhou sent troops, the better.
Whether it is possible to break the siege of Taiyuan and evacuate the hundreds of thousands of Taiyuan soldiers and civilians who have been besieged for a year from Lanzhou to Fuzhou and Linzhou, Qiao Jien is still not sure at all.
The Chihu people invaded the south twice, covering a vast area of thousands of miles. However, there were only a handful of people like Xu Huai who were as active on the battlefield and led the generals to achieve repeated achievements.
Qiao Jien didn't like Xu Huai's tough and somewhat arrogant temperament, but he knew better that King Jing couldn't do without Xu Huai before he could truly take control of the overall situation.
At this time, Fuzhou was urged to send troops to guard the Qipan Mountain and Huanglongpo lines. If Xu Huai's attack on Taiyuan failed, it could ensure that they could safely withdraw from Taiyuan.
Seeing that Gu Jian's tone relaxed at this moment, Qiao Jien also dragged and dragged him, and directly asked someone to arrange horses to escort him and Gu Jian back to Fugu (Fuzhou City) to meet Gu Jiqian...
…………
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Taiyuan City, located on the banks of Luliang Mountain and Fen River, has long lost its majestic appearance.
The moat had long since been filled in, and the towering city wall had been smashed beyond recognition by trebuchets. Large pieces of city bricks peeled off, revealing the rammed earth wall inside, which was full of cracks. The blood of both the enemy and ours also stained the city wall.
Under the city wall, there were piles of peeling city bricks, clods of earth and stone bullets dropped by trebuchets. Hundreds of corpses were buried directly in them before they could be cleared away from the battlefield. If you look closely, you can still see the remains of broken bodies and limbs.
Stretch out. Everything is like purgatory on earth.
Before the main force of the West Route Army went south, Li Chulin and Yin Chao not only failed to capture Taiyuan, but also suffered heavy losses in troops and generals. They had to switch from offense to defense after the main force of the West Route Army moved south.
They gathered their troops and horses back to the company camp and maintained the siege and blockade of Taiyuan City until the food in Taiyuan City was completely exhausted, or after the main force of the Western Route Army captured Bianliang and other cities in Hedong, Hebei and other places, they would mobilize troops and horses to gnaw at them.
This hard bone.
The siege of Taiyuan City by Li Chulin and Yin Chao's troops was mainly divided into two parts, the north and the south, and three levels, inside and outside.
In the north and south, Li Chulin and Yin Chao each occupied one side.
There are three floors inside and outside. The first floor is the front fortress and protective wall and deep trench near the city. The two soldiers usually only send a small number of troops to guard the city to prevent the soldiers and horses in the city from leaving the city to break through; only when attacking the city, a large number of troops will be deployed.
Enter the front base and use it as an offensive position.
A series of heavy trebuchets were still standing at the front base. Li Chulin and Yin Chao organized manpower to fire stone bullets at the Taiyuan city wall from time to time.
Because the trebuchet is simple to manufacture, even if it is burned down by arson, it can be easily remanufactured. Instead of withdrawing, it can continuously lure the defenders out of the city to encircle and suppress them.
The second level is the eighteen company camps built around Taiyuan City. The main forces of Li Chulin and Yin Chao are usually stationed in these camps; after a year of repairs and reinforcements, these camps are quite strong, and the Taiyuan City
Surrounded by water.
The third level is the main camp and the supply camp. The grain and new soldiers collected from Yunshuo Xindai are first continuously imported into the main camp and the supply camp, and then dispersed and transported to the company camp on the second level; at the same time, there are
Twenty thousand people worked hard to build various war machines here.
Li Chulin was the commander of the Khitan's original military and horse capital of Xijing Road, and the soldiers and horses under his command were mainly Datong Han troops.
Unlike Xiao Qian, the former deputy defense envoy of the Khitan Dao capital in Xijing, who commanded the Tibetan troops, before surrendering to the Chihu people, most of the Datong Han army consisted of infantry. Therefore, when the Chihu people invaded the south for the first time, Li Chulin
Together with another surrendered general Yin Chao, he took on the important task of besieging Taiyuan City.
After besieging Taiyuan City for a year without being able to defeat it, Li Chulin and Yin Chao also suffered heavy losses in their troops, but they could continue to recruit young men and women from Datong and Xinzhou to replenish the camp and maintain the scale of their troops.
On the one hand, it was necessary to continuously plunder grain and fodder from Yunshuo Daixin and other places, and forcibly recruit soldiers to supplement the Taiyuan company camp. On the other hand, it was necessary to forcibly recruit materials and laborers to serve the southern expedition army.
Therefore, after the main force of the Chihu West Route Army went south, even though Li Chulin and Yin Chao suspended their siege of Taiyuan, their raids on Yunshuo, Daixin and other places intensified, and the transportation line from Xinzhou south became busier.
Because the main force of the Qingshun Army was stationed in Lanzhou to guard against Fuzhou and the remnants of the Khitan tribe, its own material consumption was huge, and there was no need to transport grain from Lanzhou to Taiyuan. At this time, there were no business trips between Lanzhou and Taiyuan.
The Yang-Guang Old Road, which runs through the Luliang Mountains and connects Lanzhou and Taiyuan, became extremely deserted after the main force of the Chihu West Route Army went south. Usually, it is mainly used by postal messengers from the two places.
Therefore, in two days, no one walked out of Luliang Pass from the old site of Tianmen Pass, and no one felt that anything was abnormal.
In the early morning, the teams of carriages and horses loaded with grain, fodder and other supplies had not yet set off from the campsite, but there were still a large number of scouts on the post road from Xinzhou to Taiyuan and on both sides.
Although the north of Taiyuan has long fallen into the hands of the Chihu people and the surrendered troops, except for the Xuanwu Army, Xiaosheng Army, Dai Xin and other local defenders who were scattered and fled into the Luliang Mountains, they have not yet surrendered.
In order to support the siege of Taiyuan, the Red Husbands captured soldiers and surrendered vassal troops with greed and greed. They did their best to loot Daixin and other places, burning, killing, and looting. As a result, a large number of Han people had to abandon their homes and flee into the mountains, including quite a few.
Many people joined forces with the stragglers who fled into the Luliang Mountains, forming small cottage resistance forces that were entrenched in dangerous areas but had not yet been eliminated.
This also forced Li Chulin and Yin Chao to divide their troops to protect the transportation going south, and sent out scouts to keep an eye on the movement on the left and right of the post road.
In the mountain forest with sparse branches and leaves, Xu Xin'an, Yang Qiye and Zhou Jing stood behind a rock, looking at dozens of mounted soldiers and scouts passing by in front of Pinggang.
In the distance of their field of vision, the Yunzhou Han Army camp and the supply camp stood beside a low mountain, facing the post road to the north of Taiyuan City. Taiyuan City, which was blocked and besieged by the company battalion, was dead silent, and not a wisp of smoke could be seen rising.
rise.
After a year of repairs and reinforcements, the Han army's camp in Yunzhou now looks like a fortress covering an area of about a thousand steps square, with thousands of workers and thousands of garrison troops. It exits from the old site of Tianmen Pass
, the terrain is flat and vast. In addition to patrolling scouts and cross-deployed sentries, there are many villages that choose to rely on the Red Husbands, and some people barely maintain farming.
"I'm afraid it would be difficult to attack Li Chulin's camp by surprise!" Yang Qiye looked at the situation from Tianmen Pass to the Han army camp in Yunzhou and said with a frown.
As they marched eastward, there were not many villages or forts along the way, but the last twenty miles or so of Yang Guang's old road were all steep cliffs, and there was a long stretch of road where holes, stakes, and pallets were dug on the cliffs.
The plank road was paved to allow people and horses to pass through.
This ensured that their vanguard of 500 troops could quietly arrive at the west side of the old site of Tianmen Pass without being discovered by the enemy. They had initially completed their goal of raiding Taiyuan.
By controlling the pass at the west end of Yang Guang's old road, they can at least ensure that when the follow-up troops arrive, they will not be blocked by the enemy on the narrow plank road west of Tianmen Pass, making it difficult to get ahead.
However, how to fight the first battle after entering Taiyuan? Or should we simply defend Tianmen Pass first, and wait until all the follow-up troops arrive before officially entering the open area east of Tianmen Pass to engage the enemy. Xu Xin'an, Yang Qiye and Zhou
Jingdu was still hesitant.
It will have to wait until at least tomorrow when Xu Huai leads the main force of the Chushan Cavalry to Tianmen Pass, but it is hard to imagine that the enemy will not send scouts to patrol the plank road west of Tianmen Pass during the whole day today.
Neither Zhou Jing, nor Xu Xin'an, nor Yang Qiye expected that the enemy would be unaware of their presence until tomorrow.
"Perhaps we can arrange for more than a hundred people to pretend to be deserters in the mountains, go out to attack the grain transport team, and then retreat to Tianmen Pass?" Xu Xin'an was a little undecided and looked at Zhou Jing and asked.
Although Xu Xin'an was a forward general, he had a huge stake in this battle, so he preferred to seek Zhou Jing's opinion. Yang Qiye's experience in commanding troops in combat was far inferior to that of Xu Xin'an. In this situation, he could only rely on Xu Xin'an and Zhou Jing to take the lead.
Zhou Dingding nodded and said, "This strategy should be feasible!"
Since it is impossible to completely hide the traces, then pretend to be a resistance force in the mountains, take the initiative to expose some of the troops, and then retreat to Tianmen Pass. This will only attract a small number of enemy troops to come to Tianmen Pass to clear out the encirclement. The two sides will have a stalemate at Tianmen Pass until tomorrow.
When the main force of troops arrives, they can eat up this part of the enemy army with lightning speed, and then take advantage of the situation to kill the Han army camp in Yunzhou, north of Taiyuan City...
