In Heishigou, west of Shangshui City, several forts built according to dilapidated villages are distributed among low hills.
At dusk, the sun has sunk beneath the Western Mountains, and red clouds are still smearing the clear blue sky.
There is already some twilight between heaven and earth.
A group of thirty or forty cavalrymen marched slowly through the wilderness.
The once prosperous Ruying Plain has lost its former prosperity.
Although most of the people were forced to leave their homes and go south due to the threat of war, it only took a year or two, but the resilience of nature is amazing.
The fields that were once were already overgrown with weeds, shrubs, rice, cotton, linen and other crops half as tall as a man, and were almost invisible; the abandoned villages along the riverside also fell into disrepair at an unimaginable speed after people left them empty.
, the houses were either burned down by arson, or covered by lush green grass and vines, becoming a breeding ground for rabbits, birds, foxes and deer.
What is shocking is the severely decomposed corpses that can be seen from time to time among the grass and shrubs, some of which have exposed bones.
The vultures, which were extremely rare in the Ruying area in the past, flew overhead from time to time, like indelible stains on the sky, and occasionally made a hoarse chirp.
"Another group of cavalry passed by! How many groups of cavalry have passed by today?"
The three scouts squatted in the bushes in the distance, watching the cavalry in the distance walking slowly on the wild path buried by weeds. Judging from the somewhat loose formation and the armor, swords and bows, they must be pseudo-Chu cavalry.
However, generally scouts will not stay at a certain location for too long, but these three people are also responsible for surveying the nearby terrain, and have been lurking here for several days.
However, just along the only road from Shangshui to Heishigou, they had seen more than a thousand cavalry dispersed towards Heishigou. The number was much larger than they imagined.
Of course, this does not mean that the Puppet Chu could not even raise a thousand cavalry in Shangshui County.
The problem is that Yuehailou also commands the military envoys of Xu, Chen and Ying, and its main troops are stationed in Xuchang, Wanqiu, Ruyin, Huaichuan and other cities.
Heishigou, located in the west of Shangshui County, was just a preventive fortress used by Yue Hailou and his troops to guard against Chushan's movements in Xiaoquegang.
Yue Hailou has already dispatched two thousand infantry in the direction of Heishigou. Although it is not impossible to continue to send more troops and horses to Heishigou, under Yue Hailou's command, the infantry is far larger than the cavalry. Unless he wants to launch an attack from the front, he must
Otherwise, there is no need for Yue Hailou to dispatch cavalry to Heishigou in excess of proportion.
However, these thousands of cavalry dispersed towards Heishigou. Ordinary scouts would not stay at a location close to the enemy camp for too long. If they had only encountered one of them alone, they would have thought that the puppet Chu army was between Heishigou and Shangshui County.
Where are the cavalry scouts?
Now it is obvious that the enemy troops deliberately concealed the scale of their troop mobilization towards Heishigou by spreading their march.
This made the three of them feel somewhat abnormal.
The three of them squatted deep in the grass and discussed quietly for a while. One of them quietly approached the path where the cavalry was traveling in order to observe the cavalry up close.
Of course, at such a close distance, if there was any unintentional movement that alerted the enemy, there was no chance of escaping; therefore, one person took the risk and sneaked forward, while the other two hid deeper to the side in case of an unexpected incident.
The cavalry did not find the scouts hiding in the grass and quickly passed through the trail.
As dusk deepened, the three scouts met by a creek.
"What a fool, these cavalrymen in the past were all Tatars!"
The scout who sneaked closer to inspect the enemy's cavalry reached out and wiped the
He shook his face, slowly became shocked, and shouted in a low voice,
"If we hadn't come close, we would have made a mistake! Yueting, Qihu, we immediately rushed to the camp to report this matter. The fake Chu cavalry in the past two days should have been disguised as red soldiers.
, they may launch a strong attack on the camp on the north bank of Xiaoquegang."
…………
…………
In the deep dusk, the cavalry galloped into the camp fence.
Most of the Red Hussars still cannot adapt to the hot summer in Hehuai.
Even though it was almost autumn at this time, the weather was getting cooler and it was far less hot than when the office was in full swing. However, wearing the heavy armor and military uniforms of the Southern Dynasties, my body was soaked with sweat layer after layer, and I felt uncomfortable all over.
They were patient all the way, and when they entered the camp, they jumped off their horses one by one and couldn't wait to take off their robes and armor.
Mo Li suddenly turned over and dismounted, glanced behind him with stern eyes, stopped the soldiers behind him, and untied his robes and armor. When he saw Yue Hai Tower, Zhong Changqing walked out of the tent. Without any harsh reprimand, he walked towards the tent.
go.
If Xu Huai had seen this scene in Heishigou, he would have been shocked.
The puppet Chu army openly and secretly mobilized only more than 3,000 soldiers and horses in Heishigou, accounting for about one-twentieth of the total strength of the Chu army in southwest Bian County. However, as the commander-in-chief of the Chu army in southwest Bian County, Yue Hailou, the deputy commander of the red guard, Wan Hu
, Mo Lihu and General Zhong Changqing, who actually served as supervisors of the Chu army in southwest Biannan, unexpectedly arrived at Heishigou secretly.
"What the hell is Chushan doing in Xiaoquegang?" Mo Li asked in a low voice.
"It's not clear yet!" Yue Hailou welcomed Mo Lihu into the tent and said, "But since Xu Huai took over from Liu Yan and also led the defense of the east and west wings of Huaishang, he assembled such a large-scale troops in the direction of Wuyang.
Ma, there must be something fishy!"
It is no secret that Liu Yan transferred his troops to the south to build Ye, Wuyang, Ye County and other places to be included in the Chushan camp, and that Xu Huai moved his camp to Ye County.
As the general manager of the army and horse capital of Chushan, he is the liaison between the army and the army.
After Xu Huai personally took control of Ye County, in the direction of Wuyang, Chushan General Yin Peng not only led his troops to guard Wuyang City, but also built outposts on both sides of the Shuishui River and Ru River in the northeast of Wuyang. He stationed more than a hundred soldiers to monitor the east of Wuyang and Xiang.
In Yue Hailou's eyes, there was nothing unusual about the movements east of the city.
After Zheng Huaizhong and his troops withdrew from Pinglu and retreated to the south bank of the Yellow River, Yue Hailou, who had worked with Zheng Huaizhong for many years and was very familiar with his character, could easily guess that Zheng Huaizhong wanted to abandon Heluo.
Since Liu Yan transferred his troops to the south to Jianye, and Xu Huai combined the affairs of setting up camp in Chushan and leading the defense of the east and west wings of Huaishang, it was not difficult for Yue Hailou to guess that Emperor Jianji might move the new capital from Xiangyang to Jianye.
As long as Zheng Huaizhong abandons the defense of Heluo, either Xiao Qian or Cao Shixiong will be ordered to take command of Heluo. In addition to wiping out the remnant troops of Heluo, the next most important task is to leave Ruxi from the passage between Funiu Mountain and Songshan Mountain.
Zhou, attack Huaishang from the west.
In the past, Yue Hailou was thinking that Cao Shixiong or Xiao Qian might attack Ye County and Wuyang from the west of Ruzhou after winter, but he would not think of coming over to intervene.
The problem is that after the spring of this year, the Chu Mountains surrounded a large lake with a radius of ten miles to the south of the Iron Curtain Mountain and to the east of the Shimen Ridge, hanging high on both sides of the Mingxi River. Chenzhou soldiers and horses directly attacked the Chu Mountains and Qingyi Ridge after the winter.
, the front line of Shimenling is no longer possible. Is it necessary to cross the Huaihe River from Huaichuan, Duoguang Mountain, Huangchuan and other places, and then launch an offensive on Luoshan and Xinyang?
Judging from Chushan's deployment on the east wing, it is indeed true that Chushan intends to abandon Guangshan and Huangchuan. Chushan may even abandon Luoshan and retreat to Luoshan if necessary.
The newly built city outside Jiuliguan and Xinyang City.
The problem is that the Huaihe River freezes for a very short period, and crushing pebbles and spreading it on the ice will accelerate melting. Chushan may even create artificial ice floods east of Luoshan. Before the Chushan soldiers and horses are severely damaged from the front, Yue
How dare Hailou cross the Huaihe River and attack its flank?
However, after Cao Shixiong or Xiao Qian invaded Heluo this winter, the Zhennan Zong Palace would inevitably ask Chenzhou soldiers and horses to cooperate with Cao Shixiong or Xiao Qian in attacking Huaishang. How could Yuehai Tower not hold back its troops?
Yue Hailou thought about it and felt that the safest strategy was for them to also attack the west wing of the Huaishang defense line.
In order to achieve this goal, Yue Hailou specifically asked Mo Lihu to go to Taiyuan to meet the second prince.
In addition to reporting the changes in the situation he judged through Mo Lihu's mouth, he also requested that the situation be as he judged, so that he could lead his troops to attack Wuyang, go hand in hand with Cao Shixiong or Xiao cadres who attacked Ye County, and attack Nanyang first, and then think about it later
Fix the problem of the remnants of Chushan.
During this period, Yue Hailou has also been secretly changing the cage for birds and replacing pillars.
In addition to further draining the troops stationed on the right bank of Ru River and putting Zhenyang, Shangcai, Xincai, Queshan and other cities into a state of semi-abandonment, more elite soldiers and horses on the east wing were vacated and secretly assembled
Rest in Wanqiu, Shangshui and other cities in order to launch an attack on Wuyang.
All this is to make it easier to attack Wuyang City at any time and cut off the communication between Wuyang and other cities in Chushan as quickly as possible, so that Wuyang City becomes the possession of Yue Hailou.
Facing Xu Huai and the people in Chushan, Yue Hailou naturally did not dare to be greedy. He just thought that he could capture Wuyang City in the winter offensive. It was also true that Yue Hailou was particularly concerned about the movements near Wuyang and personally
Select scouts and first blend into the refugees hiding in the mountains near Wuyang, so that Chushan can get close information when recruiting refugees.
On the premise that Zheng Huaizhong retreated to the south and Emperor Jianji moved south to Jianye, Xu Huai also led the defense of Wuyang and Ye County, Chushan established an outpost fortification at Xiaoquegang in the northeast of Wuyang, and even sent troops to garrison the remaining city of Zhaoling. Yue Hailou did not feel that
Accident.
After all, the people of Heluo wanted to borrow the road from Ruzhou to go south to Nanyang and Xiangyang. It was too weak to protect their flanks with Xiangcheng alone. Chushan was needed to supplement the defense east of Xiangcheng.
However, in the past month, the secret agents sent by Yue Hailou spied on Chushan secretly importing troops to Wuyang, and the supplies were much more than expected.
Although Guo Junpan also knew Zhaoling County, led his troops to Zhaoling, and recruited refugees to repair the city walls, these failed to divert Yue Hailou's attention.
He had noticed that Chushan's deployment in Xiaoquegang was unusual. Not only did he secretly arrive at Heishigou with Zhong Changqing, he even sent people to Taiyuan urgently to see Mo Lihu and the second prince, asking Mo Lihu to return quickly.
After all, only Molihu could mobilize the five thousand cavalry stationed in Wanqiu and other places.
On the one hand, Mo Lihu hurried back to Wanqiu, and on the other hand, he ordered some cavalry to obey Yue Hailou's mobilization. Until then, he rushed to Heishigou to meet up with Yue Hailou and Zhong Changqing, but he did not expect that the two of them still did not engage in battle.
Be clear about Chushan’s specific intentions.
"We don't know what Xu Huai wants to do, so how should we deal with it?" Mo Lihu asked anxiously.
"No matter what Xu Huai's intentions are with these arrangements, we don't want the Huangyang Lake incident to happen again. We must remove its stronghold on the north bank before it becomes powerful!" Yue Hailou said firmly...
