Amidst the cheers of the soldiers from all the camps, Li Tai arrived at Pingyang City. Looking at the city that had been surrounded by long fortifications, he couldn't help but become excited.
"Your Majesty, there are still about 20,000 defenders in the city. Since the arrival of General Mo and his brigade, the defenders have not attacked..."
Liang Shiyan followed behind and told Li Tai about the various situations of the defenders in the city.
"More than 20,000 people are not that small. They have been sitting back and watching the forward division go north? Sitting and watching our army build a long siege outside?"
Li Tai couldn't help but look surprised when he heard this, and asked in disbelief. He knew that Wei Can, the governor of Jinzhou, was judged by Wei Xiaokuan and others as an incompetent general, but when he heard that the other party was in such a critical situation, he couldn't help but look surprised.
Position, when facing the enemy invasion, he did nothing. For a while, I couldn't understand what this guy was thinking.
After Liang Shiyan heard this, he shook his head and said with a smile: "The general is also quite surprised by this. When he first entered the city, the army was less than 10,000, which was far inferior to the defenders in the city. They could not form a siege at all. They could only build forts on the plateau to defend themselves.
We were on guard day and night. It was not until the arrival of Duke Jianzhong's successor brigade two days later that the general breathed a sigh of relief..."
When Li Tai heard this, he couldn't help but sigh that the general was really incompetent and exhausted the entire army, especially the position of general in a border town, which really not just anyone could hold.
In the past few years, Wei Xiaokuan has been stationed in Yubi City. In addition to resisting the Eastern Wei Dynasty Gao Huan's army many years ago, he also carried out many personnel operations on the border. For example, he built a city at the southern foot of Luliang Mountain to the north of the Fen River.
time to transport personnel and materials to Fenbei, and complete the city construction before enemy reinforcements arrive within ten days.
Similar operations were repeated many times, even when he was in a weak position. And it was precisely because of Wei Xiaokuan's business foundation in this border area that everything could develop when Li Tai invested additional personnel in Hedong.
smoothly.
Of course, the top border guard generals like Wei Xiaokuan are rare talents, and it is difficult for ordinary people to match them. However, Wei Can sat in Pingyang and had 20,000 divisions and brigade, but he did nothing and did not cause any obstruction or trouble to the forward divisions.
, this level of determination is something that ordinary people cannot catch up with.
Putting aside these circumstances, Li Tai, accompanied by Liang Shiyan and others, patrolled around the city and inspected all the surrounding geographical conditions.
Although Pingyang's geographical location is important, Baima City itself, where the prefecture is located, is not large in size. It is only at the level of a medium-sized city, about the same as Jinyong City in the Heluo area.
Generally, such a city is not large in size alone, but must form a complete strategic defense line together with the surrounding city garrison. However, now that the enemy's garrison strongholds around Pingyang have been removed, the center of this defense line
The meaning is greatly reduced.
When the group returned to the camp, Wei Xiaokuan, who had gone to Hongdong and other places in the north to inspect the situation, also returned, so the generals followed Tang Gong into the tent to discuss the next battle plan.
"I inspected Hongdong and other places. From Gaobi to the south, all the enemy's fortifications have been removed. As long as they hold on to two important roads, it will be difficult for the Jinyang enemy to fly to the south unless they take a detour to unite the army.
Sichuan."
Wei Xiaokuan first gave a brief description of the situation in the north, and then pointed to the marked position on the map and continued: "Tongjunchuan is the flow of the Fen River on the south side of Hongdong City. It goes east through Yining and Wusu cities.
The main garrison for thieves is to enter Hebei through Fukou, which is what the old people called the Wusu Road. If the two roads to the north are difficult to pass, Jinyang's army may cross the mountains and join the people in Hebei on the Wusu Road, and then attack
…”
"But it's also possible to stay in Jinyang and not leave!"
When Li Tai heard this, he also added a possible situation. Then he pointed to the map and said to everyone in the tent: "A few days ago, we used Yuzhou in the north as a bait to induce the enemy to split up. Now the thieves are gathering here.
, Jinyang, Yecheng and Heyang. If the thieves want to save him from being trapped, he must come through these three roads.
Although Jinyang's military strength is weak at the moment, it has always been the ancestral nest of thieves. The gathering of soldiers and horses must be swift and violent, and it will also be the strongest military strength. Don't fight here for the time being. Take the easy things first, and then overcome the difficult ones.
.When its other paths are thwarted, Jinyang’s unique strength will not last long.”
Speaking of this, Li Tai looked at Wei Xiaokuan and said: "Although the two roads in the north are being held, good generals still need to lead with caution. Please go there and choose a place to build a city, thinking that it will be a long-term barrier. The thieves are not strong now."
If you are poor, you need to plan for a long-term confrontation."
He did not expect to completely defeat the Northern Qi Dynasty with this battle, but if he wanted to maintain a longer-term initiative in his hands, it was naturally most reliable to build a city for defense. Naturally, he still had to leave this matter to Wei Xiaokuan before he could rest assured.
Wei Xiaokuan had already expected and prepared for this. After hearing the words, he nodded and said: "The general will rush to the north tomorrow and choose a place to build defenses. The Jinyang thieves will be blocked from outside. Please rest assured, Your Majesty."
Li Tai then pointed to the Heyang area and said: "The area between Heluo and Luo has long been a place for troops, and many thieves have been stationed there. However, this time they misjudged the military aircraft. The people must be upset and eager to call back the divisions and brigades. But it is also necessary to
We are on guard against the possibility that some thieves will get angry out of humiliation and use force to take advantage of danger, either to attack us in the west of Henan or to invade Hanoi. Therefore, not all the army will go north this time, and Duke Anlu and others still need to stay behind and wait for the enemy."
This time, Bafu's overall troop deployment reached 160,000, which does not include some local garrison forces. Wei Xiaokuan and others first sent 50,000 troops, but the actual Bafu envoys only sent more than 30,000 troops, and the remaining nearly
The 20,000 divisions and brigades are all garrisoned in Hedong, including Yubi City, Baibi City and other places.
The 20,000-horse east-route vanguard led by Yang Zhong before arrived at Hongnong, crossed the river and went north to Shaozhou to join forces with Yang Guo, and then entered the Jianzhou carriage.
The main force led by Li Tai consisted of 100,000 troops, of which 80,000 actually followed him to the north, and 20,000 remained on the upper reaches of Suishui River.
Since they want to encircle a point for reinforcements, they must first find out where the reinforcements are. With the southern passage from Jinyang being controlled, the only people from the Northern Qi Dynasty who can actually reach the battlefield quickly and timely are the troops from Heyang and Yecheng.
The route for Yecheng troops to advance to reinforcements is relatively simple. The only way for troops to advance to Fukou is through Wusu Road, which is the Tongjunchuan mentioned by Wei Xiaokuan just now.
As for the choice of troops and variables in Heyang, it is relatively large, and it is also an opportunity for the development of the next war.
At present, Heyang has gathered the largest number of troops, conservatively estimated to be more than 100,000. If these troops want to reinforce the Jinzhou battlefield, they must either return to Yecheng and enter Fukou with the Yecheng troops, or go north from Heyang
Enter Jianzhou, then follow the Qinshui River northward to the vicinity of Yining, join forces with the Yecheng troops, and then move westward.
But in addition to these two decent choices, the Heyang troops actually have two more dangerous moves. One is to encircle Wei and rescue Zhao, and launch an attack from Heluo to western Henan. If they can break through Xin'an, Yiyang and other western Henan defense lines, they can directly attack Hongnong.
, Tongguan.
The second is to go west from Hanoi to Qiziling, and after entering Shaozhou, go north via Guzhong Road, and then directly reach the north of Yanchi in the heart of Hedong. You can cut off the Su River and directly cut off the retreat of the Western Wei army!
For the army of the Western Wei Dynasty, the most dangerous situation was naturally the last situation. Once the rear route was cut off and the flanks were attacked by Wusu Dao troops, they would not be encircling a point for reinforcements, but would be surrounded by enemies on all sides.
However, the Heyang side of the Northern Qi Dynasty is least likely to adopt the last strategy, because the requirements for the quality of the army and the courage of the general are too high. To complete this deed, it is no less difficult than when Li Tai took advantage of Gao Huan to conquer
Yubi City and Jinyang City were attacked.
Even though he may be small, he, the sixth old man, still arranged for nearly 50,000 troops from Yang Zhong's headquarters and the upper reaches of Shuishui River. The reason is also very simple. On the one hand, he is used to stealing chickens, so of course he must focus on protection.
On the one hand, if you don’t come, then I will go!
In fact, in addition to the neglect of the important border town of Jinzhou Pingyang, the Northern Qi Dynasty also paid insufficient attention to another place. In other words, it originally paid more attention to it, but after the war started, it ignored it again. And this place
What was still within reach of the Western Wei army was Jianzhou.
Jianzhou is located in the Jincheng Basin on the west side of the southern Taihang Mountains. It connects to Hanoi down to Heyang, adjoins Shangdang area to the north, can enter Hebei through Fukou, and northwest along Qinshui to the west of Pingyang. It is also a
An important geographical hub is also one of Li Tai’s goals for this military operation!
Before the war began, the Northern Qi Dynasty subconsciously regarded the Heluo area as the main combat area and invested a large amount of manpower and material resources in Heyang. As the Western Wei army entered Jinzhou and pointed its sword at Jinyang, the entire Northern Qi military resources were bound to increase.
Adjustments were made around the siege of Jinyang and the rescue of Jinzhou.
But in fact, Jinyang was not in the target sequence of Li Tai's military operation at all. His first goal was naturally to occupy Pingyang and then engulf the entire Linfen Basin, placing the blade directly under Jinyang's nose.
The second goal is Jianzhou. By occupying Jianzhou, the interaction and exchanges between different regions of the Northern Qi regime will be further cut off. And after mastering Jianzhou, we can attack Hanoi and Heyang in the south, and harass Shangdang and Yecheng in the north.
Maximize the pressure on Northern Qi's border defenses.
Therefore, if Yang Zhong and other groups in the rear can wait and repel the enemy troops from Heyang, it will be a surprise. If not, don't be disappointed. They can cooperate with the military operations of the North Route Army and cross eastwards at the right time.
Tiaoshan, when the enemy's main force was attracted to the north, Jianzhou was captured in one fell swoop.
If we want to make a more vivid summary, it is that what Li Tai launched this time was not the Battle of Taiyuan, but the Battle of Changping. The real focus of this battle was to meet and defeat the Northern Qi reinforcements coming from the west of Fukou.
Of course, to achieve such a tactical concept, we still have to proceed step by step. The main task before the Wei army at the moment is the attack on Pingyang.
So after a meeting, Li Tai ordered: "Tomorrow at 10:00, all camps will have dinner and prepare to attack Jinzhou City!"