When Li Tai returned to Rangcheng, the anxious hearts of the people in Jingzhou relaxed a little.
The Wanluo barbarians who harassed the Three Crows Road were not terrible. Even Guo Xian himself stated in his letter that he would be able to hold on to Luyang Pass and prevent the control of the Three Crows Road from falling into the hands of the barbarians.
But Murong Shaozong behind these barbarians made the people of Jingzhou unable to calm down. In the past two years, the most famous person in the world is naturally none other than Hou Jing, and the person closely following him is probably Murong Shaozong.
When it comes to the display of personal talents, Murong Shaozong has to be ranked ahead of Hou Jing. After all, no matter how fierce Hou Jing was in Jiangnan, it could not change the fact that he was chased and beaten by Murong Shaozong and could not escape in a hurry. .
Being targeted by such a prestigious person, no matter how arrogant and confident you are, you will inevitably feel nervous.
However, although Murong Shaozong was very famous, Li Tai was still slightly behind him, but he was not far behind. Not to mention his old achievements in the past few years, the two great news he brought back to the town this time made the Jingzhou people happy. They feel very excited.
The first was naturally that he advanced with light troops and recaptured Hanzhong, which had been captured by Nanliang for more than ten years. The second was that after joining forces with Xiangyang, he defeated the famous Nanliang general Liu Zhongli, and Yang Zhong was still leading his troops to pursue Liu Zhongli. After fierce fighting, the land of Handong has become a treasure.
However, now that a powerful enemy is at hand, it is naturally not the time to celebrate. Li Tai only briefly explained the development situation of all parties to the masses to encourage people's hearts, and then began to focus on the current critical situation.
After the fall of Yingchuan, Wang Sizheng's tribes in all directions were controlled by Li Tai. At that time, Li Tai focused on the Han River strategy and only ordered the troops to shrink to Mianbei. At present, he does not know much about the specific situation in Henan. .
Although Guo Xian reported that Murong Shaozong instigated the barbarians to invade, it is not clear where Murong Shaozong is now, what his power is, and his specific goals and intentions.
Before Li Tai returned, the people in Jingzhou had actually had an in-depth discussion based on this. They were all more inclined to believe that Murong Shaozong's intrusion by barbarians was actually a tactic to ask for directions, rather than a real attack from Sanya Road. .
The reason is also very simple. Compared with other passages from Henan into Mianbei, Sanya Road has no obvious advantages except being fast, so it is usually used as a passage for quick strikes.
But now that the barbarians are harassing them, the effectiveness of the surprise attack has long been lost. Unless Murong Shaozong likes the mountain scenery of Funiu Mountain, I can't imagine why he would attack Mianbei from Sanya Road.
Li Tai also agreed with this speculation, and based on this, he put forward a new speculation, that is, he believed that Murong Shaozong did not intend to capture the city as his primary goal, but to loot supplies.
The reason is also very simple. If Murong Shaozong wanted to open up territory and expand his territory, Mibei would never be his primary target. It's not that Mibei is unattractive to him, but that the Nanliang and Huainan areas are now more easily accessible. Even if Murong Shaozong gains control of Mianbei, he will still face a steady stream of attacks from the south from the Western Wei Dynasty via Wuguan and other routes, and Henan, which has just been severely damaged, will definitely not be able to support Murong Shaozong's large-scale march.
This guy also went against the unrestrained play style of the Eastern Wei Dynasty before. When he invaded Sanya Road, he had to use barbarians instead of dispatching Eastern Wei troops. This shows that the human resources at his disposal have been greatly reduced. They must be used carefully and not be willing to make more sacrifices. Even more Not all of them will be devoted to Mianbei, the place where the four battles took place.
Although Li Tai didn't know much about Murong Shaozong, he was very clear about the thoughts of those who wanted to separate themselves and stand on their own.
If you have a general understanding or guess of the enemy's behavioral logic, it will be much easier to discuss the countermeasures next.
Originally, before Li Tai returned, Dou Chi and other left-behind generals were discussing to defend important cities such as Rangcheng for the sake of prudentness. As long as important cities could be preserved, even if Murong Shaozong invaded, the losses would be within an acceptable range.
.
But now that it is believed that Murong Shaozong came to fight the autumn wind, such a conservative response method only provides convenience for the enemy's raiders. After all, the current season is the late summer and early autumn of July, and the field crops will be ripe and unripe. Even if you want to strengthen the wall and clear the field, you cannot do it.
When we arrived at Miobeitian, things were booming, and the enemy could get supplies everywhere after entering the country.
Based on this speculation, Li Tai proposed to assemble elite troops and go straight to Fangcheng and other Mianbei border towns. The best situation is to be able to defeat the enemy and save the Mianbei mainland from being looted and destroyed. Even if it is too late to do this,
Even if Murong Shaozong led his troops to break in in advance, he could still hold on to the door and beat the dogs behind closed doors.
On some important military and political affairs in Jingzhou, although the masses can discuss and put forward opinions, the final decision-making power only belongs to Li Tai. Since he has made such a decision, there is nothing more to say.
The masses then began to carry out the work busily.
Although Li Tai has launched and participated in many military operations recently, Jingzhou's military strength is actually not too dispersed. The most direct reason for the increase in the Jingzhou Prefecture before the intersection and the current Jingzhou General Mansion is the 7,000 troops and horses Li Tai brought from Guanzhong.
Receive the 10,000 troops brought by Zhao Gui on the spot.
When he pretended to go west with his army and lured Liu Zhongli into taking the bait, Li Tai took away more than 10,000 troops and subsequently added more troops, and then stationed 1,000 troops in Xingzhou and 2,000 troops in Xiangyang West. However, he brought more troops from Ankang.
Li Qianzhe came to command nearly 3,000 men, so when he returned to town there were still more than 10,000 men.
Cai Yang added 5,000 troops before and after, and Liyang City, where Zhao Gang and others were stationed, added another 2,000 troops. These troops and Li Tai were all placed under Yang Zhong's control to maintain his strategy against the eastern Han Dynasty.
Therefore, there are still more than 20,000 troops in the town of Jingzhou today, not including the newly recruited state soldiers and barbarian armed forces. This part of the army has nearly 10,000 troops. However, Li Tai does not plan to use these troops for the time being. With Murong Shaozong
In this kind of battle between old oilmen who have been in troubled times for many years, a large number of soldiers may not necessarily lead to great strength. If they are not elite soldiers, they may only be able to deliver food.
With these troops in hand, Li Tai first led Dou Chi and led 3,000 troops to move to Xinye to ensure that no matter what unexpected situation happened here in Mianbei, it would not affect the progress of the Handong war.
At the same time, Li Tun led a thousand elite troops to the north to support Guo Xian who was stationed at Sanya Road. Although Li Tai made his own guess, who knows whether such old oilmen will do anything that goes against common sense?
The operation is just like Liu Zhongli who attacked Xiangyang City in the east and west, so Sanya Road cannot relax here.
As for the remaining troops, Li Tai first led 5,000 cavalry to Fangcheng County on the eastern border of Mianbei to garrison.
This was based on his guess about Murong Shaozong's military strength and the upper limit of his flexible command in the event of a war. He determined a size of the establishment that would not be besieged and annihilated by Murong Shaozong in a short period of time, and ordered Cui Qian to stay in Rangcheng.
, a thousand more fine cavalry were sent to him every two days.
Facing Murong Shaozong, one of the most famous generals in the post-Three Kingdoms period, Li Tai also worked hard. Putting aside the influence of luck, he strived to do his best within his own abilities and marched and set up camp.
In accordance with the rules, we set off in the morning every day, and in the afternoon we used scouts to search for campsite. The daily march was only between three and fifty miles.
With his formal and formal procedures like taking a driver's license test, he finally saw Murong Shaozong's troops who had crossed the border on the fifth day of marching eastward, nearly sixty miles away from Fangcheng County.
.
It was already late in the afternoon and nearly evening. After two rounds of reinforcements, Li Tai's infantry and cavalry troops had reached more than 7,000 troops. However, the size of Murong Shaozong's troops seemed to be larger than that of his troops.
Thousands more people.
Although the enemy was outnumbered, Li Tai did not panic. Seeing that the enemy's men and horses in front had stopped and began to put on armor and prepare, he also ordered his troops in an orderly manner to form a dense and orderly manner for the carriages carrying the baggage.
The formation of chariots was filled with sword and shield sergeants. On the sides of the formation of swords and chariots, a vertical spear formation was formed. Two thousand elite cavalry broke away from the main formation, each hanging in the outer room for a long time.
On the hillock outside.
The two sides encountered each other in the wilderness and each prepared for battle. As the drums and horns sounded, it was Murong Shaozong's Qingqi who took the lead in launching the attack. The three groups of Qingqi rushed straight towards the beautiful sword-carriage formation on the opposite side.
In the process of rushing in, these three groups of light cavalry gradually changed their routes. Halfway through the journey, two of them no longer aimed at the sword-carriage battle formation, but strangled the cavalry troops hanging outside on the left wing.
As for the rest of the light cavalry, hundreds of powerful soldiers in the front tried to destroy the formation with horseback shooting, while the powerful soldiers holding horse spears in the rear charged into the formation. However, under the interception of the frame's feet, the effect of this charge was ineffective.
After all, they only destroyed the two outermost trucks, but several cavalrymen were unable to contain their momentum and were killed in the formation.
The group of Western Wei cavalry on the left wing also circled from the rear along the line to the rear of the formation. Two groups of Eastern Wei cavalry were chasing after them. However, hundreds of powerful arrows shot straight away from the formation. Even dozens of light cavalry were hit by arrows.
Fall to the ground.
Murong Shaozong, who was in the rear formation, frowned immediately when he saw this. He immediately waved his hand and ordered the soldiers to retreat. After waiting for the light cavalry to return and rest for a while, two more groups of people and horses crossed in to try to shake up the front formation, but the results were similar.
It was not possible to defeat this formation.
"Who is the thief? The formation is so stubborn!"
Although Murong Shaozong was a famous general in the world and was good at creating and seizing fighting opportunities, the enemy only consolidated its formation and was slow to respond to all its various attack attempts, leaving him unable to make a move for a while.
However, the situation between the enemy and ourselves did not remain at a stalemate. In the evening, the sound of galloping horses could be heard in the wilderness to the west.
After hearing this, Murong Shaozong's expression suddenly changed. He waved his hand and ordered his troops to retreat to the east. His troops marched very fast. When the light cavalry arranged by Li Tai arrived, they had already retreated.
Arriving at the hills a few miles away.
Taking advantage of the enemy's retreat, Li Tai ordered his troops to evacuate in batches to the west to find a suitable place to camp for the night on the way. He turned a blind eye to the invading enemy troops several miles away and did not care.
Attack blindly.
When Murong Shaozong waited for a while and then led two thousand light cavalry to fight back, he saw that Li Tai's troops had retreated several miles and set up camp. He ordered his troops to come forward and shouted: "Mianbei rats, we are here!"
If you don’t dare to fight, why not surrender quickly!”
When Li Tai heard this, he was not angry. Instead, he cheered and shouted in response: "Murong Shuigui, this is not the place where our disciples were buried, so we are temporarily withdrawing our talents!"