Chapter 139: Defeating Li Tong and Attacking Yingchuan
Chapter 139 Defeat Li Tong and attack Yingchuan again
Xiping is located northeast of Wuyang and due west of Dingying.
There is a Bai Pavilion ten miles north of this city, which is the land of Baizi Kingdom in the Spring and Autumn Period.
There is Tangxi Pavilion in the east of the city, which was built in Wuzhong. The ancestor of the ancestors named Shezi, the king of Sishui, as Tangxihou.
At this time, Li Tong led five thousand men and horses out of Xipingdongcheng, passed Tangxi Pavilion, and headed for Dingying.
The two places are very close. Xiping County in the Han Dynasty was located more than ten miles southeast of Wuyang in later generations, and Dingying was located more than ten miles east of Xiping County in later generations.
Moreover, at that time, Xiping and Dinying had an upstream and downstream relationship. Xiping was in the middle of the Lu River. After the river reached Dinying, it merged into the Ru River.
Therefore, the official road is on the bank of the Lishui River, passing through Tangxi Pavilion, and heading east for about 40 kilometers to Dingying.
Man Chong learned in the early morning of July 1 that Liu Bei had set out from Shangcai to attack Dingying.
He could have chosen to leave at that time.
But the reason why he stayed to defend the city was because behind him were Zhaoling and Jianqiang counties, which had few soldiers, and further north was Xudu.
In addition, he believed that Liu Bei had recruited mostly a ragtag group of people with few supplies and even incomplete weapons. He should be able to hold on until Li Tong came to help, and then he could hold on to the city.
But when Shen Chen arrived, he knew that the situation was over and had to abandon the city and escape. But it was too late, and he was eventually intercepted by Shen Chen and killed on the spot.
At that time, the battle ended at noon, and the men sent by Man Chong to report the news rode to Xiping. Since they could not keep the horses galloping, it took an hour and a half to report the news to Li before noon.
Li Tong temporarily assembled his troops and asked his deputy, Zhao Yan, the magistrate of Xiping County, to stay and guard the city. He traveled lightly and ordered the soldiers to bring twenty days of dry food to support Dingying.
Therefore, when Man Chong was killed, Li Tong had just set out not long ago. Calculated according to time, if he marched at a speed of eight kilometers per hour, it would take about five hours to reach Dingying County.
So Shen Chen believed that Li Tong was eager to rescue Dingying and would not send scouts to investigate at any time, so he suggested to Liu Bei that he immediately attack Li Tong westward and set up an ambush halfway.
This suggestion was approved by Liu Bei.
It's just that the soldiers he recruited are indeed relatively average. From Shangcai to Dingying, they didn't fight much, but their physical strength was already exhausted. Many people had unbearable soreness in their feet and could no longer walk at all.
Shen Chen could also understand this. Most of the soldiers recruited by Liu Bei were poor people at the bottom, and their food supply was far inferior to the elite soldiers carefully cultivated by Huangmenting. Moreover, the amount of training on both sides was also different, so naturally they could not compete with them in terms of physical strength.
So in the end, Liu Bei asked the three left generals Jian, Yong, Sun, Qian and Mi Zhu to lead the large army and rest in Dingying City. He himself led a small number of cavalry and elite soldiers brought from Yuan Shaona, about 3,000 troops, plus Shen Chen's four Thousands of troops, totaling 7,000 men, marched west to intercept Li Tong.
In this way, the two sides rushed to each other along the official road of the Lishui River. When Li Tong was still more than 20 kilometers away from Dingying, Liu Beijun also went west for more than ten miles and walked for about an hour. Finally, he arrived at Lishui Henan Shore found a hilly area and began to arrange an ambush.
This hilly area is densely forested. It is located on the south side of the post road. It is a small hilly area several kilometers long from west to east. The mountain is not very high, with the highest point less than 100 meters. The hills on one side of the road rise one after another, with heights ranging from ten to ten meters. Within more than ten feet.
The soldiers were hiding in the forest. It was daytime, and the birds were out looking for food. There was no such thing as disturbing the birds when they entered the forest at night. In the small hill on the south side of the post road, Liu Bei and Shen Chenjun were everywhere among the grass and trees.
Time passed minute by minute.
After about half an hour, the end of the road to the west was already filled with dust.
Li Tong was indeed eager to put out the fire, because after Sun Ce was assassinated, Sun Quan was busy with internal affairs and would not attack Xu Du, so Cao's army in the south withdrew from Runan to the vicinity of Yingchuan to guard against Shen Chen in Kunyang.
As a result, Liu Bei suddenly appeared, and with Yuan Shao's orders, he summoned the remaining forces of the Yuan clan in Runan and began to attack Xudu in the north.
This was obviously beyond Cao Jun's expectation. After all, Runan's rear was extremely empty at this time. Most of Xu Du's defense forces were in the southwest, while Man Chong's 2,000-odd troops were all in the southeast. Therefore, Li Tong was afraid that after Liu Bei defeated Man Chong, He went north to attack Xudu and then hurriedly rushed.
At this time, the soldiers had been running at a trot for an hour and a half, covering about forty miles. The entire team was almost out of touch. The soldiers were thirsty and tired, but the officers were still beating them with whips, urging them to speed up. .
"General, take a rest."
One of Li Tong's lieutenants advised: "The soldiers have been galloping for an hour and a half and will soon reach Dingying. If the soldiers are not allowed to rest, they may not have the strength to fight the enemy when they reach Dingying."
Li Tong turned around and looked behind him. The team was walking sparsely. It was the intersection of summer and autumn, and it was still very hot in the afternoon. The soldiers were all so tired that they could hardly breathe. They had all dried up their sweat, and their faces were darkened and their lips were swollen. Bai, as the deputy general said, we can no longer continue marching in such a hurry.
So he looked ahead, pointed to the mountains in the distance and said, "There are mountains ahead and the river on the other side. Let's go to that forest to take a rest."
"The general has orders to rest in the mountains ahead."
"The general has orders to rest in the mountains ahead."
"The general has orders to rest in the mountains ahead."
The messengers galloped their horses, shouting and running all the way to the rear. Li Tongjun's soldiers suddenly became energetic, and their pace to die could not help but speed up a bit, and they quickly ran towards the mountain forest.
really.
The dozens of kilometers along this route are all flat plains, with villages and farmland on both sides of the river. Only the mountain forest can block the blazing sun. It is normal for Li Tong to choose this place.
The most important thing is that he thought Liu Bei was still besieging Dingying. The news about Shen Chen was that he sent people from Kunyang north to attack Yangzhai the day before yesterday. How could he have expected that Shen Chen's army had trained a pair of iron feet, and in just three days How can I just run here and intercept him?
At that moment, Li Tong's army was running towards the mountain forest like flying, and more people were running towards the river like they were having fun. Along the way, the rear army had eaten the ashes of the front army, and they were all dirty. Even if they couldn't take a bath or drink some water, It's also good to scrub your arms.
At this time, in the mountain forest, Liu Bei, Shen Chen and others were lurking in the forest. They saw Li Tongjun running from a distance. They were waiting for work. The soldiers instinctively grasped their weapons one by one, and some raised their crossbows.
"Brother, they are here."
Zhang Fei lowered his voice as much as possible and said softly: "Kill him."
"No."
Shen Chen shook his head and said: "If we go now, we can't wipe out all the enemies. When they rest by the river and no one is on guard, we can catch them all in one fell swoop."
Zhang Fei glared at Shen Chen: "You little brat, you were not even born when I fought."
Shen Chen also stared back: "General Zhang, I heard that you often whip soldiers for no reason. If you are under my command one day, I will let you taste the feeling of being whipped!"
"you!"
Zhang Fei was furious, holding the eight-foot-long snake spear in his hand and looking at him.
Liu Bei looked at Zhang Fei, frowned and scolded: "Third brother, don't be rude, listen to the little gentleman."
"snort."
Zhang Fei had a bad temper and snorted coldly and stopped talking.
Shen Chen didn't bother to talk to him. He didn't want to have a good relationship with everyone. Gan Ning's personality was easy to kill, but he was very lethal on the battlefield and his personality was fairly obedient.
If Zhang Fei doesn't care about the lower-level soldiers and still goes further and further down the road of seeking death, he doesn't mind giving Zhang Fei a taste of the whip.
While he was talking, Li Tong's large army had already arrived at the foot of the mountain. Except for a small number of soldiers who went to rest in the forest, most of the soldiers crowded around and ran towards the river.
Seeing that the opponent was about to enter the forest, Shen Chen saw that the time had come, picked up a bone whistle, put it in his mouth, and blew it with all his strength.
"Beep beep beep beep!"
Suddenly there was a whistle throughout the forest, which was the order to release the arrow.
"Fire the arrow!"
"Fire the arrow!"
"Fire the arrow!"
Countless figures suddenly appeared in the forest, bows and crossbows were fired, and thousands of arrows fell like raindrops.
Li Tongjun was caught off guard and fell to the ground.
The changes here immediately frightened the soldiers by the river. Some wanted to take up arms and fight, some instinctively wanted to run away, and some saw that the other side of the river was not far away, so they simply jumped into the river and swam to the other side.
In an instant, Li Tong's army of five thousand men and horses were in chaos. Li Tong himself was actually waiting on the post road for his personal guards to help him fetch water.
Seeing the sudden ambush, his face changed drastically and he immediately shouted: "Gather, gather, form formation!"
"Dong dong dong dong!"
The sound of drums and horns intertwined.
There were drums beaten by Li Tongjun and Liu Beijun. Groups of soldiers rushed out of the woods and attacked Cao Jun.
If this was a group of elite people, they might be able to react quickly.
But Li Tong's army itself was a second- and third-line soldier. In addition, they were tired all the way and had just drank a lot of river water. Their hands and feet were weak and they were unable to pick up weapons to fight.
Therefore, almost as soon as the two sides came into contact, they were defeated like a mountain.
The wilderness was full of fleeing Li Tong's troops. Li Tong himself was quite fast and did not stay to fight to the death like Man Chong. After seeing that his troops collapsed and the situation was over, he immediately galloped his horse and fled westward.
The rest of Li Tong's army was in misery. They drank enough river water when they were very exhausted. Now they could not even walk, let alone run away. They were almost completely killed by the coalition forces of Liu Bei and Shen Chen.
Perhaps it cannot be said that they were completely wiped out. It was just that the first few waves of crossbow fire killed and injured more than a thousand people. Almost all the remaining people knelt down and surrendered, without giving them a chance to be killed.
Liu Bei did not have Cao Cao's hobby of killing prisoners, so he ordered all the prisoners to be escorted to Dingying. Most of these soldiers were from Runan. The Yuan family still has residual forces in Runan. He can use the influence of the Yuan family to bring these soldiers Incorporate into your own team.
On July 1st, at dusk, Liu Bei's 7,000-strong coalition led Li Tong's army back to Dingying with more than 3,000 prisoners. Naturally, the recruitment and surrender work was done by Jian, Yong, Sun, Qian, Mi Zhu and others. The troops and horses were also reorganized and prepared by.
By July 2nd, the entire Dingying City was in chaos. Liu Bei's army had not laid a good foundation. There were not many elites, and three thousand soldiers were recruited. Naturally, the entire organization was in chaos. Looks like a rabble.
But there is nothing that can be done. The total number of troops is now nearly 20,000, and Old Liu has never been so wealthy in his life.
When I was in Xuzhou, I was called Xuzhou Mu, but the troops directly under my command were only a few thousand people. Later I became Yuzhou Mu, with even fewer soldiers and horses. The only time he commanded tens of thousands of people in battle was when Mi Zhu contributed a large number of slaves, and he was defeated in one battle. Lu Bu was defeated.
Therefore, the current strength of the army was nearly 20,000, which was completely beyond his ability. It took him two or three days just to organize the troops and horses, and it was only with the help of Shen Chen that he barely completed the recruitment.
On July 5th, this miscellaneous, seemingly cobbled-together team began to set off on their mighty journey.
But their marching speed was not fast at all. They could only cover fifty or sixty miles a day, which was about twenty kilometers. It took them two days to get to Yancheng alone.
You must know that Shen Chen's troops are elite soldiers who have undergone rigorous training. They have excellent long-distance attack capabilities. They can maintain a walking speed of four to five kilometers per hour every day, and can travel up to seventy or eighty kilometers in a day, which is faster than Sima Yi's attack on Mengda. quick.
But now the speed is three or four times slower, which shows that having more troops is not a good thing. This will make the troops too bloated, and the soldiers are not high quality and have low fighting spirit. They are not as strong as a small group of elites. .
However, Shen Chen also knew that a small group of elites was only suitable for surprise attacks. For example, Deng Ai's sneak attack on Yinping, and Li Suxue's night invasion of Caizhou only brought three to five thousand people with him. For a frontal attack, a large force is still needed.
At this time, Xia Houyuan and Li Dian finally learned that Shen Chen had used another tactic of attacking in the east and attacking in the west, and he actually cooperated with Liu Bei to defeat Li Tong and occupy Dingying in just one day.
Therefore, they quickly gathered their troops and returned to defend the Linying and Jianqiang areas to protect the safety of the south of Xudu. At the same time, they asked Cai Yang to join them and jointly defend Xudu.
Cai Yang was led by Cao Cao, who led three thousand elite men from the Guandu front line, and headed south to Runan to prepare for the attack on Liu Bei.
Historically, he was beheaded by Liu Bei, so Cao Cao sent Cao Ren over to defeat Liu Bei. In the end, Liu Bei had to escape back to Yuan Shao, and then went to Nanyang in the name of Liu Biao of the Southern Alliance.
But now the Caiyang people have not arrived, the Manchong people are gone, and Li Tong has been defeated. If he goes to Runan again, he will die, so he is transferred to Jianqiang and garrisoned with Li Dian.
By July 9, it took four days for Liu Bei's large army to arrive at Zhaoling. This place is located south of Jianqiang, less than 200 miles away from Xudu, which is equivalent to the distance from Luohe City to Xuchang City in later generations, about 70 miles. Kilometers, converted into Hanli, is one hundred and seventy-five miles.
After the army arrived at Zhaoling, Shen Chen once again proposed to Liu Bei that night that he should divide his troops.
Zhaoling County Government Mansion.
Guan Yu, Zhang Fei, Zhao Yun, Tai Shi Ci, Jian Yong, Sun Qian, Mi Zhu, Mi Fang, Shi Ren, Liu Yan, Yuan Wei, Xia Hou Zuan and other generals and counselors were gathered together. At this time, Chen was just a personal guard captain, standing guard at the door. guard.
Liu Bei sat on the throne with the title of Han Zuo General and Yuzhou Mu, while Guan Yu and others sat under Liu Bei's left hand. Shen Chen was not his subordinate and belonged to the friendly army, so he sat with Gan Ning, Shen Mi, Deng Zhao and other generals. Below Liu Bei's right hand. Since the right side was respected in the Han Dynasty, this was a sign of respect for the guests.
After everyone sat down, Shen Chen raised his hand to Liu Bei and said: "Mr. Go to Xudu, Xia Houyuan and others will be in chaos when the time comes, you can plow the courtyard, sweep the caves, and attack Xudu directly!"
Liu Bei frowned and said, "If this is the case, Cao's army will inevitably withdraw to Xudu to protect the city of Xuchang. Wouldn't this young gentleman be in danger?"
Shen Chen smiled and said: "It doesn't matter. As the saying goes, soldiers are valuable and quick. Our soldiers train day and night, and they can achieve six hundred in three days and one thousand and two in six days. Zhaoling is very close to Xudu, and our army can reach it in one day. Although the North It will take some detours to go up to Yingyang, but it will take at most two days to reach Xudu City, so Cao Jun will not react so quickly."
Sima Yi and Xia Houyuan are already considered to be the top marchers in the Three Kingdoms, but one walks more than 40 kilometers a day on average, and the other walks 70 kilometers. Shen Chen is even faster than Xia Houyuan, and can walk 80 kilometers a day, although it is not as good as that of later generations. The iron base of our army was already extremely fast at that time.
certainly.
This speed can only be achieved in plains such as Henan and Hebei, and in mountainous areas such as Sichuan, Sichuan, Liaodong, and Qinling. Naturally, it is impossible to achieve this speed.
After hearing what Shen Chen said, Liu Bei asked with concern: "Is it really possible?"
Shen Chen replied: "We have already attacked Xudu three months ago. Within five days, we first pretended to attack Xudu, then defeated Ye County, Kunyang, and Wuyang, and then went north to capture Xudu. The battle has moved six hundred miles, and we have to walk more than a hundred miles every day."
Although it was six hundred miles, it was only about two hundred kilometers. But within five days, we had to feign attacks, fight, and set up ambushes. We walked an average of forty kilometers a day. This marching speed was already very surprising.
Everyone in the hall suddenly exclaimed in surprise, looking at each other and feeling incredible.
Liu Bei said in awe: "I have also heard about this. At that time, I only knew that Mr. Xiao had attacked outside the city of Xudu, and Cao Cao was forced to rush back to Xudu to defend it overnight. But I didn't know that the process was so tortuous."
Shen Chen said: "I also know that the soldiers are tired, but this is a last resort. The enemy is stronger than us. If we don't think of a way, how can we save the country of Han Dynasty?"
Liu Bei nodded and said: "The little gentleman's heart to help the Han Dynasty with his fists is admirable. Okay, I will listen to the little gentleman's words. In two days, whether the young gentleman arrives in Xudu or not, I will start to attack Jianqiang. Even if we can't attack Xudu at that time, we still have to delay the enemy for your sake."
"Thank you Mr. Xuande."
Thank you Shen Chen.
Although the troops led by Liu Bei were bloated, he took great risks and had to face the main force of Cao's army.
The troops themselves are not elite, and Cao Jun will focus all their attention on him. If he is not careful, he may be defeated by Cao Jun.
However, Shen Chen only made a sneak attack with a small group of troops. Since Xudu was extremely empty, the probability of success was very high. Therefore, it can be said that compared to the battlefield behind enemy lines, Liu Bei's pressure on the frontal battlefield would actually be greater.
So after deciding on the strategy that day, Shen Chen asked the soldiers to rest for a day. On July 10, Liu Bei's army set off north again, preparing to encircle Jianqiang County. However, Shen Chen broke away from his troops and first Head west towards Dingling.