Chapter 3 Ups and Downs (Part 6) "It's true that newborn calves are not afraid of tigers!" Yu Wenshiji pushed away the crowd and pointed at the current location of the army on the map, and then pointed at Liyang, Xingyang and Luoyang, shaking his head and sneering at this moment,
The expression on his face was more of mockery than praise.
If it were in the past, Yu Wenshiji would definitely have used the four words "common man's courage" to attack Li Xu. Now he has changed his words to praise and criticize, which has already saved the opponent's face. Liyang City is a village located north of the Yellow River and on the south bank of the Yongji Canal.
The important town of grain is more than 300 miles away from Luoyang, where the rebels have gathered heavily. The waterway is very convenient. In addition, the distance between Han Shihe's rebels who are currently attacking Xingyang City and Liyang is only over 200 miles away from the two cities.
The South and North Canals are connected. Once the rebels capture Xingyang as scheduled, they will definitely be able to reach the Liyang battlefield within three days through the two waterways of Tongji Canal and Yongji Canal.
The current location of Xiongwu Camp is at the junction of Hejian County and Shanggu County, which is more than a thousand miles away from Liyang. Li Xuyuan discovered a flaw in the enemy's army thousands of miles away, and then thought about killing it with a fatal blow. Isn't this act of common courage? I'm afraid not.
By the time everyone arrived at Liyang, the defenders had already made preparations. But once the Xiongwu camp rushed thousands of miles away but was defeated by the fortified city, Han Shihe and Zhou Zhong led their troops to attack from the waterway, and everyone died without a burial place.
The generals shook their heads helplessly, and the excitement on their faces was instantly replaced by disappointment and confusion. Yu Wenshiji's guidance was correct. Yang Xuangan was not a fool. He would not abandon Liyangcang, which was equivalent to the entire harvest of the Sui Dynasty, regardless of the current situation.
The reason why he placed all his troops south of the Yellow River was because he knew that the Eastern Expeditionary Army would not come back that fast. If he could capture Luoyang before the Eastern Expeditionary Army arrived at the crossing of the Yellow River and take the relatives of the officials as hostages,
The food in Liyangcang can be completely dispensed with. But once the imperial troops threaten Liyangcang before he captures Luoyang, in order to maintain the morale and morale of the rebels, Yang Xuangan will definitely send a general and heavy troops to fight.
"This may be the only way now, we don't have many choices!" Chief Shi Zhao Ziming pondered for a moment, and his opinions began to tilt in the direction of Li Xu. In front of everyone, he put together the sheepskin maps of the counties in Henan and Hebei.
On the map, all the forces of both the enemy and ours were clearly marked. "If we don't attack Liyang by force," he used charcoal blocks to point at the position where Wei Wensheng was. We would have to go west again, climb over Wangwu Mountain, and cross the Yellow River on the west side of Mianchi.
, where we will face Yang Xuangan’s main force together with General Wei Wensheng!”
He curled his lips, not wanting to continue this meaningless topic, but the soldiers became commotion and protested that it would be better to fight with the rebels than to cooperate with Wei Wensheng. General Wei is best at preserving his strength. People who cooperate with him often
I don’t even know who betrayed me until I die.
"Wangwu Mountain is more than a thousand feet high. How can we climb up there with our horses!" Murong Luo found a high-sounding reason to deny Zhao Ziming's hypothesis. Given the height of Wangwu Mountain, it would be difficult for infantry to climb the mountain.
But the Xiongwu camp is now full of cavalry
"It's nonsense. We have the ability to climb over Wangwu Mountain, but we won't climb over it!" Zhang Xiu jumped up and said loudly that the lessons learned on the west bank of the Liao River last year are clear before our eyes. Li Xu and Yu Wenshi can heal their scars and forget about the pain. Brothers in the food protection army
The innocent soul is unwilling to
Sure enough, as soon as he finished speaking, the school captain Li Mengchang stood up to express his support. He was one of the survivors of the battle on the west bank of the Liao River where three thousand warriors were annihilated. He hated Wei Wensheng. Although both sides were serving the Sui Dynasty at the moment.
, but Li Mengchang wished that Wei Wensheng was killed by Yang Xuangan. In his opinion, at this time, Xiongwuying would be magnanimous if they didn't attack Wei from behind, and they would have to climb mountains and wading rivers to rush over and fight side by side with the opponent.
Seek death for being a bitch!
"Okay, okay, what matters now is not complaining, but what to do!" Seeing that no one could come up with any better suggestions, Li Xu had no choice but to interrupt everyone's discussion again.
Everyone's eyes turned to him. General Lang's performance tonight was a little anxious. According to previous impressions, his temper was much calmer than today. Maybe he was forced by military affairs. The soldiers thought understandingly and stood up straight one after another.
body
"What I mean is, we still have to sneak attack Li Yang!" Li Xu looked at Yu Wenshiji, then at everyone, and said decisively that he didn't have much time to discuss the strategy against the enemy. His Majesty the Emperor had just awarded the reward.
Waiting for his return, the eyes of the big bosses in the DPRK and China are staring at his sudden rise as a general. Among the rebels, there may be his mentor who is planning the deployment.
"Yang Xuangan definitely doesn't know that our entire battalion is made up of cavalry!" Li Xu paused and slowly explained the reason why he insisted on attacking Liyang.
escape"
"You might as well just say, if we can't fight, we'll run away!" Yu Wenshiji chuckled softly, and there was no longer any sarcasm in his words. It was only a guy like Li Xu who came from a humble background who didn't care so much about the name of a general.
If you miss a hit, turn around and run away. This is a common tactic of prairie horse thieves, rather than what a dignified Sui army should do. But at the moment, this tactic is very practical.
"First, the rebels cannot catch up with us. Second, Yang Xuangan sent troops from Luoyang to protect Li Yang, which means that we have contained the enemy and eased his offensive against Luoyang!" Li Xu nodded, admitting that his thoughts were once again distracted by Yuwen
Shiji guessed that there was nothing to be ashamed of. Yuwen Shiji was already very smart, and his experience was more than a little bit deeper than his own.
He walked back to the coach's seat with a smile, raised his command arrows, distributed them one by one, and announced with encouragement or admiration that the new journey would begin tomorrow morning, and everyone could have a good sleep tonight.
The next day, Xiongwu Camp suddenly accelerated
Next to the official road of the Sui Dynasty, there was a post station every hundred miles or so. The soldiers of Xiongwuying ran along the official road. When they encountered a post station, they stopped to rest. Whenever everyone took a rest, Yu Wenshiji took his soldiers with him.
As General Wu Yalang, he plundered all the good horses in the post station. Those horses that were exhausted and could not keep up with the speed of the group were forcibly given to the post soldiers by Yu Wenshiji as collateral.
"This is a Sui army horse. Feed it well and hand it over to our defender General Murong Bie when he catches up! Don't worry, I will not corrupt your post horse!" Yu Wenshiji smiled and told the postman, "By the way,
You can report this matter truthfully. My surname is Yuwen, and my courtesy name is Renren." There is no need to reveal his identity as Prince Consort and Commander-in-Chief. The surname Guang Yuwen made the postmen dare not disobey his orders. A large number of posthorses and horse materials were recruited.
After entering the Xiongwu Camp, the marching speed of the soldiers was guaranteed to the greatest extent possible.
Everyone slept for less than three hours that night, and they continued to run wildly before dawn on the third day. Many horses lost their strength in the morning. Li Xu ordered the soldiers who could not keep up with the group to change their mounts, and he threw away the exhausted horses.
On the roadside, it was left to Murong Luo, who served as the defender, to take care of him.
In the afternoon, some weak soldiers couldn't stand it anymore. Their faces were pale and their bodies were shaking in the saddle. Yu Wenshi allowed the weak soldiers to leave the team and gathered in the roadside inn to wait for the rear guard to take in the remaining soldiers. The speed continued without slowing down.
Speeding along the official road to the southwest
"We are competing with Yang Xuangan to see if he can capture Luoyang faster or we can reach Liyang City faster!" Chief Shi Zhao Ziming and Colonel Zhang Xiu mobilized the brothers like this: "The Emperor just rewarded us, we can't
If you don't repay your kindness, I will be the first to rush over and smash Yang Xuangan's rice cooker. The court will definitely see such a big contribution!"
"Smashed his rice cooker!" the soldiers responded with roars of laughter, mud and sweat running down their faces. No one would have expected them to be so fast. In the past two days, other reinforcements have been pulled back by the Xiongwu Camp.
Yang Xuangan's attention for more than a hundred miles should be all on the main force. He may not pay attention to this small force that has just been converted into government soldiers.
Even if the rebels noticed the rapidly approaching cavalry, their general would have difficulty receiving the news in time. Li Mengchang led the scouts to search the area within five miles in front of the army. If a guy galloping south on horseback was found on the official road,
, no matter he is a businessman or a postman, all of them are taken down pending trial.
Xiongwuying did not allow anyone to pass their team along the official road. The official road was the best route to Liyang. If there were people along the way who wanted to warn Yang Xuangan and tried to warn the rebels, they could only follow the army slowly. If
The messenger crossed the mountains and took a small road. He must have arrived near Luoyang after the army arrived in Liyang.
On the night of the third day, the Xiongwu Camp received an urgent military message from the front heading north near Luan City. General Xingyang was Han Qinhu's old unit. He couldn't bear to fight with the son of his old friend and led the whole city to surrender. Han Shihe captured Xingyang without bloodshed and turned to
Bei, join forces with Gu Jue to attack Hulao Pass
"If you fight for fifty miles, you will defeat the general!" Li Anyuan was a little worried for his brothers. If Han Shihe easily captured Hulao Pass again, the Xiongwu camp would lose the need to rush to Liyang. In the past two days, the number of stragglers has been close to seven.
If Bai continues to reduce the number of troops at this rate, the number of soldiers and horses that will eventually arrive near Liyang will not exceed 5,000.
The 5,000 exhausted troops were unable to stand a fight no matter whether they faced the Liyang defenders or the rebels led by Han Shihe.
"We must rush over. Han Shihe may not be able to return to Liyang in time. Even if he returns in time, the rebels will be as tired as us." At the critical moment, Xuzi suddenly behaved extremely stubbornly.
He didn't want to give up halfway, no matter whether the opponent was Han Shihe, Yuan Wuben, a mule or a horse, he only realized when he started running: "And, the rebels have no armor!" Xuzi tried his best to restrain the fatigue and weakness deep in his heart, and said loudly at this moment
, he found that he was very eager to fight Han Shihe
Note 1: The text about Ma Yuan's invention of the original sand table in the previous section can be found in "The Biography of Ma Yuan in the Book of the Later Han Dynasty" Note 2: Regarding the speed of the Sui army's retreat, historical records indicate that the Sui army withdrew from Liaodong on June 28th, and in early August
, Yu Wenshu has defeated Yang Xuangan’s main force, so this book assumes that the cavalry can run more than 150 miles a day along the official road.
