The reason why Li Guo reacted so strongly when he heard the news that Chaoyi was captured by soldiers was that, in addition to being sure that something was really going on at Li Zicheng's side, the other reason was that it was beyond his expectation that Chaoyi was lost so quickly.
Although Chaoyi is a small city, under the management of the Dashun Army, it has already become a military fortress for all the people. It is located on a cliff on the bank of the Yellow River. There are even two artillery on the top of the city. It is absolutely impossible for the officers and soldiers to attack frontally.
Possible, it can only be done from the two wings or around the rear, which would be extremely difficult to break the city.
But the officers and soldiers actually captured it overnight, or to be exact in less than two hours. This was a bridgehead that he had carefully managed, but it turned out to be so vulnerable. How could Li Guo not be shocked.
As the old saying goes, you are not afraid of thieves stealing, but you are afraid of being remembered. The bandit army painstakingly built a bridgehead on the other side to monitor every move of the officers and soldiers here. Such a thorn in the side was a thorn in the flesh. How could Li Yan not think about it all the time, from the day he was transferred to Puzhou?
I have been thinking about how to remove this eyeball ever since.
After receiving Chang Yu's secret order, he worked out an attack plan with his subordinates, which was fast, ruthless and accurate.
Three simple and crude words contain too much meaning: fast, lightning-fast, ruthless, massacre the city when necessary, accurate, targeted strike.
Once the battle plan is formulated, who will execute it?
A year ago, Li Yan led 8,000 troops to surrender to Chang Yu. At that time, he only had two trusted generals, Gao Qi and Qin Songwang. They followed him to fight in the north and south and made great achievements in battle, but their soldiers and horses were almost killed in the battle.
They were almost exhausted, with only three thousand when Anqing suppressed the Baiwang tribe. However, Chang Yu later added troops to it, namely Liu Zeqing's troops.
As the commander-in-chief of Shandong Province, Liu Zeqing was extremely powerful and powerful. It is not an exaggeration to say that he was the largest warlord in Jiangbei at that time. Even Gao Jie was a bit inferior to him. Not only did he have food and money, but he also had strong soldiers and horses, and he had many powerful generals.
, among them Ma Huabao, Zhang Siyi, Boyongfu, Wang Zuntan, Yu Shaoxun are known as Liu Zeqing's five tiger generals, as well as Huang Zhongse, Zhang Guozhu, etc. (Zhang Guozhu later became a fierce general under Wu Sangui, but now he is still working under Liu Zeqing and is not well-known.
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Liu Zeqing was stabbed to death by a subordinate soldier during the Anqing campaign two years ago. More than ten thousand soldiers under his command were placed under the jurisdiction of Li Yan. As the old saying goes, the upper beam is not straight and the lower beam is crooked. Needless to say, what kind of thing Liu Zeqing is, the generals under his command are also nothing.
For serious people, eating, drinking, prostitution and gambling can be considered a healthy life, and it is not too much to say that they do no evil.
Having more than one or two people like this under his command would give anyone a headache, but Li Yan was not only outstanding in resourcefulness, but also had top-notch control skills. In just over half a year, he managed to put these gangsters in order, and only obeyed his orders.
, in Chang Yu’s words, the general environment is very important!
Li Yan was strict in running the army, and he was never vague about merit, reward, and punishment. Regardless of his personal ability, he had a backer behind him and Gong Ziying beside him. He was more than enough to deal with anyone. Although Ma Huabao and others were disgusted and hard to change, they were not
If you dare to make mistakes, you must obey Li Yan's orders. Since he was punished several times, the violations of law and discipline have become less and less.
In a group of three, there must be a mentor. Li Yan and Chang Yu have been together for a long time and have learned many tricks from him that are not on the table, such as brainwashing and feeding poisonous chicken soup, so that Ma Huabao and others are now thinking about earning military merit!
The two armies were facing each other across the river, and the war was about to break out. Ma Huabao and others were also eager to start the fight quickly and earn military glory and shine on their families. So when they heard that they were going to attack the imperial court, they impatiently asked for a fight.
The capture of the imperial court had a great impact on the entire situation. It had to be done quickly and accurately, which required extremely high demands on the overall quality and combat power of the combat troops, so at first Li Yan was a little hesitant whether these guys could resist such a big banner.
His original intention was to mobilize his direct troops to participate in the battle, namely the troops of Qin Songwang and Gao Qi, but he found that mobilizing their troops would take too much time.
The Yellow River defense line stretches hundreds of miles from Tongguan to Hejin. There are three cities along the river on the opposite bank. There are two on this side, namely Puzhou and Hejin. The two armies are constantly confronting each other. In order to strengthen defense, Li Yan ordered Qin Songwang to garrison the Hejin section, and Gao Qi to garrison the Puzhou section.
In the state section, he himself camped in the mountains.
Therefore, this time it would be too troublesome and time-consuming to mobilize the two men's troops and horses, and it would easily arouse the vigilance of the other side. Therefore, I made a prompt decision and agreed to the request of Ma Huabao and the others, ordering them to break through the imperial city before dawn, otherwise the military law would not be enforced.
strict.
In order to express their determination, Ma Huabao and others even issued a military order, saying that they would come to see you at dawn if the city is not broken!
But if you want to break through the fortress that the bandits have carefully built on the cliffs on the river bank in a very short period of time, it is not an easy task. Even if Ma Huabao and the others dropped all their troops, they still couldn't do it. After all, there is a Yellow River across the river.
The river is frozen, but there are so many steep, thorny, and rocky obstacles on the river bank that it’s not easy to rush up. The bandit army won’t just watch you rush up without making a move, and there is a cliff on the side of the river facing Chaoyi City, so you can’t rush up either.
It is necessary to bypass both wings and the rear.
Therefore, if you want to break through Chaoyi City, you must first cross the river and get ashore, but it is not that easy. There are artillery and bows and arrows suppressing you from the top, and there are trench positions near the shore. If you want to break through and get to the shore, it will be like climbing into the sky.
Climbing to the sky is difficult, but asking for help is easy.
Wu Weiying personally led the artillery unit of the Shenji Battalion to participate in the battle.
The water surface of the Yellow River is generally within a hundred meters wide, and the river bank is about a mile wide. The straight-line distance between Chaoyi and Puzhou is only three to five miles. To put it simply, setting up artillery in Puzhou City can easily bombard Chaoyi City.
It was almost noon when Li Yan received the secret order from Chang Yu. After discussing with Gu Junen, he sent people to spread rumors on the other side. When night fell and rumors were flying across the sky on the other side, Puzhou City was busy preparing for war to prevent the other side from discovering clues.
Everything was going on quietly, the lights were no more or less than before, and soldiers and horses were mobilized quietly under the cover of night.
Ma Huabao and Zhang Shiyi led a thousand soldiers to attack the southern wing, Bo Yongfu and Wang Zuntan attacked the northern wing, and Yu Shaoxun led his troops to climb the city and break the gate. At the same time, Shenji Battalion's artillery city deployed nearly thirty cannons on the city and on the shore.
Red long-range cannon.
Everything is ready, all it takes is an order!
It was night. Li Yan stood on the top of Puzhou City with his hands behind his back and looked up. The windy night was dark and there was no starlight. The lights in the small town on the other side were dim and uncertain. Li Yan had a faint sneer on his lips. Wu Weiying whispered beside him:
"Li Shuai, the heat is almost done."
Li Yan shook his head lightly: "Master Hou, do you know when people are most sleepy?"
Wu Weiying was startled and then nodded: "Then wait a moment, Li Shuai, would you like a cup of hot tea to refresh yourself?" Li Yan shook his head: "I am the most energetic at this moment in months."
In the grass on the bank of the Yellow River southwest of Puzhou City, a horse leopard held a piece of hay in its mouth. It looked at the other side for a while and then looked at the head of Puzhou City: "Old Zhang, whoever breaks the imperial court first will be credited with the first achievement. This is the first in the Yellow River."
The significance of the battle is extraordinary, and the reward from the court will definitely not be small. Whether I can rise to the top with this battle depends on you. Don't worry, if I get the first success, I won't lose you."
Zhang Shiyi nodded: "Our brotherly friendship is overblown." He glanced towards the north and said, "But if we can't keep it together, the merit of this song belongs to our two brothers. Lao Wang and Bo Yongfu are also holding on to their efforts."
Moreover, the horse leopard spit out the hay in his mouth with a look of disdain: "The terrain in the north is steep, and the river slope is full of rocks and thorns. When they climb up, we will kill them all to the bottom of the city." Zhang Shiyi chuckled: "No wonder you invited Zhan Nan early in the morning
Yi, it turns out that I was holding back my energy for a long time."
"Ahem, I didn't mean to take advantage. In fact, I really need this first contribution." Ma Huabao sighed: "If you know that we are living under someone else's roof, how did Liu Shuai die..."
Hush! Zhang Shiyi quickly interrupted him, looked around and scolded in a low voice: "Don't talk nonsense."
Yes, yes, Ma Huabao chuckled: "I'm confused, how can I be distracted at this time?" Then he went into the grass: "I'll be careful, call me when the fight starts."