On December 25, the Tang army sent troops eastward from Baiquan.
On December 27, the Tang army captured Liu Heier alive and captured Nanguan Town.
On December 28, twelve miles west of the city, the Tang army and the Liang army met on a narrow road, and a battle broke out. Su Dingfang commanded appropriately, which dampened the enemy's spirit. Suo Zhou led the Liang army to retreat and rely on the mountains to defend.
In the early morning of December 29th, Suo Zhou, who had stayed up all night, gave up climbing and looking into the distance. Although it was dark and bright, he could not see anything clearly, so he simply sent some scouts to investigate.
In yesterday's battle, Suo Zhou admitted that he was defeated. The general of the Tang army overwhelmed him in every aspect, but Suo Zhou was not ready to give up. After all, he still had more than 3,000 soldiers in his hands, and there were still 2,000 soldiers in the city behind.
Can block the opponent.
Once the Tang army passes Luojiatuo, they can attack the city head-on. Although they may not be able to capture it, after all, the two sides of Honghe Town and Pingfeng Town can attack the flanks of the Tang army. But in that case, Liang Jun's
There is also a lot of pressure.
Therefore, Suo Zhou did not lead his troops back to the city, but instead stationed himself on the spot to confront the Tang army. From time to time, he sent small groups of troops to harass and prevent the Tang army from successfully building their camp.
But it is a pity that the general of the Tang army was too clever. He first suffered three small losses in a row, luring Suozhou to continuously increase his troops, and then suddenly led his cavalry to flank the formation and killed nearly 500 Liang soldiers in one go.
After that, Suo Zhou didn't dare to act rashly and could only watch the Tang army build the camp bit by bit.
"Really?" Suo Zhou stared at the reported scout with bull's eyes.
"Don't dare lie." The scout's face was also full of surprise.
Suo Zhou told the scouts to retreat with a sullen face. The Tang army actually built a camp so quickly. It seemed that he had been freezing all night last night, but the Tang army could rest well in the tent.
Last night, the Tang Army sent small groups of troops to sneak attack eight times. Liang Jun suffered a lot. In one of them, the Tang Army actually occupied a hilltop. Suo Zhou had to personally lead the armor into battle to recapture it, so he simply stayed wrapped in leather clothes.
After a whole night, I am now tired, sleepy, cold and hungry.
But this is not the key. Suo Zhou is also a veteran on the battlefield. Naturally, it is clear that building a camp is both easy and difficult. As long as the tents and wooden frames are prepared with the army, it is not difficult to build a camp, and now the Tang army has a flank.
Endless wood.
But the problem is that Li Zhengbao secretly communicated with the King of Handan, and wanted to offer the city in a coordinated manner. The key point was to capture the east gate so that the Tang army could quickly enter the city. Such a plan emphasized the speed of soldiers and the snow and mountains.
In order to march quickly, the Tang army would not carry so many tools for building camps.
What does this mean?
Suo Zhou's suspicious gaze fell on Li Zhengbao in the distance, who was guarded by several soldiers.
At this time, there was smoke rising from the Tang Army's position facing each other from a distance. Suozhou twitched the corner of his mouth and touched the frozen and hard steamed bun in his arms. He didn't even have to turn around to look at it. The morale of his subordinates must be low...
People come from a long distance, and even if they have tents to sleep in, they still have hot meals to eat, and we are just waiting for work. It’s so miserable.
Suo Zhou was about to say something to boost morale when he saw that the smoke from the opposite side was still there, the Tang army's camp was opened wide, and more than a thousand soldiers filed out, with large shields in front, spearmen, and archers behind, slowly pushing toward the west.
"So early..." Suo Zhou murmured, "What exactly does Tang Jun want to do!"
The Tang army stationed troops near Baiquan County for two months. It seemed that it was because of the cold climate and heavy snowfall. In fact, before the heavy snowfall, they could have attacked Guyuan. However, in the end, it was just a trial with a few partial troops, and even Liu Heier failed to break through. past.
Liang Luoren and Suo Zhou had the same judgment. The Tang army defeated the Turks and the losses would not be small. The King of Handan did not want to waste his troops to attack Guyuan, which was easy to defend and difficult to attack. This was the main reason why they judged early that the Tang army wanted to cooperate with the outside.
But now, the Tang army's sneak attack failed. Suo Zhou believed that the Tang army must have clearly seen Li Zhengbao next to him yesterday, but the Tang army camped here and sent troops in such a hurry. What on earth did Su Dingfang... or the King of Handan want to do?
These thoughts flashed through Suo Zhou's mind, but he had no time to think about them and ordered his soldiers to start setting up defenses.
Soon, Suo Zhou discovered that the Tang army was by no means a simple test. The Tang general who had captured the hilltop in yesterday's battle was the first to create a gap with his Fangtian painted halberd, and the following Tang soldiers swarmed in with their shields.
The screams were continuous, and the splashing blood and falling snow intertwined in the air. The soldiers from both sides were like wild beasts, biting each other in the mountains covered with white blankets.
Su Dingfang, who was standing on the hilltop on the south side watching the battle, looked at this indifferently, but was thinking in his heart that fortunately Huairen had returned to the Chinese army, otherwise he might not have chosen to withdraw his troops.
Over the years, Su Dingfang knew Li Shan well enough, and had many discussions with Ling Jing in private. Both of them concluded that the young prince was not lacking in talent in military strategy, and he also had sharp enough intuition to choose fighter opportunities more accurately. He may even be quite successful in general, but he has a kind heart... To put it bluntly, he is just not ruthless enough.
If Li Shan was in charge of today's war, he would most likely choose to withdraw his troops, use various means to undermine the opponent's will, and even achieve the effect of subduing the opponent without fighting. This choice cannot be said to be wrong, but it seems a little gentle. It is incompatible with Li Shanxi's reputation of piling up heads in Beijing.
Su Dingfang successively sent more than a thousand Tang troops to the battle in turn. They attacked five times in two hours, and the offensive was extremely fierce.
The fighting between the soldiers of both sides was extremely cruel. The Liang army took advantage of the geographical advantage. A large number of Tang soldiers died under the rocks, wailing all over the field. The five consecutive uninterrupted attacks by the Tang army also made the Liang army extremely exhausted. Both sides fell into exhaustion. .
Su Dingfang frowned and mentally considered whether to go into battle in person. It seemed that the pressure on Liang Jun was not strong enough, but the next moment, the Tang soldiers who had just retreated became a little commotion.
"That's Li Zhengbao?" Xue Wanche's expression changed.
It was Li Zhengbao who was pushed to the hillside in front of the battle by more than a dozen Liang soldiers. Before Su Dingfang could say anything, the sword flashed and a big head fell. The headless corpse kneeling on the ground shook and fell to the ground. fall.
Xue Wanche was not surprised that Li Zhengbao was captured. Liang Jun's ambush already showed that the previous plan of internal and external cooperation had gone bankrupt, but he was still surprised that Li Zhengbao was beheaded... There was no beheading at the beginning of the war yesterday, why was he suddenly beheaded today?
Su Dingfang was also a little stunned. After a moment, he frowned and thought hard, then turned around and asked, "Choose a prisoner."
A quarter of an hour later, Suo Zhou, who was ashen-faced, looked at the Tang army from a distance in astonishment. The Duke of Zhao actually wanted to exchange a hundred prisoners for Li Zhengbao's body.