"Haha, Commander-in-Chief, you are really like a god with your troops. I, Lao Niu, can be considered as submissive to you."
I heard a burst of rough laughter coming from Yue Fei's tent. It was not Niu Gao.
The other officers and soldiers all showed expressions of joy.
It turned out that after Yue Fei's army arrived in Guangyuan Prefecture, he did not stop too much and directly led the army to continue the southern expedition, aiming directly at Shenglong Mansion.
The Jiaozhi reinforcements who arrived thought that after the Song army captured Guangyuan Prefecture, they would definitely consolidate the south of Guangyuan, so they stationed troops in the prefectures and counties in the southwest of Guangyuan Prefecture. Although they knew that these prefectures and counties were already difficult to hold, they
They hoped to use these cities and camps to delay the attack of Yue Fei's army. It would be a pity to leave them unused. They also deliberately bluffed, pretending that if you continue the southern expedition, I will go back to your rear to recapture Guangyuan Prefecture. Who knows?
Yue Fei ignored them at all, leaving only five thousand soldiers to garrison Guangyuan Prefecture, and the army penetrated deeply.
The Jiaozhi Army was asking for trouble, so they adopted harassment tactics. Relying on their familiarity with the terrain, they lurked in the mountains, detoured behind the Song Army, and jumped out from time to time to harass. In short, their only goal was to delay time.
, let this winter pass as soon as possible.
However, these are all leftovers from Wanyan Xiyin's play, and can the harassment of your Jiaozhi soldiers be compared to that of the Jin Army? The Jin Army often harassed others to death.
Yue Fei was very experienced in this area. He kept constant and responded to all changes. He ignored these small detachments and only used cavalry and convoys to protect the two wings. If the enemy dared to invade, he would rely on his absolute strength and mobility to surround and annihilate him.
, with this strategy, the army marched straight in, with overwhelming momentum.
The Jiaozhi Army tried several times to rob the Song Army's food and fodder, but Yue Fei predicted all of them. Not only did they not rob the food, they were beaten by Yang Zaixing and his cavalry. As for the ambush in the mountains, the Song Army was also aware of it.
It's all in vain.
Jiaozhi saw that General Yue Fei had gathered his troops together. This small-scale harassment not only had no effect, but also lost troops and generals. They also saw that Yue Fei's army was unstoppable. Although there had not yet been a direct conflict, the situation was extremely unfavorable and they could only change their strategy.
, quickly ordered the soldiers to assemble on the front line, preparing for a decisive battle with the Song army.
But just when the Jiaozhi army was concentrating its forces, Yue Fei sent out 20,000 troops, divided into five groups, to attack the five counties south of Guangyuan at the same time with lightning speed, because Jiaozhi had just transferred the troops here to
They went to the rear, and the population of Jiaozhi was originally small, so the defenses of these prefectures and counties were very weak. In just a few days, the Song army wiped them all away like the autumn wind sweeping away fallen leaves, and easily and comfortably captured the entire Guangyuan area.
.The rear was quickly stabilized, and at the same time the army continued to advance.
By the time Jiaozhi came to its senses, there was no way to save the situation. Seeing how brave the Song army was, they did not dare to send troops rashly.
Guangyuan Prefecture is where the Song Army enters Jiaozhi. How dare Yue Fei be careless? The reason why he attacked vertically just now is because he has a clear understanding of the opponent's purpose. If he really sends troops to attack, he will play into the enemy's plan.
He is now racing against time, and he really doesn't want to tangle with the Jiaozhi army for too long in these small places. Therefore, he first gathered a large army and aimed at an important military place in Jiaozhi - Juili Pass. This Juili Pass will be known in later generations.
It is north of Wenzhou in Gaoping Province, Vietnam, and is very close to Guangyuan Prefecture. It is only more than half a month away at most, which gives the Jiaochang Army enough pressure to force them to abandon these counties and huddle up on defense.
Sure enough, Jiaozhi saw this and quickly gathered troops at Juili Pass.
You must know that during the Xining period, the Song Dynasty sent troops to attack Jiaozhi. It took more than two months in the Guangyuan area, while Yue Fei and Niu Gao only spent more than one month.
In fact, it didn't take more than a month. Yue Fei's army was still at a standstill for nearly ten days because of the attack on Yizhou. This was related to Li Qi's life. Who dared to neglect it? When they just learned the news, all the soldiers were frightened.
Breaking out in a cold sweat, Yue Fei was about to ask Yang Zaixing to lead his troops back to rescue and protect Li Qi, but then they received a message from Li Qi's order, saying that there was no serious problem in Yizhou, allowing them to continue marching.
However, after Yue Fei learned about Xian Ping, he divided his troops to guard the main road and prepared to round up Xian Ping. Unfortunately, he failed in the end. After all, he was not very familiar with the terrain here and could not predict where Xian Ping and the others would go.
After two days of traveling, Yue Fei's army was only sixty miles away from Jueli Pass.
Yue Fei smiled modestly and said: "What does this mean? We haven't fought the main force of Jiaozhi yet. Generals, don't be complacent just because of this small victory. The purpose of our trip is to regain Jiaozhi, not just to teach them a lesson.
And there is not much time left for us. We must break through Shenglong Mansion before summer comes. Otherwise, when summer comes and the miasma sweeps through, it will be difficult for our supplies to keep up. By then
Even if there is not a single soldier in Jiaozhi, we can only retreat."
After hearing this, all the soldiers nodded and put away the proud look on their faces.
Niu Gao hummed: "Now the main force of Jiaozhi has no way to retreat. If the opponent retreats from Juili Pass again, our army can march straight in and hit the north bank of the Furiang River directly."
A young general said: "This Juili Pass has always been a very important guarding point for Jiaozhi. It can be said to be the second barrier of Shenglong Mansion. If they can break through this hard bone, they will be in no danger until they reach the Fuliang River."
It can be defended, but precisely because of this, heavy troops have been stockpiled here. According to reliable information, there were originally 20,000 soldiers in Juili Pass. Adding in the recent reinforcements, there are about 30,000 to 40,000 soldiers."
Although this man is young, he still has a great background. He is Wang Gui.
This Wang Gui was also from Tangyin, and he had known Yue Fei since they were children. At first, he did not follow Yue Fei to join the Imperial Army. It was not until Yue Fei returned from the north and he learned that Yue Fei had become the palace commander that he came to join him.
Yue Fei was anxious to go south, so he took Wang Gui south. It was not until he met Li Qi in Yizhou that he introduced him to Li Qi.
Li Qi was a fan of Yue Fei, so how could he not be familiar with Wang Gui? Not only that, during that military coup, Yue Fei and Niu Gao also gained a lot of talents, including two rising stars, Dong Xian and Fu Xuan.
Although these two people were less than twenty years old at this time, they were Yue Fei's capable generals in history. Although history has changed, they still became Yue Fei's subordinates. This was not God's will, but because of Zhao Kai.
After taking power, he wanted to eliminate all the old forces, so he had to promote some new people, which gave them many opportunities. Now the average age of the entire Song Dynasty has dropped by 25 years compared to the period of Song Huizong.
The twenty-something years old sounds like an exaggeration, but it is not. During the Huizong period of Song Dynasty, there were many old ministers who were holding official positions and receiving salaries. Those old ministers were all in their seventies or eighties, so after they were eliminated, the Song Dynasty, whether they were civil servants or civil servants,
The age of the military attachés has plummeted, so let’s talk about the commander-in-chief of the three yamen. The oldest one is the horse commander Niu Gao. As for the civil servants, Wang Zhongling can be said to be highly respected. In the past, when Cai Jing and the others were there, nothing happened to Wang Zhongling.
It's just that Dong Xian and Fu Xuan both led their troops on an expedition and have not returned yet.
Wei Ping suddenly said: "The guard of this pass is Li Shengdao, the general of Jiaozhi. It is said that this man is brave and good at fighting and is a very powerful person."
Niu Gao said: "If he was powerful, we wouldn't have occupied five counties in a row, but we can't do anything about it."
Luo Long said: "Ma Shuai should not be careless. In fact, his powerlessness was only forced by the situation. When we captured Guangyuan Prefecture and inflicted heavy losses on Jiaozhi, they also transferred a lot of troops to Dali. This put Li Shengdao in a dilemma.
, This is not enough to explain anything. Moreover, just now the spies came to report that Li Shengdao assembled a powerful war elephant soldier to deal with us."
These young soldiers had never seen an elephant soldier before, and the image of that huge creature unconsciously appeared in their minds. They couldn't help but look at each other in shock.
When Yue Fei heard about this elephant soldier, he suddenly burst into laughter.
Luo Long asked curiously: "Why is the Commander-in-Chief laughing?"
Yue Fei waved his hands and said: "You don't need to worry, that's the other side's bluff. I, Yue Fei, can guarantee you that if the other side dares to send out elephant soldiers, no matter how many elephants he has, I only need five hundred men to defeat them all."
Annihilate the opponent's main force."
Five hundred people?
All the soldiers couldn't help but be shocked.
This is a bit of a boast!
Luo Long said: "Does the palace commander have any strategy to defeat the elephant soldiers?"
Yue Fei smiled contemptuously and said: "When I was learning the art of war from the breeder, I heard him say that elephant soldiers are a self-destructive force. Once used, it will cause a devastating blow to one's own side.
After I came to the south, I also found a few elephants and tried them. Although elephants are tall, they are actually very gentle and timid. They are also afraid of smoke and fire. And we have the most advanced elephants in the world.
If the opponent uses elephant soldiers to resist the battle, we only need to fire a round of rainstorm pear blossom arrows, and his elephant team will inevitably turn around and run back, destroying his army. I only need 500 cavalry to cover up, and the enemy will definitely annihilate the entire army.
.
Decades ago, our army destroyed its elephant array. What’s more, if he dares to use it now, I dare to accept this gift. I guess the other party just uses elephants to transport food and grass here, and is bluffing and intimidating.
Our troops are afraid of us. In the words of the Privy Councilor, these Jiaozhi children are really naughty."
All the soldiers burst into laughter.
Then Wang Gui asked again: "Then what are the plans of the Commander-in-Chief?"
"beat!"
Yue Fei gave very clear instructions, saying: "We have to resolve the Privy Council's mission quickly, so we must seek a decisive battle with the opponent's main force. If they dodge blindly, it will be detrimental to us. Now the opponent has assembled all the troops on the front line.
, This head-on war is inevitable, but I don’t have a clue how to fight it yet. I plan to go and observe the opponent’s deployment in person, and then make plans.”
"This is too risky and must not be done."
Wei Ping said hurriedly.
Yue Fei shook his head and said: "Actually, from the bottom of my heart, I want to charge into battle with you all, but the Privy Council has placed me in the position of commander-in-chief. Since I am the commander-in-chief, I must know everything about the enemy, know myself and the enemy, and be victorious in every battle. If
If I let others go, I'm afraid I will miss some key points. This battle is very important to us. I must go there in person. Don't worry, I will have clairvoyants to help me. In addition, my war horse was a gift from Jin Taizu.
Yes, there won’t be any danger.”
When the soldiers saw that Yue Fei was determined to do this, they said no more.
The next day, Yue Fei and Niu Gao set out with twenty or thirty guards. They quietly came to a hill east of Juili Pass. Yue Fei used his clairvoyance to observe the terrain of Juili Pass and the opponent's deployment.
Since this Juili Pass serves as a barrier to Jiaozhi, the terrain must be very dangerous. To put it simply, it is a valley with only one road leading to the south, making it easy to defend but difficult to attack.
There are dozens of fortresses in front of the valley, covering the two surrounding hills and three hills. It can be said that the defense is impenetrable, just like an iron barrel formation, waiting for the Song army to charge.
"This Li Shengdao really has some abilities."
Yue Fei put down his clairvoyance and said: "If we want to attack this Juili Pass by force, we may suffer huge losses."
Niu Gao took the telescope and looked at it for a while, then agreed: "The terrain here is not conducive to cavalry charge. With these strong fortresses, it is difficult for our crossbows to work, and the enemy also occupies the surrounding commanding heights. It seems that we can only