Not to mention that Prince Zhao Run personally led the Shang Shui army to conquer Song County on the Wei side, and let’s talk about the "Tengcheng" in the east of Song County. In early April, Qi State's Shang Qing Gao Xi and the famous general Tian Dan led the "Northern Army".
The two Qi armies, the "Navy" and the "Langya Army", arrived at the capital of the so-called "New Song Dynasty".
Also arriving at the same time were Lu's accompanying troops.
Tengcheng is the capital of the "Ancient Teng Kingdom". About a hundred years ago, this small country was destroyed by the Song Dynasty and its territory was annexed by the Song Dynasty.
It cannot be denied that the Song State at that time had not yet been defeated in the war with the Chu State for the dominance of the Central Plains, so it was still quite powerful in the Central Plains - but to be honest, the reason why the Song State seemed powerful at that time was mainly because of Han
, Qi and other countries had not yet merged and risen, and even the Chu State was called a barbarian land at that time. In addition, there were a lot of weak countries around the Song State, so the Song State appeared to be quite powerful.
But no matter what, the Song State was still glorious in those days, such as the Wei State, as well as the Liang State, Zheng State, Cai State, Teng State, and "Zhu State" that no longer exist.
Bow to Chen Chen, recognize the latter's status as overlord and leader of the alliance, and pay tribute every year.
But now, Song Yun, the leader of the Beibo Army, has restored this "New Song Dynasty", but it is so shabby that there is only one "Tengcheng" left, as well as the two subsidiary counties of "Fan" and "Gongqiu" in Tengdi.
Covering an area of less than one-tenth of the Wei State, it can truly be said to be the weakest country in the Central Plains.
To be honest, Tian Dan, the famous general of Qi, felt a little uneasy about turning against Wei, the most powerful country in the Central Plains, for the sake of such a weak country.
When the Qi army arrived in the Song Kingdom, that is, Tengcheng, the newly appointed Song King "Zi Mu" and the leader of the Beibo Army, Song Yun, came out to welcome the Qi and Lu Allied Forces, which came to support, and entertained the generals of the Qi and Lu countries.
them.
But to be honest, the Song Dynasty, which only has a small corner of Tengdi, really doesn't have anything that can attract people's attention. The so-called feast for the generals of Qi and Lu is actually, to put it bluntly, just
It was just some mountain game and fresh fish from the lake. As for the wine, it had a faint smell of lees, which made Gao Xi, Tian Dan and others who were born in Qi people find it difficult to swallow.
Because of this, Tian Dan only managed to eat a pheasant, take a few bites of fish and shrimp, and fill his stomach randomly at this so-called banquet. As for the wine that had a strong smell of lees, he barely drank a bottle of it.
, and couldn’t swallow it anymore.
It can be seen that Prince Mu of the Song Dynasty felt very embarrassed because his own conditions were indeed difficult. Fortunately, the minister Gao Xi was not an unreasonable person. In order to win over the Song Dynasty, he quietly changed the subject: "Recently, your Majesty,
How is the war situation between the state and the Wei army?"
At this time, the Song Dynasty only had one army that had been converted from the rebel army, the "Bei Bo Army", and the Wei army here only had three armies: the Junshui Army, the Chenggao Army, and the Fenxing Army. For the countries in the Central Plains in the past few years,
Compared to an unprecedented battle involving hundreds of thousands or millions of troops, this war in the Song Dynasty can only be regarded as a small fight.
Seeing Gao Xi asking about his side's war situation, Song Prince Mu turned to look at Song Yun - in fact, it should be called "Xiang Xiang (gu)" now, because some time ago, Song Yun wanted to win over more Song people to support him.
Zimu restored the Song Dynasty and changed his name to Xiang Yu. After all, his father "Xiang Ju" was a national hero who fought to the death against the Wei-Chu coalition forces and did not hesitate to die on the battlefield. He had a very high status in the hearts of the Song people.
Although Xiang Ding had never wanted to reveal his true name, fearing shame and the souls of his father and brother who died in the battle, but in order to get more support, he had no choice but to do so.
This is one of the reasons why the scholar-bureaucrats of Qi State, Lian Chen, Tian Hu, and Shang Qing Gao Xi, were finally persuaded by Xiang Xiang. After all, in Song Dynasty, the name of "Xiang family" was too loud.
"Men Yinglie" is not just made up casually.
Seeing everyone in the hall looking at him, Xiang Xuan said with a solemn expression: "Everyone is dissatisfied, the recent battle situation of our Beibo Army is indeed not optimistic... The Wei army stationed in Rencheng is well-equipped, well-trained, and quite powerful."
As soon as he finished speaking, someone in the palace sneered: "Well-equipped? How sophisticated? Is it better than the armaments of our country of Lu?"
"..."
Tian Dan turned his head and glanced at the person who spoke.
That man was not a general of their Qi State, but a general of the Lu State. His name was "Ji Wu". He was from the "Ji family", one of the "Three Huan" of the Lu State. Three Huan was the most powerful and powerful person in the Lu State.
The three largest families.
Tian Dan had never had any dealings with Ji Wu, but his father, "Uncle Ji," had often accompanied King Lu Xi of Qi on expeditions to the Chu Kingdom, and he was a wise minister who was very good at coordinating matters.
During the war between the Qilu Allied Forces and the Chu State, "Uncle Ji" always played the role of maintaining logistics. He never made any mistakes for more than ten or twenty years, so much so that King Lu Xi of Qi once drank half-seriously,
Half-jokingly, he told Duke Lu Prince Shupan that he hoped to recruit Uncle Ji to serve as the left prime minister of his state of Qi. However, Duke Prince Shupan of Lu dismissed him with a haha.
During the "Four Kingdoms' Campaign against Chu" a few years ago, Uncle Ji was unable to go with him because he was ill. At that time, it was Uncle Ji's eldest son "Ji Wen" who accompanied Duke Shupan of Lu to assist King Lu Xi of Qi in his expedition to Chu.
, that is, the eldest brother of "Ji Wu".
Tian Dan has met Ji Wen. He is an ordinary, law-abiding person. His abilities are not as outstanding as those of his father, Uncle Ji, but he can also diligently complete the assigned tasks. In Tian Dan's words, he is a relatively 'boring' person.
As for Ji Wu today, when Tian Dan heard the other party's tone just now, he knew that this was a young man who had never seen much of the market. He actually naively thought that his Lu country's craftsmanship was unique in the Central Plains - come on, even
Song Yun's Beibo Army all knew that Wei's equipment was now more effective than Lu's.
Glancing at Gao Xi, the high minister of his country, and then at Ji Wu, the general of Lu, Tian Dan shook his head secretly.
Although he was reluctant, he had to admit that it was no longer the time when his Qilu Allied Forces could sweep across the Central Plains.
But considering that no matter what he said at this moment, Gao Xi and Ji Wu would not believe it, so he simply didn't bother to explain anything. Anyway, as long as these two people had seen Wei Jun - especially Wei Gongzi Zhao Run
After the Shang Shui Army, the army directly under his command, I believe that these two people's evaluation of the Wei Army will undergo earth-shaking changes.
At this time, just like Tian Dan, Xiang Yan also heard the Lu general Ji Wu's wanton laughter from the latter's contempt for the Wei army, and quickly said: "General Ji Wu, don't underestimate the Wei army, even if
They are the three Wei armies of "Junshui", "Chenggao" and "Fenxing" stationed in Rencheng. They were once powerful troops at the sixth battalion level of the Wei garrison..."
To be fair, what Xiang Xuan said is indeed true. Perhaps over the years, the status of the original "Sixth Garrison Battalion" of the Wei Army in the country has plummeted, and it has been robbed by the Shangshui Army, Yanling Army, Wei Wu Army, Shanyang Army, Suppression of Rebellion Army, etc.
out of the limelight, but this does not
It does not mean that the three Wei armies of the Dredging Army, the Chenggao Army, and the Fenxing Army are weak brigades. Just like now, these three Wei armies are all stationed in Rencheng. Not to mention Song Yun's Beibo Army, even the Wei state has the most combat effectiveness.
A few strong armies may not be able to guarantee victory.
It's a pity that Xiang Deng's reminder did not attract Ji Wu's attention. The latter's sneer expression seemed to be saying: It's not that the Wei army is strong, but that you are too weak. When our army from Lu State takes action, you will understand that the Wei army has no foundation at all.
Not worth mentioning!
Seeing how conceited Ji Wu was, it was natural that Xiang Yu couldn't say anything more. After all, he was here to help them.
After the banquet, Xiang Xiang invited Gao Xi, Tian Dan, Ji Wu and others alone, showed them the map of the Song Dynasty, and talked about the current chaotic situation in the eastern part of Song County.
At this time, in the eastern part of Song County, in addition to the "Song State" with its capital in Tengcheng, there were two other warlord forces. One was Huan Hu, who occupied "Pei County" and "leaved land".
After the first expedition was fruitless, they could only allow the other side to forcibly occupy those cities; and another force
Li is Nangong Chen, the eldest son of Nangong Yao, who occupies "Huling". After the Beibo Army and Huan Hu turned against each other, he contacted Xiang Ding privately, intending to join forces with Xiang Ding to deal with Huan Hu and take revenge on Huan Hu for killing him.
His father and younger brother still dominate his mother's "Fahrenheit" evil deeds.
However, considering that Nangong Chen was the eldest son of Nangong Yao, the sinner of Song Dynasty, Xiang Chen did not accept the former's proposal. Therefore, when neither Qi State nor Wei State intervened in Song County, Xiang Chen and Nangong Chen
, Huan Hu, the three parties were fighting in a melee on the land east of Song County. Generally speaking, the Bei Bo Army under Xiang Dian's command was the strongest, followed by Huan Hu, and the old Nangong Army under Nangong Chen was the weakest.
However, Tian Dan was not interested in what Xiang Ding told him at all. He only wanted to know what strategy the Beibo Army under Xiang Ding had in fighting the Wei army.
Seeing this, Xiang Xiansui said: "Xiang originally planned to set up defenses in the Weishan Lake area to use this natural danger to block the Wei army..."
The "Weishan Lake" he refers to refers to the narrow lake running northwest and southeast to the west of Tengcheng. More than 20 years ago, the then King of Song Dynasty was frightened out of his mind by Wei general Sima An. It was in this lake that he met misfortune.
He drowned and died, and the other children of the Song royal family, such as Zimu, who was still young at the time, also crossed over to Tengcheng first, then turned back to the southeast and lived in seclusion in Xuecheng, Lu State.
"Reject water and keep it?"
Ji Wu, the general of the Lu State, looked at Xiang Ding in disbelief. He could not imagine that Xiang Ding would come up with such a negative combat strategy after receiving the support of their Qi-Lu coalition forces.
Seeing the strange expression on Ji Wu's face, Xiang Qi also guessed something and quickly explained: "It's not that Xiang can't trust you, it's just that according to the news that our Beibo soldiers sent back from Dingtao, the Wei State has sent more Shang Shui.
Army, enter the Song Dynasty."
"Shang Shui Army?!"
Upon hearing this name, whether it was Gao Xi, Tian Dan or Ji Wu, they all showed solemn expressions.
It’s no wonder, after all, because of the “Four Kingdoms’ Campaign to Defeat Chu”, Wei’s Shang Shui Army became very famous in the eastern part of the Central Plains. It has vaguely replaced Wei’s original “Wei Wu Army” and become the most popular military force in the eastern part of the Central Plains.
The image that comes to mind when thinking about Wei Jun.
A Wei army that once took the lead in capturing Shouying, the capital of King Chu, should be treated with great caution no matter how cautious it is.
Tian Dan, on the other hand, his eyes lit up after hearing the name, and he asked nervously and happily: "But Mr. Wei Run is going to conquer it himself?!"
Xiang Qian nodded silently and said with some melancholy: "My soldiers from the Northern Bo Army saw a flag with the words "Wei Gongzi Run" in the Wei army..."
"A flag with the words "Wei Gongzi Run"?"
Tian Dan was stunned, because in his memory, Zhao Run's king flag should be "Wei, Su Wang Run", but when he thought about it, Zhao Run was now the crown prince and crown prince of Wei, so there was no need for it.
He suddenly understood the title of king.
Although there are countless people in this world who are qualified to write "Master of a certain country" on a flag, for Tian Dan, only the royal flag "Wei Gongzi Run" has the most collection value - just like
Over the years, Zhao Hongrun has also hung his Tian Dan flag in the collection room as a decoration to show off his martial arts.
Thinking of this, he suppressed the excitement in his heart and scolded Xiang Qian: "You are beyond stupid!... Wei Gongzi Run led the merchant navy to personally conquer, and you actually chose to resist the water and defend it? Do you really think that a Weishan Lake can stop you?"
Can you live with Mr. Wei?!"
He did not say this out of thin air. Thinking about the "Four Kingdoms Campaign Against Chu", the Wei army broke through the dangers of rivers in Chu State one after another. The Huihe River, the Guohe River, and the Chu River. Which river could stop this Wei Army for more than half a month?
?
Not a single one!
With excitement, Tian Dan looked at the map of the Song Dynasty (old Song Dynasty) spread out on the table, and said in a deep voice: "... Mr. Wei, this person is good at attacking but not good at defending. Oh, what I said
"Not good at defense" doesn't mean that he can't defend, but that he doesn't like it.
In defense, he prefers to take the initiative. If you put on a defensive posture, then it will play into his hands. Wait for the Wei army to gain a foothold on the west bank of Weishan Lake. Then you will understand that when Wei Gongzi Run launches an offensive
At that time, the Wei army was so terrifying!"
As he said that, he saw Xiang Dian, Gao Xi, Ji Wu and others looking at him in astonishment and doubt, and added: "Don't forget, the original Chu State General Xiang Mo and his 500,000 troops, and
The 100,000 Zhengyang army commanded by Chu Shouling Jun Jingshe desperately tried to hold back the Wei army, but in the end, Wei Gongzi Run led his army and killed him at the foot of Shoying City..."
After that, he took a deep look at Xiang Xiang, and his expression seemed to say: Facing Wei Gongzi Run, if you choose to defend, then you will be dead!
Hearing this, Xiang Qian frowned and thought for a moment, then asked, "What is General Tian Dan's advice?"
Tian Dan raised his hand and pointed at Rencheng on the map, and said in a deep voice: "If you defend against the water, although there is the danger of Weishan Lake, when the time comes, Wei Gongzi Run can also launch an attack on Tengdi across the lake without any scruples.
When we attack and intervene, our army is passive.
Therefore, Tian thought that we should take the initiative and capture Rencheng before the Shang Shui army led by Wei Gongzi Run arrived!... Rencheng is a large county and has the convenience of a city wall, plus the crossbowmen of the Lu army.
, enough to defend any city."
After that, he glanced around the people around the table and said in a deep voice: "At that time, Lord Gao Xi and General Ji Wu will be stationed in Rencheng, while Tian will lead an army alone and station outside. In short, we must not
Let Wei Gongzi Run take the offensive comfortably, but he must be forced to defend.
Shou...According to Tian's understanding of him, over the years, Wei Gongzi Run has always taken the initiative. He is very good at pushing the defensive side that he thinks is impregnable to a dead end, but he has little experience in passive defense. As long as we can
If you disrupt his steps, you will have a chance of winning this battle!"
"..."
General Ji Wu of Lu State looked at Tian Dan with a strange expression. He was a little confused that the latter was so cautious and even fearful. However, since Tian Dan's "active attack" strategy also coincided with his, he didn't say much.
What.
As the commander-in-chief of the Qi-Lu coalition, Gao Xi, the high minister of Qi, had no objection - how could the Wei army be defeated miserably and let Wei fully understand the consequences of offending him?
?
Seeing that Gao Xi, Ji Wu, and Tian Dan all tended to take the initiative, Xiang Xiang had no choice but to obey the strategic arrangements of the first three.
The next day, the Qilu Allied Forces managed to cross Weishan Lake and set foot on the west bank of Weishan Lake.
During this period, Ji Wu also sent people to contact the country to transport a group of war weapons such as trebuchets made by Lu craftsmen along the Surabaya River from the Lu-Song border to the other side of the lake.
Across Weishan Lake, on the other side of the lake from Tengcheng is "Huling", which is the city occupied by Nangong Chen and his old Nangong troops. In order to realize Tian Dan's strategic arrangement, the Qilu Allied Forces must capture this city.
As a result, after the Qilu Allied Forces set foot on the west bank, they immediately launched an attack on "Huling". After hundreds of trebuchets carefully crafted by Lu craftsmen were assembled in the east of "Huling" city, Xiang Shu finally realized
, why did the Qilu Allied Forces defeat the Chu State so that it could not lift its head?
In just four or five rounds of volleys, several parts of the city wall of Huling County were destroyed by the Lu Army's trebuchets. Later, Tian waited for Tian to order the Bei Navy and Langya Army to launch an attack on the city. The city soon fell.
It fell into the hands of the Qilu Allied Forces.
It is a pity that this attack on Huling failed to capture Nangong Chen. Otherwise, if he captured Nangong Chen, the eldest son of Nangong Yao, the sinner of the Song Dynasty, this would also be a matter of extraordinary significance to the Song Dynasty——
To be fair, Nangong Chen's behavior is much better than that of Huan Hu, but because he has "the blood of sinners", Xiang Chen has no good impression of him at all.
This is the reason why Xiang Shen would rather cooperate with Huan Hu, who had a bad behavior, than Nangong Chen, who actually had a good moral character.
In view of the fact that the top priority now is to capture Rencheng as soon as possible, Xiang Feng did not send troops to hunt down Nangong Chen. Instead, he escorted the Qilu coalition forces and marched towards Rencheng.
On the eighth day of April, the Qi and Lu coalition forces arrived at the eastern suburbs of Rencheng.
General Ji Wu of the State of Lu originally planned to repeat his old trick and capture Rencheng using the method of capturing Huling. However, what he didn't expect was that the Wei army's bravery was not comparable to that of Nangong's old troops under Nangong Chen. Before the soldiers of Lu had formed a group outside the city
After installing the trebuchet, Wei General Cai Qinhu led a group of infantry to rush out of the city. If Tian Dan hadn't sent troops to stop him in time, the soldiers of Lu State who were operating the trebuchet under Ji Wu might very well have been killed.
They were all killed by the Wei army.
But what shocked Ji Wu the most was the equipment of the Wei army.
He never expected that the Wei army led by Wei general Cai Qinhu would actually hold shields and withstand the fire of numerous Lu state machine crossbow boxes and force their way into the Lu army's formation.
The powerful crossbow box couldn't shoot through the shields of the Wei army's infantry?!
Similar to Ji Wu's expression, Shangqing Gao Xi, who was the head coach at that time, also showed a shocked look after seeing the brave side of the Wei army.
How could the Wei army use their shields to withstand the baptism of crossbow bolts and force their way into their own ranks? No, in front of Lu's crossbow box, shouldn't the Wei soldiers fall to the ground one by one like wheat fields blown by strong winds?
?
Seeing the stunned expressions of Gao Xi, Ji Wu and others, Tian Dan secretly shook his head: Do you really think that the Wei army is a food recruiter of the Chu state?
Indeed, the soldiers recruited by the Chu State are, to put it bluntly, a group of civilians who are willing to take great risks to set foot on the battlefield in order to make ends meet. The nobles of the Chu State recruit these civilians only to use them as cannon fodder, and they will not be able to fight at all.
No matter what kind of weapons and equipment they were equipped with, when Chu State's grain recruits set foot on the battlefield, they often had a variety of weapons in their hands. In addition to the commonly seen swords, guns, swords and halberds, there were many people holding pitchforks and bamboo spears.
As for the armor, that's even more of a joke: What kind of armor do a group of cannon fodder need to die?
If Korean infantry generally wear leather armor and are considered light infantry, then the Chu State's grain soldiers are simply unarmored, so that when they encounter the well-equipped Qilu Allied Forces, they cannot even pose the slightest threat to the latter.
One by one, they died under the crossbow box of the Lu State's mechanism.
However, the infantry of the Wei State were all heavy infantry wearing iron armor and holding iron shields. If ordinary bow arrows did not hit the vital point, it would actually be difficult to kill a Wei soldier. As for specialized weapons such as mechanical crossbow boxes,
War weapons designed to deal with unarmored and light-armored infantry did not pose any threat in front of the Wei soldiers holding iron shields.
After all, the power of the mechanical crossbow box is actually far weaker than that of a normal crossbow.
The iron shields in the hands of Wei's infantry can even block the country's individual hand crossbows (excluding sniper crossbows) also developed by the Smelting Bureau from 60 steps away. Although the impact of the crossbow arrows cannot be resolved, if it is blocked,
If the posture is incorrect, it is very likely that the Wei soldiers will suffer bone fractures and fractures, but don't expect that the Wei soldiers will fall to the ground and die one by one in front of Lu's crossbow box like the grain soldiers of Chu.
"For the sake of stability, let's set up camp first."
After losing the first battle, Tian Dan made the suggestion expressionlessly.
In fact, when Ji Wu vowed that he could capture Rencheng like he captured Huling, Tian Dan knew that this kid was going to suffer.
Sure enough, Cai Qinhu, a powerful general of the Wei State, taught Ji Wu, an arrogant Lu man, a lesson and taught the latter what it means that "the infantry of the State of Wei are unparalleled in the world." With only three thousand infantry, two soldiers were defeated.
The more than ten thousand troops of Lu State were in chaos, and even Qi State's Beihai Navy and Langya Army were also in chaos.
In fact, if Tian Dan had not sent troops to stop Wei general Cai Qinhu in time, Cai Qinhu might have directly killed Ji Wu at that time and cut off the latter's head.
But overall, Tian Dan can still accept this defeat.
Or to put it simply, this was what he had expected: Gao Xi and Ji Wu were still using the same tactics used by the Qilu coalition to deal with the Chu army, and it was simply unreasonable not to suffer defeat.
But now, only after losing the first battle, Gao Xi, Ji Wu, and the rest of the soldiers in the Qi-Lu coalition will curb their pride and truly take the Wei army seriously.
"Tomorrow, please be sure to let Tian Mou command the siege."
At the meeting to discuss strategy that day, Tian Dan put forward his only suggestion.
I have to say that Gao Xi looked a little embarrassed, but in the end, he nodded.
He must admit that when it comes to leading troops to fight, none of the ten of him can be Tian Dan's opponent.