Chapter 218: Advance and retreat [Supplement 17/40]
In the afternoon of that day, around midnight, Chu general Xiang Mo led an army of 5,000 men and arrived at Huling County.
From a distance, Xiang Mo saw that the city gate of Huling County was wide open, and there were still people in the county fleeing out of the city with their families.
"Are you really giving up on Huling?"
Xiang Mo murmured in his heart, and for the sake of caution, he sent five hundred regular soldiers to enter the city first.
Unexpectedly, the five hundred regular soldiers searched inside and outside the city and found no ambush from the Wei army except that the people in the city were fleeing in fear.
This allowed Xiang Mo to capture the city without any effort.
At this time, half of the people in the city had already fled, and not a single wealthy family or prominent family in the city was left. But even so, there were still about two hundred households in Huling City.
When entering the city, Xiang Mo looked at the fearful and uneasy expressions of the people in the county, and said to the lieutenant: "Restrict the soldiers not to disturb the people. From today on, this city belongs to me, Da Chu."
"Yes!" the deputy general responded.
It is undeniable that Xiang Mo, the general of the Chu State, was quite upright and did not bother to do anything to rob people's property.
After waiting for the lieutenant to leave, Xiang Mo stood alone on the street, looking at the buildings in the surrounding city.
He still couldn't figure out why the Wei army in Huling suddenly abandoned the city. Not only did they burn the water fortress and transfer those terrible warships, but even Huling County was so easily given to him by the Chu Kingdom.
Generally speaking, shouldn’t a fire be set on fire in advance when abandoning a city?
"...Is it because of the people in the city?"
Xiang Mo couldn't figure it out. He really couldn't figure it out.
Two hours later, when Xiang Mo was sitting quietly in the county government office in the city, waiting for orders from the coach Chu Shuijun, the coach Chu Shuijun actually came to Huling County in person.
After the two of them saluted each other, Chu Shuijun frowned and asked, "I came over immediately after learning that General Xiang sent someone to deliver the news... What on earth is going on?"
Xiang Mo shook his head and said: "I don't know, but in my opinion, the Huling Wei army can hold on for at least a month or two..."
In fact, according to Chu Shuijun's previous strategic arrangement, in view of the strength of the Huling Wei army, the Chu army will temporarily adopt the tactic of "encirclement without attack". Simply put, Xiang Mo will contain the Huling navy in Peixian County, and then Xinyang will
Jun Xiangpei attacked "Changyi" and cut off his retreat on land.
If the Huling navy did not retreat at this time, then the Chu army would take advantage of the situation to capture "Rencheng", and at the same time, the Lu army would capture "Tengdi".
At this time, the Wei army in Huling will be completely trapped by the Chu and Lu coalition forces, like a fish and a turtle in an urn.
But no one expected that Xinyang Jun Xiang Pei had just arrived in Changyi. Not to mention that he had not had time to put any pressure on Changyi, and even the camp was not built yet. The Huling navy actually fled.
This made Chu Shuijun and Xiang Mo feel helpless as if they had been punched in the cotton wool - fortunately, they had previously formulated detailed and meticulous tactics for the Wei army in Huling.
After thinking for a while, Chu Shuijun said with a smile: "Although I don't know what the Wei State is up to, no matter what, Huling has fallen into the hands of our army... This will not change."
Xiang Mo nodded.
Around dusk, a scout sent by Xiang Mo came to report that the Huling navy of Wei State had retreated westward along the Lianglu Canal.
After learning about this, Chu Shuijun and Xiang Mo were both puzzled.
Just as Wei general Li Huo believed, the Huling navy is the most capable army in Song County to resist the Chu army. But now, this Wei army has withdrawn?
What the hell is Wei doing?
Could it be that the State of Wei just gave up on Song County?
Chu Shuijun and Xiang Mo couldn't figure it out.
The next day, Chu Shuijun and Xiang Mo discussed the next strategy.
Although it is not clear what the reason was, since Huling fell into their hands easily, this was also a very beneficial thing for the Chu army.
Next, Chu Shuijun decided to attack "Changyi" and "Rencheng".
Needless to say, attacking Changyi. If you want to attack Wei, you must pass through Changyi. As for attacking Rencheng, it is to relieve the siege of Qi's general Tian Dan.
After all, in the Taishan area at this time, the Wei Wu army led by Wei general Shao Hu was still in a stalemate with Qi Tian Dan on Mount Tai. If the Chu army divided its troops and headed north at this time, it could cut off Wei general Shao Hu's retreat and unite with Qi generals.
Tian Dan annihilated Shao Hu's Wei Wu army in one breath.
Once this Wei army is annihilated, the Qi army will be completely released. At that time, the Qi army can join the Chu army to form the Chu-Qi coalition to jointly attack Wei.
In view of this purpose, Chu Shuijun hoped that Xiang Mo would lead his army to Rencheng immediately.
Of course Xiang Mo would not refuse and led his troops to Rencheng that day.
Unexpectedly, when he led his army to Rencheng, he unexpectedly discovered that a large number of people had fled around Rencheng.
During this period, Xiang Mo asked his soldiers to arrest several common people for questioning. Only then did he learn that these people were common people in Rencheng, and that the Wei army had abandoned Rencheng long ago.
After letting those few people go, General Xiang Mo approached Rencheng with suspicion.
Facts have proved that those people did not lie, and indeed there were no Wei troops in sight in Rencheng.
Xiang Mo once again captured a city without any blood.
"what the hell?"
Xiang Mo was puzzled by everything.
But at this time, he didn't think too much and continued to lead his army north, preparing to cut off Wei General Shao Hu's retreat.
Unexpectedly, when he marched to the "Ningyang" area, he suddenly received news from the State of Lu, saying that the Wei Wujun under the command of Wei General Shaohu suddenly retreated to the west for unknown reasons a few days ago and had already retreated to the east.
county.
After learning about this, Xiang Mo immediately changed his original tactics and headed to "Wuyan".
About three days later, when he led his army to Wuyan, he found many Wei troops stationed outside Wuyan City. The flag was that of Wei Wujun under Wei General Shaohu.
"It seems that Shaohu gave up attacking Mount Tai because of the loss of Huling... But why did Huling abandon its defense?"
Xiang Mo still couldn't figure it out.
Two days later, Qi's famous general Tian Dan led his army to the Wuyan area and joined Chu general Xiang Mo.
It has to be said that when Xiang Mo and Tian Dan met, they were inevitably a little embarrassed. After all, Xiang Mo and Tian Dan had fought in Ningyang a few years ago, and neither of them could do anything to the other.
Unexpectedly, a few years later, things and people would change, and the former opponents would actually become allies. This made both Xiang Mo and Tian Dan secretly sigh: God's will is unpredictable.
"Thank you, General Xiang, for your heroic action and rescuing our army from the siege."
Although Tian Dan did not think that Wei General Shaohu could conquer Mount Tai, since it was indeed Chu General Xiang Mo's arrival that 'forced' Wei General Shaohu away, he still expressed his gratitude to some extent.
Facing Tian Dan's thanks, Xiang Mo waved his hand and said with a smile: "No matter what was sordid in the past, now, our country, Da Chu, and your country are allies. We should help and benefit each other, so why should General Tian be too polite? What's more,
Even without Xiang, Wei's Shaohu might not be able to capture Mount Tai."
Tian Dan was very pleased with Xiang Mo's compliment.
That night, the two had a few drinks in the handsome tent and discussed the next strategy.
In fact, there is nothing to discuss. The retreat of Wei general Shao Hu has released the Qi army. Next, the Qi army can press forward without any scruples and form the Chu-Qi coalition army with the Chu army——
To be precise, it should be "the four-nation coalition of Chu, Qi, Lu, and Yue."
And that's exactly what happened.
On the seventh day of the fifth lunar month, Huan Hu, the general of the Lu State, captured Tengdi, crossed Weishan Lake, arrived at Huling, and joined Chu Shuijun of the Chu State.
On the eighth day of the lunar month, Ji Wu, the general of Lu State, led his army from Qufu and arrived in Ningyang.
After Qi General Tian Dan led his troops out of Mount Tai and arrived in the Wuyan area to join Chu General Xiang Mo, Lu's army also joined the battle.
At the same time, Shouling Lord Jingyun of the Chu State was leading his army to "Xiayi", and Xiang Pei, the Lord of Xinyang, was heading to attack "Changyi". Even Xiang Mo's younger brother Xiang Kuan also fought with the Yue generals.
The Dongou Army under Wu Qi set foot in Song County.
It is no exaggeration to say that the allied forces of Chu, Qi, Lu, and Yue are encircling the entire Song County from the north, east, and south, and their momentum is extremely fierce.
Under such fierce attacks by the coalition forces, the Wei army retreated steadily. In just ten days, more than a dozen Song counties such as "Feng", "Fangyu", "Dongmin", "Nanpingyang" and "Fan" were defeated.
The cities fell one after another.
Well, in fact, it is not accurate to say that they fell, because the Wei army took the initiative to give in to these dozen cities.
This made Chu Shuijun, the commander-in-chief of the Chu army, even more confused.
You know, in just over half a month, Wei State gave up half of Song County. If there is nothing fishy in this, Lord Chu Shui will not believe it to his death.
But he really couldn't figure out why Wei Guo had any reason to do this.
"Is it to shrink the defense line? Gather Song County's troops?"
After thinking about it carefully, Chu Shuijun felt that this guess was very possible.
After all, the number of county troops in each county within Song County is not large, ranging from hundreds to thousands. This small number of troops will definitely be unable to withstand the Chu army alone, but if these troops are combined
If the scattered armies are pieced together, they can form an army of tens of thousands. Although this small number of troops is still at an absolute disadvantage compared to the Chu army of hundreds of thousands, it still has the ability to fight.
"Is this your purpose? Mr. Wei Run who swept across the Central Plains..."
After thinking about this matter, Chu Shuijun chuckled.
He must admit that Wei's retreat was wise. At least this way he could temporarily hold the western part of Song County. But the problem was that his Chu army had hundreds of thousands of soldiers. Even if the Wei army assembled tens of thousands of troops, it would really be able to withstand ten people.
How many times as many enemy troops?
"Wei Gongzi Run... Wei Wang Zhao Run... is this all he can do?"
Chu Shuijun hummed softly and issued an order: "Send the order to launch a general attack on Changyi. I will hold a meeting of the Chu, Qi, Lu, and Yue allied forces in this city."
"yes!"
The messenger left in a hurry.
But immediately, a soldier hurried into the tent, clasped his fists and reported: "Your Majesty! I have a detailed report. The Huling Navy of Wei retreated to the Dingtao area. They did not stop, but moved along the Ji River.
The water flowed down the river."
"What?"
Chu Shuijun frowned and immediately took out the map and looked at it carefully.
After just a few glances, his expression changed drastically.
Because he discovered that the Jishui River leads directly to the Beihai County of Qi State, and if the Huling Wei army can break into the branch of the Zi River at "Boxing" along the river, then they can attack the capital of the King of Qi along the Zi River.
What's embarrassing is that in order to cooperate with Chu's crusade against Wei, Qi State has dispatched several troops to Song County...