On March 27, the thirteenth year of Wei Zhaowu, the Qin army launched its ninth attack on Chongquan.
After learning about the enemy's situation, Wei generals Le Yi and Ma Lu who were stationed in Chongquan climbed to the city gate tower to spy on the Qin army's formation.
Ma Lu is a subordinate of Sima An. He cannot be said to be very good, but he can be regarded as a qualified general. At least after Le Yi received Sima An's authorization, Ma Lu cooperated with Le Yi very much in all his actions.
Of course, Le Yi could feel that Ma Lu would obey his orders only because of Sima An's orders, not because of Le Yi.
But no matter what, Le Yi is quite satisfied. After all, what he is most worried about is the conflict with Sima An's Hexi Army. However, it turns out that Sima An, a very utilitarian general, the army he led
, is quite strict in terms of orders and prohibitions, and is not inferior to the Beiyan Army trained by Le Yi in Korea.
The only thing that concerned Le Yi was Ma Lu's hostility towards the Qin army.
As far as Le Yi knows, the reason for Ma Lu's hostility towards the Qin army is that ** years ago, at the end of the second melee between the Central Plains countries, the Qin State undeclared war against the Wei State for some reasons.
During this period, Yangquan Junying used his previous friendship with Nie Gao, Wu Lou and others to defraud two cities, Yueyang and Lianshao, and captured two generals, Nie Gao and Wu Lou.
A year later, because Wei had won the final victory in the war with other countries, Qin was afraid and signed a temporary armistice agreement with Wei for a period of two years.
When the Wei State agreed to Qin's temporary truce agreement, the Qin-Wei War ended. The captured generals Nie Gao and Wu Lou were also released to the Wei State by the Qin people and returned to the command of Sima An.
In fact, Sima An did not blame Nie Gao too much. General Wu Lou meant that although General Sima An was indeed very angry at Nie Gao and General Wu Lou for being so careless, the matter had come to this, and the Qin State at that time
Having already returned Yueyang and Lianshao, Sima An did not blame Nie Gai and Wu Lou excessively. He only demoted the two men to first-level generals and asked them to perform meritorious service and continue to guard Yueyang and Lianshao.
But Nie Ga and Wu Lou themselves could not let go. After returning to Yueyang and Lianshao respectively, they died one after another within half a year.
This made Bai Fangming, Pang Meng, Ma Lu, Ji Yan, Le Qu and others under Sima An's command, as well as Wen Xu and others stationed in Hetao at the moment, all feel sad.
After all, they are both generals under Sima An, and have been friends for at least three or four years.
Although Bai Fangming was cynical, he was quite sensible. He felt that Yangquan Jun Ying and them were their own masters, and there was nothing to criticize. However, Pang Meng, Ma Lu, Ji Yan, Le Kui and others could not let go.
After the deaths of Nie Ga and Wu Lou, Ma Lu was ordered by Sima An to garrison Yueyang for seven or eight years. During this period, after the two-year truce between Wei and Qin ended, Ma Lu often led troops
Harassed Qin.
But it is a pity that the one stationed in Gaoling is Gongsun Qi, the Marquis of Wuxin of Qin. With Ma Lu's ability, it would not cause Gongsun Qi a headache, but Ma Lu didn't care. Anyway, he just wanted to disgust the Qin people.
.
In the ninth year of Wei Zhaowu, the Qin army used troops against Wei for the first time, attacking Yueyang and Lianshao. Ma Lu also defended Yueyang desperately, but unfortunately, the Hexi army could not match the Qin general Gongsun at that time.
Under Gongsun Qi's strategy, the Wei army unfortunately suffered several defeats, resulting in the Qin army capturing Yueyang and Lianshao.
Afterwards, Wei Ji, the defender of Hedong, and King Huan Zhao Xuan, who learned about the battle, led their troops to Hexi one after another, assisted the Hexi army in defending the area, and finally managed to hold off the Qin army.
Ten years of grievances and resentments made Wei general Ma Lu eager to counterattack and recapture Yueyang, and even attacked the capital of Qin in one go.
But unfortunately, Chongquan's current guard, Le Yi, a former famous Korean general who was sent by Tiance Mansion to assist the elderly Sima An, chose to stick to his guns.
Of course, Le Yi was right to stick to the strategy. After all, this was recognized by Tiance Mansion. Even Tiance Mansion took the initiative to ask the Wei army on the Hexi battlefield to just delay the Qin army. After all, the Wei state was digesting all its energy at that time.
Chu and Yue Three Kingdoms do not want the Western Front to expand the scale of the war for the time being.
However, what Ma Lu did not expect was that the Wei army did not take the initiative to attack, but the Qin army on the opposite side actually launched an offensive. They even attacked his Chongquan eight times in just twenty days. Counting this time today, that is a total of
Nine times, almost as frequent as one attack every two days.
Although in the first eight sieges, the Wei army under Ma Lu caused huge casualties to the Qin army. It is roughly estimated that at least 30,000 to 40,000 Qin troops fell outside Chongquan City, allowing Ma Lu to vent his resentment, but for
The Qin army launched such a crazy offensive, and to be honest, he was inevitably a little worried.
"Qin people are simply crazy!"
Seeing that the Qin army outside the city had launched a fierce offensive, Ma Lu frowned and said.
After hearing this, Le Yi had no expression on his face, but he quite agreed with Ma Lu's words in his heart.
Unlike the generals of Chu who risked their lives to gain victory, the generals of Wei and South Korea would hardly use this method to win, especially Le Yi.
Like the late South Korea's Yanmen guard Li Mu and Lian Pi who are now stationed in Hetao, Le Yi also has his own set of military principles, such as not making unnecessary sacrifices and killing.
In the old days of Korea, when it came to using troops, it was Li Mu and Le Yi. The reason was simple, because Li Mu and Le Yi were good at using cunning tactics.
What Li Mu was best at was cavalry raids. The cavalry under his command could sneak attack enemy troops hundreds of miles away in just one or two days, and during this period the enemy troops could not trace Li Mu's movements at all.
Le Yi, on the other hand, is best at using strategies to defeat cities. In his method of using troops, the city is not always the first target of attack. He prefers to use strategies such as siege and reinforcements to defeat the enemy's effective forces, and from beginning to end
Maintain pressure on the city.
For example, when Le Yi attacked Chu two years ago, he held his troops stationary for the first thirty days, luring Shouling Lord Jingyun and Diyang Lord Xiong Li to lead their troops to support Xiangcheng from their garrisoned defense lines, and then planned to defeat Jingyun and Xiong Li in one fell swoop.
While breaking through the defense lines of the latter two troops, he also took advantage of the situation to capture Xiangcheng. This was Le Yi's usual method.
In Le Yi's view, a general should use strategies to win. Otherwise, what is the difference between him and a reckless man?
In his opinion, the Qin army's attack on Chongquan County lacked "elegance".
But having said that, in the face of the Qin army's "reckless attack", his Chongquan County was on the verge of collapse. This is an indisputable fact.
There is nothing that can be done about it. After all, this battle has been going on for nearly twenty days. The defensive facilities that Le Yi ordered to set up outside the city have been demolished by the Qin army.
It was full of corpses of Qin soldiers and lost its function of hindering the Qin army. In addition to the arrows in the city, the crossbow arrows were almost exhausted. This made Le Yi start to think about retreat the moment the battle started today.
What? To defend Chongquan? To live and die with this city?
No, a good general will not stick to the gains and losses of one city or one place. This is by no means a sophistry. Le Yi held off the Qin army in Chongquan County for twenty days, causing 30,000 to 40,000 casualties to the Qin army.
In the eyes of generals with outstanding vision, this is a victory in itself.
To put it simply, the Qin army did not hesitate to sacrifice thirty or forty thousand soldiers in order to conquer Chongquan County. So, how much sacrifice did the Qin army have to make to attack Pinyang? What about attacking Linwei later?
As long as each city can cause the Qin army to suffer huge casualties, the Qin army can only capture one Hexi county at most, and it will fall into a situation where the troops are exhausted. In comparison, losing a few cities is nothing. It can't survive anyway.
How long will it take to get it back?
Thinking of this, Le Yi said to Ma Lu: "General Ma Lu, order the soldiers in the city to prepare to retreat... After the Qin army's offensive retreats, our army will evacuate immediately without delay!"
"Retreat, retreat?"
At this time, Ma Lu was staring at the Qin soldiers who were attacking the city, and was shocked when he heard this.
As if he had guessed Ma Lu's thoughts, Le Yi said sternly: "General Ma Lu, our soldiers have tried their best to hold off the Qin army for twenty days. They can't do anything better than this. If they defend the city, they will be defeated."
Ask my soldiers to fight the Qin army when they run out of arrows
, using one's own shortcomings to attack the other's strong points is not the way to use military force... Rather than letting the soldiers sacrifice too much, it is better to retreat to the next city. The next city has solid defenses and sufficient arrows. There,
Wouldn't it be easier to defend against the enemy than in this dilapidated city?"
Ma Lu nodded slightly when he heard this, but then hesitantly said: "But this city..."
Le Yi shook his head and warned: "General Ma Lu, our army in Chongquan County exchanged the casualties of more than 10,000 soldiers for at least 30,000 to 40,000 casualties of the Qin people. Even if we lost the city, this is still the loss of our army."
Victory... It should be noted that the city is just a dead thing. The Qin army is powerful today. Take it away and wait for our army to counterattack in the future.
If you attack, you can still take it back. But if you choose to defend the city, all the remaining troops under your command will die because of this, and the Qin army finally captures the city, then it will be a case of "losing both man and land"
This situation is also the real defeat of our army...Those who are good at fighting will not fight for the gains and losses of a city or a territory."
Ma Lu looked like he was suddenly enlightened, nodded and said: "The general has learned the lesson... The general will immediately send orders to all the armies in the city."
"Well, I'm done."
Le Yi nodded and turned his attention to the battlefield again.
Just as he had estimated, although the Qin army's first round of attack today was quite fierce, because it was the first round of attack, the Wei army in Chongquan County defended it without any surprise or danger.
However, as time goes by, due to the gap in strength between the two armies, the pressure on the Wei army will inevitably increase. This is why Le Yi decided to withdraw his troops immediately after the first wave of the Qin army's offensive.
After waiting for less than half an hour, I saw that only 23 out of 10 of the Qin soldiers who were responsible for the first wave of offensive were left dead or wounded, and in the Qin army's main formation far outside the city, there was another army of ten thousand people lining up.
Preparing to attack the city, Le Yi decisively ordered a retreat.
Under his order, the Wei troops along the west city wall quickly took their wounded off the city wall. At the same time, the Wei soldiers on the north and south walls who were feigned attacks by the Qin army also withdrew the city walls at the same time and evacuated from the east city gate together.
In order to prevent the Qin army from taking the opportunity to pursue, Le Yi not only personally led an army to stay behind, but also ordered a fire to burn down the houses in the city. It must be said that he was quite lucky at this time. Fortunately, in a war-torn area like Hexi County,
There are almost no cities within the territory
Only Sima An's Hexi Army and Zahu's tribes lived in the Wei area, and those Zahu had already moved their tribes to the Linwei area. This allowed Le Yi to set fire to the city without any worries, without being attacked.
Accusations from the people in Wei State.
Le Yi's voluntary withdrawal allowed the Qin army to finally capture Chongquan City.
Even famous generals from Qin such as Wu Xinhou Gongsun Qi could not help but sigh in their hearts at this moment.
Isn't that right? More than 100,000 Qin troops besieged Chongquan County. It took a full 20 days and a price of 30,000 to 40,000 troops to capture the city. The degree of difficulty made Wu Xinhou Gongsun Qi simply mistaken.
I'm trying to conquer some important place.
However, in fact, Chongquan is just an ordinary city in Hexi County. Its greatest role is just because it is located in the center of Lianshao, Pinyang, and Linwei. It can play a transit role, nothing more.
.
But no matter what, the Chongquan was finally captured, which brought the Qin army closer to Linwei, the county seat of Hexi County. It also cut off the two cities of Pinyang and Linwei to a large extent, allowing the Qin army to move closer to Linwei.
Linweicheng could not continuously transport strategic materials to Pinyang through Chidao, so it could only use the old method of transporting it by ordinary horse-drawn carriages or man-pulled carts.
Of course, during the withdrawal of the Wei army, Wu Xinhou Gongsun Qi also sent a cavalry to pursue Le Yi, hoping to delay Le Yi so that his large Qin army could catch up, causing heavy damage to the retreating Wei army and expanding the war.
The result of victory.
However, Wu Xinhou Gongsun Qi did not have high expectations for this. After all, the person facing him was Le Yi. He was a well-rounded and impeccable general who led his troops in battle. If he wanted to sneak attack on the opponent, the chances of him being attacked were very small to be honest.
Sure enough, an hour later he received news that the cavalry he sent to pursue Le Yi were ambushed by Le Yi for a while on a mound eighteen miles east of Chongquan City. More than a hundred cavalry were shot to death by random arrows from the Wei army, and they were bluffed.
The cavalry did not dare to get too close, and could only watch helplessly as Le Yi led the Wei army that had been cut off from the rear and slowly retreated.
Let’s talk about the King of Qin. After capturing Chongquan County, the Qin monarch who refused to admit defeat immediately thought of attacking the next city. For this reason, he summoned Gongsun Qi, the Marquis of Wuxin, to a room in Chongquan City where the Qin army was commanded by the Qin army.
A house saved from the flames.
In the commander's office, Gongsun Qi explained to the King of Qin: "Chongquan is located in Lianshao, Pinyang and Linwei. To the north is Pinyang and to the east is Linwei. The guard of Pinyang is Sima An's deputy general.
Bai Fangming, this person is quite cunning, it is difficult to succeed in a sneak attack, the only way is to attack the city; and the guard general of Lin Wei is Sima An himself. Sima An is a fierce general of the Wei State, but now he is old and no longer as brave as before.
…”
The King of Qin and the chief concubine Zhao Ran listened quietly to Gongsun Qi's story. For a long time, the King of Qin asked: "According to Marquis Wu Xin, should our army take advantage of the situation to take Pinyang, or take Lin Wei?"
"In fact, these two cities are not easy to win." Gongsun Qi shook his head, leaned over and pointed at Pinyang on the march map, then moved his finger slightly to the east and said: "To the east of Pinyang, between Liangshan and Liangshan
In Yang, the Northern Army of Zhao Xuan, King Huan, the younger brother of the King of Wei, was stationed.
Although this Wei army had no great achievements before, it still has 60,000 to 70,000 armored soldiers. If our army attacks Pinyang, it must support Pinyang. If our army attacks Wei, then it must support Linwei...
…Therefore, no matter which city our army attacks, it will be difficult to avoid a fierce battle.”
After a short pause, he then expressed his thoughts: "In my opinion, our army should attack Wei first..."
"Linwei?"
Zhao Ran, the chief concubine, frowned and interjected: "According to what you said, Pinyang guard Bai Fangming is quite cunning. If our army takes Linwei, wouldn't he lead his troops to cut off our army's rear... uh, cut me off?"
Military food road."
Of course Gongsun Qi, Marquis of Wuxin, understood why the chief concubine Zhao Ran suddenly changed his tune. With a slight smile on his face, he calmly helped Zhao Ran pass the topic: "That's right! I just want him to seize the opportunity to attack our army's food and grass."
Zhao Ran, the chief concubine, was stunned when he heard this, and immediately realized: "So that's it!... It turns out that your attack on Linwei was just a pretense, and the purpose was just to induce Bai Fangming to send troops to cut off our army's... food road." After that, he nodded.
The head said: "This is a good idea. If Bai Fangming falls into our army's trap because of this, our army can easily capture Pinyang. Moreover, seeing that you have set up a posture to march towards Wei, Zhao Xuan in the south of Liangshan will soon
It is possible to lead an army to support Linwei City, but he would never have thought that our army's goal is Pinyang... What a good plan!"
Wuxinhou Gongsun Qi bowed his hands humbly, then frowned and said, "I'm just a little worried, worried that Le Yi will see through my intentions..."
After saying that, he turned to look at King Qin, obviously letting the latter make a decision.
I saw King Qin staring at the map sharply. After a while, he nodded and said in a deep voice: "Follow Wu Xinhou's plan... In addition, I sent an order to Ying Hua and ordered him to find a way to capture Diaoyin!"
Hearing this, the chief concubine Zhao Ran and Wu Xinhou Gongsun Qi were both stunned. They subconsciously turned to look at the map, and soon understood what King Qin meant.
Because Diaoyin is located in the south of the Hetao area, this city can reach Pinyang directly to the south. It is obvious that the King of Qin planned to gather the armies of Gongsun Qi and Weiyang Jun Yinghua when his attempt to capture Pinyang failed.
The elites captured Pinyang.
It is undeniable that this decision is quite clever. After all, Weiyang Jun Yinghua's battle situation in the Hetao area is not optimistic. Instead of asking Yinghua to fight with Wei General Lian, Lecheng and others in the Hetao area, it is better to go south to assist Gongsun Qi.
Taking Hexi and Wei general Lian Pi, it is very possible to pursue them to Hexi after success. As long as they capture Pinyang and ask Weiyang Jun Yinghua to guard Diaoyin, Lian Pi, Chenggong and others can be isolated in Hexi.
north of the county, making it unable to assist the Wei army in Hexi County.
Just doing this means that Qin State has given up on the battlefield of Hetao. More importantly, if Lian Pi does not think about regaining Diaoyin by then, but instead marches southwest from Hetao and approaches the Qin State's homeland, this will be quite serious.
fatal.
In other words, King Qin's clever strategy was actually very dangerous. It was just a bet on whether Weiyang Lord Ying Hua could capture Diaoyin with lightning speed, and a bet on Wei's general being honest. The two succeeded.
After learning that Diaoyin has fallen, will he choose to attack Diaoyin and regain the city, or take advantage of the situation and attack the Qin mainland.
But it is undeniable that King Qin's strategy can greatly increase his Qin army's chances of capturing Pinyang, allowing the Qin army to gain further advantages in Hexi County.
"That's it!"
Under the hesitation of the chief concubine Zhao Ran and Wu Xinhou Gongsun Qi, King Qin said in a deep voice.
In early April of the 13th year of Wei Zhaowu, the Qin army immediately marched eastward after capturing Chongquan, assuming a posture of attacking Linwei City, and built a military camp about forty miles west of Linwei City.
Two days later, King Huan Zhao Xuan, who was stationed on the south side of Liangshan, learned of the Qin army's movements and ordered Zongwei General Fang Shuo to lead 10,000 soldiers to guard the camp. He himself, with generals such as Zhou, Zhang Ao, and Li Meng, led
The Northern Army of 50,000 to 60,000 men supported Linwei and built a camp about 20 miles north of Linwei City.
At the same time, Le Yi had already led his troops to withdraw to Linwei City and built a camp fifteen miles southwest of Linwei City. When he learned that the Qin army had taken Linwei instead of Pinyang, he was quite shocked.
Surprised.
Is the Qin army really that reckless? They didn't care that Wei general Bai Fangming, who was stationed in Pinyang, was likely to cut off his retreat and forcefully take over Lin Wei?
Or should I say...
...It's true that you are attacking in the east and in the west.
After thinking about it, Le Yi immediately sent a message to Wei general Bai Fangming to prevent the latter from taking advantage of the opportunity and trying to attack the Qin army's food road but being surrounded by the Qin army.