On the sixth day of April in the thirteenth year of Wei Zhaowu, on the day when Wei general Le Yi concluded that the Qin army was most likely to attack the east and attack the west, he immediately sent people to Pinyang to remind Bai Fangming not to rashly cut off the Qin army's retreat. He came to Linwei City.
Report this matter to Sima An.
Coincidentally, at this time, King Huan Zhao Xuan had just led the First Army of the North to the Linwei area and came to Linwei City in person to visit Sima An.
In fact, Sima An was the commander-in-chief of the Wei army in the Hexi battlefield from beginning to end. According to his past personality, he would never delegate power to an 'outsider' like Le Yi, even if Le Yi came here under the orders of Tiance Mansion.
Sima An also had to try this Le Yi first - in addition to testing Le Yi's ability to command troops, he also had to test Le Yi's principles of marching and fighting.
It's just that Sima An is getting older now and often has less energy to keep up with, so he can only let Le Yi temporarily take charge of part of the Hexi Army on his behalf.
But having said that, after all, Le Yi is a famous former Korean general and participated in the war that destroyed the Three Kingdoms of Qi, Chu and Yue. Therefore, Sima An quite recognized Le Yi's ability to command troops.
Because of this, when Le Yi suggested to him that the Qin army might be attacking in the east and attacking in the west, and it seemed that it wanted to capture Lin Wei, but it was actually plotting against Pinyang, Sima An seriously considered this possibility.
He even invited Le Yi and King Huan Zhao Xuan to spy on the Qin army's camp.
The Qin army's camp was built on the west side of Linwei, about forty miles away from the city.
When Sima An led Le Yi and King Huan Zhao Xuan to peek at the activities inside and outside the Qin army's camp from a distance, they saw that the camp had almost been completed, but the Qin soldiers were still pulling logs in carriages.
These timbers were not transported nearby, because after Chongquan abandoned the defense, Le Yi set fire to the woods along the way while withdrawing. This forced the Qin army to cut down trees from farther away for construction.
Camp a fortress or build siege engines.
"The Qin army...are they really just pretending to attack Wei City, as General Le said?"
After watching from a distance for a while, King Huan Zhao Xuan frowned and said, because he could faintly see that there were many wells and carriages in the Qin army camp.
On the contrary, Zhou Min, the general beside Zhao Xuan, shook his head and said: "Your Highness, even if the Qin army builds Jinglan chariots, it is not certain that they will attack Linwei City. These Jinglan chariots can also be used to attack Pinyang."
After hearing this, Le Yi glanced at Zhou Min with admiration, nodded and said: "What the general said is absolutely true. It is indeed possible that these Jinglan vehicles can be used to attack Pinyang. However, Le Yi is more inclined.
Another speculation is that the Qin army deliberately made these Jinglan chariots for us to see, in order to make us believe that he would attack Linwei..."
After that, he pursed his lips in the direction of the Qin camp and said with a slight sneer: "This place is less than two miles away from the Qin camp, and there is a vast plain as far as the eye can see. If it were our Wei army, we would definitely be able to find the enemy at this distance."
The army is peeping outside, but so far, no Qin army cavalry has come to harass us. It seems that the Qin people don't care about our peeping at all, which is not in line with common sense."
"That's true..."
There was a hint of surprise on Zhou Min's face, and he squinted his eyes to visually measure the distance between himself and Qin Ying.
At this time, Sima An frowned deeply, thinking about Le Yi's words.
He has been in charge of Hexi County for more than ten years and has fought against the Qin army many times. They are old acquaintances. Even though Sima An is older now and his thinking and reactions are not as good as before, his ability to judge things is still there.
Of course I understand that Le Yi is right.
Considering the capabilities of the Qin army, it is unbelievable that they would ignore the enemy troops two miles away.
Not to mention, on their way here, they encountered a group of Qin Army cavalry on patrol. Although the Qin Army cavalry retreated on their own initiative because of the small number of people at that time, after calculating the time, it stands to reason that
It is also time to report their movements to the Qin generals in the Qin camp.
As Le Yi and Sima An judged, they were indeed let in deliberately by the Qin army this time.
In fact, as early as a quarter of an hour ago, the Qin army's commander-in-chief Wu Xinhou Gongsun Qi received a report from the patrolling cavalry and learned that a group of Wei cavalry was approaching their camp, numbering about three to four hundred cavalry.
At that time, Gongsun Qi thought for a moment and concluded that this must be an attempt by the generals of the Wei army to peek into his Qin army's camp - after all, those three or four hundred cavalry could not have come to attack his Qin army's camp, right?
Therefore, Gongsun Qi made a plan and ordered the cavalry in the camp not to disturb the Wei cavalry for the time being. He hoped that the Wei cavalry, especially the Wei generals among them, would see some cavalry who would mistakenly think that they were about to attack Linwei City.
clue.
For example, those siege tanks are more conspicuous even from a few hundred feet away.
If there is no ulterior motive, it stands to reason that after the construction of this kind of siege weapon is completed, it should be covered with a cover such as green cloth to prevent the defenders from knowing the situation in advance and making corresponding preparations.
Just when Sima An, Le Yi, King Huan Zhao Xuan and his entourage were peeping at the Qin camp from a distance on the slope, on the guard tower on the east side of the Qin camp, Gongsun Qi and the King of Qin who came after hearing the news returned.
The chief concubine, Zhao Ran, was also looking at the Wei army in the distance.
As Le Yi said, even though they were two miles apart, with three to four hundred Wei cavalry gathered in one place, the Qin army could not detect the enemy in the distance. That would be unless all the Qin soldiers were
blind.
"That's almost it."
After estimating about half a stick of incense, Wu Xinhou Gongsun Qi ordered: "Come, order Xu Zhi to lead more than a thousand cavalry to drive away those Wei cavalry in the distance!"
After hearing this, King Qin was quite surprised and asked: "Wu Xinhou didn't want to use this to deceive the Wei army, so why did he rush to drive them away?"
Hearing this, Gongsun Qi cupped his hands and replied: "Your Majesty, I am not sure whether Le Yi is among the cavalry of the Wei army. This man is extremely cunning and experienced. He must be upset when he sees that our army has not sent cavalry to expel it.
Doubt, and then doubt whether our army has set up a suspicious formation for the sake of reason, so I want to send cavalry to drive it away, making it difficult to judge."
"That's it." King Qin suddenly realized.
After a while, the door of the Qin camp opened wide, and a group of cavalry quickly rushed out of the camp and rushed towards the distance where Sima An, King Huan Zhao Xuan, Le Yi and others were.
Seeing that the Qin army sent at least a thousand cavalry out of the camp to expel him and others, Sima An immediately ordered a retreat.
After all, Qin's cavalry is not weak. They are the main force in the war between Qin and the Xiqiang, Yiqu and other foreign tribes. Although there are three or four hundred cavalry on our side, Sima An is not arrogant enough to have these three.
Four hundred Wei cavalry could defeat more than a thousand Qin cavalry.
It has to be said that the attack of more than a thousand Qin army cavalry made Huan Wang Zhao Xuan and Zhou Min a little unsure - a moment ago, they had agreed with Le Yi's judgment. After all, they also felt that the Qin army would not turn a blind eye to their prying eyes. Unexpectedly,
, just a moment later, the Qin army sent out more than a thousand cavalry.
However, when this topic was brought up on the way, Le Yi still believed in his own judgment. He felt that the reason why the more than a thousand cavalry left the camp to attack was just because Wu Xinhou Gongsun raised suspicions about the formation.
Based on his half-life military experience, when encountering an enemy general of the level of Wu Xinhou Gongsun Qi, one must trust one's initial intuition and judgment, because subsequent judgments are actually mixed with many falsehoods deliberately released by the enemy general.
Intelligence', in contrast, initial intuition and judgment are actually more accurate.
Seeing Le Yi's persistence in his opinion, Sima An didn't say much. He had to admit that he was really old and could no longer make judgments as quickly as he did when he was young. However, he recognized that Le Yi had something to do with it.
The "initial judgment" perspective.
After all, when Sima An was young, he also relied on his own intuition more than the 'best strategy' based on known information - the intuition here can actually be understood as the experience accumulated over the years, which enabled them to operate in similar situations.
Make the best decision immediately given the situation.
After thinking about it, Sima An said to Le Yi: "Send people to watch every move of the Qin army twelve hours a day... If the Qin army really attacks Pinyang, then it must be Bai Fangming who wants to cut off the Qin army's retreat but fails.
Was ambushed by the Qin army, if you find out
In the next few days, the Wei army and the Qin army in Pinyang area were fighting, and it was concluded that the Qin army most likely wanted to attack Pinyang. At this time, King Huan was asked to lead his army to support Pinyang. As for General Le Yi, he led the army to support Pinyang.
The army attacked the Qin camp and took advantage of the situation to capture Chongquan."
Looking at the veteran with white hair and beard in front of him, even though he is proud of Le Yi, he can't help but feel a little emotional. He feels that this general in front of him, if he were ten years younger, would definitely be able to personally command this war without
Just like now, just leaving the city to spy on the Qin army's camp made the old general's face full of tiredness.
"...After returning to the city, I will call Ji Yan and Le Kui to lead the cavalry of our Hexi Army to help you. I hope that General Le will not betray your majesty's trust in you." Sima An said seriously.
"As you command!"
Le Yi responded with cupped fists.
He didn't say anything like "General Sima" because in his opinion, this would be a bit like "getting a bargain and being a good boy". After all, Sima An didn't hand over the Hexi Cavalry to him because he was not close to him.
Again, if Sima An were ten years younger, he would definitely only let Le Yi be responsible for the defense of a certain city, instead of entrusting the entire overall situation to Le Yi.
Proud people like them believe in themselves more than in their allies.
Therefore, Le Yi only said, "I will definitely live up to your Majesty's trust," and Sima An nodded with satisfaction.
After returning to Linwei City, Sima An immediately summoned General Ji Yan and Le Qu, asking the latter to assist Le Yi.
Le Yi, named Ji Yan, and Le Kui, two generals, sent cavalry to monitor every move of the Qin army's camp day and night.
At the same time, in Pinyang City, the guards Bai Fangming and Pang Meng were arguing over who should attack the Qin army's retreat.
As Wuxin Hou Gongsun Qi judged, due to Sima An's character, the soldiers of the Hexi Army were more inclined to take the initiative. Since learning that Chongquan County had abandoned its defense two days ago, Bai Fangming has been waiting for the Qin Army
Next action: Should the Qin army attack Pinyang or Linwei?
If he attacked Pinyang, he would hold on to the city. Anyway, at that time, Huan Wang Zhao Xuan's 670,000 Northern Army was stationed south of Liangshan. It was absolutely impossible for the Qin army to capture Pinyang in a short time.
If the Qin army attacks Linwei, then he also wants to try to see if he can cut off the Qin army's food route.
After all, the Qin army has always been short of food. If he succeeded in intercepting a batch of grain and grass from the Qin army, it would be like cutting the flesh of the Qin people with a knife. If he intercepted it a few more times, the Qin army in Hexi might collapse early due to lack of food.
.
Therefore, although the risk of cutting off grain is high, the reward is also great, especially for an enemy like the Qin Army who is short of food on a daily basis.
Two days later, Bai Fangming learned of the Qin army's decision. He learned that the Qin army had sent its troops to Lin Wei and built a camp about forty miles west of Lin Wei City.
When the scout cavalry sent out found out that more than 100,000 or 200,000 Qin troops were rushing towards Linwei, leaving Chongquan County without much defensive force, Bai Fangming was overjoyed and thought the opportunity had come, so he and his deputy Pang Meng decided to
A sneak attack on Chongquan cut off the Qin army's food route.
However, although Pang Meng supported his decision, he asked him to lead the troops, which made Bai Fangming quite worried.
You must know that although Pang Meng is a fierce general in his Hexi Army, even Bai Fangming is not his opponent in terms of personal martial arts. But unfortunately, Pang Meng is more brave and less strategic, and is far inferior to him in terms of handling situations.
Yes, in fact, Bai Fangming also considered the risk of a sneak attack. He even thought about whether the Qin army attacked Wei without taking his pinyang, whether this was a trick to earn him money for sending troops for a sneak attack, but considering that if he could re-attack,
Retaking Chongquan County would give his Wei army a huge advantage, so Bai Fangming decided to take risks.
Because of this, he refused to let Pang Meng lead his army there, because if the Qin army laid an ambush, Pang Meng would definitely not be able to react in time, and it was very likely that the entire army would be annihilated in the Qin army's ambush.
Of course, these truths must not be told to Pang Meng, otherwise this reckless man would definitely lead his army to prove himself, so Bai Fangming pretended that he was itching and couldn't bear it, so he promised a few cars to the party's martyrs.
With wine as reward, he reluctantly persuaded Pang Meng to guard Pinyang County on his behalf.
On the seventh day of April, the day after Sima An, Le Yi, King Huan Zhao Xuan and others spied on the Qin army's camp, Pinyang guard Bai Fangming led 2,000 cavalry and 5,000 infantry and rushed to Chongquan County.
After a rapid march, we finally arrived about twenty miles north of Chongquan County before the evening of that day.
This distance was enough for Bai Fangming to launch a sneak attack on Chongquan County that night.
He asked his soldiers to rest in the nearby forest for a while. After eating and drinking, Bai Fangming ordered the troops to march to Chongquan County.
By the time Bai Fangming led his Hexi Army to quietly reach the northeastern corner of Chongquan County, it was already around three o'clock in the morning. Chongquan County was silent, with only a little light near the city gate tower.
I saw some Qin soldiers walking back and forth on the city, but other walls far away from the city gate tower were completely dark.
"..."
Looking at Chongquan County, which was so close at hand, Bai Fangming frowned, feeling that something was wrong.
He asked himself, if he were a Qin general stationed in Chongquan and learned that tens of thousands of Wei troops were stationed in Pinyang to the north, would he be so careless as not to set up a secret sentry on the way between Chongquan and Pinyang?
Or is it that the Qin general stationed at Chongquan is actually a fool?
Which of the two is more likely?
"General, don't you order an attack on the city?" a general asked Bai Fangming in a low voice.
Bai Fangming waved his hand to signal the man to be calm. He stared carefully at Chongquan County, which was about two hundred feet away, and then looked at the night sky in the direction of the North City Gate and the East City Gate for a while, feeling in his heart
The uneasiness is getting stronger and stronger.
"Withdraw!" he ordered decisively.
However, just as the Wei troops under his command were retreating along the way they came for no apparent reason, suddenly three rockets were fired into the sky from the forest not far away. Immediately, countless Qin troops came from the north and east gates.
Killing came from two directions.
"kill!"
The soldiers of the Qin army shouted loudly and charged towards the Wei army.
Seeing this, Bai Fangming concluded that he had fallen into a trap and immediately withdrew his troops. In order to prevent the Qin army from taking advantage of the chaos to attack his troops, he personally led his troops to cut off the rear.
What they didn't expect was that on the way they came, there were also Qin troops ambushing them. In the end, Qin troops were everywhere, and they didn't know how many there were.
Surrounded by enemies on all sides, Bai Fangming had no choice but to lead his soldiers to break out of the encirclement. However, there were so many Qin troops in this area that he tried to break through the encirclement several times without success.
Seeing the soldiers under his command being seriously injured, Bai Fang's heart felt like a knife piercing his heart.
After two hours of hard fighting, more than half of the approximately 7,000 cavalry brought by Bai Fangming had been lost. Even the surviving Wei soldiers might not be able to hold on for long.
Fortunately, the dark clouds in the sky covered the moon, causing the Qin army to temporarily stop the attack on the Wei army.
But Bai Fangming understood that this good luck would not stay with him for long. Tomorrow at best, at dawn, the Qin army would organize a siege again.
The problem is that he can't lead his soldiers to break out in the dark.
After a hard night's sleep and waiting for dawn the next day, Bai Fangming summoned the remaining troops under his command to prepare for the final breakout.
But unfortunately, the Qin army seemed to be sure that he would force a breakout at dawn and made preparations early.
Just when Bai Fangming was feeling desperate because he could not break out of the encirclement, reinforcements suddenly arrived.
It turned out to be his deputy general Pang Meng. He received Le Yi's letter - to be precise, after Le Yi's letter was delivered to Pinyang, Pang Meng had nothing to do and opened the letter Le Yi sent to Bai Fangming.
When Bai Fangming led his troops to attack Chongquan County, it was very likely that they would be ambushed by the Qin army, so he sent troops to rescue him all night, and finally arrived in the Chongquan area before dawn.
Seeing the arrival of reinforcements, the morale of the Wei army under Bai Fangming was greatly boosted. They joined forces with Pang Meng's army, fought desperately to break out of the siege, and fled back to Pinyang County with the defeated troops.
At this time, because in the middle of the night yesterday, Wu Xinhou Gongsun Qi, after learning about the "successful ambush of Wei general Bai Fangming", immediately sent general "Bian Ji" to lead an army to attack Pinyang at night.
Unexpectedly, the Hexi cavalry under Wei generals Ji Yan and Le Kui also found out that there was suspected war in Chongquan County last night and hurriedly reported back to Le Yi, who immediately informed King Huan Zhao Xuan.
Although he was doubtful about Le Yi's judgment, King Huan Zhao Xuan still sent Zongwei General Li Meng to lead three thousand cavalry and two thousand infantry to aid Pinyang.
This Wei army led by Li Meng happened to bump into "Bian Ji" on the way to Pinyang. Both sides were shocked and fought hastily.
This encounter allowed generals Bai Fangming and Pang Meng to escape back to Pinyang in time, and immediately awakened the soldiers in the city to prepare for the defense of the city.
Two hours later, Wu Xin Hou Gongsun Qi and Wei General Le Yi received news from "Bian Ji" and "Li Meng" respectively, and learned that the troops sent by them had encountered an encounter on the way to Pinyang.
At that time, Gongsun Qi was full of anger and cursed: "It's this Le Yi who ruined my good deeds again!"
Le Yi, on the other hand, breathed a sigh of relief. Fortunately, the army led by Li Meng arrived in time and thwarted the Qin army's intention to sneak attack Pinyang.
To be fair, although Le Yi didn't care about losing a few cities, he never thought that if the Qin army succeeded so easily, why would the Qin army have to pay the price of tens of thousands of casualties?
Seeing that his plan was discovered by Le Yi, Gongsun Qi came up with another plan. He said to Zhao Ran, the chief concubine: "Since Le Yi has calculated that our army will pretend to attack Wei and actually capture Pinyang, we should not follow his plan and withdraw our troops immediately.
The army moves north and assumes a posture of attacking Pinyang. In this way, Le Yi is very likely to lead his army to attack Chongquan. In the meantime, our army can turn back and catch him off guard."
Zhao Ran, the chief concubine, thought so.
So, at Chu's Qin camp forty miles west of Wei City, more than 100,000 Qin troops moved in full force, carrying all the siege equipment, and marched towards Pinyang County.
The Hexi cavalry who monitored every movement of the Qin army quickly reported the incident to Ji Yan and General Le Kui, who in turn immediately reported it to Le Yi.
Ji Yan said to Le Yi: "The Qin army's sneak attack on Pinyang failed, and they attacked with anger. Our army just took advantage of the situation to regain Chongquan and cut off the Qin army's return route."
Le Yi chuckled and shook his head and said: "General Ji thought that the Qin army failed to attack in a sneak attack and became angry? No, no, no, Le thought that the Qin army just wanted to trick our army into attacking Chongquan. If Chongquan cannot be attacked, Bai Fang will
The general is a lesson learned from the past for our army...
However, the Qin camp outside the city can be taken. Gongsun Qi hopes to trick us into Chongquan. Even if he learns that our army is attacking his camp, he will choose to endure it. Therefore, as long as the two generals attack the Qin camp,
Withdraw your troops immediately and return, there is no risk in doing so."
Ji Yan and Le Kui looked at each other in shock. Considering that Le Yi had indeed calculated the Qin army's strategy, they finally decided to obey Le Yi's order, capture the Qin camp while its defense was empty, and then burn it to the ground.
Sure enough, Wu Xinhou Gongsun Qi, who was slowly leading his army towards Pinyang at this time, did not send troops to rescue after learning that his army camp was attacked by the Wei army, but made preparations to ambush Le Yi's army.
Unexpectedly, after Wei generals Ji Yan and Le Kui set fire to the Qin camp, they withdrew their troops and returned to Le Yi's camp.
After receiving the news, Wu Xinhou Gongsun Qi was silent for a long time.
Although it was a joyful thing to meet an opponent in chess, to be honest, he couldn't be happy at the moment.
He said to Zhao Ran, the chief concubine: "The surprise attack on Pinyang failed, and the only way left is to attack by force. If my prediction is correct, Zhao Xuan's Northern Army will immediately support Pinyang from Linwei. But at this time, only
Take Zhao Xuan's Wei camp first and intercept Zhao Xuan's troops."
Zhao Ran, the chief concubine, frowned and said, "Garrisoning troops south of Liangshan? Wouldn't that mean we are surrounded by the Wei army?"
Indeed, if Gongsun Qi seizes the Wei camp of King Huan Zhao Xuan, he will be surrounded by Pinyang to the west, King Huan Zhao Xuan and Linwei City to the south, and Wei State guarding Wei Ji to the east of the river. This is simply an enemy on three sides.
"Exactly like this."
Gongsun Qi said sternly: "Seeing that our army fell into siege on its own, the Wei army would gradually launch a siege. They didn't know that Lord Weiyang was attacking Diaoyin. As long as Lord Weiyang captured Diaoyin, he would send his army southward to assist us." If the army attacks Pinyang, it will have a great chance of capturing Pinyang."
Zhao Ran, the chief concubine, reported the matter to the King of Qin. After pondering for a moment, the latter finally agreed to Gongsun Qi's risky strategy.
Therefore, Gongsun Qi divided his troops into two and asked the chief concubine Zhao Ran to lead half of the troops to garrison Chongquan with King Hui of Qin, while he led the other half to attack the Wei camp south of Liangshan by King Huan Zhao Xuan.
Fang Shuo, the guard general of the Wei camp south of Liangshan, never expected that the Qin army would attack his camp. He neglected to take precautions and was captured by the Qin army. He had to take the remaining troops to defect to King Huan Zhao Xuan.
Just as Wu Xin Hou Gongsun Qi had guessed, the Wei generals were all confused about his splitting his troops to attack the camp of King Huan Zhao Xuan. Even Le Yi couldn't figure out what Gongsun Qi was trying to do.