One hundred and thirty miles northwest of Shuozhou, Wang Junlin led Luo Shixin and Wu Si's 100,000 troops to camp for rest and reorganization.
Because they were not far from the enemy, the reconnaissance cavalry could already see the spies of the Li family's army these days. However, facing Wang Junlin's personal expedition, Li Shentong only sent a large number of scouts to detect every move of Wang Junlin's army and at the same time reduced his troops. He had no other reaction.
"Li Shentong's troops in Shuozhou are 30,000 to 40,000 more than ours, and most of them are elites. Even if they lose once, it is only natural that they are not afraid of us!" Wang Junlin said.
After a pause, Wang Junlin turned back to Luo Shixin, Wu Si and Shen Guoer in the tent and said: "However, even if the opponent is like a turtle, we can't relax our vigilance. After all, we are on the enemy's territory.
Li Yuan treats the people well in Hedong and has a sense of belonging to the Li family army. Unlike when the Wagang Army invaded the territory of the Central Plains, we are now acting as an invading army, so it is very likely that we will face a situation where all the people are soldiers!"
Wu Si's finger slowly moved across the map and said: "Your Majesty, for the sake of safety, I thought we should capture Heshan County and deploy a force there. Please see, Your Majesty, Heshan County is located behind the right flank of our army.
As long as there is any change on the right wing, the Heshan County garrison will discover it immediately and can deal with it calmly."
Wang Junlin nodded slightly, agreed, and said: "Yes, this is a safe plan."
After a pause, Wang Junlin said: "Do you think Li Shentong will engage in a large-scale cavalry field battle with us?"
Luo Shixin looked at the map, thought for a moment, shook his head, and said: "Your Majesty, I thought that Li Shentong probably didn't know how to do it. Now our Far East Army is famous all over the world for its powerful combat power, especially its excellent soldiers and armor, and its various weapons and equipment."
Sharp, everyone in the world knows that the opponent's equipment is not on the same level as ours. Although Li Shentong was defeated by me in the field just now, he is still a famous general. Now that he has understood our combat power, he will never make a decision to fight with us.
And the risky move that determines victory or defeat.”
"Will he occupy the city and defend it?" Wang Junlin frowned, "The siege is the most troublesome."
"Your Majesty, Li Shentong, as the commander-in-chief of the Li Family Army's North Route Army, is extremely skilled in combat. Deputy General Liu Hongji is the top rising star in the Li Yuan Group. According to the information obtained by the Military Intelligence Agency, this person is even Li Yuan.
The second son, Li Shimin, also said. And Sima Pei Ji, the marching leader of the North Road Army, is an old fox. This person has a long-term vision and acts cunningly. These three people together command the Li family's hundreds of thousands of troops in the east of the river. It will never be simple. I even doubt that before
The loss to the Tornado Battalion led by Luo Shixin was an intentional move by the other side. On the one hand, it was to determine the combat strength of our army to facilitate their subsequent plans; on the other hand, it wanted us to underestimate the enemy and lure us to underestimate the enemy and go deeper."
After hearing this, everyone's expressions condensed slightly. Shen Guoer pointed at the map and continued: "Your Majesty, please take a look at the general deployment of the opponent's troops. They seem scattered, but in fact they are well-organized. No matter which point we attack, we will all attack them together."
He wants to mobilize our troops as much as possible, find our flaws in mobile warfare, and try to gather the main force to break them with one blow."
"So, in the early stages of the war, Li Shentong will definitely not confront us head-on. Instead, he wants to lure us into this circle." Wang Junlin clicked on the map, "and then use these city strongholds to disperse our forces."
"Your Majesty, this is exactly what Guo'er meant!" Shen Guo'er said quickly.
"If this is the case, then Li Shentong has a good idea!" Wang Junlin sneered, "But why should we do what he said? Our goal in the early stage of the battle is not to annihilate the enemy, but to use force to overwhelm others and reduce their strength. Slowly compressing towards Taiyuan Prefecture, forcing Li Shentong to concentrate his forces in Taiyuan Prefecture to fight us."
Wang Junlin drew a straight line along the map and said: "Luo Shixin, you lead the Tornado Battalion of 50,000 people, cut in along this line, cut off the left battlefield from it, and divide it into two different battle zones. Sweep the enemy's troops outside the city. , press them into the city. And ascertain the opponent's troop deployment in these two areas to decide which area we attack first."
"I humbly obey the prince's orders." Luo Shixin said with full fighting spirit.
"The first step is to chill the enemy's courage!" Wang Junlin waved his arm, "If you make the enemy timid before fighting, you may be able to win without fighting."
"Your Majesty, how many troops are stationed in Heshan County?" Shen Guoer asked.
Wang Junlin hesitated for a moment and said, "Wu Si sent five thousand people to guard it!"
Wu Si agreed and immediately ordered a general to go to Heshan County.
"The destination of our first battle is Shuozhou!" Wang Junlin said on the map
A rough range was drawn, "The army will take the territory of Shuozhou as the strategic dividing line for the first stage. After reaching this horizontal line, it will slow down the pace of its advance."
…
…
In mid-October, the 100,000-strong army of Luo Shixin and Wu Si of the Far Eastern Army, one on the left and one on the right, were like two big pliers, pressing towards Li Shentong's army in Shuozhou. For this battle, Li Shentong had always been shrinking.
However, a large number of elite spies were sent to fight fiercely with the Far Eastern Army's reconnaissance cavalry on the land of Shuozhou. For a while, the fight turned into a stalemate.
Wang Junlin led an army of 100,000 people and penetrated deep into Shuozhou County, forcing the enemy to retreat into the county. However, the Li Army never had large-scale conflicts with the Far East Army. Once he realized that every county town was in danger of being surrounded on all sides, he immediately ordered the city to be abandoned and break out of the siege. Facing the situation of slowly breaking out of the encirclement like a tortoise shell, and surrounded by enemies, the Far Eastern Army was not sure of a successful attack, and was never willing to engage in a bitter battle with the enemy. It just followed them closely.
For a whole month, although the Far East Army forced Li Shentong back nearly a hundred miles, they did not achieve many real results. Only Luo Shixin made some small gains. He used a trick to trick the enemy and annihilated three thousand of them.
We fought for a whole month and occupied a lot of territory, but we didn't kill many enemies.
On the west road, the situation of the 90,000-strong army led by Shangguan Hu, Zhou Hu and Jiang Mulang was not very good. The Li Jiajun used the same method to deal with them as Li Shentong. They stuck to the city and took advantage of the danger of Longguan to block Shangguan Hu and his army. Before arriving at Longguan.
On the contrary, on the eastern battlefield, Li Shimin faced the armies of Yuchi Jingde, Lu Han and Guan Xiaotong. He did not blindly use the mountain pass gorge to hold on. Instead, he adopted a head-on approach and launched counterattacks from time to time. .
Therefore, compared with the calm situation in the west and north, the battlefield in the east of Hedong was full of blood and flesh. Even though the Far Eastern Army had excellent combat power and weapons and equipment, the elite soldiers trained by Li Shimin were not much weaker, resulting in this However, the Far Eastern Army only advanced less than a hundred miles.
The simultaneous advancement of the east and west sides is not very fast, which also proves what Wang Junlin said before. The Li Yuan Group is indeed far from being comparable to Li Mi, Zhai Rang and others, and it is by no means easy to fight.