The first seventy-sixth chapter is like a broken bamboo
Li Xingchen did not let Chen Zhishen pursue and fight fiercely. The Han army was also severely injured in this battle, with at least thousands of casualties. Almost everyone in the first few batches of soldiers who crossed the Yishui suffered defeat, even the first batch
All the soldiers have been killed in the battle.
The Han army also needed rest.
What's more, Wang Qian is quite capable. When retreating, he was very steady and step-by-step. If the Han army pursued too fiercely and caused chaos in the formation, Wang Qian would probably seize the opportunity and take another bite.
So there is absolutely no need to take risks.
Of course, Li Xingchen also wanted to give the Imperial Guards who would come later a chance.
After the Northern Expedition began, the Imperial Guards followed Li Xinchen to the north, but they were always playing tricks. Li Xinchen also had to take care of the emotions of the Imperial Guards and give them a chance to show off.
Otherwise, these guys might have objections to His Majesty. Of course, Li Xingchen didn't want the Imperial Guards, which he built with his own hands and is known as the strongest army in the world, to be looked down upon by the rest of the Han army because it had no military exploits for a long time.
The Imperial Guards were Imperial Guards after all. They broke through Baigu City on the second day, directly broke through Luoshui on the third day, and sent troops to Luoyang City.
When Li Xingchen received the battle report from the front line, he was a little surprised. These guys were running too fast. They broke through the city in one day and crossed Luo in the next. They were simply chasing Wang Qian forward.
Thinking about Li Xingchen, I can understand that in the battle of Yishui, Wang Qian's men did not suffer a lot of losses, but the blow to morale was fatal. Wang Qian was anxious to have a place to reorganize the army, otherwise he would fight again.
If we go down, I am afraid that we will still be beaten by the Han army and become as embarrassed as a bereaved dog.
Wang Qian thought that the Han army should also need to rest and regroup, but he forgot that Li Xingchen did not only have Chen Zhishen's Yingyang Army in his hands.
The guards did not need to rest and were chasing Wang Qian almost all the way to launch an attack.
Wang Qian entered Baigu City with his front foot, and the Han army had already pulled up the artillery and bombarded the city head fiercely. The Northern Zhou army, which had been deeply impressed by the Han army's artillery in the previous Battle of Yishui, fell into chaos almost instantly. Many of them fell into chaos.
The troops fled northward in disorder, and Wang Qian could not stop them even if he wanted to.
Of course, Wang Qian himself probably had no intention of stopping it. Baigu City was just a small fort in the south of Luoyang. There was not even a simple moat outside the rammed earth city wall. Moreover, the Northern Zhou army poured into the city in a chaotic manner, and it was already beyond the limit.
Limiting the bearing capacity of this small town, blocking so many troops in the city will not only cause panic, but also greatly increase the damage caused by enemy artillery.
After all, when a cannonball falls, the effect is different when there is one person in this place and when there are ten people.
Since Baigu City cannot be defended, there is no need to defend it anymore.
Wang Qian left some of his men behind and hurried northward to cross the Luoshui River with the main force of the Northern Zhou Dynasty. When they arrived at the shore of the Luoshui River, the remaining Northern Zhou troops in Baigu City had surrendered. The Imperial Guards were too lazy to pay attention to them.
, pursue directly to the north.
However, Wang Qian had left a way out before. Da Xi Qixin, the general under his command who was responsible for guarding the south bank of Luoshui River, had already collected the ships along the Luoshui River and was waiting for Wang Qian's arrival. Wang Qian also relied on Da Xi Qixin to get back here.
A part of the army barely resisted the onslaught of the Han army. After passing through Baigu City, the imperial guards continued to attack almost non-stop. They did not carry large equipment such as artillery and trebuchets. They only relied on muskets and the like for a while to really attack.
There was no way to directly defeat Da Xi Qixin's new force, so he could only watch helplessly as Wang Qian led nearly 20,000 of the main force of the Northern Zhou Dynasty to cross the Luoshui River.
However, as a price, Da Xi Qixin's new army was almost wiped out. Da Xi Qixin ran very fast and crossed the Luoshui River before the Han army could kill them.
The Northern Zhou army that crossed the Luoshui River did not have the courage to continue fighting the Han army, especially since everyone had realized that this Han army was not Chen Zhishen's Yingyang army, but another one that was more brave and good at fighting.
The Han army was so elite that only the Imperial Guards of the Han Dynasty could match it in the world.
Facing the imperial guards who were rumored to be all selected from the best, the Northern Zhou army really had no desire to continue fighting.
Holding on to Luoshui would just make the battle in Yishui happen again.
So when the Han army crossed the river the next day, Wang Qian had already entered Luoyang City all the way north.
Wang Qian himself no longer had the courage to fight the Han army in a head-to-head battle across the river.
What the Northern Zhou army needs now is not a meaningless defeat, but to seize the time to rest and recuperate, so as to avoid running around in embarrassment when the next battle starts. So Wang Qian simply chose to abandon Baigucheng and Luoshui.
From Li Xingchen's point of view, there is nothing wrong with Wang Qian's choice when faced with the so-called "zipper breakthrough" in later generations.
As the name suggests, a zipper breakthrough means that after one party has won a battle, it pursues them one after another. Before the enemy has organized a second line of defense, it quickly breaks through, forcing the enemy to retreat hastily. Time and time again, the enemy is almost
It is difficult to organize a defense, and it cannot come to an end until the enemy's reinforcements can arrive to support and even have to resort to difficult terrain.
The whole process is like pulling a zipper. Wherever the zipper pull tab touches, no matter how strong the defense is, it will be easily broken.
Of course, in the words of the ancients, it is overwhelming.
In the end, the enemy will be surprised to find that it takes the same or even slightly longer time to retreat to the predetermined position than running over directly, but it has lost much more troops than running over directly.
For any general, when such a breakthrough occurs, the easiest way is to retreat directly. It is better than retreating while being killed by the enemy.
At least it is up to you to take the initiative to retreat, where to go, and how many people are left under your command. Even if the initiative on the battlefield has been lost, you will not be completely led by the enemy. But if you defend passively, it will be really difficult.
I have to leave it to fate.
The Han army fought all the way to the gates of Luoyang City. This was something that neither Li Xingchen nor Yang Su nor Chen Zhishen could have imagined.
The Praetorian Guards were really running too fast.
But I finally made up for the lost time.
And the north-south pincer attack situation that Li Xingchen had always longed for was officially formed.
Long before the Han army entered Baigu City, Xiao Shilian had already defeated Yuwenzhao north of Gushui, forcing Yuwenzhao to huddle in Henan City south of Gushui and not dare to go north to provoke the Han army. When the Han army entered Baigu City,
, Xiao Shilian defeated the Northern Zhou general Gao Anahu in Beimang and cleared the Northern Zhou defenders north of Luoyang.