These battles in early July of the third year of Jianji made Cangjing warriors realize their differences.
Five villages were defeated in a row, and more than 10,000 people were captured and killed. The losses were extremely heavy, which severely damaged their morale.
On the eighth day of July, Long Xiang's army once again entered the vicinity of Dongguang County. Lu Yanwei went out to fight in person. He was defeated again and routed all the way to Nanpi. The formation and the army were no longer in formation. They only relied on tens of thousands of men to defend the isolated city and were defeated.
The appearance is very obvious.
When Ge Congzhou heard the news, he felt it was a bit unreal.
He did not suppress the entire army. He only dispatched tens of thousands of men one after another and took turns in batches. The result was such an overwhelming force. The Cangjing warriors who were hiding behind the camp fence were all defeated and defeated. He was very surprised.
I almost thought I was attacking those vassal towns that were full of civility and martial arts.
In the whole battle, the only place where he could feel the enemy's military quality was that someone broke up the rear during the retreat and was very determined. Although the troops who broke up the rear were finally defeated, it is fair to say that the fight was still very tenacious.
Cangjing Wufu is a huge disappointment!
"The rebel army is so weak. In my opinion, it is better to go directly to Nanpi. After the attack, we can capture Changlu, join with the East Route Army, and completely capture Cangzhou." He Delun, the captain of Longxiang Army, waved his riding whip.
, strongly recommended.
"Even taking the Yongji Canal to go north is too far, isn't it? Our army has no reinforcements behind it." Deputy envoy Wang Qianyu disagreed.
Seeing him like that, Hedron stopped swinging his horsewhip. Although he didn't speak, he looked very unhappy.
Zhu Zhen watched silently from the side. He is very low-key now and rarely expresses opinions unless absolutely necessary.
"Five hundred miles from Wei to Cang..." Ge Congzhou glanced at Zhu Zhen and saw that he was silent. After thinking about it, he said: "Floating Yongji Canal up is a shortcut. However, Chengde still has to be solved.
In this battle, Cangjing is only the enemy on one side, and Chengde in Hedong is the enemy."
As Chengde marched east from Jizhou, he could easily cut off the Yongji Canal. The purpose of Ge Congzhou's attack on Gan County before was to block the eastward route of Chengde's army.
But Longxiang's army only has more than 20,000 people. If he garrisoned a large number of troops in Quan County, he would not have enough strength to march north to Cangzhou. If Quan County is ignored and the entire army goes north, judging from the current appearance of Cangjing, there is probably no way to fight with you in the field.
Come to think of it, it's very difficult to capture Nanpi with such a small number of people.
Therefore, Hedren was indeed a little whimsical, and he was also inspired by the series of previous victories. No matter how bad Lu Yanwei was, he could still defend the city.
In addition, in Ge Congzhou's plan, the battle was not fought this way.
Making rapid progress and occupying land continuously seems exciting, but what is your strategic goal? This question needs to be clarified. As a general, you must not deviate from the strategic goal while thinking about it. This is a taboo.
"Send wild soldiers and horses to lead troops to approach Nanpi to intimidate the enemy." Ge Congzhou found an aide and asked him to write an order: "If the rebel army does not abandon the city and flee, leave him alone and retreat alone."
.”
This is actually a routine operation that takes advantage of the enemy's low morale to see if there are any advantages to take advantage of.
"Secondly, the Dingnan Army strengthens its search to find out the movements of the German army."
When the Chengde Army was attacking Beizhou, the cavalry of the Dingren Army quickly maneuvered around to the rear in an attempt to cut off its food route. They successfully found the grain transport brigade escorted by the Chengde Army and launched a tentative charge, but suffered heavy losses and were defeated.
And back.
However, this harassment also shocked Chengde. As the number of cavalry in the five towns in Hebei far exceeded that of the other four towns, Chengde sent a large number of cavalry to find the troubled troops to fight, drove them out, and tried to intercept Xia
Military food road.
The two sides are still entangled in this direction.
"Third, give a clear order to Wu Zangjie to attack Dezhou at all costs. One hundred thousand people cannot be pinned down there forever."
Although Wang Qixian's troops in Dezhou have been completely pushed into Dezhou City, their miscellaneous troops and horses total no less than 20,000. If left unchecked, the middle army's retreat will be cut off.
When Ge Congzhou ordered to bypass Dezhou and go north, he actually took a certain risk. The army led by Lu Yanwei suffered repeated defeats, which may be due to unexpected factors.
Now that we have been fighting for so long, everything is clear. The rest is difficult to make opportunistic decisions. The deployment of both sides is basically clear. It all depends on the performance in the battle.
Three orders were issued one after another, and the messenger quickly went to deliver the order.
Hedren felt unhappy. The excitement he had just aroused due to the big victory was extinguished by Ge Congzhou's series of operations. They were all the formations that Tian Shefu knew, and they did not show his superiority at all.
After issuing the order, Ge Congzhou listened to the courier's report on the West Route Army.
The West Road is actually dominated by Tiande troops, guarding Xing Mingci and Wei Bo. The troops are relatively scattered and the tasks are relatively heavy. Ge Congzhou has always been more concerned about it, because this place may be attacked by both Hedong and Chengde.
This was actually one of the important reasons why he never boldly headed north along the Yongji Canal.
According to the messenger's report, the Jin army Li Cunxu's troops went down the mountain several times to attack Wu'an, and there were several small-scale battles between the two sides. The Chengdu army went south to attack Beizhou and fought several times.
As the general reserve of the Third Route Army, the Wuwei Army has sent a unit north to Xiangzhou, suppressed a Weibo rebellion, and repelled an attack by the Silver Spear Rebel Army under Li Cunxu. However, this unit has not yet been subordinated to the West Route Army.
, still exists as the general reserve force of the entire army.
After listening to this, Ge Congzhou was basically relieved. Judging from the current deployment of enemy troops and offensive intensity, the West Road was safe for the time being, and no major incidents would occur there. As long as the West Road was stabilized, the success of this battle would be certain.
Most of them. After all, the East Route Army has strong soldiers and horses and has pushed to a place not far from Cangzhou. They are the main force.
Defend in the west and attack in the east. Weak first and then strong. However, after defeating the relatively weak Cangjing Town, a large number of troops can be released. Then the entire army can move west or north and become invincible.
land.
Of course, these are all his assumptions. As for whether the battlefield situation will go according to his expectations, Ge Congzhou doesn't have much hope. Anyway, he just has a clear goal and uses tactics as he sees them.
******
Zang Dubao and his party of more than ten people arrived outside Cangzhou City.
"Since you are a Jinshi, why don't you want to contribute to the new dynasty? Is it because you have no talent and learning? Did the Jinshi in the former Tang Dynasty get it through the family?" Wang Jianji, the envoy of the Tianxiong Army, looked at his newly recruited staff.
Li Yu asked in a low voice.
Li Yu is thirty-eight years old this year and is from Wudi, Cangzhou. In a place where wars and fighting are fought, human relations are unstable and the public sentiment is uneasy. Li Yu takes refuge with his family, but is caught by Wang Jianji on the road. Hearing that he is a Jinshi, he forces him to stay.
Let him be his clerk.
Li Yu was also helpless. His arms could not lift his thighs. What could he say to these ferocious warriors? He was afraid that if he was unhappy, he would beheaded, so after settling down his family, he followed Wang Jianji.
Act as a staff member and write official documents.
"General Wang, as the saying goes, everyone has his own ambitions, and some things cannot be forced." Li Yu said with a bitter smile.
"Could it be that you are dissatisfied with usurping the throne today?" Wang Jianji lowered his voice a few degrees and asked with a smirk on his face.
"This..." How dare Li Yu accept these words.
He was indeed dissatisfied with Shao Shude's usurpation of the throne, but at the same time he cherished his wealth and life and did not dare to show any abnormality on the surface. At the same time, he was also a little helpless. General Wang was not like a rough warrior at all, and his mind was frighteningly sensitive and delicate.
"Are you scared?" Wang Jianji put away his smile and asked.
"I'm scared." Li Yu smiled bitterly and nodded.
"It's okay if you're afraid. Do your best for me in the future." Wang Jianji said carelessly: "I recruited two civil servants one after another. One was drunk and fell into the water and died, and the other was killed by a stray arrow on the battlefield. Do your best for me.
I won’t treat you badly.”
Li Yu was shocked. Did his two predecessors really die like this?
"I heard that you were born in Li, Zhao County. There should be many young people in your family who are well-educated in poetry and books, right? I still need a person to settle accounts. Please recommend one. If you satisfy me, I will accept him as my adopted son.
No." Wang Jianji said again.
"This..." Li Yu wanted to smile bitterly again, but was interrupted by Wang Jianji.
"This, this, that, that, that! You are still a Jinshi, but you know these words?" Wang Jianji said with some contempt, "The civil servants in the army are different from the local, state and county officials. If you are timid, you will die if you can't do anything.
of."
"Yes." Li Yu calmed down and responded.
Wang Jianji laughed again and said, "This is the right thing to do. You heard what Zang Dutou said just now. Now tell me, how should we fight this battle?"
After saying that, Wang Jianji sat on the grass by himself, picked up the water bag and drank it down. He didn't pay too much attention to Li Yu's opinion, he just asked casually.
"Go back to the general." Li Yu collected his thoughts and said, "Shuai Ge has a big appetite."
Wang Jianji glanced at him in surprise and asked, "Why?"
"Shuai Ge was also well-known in the Central Plains back then. Even though I was far away in Cangzhou, I had heard about him a little bit." Li Yu said: "Looking at his military use, he should be brave and diligent, and take things by surprise."
Wang Jianji nodded slightly.
"But this time, the troops were deployed in a regular and solid manner, unlike his previous style." Li Yu continued: "Listening again to Zang Dutou's description of the deployment of troops, I make a bold guess that Commander Ge is waiting for the fish to take the bait."
"What's the explanation?" Wang Jianji asked with interest.
"Waiting for Li Keyong." Li Yu said without hesitation: "If troops are sent from Hedong, there will most likely be two groups. One is Zelu, the other is Youzhou. If Jin soldiers come in large numbers, Ge Shuai may meet
Fight with it, hoping to destroy the enemy's main force in one battle and establish the overall situation."
Wang Jianji really admired this man.
He got very little information, but he dared to analyze it boldly, and he was still in the dark. This was his level.
"How to fight in Cangzhou?" Wang Jianji stood up, handed the water bag to Li Yu, and asked.
Li Yu didn't mind it either, so he picked it up and took a sip, saying: "Jianling, Longjian and other troops are coming. The general should know better than me how to fight Cangzhou. Now there is something that concerns the general's next move.
"
"Speak." Wang Jianji said.
"If the Jin troops move south from Youzhou, the general may have to march north to Lutai," Li Yu said.
The Lutai Army, also called the Qianning Army, is located in Fengqiao Town, in the north of Changlu County. It is an important military base in the north of Cangzhou and is also a water transport terminal on the bank of the Yongji Canal. If the Jin soldiers go south, they will not be able to bypass this place.
"You have found a treasure this time." Wang Jianji said with a smile: "Do your job well. If you have merit, I will definitely recommend you to get an official position."