Everyone was surprised at first, and then shook their heads secretly. Although Li Chongbao had emerged in several battles after the Battle of Yecheng, he was still immature after all, and his military experience was far less than that of the veteran. Li Siye probably would not send him.
Unexpectedly, Li Siye asked the two of them: "How long will it take to capture the two states and capture Pujin Ferry?"
Duan Xiushi took the lead and said: "Within fifteen days, I will wipe out all the Zhaoyi army on the north bank of the Yellow River and establish a foothold at Pujin Crossing."
Li Chongyun hesitated and said: "I need a longer time, a little more than a month."
Li Siye laughed and said to Duan Xiushi first: "You are my mainstay. I need you to lead troops in Luzhou. If Shi Siming is not the opponent of the Hedong Army and Deng Jingshan leads his troops south from Taiyuan, only you can stop him."
Duan Xiushi nodded, seeming to understand Li Siye's desire to train young people, and sat back in his seat without saying a word.
He looked at his son and said with relief: "Wang Sili was the infantry commander of Longyou at the time, and he ran the army very strictly. In the Battle of Yecheng, only the Guannei Army led by him and Li Guangbi's Hedong Army were able to defeat the whole army.
Retreat, although he has few veterans who are good at fighting, his ability can train a team capable of fighting within a period of time. If you ask for one month, I can give you enough time."
Li Chongbao crossed his hands excitedly and said: "Thank you very much for your trust. If my son cannot take Jiangpu Prefecture, he will kill himself to apologize and never come back to see his father."
The grain that Li Siye's army took out from Hanjiacang in Luoyang provided his army with enough time to respond. During the attack on Shangdang, he ordered nearly 100,000 soldiers led by Tian Zhen and Yan Xiaosi to stay in Tongguan, and ordered them to stay in Tongguan every day.
The challenge at Tongguan increased the pressure on Guo Ziyi and others, causing the imperial court to put more weight on the Tongguan line, weakening the troops on the Pujin Crossing, and leaving Wang Sili without help.
Li Chongbao began to organize an attack on Jiangzhou. Wang Sili, the commander of Zelu Jiedu, knew that his current troops could not resist the Hexi Army, so he sent people north to ask for help from the Hedong Army, and at the same time sent people to Guanzhong to ask for help from the emperor.
The emperor's reply to him was that all the troops were used to guard Tongguan, and the imperial court really could not spare any extra men. I issued a decree to mobilize troops and ordered Deng Jingshan to lead the Hedong Army to come to the rescue.
After the people sent by Wang Sili to Taiyuan arrived, they discovered that Deng Jingshan was facing a more serious situation than Zhaoyi's army. Shi Siming led the Yan army and his generals Zhang Zhizhong and Tian Chengsi had already breached the Jingjingkou and were attacking Taiyuan.
Deng Jingshan, wearing iron armor on the city wall, opened his throat and shouted loudly to the envoy: "Borrow troops from me? Look at what I look like now. The Yan army is attacking Taiyuan City from three sides. If I lose Hedong!"
Wouldn’t the saint move my head?”
The envoy Xiaozhi reasoned: "Deng Zhongcheng, it doesn't matter if the northern capital is lost. If Li Siye is allowed to capture Puzhou and cross the Yellow River into the Central Plains, your majesty will have to abandon his home and patrol south again."
"What does Shuofang's army do for food? What do Zhaoyi's army, Guannei's army, Saint's Yulin army, Longwu army, and Longxiang army do for food? I don't believe that so many soldiers can even defend Tongguan and two ferries.
Don’t stop! Why do you always count on us, Hedong, no matter what happens?”
The messenger smiled bitterly and shook his head: "There is no other way. Those who can do more work!"
No matter how he put a high hat on Deng Jingshan, the other party ignored him. The reason is that there is no strong court to make overall arrangements. For strategic decisions such as losing Hedong and losing Guanzhong, Deng Jingshan puts himself in his own shoes and considers it. Naturally, he is more interested in it.
Tendency to and defense of Hedong.
Since the Battle of Yecheng, the Hedong Army has become the most powerful presence in the Tang Army. At the beginning, the entire Qijiedu Army was defeated, and only the Three Jin soldiers and Wang Sili's Guannei Army were able to form an organized retreat. In order to prevent the Hedong family from forming a separatist regime
Threatening Guanzhong, Suzong Li Han deliberately divided Hedong into two, and set the area south of Shangdang as the Zelu Jiedushi. The area north of Shangdang was still the Hedong Army, and the Hedong Jiedushi's forces were also divided into two.
It was assigned to Wang Sili.
When the imperial court did not divide the two vassal towns, Li Siye naturally did not dare to enter Hedong rashly, because his Feihuqi and Hanjun were good at fighting in the plains, but once they entered the Taihang Mountains, they would be restricted by the terrain everywhere, and faced with the troops who were good at fighting in the mountains.
It is difficult for the Hedong Army to win. Moreover, Hedong Jiedushi has more than 60,000 troops under his command. Facing such a large feudal town in an away battle, the enemy will naturally be more advantageous than him.
Li Heng's move to divide the vassal towns created favorable conditions for him to attack Shangdang. The two vassal towns did not belong to each other and fought independently. Coupled with the addition of Shi Siming, the situation in the Hedong area was more favorable to Li Siye.
The envoy sent by Wang Sili returned sadly. It would take a month for him to travel back and forth. When he returned to Jiangzhou, the war situation would probably be the same again.
Li Siye has delegated command to Li Chongbao and asked him to start deploying the attack on Jiangzhou.
Jiangzhou has been known as Dragon Gate since ancient times. It faces Tongguan Shaanxi County across the Yellow River, with Zhongtiao Mountain and Wangwu Mountain in between, and to the north is the Luliang Mountains. If there is a basin in the middle of Shangdang, Jiangzhou
Almost all of the prefecture is surrounded by mountains, rivers and hills. Only Wenxi, Jishan and other counties near Puzhou in the west have slightly flatter terrain.
Li Chongbao organized his troops into half infantry and half cavalry. When encountering mountain roads, he ordered the infantry to open up. If the terrain was flat, he would use cavalry to charge. Under such terrain conditions, all kinds of Qimen formations commonly seen on the battlefields of the Central Plains were all
There is no place for it. What is more convenient is to use the regiment or brigade as a unit to coordinate the formation of hundreds of people. Based on the three-talent formation, jump swings, crossbows, long contradiction soldiers, etc. are used for tactical coordination. The more complex the terrain, the more detailed the division of labor.
change.
He led the army to attack Jiangxian County first, arranged combat missions before the war, selected 23 brigades from the army, and personally issued orders to these brigade commanders. He used strong warriors carrying Mo Dao to rush to the city wall at night and quickly captured the city.
The county seat of Jiangxian County.
This was Li Chongbao's first try since he was fighting alone. There was no one to guide him on what to do. He had tried to ask his father Li Siye and Duan Xiushi, and also guessed how his master Feng Changqing would fight if he were here. He followed Feng Changqing several times.
For more than a month, I followed these generals under my father, and I had my own classification of their command and combat capabilities.
To be fair, Feng Changqing's military level was slightly higher than that of his grandfather Li Siye, and far surpassed all the generals in the Hexi Army. Even Duan Xiushi, who Li Siye relied heavily on, seemed much mediocre compared with Feng Changqing.
Li Chongbao's request for advice was naturally met with failure. When asked about Li Siye, he only said that you make your own decision and I will not participate at all. He asked Duan Xiushi again, but the other party just laughed and said nothing. Only then did he vaguely guess that Grandpa
I was deliberately testing him, and I secretly held back my strength to never let my father down.
His next attack direction was Wenxi County, located in the middle area between Zhongtiao Mountains and Mingtiao Gang. He sent scouts to investigate first and learned that Zelu Jiedushi Wang Sili had personally led 13,000 people to Wenxi County.
Xi County, relying on the Meiliang Valley south of the county seat, set up camp to resist, while waiting for the imperial court's rescue, preparing to defend conservatively.
Meilianggou is also very famous. It is the place where Taizong Li Shimin defeated Liu Wu and Zhou general Wei Chi Jingde. Now, near the pass of the ancient battlefield, the two sides also started fighting.
The Meilianggou Pass where Wang Sili was stationed was lush with vegetation, and the soldiers in his army were all mountain people from the Zhongtiao Mountains. They were all very skilled in hunting and climbing, and could rely on favorable terrain to carry out operations.
Li Chongbao led his troops into the ravine. Because the valley was relatively narrow, it was not conducive to cavalry operations, and the Hexi Army's numerical advantage could not be brought into play.
He personally led 800 capable soldiers to explore the road ahead, with slingers holding shields in front, pikemen holding rifles behind, and archers following closely behind them.
From a distance, we can see that the camp set up by the Zhaoyi Army occupied the pass of more than ten feet. Among them, the observation tower and other structures were built according to the terrain. When Li Chongbao saw this situation, he was like a hunting dog with its fangs open, and he could hardly find any weak point to bite.