Ten cavalrymen galloped through the mountains and forests. This was a scout sent by Li Bing. Although their horses had not arrived yet, there were still more than a hundred horses in the navy camp. Li Bing used these horses to form a scout camp.
Ten teams of scouts were dispatched to inspect various official roads in Xuanzhou and monitor the enemy's movements.
"There is an abandoned official road over there. Except for the locals, most people don't know about it!"
A local soldier acting as a guide pointed to a deserted road in the distance, covered with fallen leaves and branches.
The brigade commander of this cavalry scout is called Wu Gan, who is from Hedong. During this expedition to Jiangnan, Li Bing transferred 500 elite soldiers from the scout battalion. Wu Gan is an elite scout brigade commander.
He and another scout team were in charge of the Changzhou front line. At this time, they were patrolling near Zhanggong Mountain. The official road from Xuanzhou passed between Zhanggong Mountain and Guoshan and went directly to Yixing County on the west bank of Taihu Lake.
Wu Gan was really about to lead the soldiers to the abandoned official road. Suddenly, a frightened bird flew from the mountain forest in the distance. Wu Gan was startled and immediately ordered: "Retreat quickly!"
Everyone turned their horses and retreated. They came all the way without disturbing the birds, but a large number of birds several miles away were frightened away, indicating that a large group of people came.
The ten cavalrymen retreated quickly. They retreated to a high place, and with the help of the cover of the dense woods, they could clearly see the situation on the abandoned official road hundreds of steps away.
About a quarter of an hour later, a mighty army appeared on the abandoned official road. The army was all infantry, wearing leather armor, carrying spears, sabers on their waists, camping blankets and dry food bags on their backs, and hurriedly walked on the abandoned official road.
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Wu Gan silently counted the number of enemy troops. The enemy group had been walking for a quarter of an hour. He also estimated that it was about 10,000 people.
They immediately wrote an eagle letter, recorded the place and time, tied the letter tube to the eagle's leg, and the letter eagle flew up, circled twice in the sky, and flew toward the northeast.
.........
At this time, Li Bing led 10,000 troops and was stationed in Jinling County. He divided his troops into three groups. One group was led by General Wang Ning and stationed in Jiangning. The other group was led by General Lu Hongtai. The army headed for Suzhou. This deployment was also to cope with Liu Shining's three groups of troops.
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In the evening, Li Bing stood on the top of the city and looked into the distance. He liked the big city of Jinling County very much. It only took about ten years for the city to be rebuilt. The city was tall and solid, with a vast area. There were not too many residents in the city. More importantly,
The large area of fertile land east of Jinling County is official land, which can be converted into military land to facilitate military farming.
Li Bing began to consider Jinling County as the location of the military government office. Previously, the King of Jin considered placing the military government office in Jiangning County. Of course, it was not Li Bing's decision to place the government office of the Jiangnan garrison. It was decided by His Highness the King of Jin. Li Bing
I need to write a letter to convince His Highness King Jin.
At this time, a long cry came from the sky. Li Bing looked up and saw an eagle circling in the sky.
"General, it's the Faith Eagle!" The soldier next to him recognized the eagle at a glance.
The trust eagle chirped again and flew towards the Eagle Tower in the northwest corner. Li Bing immediately realized that something must be going on.
Not long after, the eagle slave rushed over, holding a red eagle mailbox in his hand.
Li Bing took the mailbox and opened it, looked at it for a moment, and immediately said: "Go back to the camp!"
He then said to his soldiers: "Go and ask the governor of Zhou and Li Sima to come to the camp and say that we have urgent matters to discuss!"
Li Bing got off the city and walked to the military camp outside the city. There is a military camp outside Jinling County. It is a brick and wood structure and can station up to 30,000 people. Currently, 10,000 troops led by Li Bing are stationed in the military camp.
Although there is also a commander's room in the military camp, its area is a bit narrow and there is no room for a sand table.
Li Bing set up a large tent in the open space. A sand table one foot wide and two feet long was placed in the center of the tent.
As soon as he arrived at the main tent, Governor Zhou Qing and Sima Li Yanjun hurried over.
"General, what happened?" Governor Zhou Qing asked.
"I just received intelligence from the scouts and discovered that an army of ten thousand people has entered Changzhou!"
Zhou Qing was shocked, "Coming so soon?"
Li Bing nodded, "I guess Liu Shining wants to capture Jinling County and cut off our way south."
He handed the eagle letter to Sima Li Yanjun, "Li Sima, you are familiar with the terrain. Come and confirm the enemy's position."
Li Yanjun is a local and is very familiar with various places in Changzhou. He took the Eagle Letter and read it carefully, then walked to the sand table, looked at it for a moment, pointed at the two big mountains to the west of Taihu Lake with a wooden pole and said: "Zhanggong Mountain is to the south, and Zhanggong Mountain is to the north.
It is Guoshan, Zhang Gong’s old road is at the foot of Zhang Gong Mountain, and the current official road is at the foot of Guoshan.”
Li Bing stepped forward to take a closer look and found that the enemy's position was in the middle of Zhang Gong's old road, about 150 miles away from Jinling County. According to Xinying's speed, that was what happened an hour ago. He asked Li Yanjun again: "What happened?"
Can Heiqian get out of Zhanggong Mountain?"
Li Yanjun nodded, "You can go out. If they speed up, they can reach Yixing County at night."
"It is impossible for them to go to Yixing County. They will not alert the enemy. After entering Changzhou, they will definitely travel by day and night."
At this time, Zhou Qing asked, "How does the general plan to deal with this army?"
Li Bing smiled faintly, "The enemy is clear and we are hidden. The initiative is in our hands. Since they want to attack Jinling secretly, I will definitely help them!"
...........
Li Qingyang was one of the first generals to join Liu Shining. After Liu Shining came to power, Li Qingyang was quickly reused and became one of Liu Shining's four tiger generals.
Li Qingyang is about fifty years old and can be considered a veteran under Liu Qia. He has followed Liu Qia for many years, fighting in the Central Plains and finally settling on the south bank of the Yangtze River. If Liu Shining had no ambition, Li Qingyang would have retired from office in a few years to retire.
But Liu Shining's ambition pushed him to the front line of the battlefield. The reason why he was selected was because Li Qingyang was good at defending the city. He once guarded Qiao County in Bozhou for three months. Li Xilie was never able to attack and suffered heavy casualties. He had to
Drinking hatred and retreating.
Liu Shining also promised Li Qingyang that as long as he captured Jinling City and held it for half a year, he would be promoted to his general and be rewarded with fifty thousand taels of silver. His eldest son Li Gan would be promoted to the prefect of Xuanzhou, and his second son would also be promoted to the rank of Zhonglang General.
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This condition can be described as both fame and fortune, which makes Li Qingyang very attracted. In addition, he knows Jinling City very well. The city wall is tall and wide, easy to defend and difficult to attack. There is a lot of food in the city. As long as the sneak attack is successful, it should not be a big problem to defend it for half a year.
Li Qingyang only hesitated for a moment before agreeing to Liu Shining's conditions.
Li Qingyang knew in his heart that he must first ensure that the sneak attack was successful. This was the premise. Only by capturing Jinling County could he have the possibility of defense.
Moreover, they did not carry siege weapons and could only attack the county town at night, so Li Qingyang paid special attention to the news along the way, avoiding official roads, towns and villages, and marching in the wilderness as much as possible. During the day, the soldiers rested and slept, and at night
The march went smoothly and was not discovered by the people along the way.
The next night, 10,000 troops marched forty miles west of Jinling County. The soldiers were trotting all the way in a mighty force. The line stretched for six or seven miles. They carried the flag of Liangzhe Road and disguised themselves as soldiers of Liangzhe Road.
Soldiers, no one could recognize them at night. In fact, the official road was empty with no pedestrians at all.
Ten thousand troops were marching quickly on the official road, and Li Qingyang was very excited. So far, he had not found anything unusual. He was almost certain that he could easily capture Jinling City.
"General, Jinling County is a Shang County. Will there be any defenders at night?" a general asked in a low voice.
"Don't worry! There won't be any defenders."
Seeing several generals looking at him, Li Qingyang stroked his beard and explained: "Guo and Song's army should still be in Runzhou. The militia troops of Liangzhe Road will not be deployed in hinterlands like Jinling County. The defenders should be in Yixing."
County, but we have avoided it. There are dozens of veterans guarding the city gate in Jinling County during the day, but there are usually only one or two soldiers at night. The lord has already sent people to investigate. There should be nothing wrong. We can directly use the rope ladder.
Uptown."
All the generals applauded together and praised: "Know yourself and your enemy, and you will never be defeated in a hundred battles!"
As soon as he finished speaking, he saw a rocket shot out from the woods to the north. It was bright red in color and exploded with a 'pop!' sound in the air. The crisp sound could be heard for miles.
Everyone was stunned. Li Qingyang realized that there were woods on both sides, which was the best place for an ambush. He immediately shouted, "No! There is an ambush."
But it was too late. Thousands of arrows were fired from the woods on both sides. The Xuanzhou soldiers on the official road were caught off guard and were hit by arrows one after another. Thousands of them fell to the ground after being hit by arrows. The team was suddenly in chaos.
Immediately after the second round of thousands of arrows were fired, many soldiers' shields were pressed by luggage and ration bags and could not be removed for a while. They were so frightened that they fell down one after another, but thousands of people were still shot down.
Li Qingyang's horse was hit by more than a dozen arrows and collapsed. The soldiers quickly helped Li Qingyang up and fled behind him in embarrassment.
"Woo——"
The trumpet sounded, and 10,000 Jin troops rushed out from both sides of the woods, like a roaring tide. They fiercely charged into the enemy's ranks and cut them off. The soldiers of the Xuanzhou Army panicked and fled in all directions.