As the sky dawned, the people in Xiangyang City finally discovered that the army that invaded Xiangyang City last night turned out to be the army of Guo and Song from Chang'an. The whole Xiangyang City suddenly became boiling. Although martial law is still in place and people are not allowed to take to the streets, they can't hold back their hearts.
The excited people beat gongs and drums at home to vent their inner joy. Their hard days were finally over.
At noon, the pigeon letter flying from Nanyang arrived in Xiangyang City. Pei Xin took the pigeon letter and hurriedly found the military advisor Wang You.
"Military advisor, the latest information from Nanyang is that Dong Xizhi made a sneak attack on the enemy's camp in Fangcheng County, and was discovered by the enemy. The army was surrounded by 50,000 troops, and Dong Xizhi's entire army was destroyed."
"Where is Dong Xizhi? Did he break through?" Wang You asked.
Pei Xin shook his head, "He was captured by the enemy and his head was beheaded by the enemy general Li Hongxin himself. The head has been sent to Luoyang."
"So Zhu Si didn't suffer much loss?"
"Probably, not only did he not suffer any losses, he also got a large number of troops to surrender. His army now numbers at least 60,000 people."
Wang You took a few steps with his hands behind his back, and then said to Pei Xin: "Why do I ask you to attack Xiangyang City at night? Why do you ask to continue martial law after taking Xiangyang? This can prevent the news from leaking. Now our biggest advantage over the enemy is
The enemy is in the open and we are in the dark, and the other party does not understand the situation in Xiangyang City."
Pei Xin said worriedly: "I am afraid that Zhu Si's spies are ambushing Xiangyang City and have already sent the news through carrier pigeons."
"That's okay!"
Wang You smiled slightly and said: "The other party's pigeon mail usually only goes to Luoyang, not Nanyang. Zhu Si received the pigeon mail this afternoon and sent someone on horseback to inform Li Hongxin. It will be three or four days later.
It's too late, I have a plan to defeat Li Hongxin in one battle."
Wang You whispered a few words to Pei Xin. Pei Xin was overjoyed and quickly bowed and said: "Just act according to the military advisor's policy!"
.........
At the city gate, Pei Xin said to Dong Zhu, whose eyes were red: "I will leave the plan to lure the enemy to you this time. After it is completed, I will report to His Highness the King of Jin and recommend you to be the county magistrate."
Dong Zhu nodded and said: "Thank you General Pei for your love. It doesn't matter whether I am an official or not, but I must avenge my father's murder. Please rest assured, General, I will definitely lead the enemy into an ambush."
Pei Xin then said to Zhou Fei, who was following Dong Zhu northward: "General, you should be careful of the enemy's cavalry. You would rather have your plan exposed than be overtaken by the enemy's cavalry."
"Please rest assured, coach, Zhou Fei will never injure a single soldier, and he will definitely return intact!"
The three thousand men led by Zhou Fei were infantry, and he was very worried that Li Hongxin would send cavalry to pursue them, but Wang You was confident that Li Hongxin would definitely use cavalry to attack Xiangyang, and would not use it on Dong Zhu.
Pei Xin was hesitant, but he still followed the military advisor's arrangements.
"Let's go!" Pei Xin ordered.
Zhou Fei cupped his fists and saluted, then led three thousand troops to surround Dong Zhu and left the city to the north.
Just as they left, Pei Xin also led 20,000 cavalry out of the city.
Although the number of the opponent's army was three times that of theirs, Pei Xin believed that the powerful combat capability of his cavalry would definitely defeat the enemy as long as the tactics were proper.
Li Hongxin led an army of 60,000 to attack Xiangyang in a mighty manner. Although he had personally cut off Dong Xizhi's head, he was not satisfied yet. He must kill all of Dong Xizhi's descendants before he could get rid of the pain he had held for two years.
Ten years of bad breath.
Of course, even if Dong Xizhi has no descendants, he still wants to seize Xiangyang. He has been named the envoy of Jingxiang and the king of Jiangling by the emperor Zhu Si.
From now on, not only will the eight states in the north of Jingzhou be his territory, but he will also attack and destroy Liu Pi in the south of Jingzhou. This is the deep intention of the emperor Zhu Si to make him the king of Jiangling County. If he does not seize the entire territory of Jingzhou and occupy Jiangling City, Jiangling City will be his territory.
How can a county king live up to his name?
This was also Zhu Si's deep intention when he sent his 50,000 troops to the south. After capturing Xiangyang, he would lead the army straight to Jiangling City on the south bank of the Yangtze River without stopping.
At noon, the army was still seventy miles away from Zhirang County in Dengzhou Prefecture. It was surrounded by a large hilly area, lush forests, and numerous rivers. A wide official road went straight south. Suddenly, a spy came to report from ahead.
"Reporting to the general, an army of about 3,000 people was found fifteen miles ahead. The leader is Dong Zhu, the son of Dong Xizhi!"
Li Hongxin was overjoyed. He was afraid that Dong Xizhi's descendants would escape, but he didn't expect him to come to his door. Needless to say, he must have come to meet his father, but it was a pity that he came late.
"Are you sure it's Dong Zhu?" Li Hongxin asked.
"It's basically certain that some brothers have seen him, and their banner also has the word 'Dong'."
Li Hongxin changed his mind. The other party only had 5,000 people guarding Xiangyang. Now that Dong Zhu led 3,000 people out, wouldn't there be only 2,000 people in Xiangyang City?
He immediately ordered: "Where is General Xiang Zuohui?"
Xiang Zuohui hurriedly stepped forward and said, "I'm here to serve you!"
"I will give you three thousand cavalry. You can go to Xiangyang by taking a detour. You can trick the city gates into opening and seize Xiangyang City first."
The cavalry should be led by Deng Weigong, but Li Hongxin commended Deng Weigong for his merit in capturing Dong Xizhi alive, so he sent him to Luoyang to offer his leadership to the emperor. In name, he gave the credit to Deng Weigong, but in fact he took away the cavalry from Deng Weigong.
Li Hongxin trusted Xiang Zuohui very much and appointed him as the cavalry commander, commanding three thousand cavalry.
Xiang Zuo Hui whispered: "Why don't you humble yourself and go directly to arrest Dong Zhu!"
Li Hongxin said noncommittally: "Dong Zhu is already a turtle in the urn. He can't escape. I'm worried that Dong Xizhi's other sons will get the news and escape from Xiangyang City. I won't be able to eradicate the roots. General Xiang, I believe you and I have the same problem."
idea."
Xiang Zuo Hui nodded, "What the general said is true. If we don't eradicate them, they will be a disaster after all. I pretended to be a retreating army despite my humble position, defrauded Xiangyang City, and captured all the young and old in the Dong family."
Li Hongxin took Dong Xizhi's Golden Order Arrow and gave it to him with a smile: "With this Golden Order Arrow, everything is absolutely foolproof!"
Xiang Zuohui took the order arrow, clasped his fists and saluted, and led three thousand cavalry to immediately take the official road and run towards a trail. Xiang Zuohui was very familiar with this area and he knew that there was a trail that could lead directly to the new wilderness.
After the three thousand cavalry left, Li Hongxin immediately laid an ambush, waiting for Dong Zhu's three thousand troops to come and fall into his trap.
Unexpectedly, when Dong Zhu's army was still two or three miles away from the ambush, they suddenly realized something was wrong, turned around and ran away.
Li Hongxin didn't expect that the opponent would be so smart. He was so angry that he would have known to let Xiang Zuo Hui go around and cut off the enemy's retreat first, just like catching Dong Xizhi. But at this time, Li Hongxin had no choice but to order the entire army to chase the enemy.
.
Sixty thousand troops galloped down the official road, and Li Hongxin shouted: "The first person to capture Dong Zhu alive will be promoted to two ranks and rewarded with three thousand taels of silver!"
This reward was easier to cash in. The 60,000-strong army became energetic and sped up one after another, running wildly along the official road. However, no matter how fast they ran, they were only two or three miles away from the enemy and could not catch up. An hour later, the 60,000-strong army
It gradually opened up, forming a long dragon nearly ten miles long.
Li Hongxin was so angry that he roared like thunder, and wanted to catch up with Dong Zhu and split his head in half. However, he did not notice that his team was currently the most vulnerable to enemy attacks and could not organize a formation to resist.
"General!"
Two generals rode up to catch up, one on the left and the other on the right, holding the reins of Li Hongxin's horse, and said urgently: "The situation is not right, the enemy must be deceitful!"
"Why do you say that?" Li Hongxin asked angrily.
"General, our army stretches for ten miles. If the enemy ambushes, how can we resist it?"
In fact, this idea also flashed through Li Hongxin's mind, but the opponent only had five thousand troops left, how could he ambush him? He didn't take it to heart.
Li Hongxin shook his head, "You are worrying too much. Dong Zhu only has 5,000 troops in hand, and there are 3,000 people in front of him. Even if he ambush 2,000 people, this amount of troops is not enough to fill their teeth. How can he ambush us?"
"General, Bei Zhi and General Li are worried that it is not Dong Zhu's army but Guo Song's army. This place is only two hundred miles away from Wuguan. Will Guo Song stand by and watch the Xiangyang Incident?"
One sentence immediately reminded Li Hongxin. He looked back at the 60,000-strong army, but he couldn't even see the end. His heart began to beat, and he loudly ordered: "The whole army stops moving forward!"
The soldiers were all out of breath and exhausted. They squatted down to catch their breath. But at this moment, a low horn sound suddenly sounded from the woods on both sides.
"Woo——"
The sound of horse hoofbeats sounded loudly, and countless cavalrymen shot out from the woods on both sides. Li Hongxin was immediately frightened out of his wits.
The 20,000 cavalry were divided into four teams, and they rushed into the enemy's team instantly, cutting the ten-mile-long team into four sections. The 60,000 Zhu Si army was killed by surprise, and the army suddenly fell into chaos.