Chapter 715 The situation is over

Chapter 715 The situation is over

Chapter 715 The situation is over
Thousands of infantry and cavalry appeared in the north of Yangqu County.

The 500-horse vanguard halted their horses at a distance, looking surprised and confused.

There's something wrong with this city.

The city gates were closed in broad daylight. Although there was news that the battle at Jingxing Pass had begun, was it really that serious? Jingxing Pass was still there, with thousands of soldiers guarding the pass. How could it be so easy to be breached?
Damn it! Could it be that these people heard that Shao the thief had sent several armies to besiege Bingzhou, and they all had evil intentions?

Outside Jingxing Pass, there was Li Chong, a great general of the State of Jin.

Outside Hukou Pass, Yang Dan was attacking the city fiercely.

At the foot of Danzhu Ridge, Feihu, the commander of the Heilongjiang Army, was trying every possible means, either by attacking head-on or by making a surprise attack from behind, in his endless fight with the King of Zhongshan.

Outside the Chenguan Pass, a man named Yang Quan was leading more than 15,000 people and making repeated attempts.

It was a four-way siege, and the momentum was extremely huge. It was normal for them to have evil intentions, because even we...

The cavalry leader who led the team carefully observed the city again.

A large flag with the Chinese character "Han" was still flying on the top of the city wall, but there were few people there. Occasionally, a figure appeared, looking at them furtively, which made them feel even more depressed.

But the leader of the tower did not give up, and immediately sent people to shout, asking the people on the city wall to prepare food and fodder and send them out - at this moment, they did not dare to go in, and immediately sent people to rush north to report to Shi Le, who was a day's journey away.

"Where is the Yangqu magistrate?" A man rode forward, looked at the top of the city wall, and shouted at the top of his voice.

There was still no response from the city wall.

The knight shouted again: "The military situation is urgent, do you want to die?"

Someone on the top of the city wall looked down, but quickly retracted his head and there was no more movement.

Now everyone knew something was wrong. Even though Yangqu County had not rebelled, it had become disloyal and was wavering.

"Open the door quickly and take out the food in the warehouse." The knight shouted for the third time, but he was obviously out of breath.

There were chaotic footsteps on the top of the city wall. After a while, a man half-stuck his body out, without saying a word, raised his hand and shot an arrow.

The arrow missed the target slightly and landed in the mud beside the knight, which scared him so much that he turned his horse around and rode away.

The five hundred cavalrymen arrayed further away saw this and became a little agitated.

After a stalemate, they had no choice but to ride away. The direction they left was actually north.

Shi Le received the news on the morning of April 1st.

At that time, the army was advancing, and he and his aide Diao Ying were resting on the side of the road.

"Cao Pingle came back last night." Shi Le sighed and said, "Wang Xiu is dead, killed by Guo Rong. Shangai County is probably lost."

"Cao Pingle should have arrived in Shangai on the 22nd or 23rd. Why did it take him so long to come back?" Diao Ying was puzzled.

Shi Le pointed with his whip at a fort in the distance that looked as if it was facing a formidable enemy and said, "This is the reason."

Diao Ying remained silent.

There are too many fence-sitters in the local area. They will help whoever wins and have no moral integrity.

If the two sides are evenly matched, they may still help Shao Ze, because Shao Ze is a great general of the Jin Dynasty, and they are also Jin people, so they naturally tend to side.

In this case, it is lucky that Cao Pingle can come back, and the possibility of him dying in the wild is even greater.

"Yangqu should also be gone." Shi Le looked towards the south again and said expressionlessly.

Diao Ying looked unhappy.

At this point, even if he was grateful for Shi Le's kindness and was very loyal, he could not help but feel discouraged. The Taiyuan nobles had surrendered not long ago, let alone loyalty, so it was normal for them to be in a state of rebellion.

"My lord, now..." Diao Ying stopped speaking halfway because he really didn't know what to say.

Shi Le's expression became calmer and he continued, "Now that Shangai County is gone, do you think Shao will send troops from Weize to attack Jingxing?"

Diao Ying's face became even uglier.

"In fact, it doesn't matter whether Shangai is lost or not." Shi Le sighed, "Shao's troops attacked from several directions. We might be able to resist at the beginning, but as time goes on, mistakes will always happen. Either Jingxing Pass is breached, or Hukou Pass or Chen Pass or some other direction will be breached. Even more than one direction will be breached. The general situation is - gone."

Diao Ying couldn't help but look at Shi Le.

Da Hu became increasingly older, his once bright eyes slowly became dim, his once high spirits gradually disappeared, and were replaced by a heavy sense of decadence.

This situation is too torturous! No matter how heroic you are, under repeated blows, your spirit will eventually be worn away.

"Let's go." Shi Le stood up, looking somewhat lonely. Finally, he smiled bitterly and said, "I shouldn't have had such extravagant hopes."

Diao Ying subconsciously asked, "Where do you want to go, lord?"

"Send light cavalry to support Zhang Jing." Shi Le ordered, "If he is still at Jingxing Pass, forget it. If he has already broken out, send him to support him and gather as many remaining soldiers as possible. Then - retreat to Xinxing. Send people to dig trenches, cut wood and set up fences on Shiling Mountain, and leave soldiers to guard it."

Diao Ying understood.

Shiling Mountain is located in the north of Yangqu, or more precisely, at the junction of Taiyuan and Xinxing counties. The area sometimes belonged to Xinxing County and sometimes to Taiyuan State. Today it is part of Yu County, Taiyuan.

Shiling Mountain is the boundary mountain between the Taiyuan Basin and the Xinzhou Basin. The post road passes over the mountain and connects the two basins.

The mountain is surrounded by mountains and is known to be dangerous. Many sections of the road are only wide enough for bicycles. It is a barrier to the north of Jinyang.

The Dahu soldiers left here to guard the place were obviously disheartened and were planning to completely abandon the south and live their own lives behind closed doors - this was actually very difficult to do, but it was just a matter of delaying it for a day. With one order, the army returned.

Diao Ying looked lonely as he looked at every tree and blade of grass in Taiyuan. In the end, he said nothing but sighed deeply.

******
Most of Jinyang's troops moved south.

Liu Yasheng, a member of the Liu Han royal family, recruited two men from three households among the various Hu tribes and refugees who had come last year, and sent a total of 10,000 infantry and cavalry south to support Liu Yao.

Afterwards, he gathered the remaining 5,000 Xiongnu, miscellaneous Hu, and Jin infantry and cavalry and stationed them in Jinyang.

He was smart. He had sent the elderly, the weak, women and children to the west, leaving only a small number of people to herd livestock and serve as logistics for the garrison.

The Huns complained. How long have they been here? Are they leaving now?

Taiyuan had abundant grass and fertile soil, and there was plenty of land, so they were very satisfied. But who would have thought that after just over a year, the war would break out, so they were full of complaints.

But no matter how dissatisfied they were, Liu Yasheng's orders were firm, and the Xiongnu herdsmen and Jin refugees knew how powerful they were. In the end, they dismantled their tents, packed up their belongings, and quietly headed west and then south to Pingyang and Hedong.

On the second day of April, when Liu Yasheng learned that Shi Le was hesitant to advance but was repairing the city fortress, he started cursing.

On the third day of April, in order to buy time for the elderly, the weak, women, children and livestock to retreat westward, Liu Yasheng led 3,000 cavalry eastward to observe the enemy's situation.

He was still a little confused even after the battle.

It was unclear how many Jin troops had arrived, nor where they were, so we could only head east to take a look.

On the fifth day of April, scattered soldiers could be seen everywhere in the wilderness between Yuci and Shouyang.

After finding a few people and interrogating them through torture, Liu Yasheng finally realized the seriousness of the matter when he learned that Jingxing Pass had been lost and the Jin army was pouring in.

That afternoon, the Jin army's infantrymen who were pursuing them appeared in the wilderness.

Liu Yasheng led his troops forward and first defeated a group of hundreds of Jin soldiers who rushed forward the fastest.

The Xiongnu light cavalry surrounded the Jin army from both sides and rained arrows down, slaughtering all the Jin army's infantry with very little casualties.

After this heavy blow, the Qingzhou soldiers who arrived later finally realized: in the vast Taiyuan Basin, the Hun cavalry was no match for them, the infantry.

So they could only set up camp and rely on the three to five days of food and fodder they carried with them to try to hold on - if the food was gone and no reinforcements arrived, they would have no choice but to eat people, even though Lord Liang would not allow it.

On the evening of the fifth day, the sun sets in the west and the sky is filled with red clouds.

Liu Yasheng rode his horse up the high slope and looked into the distance.

The cavalry kept going forward and running back, bringing back all kinds of true and false news.

"Hundreds of bandits have appeared in Upper Aisi."

"There are also bandit cavalrymen appearing to the east of Shangai, no less than 500 of them, and judging by their hair ornaments, they are Xianbei people."

"The enemy army also has a lot of infantry. They have set up camps outside Shangai County. It looks like there are no less than 10,000 of them."

"On the post road from Jingxing Pass to Shangai, there was an endless stream of baggage and vehicles."

"The rebel army is carrying the flags of 'Liu' and 'Li'. They must be Liu Ling and Li Chong without a doubt."

As the news continued to come back, Liu Yasheng became more and more annoyed, and the officers around him also looked solemn.

As the saying goes, a person's reputation is like the shadow of a tree. Li Zhong is quite famous in Bingzhou.

This man has a magical ability to integrate soldiers from different sources and form a force that can go into battle. He may not be able to achieve any brilliant results, but you can't take advantage of him too much.

To be honest, this kind of general is really disgusting. They would rather choose a general who is bold and open than fight an old turtle like Li Chong.

In the past few years, Li Zhong has made steady progress on the battlefield in Hebei and completely eliminated the remaining forces of Shi Le.

When he was guarding Yecheng and Zhaojun, he was able to calmly mobilize troops, repel the troops of Shi Le and Liu Yao who came down the mountain from Jingxing, and also found time to suppress the rebellion. He was able to do it with ease.

Many people in the Pingyang court discussed the name "Li Zhong", saying that he was a famous general. Now they heard that he had entered Bingzhou, and they felt something was wrong. They felt very uneasy - if it were someone else, they might be able to drive him out, but once a man like Li Zhong went up the mountain, he would stay there and it would be difficult to drive him away.

"General." Seeing that Liu Yasheng didn't say anything, the military students became impatient and stepped forward to ask about the next step.

"We should hold out here for as long as we can." Liu Yasheng pointed to the mountains, plains and forests ahead and said, "If the enemy cavalry attacks in large numbers, we will retreat to Jinyang and make plans later."

The Huns are no longer able to gain the upper hand in cavalry combat, let alone infantry combat. This is a big problem.

Originally, they could have relied on the terrain to station troops at the passes and garrison the cities, but since Jingxing Pass had been lost, all this was meaningless.

Bingzhou is surrounded by mountains and rivers, and its defense line is also very long. If one point is breached, the whole line will be shaken.

This was a decisive battle launched by the thief Shao.

A decisive battle is not just a battle of 100,000 men from both sides arrayed in an open field, hacking and killing each other. In fact, the Shao bandits were divided into several routes, with a total of more than 100,000 auxiliary soldiers deployed. This was a standard strategic decisive battle.

There were no strategic locations to defend east of Jinyang, and the defense line had already retreated to Jinyang.

Liu Yasheng actually didn't want to hold on to Jinyang, but he didn't dare to retreat because that would put Liu Yao in trouble.

The people of Jin may not even attack Jinyang by force. Alas, that's difficult.

(End of this chapter)