Chapter 717 A Steady Choice
Chapter 717 A Steady Choice
On the morning of April 11, the Silver Spear Army stationed in Tongjue Garden and the Southwest Military Camp began its action.
The left and right battalions were fully equipped and their morale was high.
Jingxing Pass has been breached and the army has successfully broken into Bingzhou. The war situation has become quite clear.
These 12,000 soldiers were the elite of the elite, and they only fought in field battles, rarely attacking cities. After the front army cleared the way, it was their turn to go out and destroy all enemies they encountered in the field, so that large enemy forces would not dare to appear in front of them. Then the miscellaneous soldiers would take advantage of the situation to capture cities, forts, and passes.
This is what it means to have a job.
Before them, more than 2,000 infantry and cavalry of the Luoyan Army had already set out as the vanguard.
Following them, there was a large number of auxiliary troops (young men from various counties in Henan) who set out a day later.
Except for 5,000 young men who stayed behind in Yecheng, the remaining 35,000 troops were dispatched to Shexian and Hukouguan.
Before leaving, Shao Xun stood on the Bronze Sparrow Tower and looked down at the densely packed crowd on the plain.
In particular, the fleets and convoys transporting grain stretched far to the horizon and operated day and night.
"It's time to go." Shao Xun waved his hand and embraced Liu Xiaohe, Liu Yena, Yang Xianrong and Cui who came to see him off.
Liu Xiaohe straightened his robe and said softly, "I'll be back in May."
She was going to stay at Pingyuan Liu's for a few days and visit her hometown.
Shao Xun didn't agree at first, because Xiao He was too moist and too full, and she was pregnant again. But she had been away from home for 20 years, and if she didn't go home to see her family, she would never see them again, so he agreed and sent 200 soldiers to escort her back to Pingyuan.
Liu Ye took the bow and inserted it into Shao Xun's waist.
Shao Xun pinched her face and whispered in her ear: "Liu Cong already has twenty sons, I can't be worse than him, come back and give birth to me."
Liu Ye chuckled, without any shyness at all, and just nodded.
Shao Xun was very satisfied. "Okay, okay, okay! If you don't give birth to Shi Le, give birth to me. That's it."
Yang Xianrong was standing a little far away. She clearly wanted to come over, but she couldn't save her face and so stood there reservedly.
Shao Xun simply hugged her.
Yang Xianrong was a little angry at first, and then felt happy.
Shao Xun said: "Once I capture Pingyang, no one will dare to gossip about me."
There were maids and personal soldiers around, Yang Xianrong felt a little embarrassed, and just said, "Then hurry up."
Shao Xun let her go and walked up to Cui again.
Cui was like a bullied young wife, no longer noble, elegant and proud as before. When she saw Shao Xun coming, she immediately lowered her head with a pitiful look.
Shao Xun patted her round buttocks and said, "After this battle, you can come to my house and be my wife."
Cui looked up in surprise.
"I have assigned 200 people to escort you back to Qinghe. Do you know what to do?" Shao Xun asked.
"I know." Cui nodded repeatedly.
She fears most that she is worthless.
As long as there is value, there is still a chance.
She was quite confident in her appearance, knowledge and ability to serve men, but she regretted that she had no chance.
I will definitely kill that Hu woman who raises eagles in the future!
After saying goodbye to the four women, Shao Xun walked down the mountain, holding his two sons, one in each hand.
The carriage was ready, and Jin Dao and Hu Lang got on it.
Shao Xun rode on his war horse and slowly left the city under the protection of thousands of personal soldiers.
Wherever he passed, the marching soldiers shouted.
Shao Xun was delighted.
This is his army, no one can take it away.
He is about to conquer the land that belongs to him, and no one can stop him.
Destroy the Huns' army and make them dare not resist.
Seize the land of the Huns and place it in China.
He took in Liu Cong's wife and daughter and enjoyed them at will.
Life ends here.
******
In the hilly wilderness west of Shouyang, teams of light cavalry emerged from the mountains and marched westward in formation.
They were divided into groups of several hundred people, with archery as the main means and charging as the supplement. They played hide-and-seek with the Hun cavalry for several days and finally drove them out completely.
As the sun set, Li Chong arrived in Yuci County.
The Xiongnu cavalry used this as their forward base to repeatedly harass and delay the royal army.
Now the Huns have fled.
Having suffered hundreds of casualties, they dared not fight again and abandoned Yuci County.
The local tyrants in the countryside claimed that they were following the orders of "Wen Jijiu" and organized two thousand strong men to occupy the county town.
The county magistrate was originally ready to be promoted to the rank of governor, but this group of powerful families were so cruel that they would not listen to the county magistrate's explanations at all and cut off his head, thinking it was an honor.
Officials below the county magistrate level basically had no chance to escape unless they had strong connections, and it would be too late for them to surrender - or perhaps others would not give them the chance.
Your head is a credit!
Your wealth is the spoils of war!
Your wife and daughter will be our bed toys!
Why give you the chance to surrender?
Li Chong did not enter the city at all. He just stood on the hillside and observed the terrain.
When we get to this area, we are basically out of the mountains. The terrain is relatively flat and is a typical mountain basin (Taiyuan Basin). But this basin is large enough to support hundreds of thousands of people in theory, which is different.
"Commander-in-chief." A clerk climbed up with a grunt and said, "Liu Ling and Chen Wu have arrived at the foot of Jinyang City and fought a fierce battle with the Xiongnu. Uh, there is no clear winner -"
"A win or a loss?" Li Chong stared at the clerk and asked.
"It was a small defeat, with more than a thousand casualties," the clerk answered honestly. Only then did Li Zhong let him go.
The clerk continued, "General Liu asked when the army would march west to besiege Jinyang?"
Yuci is located in the southeast of Jinyang. Theoretically, Li Chong could completely ignore Jinyang and turn south to attack Shangdang directly.
Of course, we can also surround Jinyang.
Liu Yasheng sent 10,000 infantry and cavalry southward, and he had at most 3,000 cavalry on hand, and the number of infantry was estimated to be about the same. He might also recruit some rural farmers to serve as infantry, but it was hard to say whether the scholars and powerful people would listen to him.
Yangqu and Shangai rebelled and surrendered, Yuci and Shouyang were surrendered by the nobles, and Leping and other counties also sent representatives.
I heard that Wen Qiao went to Qi County and persuaded the Wen clan members to rise up and rebel. He has achieved some results, but he failed to capture the city because he was defeated by the Wang clan of Taiyuan.
Qi County was not completed, but the Wen clan in Jiexiu joined forces with powerful local tyrants to rise up in rebellion, successfully killed the Xiongnu county magistrate and captured the city.
There is a road going directly south from Jiexiu to Pingyang.
There are currently three choices before Li Zhong.
One was the siege of Jinyang;
The second was to go south to Shangdang and pat Liu Yao's back;
The third is to go straight to Jiexiu and advance towards Pingyang.
As for bypassing Jinyang and heading north to attack Shi Le, or clearing the mountainous areas in the west, they are not of much value at the moment and are not as good as the previous three options.
"Go south to Shangdang." Li Zhong made his choice after only a slight hesitation.
Military Supervisor Cheng Xia's eyes flashed, but he said nothing.
This decision is consistent with Li Zhong's usual style.
He doesn't like taking risks and doesn't intend to take them.
In his opinion, he only had 20,000 soldiers and horses, and their fighting power was average. If they were defeated or even annihilated by the Huns, the situation would change. Now he should focus on maintaining his existence and keep the Huns on edge. He didn't know what to do.
Therefore, going south to Shangdang is the best choice.
"Send a message to Liu Ling, I will allocate another 2,000 infantry and cavalry to him, keep a close eye on Liu Yasheng and don't let him out." Li Chong added.
The Art of War states that if you encounter a big city on the road, you must either conquer it or prepare for it.
With Liu Ling's army of seven or eight thousand, he certainly could not "defeat" the enemy and could only "prepare".
"Being prepared" is of course very dangerous, so if Li Zhong goes south, he has to deploy cavalry in Yuci and Jinyang. In the end, he can only lead five or six thousand infantry and cavalry to Shangdang.
But enough is enough, the most important thing is existence.
It was enough to make the Huns believe that a large army was coming from behind to kill them. After all, they did not know the strength of the army heading south.
******
At the foot of Danzhu Mountain, the drums beat vigorously.
Hou Feihu, who is usually extremely calm, could no longer sit still.
He pushed the drummer away, took the drumstick and hit the drum hard, turning his head to look while hitting.
On the mountainside, several small camps were built far apart from each other. At the call of drums, the soldiers filed out of the camp one after another, looking extremely brave.
After fighting for more than half a month, both sides had lost thousands of lives in Danzhuling, and the battle line slowly extended from the foot of the mountain to the top.
It wasn't that the enemy didn't fight hard enough. In fact, Liu Yao was in charge, personally supervising the battle, and personally killed more than a dozen military academies who retreated without permission. The soldiers were quite hard-working. They were pushed up the mountain simply because they couldn't win.
When the news that Jingxing Pass was breached and the Jin army was advancing straight into the city spread, even though it was concealed at all costs, it eventually got out.
Once this happened, it was all over! Morale dropped at a visible rate.
The soldiers who were still able to fight hard yesterday, only put up a brief resistance and then retreated today. It seemed that the fight was thrilling on the surface, but in reality it was just like that, and even experienced warriors could see it.
For example, when two sides are fighting for a certain commanding height, sometimes they just need to take a breath to hold on. It is not impossible for them to persevere by gritting their teeth, but now they are unwilling to do so.
Or, the enemy has just occupied a certain camp and has not yet gained a firm foothold. At this time, if someone raises his arms and leads a strong force to charge, it may be possible to recapture it, but now this person is no longer there.
This is the difference.
It seems that there is a deafening sound of killing and it is extremely lively, but in fact it is done for the superiors to see. Once the battle situation is unfavorable, they will retreat immediately without the belief of insisting on waiting for reinforcements.
Of course Hou Feihu also noticed it.
So he decisively deployed the best and strongest men selected from the Shangdang miscellaneous Hu people, Xuchang, and Yanzhou hereditary soldiers, and used them as the vanguard to take the lead in the conflict.
The elite Heilongjiang Left Camp (formerly the Heilongjiang Army) of 1,800 people followed closely and launched a fierce attack on Danzhuling.
The drumbeats became more and more intense, and the two sides had already started a fierce battle on Danzhu Ridge.
The first group of more than a hundred people were repelled, and the second group came up. After being repelled, the third group followed.
The corpses of both sides were piled up layer by layer, almost covering the entire mountain road.
The first ones fell, and the ones behind them continued to charge on top of their bodies, breaking through the barricades, crossing the trenches, and killing their way through the earth walls...
A group of cavalry rushed out of the Hun camp and launched a charge using a rare piece of flat ground.
This tactic had been very useful before and had saved the situation several times. But this time, the infantry on our side retreated too quickly and did not leave them enough space. When the horses' speed was increased to half, they collided head-on with the Jin army's infantry climbing up the mountain.
For a moment, people shouted and horses neighed.
The front row of the Jin army faced the charging enemy and suffered heavy casualties. The remaining troops calmed down and dispersed to both sides.
In the past, this tactic would have worked, but today there were too many Jin troops and the cavalry could not increase their speed, so both sides were deadlocked for a moment.
Stalemate, very unfriendly to cavalry.
They couldn't move forward on horseback, as there were huge gaps on both sides. They couldn't swing weapons as quickly and powerfully as people on the ground. In a one-on-one situation, they would be killed by infantry with a high probability, not to mention that they were far from one-on-one...
The Black Shadow Army also came up, and when Yao Ri's armor appeared on the battlefield, there was almost no suspense in this battle.
The remaining enemy cavalry fled in haste, and the enemy infantry also slipped away quickly, fleeing towards the camp.
More Jin troops surged up the mountaintops and plains, chasing the defeated soldiers and heading towards Liu Yao's camp.
There was chaos in the camp, and the big flag with the word "Liu" was flying backwards, as if foreshadowing the change of hands of Danzhuling.
(End of this chapter)