Chapter 726: Sending Troops to Hedong
Chapter 726: Sending Troops to Hedong
Dou Jiande had beautiful ideas and pretended to support Hao Xiaode to stay in Wei and Ji counties. After Li Mi led his troops into Hedong, Dou Jiande suddenly turned against him and sent out an army of 100,000 to swallow up Hao Xiaode in one gulp. He not only took back Wei and Ji counties, but also gained 30,000 troops.
Many times the plans are well made, but reality can backfire. Hao Xiaode actually won two battles in Cheng'an County, Weijun, defeated Dou Jiande's 50,000-strong army, captured nearly 30,000 people, and made Dou Jiande lose more than he gained.
At noon, Hao Xiaode's eldest son Hao Guisi was waiting by the Yongji Canal in Liyang County. At this time, a fleet consisting of hundreds of cargo ships slowly came and anchored at the dock.
Hao Guisi hurried forward and clasped his fists, saying, "Is it the grain fleet sent by His Royal Highness Prince Jin?"
A steward came down from the boat and saluted with a smile, saying, "That's right, His Royal Highness the Prince of Jin has sent 50,000 shi of grain to General Hao!"
Hao Xiaode had been worried about food shortages recently, and just at this time, the King of Jin suddenly sent an envoy, offering to support him with 50,000 shi of grain.
Although Hao Xiaode knew that the purpose of the King of Jin was to consume Dou Jiande, he was fighting with Dou Jiande, and consuming Dou Jiande for the King of Jin was also fighting for his own survival, so why not? Therefore, Hao Xiaode was very grateful to the King of Jin for his timely help.
Hao Guisi hurriedly ordered the army to unload the grain. Fifty thousand shi of grain piled up into more than a dozen small hills. Hao Guisi was so happy that he couldn't stop smiling. He thanked the grain-delivering fleet repeatedly, and the fleet turned around and returned to Luoyang.
The chess game in the world is not only about the layout, but also about the wise use of chess pieces. Hao Xiaode is undoubtedly a very timely chess piece. He is used to contain Dou Jiande so that Xiao Xia can attack Hedong calmly. Otherwise, Dou Jiande will most likely rush into Hedong to share a piece of the pie.
Li Mi was also a chess piece for Xiao Xia. Xiao Xia let Li Mi enter Hedong not to let Li Mi grow and become a local lord, but to use the Wagang Army to eliminate Li Yuan's reputation in Hedong.
Li Yuan had been operating in Hedong for many years and was quite popular among the people. If Xiao Xia went to rob it directly, he would inevitably be resisted by the Hedong gentry and the people. But if he let the Wagang Army occupy it first, and then he would take Hedong back from the Wagang Army, the Hedong gentry and the people would be grateful to Xiao Xia.
Dozens of famous generals gathered in the military tent, and Xiao Xia was assigning tasks to them.
Xiao Xia pointed at the sand table with a wooden pole and said, "At present, the two families have 200,000 troops concentrated near Hedong City and are engaged in repeated tug-of-war. Li Mi has also deployed 30,000 troops to defend against Liu Wuzhou in the north, and stationed troops in Jingxing and Fuyangxing to prevent Dou Jiande from entering Hedong. The last 50,000 troops are stationed in Taiyuan. This has resulted in the southeastern Shangdang County and Changping County being empty of troops, with only a few thousand local troops to maintain law and order."
Everyone understood what King Jin meant, and they were all eager to take on the mission.
Xiao Xia smiled and said, "In fact, Jiang County, Linfen County and Xihe County have very few troops. Li Mi's 30,000 reinforcements are mainly concentrated in Anyi County, Hedong County, and the logistics and food are also in Anyi County.
It can be said that Anyi County is the key to the entire battle situation. Anyi County is about a hundred miles away from Hedong City. If Anyi County is attacked and its food and grass are destroyed, the Wagang Army of Hedong County will inevitably abandon Hedong County and retreat to Taiyuan.
This is the concrete manifestation of the fact that the Wagang Army did not receive the support of the Hedong gentry. They could not get local supplies and could only rely on one grain storage point after another. Once these grain storage points were removed, the Wagang Army would be defeated.
We can set up a net in Queshu Valley, just like Yang Liang did to Yang Jun's army, and we must capture the defeated Wagang army in one fell swoop. Also, once the Wagang army retreats, the Tang Wang army will definitely chase them from behind. General Xue and General Su, the ambush mission is left to your 30,000 cavalry."
"Your Highness, please give the order!" Everyone was impatient.
Xiao Xia immediately divided his troops into five groups. He ordered Li Jing to lead 10,000 special forces to Hedong County to attack Anyi County. He also ordered Luo Shixin to lead 30,000 troops and Pei Xingyan to also lead 30,000 troops. The 60,000 troops were deployed in Queshu Valley, and they must wipe out the 100,000 Wagang troops who retreated back to Taiyuan.
But these 60,000 troops also needed food supplies. According to the information Xiao Xia had, Li Mi had stationed 5,000 troops in Linfen County and stored nearly 100,000 shi of grain. Luo Shixin and Pei Xingyan's 60,000 troops needed to capture Linfen County first to get sufficient food supplies.
The fourth army was the 30,000 cavalrymen of the Xue brothers and Su Dingfang. They were responsible for intercepting the Tang army heading north, and their logistics were supplied by the Xiao Xia main force.
Xiao Xia personally led an army of 50,000 and 100,000 camels loaded with food and fodder through the Chenguan Pass and headed to Jiang County in Jiang County to establish a logistics supply point. He was also responsible for eliminating the supply points of the Wagang Army along the way.
Finally, Xiao Xia ordered Qin Qiong and Jia Wuben to lead 10,000 troops each to occupy Changping County and Shangdang County. A total of 170,000 troops were mobilized to launch a surprise attack on Hedong for three months.
The most important task here was Li Jing's surprise attack on Anyi County. He led 10,000 elite troops all the way west to Shan County.
At present, the Tang army has completely retreated into Guanzhong, and the area east of Tongguan, including Hongnong County and the ancient road of Xiaohan, has been occupied by Zhang Xutuo's army.
After marching for several days, they arrived at Shan County and replenished their supplies there. Nearly a hundred thousand-stone warships had arrived at the Shan County wharf in advance, and it took them one day to transport Li Jing's 10,000 troops across the Yellow River.
On the north bank of the Yellow River are Rui County and Hebei County. Although these two counties are within the territory of Hedong County, they are actually integrated with the south bank of the Yellow River. Geographically, they are separated from Hedong by the Zhongtiao Mountains in the north and do not belong to Hedong geographically. Therefore, the Tang Dynasty later designated them as Shanzhou together with Shan County and Taolin County on the south bank of the Yellow River.
There were no troops stationed in Rui County, so Li Jing established a supply point here. Once the operation failed and King Jin implemented the second plan, Li Jing would withdraw along the original route and wait for new orders in Rui County.
The army marched lightly northward from Rui County, and took five days to cross the Hengling Ridge of Zhongtiao Mountain along the Yu-Rui Ancient Road.
After crossing Zhongtiao Mountain, the army arrived at Yanchi, a large brine lake. It is the source of salt for the entire Central Plains, Hedong and Guanzhong. It was once the largest salt producing area in the world. There are also famous silver mines and copper mines here.
There were many reasons why the Tang army fought to the death to retake Hedong Road. One of the most important reasons was to retake the salt lake. Although Yan'an County also produced salt, the output was not large and was far from meeting the needs of the army and the people in Guanzhong.
If the salt pond could not be taken back, Li Yuan would have to buy salt from Xiao Xia and bear a salt tax of one hundred coins per catty. Not only would he lose money, but more importantly, he would be strangled by Xiao Xia.
The army was stationed in the southern part of the Salt Lake, and Anyi County was located in the northwest of the Salt Lake. Li Jing sent scouts to the nearby Yuxiang Town to look for intelligence points.
At about two o'clock in the morning, the scouts came back with two intelligence spies. The spies of the Jin King's army arrived in Hedong County two months ago. Their intelligence was extremely important to the success of Li Jing's military operations.
"General Li, Anyi County originally had few people and a small city. Now with the 20,000 troops stationed here, there are basically no people left. Especially since this is an important logistics and food base for the Wagang Army, ordinary people are not allowed to enter or leave to leak information. Anyi County has completely become a military city."
Li Jing thought for a moment and asked, "Is the warehouse inside a temporary building?"
The scout nodded and said, "They are all temporary camps located in the north city. The south city is civilian housing, which is now the station for soldiers. The north city is full of large warehouses, which are said to be spectacular. There are soldiers patrolling the city walls closely, and the defense is very tight."
Li Jing asked again: "How many city gates are there?"
"Two city gates, one south gate and one north gate!"
"Didn't they say there were 30,000 troops stationed there?"
"Reporting to the general, there were originally 30,000 troops stationed there, but a few days ago another 10,000 troops were transferred to support Hedong City. Now there are only 20,000 troops stationed there."
Li Jing nodded slowly. The surprise attack plan they had previously formulated could be fully implemented.
(End of this chapter)