Chapter 729 Stage 2

Chapter 729 Stage 2

Chapter 729 Second Stage
Another autumn rain falls, and a chill arises.

There is no new grass anymore.

Except for a few varieties that are more cold-resistant, most of the grass has turned yellow.

No growth means no new forage, and the animals can only eat the dry existing grass - which will be eaten up sooner or later.

In the mountains west of Jinyang, livestock would move from one valley to another from time to time, like an army of locusts, in swarms, eating up all the grass and even the leaves of the bushes.

Some livestock had been slaughtered and made into jerky and stored in Jinyang, Yangchangcang and the ancient city of Loufan.

Some were driven forward, carried by auxiliary soldiers, as food and fodder for the army.

Only the strongest were left in Taiyuan, Xinxing, Shangdang and Leping. The government had prepared fodder for them during the winter so that they could reproduce next year.

Over the course of several months, the army stationed in Bingzhou underwent some adjustments.

Most of the young men and hereditary soldiers from various places who went to the first expedition were dismissed. Now they are going to go to the war again, so they have recruited some new soldiers as a rotation.

Shao Xun transferred the troops that had previously attacked Ji County and Henei to Jinyang.

His army originally had tens of thousands of men, and after eliminating the old and weak, there were 20,000 men listed on the military register. This time, more than 16,000 men were recruited.

As a result, the soldiers gathered in Jinyang included the left and right battalions of the Silver Spear, all the Yicong Army, a small number of the expanded Luoyan Army and 2,000 Xianbei cavalry - the rest had received their rewards and returned home.

In addition, He Lun also led 5,000 troops to support, and the four counties of Chen, Liang, Nandun and Xincai recruited 5,000 able-bodied men.

The original number of Yanzhou hereditary soldiers was 20,000. After years of fighting, many were lost, and the current number was 15,000. They were then divided into three battalions, led by Tang Jian, Man Heng, and He Lun.

Liu Qia's health has not been good this year and he is no longer able to engage in high-intensity military command, so he withdrew from the army and returned to his old job as an assistant to the shogunate.

But just yesterday, Shao Xun ordered him to come to Xinxing to serve as the prefect.

As for the prefect of Taiyuan, he was appointed by Shao Guang, the governor of the General's Office - the last King of Taiyuan had passed away and the country was abolished.

On September 15th, Duan Mobo led the Luoyan Army and more than 4,000 Xianbei light cavalry westward to act as the vanguard.

The unit marched very quickly and reached Yangchangcang on the 18th.

On the 24th, we arrived at Loufan Jianmu City.

On the 28th, we set up camp a few miles east of Xiurong City.

On the morning of the 29th, the cavalry of both sides fought on the north bank of the Fen River. After more than ten cavalrymen were killed or wounded on both sides, they withdrew their troops. This was the first confrontation since the second phase of the battle.

On the last day of September, Shao Xun arrived at the east of Xiurong City and set up camp in the mountains.

In the evening, he took his two sons to observe the enemy situation.

They launched an attack on the day they arrived without any pause.

The Silver Spear Left Camp acted as the spearhead and rushed straight to the south bank of the Fen River (actually the Lan River) along the temporary floating bridge.

More than a thousand men armed with spears and large shields, strong bows and crossbows, and used strong horses and strong bridges to attack, directly dispersing the enemy troops who tried to attack them halfway across the river.

The Silver Spear Army that crossed the river did not try to defend the bridgehead first like other troops did, but instead chased the fleeing enemy soldiers and killed them indiscriminately until they reached the foot of Xiurong City before withdrawing.

When more than 500 heads were hung in the woods on the south bank of the Fen River, the enemy troops on the top of Xiurong City were all horrified.

The morale was destroyed in the first battle, what should we do next?
On the first day of October, more than 10,000 people crossed the river, stationed on the east and west sides of Xiurong, and began to build siege equipment.

A large number of soldiers were still stationed on the north bank of the Fen River, and some of them had even begun to prepare their weapons, preparing to go upstream and head straight to the ancient city of Fenyang in the north.

The city was in ruins and the defenders were frightened birds like Liu Yasheng, so it was not difficult to defeat them.

Shao Xun gave this task to Jin Zheng.

Fighting on two fronts is so bold.

******
Hou Feihu has arrived at Chenguan, and will take over the command as the general of the later army.

Thousands of people from the Heilang Left Camp came with him.

The troops in the Chenguan camp also underwent rotation.

The young men who had been conscripted from Taishan and other counties had already returned, and were replaced by 12,000 young men from six counties, namely Yangping, Zhaojun, Guangping, Pingyuan, Qinghe, and Bohai.

The Yang family troops are still there.

Not only did they not leave, they also added 2,000 men. The reason was that after watching the battle, the military supervisor thought that the Yang family's troops were well-equipped, brave and skilled.

The overall martial arts and military strategy level of the Yang family's children are stronger than those of other families, and they do not look like a cultured family.

Therefore, those who are capable should work harder.

Not only did the Yang family army not get a chance to rest, but they also had to continue to send more troops to attack Chenguan.

In addition to these two troops, there were also Liu Quan, the general of Heqing Town, with 5,000 light cavalry, more than 1,700 cavalry for capturing people, and thousands of refugees from Henei and Jijun.

The reason why so many troops are stockpiled on this battlefield is for the convenience of supply.

Now that the autumn rains have continued, the water level of the Qinshui River has not dropped much. As long as the grain ships are not particularly large, they can generally be sailed to the city of Yewang. The transportation cost is very low, so a large army can be stationed there.

But the supplies could only be transported outside the Chen Pass.

Chenguan Pass is one of the eight passes in Taihang Mountains, located in Wangwu Mountain. The story of Yugong moving the mountain happened here. There are three layers of mountains, and the easternmost one is where Chenguan Pass is located.

More than 50 miles west of Chenguan Pass is the second mountain range, called "Qiziling". In the Han Dynasty, Jiguan Pass was built here to replace Chenguan Pass. Historically, this was the national boundary between Northern Qi and Northern Zhou, and at this time it was the county boundary between Hedong and Henei.

Twenty miles west of Qiziling, there is Wangwu City (now in Wangwu Town, located south of Wangwu Mountain). It was built by the Huns some time ago. It is a warehouse city and a military town with 2,000 soldiers stationed there.

Further west is Dongyuan County of Hedong County (now southeast of Yuanqu).

From Dongyuan County to the west is the third mountain range. There is a pass in the mountain called "Hankou". After passing this pass, you will exit Wangwu Mountain and arrive at the flat and fertile upper reaches of the Sushui River. Wenxi County, the old nest of the Hedong Pei family, is nearby.

Lord Liang was wise and brave, and no woman was licked by him for nothing.

Concubine Pei was so licked that she gave birth to three children for him and soon had an unexpected surprise...

As one of Shao Xun's most valued disciples, Hou Feihu knew the inside story, and his battle plan took this into deep consideration.

"Don't attack too hard from the front." After observing the terrain for two days, Hou Feihu called General Yang Quan of Wuya and General Liu Quan of Heqing Town and said, "The defenders are only three to four thousand people. If we attack too hard, Liu Xian might become desperate and report to Pingyang to request reinforcements."

"If we don't attack fiercely, how can we defeat him?" Liu Quan was puzzled.

"General Liu, I heard that you tried to take a detour before, why did you fail?" Hou Feihu looked at Liu Quan and asked.

"Bad luck." Liu Quan sighed, "Forty miles northwest of Heqing, there is a small road that goes straight to Wangwu. But this road is difficult for a single person to walk on. Mules and horses often stumble and fall into the river valley, and vehicles can't pass. The forty-mile mountain road, armor and equipment are incomplete when walking, people are exhausted. At first, there were no thieves, and the boys burned, killed, looted, and even set fires everywhere. However, they couldn't attack head-on, and happened to encounter a group of Xiongnu light cavalry, which was directly defeated. Few people came back. Compared with a few months ago, there is an additional Wangwu City, which is difficult to fight."

Hou Feihu hummed, then asked his personal soldiers to fetch the map and look at it carefully.

After a long while, he looked at Liu Quan and said, "You still have to take a detour, but this time you have to wait for an opportunity."

"What opportunity?" Liu Quan asked subconsciously.

Hou Feihu stared into the distance and did not answer.

******
In the wilderness east of Minchi City, tens of thousands of imperial guards and palace soldiers gathered on the spot.

The imperial army led the attack, with the palace troops providing support, and they had been attacking for more than ten days.

On the high platform, Yang Hui, the supervisor of the Longxiang Shogunate, held the railing and said with a smile: "Lord Liang has countless soldiers and horses, and they are brave and difficult to defeat. But in my opinion, the best at attacking cities is the Luoyang Central Army."

The military supervisor Cheng Xia said with a smile: "After conquering Xin'an, Baichao and Xishi, there were mountains of corpses and seas of blood. It's time to practice it."

"How about Li Chong's attack on the city?" Yang Hui turned his head to look at Cheng Xia and asked.

After the first phase of the battle, Li Chong led 5,000 Liang men to station in Jinyang, and served as the remaining general to take care of all four directions.

Most of the military power had been taken away, so there was naturally no need for an official of Cheng Xia's level to serve as a military supervisor. So he went south to Minchi and served as Pei Kuo's military supervisor - Pei Kuo was the commander-in-chief of this route, and Yang Hui was his deputy.

"Since we have broken through the Jingxing Pass, we are naturally good at attacking cities." Cheng Xia laughed dryly.

Why do these warriors like to compete so much? They want to compete for superiority in everything, and Cheng Xia is helpless.

Upon hearing this, Yang Hui smiled and said no more. He pointed to Minchi County and said, "Minchi was originally in the mountains in the south. The Xiongnu built a city here and established Minchi County. The city was built in a hurry and is not very big. There are at most two to three thousand garrisons inside."

Cheng Xia raised his head and looked forward.

Both the Jin and Han armies had their own Minchi County, which seemed to be a competition between them. However, the Xiongnu Minchi County was not very big, so not many soldiers could be stationed there. After all, they had to store various supplies and food, so it would be good to have more than 2,000 soldiers.

But the number of defenders in Minchi was more than that. In fact, there were 3,000 soldiers outside the city. They had built relatively complete fortifications, forming a support force with the city.

Since the siege, the imperial guards have broken through two camps and killed more than a thousand bandits.

The government soldiers also captured one and killed hundreds of bandits.

Now there is only the last one left, located to the west of the county town, with a thousand soldiers garrisoned there, and they seem ready to run away at any time.

It is said that the offensive and defensive situations between Duke Liang and Liu Cong are different, but is it not the same between the Imperial Guards and Wang Mi?

From passively taking the beating at the beginning, to being defeated in successive battles, to barely holding on and trembling with fear, to counterattacking step by step, the offensive and defensive momentum also changed in the meantime.

To be honest, it’s nothing.

When the imperial guards died, they were replaced by young men from Luoyang. When there were not enough young men, they were replaced by strong refugees. In short, there were constant reinforcements.

The replenishment of equipment and food is also very important, which means that training will not stop and the military heritage can be better passed on.

Therefore, the combat effectiveness of this unit is gradually improving.

As their opponent, Wang Mi did not receive enough reinforcements.

There is no problem for Wang Mi to recruit more soldiers. After all, there are too many refugees, so the size of his army is still not small.

The replenishment of equipment was not sufficient. Especially after the loss of Xin'anye near Baichaowu, the ability to forge weapons was greatly reduced. The Pingyang court sent some weapons every now and then, but it was not enough.

This is actually the difference in national strength, there is nothing we can do about it.

A messenger rode over not far away, pulled the reins in from a distance, jumped off the horse, trotted to the platform, and handed over a military report.

Cheng Xia took it, opened it, and said, "It's done! General Shao, the powerful general, defeated the Mi army, came out of Mount Xiao, and stood between Minchi and Shancheng."

After hearing this, Yang Hui felt happy but also a little sour.

Cheng Xia couldn't stop smiling.

Unexpectedly, among all the troops, they were the first to make progress. As a military supervisor, he could also share the credit, how wonderful!
(End of this chapter)