Chapter 763: Surprise Attack
Chapter 763: Surprise Attack
The next morning, Su Dingfang accompanied Li Jing and spent a day inspecting the terrain around the salt lake.
Li Jing sighed and said to Su Dingfang, "It's too difficult to get supplies here, and we can't cultivate land. If we station tens of thousands of troops here, the supply alone will drag down the entire Guannei and Guanzhong. If we station too few troops, it will be meaningless, and the nomadic cavalry will sweep them away in a short time. More importantly, what use will the nomadic cavalry have to this salt lake? Who will cook the salt, and where will they find the fuel? So the key is Lingwu County. If we take Lingwu County, we can send salt workers here regularly to cook salt."
Su Dingfang was puzzled and asked, "Marshal, do you mean that the Turkic army and Liang Shidu's army will not come to compete with us for Yanchuan County?"
Li Jing smiled slightly and said, "You didn't understand what I meant. Yanchuan County must be fought for, but the battlefield may not be here. First of all, the enemy's supply will be a problem. It's more than 200 miles from Lingzhou City. How can the army be supplied?"
Su Dingfang sighed, "Supply is indeed a big problem!"
Li Jing nodded. "The key is supply. If we can think of it, can't the other side think of it? The other side will definitely use supply tactics to wear us down. So we can't defend the Salt Lake in this battle. If we defend the Salt Lake, we will lose. We must take Feng'an County or Mingsha County by the Yellow River and use it as a foothold to attack Liang Shidu."
Su Dingfang pondered for a moment and said, "We need enough camels to transport the food and supplies across this section of the Gobi Desert. It's almost three hundred miles long and there's no water along the way. It's very difficult!"
“Ask a local guide!”
Li Jing called a guide, who was a Han Chinese businessman from Wuyuan County named Wang Xingsheng, who was very familiar with the terrain in this area.
Wang Xingsheng pointed to the west in the distance and said, "The Turks and Liang Shidu's armies are coming from the north. The north is the riverside grassland. Although the south is the Gobi Desert, it has the advantage of not being discovered. Go west from here, and 300 miles ahead is Daluo Mountain. Then go around Daluo Mountain and you will reach Feng'an County."
Li Jing asked again: "How many days does it take to get to Daluo Mountain from here?"
"It takes about three to four days to carry the camels, and one day to go around Mount Daluo. In fact, it takes five days. If we have enough food and water, we can go."
Su Dingfang suddenly asked, "Could it be possible that when we are heading south, the enemy will also be heading north from the riverside grassland?"
Wang Xingsheng laughed, "If that's the case, you can just attack Lingzhou City directly. Lingwu County doesn't have a large population, Liang Shidu doesn't have many troops, and the Turkic army doesn't have many either. I'm just making a suggestion, General Su and Marshal Li can decide for themselves!"
Although Wang Xingsheng is a businessman, he is also quite insightful. Based on his familiarity with the terrain here, he put forward a good suggestion.
Li Jing stroked his beard and nodded secretly. This Wang Xingsheng could be his advisor.
Li Jing and Su Dingfang both agreed to adopt Wang Xingsheng's plan. They had 30,000 dan of grain, 100,000 dan of fodder, and various other supplies, such as weapons, firearms, bacon, honeycomb coal, tents, etc., and tens of thousands of fat sheep.
The 50,000 Sui troops brought enough water and began a four-day march across the Gobi Desert. 50,000 cavalrymen and 50,000 camels loaded with supplies drove their flocks of sheep westward.
Although the Sui army had only 20,000 cavalry, the infantry all had horses for transportation, but they could only be considered military horses, not high-quality war horses.
The army camped at night and traveled during the day, and four days later, they arrived at Daluo Mountain.
The overall color of Daluo Mountain is brown-red, and it is obviously an iron-containing mountain. The mountain is full of rocky cliffs and there are almost no trees. He didn't see any trees or grass along the way, only shrubs unique to the Gobi Desert, such as sea buckthorn and wolfberry.
Daluo Mountain is hundreds of miles long from north to south. They arrived at the northern section, which was only fifty or sixty miles away from Daluo Mountain. After bypassing Daluo Mountain, they saw an oasis. This is an oasis on both sides of the Yellow River, the western one of the three sets of the Yellow River.
At night, the team did not rest and passed through a thirty-mile oasis. When it was almost dawn, the Yellow River could be seen in front of them, and a county town also appeared at the same time. They had arrived at Feng'an County.
Feng'an County is located on the east bank of the Yellow River, about 40 miles away from Lingzhou City. The county town is large in scale, but the population is small, with only two to three thousand households and a garrison of one thousand troops.
This is also a characteristic of frontier county towns: large area and small population.
At this time, the Feng'an County army had no idea that tens of thousands of Sui troops had appeared before them. As usual, the drums on the top of the city walls sounded, "Dong! Dong! Dong!" The city gates opened, and the farmers waiting outside the city came to sell vegetables, and the merchants in the city also led camels loaded with goods out of the city. At this time, a caravan came from a distance. Forty or fifty merchants came with hundreds of camels, and each camel carried two large baskets on its back. When the caravan arrived in front of the city gate, a lieutenant came up and shouted, "Weapons are not allowed to be brought into the city!"
The leader of the caravan drew his knife and shouted, "Go!"
Sui soldiers jumped out of the baskets. Dozens of merchants suddenly turned into thousands of soldiers. They rushed into the city with swords and occupied the city gates. Thousands of cavalrymen rushed over in the distance.
Feng'an had too few troops and was almost ready to surrender without the need for cavalry. Three thousand cavalrymen instantly rushed into the county town.
Soon, tens of thousands of troops came and entered the county town.
It was already May at this time, just before the wheat matured. The Sui army chose this time to attack the Shuofang Xitao Plain, which undoubtedly solved the subsequent food problem.
The Xitao Plain has always been the main wheat producing area. Although it is in the north, it has sufficient sunlight and water resources and a warm climate. Wheat can be harvested in June and then a crop of beans can be planted, which will mature just before the frost. Therefore, this place is also called Jiangnan on the Saishang, which means that the agricultural conditions are very good.
Further north in the Hetao Zhongtao area, only spring wheat can be grown, which means it can only be harvested once a year.
The Sui army occupied Feng'an County, and Li Jing immediately interrogated the captured garrison commander.
The defending general is called Sang Nian, who was originally a Langjun of the Sui army. When the Turks attacked, they were captured and surrendered. Later, they were incorporated into Liang Shidu's army and are now the General of the Central Army.
Sang Nian was really ashamed. He sighed and said, "I am from Longxi County. My wife, children and father are still in my hometown. I have both old and young people at home, so I have no choice but to surrender!"
Li Jing said coldly: "Family is not a reason to surrender. I can spare your life, but you must atone for your choice!"
"I will definitely make merit to atone for my sins!"
Li Jing nodded and asked again: "I want to know the situation of the main force of the enemy in Lingzhou City. How much do you know?"
Sang Nian said quickly, "Liang Shidu has 35,000 soldiers, 5,000 of whom are distributed in various counties. He has 30,000 troops under his direct command. Previously, he led 30,000 troops south to attack Xiaoguan, but the army just withdrew to Lingwu County not long ago. In addition, there are 5,000 Turkic cavalry. However, a few days ago, 5,000 Turkic cavalry from Hexi also arrived."
"The Turkic cavalry should number 8,500 now!"
"Yes, I heard that the Turkic cavalry suffered heavy losses in Yanchuan County, with more than a thousand killed. There should be more than 8,000 cavalry now."
"Didn't their main force go to Yanchuan County these days?"
Sang Nian shook his head and said, "I don't know that Liang Shidu never tells us, the local troops, about the deployment of the army."
"You didn't get any news from Lingzhou City? For example, what news did the merchant bring to you?"
"I don't care about this matter. You can ask the merchant immediately."
Li Jing nodded and immediately sent someone to ask the merchant, and at the same time sent a scout to Lingzhou City to gather information.
(End of this chapter)