Five Dynasties River Mountains Fengyue

Chapter 233 The Battle of Three Levels ([-])

In Waqiao Pass, two consecutive defeats had a great impact on Zhou Jun's morale. Panic spread in the army, and many people talked about it.

At this time, Shi Congyun's role came into play. Apart from thinking about things, he had to wear fine armor every day, and took a sword that hadn't seen blood for a long time, and went around the camps, joking with the soldiers and calming everyone's emotions.

The Crane Control Army followed him all the way and had never suffered a defeat since the conquest of Shu. Everyone felt at ease when they saw him. In the next two days, the morale of the army gradually improved.

Murong Yanzhao's routed soldiers also ran to the vicinity of Waqiao Pass one after another, gathering some more people.

There are small roads from Zhuozhou to Waqiaoguan, and there are large forests to the south. It is difficult for the army to move, and the Liao army did not dare to pursue them. Many people fled into the forest to save their lives, and some became rations for wild animals in the mountains.

Shi Congyun paid close attention to the movements of Yijin Pass and Yukou Pass, while thinking about the rearward matters.

At the beginning of June, there was another heavy rain. In the evening, Shi Congyun ate some grain cakes and boiled dried vegetables and dried meat. People from the north came one after another. connection.

"Commander, the Liao army has arrived in Zhuozhou and Gu'an, but they are not in a hurry to go south for the time being, but to gather heavy troops here." Guo Ting said that he marked the approximate location of the Liao army on the map of the tent. He and Pan Mei sorted it out.

"Whether they will go west or east is not yet known." Guo Tingwei shook his head.

Shi Congyun looked at the map and thought carefully, "Damn it, I wish I could invite an old man to do a fortune telling."

The crowd laughed.

He laughed and said: "I most want them to go to Yijin Pass in the west, but Yukou Pass in the east may also be the case. The Liao Kingdom likes to divide its troops when fighting."

Everyone nodded, "The Liao Kingdom likes to send hundreds of cavalry to run around." Fu Zhaoyuan said very unhappy.

"In the worst case, we will guard the three barriers." Shi Congyun said: "No matter what, we will not lose."

He said so, but in fact he was anxious and anxious, waiting for news from the north all day.

In the afternoon, the sun slanted to the west, and the shadow of the flag outside the big tent swayed, and there was a strong stench of animal fat and metal in the wind. It was the unique smell of armor and weapons, and it was everywhere in the camp of tens of thousands of troops. the taste of.

The wind in the sky was howling fiercely, and the wind in June was a perfect match for the scorching sun, which made the already noisy mind even more chaotic.

Fortunately, in the afternoon, Shi Congyun got good news. The scouts found that the former army of the Liao Kingdom had reached more than ten miles north of Yijin Pass, and the follow-up troops were following up.

"Who is leading the army?" Shi Congyun asked.

"Reporting to Commander, it is said that there are two Liao armies in the vanguard. They are Yelu Talie, the king of the Southern Court of Liao Kingdom, and Xiao Siwen, who is staying behind in Nanjing." Shi Congyun nodded and laughed, "I am not familiar with these two."

He had never heard of Yelv Talie, but Xiao Siwen knew before that Xiao Siwen, who stayed behind in Nanjing, was the person who dealt with Zhou Guo the most.

When they fought in the Southern Tang Dynasty, it was Xiao Siwen who took the opportunity to lead people to occupy the border cities of Zhou State. Later, it was Xiao Siwen who repeatedly provoked them to go south. It was he who occupied the border county this year.

"This Xiao Siwen always feels a little familiar," Shi Congyun murmured to himself.

"He is staying behind in Nanjing. He has provoked many conflicts with us over the years. He is a complete villain. If he is caught, he will be torn to pieces!" Fu Zhaoyuan gritted his teeth.

Pan Mei calmed down a lot, "Although Xiao Siwen is annoying, it is a good thing for us. He is a timid person. He often dare not go too far south, and let go to compete with us. We will fight Huainan At that time, the army was all in the south. If he had the courage and courage, we would suffer.

It was Yelu Talie, the great king of the Southern Academy who was in charge of Youzhou before, who was the troublemaker. Does the commander remember the battle of Jinyang back then. "

How could Shi Congyun not remember that the Battle of Taiyuan followed the Battle of Gaoping, which was the battle of his fortune.

"The one who led the army from Daizhou and Xinkou to force our army back was Yelu Talie, the great king of the Southern Academy." Pan Mei said unhappily, and now Shi Congyun frowned.

"If it weren't for his reinforcements, we would have had 10,000+ troops hoarding troops under the city, Jinyang would have been breached, and Hedong would have been taken back."

Hearing what Pan Mei said, Shi Congyun also felt that this Yelu Talie had a great enmity with them. If there were no reinforcements from him at that time, the Zhou army had already taken back Shanxi, and the current battle would not have been so hard.

At the beginning, he fought against the Liao army in Xinkou, but he didn't know that the commander of the Liao army was Yelu Talie, the king of the Southern Academy. After all, he was just a low-level officer in the army at that time.

"Next, all the troops must be ready to dispatch at all times. I also want the Liao Kingdom to come as I want, but unfortunately they don't listen to me." Shi Congyun helplessly spread his hands: "So we have to be prepared with both hands, whether they go Yijin Pass or Yukou Pass must be able to respond quickly.

Especially if their army goes to Yukou Pass, we must be ready to support Luo Yanhuan in time. "

"The commander-in-chief has always considered things so thoughtfully." Pan Mei laughed.

"That's natural, otherwise how can we win every battle!" Fu Zhaoyuan said proudly, holding the handle of the knife, as if he was honored, after all, Shi Congyun is his brother-in-law.

To the north of Yijin Pass, Yelv Talie was carting hundreds of Southern Army heads he had captured to Emperor Yelujing as a gift. Yelvjing was overjoyed and sent him more troops on the spot.

At the same time, he was quite dissatisfied with Xiao Siwen: "I heard that you brought 1 people, but you didn't dare to cross the river when you arrived in the south of Zhuozhou?"

"Your Majesty, the southern army has blocked the ferry and the bridge. Our soldiers don't know how to swim. If I want to cross the river rashly, I might be blocked by them." Xiao Siwen carefully defended himself.

Yelujing's dissatisfied hand: "Hmph, if you give you 1 people, you won't be able to bring back a hundred heads from the Southern Army!

What else can I quibble, I remember all your credit, you used to be cautious when facing Zhou people, but now that my army has gone south, you don't have to be as timid as a grassland mouse anymore.

Next, we will continue to go south, and there are still many battles to be fought. I don't want this kind of thing to happen again. "

"Yes, Your Majesty." Xiao Siwen didn't dare to quibble anymore, and even said.

Yelu Talie came over on horseback, "Your Majesty, there are two roads to go south, one is the main road, take Yijin Pass to the south, and the other is to take Yukou Pass to the east, do you want to divide your troops?"

"Yijin Pass was built by the Tang Dynasty. It was originally designed to defend against the north. It cannot play the greatest role in our hands, but it has a greater role in the hands of the Zhou people. It may be more difficult to fight.

But Yijin Pass is the widest road, and going east to Yukou Pass is not so easy. "

Yelujing frowned: "Can you go around?"

Yelu Talie said: "Yes, if there are few people in Yijinguan Zhou, we can find a way to go around, but if there are too many people, our retreat may be cut off."

"Then let's talk about it later," Yelujing said, "The whole army will go south to Yijin Pass, and send a team to Yukou Pass to see the situation."

Someone shouted from the rear, separated the cavalry team into a group, waved the flag and diverted from the brigade, and headed towards the fork in the east.

In the afternoon of that day, Yelujing rode a white horse, surrounded by many imperial tent guards, and led the Chinese army through a forest, crossed a small river, and finally arrived at the city of Yijin Pass.

Yijin Pass is less than one mile away from the river, and the towering city wall is more than four feet away, standing majestically at the end of the road. The city wall stretches for several miles, looking up, it looks like a majestic mountain in the wilderness.

The former army has already settled down in the city, a large number of tents are densely packed, and the outer fence has been built, like a long thorn dragon surrounding the entire camp.

Yelujing and the accompanying generals looked up and saw that there were many flags on the top of the city, and the southern army was everywhere on the several-kilometer-long city wall, and the armor radiated sunlight.

After a while, someone came over from the former military camp, dismounted and knelt down in the grass by the roadside to worship.

"How many soldiers are there in Nanren City?" Yelujing asked directly.

The Khitan vanguard general said cautiously: "Return to Your Majesty, we don't know, there are at least five thousand people at the top of the city alone, and their people are all over the top of the city. The sound of the army training in the morning can be clearly heard outside the city. There are quite a few."

Yelujing's face darkened, and he looked at Yijin Pass in the distance: "It seems that the Southern Army has a lot of troops here, can we go around?"

Yelu Talie's face was also not good-looking, "Your Majesty, if they are few, we will send some troops to guard them and prevent them from leaving the city, and the army will detour south.

But now the southern army is in danger if there are too many people in this city. There are dangerous places like Waqiao Pass and Daqing River to the south. Flank.

Even if there are not many Confederate troops in the south, they may cut off the retreat. "

Yelujing was in a dilemma. The Liao army was not incapable of attacking the city. Among their [-] elite troops, [-] belonged to the Han Shan army, and there were many craftsmen among them.

Moreover, when fighting in Liaodong and other places, the Liao army also fought a lot of siege battles, and it was no longer the original pure nomadic tribal soldiers.

In other words, the Liao Kingdom was not a purely nomadic country from the very beginning. When Liao Taizu and his queen established the Khitan Kingdom, they relied on Seoul, which is now the capital of the Liao Kingdom, Shangjing, and Seoul was originally built by the Han people on the edge of the grassland. Assembly point.

So Yelujing and the generals in the army were a little hesitant whether to attack the Yijin pass in front of them.

"Wait for news from Yukou Pass." Yelujing said helplessly.

In the afternoon, the scorching sun finally set, the heat began to dissipate with the wind, and the shadows of trees overlapping on the roadside swayed in the evening wind.

Yelujing was resting in the golden tent, when there was a commotion outside, the voice became louder and louder, which made him feel irritable, he snorted angrily and walked out with a knife in his hand, he wanted to kill someone!Kill anyone who annoys him.

The guards of the imperial tent at the door followed nervously, Yelujing rushed out of the big tent angrily, raised a knife and pushed everyone away, and everyone around them knelt down in fright.

Only at this time did Yelujing realize that the noisy crowd was actually a lot of soldiers with blood on their faces, and there were hundreds of empty horses behind them, all stained with blood, and the smell of blood was in the air.

As long as the Khitan people are men, most of them have to join the army at the age of 15, and they have their own horses at home. If a man dies in battle, he does not pay attention to returning the fallen leaves to his roots, but war horses are an important resource and must be brought back.

An empty horse represents a dead person.

The soldier cried to him with blood on his face: "Your Majesty, Yukou Pass is full of southern troops, and we were attacked by them in the past."

"how many?"

"I don't know, it's all over the east, and there are people everywhere on the top of the city!" the soldier said.

Yelu Talie said: "It seems that the southerners have been prepared for a long time. The army is ready to go to the east. We can only forcibly attack one place, Yijin Pass or Yukou Pass. After clearing it, we will go south."

Yelujing thought for a while, "The army has already arrived here. Let the craftsmen belonging to the Shan army make siege equipment and start the siege tomorrow. Go to the nearby area to catch some people, and drive them to the front of the army tomorrow."

Yelu Talie said: "Your Majesty, this is inappropriate. The people here are citizens of our country, how can we make them the vanguard? How can the Zhou people be afraid?"

"They surrendered to the Zhou people!" Yelujing was very angry, "They have already surrendered, so they are not the people of my Daliao Kingdom."

"Your Majesty, take back this land in the future, it will still be our land in Daliao, and the people will still pay taxes and tribute to us. If they do this now, they would rather flee south than pay taxes to support us. .” Yelu Talie was very excited because he worked hard to manage the South Courtyard.

"Your Majesty, please think about it carefully. If you must do that, the old minister will never agree!"

It was rare for Yelu Talie to be tough, and it was rare for him not to back down.

Yelujing's face was ugly, but he finally endured it. There were many people in the court who opposed him. Yelv Talie and Xiao Siwen were the few who supported him, so he could only keep silent, holding back his anger and acquiescing to Yelv Talie's words.

"Siege the city tomorrow!"

The next day, outside Yijin Pass, the Liao army camps were lined up in front of the several-mile-long city wall. Under the several-mile-long city wall, there were white Liao army tents everywhere, like a white forest spreading for several miles.

There are still many Liao troops in the rear cutting down the woods on the opposite side of the river one mile away to make siege vehicles and ladders for attacking the city.

At noon, smoke rose from the camps, and the Liao army began to slaughter sheep and cattle, shouting and drinking.

Veterans who are familiar with the Liao army know that the Liao army is about to launch a major offensive.

The characteristic of the Liao army's combat is that it cannot last for a long time. Generally, it only lasts for three months. There are few siege battles or confrontation battles that last for several years like the Central Plains. Hurrying away can also save a lot of manpower for logistics support.

Once the Liao army started slaughtering cattle and sheep, eating and drinking, a big battle would follow.

Tens of thousands of troops garrisoned under Yijin Pass, and the sense of oppression was very strong. From two or three hundred steps in front of the city wall to the river and its opposite bank one mile away, the Liao army was everywhere.

Sure enough, after noon, the Liao army was full of food and drink, and the army thought of the horn of desolation, and a large number of Liao troops gathered in front of the city like black ants.

There were a large number of soldiers in the rear, chanting neatly, and pushing many siege equipment from the river one mile behind to the front of the city wall for hundreds of steps.

Ladders, catapults, siege cones, and simple towers were slowly pushed forward.

A large number of Liao troops at the front had already raised their shields and put on armor one after another. The armor of the Liao army was not as much as that of the Zhou army, and it was not as good as that of the Zhou army. A few layers of cowhide treated with heavy pressure can basically resist bow and crossbow shooting.

At this time, the banner of the Chinese army began to slowly cross the river outside the city under the escort of many imperial tent troops, and moved to the center of the army.

The horn sounded again, like a desolate sob under the sky, resounding inside and outside Yijin Pass, and the full-scale attack of the Liao army began!

(End of this chapter)