Late Tang Dynasty Floating Life

A Baoji has been wandering outside Xianyou Palace for nearly ten days.

He arrived in Yanbei in mid-June, and he took the lead in attacking the Sanquan inspection envoy Wang He's department.This is so for two reasons.

Needless to say the first one, Xiang Wang’s ranch is the closest, if you don’t hit me, who will I hit?The second reason is that the construction of the city in the Sanquan area only started last year. Due to the lack of materials and craftsmen, a large number of manpower was also mobilized to fight, so the city wall has not yet been completed.

Wang He also knew that it would be very difficult to hold on to the city, so he only left 3000 men to guard the city, and led more than [-] young men to roam the grasslands, constantly harassing the Khitan people and preventing them from attacking the city with all their strength.

More than 1 soldiers and horses are obviously not enough to fight against Khitan.Therefore, Wang He was repeatedly defeated in the field battle and had to retreat westward.After ten days of persistent resistance, the left-behind sergeants finally broke out, and Sanquan fell.

After capturing this place, A Baoji ordered to demolish more than half of the city wall that had been repaired, and set fire to the city, and then joined forces led by Xiao Dilu to encircle Xianyou Palace.

Xianyou Palace is not a serious city, but there are complete city walls around it.Tuobajin led the guard Ding Zhuang to resist desperately, and stormed for ten days, but A Baoji was unable to succeed.

"It would be great if Liu Kutou was here." Seeing the clumsy siege soldiers retreat, A Baoji sighed again and again.

Liu Rengong once talked about many methods of siege, such as ants, burrowing, irrigation and so on.It also mentioned many unheard of siege equipment, such as ladder trucks, smoke trucks, trench filling trucks, parapet walls, spore trucks, etc.

A Baoji was fascinated when he heard it for the first time, and he wished he could build it immediately and build a professional siege team.But Khitan's infantry is too small, except for a small number of children from the eight Khitan tribes, most of them come from captives of various ethnic groups, so far there are only a few thousand people.Moreover, their combat effectiveness is not as strong as that of Gao Siji and Liu Rengong who surrendered, which makes people very helpless.

In the process of trying to form an infantry, Abaoji also discovered that long-term training, combat and proper equipment distribution are essential for this unit to truly form combat effectiveness.The slaves usually want to farm the land, obviously unable to meet this condition, so they finally gave up, and only a few thousand people have remained so far.

In addition, A Baoji led his troops to attack the Bohai Kingdom many times, and found that during the campaign, the people of Bohai were often defeated after losing a field battle, and they were unwilling to even defend the city.This further shook his determination to expand the size of the infantry, and things were delayed like this.

Today's siege of Xianyou Palace has revealed the evil consequences.When the enemy's fighting will is very firm and the city defense equipment is complete, you can't do anything with their city.

Not only were they unable to attack, but the defenders in the city often came out to attack at night.The two sides fought several times. Although they didn't suffer any big losses, they were harassed enough and their morale was affected to a certain extent.

"Yi Lijin, since you can't fight, why don't you retreat far away. See if the enemy will go out of the city to pursue them. If they are willing to come out, there may be a chance to break the city." Yelu Haili had no choice but to give such an answer. Suggested suggestions.

A Baoji nodded slowly.

He knew Haili's suggestion was a little out of character.But everyone doesn't know much about how to attack the city, and they are all in the stage of groping.Haili has always been wise, but if he doesn't understand it, he doesn't understand it. He can adapt to the situation and give this suggestion is already very good.

"One more thing." Haili said again.

A Baoji guessed what Haili was going to say, and waited silently.

"Yi Li Jin, there seems to be something wrong with the situation in southern Liaoning." Yelu Haili frowned and said, "Yuyue sent people to summon people, and the Xia people came to Jian'an at the end of June, and they went to Anshi City a few days ago. Many tribes, search for manpower, more than 1 cavalry are at your fingertips, why can't you take thousands of infantry?"

"Didn't you also see the military newspaper?" A Baoji said, "The Xia people used chariot formations. When the cavalry attacked and harassed, they fired their bows and crossbows one after another, making it impossible to get close. After the morale of our army was greatly reduced by the beating, we resumed our deployment." Soldiers attack."

Yelu Haili thought for a while, and said: "Actually, this trick is not invincible. Yuyue recruits young men from all the tribes and surrounds them together, maybe there is a chance of victory."

Abaoji nodded.

In fact, even if Uncle Shilu did not personally lead the troops south,

It is not impossible to rely on the more than 1 herdsmen in southern Liaoning alone.But their will to fight is too weak, and their morale will suffer if there is a slight casualty, and the Xia people will send their recharged cavalry to launch a round of charge, and they will often be able to drive them away.As soon as the people were driven away, the power to clean the battlefield fell into the hands of the Xia people. They could calmly mow the grass to feed the horses, dispose of the wounded horses, and replenish food. Arrows can also recover part of it.

This battle was won!A Baoji sighed, to see if Shi Lu can improve after going to hold the line.

"Pretend to retreat first, let's see how the Xia people respond." A Baoji ordered: "Otherwise, send envoys to Jinyang and urge them again."

******
Li Siben led his troops to Guizhou.

He is an envoy of the Zhusheng Army, with less than [-] cavalry under his tent, stationed in Shunzhou.This time, they received an order from Jinyang to gather in Guizhou westward and listen to Li Cunxiao's restraint.

When Li Siben entered the government office of Guizhou, Li Cunxiao was drinking.Seeing Li Siben coming, he laughed and said, "Xinu is coming too! Don't stand there, come and drink."

Li Siben opened his mouth, then smiled, sat down, picked up the wine bowl and drank.

There was no food on the table, and the two chatted while drinking.

"It's a big fight in the north, don't you want to join in the fun?" Li Siben put down his wine bowl, wiped the corners of his mouth with his sleeve, and asked.

"What if you go, so what if you don't?" Li Cunxiao glanced at Li Siben and asked back.

Li Siben was startled, this remark is worthy of smacking, it sounds a bit resentful.

Li Cunxiao was impatient and couldn't keep his words in his heart. Seeing that Li Siben didn't answer, he was a little angry and said, "Even if I lead the Qing army to the north and destroy the Xia people, so what? Can you leave this ghostly place of Xinyigui?"

Li Siben stood up and poured wine for the two, but still did not speak.

He could hear that Li Cunxiao was very dissatisfied with the current situation.This is not something that happened overnight, it should have been brewing for a long time, and today it was triggered by the strength of alcohol.

Sure enough, after Li Cunxiao raised his head and gulped it down, he said again: "In the past, my adoptive father gave me Xinyi Gui Sanzhou, I am very happy. However, after fighting with the Xia people for so many years, the land of the three states has become more and more dilapidated. , more and more people fled south, the tribe behind the mountain was wiped out by the Xia people, and the rest were in constant panic. Although I tried my best to maintain it, I repeatedly defeated the Xia soldiers, but the strength was very different. Today, I am more and more embarrassed and embarrassed. After another two years of fighting, there will be nothing left for Xin Yi Gui. What's the point of me doing this as a regiment training envoy?"

Li Siben sighed in company, and poured another bowl of wine for the two of them.

He originally had a bright future, but King Jin was about to focus on cultivating him.In the battle of Xilu County, everything was lost. If it weren't for years of love, the current envoy would not be able to do it.

Li Cunxiao, who had outstanding military exploits, was also the first batch of Mesozoic generals who won territory.But he is not good at governing, and Xinyi Gui Sanzhou's position is not very good. The more he fights, the poorer he becomes, and the more he fights, the weaker he becomes. Today, even people like Li Siyuan have climbed over his head. How can I be happy?

This is just two frustrated people drinking stuffy wine.

"Forget it, let's not talk about these things." Li Cunxiao sighed, "Your Highness wants to gather cavalry troops to go north, what do you think of this battle?"

Li Siben drank a bowl of wine with his neck up, and said: "I don't think so."

"Why?" Li Cunxiao asked in surprise.

The nine cavalry units of Qinqi, Yunqi, Flying Cavalry, Tuqi, Tuzheng, Hengchong, Zhuosheng, Tielin, and Yier were all thrown out. With more than 2 cavalry, can't they fight the Xia thief?If it is not enough, you can also recruit the three tribes of Shatuo, the nine surnames of Zhaowu, the tribes of Uighur, Tartar, and Tuyuhun who moved to Xin, Dai, Wei and other states. The Xia people cannot fully guard against you, so why not fight?

"I'm not optimistic about the strength of the Khitan people." Li Siben said, "When we were in Tanzhou, some Khitan people entered and plundered. I led a fresh army and attacked them. I killed [-] enemies, and the rest were scattered. They were all bullying and fearing hard. Shit, you look decent, but when you really fight, you are always very cunning, and you don’t want to fight to the death. I can’t see troops that dare not fight to the death.”

Li Cunxiao did not expect such a story.He thought about it, and it was indeed the case.

Khitan is a tribal alliance, not a country, this

One point is crucial.

The country has laws and regulations, whether it is marching or fighting, or the distribution of spoils, or even the daily production and life of sergeants.If you meet a tough and prestigious Khan, the law will be very strict, and the combat effectiveness will naturally increase.

Why was Tubo so fierce during Xuanzong's time?Because they combine farming and animal husbandry, they have strict discipline, and those who hesitate to advance will be killed!Defeat the fleeing, behead!Those who fail to transport food, grass and military supplies to the front line in time will be killed!It itself is organized with a strict structure of young generals, hundreds of households, thousands of corpses, ten thousand households, and wing chiefs. In the Han area, it is governed by the administrative system of Jiedushi, prefectures, counties, townships, and villages in the Han area. ——The governance of the Dongdai system also absorbed Tang people as officials and generals, which is very flexible.

Why was Tubo at Xuanzong's meeting so vulnerable?Because they are torn apart, rituals and music are broken, various systems and systems have disintegrated, and the law does not exist, so naturally they cannot fight.

During Xuanzong’s time, Tubo’s strict organization, advanced combination of farming and animal husbandry, scale of smelting armored soldiers, strict military discipline, and large size have never been seen in Tubo kingdoms since ancient times.If it weren't for the fact that the Tang Dynasty was at its peak, Shenzhou Lu would have sunk.

During Xuanzong's time, Tubo had already degenerated into the common Fanhu tribe, and it was a bit of Tubo heritage, but it was a little stronger.

So what about Khitan at this time?

Li Cunxiao poured another bowl of wine, pondered for a while, and said, "I reckon, the king is also assessing Abaoji's strength. If he can't effectively control the eight tribes of Khitan and prohibit him, he probably won't take advantage of him. Abaoji This will seem to have the upper hand, but it’s just that there are too many soldiers. If it goes on for a long time without success, the internal contradictions will gradually show up, and then a bunch of bullshit will come out, and they may be defeated.”

Li Siben nodded and offered another bowl of wine.

Li Cunxiao did not refuse anyone who came, he drank it all in one gulp, and suddenly asked, "You have met Shao Shude, how is he?"

Li Siben's expression was in a trance for a while, and after a while he said: "Not bad."
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