Late Tang Dynasty Floating Life

Chapter 686 Disagreement
Time entered late February, and the ice surface of the Yellow River was no longer safe.

The Liang people on the south bank of the river were still gathering, but they were arguing endlessly.

So far, only the Flying Dragon Army and thousands of Tutuan villagers have reached the front line of Sishui and Heyin.The Kuangwei army was still on their way, and the more than [-] Jianrui army had just left Caozhou, and when they reached Huazhou, they were stopped again.

There was news from Wei Bo that the Xia people wanted to cross the river south and enter Huazhou via Liyang.

To be honest, in February and March, the Xia people couldn't go south from Weibo.The river ice in the twelfth lunar month, the first month and the first ten days of February is relatively hard, but it is hard to say from the middle of February onwards.This winter is relatively cold, so it is not a big problem. If it is not so cold, then even if the ice on the banks of the river is relatively strong, the center of the river may not be so.Not to mention that it's already late February, no one dares to take risks, and it's not about life and death, why bother?

In other words, there is actually not much danger in Huazhou here, at least there is no need to worry about the defense line of the Great River in the north.By the end of February, there was still a lot of broken ice on the river, which greatly increased the danger of boat navigation.With luck, they don't have to worry about danger from the north throughout March, they only need to pay attention to whether there will be enemies coming from the direction of Puzhou.

It doesn't seem to be a problem for the Jianrui army to go west, join the Mengzhou battlefield, and return to Huazhou in April.However, Liang Wang vetoed it, and Pang Shigu had no good solution.

If Pang Shigu was a little annoyed that the Jianrui army failed to go west as they wished, then the arrival of Li Zhen, secretary of Jiedu Zhang, made Pang Shigu a little annoyed.

"Doctor Li, I have my own discretion when it comes to the use of troops. The soldiers and horses are not ready, and the food and grass are not ready. Doctor Li might as well worry about these things." Inside Heyin County, Pang Shigu said with a little dissatisfaction.

"Why did Pang Dutou say that?" Li Zhen's face flashed gloomy, but he quickly smiled and said, "It's all for the great cause of King Liang. Why bother to be so red-faced? In the current situation, there is no way to rely on defense." It is useful. Pang Dutou is also a veteran in the battlefield. You should know that you will lose if you defend for a long time. If you want to completely save the situation, you still have to attack. Attack Xia Bandit's hinterland and let him retreat in the face of difficulties."

Pang Shigu ignored him, and looked up the military books on his own.

Li Zhen held back his temper and continued: "Gather a large army, go north to Weibo, and attack Heyang together, so that the overall crisis can be solved. Why is the Xia bandit so confident? Heyang goes south and can cross everywhere, and he is still threatening Luo Hongxin. Invade Huazhou through Liyang. If this big loophole is not blocked, it will be too passive to defend."

"Doctor Li really believes in Luo Hongxin." Pang Shigu sneered, and said, "I'm sure, if my army goes north to Wei Bo, and goes west with the Wei people, and when we line up to fight, we only need a slight disturbance, and Wei will be defeated." People are going to slip away. Tell me, how to fight this battle? Besides, do you think the Xia people want to go south from Liyang, is it true or not?"

"It doesn't matter if it's true or not." Li Zhen said confidently: "The only chance of victory is to retake Heyang. Even if we can't take it, the Xia bandits in Heyang have to be restless. Once they move south, I will take advantage of it." They sneaked in and copied their lair."

"There is some truth in saying so. But I still say that the Wei people are unreliable. They have not been forced to the point of life and death, and they will not fight hard." Pang Shigu said: "Besides, there is a shortage of troops. There are too many soldiers going north, how can Mengzhou defend? How to fight?"

A large number of scouts have been sent in the direction of Revolving Gate Pass, heading west along the only large post road to investigate the reality of Xia Jun's Yingzigu Village, and plan to go west to regain lost ground in the next stage.

Previously, because of the Xia bandits outside the city of Bianzhou, more than [-] soldiers from the Yellow River defense line were drawn down to only [-]. As a result, the Xia bandits broke in, and Luokou and Gong counties fell for the second time. Followed by a string of failures.

As soon as Xia thief went south, he went straight to Bai Simaban and Luokou, obviously planning for a long time, and directly hit the vital point.What Pang Shigu has to do now is to clean up his past mistakes and re-stabilize this broken line of defense.

Attacking westward to Luokou, echoing Huo Cun's Department of the Baosheng Army in the southern city of Heyang, is the top priority.

The only thing that makes people feel uncomfortable is probably that the terrain here is too narrow.It is very friendly to the defensive side, but it is a nightmare to the offensive side. It is a bit uncomfortable to not be able to deploy troops.

In the battle of Mangshan Mountain between the East and West, the main forces of the two sides confronted each other in the area of ​​Mangshan Mountain, and it was difficult to make an inch of progress.In the end, Yu Wentai was forced to choose three thousand elites, and climbed Mang Mountain at night to sneak attack.This is a risky gamble, because I can't carry the luggage, I set off after eating and drinking in the morning, and I didn't bring any extra food, just to be able to carry weapons and armor on the road and save energy.

Once the enemy is ready, or blocked by them, the fate of this army is doomed: thirsty, starved, and broken.

Pang Shigu knew that Xia Jun was well-prepared in Yingzigu, he wanted to follow Yu Wentai's example and climbed Mang Mountain at night, and made a detour to sneak attack, but he was not sure when he thought about it.

This battle was not easy to fight in the first place, but Li Zhen still came to make noise, it was so annoying to death!

"Pang Dutou, it's fine for Mengzhou to feign an attack, the key depends on Wei Bo." Li Zhen continued to persuade.

"Noisy!" Pang Shigu finally got angry, and scolded: "If you want to attack Huaizhou from Weibo, you can! Give me [-] soldiers first, and then talk about other things. If you can't do it, just shut up."

Li Zhen's face turned red and white.

……

"Good thief! Don't run away!" By the bank of Qingshui (Wei River), dozens of Wei soldiers chased after him, yelling.

Standing on the hillside, Wang Jiao fired three arrows in succession, knocking down three people without missing a beat.

Wei was so angry that his seven orifices were full of smoke, he came up with great strength, and continued to charge forward, and he was determined to kill the Xia thief who shot and killed many of them with arrows.

getting closer.

Wang Jiao put down his step bow, pulled out a throwing spear, and threw it forcefully, the fastest Wei Bing fell to the ground.

"Huh!" Another spear flew out, and a Wei military academy fell down screaming.

"Kill!" The sound of the drum suddenly sounded, and more than a hundred people rushed out from behind the hillside and among the woods.

Holding the shield in one hand and the knife in the other, Wang Jiao rushed down the hill while drinking.

"Kill!" Gao Youqing held out a long spear, and jumped down immediately.

Dozens of warriors shouted and followed, boldly charging towards the confused Wei people.

"Pfft!" With a wave of the horizontal knife, the bandit soldier staggered down clutching his throat.

Wang Jiao didn't even look at it, he passed the fallen Wei Bing, let go of the gun that was stabbed in the face, and stepped forward, before the thief had time to draw back the spear, he quickened his pace and stabbed the thief in the chest.

The unarmored bandit fell limply to the ground in pain, blood gushing out.

Paoze and others rushed down like tigers on the mountain. After a little formation, they followed Wang Jiao and ran in a row.

"Huh!" After throwing the last short spear and knocking a bandit soldier to the ground, Wang Jiao stopped and ordered to clean up the battlefield and gather his troops.

Holding the axe, Gao Youqing chopped off a head forcefully, and shouted: "I killed this man, I stabbed his stomach to pieces, don't snatch it."

Wang Jiao took back the three throwing spears and walked up to him.

Gao Youqing was discouraged immediately, and said, "Maybe the lieutenant general can teach me the skill of throwing spears?"

"No time." Wang Jiao said forcefully, and left.

The sergeants all looked at him in awe, and he killed eight or nine bandit soldiers by himself, including one from a military academy. Vice General Wang's skill is truly miraculous.

In fact, Wei people are not weak.The Baoyi Army had just arrived, and suffered a lot in small-scale cross-border conflicts.

They found that if they fought alone, Wei Bing's skills were not bad at all, even better than their Baoyi Army as a whole.But once the number of people rises to the size of the battalion, the advantage of the Wei people will not be great. If thousands of people fight in an array, the Wei people will probably lose.

Their equipment is very good, and their organization is not bad. What is bad is their will to fight, that is, they are unwilling to fight to the death.Fighting a war is like dealing with errands, winning or losing doesn't matter, as long as you don't take their farmland, property and family, they generally don't want to fight you.

Wei Bowu people, if they rectify properly and make them willing to fight to the death, with their excellent basic skills, they will be a strong army.But now, it is this kind of virtue, with a weak appearance.In today's battle, if they hadn't robbed the Wei people's horses, they probably wouldn't have been so frustrated.

Well, not actually robbed.They just picked out some mares and neighed endlessly. The Wei people's stallions couldn't bear the temptation and came to vote on their own initiative. What do they have to do with them?Who would have thought that the Wei people would be blown up all at once, rushing over desperately.

Border conflicts happen almost every day.

Tens of thousands of Xia troops gathered in Huaizhou, with deep ditches and high fortifications, and tens of thousands of Wei troops also stationed in Weizhou, wandering around uncertainly.

It is said that Luo Hongxin would send envoys to Bianzhou every few days to ask Zhu Quanzhong to send troops to help him, and he also offered a lot of money for this.

Wei's army is well-armed, the number is large, and the logistics supply is sufficient, but he is not confident. After all, he has been beaten by Li Keyong and Zhu Quanzhong all the time. He has failed too many times, and he doubts that life is normal.

In border conflicts, the Xia people actually initiated more provocations.They are the more proactive side. With the blessing of constant victories all year round, they are very confident.And this kind of provocation was also acquiesced by the superiors, who continued to put pressure on the Wei people to make them ask for help more vigorously.

After Wang Jiao and the others returned to the station, they immediately attracted everyone's attention.

There are too many horses, heads, and first battles, so many that it makes people jealous.

Wang Jianji, who heard the news, rushed out, looked at Wang Jiao, and said with regret, "What a pity! Such a strong man refuses to be my son."

Wang Jiao didn't bother to react when he heard this.Envoy Wang Jun is a cheap talker, but he is actually a good person who takes good care of him.

"Military envoy..." Seeing that Wang Jianji was going to inspect the war horses, Wang Jiao thought for a while and asked, "We provoke all day long, but the Wei people are unwilling to fight. What can we do? Now the camp in Huaizhou has been built, and the food and grass have been raised. , When will the troops be dispatched to Weizhou?"

Wang Jianji paused for a moment, turned his face, and was about to reveal some news, but then he came to his senses, turned his head and left.

He actually wanted to tell Wang Jiao that Xin'an County was about to surrender, the Xiaohan Valley Road had been completely opened up, and the situation in Heluo had changed.Most of the real wars took place in the south, not in the north.Otherwise, what are they doing in the deep ditch and high fort in Huaizhou?Defense Wei Bo?Laugh to death.

But how?It is enough for the upper echelons to know some news, and it must not be passed on to the lower echelons.

When the soldiers hear that you don't want to fight, they will relax their minds. If the Wei army attacks, they may suffer losses.Therefore, even if there is no plan to make a breakthrough in the north, everything must be true.What's more, the commander-in-chief's use of troops is in harmony with each other and does not stick to one pattern.If the war in the south goes wrong, or if a large number of Liang troops are transferred to the south, they will have to come to the camp in Huaizhou.

While the two were talking, a messenger hurried east and headed for Weizhou.

Wang Jianji looked over and thought that it was probably King Xia's envoy to win over Luo Hongxin.

Is Wei Bo important to Zhu Quanzhong?Of course that is very important!Not only does it provide a large amount of goods every year, but it also has a population of more than 300 million. The quality and output of silk are famous all over the world.There are still [-] to [-] professional warriors. From Weibo to the south, you can choose the crossing point at will, and it is easy to invade the hinterland of Xuanwu.

Zhu Quanzhong, do you dare to bet on Luo Hongxin's loyalty?For Zhu Quanzhong, if Wei Boruo carried Zhu Tou Shao on his back, it was not as simple as missing a few offerings.As a matter of fact, Wei Bohui, as the servant army of the Xia people, even if it was only for intentional purposes, if he did not attack with all his strength, it would be a disaster for Bianzhou.It is not a problem for them to dispatch [-] well-equipped troops. How many people do you want to send to defend?
Some things are like this, you can think of many possibilities behind it, maybe the enemy is waiting for you to jump into the pit, but you really can't afford to bet!
(End of this chapter)