Fenghou

Chapter 659 Dilemma
On the evening of the second day after Liu Qiong dispatched a surprise army to capture Yingli County, Chen Qing received an eagle letter from Yingli County. At this time, Chen Qing was inspecting the preparations for the battle in Lanzhou.

On the edge of the Yellow River, Chen Qing looked at the rolling water of the Yellow River, and said to everyone with a smile, "The current is too fast, so it would be unrealistic to use a leather raft to transport supplies?"

Chen Qing turned his head, Niu Gao looked worried, and said with a smile: "Niu Tongzhi, let's talk about it!"

Niu Gao said helplessly: "Report to Dutong, although it is feasible to attack Xixia from Lanzhou, but some difficulties are still difficult to overcome?"

"To be specific, what difficulties are difficult to overcome?"

"As far as I know, the military road built by Xixia is not stable. It has been washed away by mudslides many times. If the Xixia army destroys it artificially, I am afraid we will not be able to walk this road."

"Is that part of the road difficult to walk?"

"A section of Lingbo Mountain and a section of Roulang Mountain. These two sections are about [-] miles long. They are very dangerous. If a pass is built, it will be easy to defend and difficult to attack. Moreover, the current is fast, and there are cliffs on both sides. Rafts will definitely not be able to pass."

"What if we use camels to transport?" Chen Qing asked again.

"Camels are of course also available, but the premise is that the enemy does not destroy the road, and what about siege weapons and other supplies? They are too large to walk on the military road."

Chen Qing nodded, and said to Niu Gao and everyone: "Because the matter is of great importance, I have not told you some things. In fact, I never thought of marching from Lanzhou to Xixia, but in order to confuse the other party, I made a lot of deployments in Lanzhou , Assemble the army, hoard supplies and so on.

And our real attack direction is Xiaoguan Road. I have sent Liu Qiong to lead an army of [-] to attack Yingli County. As long as Xixia is confused, then Liu Qiong's army will not have any obstacles to enter Xixia from the Hulu River. After all, Xixia has limited troops. , They can't do multiple defenses. Once Liu Qiong's army takes Yingli County, Lanzhou's mission will be completed. "

Niu Gao was stunned, and assembled an army of [-] just to confuse Xixia?

He asked urgently: "Is Lanzhou just defensive in the end?"

"Not quite."

Chen Qing smiled slightly and said: "Lanzhou has three roles, logistics, support and defense. I don't plan to move the large amount of grain and grass materials hoarded in Lanzhou. After the Yellow River freezes in winter, I can use sleds to transport heavy materials. If the military road can Repair, then use camels to transport grain and grass.

Lanzhou's second task is to respond, mainly to respond to the Hexi Corridor. Once the Uighurs are defeated and withdraw from the Hexi Corridor, the Lanzhou army will immediately respond to keep Ganzhou and Liangzhou.

The third task of Lanzhou is to defend, not only to protect the Xihe Road, but also to keep the Hehuang Valley. Now half of our military rations come from the Hehuang Valley, so there must be no mistakes in the Hehuang Valley. "

Chen Qing looked around at the generals, and said slowly: "Lanzhou is the balance point between Hehuang, Hexi and Xihe. Its strategic position is extremely important. I hope everyone understands that although I use Lanzhou to carry out strategic deception against Xixia , does not mean that Lanzhou is not important."

At this time, a personal soldier rushed over, knelt down on one knee and clasped his fists and said, "Report to Dutong, General Liu Qiong has an urgent letter!"

Chen Qing took the Ying letter and read it again. He was overjoyed and said loudly to everyone: "I tell you a piece of good news. Liu Qiong's army has captured Yingli County."

The surrounding soldiers immediately cheered.

Now that the strange soldiers had captured Yingli County, Chen Qing stopped pretending. He divided his troops into two groups and ordered Liu Cui to lead [-] troops and [-] camels to supply supplies and march towards Xixia along the military road. He personally led [-] troops and Ten thousand camels turned to Pingliang Mansion and took Xiaoguan Road.

The war against Xixia officially kicked off
The head coach of the Xixia Army is King Li Cha of Jin. Although the Song Army had been preparing for the battle in Lanzhou a few months ago, and Xixia was also preparing for the battle, the preparations for the Xixia Army were extremely difficult. Most of it was consumed in the civil war, and the remaining food, grass and materials were no longer enough to support the confrontation with hundreds of thousands of Song troops.

Brother Li Cha was really restless, but there was nothing he could do about it. On the one hand, he used Yingli County as a logistics base and sent [-] troops to defend the Southwest Military Road. strength.

Now Xixia’s biggest problem is the lack of troops. The two years of brutal civil war have reduced their standing army from [-] to [-]. Of the [-], [-] of the emperor’s guards cannot move. Leaving [-] troops to guard the capital, the actual army that can be used is only [-].

Although Brother Li Cha is a famous general of the generation, it is hard for a clever woman to cook without rice!

In the middle of the night, Brother Li Cha, who was sleeping soundly, was suddenly awakened by the sound of hurried footsteps, only to hear someone shouting urgently in the yard: "There is an urgent military situation, and you must report it to His Royal Highness King Jin immediately!"

"It's midnight now, can't we just wait until dawn?"

"The military situation is more urgent, and I am afraid that His Royal Highness King Jin will be angry when he reports it at dawn."

"What military situation?" Brother Li Cha appeared at the door.

The messenger hurriedly bowed and saluted, "His Royal Highness, the beacon is lit!"

"what!"

Brother Li Cha was taken aback, the beacon was lit, which meant that the Song army had begun to attack, but their preparations for the battle had not yet been completed, how could this be good?

"What time is it now?" Brother Li Cha asked anxiously.

"It's five o'clock!"

"Prepare the car, I want to enter the palace!"

The Son of Heaven has always been indecisive, and he has been reluctant to adopt many of his suggestions. Now the fire is imminent, and it will be too late if he doesn't make a decision.

It’s not that Xixia is too poor to get rid of the pot. Most of Xixia’s wealth is in the hands of the emperor’s relatives. Although the treasury is empty, the treasury of these dignitaries is very rich, and there are still a large number of slaves, but the emperor hesitated on this issue. , has always refused to make a clear attitude.

The carriage came to the palace, Brother Li Cha waited for a while, and then was led into the inner palace by the eunuch.

Emperor Li Ganshun was wearing a white robe and was sitting in the hall drinking tea. He was not in good health and was weak in sleep, so he got up at this time.

Not long after, Brother Li Cha quickly walked up to the hall, bowed and saluted, "Brother Emperor, I have something urgent to report."

Li Qianshun waved his hands and said with a smile: "Imperial Brother, sit down and talk about it."

Brother Li Cha sat down and said: "The beacon has been lit, and the Song army has begun to attack."

Li Qianshun said for a while: "It's only been a few years, is Chen Qing capable of counterattacking us?"

"Brother Huang, if it wasn't for Xiao Heda's rebellion, Chen Qing would never have dared to have such an idea. A two-year civil war has completely wiped us out. Presumably Chen Qing also saw this, so he wanted to take the opportunity to attack Xixia.

However, in the past two years, his strength has indeed expanded rapidly, especially when he seized Bashu as a source of income while the Song Dynasty court was beyond his reach, which enabled him to support more than [-] troops. Now the situation is very unfavorable to us. If the emperor does not make up his mind determination"

Li Qianshun waved his hand and interrupted him, "You have a tight deployment on the Southwest Military Road, do you think his army can kill it?"

Brother Li Cha hesitated for a moment and said: "My brother has set up thirteen dangerous passes along the military road, especially Shatuo Pass. The narrow mountain road is useless even if an army of [-] comes, but the Song army wants to attack us. There are many roads. Hexi Old Road, Xiaoguan Road, Hengshan Road, Yinzhou Road, and the passages on Yanzhou and Suizhou. Although Chen Qing's main force is deployed in Lanzhou, if he sends out surprise troops and enters Xixia from other passes, we will really It's impossible to guard against!"

"Then just deploy troops at every pass."

Why doesn't Brother Li Cha want to deploy heavy troops everywhere?

But this kind of deployment is not like seasoning, a little sprinkling is enough. Once it is fully deployed, at least more than [-] troops are needed. How can he get it.

Brother Li Cha said anxiously; "Brother Emperor, our problem now is that we don't have enough troops. At present, I only have [-] troops. If they are all sent out to guard the pass, as long as the Song army breaks through any pass, we will have no trouble." The soldiers resisted, not to mention the Uighurs are still eyeing us, brother emperor, forgive me, now we are facing the threat of annihilation of the country!"

(End of this chapter)