Aspiring to the Ten Kingdoms

Chapter 241 Invincible
Outside Youzhou City.

"Be quicker, ten days, I only give you ten days to set up the general's stronghold."

Luo Youdu inspected the four gates, a little dissatisfied with the progress of the project, and loudly urged the soldiers to speed up the process, not to lose the face of our own infrastructure madman.

As a child of Huaxia...

wrong!

As an ancestor, you have to set a perfect example for future generations.

Come to the north of the city.

Luo Youdu was most satisfied with the progress in the north of the city. The speed of building the village was actually three points faster than the Nanying where he was currently, and the quality did not drop at all.

As expected, he is responsible for building fortifications, and his level is different from that of their half-way monks.

"Recruit envoy!"

Knowing that Luo Youdu was coming to inspect, Han Tong, who was in charge of defending the northern camp, hurried up to meet him.

This Guo Rong's appointed future commander of the Mabu Army of the Guards' Pro-Army Division is a burly and fat man.With a beard on his face, he looks very majestic.

It is said that he was also a warrior who charged into battle in his early years, but later he took up the task of building a line of defense.I have been doing this for five years, and I am a little neglected in martial arts, and I have begun to put on weight.

Luo Youdu also went up to greet him, and said: "The rigorous construction of Bushuai's camp is amazing."

Han Tong talked with Guo Rongshen many times, and he also guessed a thing or two about the future layout of the Great Zhou Emperor.Even though he and Luo Youdu had never had any contact before, they were friendly and kind.

"Compared to recruiting envoys to strategize and win thousands of miles, these are just small tricks."

The two flattered each other.

Han Tong led Luo Youdu to inspect one side of the army camp, and said: "I would like to ask, the arrangement of the recruiter is not just for the purpose of encircling the spot and sending reinforcements."

Luo Youdu smiled and said, "If I say pure defense, Bu Shuai is credible?"

This Youzhou city is short of soldiers, in the eyes of the generals of the Great Zhou, it can be taken down in a blink of an eye.

But Luo Youdu was not in a hurry to make siege equipment, but worked hard to build military strongholds and fortifications.

So many people think that Luo Youdu is repeating his old trick here, and intends to deal with the Khitan reinforcements by surrounding them.

For this rumor, Luo Youdu did not explain, just let it be.

Han Tong nodded firmly and said: "I believe it. I have been studying how to defend against the Khitan invasion these years, and I have some experience in defense. If it is just to surround the spot for reinforcements, it will not be necessary to build a military camp like this."

Luo Youdu exclaimed in admiration: "The one who knows me is Han Bushuai!"

In planning the Battle of Youzhou, Luo Youdu not only carefully studied the reasons why Guo Rong defeated three passes and captured four states without bloodshed during the Northern Expedition, but also carefully studied the reasons why Zhao Kuangyi was defeated in Youzhou City and staged a donkey cart drift.

Cooperating with the experience Fu Yanqing left him, Luo Youdu found that the best way to fight Khitan at this stage is to defend, not to attack.

This is not a question of whether you can fight or not, but a question of whether the opponent will not fight you at all.

Historically, before the Khitan signed the Tanyuan Alliance with the Song Dynasty, they were incompatible enemies with the Central Plains. Whether it was the Five Dynasties and Ten Kingdoms or the Song Dynasty, they fought constantly with each other.

There is a very common phenomenon, except for a few special cases, most of the Khitan army's defeats are minor defeats, and rarely hurt their bones.But winning is often a big victory, killing the Central Plains thousands of miles away.

There are also many battles in which the Central Plains won first and then lost.

This was the case in the Battle of Gaoliang River. Although Zhao Kuangyi played against the sky, he didn't count his words at first, and refused to pay the reward for capturing Jinyang, which made the army's morale slackened.He also thought it was a surprise attack, so he ran a long distance to attack Youzhou.

Under various unfavorable circumstances, Song Jun still ushered in Tianhu's start.

Relying on their strong combat effectiveness, the generals of the Song Army beat Khitan to nothing.

All kinds of generals, officials and governors in Youzhou who had their hearts in the Central Plains surrendered one after another.

But Khitan was at a huge disadvantage, and only used one surprise attack to reverse the situation and turn the tide.

Zhao Kuangyi must bear the main responsibility.

His biggest problem is that he fights too hastily, he wants to prove himself too much, he wants to establish Unrivaled Martial Arts to imitate Guo Rong's battle of Gaoping, to frighten the military officials and prove that he is stronger than his brother Zhao Kuangyin.

It's just that he doesn't have that strength, and he only focuses on offense, not defense.

Brother Yeluxiu went to Zhao Kuangyi's headquarters in a night attack, and shot Zhao Kuangyi in the ass with an arrow.

What does it mean?
It's definitely not how powerful the Khitan people are, they smashed through the Song army's barracks, and hit the Song army's emperor's imperial tent.

He just didn't pay attention to defense, which caught a famous general like Brother Yeluxiu and gave him a wave of experience.

With this lesson learned, Luo Youdu's idea is very simple.

As the Art of War says, put yourself in an invincible position first, and then seek ways to overcome the enemy.

The biggest weakness of the Khitan cavalry is their inability to fight fortified positions.

Cavalry cannot climb the city walls, nor can they break through the camps.

Youzhou City is the meat on the knife board, it has already reached the mouth, so there is no rush to eat it.

Let's set up the camp first. If you want to rescue Youzhou, you have to get off your horse and attack the army camp.

At the same time, the generals of the Great Zhou Dynasty can go to the waves if they want to. Even if they lose the battle, they can run to the camp to cover the bottom line and minimize the loss.

The only downside to this style of play is the logistics.

After all, there is a flat river in Hebei, and the Khitan cavalry are a little more arrogant, and they can even run directly to the north bank of the Yellow River.

Khitan has no shortage of war horses, one person has three horses, and they come in rotation.

As far as their mobility is concerned, the general army really can't catch them.

But now their grain route is changed to the sea route, and the grain is directly transported from Dengzhou Port to Jingu.

In Jingu, they also built a military stronghold connected by water and land to store food.

It is only over 200 miles from Jingu to Youzhou.

It is much easier to guard the grain road of more than 200 miles than to guard the entire grain road in Hebei.

Therefore, the construction of military strongholds, encirclement and reinforcements are all secondary.

The main purpose is one, to be invincible strategically.

You Khitan are unwilling to fight to the death, and want to win by sneak attack.

Then I will put a turtle shell on the army and see how you attack.

Anyway, it's not me who is in a hurry, as long as I gnaw on Youzhou.

Based on Khitan's siege skills, it would not be easy to get it back.

Han Tong took out a piece of sheepskin from his bosom and said, "As for the defense of this stronghold, I'm asking myself for some advice, and please ask for advice from my envoy."

He said and spread the sheepskin in his hand.

Luo Youdu looked at it carefully, the method of building a stronghold was sketchily drawn on the sheepskin, the great stronghold remained unchanged, but Han Tong also set up some small strongholds that echoed back and forth around the big stronghold, which linked with each other to defend the stronghold.

Luo Youdu glanced at Han Tong unexpectedly, and said: "Wonderful! In this way, the big and small camps are all active, and the left and right echo each other, which can be attacked and defended. Bu Shuai is really, why didn't he take it out earlier. Fortunately, it is time now, there is no Bad thing. Bu Shuai, you draw three more blueprints, and all four gates will build camps according to this method, and keep them so that the sleeping emperor can’t even cry.”

Han Tong was also extremely happy to see Luo Youdu's reaction.

He had wanted to present this blueprint a long time ago, but he was just worried about unknown troubles.

Luo Youdu also guessed what Han Tong was thinking and didn't take it seriously.

There are indeed many people who are unwilling to listen to opposing words, but Luo Youdu is on the contrary. He knows that when manpower is exhausted, listening to different words will only benefit and not harm.

This Han Tong is indeed a character.

Luo Youdu had always thought that the comfort of the Hebei border of the Great Zhou Dynasty was due to the deterrent power of his father-in-law Fu Yanqing, and because Xiao Siwen stayed behind and disliked the military.

Now it seems that the defense line arranged by Han Tong must also have a pivotal key.

No wonder Guo Rong valued him so much and asked him to be in charge of the Guards' Pro-Army Division. He planned to use him to replace Li Chongjin and form a new Third Division Imperial Army with himself and Zhao Kuangyin.

In history, Han Tong was the only senior Zhou general who died in the Chenqiao mutiny, and he died at the hands of Wang Yansheng.

His ending should be different now.

It would be a pity for such a talent to have an accident.

Luo Youdu knows that offense is important and defense is even more important.

Otherwise, Qin Shihuang would not have spent a lot of national power to build the Great Wall, and successive dynasties would not have continued to reinforce and repair the Great Wall.

There is no doubt that an excellent border defense line is important to a country.

"In terms of defense, I am inferior to you. The commander-in-chief, the Khitan sleeping emperor, will arrive at the border of Youzhou in about ten days. The matter of defense is related to the victory or defeat of our army, so please don't be polite."

Han Tongdao: "I'm acting like a villain, it must be like this."

According to the army village plan designed by Han Tong, in less than ten days, four army villages stretching for several miles had been erected in four important places outside Youzhou City.

Fortunately, Youzhou is close to the Yanshan Mountains, so there is no shortage of wood.

Otherwise, the wood may not be enough for them.

When Luo Youdu built the military stronghold, Guo Rong personally led the Dianqian Division to successfully break through Zhuozhou.

Just as he was preparing to march to Yizhou, there was turmoil in Yizhou.

Seeing that Wang Shi was approaching, Hao Ping, the school captain of Yizhou Shoucheng, killed him when the governor was patrolling the city defense.

Then he escaped from Yizhou and rushed to Zhuozhou to join the army.

The governor of Yizhou was killed in battle, and Yizhou was in chaos. Facing Guo Rong's visit, Yizhou also surrendered.

Luo Youdu's soldiers surrounded Youzhou, and Guo Rong took two states in succession, shaking the north.

The bloodiness of many Han people who were suppressed in their bones gradually rose.

Shunzhou, Jizhou, and Tanzhou all experienced turmoil successively, and many grassroots Han generals led their troops to surrender.

There were also many Han people who robbed the Khitan gentry of their cattle, sheep and horses, and drove them to vote.

Regardless of whether it is Guo Rong or Luo Youdu, without exception, as long as those who come to vote, they will be accepted and rewarded heavily.

Even the people driving cattle, sheep and horses made good arrangements for them to go to Zhuozhou to settle down, and all the livestock they robbed belonged to them.

There were more and more such incidents, and more and more officials surrendered. Even the governor of Jizhou ran to the Youzhou military camp with a group of confidants.

It's a pity that Jizhou is an important military town, and the military power is not in the hands of the Han governor. Otherwise, Jizhou, an important military place, would directly belong to the Central Plains.

These successive surrender incidents have made the people of Shunzhou, Jizhou, and Tanzhou panic, and the morale of the army is turbulent.

Under such circumstances, Guo Rong led the Dianqian Division to the city of Youzhou.

At the same time, Yelujing, the sleeping emperor of Khitan, also appeared at Gubeikou, Miyun, leading an army of [-] leather troops.

The mighty [-] Qingqi arrived at Gubeikou from receiving the news.

Yelvjing only took 21 days.

This speed is not unpleasant.

(End of this chapter)