Prosperous Tang Blood Blade

Chapter 495
Chapter [-] According to Hulao, Dou Jiande has no choice but to withdraw his troops

"General Cheng, you are truly a blessed general!" Hou Junji, as a party on the battlefield, had a harder time feeling the pressure on the battlefield. The situation was very critical at that time, and the whole army was almost defeated. However, Cheng Zhijie didn't know what went wrong in his head and abandoned his horse. Jumping up, carrying two wide-bodied axes to kill the Quartet.

Li Shimin nodded, and he set his sights on the battlefield.The battle at this time is basically over. After all, this is an internal fight. As long as one party surrenders, the other party will not kill them all.After all, they are all descendants of Yan and Huang. The struggle between Zheng and Tang is not about the ownership of the world, but the life and death of each other.

Whether it's Wang Shichong, Li Yuan, even Dou Jiande, they don't have the idea of ​​staying in a corner and living their lives. They all want to unify the world and create eternal peace.However, the ideal is full, and the reality is too skinny.It is precisely because of this war that hundreds of miles of land in the Central Plains are lit with gunpowder everywhere, and killings are everywhere.

"It's over for now!" Li Shimin rubbed his back, he was already in a cold sweat.The Tang army lost a lot in this campaign, with at least 3000 killed and 4000 slightly injured.But fortunately, five or six thousand prisoners of the Zheng army were obtained, which could make up for the loss of the Tang army. After wearing the armor of the Tang Army, there was really nothing to replace, so I took off the armor from the corpse and began to change.

Of course, not all prisoners are willing to follow Li Shimin. It is very simple to continue to be prisoners. Under the supervision of soldiers of the Tang Army, more than a thousand prisoners who are unwilling to be reorganized, act as coolies, start to collect the corpses, remove the horses, and clean up all the prisoners. Obstacles were removed, the carts were repaired, and the Tang army continued to move forward.

In the next few fierce battles, the scale was not very large. Zheng Jun used deer villages, trenches, and repelling horses as cover to build a line of defense, and fought extremely resolutely.However, due to the scattered troops, there are not many troops in each line of defense, usually hundreds or thousands of people. There is no need for Li Shimin's main force to fight.

At this time, Tang Jun's car array was like a steamroller, rolling forward slowly and unstoppably, mercilessly smashing Zheng Jun's defense line, and rushing forward singing all the way.After winning several victories in a row, the morale of the Tang army was so high that even the thousand or so captives who were unwilling to surrender to the Tang Dynasty reluctantly joined the big family of the Tang army.As for the other soldiers, there was no longer any need for officers to coerce or lure them. The speed of advancement was greatly accelerated, and their kinetic energy became stronger and stronger.

Later, like those lines of defense guarded by one or two thousand Zheng Army soldiers, almost a regiment of Tang Army soldiers solved it in a few rounds. In just one morning, they captured seven or eight lines of defense of Zheng Army and advanced towards Xin'an. Twenty miles away, they were very close to their destination, less than thirty miles away.

Things are going well and everyone is optimistic.

However, Li Shimin frowned, because he noticed that every time the Zheng army retreated in an orderly manner, without the slightest panic, and although the Tang army charged bravely, the strength to wipe out the Zheng army in each battle was actually very limited. over a thousand.Obviously, Zheng Jun was not really defeated. They were luring the enemy to go deep. These weak defense lines were just bait they threw out to tease Tang Jun's appetite.

Li Shimin looked at the looming Zheng Jun Scout in the distance, and fell into deep thought, where is Wang Shichong's main force?What is his real purpose?
"The whole army stops advancing!" Li Shimin thought of this and immediately issued a military order.

Li Shimin's order caught the generals by surprise.Especially Cheng Zhijie, who lost his ancestral horse lance, and before he had time to relieve his hatred, he listened to Li Shimin's order to stop advancing, looked at Li Shimin in confusion and said: "His Royal Highness, we will arrive at Xin'an City in a little over an hour. , Why do you stop moving forward at this time, do you still want to stay overnight in this deserted village?"

"Isn't General Cheng surprised? Zheng Jun obviously has the strength to compete with us, but he spread his forces, as if deliberately giving us a chance to defeat them one by one!" Li Shimin said solemnly: "Things are abnormal, there may be some Strange. On the banks of the Luojian River, it is normal for Zheng Jun to be defeated by our full-strength assault and then retreat, just like just resisting the horse formation. If Wang Shichong sent twice as many troops, it would be difficult for us to break through. Three times the number of soldiers can block us there, so Wang Shichong thinks he has too many soldiers and asks us to reduce them? This is not common sense, it is a bit strange."

"What's so strange about this? Maybe Wang Shichong is playing tricks at all!" Cheng Zhijie said: "No matter what old man Wang Shichong's real intentions are, if the soldiers come to block, and the water comes to the soil, I'm afraid he will do something!"

Hou Junji looked at Cheng Zhijie with a sneer. After all, Cheng Zhijie was a new general. He was embarrassed to speak sarcastically, but there was already a little coldness in his eyes, and he summed up Cheng Zhijie as a brave but foolish man.He said seriously: "What if... Wang Shichong is playing tricks again, what if... he wants to catch us all!"

"What's the matter?" Cheng Zhijie smiled disapprovingly: "It's a good thing to be cautious. It didn't matter at first, but now... we can't!"

Li Shimin looked at Cheng Zhijie with a little surprise and said with a smile: "General Cheng means..."

"Zheng Jun is small and scattered. If we don't move forward, Zheng Jun will definitely think that we are cowardly and get a reputation for being brave. If we meet them again in the future, it will be difficult to show their power. Besides, the newly attached soldiers will also There are two minds. If we take a longer-term view, I am afraid it will be detrimental to our future management of the Central Plains."

It seems that what Cheng Zhijie said makes sense.Hou Junji did not refute either.

Li Shimin frowned, then turned to look at Qin Qiong: "What does General Qin mean?"

Qin Qiong raised the steel halberd in his hand and said with a smile: "I will fight as His Royal Highness says, I will be the striker!"

Li Shimin suddenly remembered something, and said to Lei Yongji next to him: "Lei Yongji, the scouts you sent, expand the scope of scouting, and see where Wang Shichong's main force is around. It is best to inform General Changsun Shunde in Xin'an City... ..."

Lei Yongji has followed Li Shimin for many years and is also a knowledgeable person. After receiving the order, he thought: "This is a matter of life and death for our army!" He didn't dare to neglect, and thought: "If you blatantly search, it will attract people's attention. "But he sent his men and horses to look like Zheng Jun's rout, and ran around, seemingly intentionally or unintentionally, to inquire about news.

……

Paomaling, originally an isolated fortress, has now been continuous, forming twelve sentry forts, forming a company camp, with winding trenches, solid earth barriers, dense deer villages, and extremely solid. Rao Jiande has broken countless cities since he started his army. Seeing this scene, he couldn't help shaking his head and smiling bitterly.

Dou Jiande observed this line of defense for a long time, and he knew it well: Xia Jun couldn't chew on this line of defense!
It's not that it can't be eaten, it's just that it needs to pay extremely heavy casualties.With Dou Jiande's character, he was absolutely wrong to force the soldiers to take their lives to fill the trenches and traps of the Tang army.An army of tens of thousands is an advantage in the eyes of others, but in the eyes of Dou Jiande, it is a responsibility.

He brought these Hebei children and fellow villagers out of Hebei, and he wanted to take them back safely and force them to fight this kind of tough battle with mountains of corpses and seas of blood. Dou Jiande felt sorry for his conscience!
Dou Jiande sighed and said, "Now we have to give up Hulao Pass and bypass Paomaling!"

Hearing this, Ling Jing breathed a sigh of relief.

In fact, he had known for a long time that Paomaling was not easy to fight, and Dou Jiande was going to attack Chen Ying's Modao army with fire. One hundred barrels, [-] catties, which is not too little.

However, Chen Ying is not an idiot, especially the twelve outposts now. These outposts are all made of stones and composite soil on the mountain, and there are underground trenches between the outposts. In fact, Chen Ying imitated the traffic roads of later generations and dug out a person's height, covered with wooden boards, and the wooden boards were covered with soil. Unless there was heavy artillery bombardment, otherwise, through this kind of traffic trench, Chen Ying could send reinforcements out of nowhere. Unknowingly transported to any outpost.

In other words, during the attack, Chen Ying could defend every point Xia Jun attacked with all his strength.Moreover, as long as Xia Jun's trebuchet appeared in front of the formation, Chen Ying would definitely take countermeasures.Without destroying Chen Ying's traffic trenches, the pitiful range of the trebuchet would not be able to hurt Chen Ying at all.

Thinking of this, Ling Jing suggested to Dou Jiande: "Your Majesty, Li and Tang's elite are either in Luoyang, or in Hulao, Hedong and Guanzhong. They must be empty. Why don't we adopt the strategy of encircling Wei and saving Zhao, and use Liyang as a base to attack Hedong in the north? Cross the Yellow River to the west and threaten Tongguan. Li Shimin is bound to be in a dilemma and has to withdraw his troops from Luoyang, and Chen Ying has no need to guard Hulao Pass, and Dou Jun can remain invincible. It's just withdrawing to Hebei!"

"This plan is very clever!" Dou Jiande nodded and said, "In fact, there is no need for the whole army to retreat, leaving Liu Jintang in Xingyang. Although Liu Jintang can't do anything to Chen Ying, Chen Ying can't do anything to Liu Jintang, just rely on Chen Ying. Soldiers and horses, can he still conquer Xingyang? Anyway, Xingyang belongs to Wang Shichong, so if you lose it, you will lose it!"

Ling Jing deeply believed that Xia Jun was worthy of being a peasant army, and it was called ruthless to search for land.Not only did the Xingyang city government treasury not have a single penny left, and there was not a single grain left, even the big families in Xingyang were robbed by Xia Jun one after another.

Among them, the worst is the Zheng family in Xingyang. Xingyang is the headquarters of the Zheng family. The Zheng Bancheng in Xingyang is worthy of the name. More than half of the shops in Xingyang, more than two-thirds of the cultivated land, and more than 460 good fields are all properties under the name of the Zheng family.Especially around the city of Xingyang, the Zheng family has more than [-] farms.

However, all the food and money in these farms were robbed by soldiers of the Xia army.Unlike Chen Ying who robbed Zheng's other courtyard in Xin'an, in Xin'an Chen Ying only robbed and didn't hurt anyone, and he didn't even touch Zheng's women and maids.

But Xia Jun didn't have so many worries, he dared to come out to stop him, and he would chop with a knife.The beautiful maids and female relatives were also picked up and left.

At this time, the Zheng family suffered heavy losses under the Xia army's passage like locusts. Although the century-old savings had not been wiped out, the loss of as much as 50 shi of grain and more than [-] guan of money also made the Zheng family vigorous. hurt.

Just when Dou Jiande was about to withdraw his troops, a man in a brocade robe from the Modao Army in Paomaling howled and cried loudly in front of Chen Ying.

PS: The exemption ends at [-] o'clock this afternoon, so let's make a little fuss.

(End of this chapter)