Great Warriors of Sui and Tang Dynasties

Chapter 750 The Siege of the White Horse
"Li Yuan came to report that General Cao Bao of Hebei Dou Jiande had taken the opportunity to steal the four counties."

Jin Yongcheng, Guangji Hall.

When Li Mi learned that Luo's army had suddenly withdrawn from Dongjun and other four counties, but Dou Jiande took advantage of the vacancy and seized the four counties first, he was very angry.

"My lord, what should we do now?"

What should we do now?
Li Mi was also disturbed for a moment. Originally, he had been negotiating with Li Yuan these days, and he wanted to lure Li Yuan to fight the Luo family army in Shandong on the condition that he borrowed food and roads to Li Yuan.

Originally, the strategy was to drive away tigers and wolves, but who would have expected that in the end, he calculated for a long time here, and Luo Cheng retreated from the four counties with one move, which immediately made all his calculations come to naught, and Dou Jiande, a damn farmer, actually Taking the opportunity to seize the four counties.

"How can the land of Henan allow Dou Jiande to get involved with evil?"

"Pass down my military order, mobilize troops and horses, take back the four counties, and drive Xia Jun out."

A big battle was imminent, but Li Yuan, who was originally in Liang County, came to report at this time that he was raided by Dou's army in Liang County and lost a lot of troops, so he had to return to Pengcheng County and temporarily stationed in Xiao County.While Li Yuan said that he needed to rest and gather his troops, he kept asking Li Mi for food and grass.

Li Mi scolded Li Yuan for being incompetent, and never mentioned the matter of borrowing food again, but because of this, he didn't pay attention to Li Yuan anymore.

East County White Horse City.

Although Cao Bao occupied the four counties by chance, it was actually just a so-called occupation. He had no more than 5000 soldiers and horses, and he had to divide his troops to stay in Weizhou, Liyang Cangcheng, etc., so the number of soldiers and horses that could actually cross the Yellow River was only [-]. .

These 5000 people are stationed in the four counties, which is not enough. After all, this is a large county in the Central Plains, and the four counties have no less than forty counties.

Therefore, except for Baima City, where Cao Bao personally led troops to garrison, the rest of the cities, in fact, only sent a few soldiers symbolically to plant a flag in the past. Anyway, the four counties are almost empty now, or they have long since Fleeing during the war, or being relocated by the Luo family.

While Cao Bao sent people to ask Le Shou for more troops, he stepped up his actions in Baima.

He dispatched many civilians from Weizhou to Dongjun one after another, and transported the grain from the Liyang warehouse and a lot of war preparations across the Yellow River.

At the same time, civilian men were sent to start logging and digging trenches.

Originally, with the efforts of Luo Cunxiao and others, Baima City had built many fortifications, and they did not destroy them when they left.Now on this basis, Cao Bao continues to dig trenches, build sheep and horse walls, increase enemy towers, arrow towers, and store more rolling stones and wood.

Even outside the moat, many horse pits were dug, antlers were planted, and horses were rejected immediately.

The entire Baima City has turned into a huge construction site, and teams of people are working in an orderly manner.

at dusk.

A group of envoys arrived from Leshou and announced Emperor Xia's will to Cao Bao.

Withdraw the soldiers and horses to the north bank of the Yellow River!
"Why?"

Cao Bao looked at the Baima City in Dongjun, which was getting stronger and stronger thanks to his efforts, and asked in puzzlement.

"All the prime ministers and ministers in the DPRK are opposed to sending troops to Henan at this time, saying that this is a dangerous place. If you get involved at this time, you may never recover."

"And then, His Majesty really listened to them and asked me to withdraw?"

What Cao Bao needs most now are soldiers and horses. As long as there are tens of thousands of horses, he believes that these four counties will completely become the Great Xia Kingdom.But now, before any reinforcements arrive, the emperor wants him to withdraw his troops?

He looked around at the fruits of his efforts.

With the city left behind by the Luo family army and his reinforcements, he believed that even with only [-] troops in hand, it would be enough to defend against the attack of tens of thousands of people.

Cao Bao refused to lead the retreat.

He wrote to the emperor, asking the emperor to send troops, and said that Dongjun City had a strong wall and had a lot to do.

As the sun rose the next day, the scouts brought a message from the west.

"Ten miles to the west, we found the movement of the Wei army. There are about tens of thousands of horses. The banner is Wang Bodang's banner."

Wang Bodang came very quickly. He led about 10 people across the canal and killed them.

At this time, it was too late for Cao Bao to return to Hebei.

And Wang Bodang obviously didn't intend to give them this chance, he sent troops to surround Baima City, intending to take Cao Baolian City together.

The siege of Baima City was impenetrable.

Fortunately, when the Luo family army withdrew from Baima, they did not destroy the city defense fortifications, everything was left behind, and during this period, Cao Bao's efforts were not in vain.

When Wang Bodang arrived, he immediately withdrew all the soldiers, horses and civilians into the castle.In addition to sticking to Baima City, he also divided his troops to garrison several satellite castles outside the city to enhance defense capabilities.

There are [-] soldiers and horses besieging Baima City.

Wang Bodang is the main general, although his subordinates are not all elites, they are numerous.

After besieging Baima City, Uncle Wang immediately ordered an attack. As a result, he stormed for several days, and Cao Bao withstood the Wei army's offensive with his fortifications.

So Wang Bodang adjusted his strategy. While making people step up to build siege equipment, he divided his troops to seize the empty four counties.

In a few days, all the soldiers and horses sent out by Wang Bodang have captured all four counties.

Although Wang Bodang dispatched [-] troops to occupy the four counties, there are still [-] troops under Baima City.

He Jian, Le Shou.

In the Jincheng Palace.

An urgent imperial meeting is being held.

Dou Jiande and his ministers discussed how to deal with the siege of Baima City.

Although the prime ministers and officials represented by Ling Jing, Song Zhengben, Kong Shaode, and Zhang Xuansu believed that going south to rescue Baima City at this time would be passive.

But Cao Bao is not only a general of the Xia Kingdom, but also Dou Jiande's brother-in-law.

What's more, Cao Bao went south to Dongjun and took away the soldiers and horses of Weizhou. If Dongjun was lost, Weizhou would also be lost. Weizhou and Liyang warehouse are very important to Xia Jun, and there is no room for loss.

So at the meeting, Liu Heikai, Liu Ya, Wang Fubao and other generals all urged to send troops to the south.

"Wang Fubao and Liu Heita listen to the order!"

Dou Jiande finally decided to do his best to rescue Dongjun. Originally, he had decided to withdraw from Henan, but now, he could only fight on.

In order to save Cao Bao and even compete for the four counties, Dou Jiande not only sent out the two generals Wang Fubao and Liu Heitai, but also sent out all the Hebei fierce generals Liu Lancheng and Liu Shiche.

Xia Jun's actions were very fast, and it only took a short time from the discussion to the dispatch of troops.

At this time, half a month had passed since Wang Bodang encircled the East County.

Wang Bodang's [-] troops wasted half a month of precious time. Although on the surface they had a brilliant record, winning more than [-] cities in four counties, in fact, they only captured empty cities.

The key Baima City is still in Cao Bao's hands.

These days, Wang Bodang has been sending people to build siege equipment such as rams and ladders. He even sent people to build an earthen wall around Baima City, surrounding Baima City like an iron barrel.

At the same time, he also sent heavy troops to the banks of the Yellow River, ready to intercept the reinforcements of the Xia army going south at any time.

Judging from these arrangements, it is very likely that Wang Bodang was actually besieging the city to fight for aid.

He hoped that Xia Jun would go south to rescue Baima City.

(End of this chapter)