Tibet.

Chapter 1246: Poison Smoke Quiver
Two thousand burning poisonous smoke arrows were shot into the city. Suddenly, white smoke rose up in the city, and soon the city was filled with thick smoke.

Immediately afterwards, the second round of two thousand poisonous smoke arrows were shot into the city, and the entire city was covered with poisonous smoke.

"Stop shooting arrows, and retreat!"

The General of the Household shouted, and the crossbow soldiers put away their crossbows and arrows, raised their shields and retreated.

Li Sheng looked at it for a while and ordered, "Send a scout army up to check!"

A scout team of dozens of soldiers rushed to the pass and soon arrived at the gate. The leading captain stared at the gate for a moment and ordered: "Use the grappling hook to climb up!"

More than a dozen hook ropes were thrown onto the top of the city wall, and the soldiers climbed up. Finally, the captain gave a wink, and more than a dozen people jumped onto the top of the city wall at the same time.

The top of the city wall was actually empty, without a single person, but there were more than a dozen corpses piled under the corridor. They must have been knocked down by the poisonous smoke when they were going down the city wall.

The captain pulled out a rocket, lit it and shot it into the air.

Wang Sili smiled and said, "It seems that Guancheng has been obtained!"

But the army did not head north immediately. It was not until an hour later that the poisonous smoke gradually dissipated and the army began to enter the pass.

Nearly half of the more than one hundred defenders were poisoned to death, and the other soldiers had already seen the danger and fled.

After coming out of Jingxing, the biggest problem faced by the Tang army was supply, as it was too far to send supplies from Taiyuan.

The problem must be solved on the spot. There was a plan before, which was to take over Zhending County as soon as possible.

According to the intelligence obtained previously, the Zhending County granary had 100,000 dan of grain and 100,000 dan of black beans.

The warehouse also contains strategic materials such as salt, cloth, and pig iron.

Li Sheng immediately ordered General Wang Kun to lead 10,000 cavalrymen to attack Zhending County directly and asked him to protect the granary at all costs.

Zhending County was the seat of Hengzhou, which is today's Zhengding County, Hebei Province. Today's Shijiazhuang was called Shiyi County in the Tang Dynasty. "Yi" means manor or farm.

Li Baochen currently has an army of 40,000, of which 10,000 have joined the Hezong Army and are commanded by Tian Chengsi, leaving Li Baochen with only 32,000 troops.

Among the 32,000 people, the main force of 20,000 was stationed in Hejian County, Yingzhou, which was also Li Baochen's capital.

The other 12,000 men were stationed in the three states that he valued most, Zhending County in Hengzhou, Zhao County in Zhaozhou, and Xindu County in Jizhou, with 4,000 men in each county.

Xindu County was attacked by Li Na, and half of the 4,000 garrison troops were lost. The remaining 2,000 people retreated to Zhaozhou, bringing the military strength of Zhao County to more than 6,000 people.

There are currently 4,000 troops stationed in Zhending County. Unexpectedly, the Tang army is too fast. As soon as the garrison received the news of the defeat in Jingxing, 10,000 cavalry of the Tang army rushed to Zhending County, and the 4,000 soldiers had no time to retreat.

The commander of the defending army in Zhending County was named Chen Tao. He lay on the top of the city wall, looking at the 10,000 cavalrymen charging towards the city. His soldiers were still preparing to fight back when the Tang army came charging. What should he do?
At this time, several Tang cavalrymen came galloping and shot a letter onto the top of the city wall.

A defending soldier picked it up and quickly reported it to the commander-in-chief Chen Tao.

Chen Tao hurriedly opened the letter. There were two options in the letter. First, they surrendered to the Tang army and were not treated as prisoners of war. They would all be released and go home.

The second option was to seal the granaries and treasuries and allow them to retreat southward toward Zhaozhou.

This put Chen Tao in a very difficult position. Logically speaking, the first option was the best for the soldiers, but he could not choose it because his wife, children and parents were all in Hejian County. If he surrendered, Li Baochen would definitely kill his family.

He could only choose the second one, but Chen Tao was very worried that the Tang army would not keep its word. Once he led his troops out of the city, the Tang army would probably not let him go.

At this time, Li Shantao, the deputy general, suggested: "We can let tens of thousands of civilians escape from the north city, which will surely attract the Tang cavalry. Then we can retreat from the south city and burn the bridge over the Hutuo River in time. The cavalry will not be able to chase us and we can retreat to Zhaozhou."

This is a good idea, although it is a bit risky, but it is worth a try. Chen Tao immediately ordered the entire army to assemble at the South Gate. At this time, a large number of terrified people wanted to flee the city.

Chen Tao ordered his men to lead all the people to the North City, and ordered the North City Gate to be opened. When the North City Gate was opened, tens of thousands of people rushed out of the city, crying for their parents, and the city was in chaos.

Sure enough, part of the Tang army's cavalry rushed towards the north city.

"Open the city gate!"

Chen Tao shouted, the city gate opened, and the drawbridge was lowered. Chen Tao led four thousand soldiers and rushed out of the city, fleeing towards the Hutuo River in the south.

Wang Kun, the commander of the Tang army, was several miles behind them. He watched the enemy leave the city from afar, but he did not move his troops. When the enemy troops had all left the city, Wang Kun immediately ordered, "Chase the enemy!"

Seven thousand cavalrymen launched into battle and chased after them, but the Tang army did not chase at full speed.

Wang Kun's purpose of ordering the pursuit was to make the enemy flee southward instead of fleeing eastward.

There are two official roads in the south, one goes east along the Hutuo River, and the other crosses the Hutuo River to the south towards Zhaozhou.

The Hutuo River is a large river originating from the Taihang Mountains. It meanders eastward, then turns north, and finally flows into the Zhangshui River in the north of Cangzhou, and soon flows into the Bohai Sea.

There are many bridges over the Hutuo River, but there is only one in Zhending County.

The Hutuo River is very close to Zhending County, only three miles away. Four thousand troops were galloping all the way, and Chen Tao was still hesitating whether to retreat towards Dingzhou.

At this time, the soldiers behind shouted that the Tang cavalry were chasing from behind.

Chen Tao was so frightened that he lost his soul and all thoughts of retreating to the east disappeared without a trace. He rode his horse and rushed towards the bridge to the south.

The 4,000 Chengde soldiers were also terrified. They dropped their weapons, took off their armor, and ran away. They immediately sprinkled kerosene on the bridge. The Tang cavalry had already caught up to them a hundred steps away.

"Light it up! Light it up quickly!"

There were still more than a hundred people on the bridge, and Chen Tao urgently ordered to light a fire.

"boom!"

The kerosene was ignited rapidly, and in an instant the entire bridge was engulfed in flames. More than a hundred of the last soldiers were engulfed by the flames, and they jumped off the bridge crying and were swept away by the surging Hutuo River.

The Tang cavalry who ran to the bridge reined in their horses. Wang Kun looked at the enemy troops crossing the river. They were indeed fleeing south. He saw the 4,000 enemy troops fleeing farther and farther away.

Wang Kun immediately ordered the army to return to the county.

The Tang army immediately occupied Zhending County and persuaded the fleeing people to return home. The commander Wang Kun ordered the soldiers to cut down trees and build a temporary bridge over the Hutuo River.

Two days later, Li Sheng led his army to Zhending County. Although the defenders escaped, Li Sheng did not blame Wang Kun.

Wang Kun’s main task was not to destroy the enemy, but to seize Zhending County, the capital of Hengzhou, and protect the military rations in the county so that the 30,000 troops could receive supplies in time.

From this point of view, Wang Kun's strategy was actually very successful. It gave the enemy a chance to escape, thus preserving the granary and treasury.

More importantly, if he escaped from the south to Zhaozhou, he would be trapped by the Tang army sooner or later.

Li Sheng immediately wrote a letter and sent a scout team south to deliver the letter. He left three thousand men to guard the city, and the army immediately set out south.

According to the Regent's prior arrangement, Lei Wanchun's army should be in Xingzhou. After receiving his letter, the two armies will march towards Zhaozhou at the same time, annihilate the Zhaozhou defenders, and then merge and march towards Hejian County, aiming to defeat Li Baochen in one fell swoop and seize Hejian County. The 80,000-strong army will then move north to establish a western defense line.

(End of this chapter)