On the occasion of rebirth Zhou Sui

Chapter 435
After the fall of the Northern Qi Dynasty, Emperor Wu of Zhou renamed North Xuzhou as Yizhou because the Yishui River flowed through it, and ruled it in Linyi County.

On August 605, the first year of Yongchang in the Eastern Sui Dynasty (AD 29), Lai Huer first arrived at the city of Yizhou.

It's just that Lai Hu'er didn't attack the city with all his strength. He learned that Cui Qiji was leading the army southward, so he wanted to encircle and fight for reinforcements.

Once Yizhou is really captured and Cui Qiji is scared away, it will not be so easy to lure him out.

In the final analysis, Lai Hu'er still looked down upon noble children like Cui Qiji.

Although he was also from a noble family when he came to protect his son, he was able to achieve his status today because of his hard work and hard work. At that time, He Ruobi went out of the town of Guangling to join the army when he came to protect his son.

But a son of a powerful and powerful person like Cui Qiji, isn't it just a good birth?

Cui Qiji obviously also knew that Lai Huer wanted to lead him to a decisive battle under the city of Yizhou, so he followed Li Mi's advice and deliberately walked slowly along the way to wear down Lai Huer's patience.

Since it was already the end of August when he came to guard his son and violated the border, the wheat and rice in the fields in Yizhou had already been harvested, so Cui Qiji was not afraid of a food crisis in the city.

Sure enough, seeing Cui Qiji dawdling along the way and arriving late, Lai Huer no longer had the calmness of sitting on the Diaoyutai before, so he instead ordered all the ministries to intensify their attack on the city.

As a result, the pressure on the Yizhou defenders increased sharply, and Cui, the governor of Yizhou, had no choice but to send messengers out of the city to ask for help.

The purpose of coming here to protect children was to force Cui Qi to go south quickly, so naturally he would not send sentry cavalry to intercept and kill the envoy who asked for help.

It's just that Cui Qiji remained the same. He marched cautiously along the way and marched slowly. Everywhere he went, he had to send a large number of sentry cavalry to explore the way, and then let the army pass by.

Being so cautious, Lai Hu'er couldn't find a chance to ambush along the way.

Seeing that Cui Qiji was indifferent, Lai Huer had to order again to suspend the siege, which also allowed the defenders in the city to breathe.

There is no doubt that Cui Qiji won this psychological battle.

On September [-]th, Cui Qiji's [-]-step cavalry arrived late, and the former army arrived in Yizhou first, setting up camp [-] miles away from the camp that came to protect the children.

Lai Huer had no intention of confronting Cui Qiji at all. On the day the reinforcements from the Eastern Sui Dynasty arrived, Lai Huer sent envoys to visit the camp and met Cui Qiji for a battle at Yizhou city.

However, how could Cui Qiji let Lai Huer, who was eager to fight, get what he wanted? He flatly rejected Lai Huer's proposal.

This made Lai Huer indignant. He immediately sent 7 soldiers to continue to besiege Yizhou, and led the remaining [-] people to try to storm Cui Qiji's camp, but it was unsuccessful.

Although Cui Qiji had few troops under his command, he selected the 3 soldiers from Qingzhou's [-] cavalry.

It is more than enough to hold a camp.

After some attempts, Lai Huer had no choice but to give up the method of storming the camp, and had to fall into a stalemate with Cui Qiji.

However, Cui Che has captured Luoyang, and time is not on Lai Huer's side.

Once the food and grass for both sides are exhausted, and each retreats, for Lai Hu'er, it will be the same as failure.

Little by little, Lai Nuer's patience was exhausted, and there was not much food and grass left in the army.

All the generals persuaded Lai Hu'er to return to Xuzhou first, and then make plans.

Lai Huer was not reconciled, he said excitedly:

"In the Battle of Hebei, I led the army to the north, but because of the Qingzhou rebellion, the rear route was cut off, and more than [-] troops collapsed without fighting.

"Today I have [-] soldiers, and the rear is stable. Faced with a child, do I have to retreat in panic!"

The generals saw that he had made up his mind, so they had to give up.

But staying under the city of Yizhou and continuing the stalemate with Cui Qiji is not an option.

Just when Lai Huer was at a loss and worried about how to force Cui Qiji out of the camp, Cui Qiji took the initiative to send an envoy to visit the camp.

Hearing the purpose of the envoy's visit, Lai Nuer dared not say anything:
"You mean Cui Qiji wants to fight me tomorrow?"

The messenger nodded and said:

"That's right. My family's eldest son has something to say. At noon tomorrow, we will have a showdown with the general on the banks of the Yishui River."

Lai Hu'er didn't respond directly, after all, Cui Qiji remained unmoved no matter how he sent people outside the camp to abuse him before.

Why has there been such a big change in attitude today, and he actually took the initiative to ask for a fight.

Lai Nuer murmured:

"What if I shouldn't?"

The messenger laughed and said:
"Naturally, the two families stopped fighting because they ran out of food. If the general has enough food and grass, he can continue to besiege Yizhou."

Lai Hu'er's face darkened when he heard the words, this was unacceptable to him.

His purpose was not to gain or lose one city or one place, but to defeat Cui Qiji's main force and force Cui Che to go east so that Yang Su could take Luoyang.

Now that the opportunity to fight Cui Qiji has finally come, Lai Huer has no way out, knowing that there is a trap, he can only jump down.

In the final analysis, Lai Huer despised Cui Qiji. He felt that he had an absolute advantage in military strength. As long as he was careful about Cui Qiji's feigned defeat and set up an ambush, no accident would happen anyway.

After pondering for a long time, Lai Huer ignored the dissuasion of the marching commander Shi Cui Junsu, and said in a deep voice:

"Go back and tell Cui Qiji that at noon tomorrow, I will be waiting by the Yi River."

However, Lai Huer didn't know that Cui Qiji's delaying time with him outside Yizhou City was not only killing his patience, but also waiting for reinforcements to arrive.

The two confronted each other outside the city for nearly a month.

During this period, Li Jing, who guarded Zhengzhou, imitated Cui Che's approach of attacking the three cities of Heyang, leaving [-] soldiers in a stalemate with Yu Wenshu, and led [-] cavalry to cross the pontoon bridge at night and detour through Hebei. Fu Yexing had secretly arrived at the northern border of Yizhou last night.

This is also the reason why Cui Qiji insisted on making an appointment to fight with him, even though he could have waited for his arrival to protect his children and retreat.

If we win this battle, we will be able to enter Huaibei.

On the seventh day of October in the first year of Yongchang in the Eastern Sui Dynasty (AD 605), as the climate entered a warm period, even in early winter, the temperature was not too cold.

At least there will be no extreme situation where the hands of the soldiers on both sides are too cold to hold their weapons because of the bad weather.

It was noon, the sun was mild, and the two armies lined up outside Yizhou City.

Before the battle, Lai Huer specially told the generals not to chase the enemy without authorization, in case Cui Qiji pretended to be defeated and set up an ambush.

In the Eastern Sui Dynasty, unlike his father Cui Che who liked to command from the rear, Cui Qiji personally led [-] cavalry to the left as the cavalry commander, while the remaining infantry were to the right, commanded by Daxingtai Sima Li Mi.

As soon as the battle started, the soldiers of the Eastern Sui Dynasty fell into a huge disadvantage.

After all, Cui Qiji's so-called elite soldiers were only selected from the [-] Qingzhou infantry left by his father.

In terms of bravery, compared to Cui Che's warriors, they are really far behind.

(End of this chapter)