A thousand-year-old family that began with the Battle of Makino

Chapter 970 Seeing through the enemy's plan, losing Chen, Cai, and Zhu Liang was seriously injured

On October 6, the fifth year of the Tianyou period of the Tang Dynasty, the sun was already close to the west.

The defenders in the southeast were still constantly requesting support from Pang Shigu's central army camp.

But little did they know that Pang Shigu had already seen through the Song army's strategy.

As he expected, within two quarters of an hour, military reports came from the northwest that Song troops had attacked the camp. However, the general in that direction said that the Song army's offensive in this direction was not obvious.

"Hmph, you're trying to make a feint to the east and attack in the west, showing the enemy your weakness. Are you trying to make me believe that your breakout direction is southeast?"

"Pity."

Pang Shigu stood on a high platform in the central army camp. Because it was far away from Mingzhou City and located in the south of Mingzhou, he could only vaguely hear the sounds of fighting not far away in the southeast direction of Mingzhou City.

At the same time, cannon fire was heard in Mingzhou City. The sound was so loud that even Pang Shigu, who was several miles away, could hear it.

When Bai Zisheng, who was charging into the battle, heard this, he decisively led his troops to retreat.

Upon learning that the Song army was retreating from the southeast, Pang Shigu knew that the Song army must be trying to break out from the northwest.

Because beyond the northwest is the Taihang Mountains, and across the Taihang Mountains is Luzhou, which is the territory of the Jin army.

Jin and Song have always been allies, and the Jin army will definitely have support in this direction.

Thinking of this, Pang Shigu decisively mobilized heavy troops to support the northwest direction.

Sure enough, after another quarter of an hour, sounds of fighting were heard from the northwest.

According to military reports, several thousand Song troops rushed to the northwest and discovered the enemy commander Kang Huaiying.

Battlefield northwest of Mingzhou City

"Haha, Kang Huaiying, just surrender."

At this time, Pang Shigu personally led the battle line from the central army camp in the south. Looking at Kang Huaiying charging not far away, he proudly called for surrender.

However, Kang Huaiying gave him a disdainful gesture, which made him feel uneasy.

"Report, Marshal, an elite Song army suddenly appeared in the north, and has broken through our defense line and is heading north."

"What, which unit is defending there?"

"Uh, it's the army under King Zhao's command."

Just as Pang Shigu was furious, Kang Huaiying had already escaped from the battle formation with his subordinates and ran quickly towards the gap in the north.

"Hurry up and catch him. You must keep him for me."

However, at this time, the sun had already completely set in the mountains, and the dim vision meant that the pursuit was doomed to fail.

October
After fleeing for a whole night, Kang Huaiying, Bai Zisheng and others finally got rid of the Liang army's pursuit and found a ferry to cross the Zhangshui River in Jieze County in the north of Mingzhou.

Kang Huaiying and others lay on the river bank without any worries. They looked at each other and couldn't help laughing, feeling happy that they had escaped.

According to statistics, there were 1,362 Song soldiers who fled here from Mingzhou City.

Pang Shigu, of course, captured Mingzhou City and successfully assisted the tens of thousands of troops that had marched north to attack Yan a year ago and returned to the capital.

In order to break out of the encirclement as much as possible, Kang Huaiying formulated strategies such as feinting to the east and attacking in the west, showing weakness to the enemy, making a scene, and escaping from the shell.

First, Bai Zisheng launched a fierce attack to the southeast, making the Liang army think that he was going to break out in the direction of Weizhou.

First show the enemy your weak troops and feint to the northwest, so that the enemy can confirm that you will attack from the southeast and that this place is just a minor force.

But he knew very well that Pang Shigu was a famous general and would not fall into his trap easily.

So he attacked the northwest again, and led his troops to attack the northwest personally, while withdrawing Meng Zisheng's troops from the southeast.

This made Pang Shigu think he had guessed his plan.

But the real direction is north towards Zhao State.

First, use Mencius to take the enemy by surprise, tear open a gap, maintain the gap, then let the wounded in the city pass through quickly, and wait for your own troops to arrive, then reunite and retreat together.

If his guess was correct, the sun was setting at this time, which would greatly increase the possibility of their own soldiers escaping. Although there were only more than a thousand people around them now.

But most of the time, because they got separated and crossed the river from different ferry points, they agreed to meet in Ping'en County.

According to his estimate, about 7,000 people could escape.

By then, these more than 7,000 people will become elite soldiers who have experienced many battles. With them as the backbone, after a short period of training, they can easily organize another 30,000-strong army.

October 13

Luo Hongxin defeated Zhu Yougui in Caizhou City and occupied Caizhou.

Zhu Yougui fled in a panic across the south bank of the Huai River and returned to Xiangyang from Shen.

15th

Le Fuyi, the governor of Chenzhou of Liang, who had held out in Xiangcheng for more than a month, was defeated.

The Song army, led by Liu Guangrui, took over this somewhat dilapidated small town.

Seventeenth

Bai Jian withdrew his troops from the Observatory and appointed Yuan Ziang as the governor of Xuzhou, stationing his troops in Yangdi and continuing to use the one city and two camps built by Zhu Youzhen.

He also stationed 5,000 men in Xiangcheng to guard against Ruzhou of Liang State.

From then on, the great war between Liang, Jin and Song, which had lasted for nearly two years and affected the entire area north of the Huai River, was officially declared over.

The State of Jin recaptured Luzhou, and the State of Yan held on to Youzhou.

The State of Liang rescued the front-line army, but lost the four states of Xu, Yu, Chen and Cai.

Although the State of Song lost more than 30,000 people, it was clearly the biggest winner.

The border between Liang and Song was also shortened from the original vast five states of Zheng, Bian, Song and Ying to two states of Zheng and Xu.

Another point to mention is that the large Liang army stationed near Xiangyang was reduced to a few troops due to Zhu Yougui's disastrous defeat in Yu and Cai states.

Yang Wo, the son of the newly appointed King of Wu, Yang Xingmi, took advantage of the emptiness of Liang Xiangyang and marched westward to seize Liang's Guangzhou and Huangzhou, and then occupied the important town of Ezhou.

If the main force of Liang State in Hebei had not returned to support in time, Yang Wo might have dared to continue to march into Suizhou and target the Han River area of ​​Liang State.

What made Zhu Wen even more angry was that Gao Jichang, the King of Nanping in Jiangling, and Ma Yin, the King of Chu in Hunan, who were originally dependent on him.

Also, because he had lost the Chen and Cai areas, his prestige was greatly reduced, so he broke away from him, became independent, and controlled the Yangtze River to resist the northern troops, just like the two kings of Wu and Yue.

This meant that all areas south of Liang State, except for Xiangyang and the banks of the Han River, which were directly under its jurisdiction, were no longer under its influence.

However, Zhu Yougui suffered such a great defeat that he had to punish him, but after all, he was his own son.

Therefore, an imperial edict was issued to order Zhu Yougui to return to the capital to be punished. He was demoted from the governor of Longxiang Army and the governor of Xiangzhou to the commander-in-chief of the left and right Konghedu, commanding the two imperial guards in Luoyang.

Openly criticize and secretly protect.

As for Xiangyang, his favorite adopted son Zhu Youwen was sent to govern there and was appointed as the acting governor of Xiangzhou and the military governor of Longxiang Army, in charge of the three kingdoms of Nanping, Chu and Wu.

As for Prince Jun Zhu Youzhen, he continued to garrison Dengfeng and Liang counties, and was granted the title of governor of Xuzhou and governor of Baoguo Army to prepare for the Song army.

Also, because the Song army cut off Mingzhou this time and almost caused the entire army heading north to be wiped out, Zhu Wen made up his mind that he would never go north to attack the Yan State until Weizhou was eliminated.

At the suggestion of Prime Minister Li Zhen, Zhu Wen once again sent envoys to contact Liu Rengong and promised to marry his third daughter, Princess Jinhua, to Liu Rengong's son Liu Shouguang in order to establish a friendly relationship between the two countries.

When the envoy arrived in Youzhou, although Jin State sent troops to resolve his crisis, he knew very well that it was all driven by interests and there was no completely loyal ally in the world.

So, under the constant solicitation and promises of the envoys, Liu Rengong agreed to form an alliance with Zhu Wen and agreed to jointly resist the Jin and Song dynasties.

Because Liu Rengong sent troops to the south to annex Yichang Jiedushi Lu Yanwei, he obtained the three states of Cang, Jing and De, and connected with Dizhou, one of the only two states of the Song State north of the Yellow River.

So it bordered the State of Song for the first time, and Lu Yanwei fled to Bianzhou and joined Bai Jian's army, where he was appointed to an idle position.

(End of this chapter)