Country color

Chapter 488
After Zhuge Dewei, the guard of Raoyang in Hejian County, surrendered to Zhao, Liu Heitai's defense in Hejian County was already in a precarious situation.

General Xu Shiji of the northern line still led his army to surround Gaoyang and attack outside. Hearing that Li Chongjiu had gone straight down the river, he had penetrated deep into Mingzhou, directly behind Liu Jun's hinterland.Now let Yinghefu and Ertuo lead [-] prairie cavalry to bypass Gaoyang City, connect to Raoyang City, go straight to Xindu County, and support Li Chongjiu's main force of the navy who is under Daming City.

The guards of Wuyi, Wucheng, and Zongcheng in Xindu County are almost about to collapse. They just passed through the territory of Li Chongjiu's navy two days ago.

But this time Li Chongjiu's [-] Prairie Fanqi swaggered past the city again.

After several years of the Central Plains Raiders, the Grassland Fanjun is also very familiar with it, and has several big sacks in the Central Plains.

It was almost September at this time, outside the countryside of Wuyang County, it was the time when the sorghum was ripe.Fanqi saw that the defenders in the city had nothing to do, so they went directly to fetch food from the city.In Xindu County, a small town like Rubo and Yicheng has long been unable to bear it. Before the grassland horses came to rob the city, the county magistrate and county lieutenant in the city offered the city to surrender.
The reason why they took the initiative to dedicate the city was because Yinghefu and Ertuo had already issued strict orders to Fanqi that they were not allowed to attack and harass the surrendered cities, but they did not include other enemy cities.Therefore, Fanqi boldly crossed the border like locusts under the unfallen city of Xia Jun to harvest the enemy's food.

Seeing this, other generals of the Xia army who were instigated by Zhang Xuansu also surrendered one after another.

Except for Changle and Wuyi in Xindu County, big cities like Wuyi are still holding on. In just a few days, two-thirds of the other counties have fallen.

In the end, Yinghefu's cavalry even went deep into Xiangguo County where Li Shentong was stationed to collect food.Li Tang's defenders wanted to fight back, but they were defeated by the prairie cavalry, and even the county town was simply broken by the Shidexi cavalry who were red-eyed.

The situation in the north was progressing smoothly, and the army going south was also progressing smoothly. After Cheng Mingzhen was captured, it was meaningless for the Xia army in Guantao City to hold on.

The current county magistrate and county lieutenant and Li Chongjiu, a gentry in the city, offered the city.

Li Chongjiu stopped outside Guantao City for a while to appease the local gentry, leaving a school lieutenant and [-] soldiers to assist in defending the city, and led the army to continue boarding the ship.Because Guantao was breached, and then Linqing City, the prefecture of Qinghe County, Wang Xiaohu also surrendered to Li Chongjiu.

The capture of Linqing and the second city of Guantao opened up the defense line in the east of Mingzhou and made the waterway unimpeded.

Li Chongjiu ordered Li Wenxiang to lead an army to Mingshui City with [-] troops from his headquarters, while threatening the important town on the north wing of Yongnian City and recruiting and surrendering the counties in Wu'an County.Then Luo Shixin was ordered to lead [-] cavalry to go south along the canal, heading towards Neihuang, and echoed with Yu Wenhua and the army in Liyangcang.

As for Li Chongjiu personally leading the main force of 5000 people to land north of Daming, the defenders of Daming City of the Xia Army did not dare to go out to fight.

At present Li Chongjiu led the army directly to the Daming City, and the soldiers in the city saw that the canal was full of Zhao Jun's ships, and the river was full of people. It was shocking that 300 of the [-] defenders fled overnight.

The city general was also in a dilemma, thinking whether to follow Linqing, Guantao surrendered, but when he heard that Liu Heita had led the main force back to Mingzhou from Xindu, he immediately gave up his mind.

Liu Hekai led his army out of Mingzhou, and the main force of Xia's army of 3 came straight to Daming.

This is the first confrontation between Li Chongjiu and Liu Heitai. Li Chongjiu certainly knows that Liu Heitai is about to repel Yu Chigong at this moment.At the beginning, Yu Chigong arranged the bait in advance to lure Liu Heita away from the important area of ​​Mingzhou, so that Li Chongjiu's boat master could go straight down.

However, in the battle between Yu Chigong and Liu Heita, he was defeated and retreated to Zhao County. You must know that although Liu Heita had the upper hand in strength, Yu Chigong's troops were all from Taiyuan County's government army, and they were Li Chongjiu's elite.In the end, Yu Chigong was not equal to Liu Heitai. Although the Xia army was superior in number, it also showed that the Xia army's combat power was really good.
But now Liu Heita came here in order to preserve Mingzhou, and he is aggressive, so it is not easy to fight Li Chongjiu to decide the outcome.

After hearing the news, Li Chongjiu immediately led his army back [-] miles under Daming City, and immediately chose a place [-] miles north of Daming City to camp.

Li Chongjiu had only set up his camp for a while, and he saw the north from a distance, and the smoke and dust were rising.Liu Heita led the main force of the Xia army to attack, but Li Chongjiu's barracks failed, and the soldiers couldn't help showing panic.

The bitter wind by the river roared and circled on the plain.

Li Chongjiu looked up and saw dense black clouds in the north, and the flags planted in various places of the camp were crackling in the wind.A black line in the distance, like a high tide flood, is slowly approaching, it is Liu Heita's army.

Facing the menacing Liu Heitai army, Li Chongjiu discussed with the generals how to retreat from the enemy.
Ji Chuan said: "Liu Heitai's army is fighting fast, if we can't defeat our army within a few days, Governor Xu and Prairie Jingqi will go straight down from Hejian Xindu, and Liu Heitai will fall into the trap. The situation where the enemy is on the front and rear. Therefore, our army is in a slow war."

According to Ji Chuan's words, all the generals agreed that Li Chongjiu's attack on Xia State this time was a strategy of splitting up and attacking together.

Compared with the tactics of massing troops and advancing frontally, dividing and attacking together is more risky. If the various regiments do not cooperate properly, it is easy to commit the risk of advancing alone and defeating the enemy one by one.But if Li Chongjiu wants to seize Hebei, he just doesn't want to fall into a protracted advancing battle. Otherwise, if he fights with Liu Heitai for a city and a place, even if he fights with Xia Jun for a year or two, he will win, but Li Tang will destroy Wang Shichong Finally, clean up yourself, the ending is the same.

Ji Chuan said: "Liu Heita now defeated Yu Chigong in Xindu, and returned to his army to fight against our army. Time is precious, but as long as the battle is a draw, our army is victorious. But our army also has disadvantages. , The lone army goes thousands of miles away, once defeated here, the whole army will be destroyed."

All the generals were solemn when they heard it.

Xue Wan said: "That's right, the current situation of the Battle of Daming is related to the victory of Hebei. If our army wants to compete with Li Tang for the world, we must defeat Liu Heita and sweep Hebei within this year. Therefore, it is urgent from the perspective of the overall situation of the world. , but Liu Heitai used one army alone to counter our army's simultaneous advances, and its advantage lies in the speedy battle, so we should slow down from the perspective of the situation in Hebei."

Xue Wanche said: "Think of defending before fighting. Don't you think that our army and Liu Heitai can be satisfied if we can draw a tie? Haven't you heard that the method is the best, and you can only win one of them. Liu Heitai is eager to fight, and I will be determined." The army must adopt a defensive posture, if we attack aggressively, our army will blindly defend, but we will be at a disadvantage."

Li Chongjiu said: "General Xue is right."

After listening to Li Chongjiu's approval, Xue Wanche said: "For a while, I have both offensive and defensive capabilities, and I can defeat Liu Heita." At this point, Xue Wanche looked at Zhang Xuansu and said: "I heard that Zhang Shilang knows astronomy and geography at the bottom, Horse battle formations are all good, but is there a strange formation in his chest that can defeat Liu Jun?"

Zhang Xuansu knew that Xue Wanche was not angry, and he had plucked his face in front of Li Chongjiu yesterday, so he came to save face.

Zhang Xuansu said: "General Xue's ridiculous praise, Zhang is ashamed and dare not take it. But at this moment, Zhang happened to think for a while, I wonder if it coincides with General Xue?"

Xue Wanche laughed and said, "That's a coincidence."

Ji Chuan watched coldly from the side and said, "That's easy, just take a pen and write in the palm of your hand, and see if the two coincide with each other?"

Speaking of this, Zhang Xuansu and Xue Wanche each wrote in their palms, and opened their palms to look at each other, but saw that Xue Wanche wrote the word "Queyue", while Zhang Xuansu had the word "Liu Yu" written in his hand.

When the two saw each other, they realized that they really coincided with each other, and immediately clapped their hands and laughed.

For example, Wang Mahan and other generals did not know what to do. It turns out that what Zhang Xuansu and Xue Wanshu discussed was exactly what Emperor Wu of the Southern Dynasty Liu Yu led his navy to the Northern Expedition. Things.

At present, Li Chongjiu ordered Xue Wanche and Wang Mahan to deploy [-] elite soldiers in the west of the river, embracing the river at both ends, with the river bank as the string of the moon.Ten thousand elite soldiers lined up a hundred paces away from the river, forming a front line more than two miles wide, with trenches, carbine guns, and horse ropes instead of chariot formations, and the rest of the infantry were behind them with bows and crossbows.

The Queyue formation was placed outside the canal, relying on boats as the city wall, and lined up with their backs, while the rest of the troops retreated to the boats.
This time, in order to attack Mingzhou, Li Chongjiu carried countless siege crossbows and eight-point cannons. These siege weapons that could shoot hundreds of steps were all placed on the boats.Now it is also placed on the deck of the big ship, across it.The soldiers adjusted their crossbows and aimed at a hundred paces away.

At this time, Liu Heitai's 3 troops had already rushed to the river, and saw the scene of Zhao Jun lining up by the river.

Liu Heikai ordered the army to slow down. Seeing the scene of Zhao Jun lining up on the river, a trace of vigilance arose in his heart after a long battle.

His younger brother Liu Shishan said: "General Zhao is not a person who does not know the art of war. If he spreads his men and horses on such a wide front, once our army makes a breakthrough, he will be cut in two."

"That's not the case. The enemy army relies on boats and ships to build the city, which is equivalent to defending the city and placing soldiers under the city wall to confront our army."

"So that's how it is," Liu Shishan suddenly realized.

Ling Jing said at the side: "If what I expected is correct, Zhao Jun's deployment here is the Queyue Formation that Liu Yu's Northern Expedition broke Wei."

Liu Heita said humbly: "Brother Ling, please speak for me."

Ling Jing said: "Ling is ashamed, it's just a guess. I heard that the formation is a march, cavalry, and the navy's three armies are combined to form a backwater formation. Back then, Liu Yu defeated the 2000 elite cavalry in the Northern Wei Dynasty with more than [-] people. It's just However, no one can see the Moon Formation except Liu Yu. I don’t believe that General Zhao can form this formation. I guess it’s just under the guise of his name.”

"Ha," Zhang Junli laughed, and said disapprovingly, "If there is such a powerful formation, then why should our army fight?"

Liu Heita heard the words, but his expression was solemn, and he fell into deep thought.

(End of this chapter)