Ten miles south of Lingwu County, Zhang Zhongjian, who was sitting on a horse, looked back and saw that the county wall had disappeared from sight. He knew that further away, the Turkic cavalry would roll in like dark clouds covering the sun.
"My lord, let's set off."
The person who spoke was Tang Jian, Shi Huangmen's minister, who had recently taken up the post of Lingzhou Road Marching Commander. Zhang Zhongjian turned his head silently and followed the brigade to drive south. In front of him and behind him, there were many Tang cavalry galloping back and forth.
Zhang Zhongjian joined the army during the Sui Dynasty and fought hard for more than ten years. Before he met Li Shan, he was just a small military leader. No matter who he served, it was difficult to be promoted. On the one hand, he was from a humble background and was from the south of the Yangtze River. In the north, He has no personal connections, partly because of his ugly appearance.
Well, Yuchi Gongzong is not good either, but he comes from a famous family. Yuchi is one of the eight surnames of the Northern Wei Dynasty. There are many people in the family who have made meritorious services and have been awarded titles over the past hundred years.
For so many years, Zhang Zhongjian has been looking forward to the opportunity to command an army and make contributions, and he has indeed waited for it. Between Li Yaoshi and Li Huairen, he firmly chose the latter, so that he is now in charge of an army of more than 40,000. State army coach.
But Zhang Zhongjian knew very well that his ability to serve as the head coach was largely due to chance. His qualifications and military exploits were not convincing to the public, especially after the imperial court transferred generals from the Twelve Guards System to the north some time ago, if it were not for the Ju State Gong Tang Jian repeatedly intervened to mediate and support himself, but he was afraid that the morale of the army would be unstable.
But even so, the morale of the military is already unstable at this moment, especially Guo Xiaoke, the general manager of Lingzhou, and Hou Junji, the general of Tiance Mansion.
The former had fallen out with Zhang Zhongjian a long time ago. The conflict between them began as early as when Guo Xiaoke wrote a letter to impeach Li Shan during the Yuanzhou War... At that time, Guo Xiaoke, then the general manager of Longzhou, lost face.
Hou Junji was largely dissatisfied with Zhang Zhongjian's strategy in dealing with the Turks... He felt that the Duke of Guangling was not as good at military strategy as Wei Siwang or Zhao Guogong, but he lacked courage.
Dubu Khan led an army of 100,000 people and went south. After crossing the Yellow River, he garrisoned at the foot of Helan Mountain. When scouts came to report, there were tents like clouds and countless cattle and sheep, which was overwhelming.
Generally speaking, Lingzhou's defense is based on Lingwu County. The first line of defense is located near Huaiyuan County, which is more than ten miles south of Helan Mountain. This area can be defended against the Great Wall, which has certain advantages.
It's not that the Turkic cavalry couldn't break through the Great Wall defense line, but because the northwest at this time was not as dry as in later generations. At this moment, Chang'an was known as "Eight Rivers Surround Chang'an". With the Great Wall and several rivers, the Tang Army could weaken it to a large extent. The Turkic cavalry used large-scale detours and outflanking tactics.
Lingwu County is not too far from the Great Wall defense line. On the east bank of the Yellow River, three or four branches of the Yellow River basin, such as Qingshuigou and Anle River, merge into the Yellow River here. The main force of the Tang army is stationed nearby. On the one hand, it can Ship transportation, food and grass are safe, on the other hand, it can also be adjusted at any time according to the war situation to support the front line.
Even if the Turks could ignore the forward line of the Tang Army at the Great Wall defense line and the main force of the Tang Army in Lingwu County, it would not be easy to go around and directly attack other areas of Lingzhou and Huizhou in a large area.
Once the main force of the Tang army was bypassed, even Dubu Khan could not control his troops. A large number of Turkic cavalry must have scattered and looted. The Tang army was not like the Ming army and Song army in later generations that lacked cavalry strength. It is impossible to say that Dubu could Khan's butt is about to be stabbed by Tang Jun.
What's more, the main purpose of the Turkic invasion to the south is food, grass and population, both of which are to be brought back to the grassland. With these, the speed and flexibility of the Turkic cavalry will be greatly affected. It is impossible for them not to consider being attacked. The main force of the Tang army in Lingwu County, which he had bypassed, attacked.
Therefore, whether it is the Turks or the Liang division in previous years, if they want to plunder Lingzhou, Huizhou, or even invade Yuanzhou, they must defeat the Lingzhou army, otherwise they cannot safely rob and plunder...and The main reasons for the several wars last year were the two defeats of Xiangyi King Li Shenfu and Guan Guogong Rengui.
But this time Zhang Zhongjian did not choose Lingwu County. Instead, after hearing the news about the Turkic alliance, he began to retreat step by step.
At first, the generals didn't find it, but soon after, Zhang Zhongjian ordered to recruit civilians to build a stronghold near Mingsha along the Yellow River, and stationed his troops in Zhongning, south of Mingsha.
This is equivalent to saying that Zhang Zhongjian completely abandoned the Great Wall defense line.
Therefore, a large number of military lieutenant generals headed by Hou Junji and Guo Xiaoke were very dissatisfied, and even privately commented that Zhang Zhongjian was not like Wei Siwang... Well, it was true. Li Shan always tried to seize the initiative strategically, and never To shrink away.
However, Zhang Zhongjian had a lot of time. He took action more than half a month in advance when he knew that the Turkic civil strife had subsided. The main force of the Tang army, mainly infantry and archers, retreated to the Mingsha area and recruited civilians to build camps. Lingwu A large amount of baggage in the county, including grain and ordnance, was also transported to the rear and placed in Mingsha and Zhongning.
Well, this is also a big reason why Guo Xiaoke, the general manager of Lingzhou, is very, very dissatisfied... It has been a year since Guo Xiaoke was transferred to the general manager of Lingzhou, and Lingzhou's government is Lingwu County.
Guo Xiaoke was extravagant by nature, and his servants, concubines, and utensils were all decorated with splendor. Even in the frontline army, bed curtains and utensils were often decorated with gold and jade. When transportation capacity was tight, Zhang Zhongjian would not use chariots and horses to transport these things. When Tang Jian made peace, they were about to start a fight.
At the same time, Zhang Zhongjian ordered the evacuation of the residents of Lingwu County. Although there were not many residents here due to years of war, there were still thousands of households. Although Tang Jian tried his best to resettle them, he still caused a lot of trouble... This This is also one of the reasons why the ministry is dissatisfied with Zhang Zhongjian.
However, Tang Jian saw something. Zhang Zhongjian had no qualifications and his military exploits were not outstanding, but he was not a courageous person.
If Zhang Zhongjian's backing was not strong enough and he had the support of a group of generals with Wei Siwang background in the army, such as Hou Hongtao and He Liu, even with Tang Jian's mediation, he would not be able to control the Lingzhou Army... But even if In this case, Guo Xiaoke, the general manager of Lingzhou, could not hold back and sent a memorial to Chang'an.
That is to say, Zhang Zhongjian chose to stay in Lingwu County and did not withdraw to Mingsha first. Otherwise, he was afraid that the lieutenant general would be even more suspicious... I was really afraid that the Guangling County Duke Sayazi would run away, and that would be fucked.
Two days ago, the Turks launched a tentative attack. Outside the Great Wall, four thousand Turkic cavalry faced off against two thousand Tang cavalry. The two sides fought fiercely for a day, with each other suffering casualties.
Zhang Zhongjian personally led the army out of the fortress and gave an archery book to Dubu Khan... The two were considered acquaintances. After setting up a suspicious formation to buy time, Zhang Zhongjian quickly went south with the last batch of thousands of cavalry to the Mingsha Camp.
(End of chapter)
