Just when Li Daoxuan led his army to face the Tuli Khan openly in the Yanyue Formation, a Turkic division moved south along the Luliang Mountains from the westernmost side of Xinzhou.
Although there were only two thousand Turks, and although Li Daozong had made preparations in advance, the Turk cavalry was like a bolt from the blue, marching at an astonishing speed. They crossed the Fen River at noon, and an hour later they rushed to defeat more than a thousand Tang soldiers who rushed to intercept them.
Li Daozong immediately mobilized his troops after receiving the military report. He had nearly 10,000 troops in his hands. Although most of them were infantry, they may not be able to quickly wipe out the two thousand Turks, but they would definitely be able to block the opponent's march route.
The reason why Li Daozong stationed his troops in Yangqu County was, on the one hand, to support Hezhuang Pass, and on the other hand, to ensure that the Turks would not detour to attack Li Daoxuan's rear. Therefore, Li Daozong immediately sent generals and troops to block the area around Baijing Town. , this is behind Hezhuang Pass.
However, he did not expect that the two thousand Turkic cavalry did not go directly eastward, but went straight to the hinterland of Taiyuan. Because they were marching too fast, Li Daoxuan received the military report, and the Turkic cavalry had long since escaped.
Li Daozong was a little crazy, suspecting that this group of cavalry had no specific target, but came to plunder, because the Turkic cavalry actually ran outside Yangqu County, where the heavy troops were stationed, and then went south, heading towards Jinyang along the Fen River. , Li Daozong had to send out the few cavalry in his hand, trying to entangle the Turkic cavalry, and then mobilized troops to encircle them.
But soon, Li Daozong knew that he was wrong. He sent two thousand Tang cavalry in pursuit and were ambushed by the Turks beside the Fen River. The Tang army was defeated. The Turks were able to deal with the few Tang cavalry who could keep up with his speed. Afterwards, it crossed the Fen River and quickly turned back north, passing by the east side of Yangqu County.
At this time, Li Daoxuan had completely figured out the enemy's intentions. The target of the Turkic cavalry was not Yangqu County, nor the Hezhuang Pass where the battle was going on, but Shiling Pass, which was at an angle with Hezhuang Pass.
Shiling Pass was caught off guard and was stabbed in the back by a Turk. At dusk, Shiling Pass fell and the Turkic army swarmed in.
With only two thousand partial troops, sometimes going south and sometimes going north, the Turks demonstrated the essence of cavalry to the fullest, perfectly bypassing the Tang army's military camps that looked like wooden piles one after another, resulting in a battle involving more than 100,000 troops on both sides. irreversible changes.
It cannot be said that there are many loopholes in Li Daozong's arrangement. It is really the Turks who have brought their own characteristics to the extreme. This is also because the Bingzhou Army has been weakened in the past two years... Li Daozong does not have many cavalry in his hands, and part of the original cavalry was merged into the Daizhou Army. After all, Shuozhou needed more cavalry, and some of them were transferred to Yanzhou Road. At the same time, Zhang Baoxiang, the cavalry chief, was asked to leave by Li Jing.
At present, the Bingzhou Army only has more than 5,000 cavalry, and Yangqu County has only 2,000 cavalry. The rest of the troops have to be distributed in Jinyang, Yuci and other places.
Li Daozong, who had blocked the news all day, could no longer sit still and personally led his troops to Shiling Pass. At the same time, he asked his guards to rush to Hezhuang Pass to inform Li Daoxuan and Dou Jing.
However, Shiling Pass had been captured, and it was difficult for Li Daozong to block the Turkic army pouring out from Guanmao Mountain. Fortunately, Tuli Khan did not place too much hope on this strange army, so the main force was still outside Hezhuang Pass.
Finally, after nightfall, Li Daoxuan had to swallow this bitter drink bitterly and led his army to retreat southward for the second time in ten days.
The only option was to retreat south. Shiling Pass was captured. The Turkic cavalry would soon circle to the north of Hezhuang Pass. If not, more than 10,000 Tang troops would be attacked from both sides and be blocked here.
The Tang army set up a dummy camp and retreated south overnight, not only to Yangqu County, but also to Jinyang along the Fen River, and Dou Jing had to burn the grain and grass in Hezhuang Pass with fire... But fortunately Yang The grain and grass in Qu County can be sent back to Jinyang by ship.
This retreat to the south was much better than the one at Yanmen Pass. Although we retreated south overnight in the dark, at least there were no Turkic cavalry coming from behind with swords to kill, so it was relatively smooth.
However, the Daizhou Army and Bingzhou Army stationed in Yangqu County and Hezhuang Pass had more than 10,000 infantry. Their speed was not fast, and the ships could not hold many infantry.
On September 28, Tuli Khan discovered something unusual in the Tang camp. After discovering that the Tang army had retreated south, he immediately led his troops to pursue it and caught up with some of the Tang army's infantry and cover thirty miles south of Yangqu County. There are more than a thousand Tang cavalry.
Li Daoxuan, who was continuously chased by Tuli Khan, felt his heart bleed. He ordered his infantry to form an array along Fenshui. The formation was somewhat like the Yanyue Formation, and some was like the Queyue Formation.
The Tang army, which had perfectly withstood the Turkic attack yesterday, lost the cover of its chariots. The Turkic cavalry was sometimes covered with rain of arrows, and sometimes rushed into the formation at a faster speed. Although Li Daozong led his troops to help, and Yuci and Jinyang also sent troops, Tuli could Khan still had the upper hand in terms of strength.
Moreover, it is located in the hinterland of Taiyuan, which is mostly plains. The advantage of the cavalry is too great. Tuli Khan divided his troops to confront Li Daozong, and at the same time attacked the Tang army blocked by the Fen River. Li Daoxuan led his army to fight fiercely until dusk, and was finally defeated by the Turks.
The Tang troops fled in all directions, and were easily chopped down and poked down by the Turkic cavalry. Many Tang soldiers had no choice but to jump into the Fen River, a few of them were rescued by boats, and the rest could only hope to swim across the Fen River... But the Turks... Standing on the shore, he set up his bow and fired arrows. The turbid river water was soon mixed with blood, and corpses floated on the river.
After a disastrous defeat, Li Daoxuan, who broke out and fled back to Jinyang, suffered six wounds. Faced with the safety of his cousin Li Daozong, he went from being stunned to crying, and finally fell to the ground in dizziness.
Ten days ago, the Daizhou Army was still the strongest army in the world, with more than 50,000 troops. But now, there are still a few thousand cavalry left. After all, the two spurs retreated south. The cavalry was fast, but most of the infantry collapsed, leaving only two More than a thousand, which means that the Daizhou Army lost at least 80% of its strength within ten days.
Although it is impossible for all of them to be killed or captured by the Turks, the Tang soldiers who have lost their organizational structure will be easily defeated by the Turks in the next war. How could this not make Li Daoxuan heartbroken?
Although he knew that the two disastrous defeats were caused by the two retreats to the south, the former due to Pang Yu's loss of Feihu Trail, and the latter due to Li Daozong's failure to guard against the Turks' sneak attack on Shiling Pass, Li Daoxuan still found it difficult to accept such a result.
At this point, the situation has returned to the situation before Li Shan took office a few years ago. The Tang army defended Jinyang and Yuci with heavy troops, but this time Tuli Khan will no longer sit in Xinzhou like Jieli Khan did. , commanding his troops to plunder various places.
This time the Turks' southern invasion had a strong political meaning.
Li Daozong understood this truth, so although his expression was calm, it was full of sadness, "Let Daoxuan recover from his injuries, and Zhigui will take care of him."
"Yes." Zhang Wenguan, who was forcibly sent to Taiyuan by Li Shan not long ago, responded. Recalling what he saw and heard during his time in Daizhou, he couldn't help but feel sad. When the battle report came to Beijing, Dai Di was in ruins, and Daizhou was built by himself. Although the army has not been completely wiped out, it is not much better. Brother Huai Ren will definitely be furious.
(End of chapter)
