Yang Peng asked the scout: "Where are General Liu Xi's troops?"
The scout reported: "General Liu's army has passed Yongchuan and is heading towards Gongzhou." Gongzhou is now Chongqing City, and Yongchuan is now Yongchuan County, a hundred miles west of Chongqing.
Yang Peng said to Wang Kai: "Take out the map." Wang Kai promised, summoned several soldiers to take out the map, and unfolded the map in front of Yang Peng. Zhan Jinguo and Yuan Jue came to Yang Peng and looked at the map together. Yuan Jue, deputy commander of the Ninth Legion and cavalry commander. Friends who have read the previous article should know him. He is a warrior under the original Mingjiao. After Fang Jinzhi defected to Yanyun, Yuan Jue and many other warriors under the former Mingjiao joined. He defeated the Yanyun Army and made countless contributions to the Yanyun Army.
Yang Peng looked at the map for a moment, frowned slightly, and murmured: "Cao Yong captured Fuzhou, and the army attacked along the Minjiang River. This is too unexpected!"
Zhan Jinguo and Yuan Jue didn't understand what Yang Peng meant and looked at each other.
Yang Peng thought for a moment, then his eyes left Gongzhou and moved around a wider area. After a while, he raised his head and asked the scout: "Who is closer to Gongzhou, General Liu Xi or the enemy?" The scout reported: "Both sides are about the same distance from Gongzhou. I can't say who is closer!" Yang Peng turned around and walked to Shuai. Before pressing the button, he took out a command arrow and threw it to the scout, and said: "Immediately send an order to Liu Xi to capture Gongzhou before the enemy! After capturing Gongzhou, defend on the spot and do not attack rashly! If the enemy has captured Gongzhou first, Prefecture, the army immediately retreated to Yongchuan and Jiangjin to prevent the enemy from continuing to advance westward. Likewise, we must not rashly engage the enemy!" The scout clasped his fists in agreement and retreated.
Zhan Jinguo couldn't help but ask: "Brother, why don't you let General Liu Xi fight the enemy?" Yuan Jue also looked puzzled.
Yang Peng said: "Liu Xi is not Cao Yong's opponent, it is better to let him be more careful." Both Zhan Jinguo and Yuan Jue felt that Yang Peng was right and nodded involuntarily. Yuan Jue said: "Defeating Cao Yong depends on King Yan and us!" Yang Peng said: "We are not going to Gongzhou." The two generals showed surprise.
Both the Hanzhong Army and the Song Army led by Liu Xi were advancing rapidly towards Gongzhou. The two armies were moving through the high mountains and ridges, like two giant dragons facing each other. The loud rumbling echoed among the steep mountains and rivers. Yu Qing, the prefect of Gongzhou, learned that the two armies were advancing towards his Gongzhou. He couldn't help but be at a loss and didn't know what to do! After thinking about it, he felt that no matter which side he went to, he simply opened the city gate and called on the people to flee to the nearby mountains for a while. For a while, tens of thousands of Gongzhou people rushed to the city gate with their families and fled to the nearby mountains. In the mountains; Yu Qing himself abandoned the government office and fled Gongzhou with his family and official seal.
One day later, when the two armies approached Gongzhou, they saw that the gate of Gongzhou was open and the streets were in a mess and silent, as if it had become an empty city.
Immediately, scouts from both sides detected the news that the other side was approaching Gongzhou. The leading generals from both sides felt that the situation was urgent and quickly ordered the forwards to enter the city! Thousands of forwards from both sides poured into the city from the east and west gates, met on the street, and a battle immediately started. The originally silent city suddenly became noisy. Soldiers were seen fighting in a melee, blood and flesh were flying everywhere, and arrows were flying in the sky. The two sides were fighting inextricably, and no one could do anything about the other for a while!
Immediately, armies from both sides also entered the city, and melees broke out in the streets and alleys. Roars and screams came one after another. Corpses were piled in the streets and ditches were filled with blood! One moment, the Song army attacked the Yanyun army formation, and the next moment, the Yanyun army mopped up the Song army. You came and I went, swords flashed, arrows rained, blood flew, and the fight was inextricable!
The two sides fought fiercely for half a day. As the sun set, Liu Xi's general Li Tai led an elite force from outside the north city to the side of the Song army and suddenly attacked. The Song army was caught off guard, and its flanks were immediately shaken. Seeing that the situation was not good, Xue Tongshan quickly retreated. The Yanyun army drove the Song army out of the city and immediately closed the city gates on all sides. Although the Song army retreated, they camped on the mountain outside the city, facing Gongzhou from afar.
Liu Xi won a victory and was very excited. He said to the generals: "Take a rest tonight and leave the city early tomorrow morning to defeat the enemy in one fell swoop!"
General Zhou Xu said quickly: "General, King Yan's order is that we stick to Gongzhou and not go to war without authorization. If we go to war without authorization, I'm afraid the military law will be ruthless!"
Liu Xi said angrily: "How could I not know about King Yan's military order? However, I will not accept your fate. The opportunity is right in front of me. How can we miss it? King Yan will not blame us! I have decided that early tomorrow morning, When the army leaves the city to sweep away the enemy, we must succeed in one fell swoop!" All the generals agreed together.
At the same time, Yang Peng, Zhan Jinguo, and Yuan Jue led seven thousand war cavalry and were marching hard in the high mountains. In such terrain, the advantage of the cavalry was not too great.
Seven thousand men and horses marched hard all night in the high mountains. In the early morning, the army walked out of the high mountains and came to a flat basin. Yang Peng saw that the soldiers and horses were very tired, so he ordered: "Rest on the spot for two hours!" The soldiers breathed a sigh of relief, got off their horses one after another, some fed the horses, and some took out dry food and water to eat and drink. Some of them grabbed their horses' reins and lay down on the spot. After a while, they started snoring like thunder.
Yang Peng asked Wang Kai and several secret guards to unfold the map. Two hidden killers lit two torches and stood on the left and right sides of the map. Yang Peng pointed to a location on the map, then looked at the surrounding terrain, and said, "We should be in Hongliu Valley now." Zhan Jinguo and Yuan Jue nodded. Yang Peng asked Yuan Jue: "Have the scouts come back?" Yuan Jue shook his head and said: "Not yet." Yang Peng frowned slightly, signaled Wang Kai to put away the map, and said to the two generals: "You take the time to rest, as soon as dawn comes We’re on our way again!” The two generals clasped their fists together and said, “Brother (King Yan) please rest, we’ll be on guard!”
The next morning, the army continued on its way. At ten minutes at noon, there was still no report from the scouts. Yang Peng was still calm, but Yuanjue and Zhan Jinguo became a little anxious. Yuan Jue couldn't help but said: "King Yan, did we make a mistake in judgment?" Although Yang Peng remained calm, he was actually a little worried: If he made a mistake in judgment, Liu Xi would be in danger! If Liu Xi's army is defeated, things will be serious!
At this moment, the sound of rapid horse hooves came from behind. Everyone turned around and saw a herald galloping towards them. Zhan Jinguodao said: "It must be the battle report from Liu Xi!" The herald galloped to Yang Peng, reined in the horse suddenly, turned over and dismounted, knelt down and said: "Report to King Yan, there is an urgent military situation!" Then he took off the bamboo tube on his back and raised his hands high. Wang Kai took the bamboo tube and presented it to Chen Xiao.
Yang Peng picked up the bamboo tube, quickly opened the seal, unscrewed the lid, and poured out a letter. He handed the bamboo tube to Zhan Jinguo next to him, opened the letter, took out the letter paper, unfolded it and read it again. With Yang Peng's determination, he couldn't help but his expression changed slightly, but he regained his composure in the blink of an eye. Yang Peng put away the letter, told Wang Kai to prepare pen, ink, paper and inkstone, and then got off his horse. Wang Kai quickly prepared pen, ink, paper and inkstone. Yang Peng wrote a letter, put it in an envelope, handed it to Wang Kai, and ordered: "Seal it." Wang Kai immediately ordered someone to bring clay and bamboo tubes to seal the letter. Put the bamboo tube into it, screw on the lid, and press the sealing mud on it. After all this is done, hand the bamboo tube to Yang Peng.
Yang Peng handed the bamboo tube to the herald and said: "Pass it to Liu Xi immediately!" The herald promised, took the bamboo tube with both hands, stepped back to his horse, put the bamboo tube on his back, got on the horse, turned the horse's head, Speeding away.
Yang Peng ordered the army to rest temporarily, and then walked to a big camphor tree with Zhan Jinguo and Yuan Jue. Yang Peng said: "The military report we just received said that Liu Xi rushed out of the city to attack, and was ambushed by the Song army. He suffered a lot of losses, and the Song army almost captured Gongzhou."
Zhan Jinguo and Yuan Jue were taken aback. Zhan Jinguo couldn't help but cursed: "What did he do? Didn't his elder brother tell him not to go to war rashly? Why did he go to war rashly?" Yang Peng shook his head and said: "This I can’t blame him entirely! I just gave a general order and didn’t strictly order him not to go into battle. The general will not accept the order of the emperor. He makes judgments based on what he sees and then takes action. This is also the quality that a general should have! It’s just that my opponent’s skills are superior!”
Yuan Jue frowned and said: "The opponent is so cunning. Is our judgment really wrong? Cao Yong did not want to attack Chengdu directly from the direction of Hezhou with a surprise force, but instead used all his troops to attack along the Minjiang River?"
Yang Peng thought: "I also have this suspicion!"
At about the same time, 30,000 elite Song troops led by Cao Yong suddenly appeared outside Hezhou City, like divine soldiers descending from heaven. The Hezhou officials were so frightened that they did not dare to resist and quickly opened the city to surrender. Cao Yong immediately left 3,000 troops to guard Hezhou, while he led the main force to continue the journey to Chengdu.
The general Cao Yong left behind to guard Hezhou was named Sun Qi. He was a very talented general under Cao Yong. Because of this, he was left by Cao Yong to guard Hezhou, a key node on the retreat. Sun Qi stayed in Hezhou and made peace with the people. He committed no crime in Minqiu. He also frequently entertained local gentry and literary figures and asked them to help stabilize the situation. The local people had a very good impression of Sun Qi. Some gentry and literary figures even wrote poems praising Sun Qi. and Cao Yong.
That night, Sun Qi was discussing matters with his generals. Suddenly the herald arrived and reported excitedly: "General Qi, the general has captured Puzhou!" Between Chengdu and Hezhou, there was Jian Jian. Prefecture and Puzhou are about the same distance from Chengdu to Jianzhou, from Jianzhou to Puzhou, and from Puzhou to Hezhou. The four cities are almost on a line. Cao Yong conquered Puzhou and was closer to Chengdu.
When Sun Qi heard that Puzhou had been captured, he was very excited and said: "The general's clever plan caught Yan Yun's army off guard! I believe that the general can conquer Chengdu in one fell swoop!" All the generals also agreed excitedly. Sun Qi glanced at the generals and said: "The Yanyun Army will learn the news soon, and then divide their troops to seize Hezhou. You must defend carefully and never be careless!" All the generals agreed in unison.
After Cao Yong led his army to conquer Puzhou, he captured the prefect of Puzhou and executed his entire family on charges of treason. He then left three thousand troops to guard Puzhou while he led the main force to continue marching towards Jianzhou.
The news that Cao Yong was approaching Chengdu reached Chengdu, and the whole city immediately boiled. The civilians who had just received land from Yan Yun's army were nervous, but the gentry and squires seemed to have been given a shot in the arm, and they were all excited. stand up. Many gentry and gentry secretly contacted Cao Yong and planned to cooperate inside and outside to help Cao Yong liberate Chengdu from Yan Yun's army.
The atmosphere in the restaurant and teahouse was completely different from before, becoming a little depressing and tense. The drinkers standing by the window suddenly stood up, pointing outside, and talking about it. When other drinkers saw this, they also rushed over curiously. I saw an army of Yanyun marching out of the city along the street outside the restaurant.
A drinker asked curiously: "Where are they going?" A middle-aged man who looked like a businessman said: "I heard that the Song army led by Cao Yong has conquered Puzhou, and Jianzhou is about to be lost. General Huyan will show off. Lead the army to fight!"
A drinker who looked like a farmer said worriedly: "I don't know if General Huyan Bixian can resist it!" A young man wearing a Confucian shirt next to him laughed mockingly and said in a strange way: "General Cao Yong has been on a roll all the way. In such a short period of time, They are already approaching Chengdu, how can Huyan Bixian resist it? I see, Chengdu is so terrible!" When the drinkers heard this, some were really happy and some were sad! This situation spread throughout Chengdu. Many people who had just received the land deeds from Yan Yun's army quietly returned the land deeds to the gentry and gentry. The gentry and gentry were very powerful. Although the Song army had not yet entered Chengdu, they His speech and behavior have begun to become arrogant!
Cao Yong led the army to march to the gate of Jianzhou City, and the prefect of Jianzhou immediately opened the city to welcome him. Cao Yong's army rested for a while in Jianzhou and then immediately marched towards Chengdu. Two days later, 24,000 elites led by Cao Yong encountered Lingquan County between Chengdu and Jianzhou, and a war broke out between the two sides.
Cao Yong took the lead and led the elite to attack the Yanyun Army's front line. This was the first time that Cao Yong truly faced Yanyun's main army. The Song Army soldiers were like wild waves and storms, rushing into the Yanyun Army's defense line one after another! However, the Yanyun Army's defense line was as firm as a rock. Every charge of the Song Army seemed to be able to push mountains and fill ravines, but every time it was smashed to pieces in front of the Yanyun Army's front!
Cao Yong frowned when he saw that his soldiers could not break through the Yanyun Army's defense line and suffered heavy losses. At this moment, the war drums on the opposite side suddenly rumbled loudly. Cao Yong was startled, and saw his opponent's front line open. Under the cover of a strong rain of arrows, the enemy troops wearing heavy armor and holding long knives like iron towers ran into his own army. They roared and danced their swords like gods of death, and their own army was full of flesh and blood. fly! However, the soldiers of the Song Army were not afraid and continued to attack like crazy. However, they were unable to stop the opponent's advance. Those terrifying iron tower warriors stepped on the bloody corpses and killed them step by step. Although the soldiers of the Song Army did not care about life and death, But they couldn't resist at all, and they fell into a pool of blood one after another!
Seeing that the battle situation was unfavorable, Cao Yong immediately handed over the command to his deputy general. He personally commanded 500 elite troops, left the brigade, and charged at the flank of Yanyun's army diagonally. This time, Yan Yun's army was caught off guard, and the Chinese army's formation wavered. At the critical moment, Hu Yanbing showed his troops and launched an elite counterattack. The two sides fought bloody battles, just like two groups of ferocious beasts fighting for their lives. The soldiers of both sides fell into a pool of blood as flesh and blood flew everywhere! The officers and soldiers of the Yanyun Army were certainly very brave, but the officers and soldiers of the Song Army were also extremely sharp!
The two sides fought bloody battles for more than two quarters of an hour, and the Song army finally had to retreat due to insufficient strength. Cao Yong was stabbed twice and shot once, and his armor was stained red with blood, but he seemed to feel nothing.
Cao Yong looked at the front battlefield and saw that although his own soldiers were still fighting desperately, they could not resist the opponent's Mo Dao army. The whole army was about to collapse! Cao Yong frowned, knowing that nothing could be done. He couldn't help but sigh, and decisively ordered the dead soldiers to retreat and the army to retreat.
The main force of the Song army broke away from the battle, but hundreds of dead soldiers rushed towards Yan Yun's army like hundreds of tigers! Yan Yun's army had no time to pursue the enemy and used all its strength to kill the enemy's dead soldiers! The scene was full of blood and flesh, and the battle was extremely brutal! Half an hour later, all five hundred dead soldiers were killed, and Yan Yunxiaorui actually paid the price of more than 300 dead soldiers!
General Yan Yun looked at the dead soldiers of the Song army who fought unyieldingly and stained the battlefield with blood. He was filled with admiration and could not help but give them a military salute. Then Huyan Bixian led his army to pursue the enemy.
Cao Yong led his troops back more than ten miles, relied on the terrain to form an array, and fought another battle with Yan Yun's army. Seeing Yan Yun's army attacking like a landslide and tsunami, although his soldiers tried their best, they still could not resist and were defeated. Come. Cao Yong knew that he could not defeat the Yanyun army in front of him, so he gave up his original plan and led his army to retreat. At the same time, he continued to send small troops to intercept the pursuing Yanyun army.
When the good news came to Chengdu, people who were originally worried couldn't help but heaved a sigh of relief and smiled. Many people couldn't help but set off firecrackers, and Chengdu suddenly became as lively as the New Year. However, the nobles and squires who were eagerly anticipating the arrival of the Song army all seemed to have heard a thunderbolt from the blue. Their faces turned pale, and many people could not help but curse Cao Yong.
Cao Yong led his army to retreat all the way to the foot of Jianzhou City. The prefect of Jianzhou had already learned of Cao Yong's defeat, so he closed the city gate tightly and did not allow Cao Yong to enter the city. Cao Yong didn't have time to teach this capricious villain, so he immediately bypassed Jianzhou and retreated to Puzhou. It was already midnight when we retreated into Puzhou City.
Cao Yong and others were sitting in the lobby of Puzhou Government Office. A bonfire was lit in the middle of the lobby. The firelight reflected everyone's faces, making them look gloomy. The atmosphere in the lobby was very depressing. Cao Yong let out a long sigh and said with emotion: "Failure of success, failure of success! Yanyun Army is indeed worthy of its reputation!"
A general clasped his fists and asked, "General, what should we do now?"
Cao Yong frowned and said: "The matter has come to this, there is only one way to retreat!" The generals felt very regretful, but they also knew that the only way to retreat is now. As far as the current situation is concerned, if the retreat is slower, the whole army may be destroyed. Overturned!
Suddenly, there were rapid footsteps outside the door, and everyone couldn't help but look outside the door, only to see a dusty herald running in hastily. The herald rushed to the hall, knelt down on one knee, and said anxiously: "General, it's bad, Fuzhou has been lost!"
As soon as these words came out, all the generals in the hall were shocked. One general couldn't help shouting: "Fuzhou has been lost! This is impossible!" The other generals also talked about it, and the hall was noisy. Cao Yong frowned and shouted: "Quiet!" The generals closed their mouths and the hall became quiet.
Cao Yong asked the herald: "You mean Fuzhou was lost? Are you right?"
The messenger hurriedly said: "The villain is talking about Fuzhou! The villain escaped from Fuzhou City with General Li. General Li ordered the villain to travel all the way to report to the general!" The general Li in the messenger's mouth is called Li Tongjiang. , is a general who stayed in Fuzhou under the order of General Wu Lin.
Cao Yong's mind couldn't turn around for a while. He really couldn't figure out how the Yanyun Army captured Fuzhou? At this time, the herald continued: "The ones who captured Fuzhou were cavalry, with almost ten thousand cavalry, and the leader was the King of Yan himself!" Cao Yong was surprised: "The King of Yan himself?" The herald nodded.
Cao Yong quickly ordered his soldiers to open the map. After reading the map carefully, Cao Yong looked between Hezhou and Gongzhou and frowned: "There is a Fujiang River between Hezhou and Gongzhou. The river is fast and the mountains on both sides are steep. How could they bypass the army in front of us and attack Fuling directly? Where did they bypass it?" Cao Yong doesn't know now. In fact, the 7,000 cavalry led by Yang Peng went around in a big circle. The route between Puzhou and Hezhou went around to the east of Hezhou, then went straight to the southwest from the east of Hezhou, crossed several rivers, and unexpectedly appeared at the foot of Fuzhou City. When Yanyun's army invaded Fuzhou City, the enemy troops in Fuzhou had not yet reacted.
A general said anxiously: "General, how the Yanyun Army got around it is not important now! Now that the Yanyun Army has captured Fuzhou, it is equivalent to cutting off our army's retreat. We have to find a way. !”
Another general said: "Recapture Fuzhou with all your strength immediately!"
Cao Yong frowned and shook his head: "No! Nearly ten thousand Yanyun elites are defending Fuzhou. Even if our army attacks with all our strength, we can't capture it! Besides, Liu Xi's Yanyun army is in Gongzhou. If our army attacks Fuzhou, he We must go for reinforcements, otherwise we might not be able to seize Fuzhou, but we will fall into a tight siege by the enemy!" The generals felt that what the general said was reasonable, and they couldn't help but become more uneasy, feeling that their own side seemed to have become a turtle in the urn.
Suddenly something happened to Cao Yong, and he hurriedly said to the herald: "Immediately rush to General Xue's camp and order him not to return to capture Fuzhou. Immediately send your army north to join our army in Hezhou!" The herald agreed. With a cry, he ran down. Wu Lin then said to the generals: "The situation is urgent now. The whole army sets off to Hezhou overnight!" The generals agreed in unison, but they didn't know what to do in Hezhou. Now that Fuzhou has been captured, he has become a turtle in the urn. Okay, can we get out of trouble by going to Hezhou?
What happened after all, let’s see what happens next.
