Fuzhou City.
No matter from which aspect, it is crucial to the Shu rebels.
If they capture Fuzhou City, and the war goes well, they can go directly east and cut off Datang's territory along the Yangtze River.
Even if the war goes badly, they can still use Fuzhou City as a forward position to resist the crusade.
Anyway, this place is extremely important.
And since Li Ke can send Zhang Xiao to this place, how can Zhang Xiao himself be an incompetent person?
To put it bluntly.
Among the younger generals of the Tang Dynasty, the only one who could compete with him was Gao Zhixing.
At this moment, when Zhang Xiao heard that the messenger said that the other party was sending a cavalry of six to seven thousand people to run towards him, he just thought about it for a moment and roughly guessed Gao Zhixing's plan.
The other party sending six to seven thousand people here is definitely not going to confront us head-on.
After all, he already knows how good the opponent's leading coach is.
He also knew what kind of person Gao Zhixing was.
Therefore, he also concluded that Gao Zhixing would never do such a stupid thing.
There is only one possibility.
That is, Gao Zhixing also came in a hurry with his troops, so that he had no time to deploy Fuzhou's city defense work.
Therefore, he would send some troops to delay his own steps and buy time for the subsequent city defense work.
Thinking of this, Zhang Xiao also smiled.
I really don’t know what to say about this high level.
Has this guy forgotten that in this land of jungles and mountains, their cavalry cannot take advantage of it?
If you can't even take advantage of it, how can you stop your own side?
Zhang Xiao looked back at a general beside him and said, "Wu Qiu."
"My subordinate is here."
Wu Qiu intervened.
"They are obviously trying to stop our army now."
"But the military plane cannot be delayed. Our army must occupy Fuzhou as soon as possible."
"So, we have to have someone stand up and stop them and not give them the opportunity to harass our troops."
Zhang Xiao looked at Wu Qiu and said, "If I let you be this person, how many soldiers and horses will I give you?"
After hearing this, Wu Qiu lowered his head and thought for a moment, then said: "Eight thousand people are enough."
"Well."
"I'll give you ten thousand people."
"You take ten thousand brothers to set up defenses along the way. You must not give the enemy a chance to harass our army."
Zhang Xiao narrowed his eyes: "If it can't be done..."
He didn't finish his sentence.
But Wu Qiu already understood what he meant.
At the moment, Wu Qiu directly handed over his hand and said: "If I can't do it, I am willing to be dealt with by military law."
"good."
Zhang Xiao waved his hand and said, "Go down and get ready."
Wu Qiu did not hesitate, immediately ordered his troops and horses, and left the team.
Zhang Xiao and his party did not hesitate at all and continued to march towards Fuzhou City.
…
The other side is as high as the line.
If it is in the context of an ordinary war, or an ordinary general.
These eight thousand cavalrymen must have come to harass the enemy and delay them from running away.
But don’t forget, this is no longer an ordinary war background, and Gao Zhixing is no ordinary general.
He followed Li Chengqian all the way to where he is today.
And Li Chengqian himself is basically the bug of this era.
Following BUG, it is inevitable to find loopholes in some eras.
For example, many people don't feel that times have quietly changed since Li Chengqian fought with the Western Regions.
Don't say anything else.
Let’s just talk about the tactics of offensive and defensive battles.
Before the advent of firearms, offensive and defensive battles were an inevitable part of war.
If that city is high and the river is wide, it is a big city that is easy to defend but difficult to attack, there is no doubt about it.
But in the age of firearms, having a city high and a river wide was really useless.
There is no need to take this seriously.
Just say that when Li Chengqian was in the Western Regions, he used two thousand people to beat Jiaohe City, which was regarded as inaccessible by ten thousand people, like a sieve.
The tens of thousands of Kucha defenders were like fools under the saturation attack of artillery fire, and the city defense was more like a joke.
It was also from that moment that the era of firearms wars came towards people.
It may be difficult for ordinary people to accept it.
But as a new generation of generals and a general who grew up with Li Chengqian, Gao Zhixing had already discovered and accepted this.
In today's war, the use of firearms is definitely indispensable.
After all, the Shu army had quite a few firearms, not even much worse than the Liangzhou army.
If that's the case, then why are we still fighting an offensive and defensive battle with them?
Could it be that Fuzhou City is better than Jiaohe City?
That's obviously impossible.
So this time he had no intention of using the city defense of Fuzhou City to deal with the rebels.
There was only one thing he really wanted, the Shu army's logistics supply line.
Therefore, these eight thousand cavalry did not go towards the defensive line set up by the opponent at all. They even ignored the advance team of the Shu rebels and headed straight towards Jigong Mountain.
Their move really surprised many people.
But Zhang Xiao reacted very quickly, and he also saw Gao Zhixing's purpose.
You know, in order to have a faster marching speed, they have made some sacrifices in food, grass and baggage.
Therefore, they currently do not have much food reserves in the army.
The advantages of doing this are obvious.
They were able to advance into Jiangnan Dao in just a few days.
But the disadvantage is also the same, that is, if the logistics supply line is broken, they will not be able to continue fighting in the future.
After all, as the saying goes, a horse cannot move without grass and a soldier cannot move without food.
If something goes wrong with the logistics, there is no need for them to continue fighting.
So at the moment, he responded quickly.
He first sent out a scout team and took a shortcut to report the news to Li Ke.
Then, he dispatched Wu Qiu and others who were originally going to intercept Gao Zhixing's team, and seize the time to go to Jigong Mountain to pursue Gao Zhixing and his team to ensure their own logistical safety.
But Gao Zhixing had obviously made up his mind this time.
He clearly understands the criticality of this war.
If the Shu rebels really capture Fuzhou City and continue to advance eastward, then Li Chengqian will be in danger.
Moreover, he felt sorry for Li Chengqian's sacrifice in attracting the attention of the rebels regardless of his own safety.
Therefore, he must win this battle, and he must win as quickly as possible.
But this cannot be done with the lives of his soldiers, he can only do it himself.
When the Shu rebels came up in pursuit, he immediately ordered the entire army to advance at full speed to throw off the opponent's pursuit.
As mentioned before, the Xiangyang Army is a reserve army specially trained by Li Shimin.
The purpose of their existence is to fight back when the Shu Army or Liangzhou Army suffers heavy losses.
Therefore, the horses they rode were specially selected by Li Shimin from Shuofang Royal Horse Farm.
Although these horses are not as big as the Dawan horses in the Western Regions, they are extremely fast and can run in the mountains and jungles.
Therefore, their speed is far beyond what these Shu rebels can catch up with.
It only took half a day to throw the opponent away.
When receiving this news, Zhang Xiao, the commander-in-chief of the Shu rebels, was filled with regret.
But what else can he do now?
We can only place all our hopes on Li Ke.
I hope they can respond quickly, coordinate with our own side, and annihilate this army in Jigong Mountain.
