Although the vanguard forces of Yuwen Chengdu and Hu Luguang successfully occupied Jincheng, killed eight thousand elite Sui troops, and beheaded the Sui king's grandfather Duguxin, strictly speaking, they fell into Yang Su's scheme.
After all, despite being dominant in all directions, they still failed to keep an eye on Yang Su, causing the main force of 35,000 Sui troops to withdraw to Daxing. This is an indisputable fact.
The reason for such a situation is naturally not that the two of them are incompetent, but that Yang Su is too difficult to deal with. The two of them have to be different in strategy to fall into Yang Su's conspiracy.
On the other hand, Li Mu did not encounter an opponent of Yang Su's level, so it was naturally much smoother.
After Li Mu captured the three mountains and five villages, although he failed to leave Liu Fang, the guard of the fifth village, he immediately dispatched cavalry to pursue him.
Liu Fang's troops were all infantry. If they retreated normally, they would definitely be overtaken by Li Mu's cavalry. Therefore, Liu Fang did not flee to Daxing at all. Instead, he changed direction and retreated to Haizhou halfway to join his father Liu Feng. .
Liu Fang's father, Liu Feng, was a famous general in the Northern Wei Dynasty, the Eastern Wei Dynasty and the Northern Qi Dynasty. He was majestic and resolute, and was good at eloquence and military affairs.
Liu Feng, like his son Liu Fang, was one of the hidden figures. After his birth, he and his son were implanted to overthrow the Sui Kingdom, and were appointed by Yang Guang as the governor of Goluo County, one of the seven counties of Haizhou.
Li Mu led his light cavalry in pursuit at full speed, but could not catch up as he approached Daxing. He immediately realized that Liu Fang had changed his route, but he did not care about it. After all, he was just Liu Fang. Killing him or not would not affect him. Big plan.
Knowing that Liu Fang had released carrier pigeons before retreating to inform Daxing of the fall of the three mountains and five villages, Li Mu speculated that Liu Fang probably had no carrier pigeons in his hands.
After all, although homing pigeons are not a rare resource nowadays, it is impossible for a village to have many of them.
After all, Liu Fang was just a captain. Although the fifth village he was guarding was the last pass to the southeast of Daxing, it was only a village after all. Its priority was much lower than that of Heguan. Naturally, there could not be more than one homing pigeon.
Li Mu guessed that the homing pigeon Liu Fang released before retreating was the only one in Liu Fang's hands, which meant that Daxing City did not know that Liu Fang had withdrawn to other places, which gave Li Mu a lot of room for maneuver.
Of course, these are just Li Mu's speculations, and he is not 100% sure. But in a war, how can one be completely sure? Li Mu is 60 to 70% sure, so he is ready to take a gamble.
Fortunately, Li Mu made the right bet. Daxing did not know that Liu Fang had not withdrawn from Daxing, so Li Mu succeeded in defrauding the city.
Li Mu asked a secret agent in Heibingtai who was good at disguise to disguise himself as Liu Fang. He took the seals and ribbons and flags of the Sui army and led hundreds of Qin troops wearing Sui army uniforms to pursue them under the pretense of the Qin army. Flee to Daxing.
The captain at the gate of Daxing City saw that it was indeed Liu Fang himself, and that the seal and ribbon flags were correct. In addition, although the Qin army had not yet reached the city, they were almost there, and it would be too late to delay any longer, so he He didn't report it, and opened the door directly to welcome the fake Liu Fang in. As a result, he fell into Li Mu's plan to defraud the city.
After Liu Fang entered the city, he immediately killed the defenders of the city tower, opened and occupied the east gate of Daxing, and prepared to welcome the Qin army into the city.
The reaction speed of the Sui army was not slow. Seeing that the city gate had been defrauded, the surrounding Sui armies surrounded them one after another, hoping to kill this group of Qin troops and regain control of the city gate.
It was a pity that the Sui army was still a step too slow in the end and failed to recapture the city gate before Li Mu's army arrived, allowing Li Mu's cavalry to invade the city.
At this point, the situation is still as planned by Li Mu, but if nothing unexpected happens, the accident will not happen.
Li Mu was indeed lucky to bet correctly, but unfortunately, he missed two people, Shi Wansui and He Ruobi.
Li Mu originally thought that as long as he falsely opened the city gate and entered the city, the Sui army would not be able to stop the Qin army's offensive. The Qin army would occupy Daxing City with a devastating force, but the Sui army's will to resist was stronger than imagined.
Under the command of Li Mu, although the Qin army invaded Daxing, they were unable to penetrate deep into the city because there were also Sui army fortifications behind the city gate.
In addition, the Sui army in the city reacted very quickly. After learning the news, they gathered together and blocked the Qin army near the city gate, causing the two sides to fight fiercely at the east gate.
If it is just a field battle, the Qin army is naturally not afraid of any army in the world, but the Sui army generals Shi Wansui and He Ruobi who stayed in Daxing, one is a junior god of war, and the other is a peak god general.
On the Qin Army's side, although there is Yan Xing, a peak general, Li Mu is only a 101-level general, and is far inferior to the Sui Army in terms of the lineup of strong generals.
Relying on the strength of the cavalry, the Qin army was about to break through the defense of the east gate. However, after Shi Wansui and He Ruobi arrived with reinforcements, they not only directly blocked the Qin army back, but even pushed the Qin army out of the way. .
Faced with the unfavorable situation of not being as good as the opponent in the lineup of strong players, Li Mu rationally did not confront them head-on, but chose to outwit them.
Seeing that the Qin army's offensive was blocked, Li Mu took the initiative to order a retreat, distanced himself, regrouped, and at the same time lured He Ruobi to attack.
He Ruobi was eager to recapture the east gate, so he did not realize that it was a trap. When he led his army to pursue him, he was first blocked by Yan Xing, and then was sneak attacked by Li Mu with an arrow in his arm.
If not for Shi Wansui's timely rescue, He Ruobi might have died from Li Mu's sneak attack, but he had to leave the game temporarily due to serious injuries.
After severely injuring He Ruobi, Li Mu and Yan Xing joined forces again, preparing to kill Shi Wansui in the same way, but Shi Wansui, the junior God of War, was much more difficult to deal with than He Ruobi.
Even if Li Mu's potential explodes and he breaks through again before the battle, and his base reaches 102, the two of them still can't defeat Shi Wansui together, and they are even still at a disadvantage.
Li Mu had no choice but to give up killing Shi Wansui and instead command the entire army, preparing to completely defeat the Sui army. Unexpectedly, Sui King Yang Guang suddenly cheered up and personally led the elite Xiaoguo Army to support him.
Yang Guang can't help but cheer up. After all, the Qin army is coming. If he doesn't cheer up, the Sui King will really be in trouble.
Yang Guang's personal participation in the battle caused the morale of the Sui army to skyrocket, and also made it more difficult for the Qin army to enter the city, but Li Mu still stabilized the situation.
Li Mu did not want to give up this great opportunity, so he ordered to guard the city gate and wait for the rear infantry to come for reinforcements. So the Qin and Sui Dynasties launched the most primitive fighting around the east gate of Daxing.
After a fierce battle for nearly half a day, Da Qin's infantry reinforcements arrived, but not long after, Yang Su's vanguard troops who retreated from Jincheng via Zhiyang Road also arrived.
Li Mu never expected that Yuwen Chengdu and Hu Luguang, plus 30,000 elites, could not keep an eye on Yang Su and allowed him to withdraw safely to Daxing.
At this time, the Daxing City defenders had a strong will to resist, and although the retreating Yang Su army was only the vanguard, the follow-up army would certainly not be too far away.
Li Mu knew that the opportunity was lost and that it was impossible for his own army to capture Daxing, so he rationally chose to retreat.
Yang Guang was originally prepared to pursue the victory, but after meeting Yang Su and understanding the reason why he was able to withdraw, he rationally did not choose to pursue. After all, Yuwen Chengdu and Hu Luguang might arrive in Daxing at any time. At this time, he could just lead his army to pursue them out of the city. You may not be able to come back.
Seeing that Yang Guang did not chase him out, Li Mu felt a little disappointed. After all, although the casualties after interrupting the battle were high, it was much better than the siege battle.
The Qin army could afford the same casualties, but the Sui army could not afford it, so Yang Guang did not dare to easily confront the Qin army head-on.
After listening to Li Mu's story, Yuwen Chengdu's face was full of apologies and self-blame. After all, if they hadn't stretched their hips this time, Daxing might have been captured by Li Mu.
Li Mu didn't mean to blame Yuwen Chengdu. After all, Yang Su's conspiracy was really hard to detect. In addition, Dugu Xin was determined to fight to the death. I'm afraid he would have been fooled as well. He just felt sorry for the casualties in this battle.
In this fierce battle at the East Gate of Daxing, the Qin army suffered 4,000 casualties, including 2,500 cavalry and 1,500 infantry, while the Sui army's total casualties were around 5,000.
The overall combat strength of the Sui Army was weaker than that of the Qin Army, but it was able to achieve a casualty ratio similar to that of the Qin Army in field battles. This was mainly due to the elite Xiaoguo Army.
If the Xiaoguo Army had not joined the battle in time, the Sui Army would have suffered at least two thousand more casualties.
After Yuwen Chengdu and Li Mu reunited, Li Mu was no longer afraid of Shi Wansui. He sent Yuwen Chengdu to challenge that day, but how could the Sui army, which had just suffered a loss, dare to fight for the first time?
Even if Shi Wansui took the initiative to ask for a fight, Yang Guang refused to say anything. He just tried to appease Shi Wansui and wait until the reinforcements from Haizhou and Xiliang arrived.
The next day, Li Mu's deputy general Xu Rong and Yuwen Chengdu's deputy general Hu Luguang both led their troops to Daxing City successfully, and Hu Luguang also brought news about Li Jing's main force in the rear.
At this time, Li Jing's army had already entered Jincheng, but he did not immediately march to Daxing, but chose to divide his troops into two groups.
Li Jing sent Li Maozhen with 30,000 troops to take the Zhiyang Road and march north to capture Zhiyang, Yunjie and Lingju counties, completely cutting off the connection between Jincheng County and Wuwei County in the Sui Dynasty.
As for Li Jing himself, he led a main force of 40,000 people and took the Yunwu Road to join Li Jing Yuwen in Chengdu.
After two days of rapid march, the 40,000 troops led by Li Jing also arrived in Daxing successfully, while the Qin army gathered here reached 110,000.
In just ten days of fighting, the 150,000 Qin troops led by Li Jing and Li Mu had captured Heguan, Yuzhong, Jincheng, three mountains and five villages and many other important places, killing and capturing nearly 30,000 Sui troops.
You must know that the Sui Kingdom only had a total of 210,000 troops, but in just ten days, one-seventh of its strength was wiped out by the Qin Army, and the Qin Army also suffered nearly 8,000 casualties.
But considering that the Qin army was the attacker and the Sui army was the defender, such casualties were a complete victory.
After Li Jing arrived with his army, both Li Mu and Yuwen Chengdu thought that the Qin army would launch a fierce attack on Daxing. However, they did not expect that Li Jing not only did not attack, but also moved Yuwen Chengdu back to the rear.
Yuwen Chengdu was naturally anxious after hearing this, and asked with a puzzled face: "Grand Governor, why is this?
However, in the Battle of Jincheng, due to my negligence, I failed to see through Yang Su's plan, so that Yang Su fled back to Daxing, thus preventing General Li Mu from conquering Daxing.
This is indeed my fault, and I will accept the punishment, but it doesn't mean I don't even have a chance to make meritorious service, right? "
As soon as Yuwen Chengdu finished speaking, Hu Luguang also stood up and pleaded guilty: "Let Yang Su go. The last general is also guilty. The last general is willing to share the responsibility with General Yuwen."
Seeing this, Li Jing quickly helped the two men up and explained: "The two generals misunderstood and sent General Yuwen back to the rear. They did not punish him. Instead, they sent out all the elite soldiers of the Shu Han Dynasty to Chen Bingjian Pavilion with the intention of invading Hanzhong."
The elite of our army are still on their way to the west. There are only Yang Jian, Wen Zhong and a few others in Hanzhong, so they are weak. General Wu Qi is worried that he will suffer a loss, so he sent a letter to recall General Yuwen. "
After saying that, Li Jing handed Wu Qi's handwritten letter to Yuwen Chengdu.
After Yuwen Chengdu read it, his face suddenly showed a depressed look. He wanted to stay and continue to attack the Sui Dynasty. After all, compared with fighting against Shu, the victory over the Sui Dynasty was obviously greater.
Yu Wen Chengdu Sui Sui already has the rank of general, but he has the word "honor" in front of him as general. Naturally, he wants to remove the word "honor".
But now that the Shu Han Dynasty is in the Northern Expedition, and all the elite troops and generals are out, the situation in Hanzhong is critical, and it is really difficult to rely on Yang Jian and Wen Zhong alone. It is no wonder that Wu Qi urgently summoned him back.
This was no longer a choice for him. Yuwen Chengdu could only admit that he was unlucky. After returning the military power to Li Jing, he went straight to Hanzhong with only 500 personal guards.
After Yuwen Chengdu left, the Qin generals saw Li Jing ordering a siege. They thought that Li Jing was finally going to attack the city, but they did not expect that Li Jing was just besieging the city and still had no intention of attacking.
Faced with the confusion of the generals, Li Jing just explained: "The first step is to attack the strategy, the second is to attack the enemy, the second is to attack the troops, and wait. To defeat Daxing, the most important thing is to attack the heart."
When the generals heard this, they immediately understood that after all, what Li Jing said about waiting would only be Meng Tian and Long Qie.
Meng Tian and Long Qie did not keep Li Jing waiting for long, and soon the good news came back from Meng Tian.
The 80,000 troops on the southern route led by Meng Tian quickly occupied key areas in the northern part of Haizhou after sending troops from Wudu County. It can be said that they are unstoppable. They have now invaded Xining County and are about to enter Xining City, the seat of Xining.
