This day is the twenty-fifth day of the first lunar month of the first year of Tianbao. Ye Qingcheng and his team have completely penetrated into the desert of the Shangzhenhu River Basin. Along the way, they passed several Khitan tribes and important military facilities, all of which were silently remembered by them. down. Along the way, they had mastered a lot of useful information, which he sent back through the rune transmission method. At first, Shuofang's army was also quite surprised. Later, one by one such goshawks came to him. Once one comes, they get used to it.
There are rumors that Wang Zhongsi has raised a very special intelligence unit. Different from the original scout camp, there are even Taoist priests among them, because someone has seen the goshawk turn into a talisman in Wang Zhongsi's hands. According to Some people speculate that there should be Taoist priests in that army.
But this is just a guess. Although the current sage Li Longji hates the art of witchcraft and Gu, he does not impose many restrictions on Taoism. There are even many Taoist priests who make alchemy in the palace. Therefore, these Tang soldiers That is to say, it is fresh at the beginning, but then you will get used to it.
But for Wang Zhongsi, Ye Qingcheng was more and more eye-opening. According to his report, a group of fifty people were now wearing Khitan patrol uniforms, plus a Khitan puppet, and were running amok among the Khitan people. On the land, it can be said that there is no obstruction. They reported back a lot of valuable information, such as the distribution of troops behind enemy lines, the distribution of granaries, etc. Although it will not have much impact on the upcoming battle, it can also be used as a reference.
What moved him the most was Ye Qingcheng's last report. They had learned the location of the largest granary behind enemy lines. There were one million stones of grain stored in it. It could be said to be the largest granary among the Khitans, but the garrison only had Three thousand people, because their current enemies only thought about the Tang Dynasty and did not think about the post-Turkic Khanate that was in chaos behind them. In addition, with the Yin Mountain as a natural barrier, they did not expect that the Tang army would arrive from Mobei along the foot of the Yin Mountain. Behind them.
Moreover, they carried enough kerosene. If they found an opportunity to sneak into the three thousand people, light a fire and burn down the granary while on guard duty, then the logistics of the so-called Xi Qi Alliance Army would be in trouble. In the midst of tension, although it is not to the point of paralysis, as long as he drags them on, their morale and combat effectiveness will be greatly reduced.
Now they are facing each other on both sides of the Sanggan River with 200,000 troops each, but neither side has taken action. It is obvious that they are waiting for something. He knew that Li Huaixiu was waiting for news from Sanshoujiang City, and he was waiting for news of a fire in their granary. The Sanggan River is also called the Little Yellow River. It is not a small river in the northern basin, and floods occur from time to time. It is considered a river with a large flow. However, the place where the two armies confront each other is near Wutai Mountain in the northeast of Daizhou, and is in the upper reaches of the Sanggan River. The width and flow of the river here are not large. Although the two armies are facing each other across the bank, it will not take long for the army to cross the river, and it will not They were washed away by the river, because the water depth here was only half as high as the horses, so it would not be difficult to cross the river.
This place is very close to Dongshoujiang City, and reinforcements, especially cavalry, can arrive in half a day. Therefore, Wang Zhongsi decisively believed that Dongshoujiang City would not be an attack target. After he arrived here, he quickly asked the messengers to mount their best horses. Dawanma went to report the news to Li Guoren. Although he didn't know whether he would be able to make it in time, this would at least reduce the probability to one-half, and the garrison in the east surrendered city would be able to go to the other two surrendered cities for support.
Although he held several meetings with his generals and expressed that he was waiting for the opportunity, many people still advocated finding the source of the Sanggan River and bypassing it directly, or building a bridge to pass through it. Although some people would die when crossing the river, but The overall combat effectiveness of the Tang army was obviously stronger than that of the opponent, and the nomads' bows and arrows were extremely difficult to be effective against the Mingguang Armor. They were not afraid of crossing the river at all. Guo Ziyi, the envoy of the Zhenwu Army, came up with another clever idea, which was based on the previous opinion, so that there would be no lag. The Hexi Army that joined them and was on the way totaled 60,000 people. 40,000 cavalrymen searched for the source of Sanggan River and circled to the other side to act according to the opportunity. 20,000 infantrymen came to join them. In this case, once the opportunity mentioned by Wang Zhongsi came, There was chaos on the other side. At that time, the large force forced across the Sanggan River and cooperated with the Hexi cavalry to defeat the Xi Qi coalition forces in one fell swoop. Moreover, with the high maneuverability of their cavalry, they should not let go of the deserters on the opposite side.
Originally, the generals thought that this would be an extremely fierce cavalry battle on the grassland, but they did not expect that it would turn into a battle across the river. Although the casualties caused by this would most likely be smaller, it also meant that There will be fewer people getting credit, and many people want to fight a big battle. Such a battle is not refreshing enough.
So the war storm that had been gathering outside the customs temporarily stopped for a few days, causing everyone inside Chang'an to wonder what Wang Zhongsi was thinking. A mere group of barbarians actually wanted to confront them?
Although things like fighting should logically be none of their business, there are still some people who like to meddle in impeaching Wang Zhongsi. He is a mercenary who respects himself. He has more than 200,000 troops but refuses to start a fight. What is his intention?
If Wang Zhongsi had not grown up in the palace and was loyal to him, Li Longji, he might have been suspicious. However, at this time, he was not as stupid as he was in the later period. Although he was wary of the prince and the generals, he still It was not as serious as what happened later. Especially after he received a secret report from his cronies lurking within the Shuofang Army, saying that the Hexi Army was missing. Not only did it delay the military situation, but now they have lost contact. Only senior officers know where they have gone.
When he thought about it carefully, he understood Wang Zhongsi's intention. It was very likely that he arranged for the Hexi Army to go elsewhere. Even his intelligence personnel did not know where they were going. So even if the Khitans planted spies in the army, they would not know where they were going. He may know Wang Zhongsi’s plan, which is extremely wonderful, extremely wonderful.
Although he looked down upon the so-called Xi Qi Alliance Army, there were 200,000 people there after all. If Wang Zhongsi could defeat them in one battle, he would consider letting him serve as the governor of a town again. These people now These guys dared to ignore his orders and delayed sending troops. It was time to deal with them.
It's just that it doesn't seem appropriate to change the Jiedushi just half a month after Tianbao. It's better to wait until the battle is over and settle the settlement together.
