"Is the clan exterminated?" Tian Hongbin frowned, then smiled bitterly and said: "Since I sent that beast Tian Hongyou down to see Grandpa, how can I follow in his footsteps? Gong Duzhi, this battle must be fought, But the Tian family will never die here, I know this well..."
Gong Langzhi secretly shook his head and said: "Captain, why are you bothering? You don't want the Tian family to be exterminated, but you still insist on leading your soldiers to fight to the death with the Tang army. I'm sorry, it's hard for me to understand! You have always been a strong-willed person, but the Han people have There is a saying that he who knows the current affairs is a hero, and he who can bear the humiliation is the one who does great things.
Keeping the Tian family alive and protecting the overall situation of the five tribes in Dongxi are what you really need to consider as the lord of the three states. In this way, you will not be ashamed of your ancestors, and you will not be ashamed of the soldiers and people of the three states... "
Tian Hongbin sighed and said: "Mr. Gong, I would like to ask, if I die, will the oath of the Tian family and the Gong family be counted?"
"The ancestors of our two clans swore in front of the gods of Wuxi that as long as I, the Gong family, live, I will always treat the Tian family as blood relatives!"
"Then, the Tian family cannot be destroyed! Gong Dushi, I am really grateful that you can stay here! But please don't try to persuade me any more. In the final analysis, this battle is between my Tian family and Peng Shiyu. I have As the leader of the Tian clan, it is impossible to bow the knee to the enemy! Now that the families of the soldiers of my tribe have safely withdrawn to the mountains and forests, from now on I may have to rely on you, Gong, to take care of them..."
Gong Langzhi breathed a sigh of relief and said: "The Governor has your orders, I dare not disobey him!"
...
On July 27, at noon after five days of rest in Huixi Village, the Tang Army finally received the long-awaited help.
After receiving the letter written by Li Yuan, Chai Kewu, the commander of the Wuping Horse Army who had already led the army to capture Chenzhou, left only 3,000 soldiers and horses to defend the city, so he led 7,000 elite troops to the north without stopping and marched for three days. , and finally all arrived at Huixizhai within the time limit given by Li Yuan. This instantly restored Li Yuan's army to nearly 30,000 men. The morale of the army was greatly boosted and everyone was jubilant.
After chatting with Chai Kewu and other generals for a few words, Li Yuan immediately sent an order to heavily reward the soldiers in the Battle of Chenzhou. Then he asked his personal guards to take the tired Chai Kewu and others into the tent to rest first, while he took Liu Jiangsheng and Liu Jiangsheng with him. Peng Shiyu continued to stand on the top of Huixizhai Mountain with a calm expression and looked up into the distance.
However, they did not wait long this time. Only half an hour after Chai Kewu's army arrived, another group of soldiers and horses under the banner of the Tang Army suddenly walked out of the ancient road. The troops escorting grain, grass and equipment led by Xu Kuangheng finally arrived. Li Yuan's expression immediately softened, and he couldn't help but let out a long sigh of relief.
It has been more than twenty days since the expedition. Although the food and grass have not been exhausted, they can only supply it for at most ten more days. No one can say how long the war will continue. What's more, not only food will be needed for the war, but the army will also need to consume it in the future. According to today's The surplus grain is obviously not enough.
In fact, as early as after the army entered the ground in Xizhou, Li Yuan kept sending fast horses back to Langzhou to urge Xu Kuangheng to deliver follow-up supplies to the front line as soon as possible according to the original battle plan. However, Xu Kuangheng was later than planned. It's going to be four days late.
Seeing the marshal carrying Xinbu personally to greet him at the gate of the village, Xu Kuangheng, who was sweating profusely from the long journey, had no time to say hello, so he hurriedly clasped his hands and bowed, and sincerely explained the reason why the grain and fodder arrived four days late.
The soldiers and horses escorting the grain and fodder under my command on this trip were almost all newly recruited soldiers of the Wuping Army. They had almost no actual combat experience, and it was their first time to go on an expedition. After all, chaos occurred while crossing the You River. A sudden heavy rain caused the The river surged, not only losing more than 30 carts of food and grass, but also killing and injuring more than 200 people.
In addition, there is another more important reason, which is that Xu Kuangheng received an emergency report from Yiyang City on the way.
Judging by the date, the 8,000 vanguard troops led by Luo Erhu were ambushed outside the ancient road. The 10,000 Wuping Guards troops hundreds of miles away also suffered a major setback. This light cavalry equipped with cold-forged armor and a variety of new weapons, coupled with the guerrilla harassment tactics ordered by Li Yuan in advance, did bring a lot of trouble to the Han army outside Tanzhou City.
More than half of Li Jianqi's troops in Tanzhou City had already been lost, and whenever the critical moment came for the Han army to attack the city, these ten thousand soldiers would always appear and disappear behind the flanks of the Han army. After being caught off guard, they massacred and then left in style, attracting the Han army There were several chaos, and there was a faint tendency to collapse, but in the end it was Pan Chongche, the number one general in the Southern Han Dynasty, who took command and finally stabilized the position. However, this extremely wretched style of play was enough to make the Han army grind their teeth.
But Pan Chongche's reputation was not in vain. He seemed to be extremely angry. He suddenly issued an order to detach a total of 30,000 soldiers and horses from the 50,000 soldiers and horses surrounding Tanzhou, and selected strong generals to lead the army to move north to attack Yiyang City.
Yiyang City is the most important barrier in the south of Langzhou. You must know that the most important order Li Yuan gave to the personal guards was to defend Yiyang City. After the scouts discovered the movement of the Han army, all the 10,000 personal guards had to withdraw to Yiyang and all dismounted to defend the city.
"The Indestructible King of the Great Village"
Under the precise command of Lin Sichang and Wumu Teqin, although the Guards struggled to withstand the fierce siege of the Han army on the first day, more than a thousand people were sacrificed. After all, these sergeants were cavalrymen after all, not to mention that most of them were from the Huihe tribe and had no experience in defending the city. Thanks to the extremely hard cold-forged armor on their bodies, otherwise they would definitely incur greater casualties.
Therefore, Lin Sichang and Wu Mu Teqin quickly dispatched dozens of light cavalry to break through the Han army's siege and go to Langzhou for help. However, before Li Yuan went on the expedition, he entrusted all major matters in the rear to Chief Shi Xu Kuangheng. At this time, he was personally escorting the army to transport grain and grass. He had just crossed the You River, and several days had passed when he received the emergency report.
Xu Kuangheng was clear-minded and decisive. After receiving the urgent report that Yiyang City was in danger, he did not panic at all. He immediately ordered Fan Renyu, the guard in Langzhou City, to mobilize the war horses in the city again and gather 10,000 Qingqi to go south for rescue. The scout who came to deliver the message was dumbfounded after hearing this, because Xu Kuangheng's method of rescue was not to stop the enemies of Hengyang, but to go south around the southwest path, score twice again, and continue to harass the Han army outside Tanzhou City.
After listening to Xu Kuangheng's description, Li Yuan was equally uneasy about the crisis in Yiyang City, but after thinking for a moment, he smiled slightly, and after explaining in a low voice to the confused Peng Shiyu beside him, he also understood it, just like at the beginning of the year The young master of Xizhou kept nodding his head in admiration when he saw Xu Kuangheng.
Xu Kuangheng did not dare to take credit. Although his face was filled with joy after being praised by everyone, he still hurriedly apologized to the commander-in-chief Li Yuan for making his own decisions. However, Li Yuan just waved his hands and laughed. Wu Ping's army is now far away in Xizhou. I don't know how long it will be. Only the 20,000 new soldiers in Langzhou City are equipped with new armor and weapons. Even if they all go south to rescue Yiyang, they may not have much chance of winning against the 30,000 elite soldiers of the Han army.
Pan Chongche divided his elite troops to go north, but Wu Ping continued to suspect his troops to go south. It was difficult to distinguish the true from the false. Although the military expedition was dangerous, compared to the life-and-death battle outside Yiyang City, the decision Xu Kuangheng made this time was obviously the optimal solution. There are only 20,000 Han troops left outside Tanzhou City who are exhausted from long battles. What they will face, in addition to the stubborn Li Jianqi troops in the city, is another annoying Wuping Qingqi...
In any case, Chai Kewu's 7,000 reinforcements arrived at the same time as new supplies of food and grass. The morale of Wuping's army was greatly boosted, which is really worth celebrating. After nightfall, Li Yuan held a banquet in Huixi Village to entertain the generals, and then issued an order to reward all the soldiers with good wine and meat.
Bright bonfires were lit everywhere in Huixi Village, and the soldiers were talking and laughing after a good meal. But they didn't understand the meaning of tonight. Some people were looking up at the sky impatiently, as if they were looking forward to the next day. The light will come earlier, and then darkness will fall in Xizhou City...
