The team marching in the darkness was like several long snakes snaking across the earth, advancing towards the north silently.
"General, there are still five miles ahead to Xindu."
"Very good, go according to plan. Cangcheng, you lead your troops to attack the city from the south, and try to knock it down in one blow. If not, try to attract the main force of the enemy army as much as possible. Let's go to the west and enter the city!"
"Follow the order."
In the darkness, the army quickly divided into two groups and rushed north along the Jun River.
Xindu City.
The soldier holding the spear yawned, wiped away the overflowing tears, and couldn't help but jump a few times. It was freezing cold in the middle of the night, and it could really freeze someone to death.
"Lei Er, you said that the Chief Soldier just let everyone huddle in Jizhou City and refused to cross the Solu River. How long will it take?"
"What the hell, you can eat and drink here. Do you have to cross the Solu River to fight?"
"But I heard that three groups of envoys have arrived from Erji Town in the north, asking us to send troops to the east. I heard that they want us to capture Zaoqiang. There are no Xuanfu Army or Datong Army stationed there. ,..."
"Who said that? Can you believe the words of the people in Ji Town?" The lean man named Lei Er wiped his nose and shrank his neck and said, "I heard from someone above that there is a trap over there in Zaoqiang. , coaxing us to go over, maybe as soon as we go over, we will be surrounded by the Xuanfu army, and then the sky and the earth will not work, who will save us?"
"But we've been wasting our time here, how can we fight this battle?" The soldier holding the spear sniffed, "The Ji Zhen Army heard that there is a fight in the north, but there is no movement here. No, how do I pay the ticket?”
"What are you afraid of? It's the same with the people in the south and northwest. They stay motionless in Guangzong and Wei County. Isn't this a fight to see who is more patient? Maybe if you drag it, the other party won't be able to afford it, so you have to defeat."
The two were chatting, but they inadvertently heard something. Lei Er hunched his back and pricked up his ears, wanting to hear something, but there seemed to be nothing. He stuck his head out from the battlement and looked outside the city. A dark patch of nothing.
"Xu San, did you hear anything?" Lei Er asked worriedly.
"What's the sound?" Xu San was also startled and subconsciously poked his head out, "I didn't hear anything. Hey, what is that?"
Both of them widened their eyes in confusion and raised the torch stuck side by side, looking outside the city. There seemed to be waves of strange sounds coming from outside the city. It was like the ground was shaking, and it was like neat collisions, and it was slowly getting louder and louder. The bigger.
The two people's faces turned pale, and they understood in an instant that this was the sound of a large army marching. They barely had time to think about it, and they rushed to the gate tower and shouted loudly: "Enemy attack, enemy attack!"
Immediately afterwards, the golden warning sound sounded loudly, and the entire Xindu City suddenly became restless.
At this moment, the army outside the city suddenly raised fire, and a pattern like a galaxy in the dark night appeared under the city wall. The soldiers no longer needed to hide anything at this time, and they surged toward the edge of the city wall, shouting.
The entire city of Xindu was in chaos. Su Shengdu, who woke up from his sleep, couldn't believe that he would be attacked. Where did the enemy come from? Is it the Datong Army or the Xuanfu Army? Or is it a local civil unrest?
Just after we received the news that the Nancheng was under attack, the enemy troops were hitting the city gates and climbing up the city wall. They hurriedly ordered the reserve team to immediately reinforce the Nancheng. Over there, we heard that the gate of the West City was opened by the inner city, and the enemy army entered the city.
This news made Su Shengdu's vision suddenly darken, and his body suddenly moved down. It's over!
When Liu Baichuan heard the news, he was so shocked that he almost jumped out of his chair.
"What did you say? Where did you get the news?"
"General, they are the defeated troops of Shanxi Town who ran down from the north. Our scouts encountered a large number of defeated troops of Shanxi Town in the Ganling City area. There were hundreds of them, and they all escaped from Nangong County." The report came. The subordinates' faces were covered with sweat and mud. They had obviously come back from a hurry and came to report in a hurry.
"My subordinates had just led a team from Wei County to walk north along the Jun River. Unexpectedly, they encountered the scouts sent out earlier and returned. The Xuanfu army raided Jizhou. The Shanxi army was defeated and the entire army was routed... "
"How can the Xuanfu army be defeated so easily? There are more than 50,000 people, even 50,000 pigs. It is impossible for the Xuanfu army to kill them all at once!" Even though Liu Baichuan had always been calm, he couldn't help but become furious. He swept all the pens, inks, paper and inkstones on the desk to the ground: "Is it the Xuanfu Army or the Datong Army? Isn't it Sun Shaozu who is confronting Su Shengdu?"
"It is said to be the Xuanfu Army, not the Datong Army!" His subordinates also replied impatiently: "Xuanfu Army Xie Wensheng's Department!"
Hearing that it was Xie Wensheng, Liu Baichuan was silent for a while.
Xie Wensheng is the number one general under Niu Jizong. He was the deputy commander-in-chief when Wang Ziteng was the commander-in-chief of Xuanda. He is also a veteran general who has fought countless battles with the Chahar people.
But isn’t Xie Wensheng still in Dongchang Mansion? How could he suddenly go to Jizhou hundreds of miles away? Even if there is a canal that can be mobilized, it is impossible to do this unless the other party has already planned it, and has even been pretending to cover it up, and has successfully deceived himself.
Thinking of this, Liu Baichuan became even more angry. There is no doubt that if this is the case, he is responsible. He did not notice that tens of thousands of troops slipped away quietly under his nose, which led to such a situation.
"How did the Xuanfu army sneak attack Jizhou? Didn't they notice when they attacked Nangong?" Liu Baichuan slowly regained his mind, but still couldn't believe it.
Although Su Shengdu was a bit mediocre, he was very cautious in arranging his troops. There were large armies stationed in Xinhe and Nangong. Although there was no army stationed in Zaoqiang, there were a large number of rangers and scouts. The Xuanfu army only had more than three thousand It is difficult for people to escape the eyes and ears of these patrol sentries, and there are also Solu River and Zhen River blocking the way. How can the Xuanfu army achieve a surprise attack so easily?
"I heard that the Xuanfu army quietly landed from Jiama Camp north of Wucheng, then marched eastward overnight, bypassed Nangong County from the south of Nangong, and then inserted directly between Xinhe and Nangong to sneak attack Jizhou. Su Shengdu was unprepared and was caught off guard, so..."
The subordinate's voice was a little low when he spoke, especially when he mentioned the south side of Nangong, he paused for a moment, but Liu Baichuan's heart trembled.
Nangong County is on the edge of Guangzong County. If the Xuanfu Army bypassed Nangong County, it must have passed through Wei County and Guangzong. Since there is no contact between the Shanxi Army and the Northwest Army, the two sides contacted Very few, so there was a looming gap between Guangzong and Nangong. Who knew that Niu Jizong would catch it.
"I remember that we have a garrison in Mingshui City. Didn't you find out?" Liu Baichuan asked in a deep voice.
Mingshui City is located to the north of Wei County. In the fifth year of Wude in the early Tang Dynasty, Taizong Li Shimin and Liu Heitai fought here and fought over it repeatedly. In the later Yuan Dynasty, Weizhou was established here, and Liu Baichuan stationed 500 troops here, which was to guard against Wei County and Guangzhou. The area north of Zong was exploited by the enemy, but he did not expect that the enemy would be so bold.
"Nothing was found on the Mingshui side. After all, it is still dozens of miles away from Nangong. With such a big gap, it is easy for tens of thousands of people to pass through." The subordinate explained.
Liu Baichuan no longer had the mind to think too much. Although it was still unclear how the Shanxi Army was beaten, it was conceivable that even Jizhou was captured. Then Su Shengdu's so-called iron triangle of defense-Jizhou, Nangong , Xinhe, are probably all collapsed, and there may not be much left of the 50,000-strong army. If the Xuanfu army takes advantage of the situation and sweeps south, can the 20,000 people scattered like this be able to withstand it?
Liu Baichuan felt excited.
His 20,000 men were scattered on a thousand-mile front from Julu to Dongming. Although the southern front did not have many deployments because it relied on the main force of the Northwest Army, it still left behind 5,000 men. Really in the north, There were only fifteen thousand troops.
In addition to the 8,000 main troops stationed in Jize, the remaining 7,000 troops were stationed in Damingfu, Julu, and Guangzong. They were too scattered. Once the Xuanfu army moved south quickly, they might not be able to withstand it.
Liu Baichuan didn't have time to think too much, and immediately ordered: "In addition to staying more scouts, order the Mingshui City, Guangzong, and Julu troops to immediately withdraw south to Jize and concentrate. The troops from Daming Prefecture are also concentrated in Yongnian to prevent unexpected events."
It must be said that Liu Baichuan reacted quickly enough. Not long after the Northwest Army had just withdrawn from Mingshui, Julu, Guangzong, and Wei County, the Xuanfu Army, which had already won another great victory in Nangong, and another Xuanfu Army advancing westward from Linqing The government army regrouped in Wei County and quickly captured Guangzong, almost surrounding thousands of troops from the Northwest Army in Guangzong.
The two sides fought on the front line of Pingxiang, but the scale was not large. They were all contact battles between small groups of troops.
Just as the Xuanfu Army raided Jizhou and defeated the Shanxi Army in one fell swoop, the Northwest Army Liu Dongyang's troops suddenly marched eastward, crossed the Yellow River, bypassed Fengxian County, defeated the Huaiyang Army in Peixian County, and then captured Xia Town in one fell swoop. It completely choked the throat of the canal.
After Liu Dongyang captured Xia Town, he still had more ambitions. He attacked Yixian County to the south and broke into Tengxian County to the north. The Xuanfu army stationed very few troops on this line. Liu Dongyang's troops took advantage of the situation and swept across, turning the entire southwestern Yanzhou area into chaos.
After Liu Dongyang's troops captured Xia Town and the surrounding Yixian and Tengxian counties, the Tuwenxiu tribe followed suit and drove the Huaiyang army out of Fengxian and Peixian counties, completely controlling the area north of the Yellow River from Dangshan to Yixian. One piece completely separated the Huaiyang Army and Shandong.
At this point, Liu Dongyang took the opportunity to set up a pass in Xiazhen to inspect ships traveling south and north. He strictly prohibited northbound ships from transporting various strategic materials such as grain, cloth, and weapons to the north, completely interrupting the supply lines of the Xuanfu Army and the Datong Army.
The achievement of this strategic goal will force the Xuanfu Army and the Datong Army to make a difficult choice, that is, either completely defeat the Northwest Army, or be trapped in Shandong alive.
