The first month of the third year of Yongjia.
When Liu Yu led 10,000 troops to Dongpingling, Dong Ping, who led 1,000 soldiers and thousands of civilians to defend the city, finally breathed a sigh of relief.
Liu Yu asked directly without caring about unnecessary small talk.
"What's the current situation?"
Dong Ping replied in a somewhat depressed mood.
"Several small cities west of Jishui have been lost. Many powerful people and our military households have suffered considerable losses."
These are all within Liu Yu's estimation. After all, Wang Mi and Shi Le's main forces are cavalry. They can move and gather in a short period of time, and quickly form an advantageous situation at a certain point where more people fight against fewer people.
There is no way that these small powerful men and military households near Jishui could be their teammates.
Although he had been mentally prepared, Liu Yu still felt heartbroken. Many of the military households he had finally recruited must have died at the hands of his enemies.
Liu Yu secretly suppressed his anger and continued to ask.
"Where is the thief now?"
"Two days ago, I received an urgent message saying that Wang Mi's banner appeared near the county to rob. Wang Mi should be besieging the county at this time. Another group of barbarian bandits crossed the Jishui River."
During the Western Jin Dynasty, there was a small glacier climate similar to that of the late Ming Dynasty. The large rivers in the north would freeze in winter. Even the Huaihe River near the south had a phenomenon where horses could race due to ice.
Therefore, in winter, northern rivers such as the Yellow River and Jishui have no blocking effect on the Hu cavalry troops.
Dong Ping continued.
"Another group of Hu bandits has crossed Jishui and is besieging Licheng. They should be Shi Le and Liu Ling."
Zhuoxian and Licheng are the cities on the north and south sides of Jishui River. If these two cities fall into the hands of Wang Mi and Shi Le, it will be equivalent to controlling the right of passage of Jishui Ferry.
You know, it is already the first lunar month, and early spring is coming soon. When the ice in Jishui melts, the role of these two cities will be even more obvious.
Therefore, Zhuoxian and Licheng must not allow any loss, especially Licheng, which tightly controls the Jishui Ferry.
"How many thieves are there?"
"Wang Mi has about 20,000 people, and Shi Le and Liu Ling should have more than 30,000 people in total. Plus the people they are holding hostage, there are probably 70,000 to 80,000 people."
Hearing what Dong Ping said, several of the generals who came with Liu Yu looked embarrassed, thinking that these barbarians might not be easy to deal with.
After all, in terms of numbers alone, Liu Yu and the others only had 15,000 people, but they had to face an army of 70,000 to 80,000 people from two groups of barbarians.
Liu Yu had already seen the expressions on the faces of several generals. He turned around and said to Cao Yi next to him.
"Brother Cao, please tell everyone about Wang and Shi's military strength."
Cao Yi quickly agreed, and then introduced the troops of Wang Mi, Shi Le and Liu Ling that he knew one by one.
"Wang Mi's subordinates only have less than a thousand confidants, and there are also 5,000 barbarian soldiers given to him by Liu Yuan, the Lord of Han Dynasty. The rest of the soldiers are strong men captured and conscripted in Hebei, about 10,000 people."
"Shi Le and Liu Ling have more Hu soldiers, about 20,000, and the rest are strong men who looted in Hebei."
"Although Shi Le and Liu Ling have a large number of Hu soldiers, many of them are farmers, herdsmen and bandits from Bingzhou. On the battlefield, when the situation is superior, these Hu soldiers will fight bravely. In the past, when encountering setbacks and minor defeats, everyone would cower in self-protection.”
After everyone listened to Cao Yi's explanation and realized that the real strength of these barbarian bandits was only twice that of them, they all relaxed a little.
Twice the number of Hu people did not seem to be a serious threat in the eyes of these warriors from the Western Jin Dynasty.
Although in the Western Jin Dynasty, the Han army in the Central Plains no longer had the huge advantage of the two Han empires when facing the Hu soldiers, "one Han served as five Hu", but thanks to the Han army's hundreds of years of superiority, in the hearts of ordinary people , these Hu people are just annoying thieves and bandits, far from the "Hu syndrome" in the later Song and Ming dynasties. In the writings of many later generations of rotten literati, the Hu people seem to have become representatives of bravery and unafraid of death, while the Han people say A representative of frailty.
If the Qin and Han ancestors of these rotten scholars knew that they arranged the Han people in this way, they would probably jump out of the tombs and smash the heads of these unworthy bastards.
Later, Liu Yu decided to lead his army to support Licheng, which was closest to Dongping Tomb.
There were a thousand Donglai troops and thousands of civilians guarding the city in Licheng. Although the besieging Hu people could not quickly break the city, after all, these barbarians had ten times the strength and still had the threat of breaking the city.
Moreover, in the hands of these Hu bandits, there were a large number of civilians who were held captive. If they could repel these Hu troops, they would probably be able to rescue a lot of civilians and live a lot longer. Otherwise, in the hands of these barbarians, I'm afraid it won't take long for them to be completely dead or injured.
On the next day, after leaving the troops stationed at Dongping Tomb, Liu Yu led 12,000 people to march south, preparing to go to Licheng, which was only 60 miles away from Dongping Tomb.
We were halfway through the journey.
Several horses were spitting large amounts of white gas from their mouths and running from the road ahead. These people were the scouts sent by Liu Yu to investigate ahead.
A scout commander came directly to Liu Yu.
"General Qi, we found Hu cavalry among the rams ahead. There are probably more than a hundred of them."
"Going further, have you found the Hu Renda team?"
Liu Yu heard that there were Hu cavalry, which was probably not far from the enemy's main force.
"Back to the general, the Hu cavalry are difficult to deal with. The villain has lost one of his men, so he doesn't dare to fight with them anymore. Therefore, it is impossible to check the situation going forward."
Liu Yu nodded, and then encouraged him a few words, but did not reprimand the scout for losing one person.
This is what Liu taught them in advance. The mission of the scouts is not to fight with the enemy's cavalry. After testing, they should report the enemy's situation as soon as possible. They must not delay the report of the enemy's situation on the front line by sacrificing their comrades or killing the enemy for greed. .
Liu Yu asked Dong Ping, who was following closely beside him, "How far is it from Licheng?"
Dong Ping already knew the geography of Jinan County well at this time.
"The Gongyangli in front is exactly ten miles away from Licheng. Our current place is about five miles away from Gongyangli, so it is only about fifteen miles away from Licheng."
Liu Xuan looked at the sky and said.
"It's already afternoon. If you continue walking, you may encounter enemies. Walk forward, find a suitable place to camp, and continue moving forward tomorrow morning."
When Liu Yu and his army found a place, they stopped advancing and started to set up camp.
At this time, Liu Xun, the nephew who was following Liu Yu, asked.
"Sir, it's still early, and we're only fifteen miles away from Licheng. Why continue to move forward?"
Liu Yu chuckled and said.
"The Hu people are all cavalry, and they have discovered our army's scouts. They can definitely guess that most of them are behind. If our army continues to advance, we may encounter the coming Hu people. Our army is mainly infantry and is already in the cold. After marching for most of the day, we will be at a physical disadvantage, and if there is a fight, it may be dangerous."
"Moreover, it is difficult for our army to form a formation while it is marching. If the barbarian cavalry succeeds in a surprise attack, it will definitely be defeated."
Just after the army set up camp and finished collecting wood, a cavalry force of several thousand people suddenly came from the south.
Thousands of horses galloped across the icy snow, making a loud rumble.
Liu Yu, who heard the movement, quickly climbed to the watchtower of the military camp to personally observe the sudden appearance of the cavalry.
These cavalry came along the road and stopped not far from Liu Yu's camp. They formed a long snake formation, which was fully spread out for a mile in front.
In the center of the long cavalry formation, several flags were flapping in the cold wind. One of the flags had a large word "stone" written on it.
After a while, a Hu cavalryman holding a flag came towards Liu Yu's camp.
Knowing that this was a messenger, Liu Yu did not order the arrows to be fired.
When they reached a place twenty steps away, the cavalryman held up the big flag with the word "Shi" in his hand, stood up and shouted loudly: "General Shi of the Han Dynasty Andong, I know that General Liu of the Jin Dynasty is coming, and I am here to greet you." welcome!"
"General Liu, do you dare to go out and fight!"
