After passing Gong County, there were more and more enemy troops.
The nearly 20,000-strong army composed of the Silver Spear Army, Yi Congjun and Yu Yanding Zhuang were like a huge magnet, attracting countless Xiongnu infantry and cavalry.
On September 20th, we arrived in Yanshi and rested for a night before continuing our journey.
Along the way, Shao Xun did not step in to direct, but chose to be a bystander.
The combat quality of the Silver Spear Army is quite high. Even the eleventh and twelfth buildings, under the leadership of the veterans of the first ten buildings, fought better than in the previous days.
Combat strength has many components, one of which is mind.
You must have a big heart, be calm and calm, and take your time.
Not everyone can do this.
How would ordinary infantry perform when faced with overwhelming cavalry? The outcome of the Battle of Heshui has been revealed.
Don't think of it as a surprise attack. Even if it is a frontal attack, repeated harassment will always distract and exhaust the main force of Gou Xi's infantry, and eventually reveal its flaws.
In this era, only a few people, such as Ma Long and Liu Yu, could rely on a highly qualified infantry force to roam the sea of ​​cavalry and even win repeated battles.
Shao Xun was glad that he brought the Silver Spear Army to escort the grain.
If it's the Yamen Army, the outcome is hard to say, 50-50.
If it were the Tuntian Army, the largest force under his rule, it would have collapsed midway and might not even be able to reach Gong County.
Man Yu and Qiao Hong captured a few more prisoners. After some torture, they finally got something new: Liu Can, the king of Hanoi, once lived in Hanoi, but later left. It is unknown where he went.
The other one is about the direction of Yiqueguan.
Because Shao Xun was too difficult to deal with, the Huns mobilized most of their mobile troops, and the south could no longer stop Liang Fen's more than 14,000 men from moving north.
After hearing the news of the interrogation, Shao Xun drew on the ground with his dagger, and the generals gathered around to watch.
"Liang Fen might arrive in Luoyang before us."
"Yique Pass is not far from Luoyang. The entire Xiongnu army is rushing towards us. Liang Fen also has Liangzhou horses. If we are besieged by the main force of the Xiongnu, we may be defeated. Now, the Xiongnu may have given up on that route.
"
"Has Liu Cong issued an order to encircle and annihilate our troops?"
"Since Liang Fen can enter Luoyang, let's simply withdraw and return to Xuchang."
"We're almost to Luoyang and you're still leaving. You're stupid."
Shao Xun stretched out a hand to signal silence.
Everyone immediately shut up and listened to Master Shao's teaching.
"There is no point in arguing about Liu Cong's purpose." Shao Xun said: "They have more horses and more people. They can easily turn the partial division into the main force, and the main force into the partial division. If I don't come to Luoyang, Liu Cong - no, it's Liu Can -
—He really focused on attacking Luoyang. He watched us take action and then changed his tactics."
For a regime with a large number of cavalry, it is meaningless to argue about which route is the main force and which is the side force.
It's not like they marched all the way to the northeast and all the way to the northwest, thousands of miles apart. They were just circling around Henan. If necessary, Liu Can could completely adjust the direction of his main attack.
I have no idea what the current situation in Luoyang is.
According to previous understanding, the food could probably last until the twelfth lunar month. Later, a batch was sent to Beijing, and the court recruited more than 30,000 civilians to serve as defenders. The food could probably last until the end of the year, that is to say: more than three months.
Considering that the rivers are frozen, the window for grain transportation is actually less than two months.
Without food in these two months, Luoyang will fall into famine and will be invincible and self-defeating.
"Now that I have come to Luoyang, Liu Can can choose to fight me here, or he can choose to avoid the situation and attack the two states of Yan and Yu. What do you think he will do?" Shao Xun looked at the generals and asked.
"The Huns don't look like a decisive battle." Wang Que'er said bluntly: "Throughout this fight, the only truly ferocious fight was the one in Gong County. The rest were mostly harassment, sort of just to deal with errands."
"A lot of prisoners have been captured in the past few days, including many thieves. Calculated, there should not be many Huns soldiers around Luoyang. There may have been many before, but they have probably been transferred away now." Jin Zheng said: "Master Shao, why not find one?
When we have the opportunity, cross the river and go north, attack Hanoi, go to Dang, contact Liu Kun again, and attack Pingyang together."
Wang Queer, Sun He, Zhang Daniu, Lu Heigou and others all looked at Jin San with surprised eyes. Isn't this a bit too risky? If you are not careful, it is very possible for the entire army to be annihilated.
Furthermore, are you sure that the Huns penetrated Henan and Yanzhou first, or that you attacked Pingyang City first?
The Huns already have many more soldiers than you, but if you go to their home base, your inside advantage is gone.
Jin San is really crazy!
"Okay, enough rest. Let's go back to our respective camps and continue moving forward. Cai Cheng, please inform the troop transporters and ask them to put down their trackers and continue moving forward." Shao Xun actually had a guess in his mind.
There are only two possibilities.
After arriving in Luoyang, one of the possibilities should be eliminated.
After the car formation and the fleet resumed action, the Huns surrounded them again and harassed them.
But this trick is no longer of much use.
What troubled Shao Xun the most was actually the pitted roads, which forced them to stop frequently to fill in the holes and ravines with soil, which greatly slowed down their marching speed.
It wasn't until the night of September 23rd that they saw the brightly lit Luoyang City from a distance.
The area around Dongyang Gate and Jianchun Gate was even blazing with fire, and there were traces of smoke and fire on the city gate. Jianchun Gate was even half burned, and the inside and outside of the city gate were filled with corpses of both the enemy and ourselves.
Damn, has this ever been a street fight?
When he stayed at Prince Yang's Mansion in the southeast of the city, Shao Xun was a little speechless.
But he could barely understand it.
There were two field battles in a row, with casualties and nearly 10,000 people scattered.
The food reserves are running out day by day.
The wild area is filled with overwhelming Hun cavalry—actually there may not be many of them, but the visual effect is amazing.
There is no news about the reinforcements, no news can be sent out, and no news from the outside world can leak in.
They are like an abandoned island, terrified all day long.
When defending a city, the most taboo thing is to defend it to death.
A city defense battle with no hope at all will not last until the end, especially for a huge city like Luoyang with a very messy interior.
Confidence is the key, you must give people hope.
****
Hou Feihu led the four Silver Spear Army troops all the way and retreated to Xiangcheng in five days to collect a supply of supplies.
As for the Duyang side, it was left to the Duyang Tuntian Army.
Farther away in Nanyang, Cao Fu had already issued an order to appoint Le Kai as the left commander-in-chief of the rear army to take charge of the overall situation, and Yang Dan as the right commander-in-chief to assist Le Kai.
They have only one mission, don't let the war burn to Luonan.
Even if Nanyang is disrupted, as long as the situation is stabilized, there will be no merit.
When we arrived at Xiangcheng, we could see soldiers and troops leading horses and walking everywhere on the post road.
On the road, Hou Feihu met a group of government soldiers coming north from Luyang, with a total of more than 490 people.
According to what they said, everyone who could take part in the battle was here, including even some childish-looking teenagers.
The young man is the nephew of a soldier in the government.
They are still young, have immature martial arts skills, and have little combat experience. Their weapons and equipment are very poor, but their military situation is strong. Now is the time for them to work hard.
Xiangcheng is even more crowded.
In the wilderness by the Ru River, the tribesmen walked around, fetching water for cooking.
The soldiers from the government took off the girth of the horse and led it to jog for some exercise.
Some people even gathered young people who had never been in battle to teach them some tips on the battlefield.
Above Yingqiao, a large number of horses, donkeys and mules were passing by, heading east.
"Old horse, old horse, I have to sacrifice your lives this time." Hou Feihu sighed with emotion.
The benefits of Chang'an's siege and massacre of Xianbei have not yet been completely absorbed. It has been six or seven years, right?
During the six or seven years, these horses played a huge role. Especially in the battle against Gouxi, many of the old horses ran to death and were crippled. In the end, they successfully carried the knights on their backs to Heshui and defeated the enemy in one battle.
"Leave!" A loud roar came from not far away.
Hou Feihu followed the news and saw Chang Can, the deputy governor of the Changjian Army, waving his hand and taking more than 500 soldiers who had finished their rest on the road.
That should be the stone bridge in Liang County, the Li family, and the three defenses of Yongxing. The government soldiers plus the troops, more than a thousand people lined up in an orderly queue, crossed Ru River, passed Xiangcheng without entering, and headed straight to the direction of Yingyin
.
After a while, after Ruyang finished eating, the Nanshan Second Defense Force soldiers dispatched.
After a while, Lu Shan and Funiu's second defense were dispatched.
"It is said that Master Shao has gone to Chen County. At the critical moment, we still rely on the old foundation laid in Luonan a few years ago." Looking at the mighty army of soldiers, Hou Feihu couldn't help but sigh.
While talking, this year in Ye County, Wuyang's newly built Shuyin, Princess's Second Defense Force soldiers also arrived one after another. After a short rest, they will head east tomorrow.
Guangchengze's field army also dispatched 5,000 people.
The number of the troops has dropped to about 27,000, and this year another 5,000 people were transferred to Duyang to serve as field troops - the vacancies were filled by Wang Sang's tribe captured last year.
These five thousand people were led by the Jing brothers and went to Xuchang to serve as auxiliary troops. After the war, they would become a field army that could own property, marry wives, and receive rewards.
On both sides of the Ru River, there are huge armies.
Near Xiangcheng, war horses are galloping.
The Xuchang shogunate gave an order, and the soldiers who were usually scattered everywhere gathered one after another, and in an instant they gathered nearly 15,000 combat-ready soldiers.
This is only the first mobilization.
The field armies in Luyang, Duyang, Guangchengze, Yingyang, Yangguan, Langling and other places have not yet carried out large-scale mobilization.
The only shortcoming is that they are mostly infantry, lack mobility and are slow in movement. This is not a problem when facing rogues, but it is more troublesome when facing the Huns who have a large number of cavalry.
But the order has been given, and there is nothing to hesitate about.
The autumn harvest has been completed, and there is plenty of food in various places. Even if they are squatting in a defensive position, they are still valuable.
Almost at the same time, hundreds of Xiongnu cavalry suddenly appeared on the east bank of the Yellow River in the northwest of Fan County.
With just one charge, they captured the ferry with almost no soldiers.
The county magistrate had tried his best. He held on with only two to three hundred people until the last moment, and then fled in panic.
In the afternoon of that day, more than a thousand infantrymen crossed the river and came ashore, where they began to cut wood, build boats, and build pontoon bridges.
Throughout the night of the 25th, more than a hundred small boats came back and forth, constantly ferrying the Huns on foot to the east bank of the river.
The infantry began to build forts and strengthen the bridgehead.
Hundreds of vanguard cavalry, led by the leader, divided into two groups and headed towards Linqiu and Fan County to create panic.
Now that the war has reached this point, there is no need to cover up our tracks anymore.
The Huns had already shown their fangs: they crossed the river from Dongwuyang, entered Dongping, bypassed the Sijin defense line in the Puyang section, and detoured deep into the interior of Yanzhou.
After three years of unsuccessful attacks on Luoyang, the Huns suddenly changed their operational objectives.
Chapter completed!