Amidst the clanging sounds of houses being built, Shao Xun climbed to the top of the city and looked to the north.
Several days have passed and today is the sixth day of October.
The abandoned camp was still scorched black, with crumbling earth walls and charred trees complementing each other, showing a messy beauty.
Shi Le did not send anyone to seize this camp.
Both sides seemed to have a tacit understanding of using it as a buffer zone, quitting and confronting each other at a distance.
In the past few days, Shi Le selected 500 elite soldiers and took more than a thousand cannon fodder to sneak across Qikou and tried to attack the ferry from behind. He Lun led his troops to repel them.
Since then, the fighting has been at a standstill to this day.
At present, Shi Le placed the cavalry on both sides and the infantry in the center, digging trenches and building earthen walls day and night. It seemed that he was going to besiege Fangtou North City.
But in fact it is impossible to encircle it. As long as the Yellow River is still there, ships will continue to bring supplies, reinforcements and carry away the wounded.
Of course Shi Le knew this. He dug trenches mostly to protect himself, or to feel more secure. Now he should worry about Shao Xun taking the initiative to attack him.
But now Shao Xun is too lazy to pay attention to him.
Fangtou North City does not have direct access to the Yellow River. It is still seven or eight miles away - even if it is only a few miles away, it may be exploited by the enemy.
So he planned to build Fangtou Nancheng with a wharf and a city integrated into it, and then dredge the old Qikou river channel so that ships could sail directly to Fangtou Nancheng. There was no need to unload large quantities of materials on the beach like now, and then carry them on horseback and carry them on the soft beach.
trudging forward in the mud beside the river.
After the construction of the two cities is completed, more than 20,000 troops can be stationed, more than half a year's worth of combat supplies can be stored, and they will become the fulcrum north of the river.
Shao Xun was looking at Shi Le, and Shi Le was looking at Shao Xun.
So far, although he knew that he would not be able to capture the city that had been built, Shi Le was still waiting for news from Henan.
This is the last hope and the only hope.
If his cavalry can successfully burn, kill and loot in the hinterland of Henan and shake the morale of Shao's army, the battle will still be fought.
If it doesn't work, even though it is extremely unwilling, we can only withdraw.
But what will be the consequences after the withdrawal?
Shi Le looked at Zhang Bin and Diao Ying who had just returned from Pingyang.
"Do you two have any good strategies for the future?" Shi Le turned around with a calm expression, but looking at the corners of his eyes, he had thick dark circles, obviously he hadn't had much rest recently.
"Your Majesty, Shao Xun will attack Ye City, so we need to prepare early." Diao Ying said first.
Shi Le didn't comment and just looked at Zhang Bin.
Zhang Bin cupped his hands and said: "Shao Xun may not attack Ye City directly. He may go east along the Baigou and go north to Neihuang and Wei County. If so, Dunqiu and Yangping will be in danger. Go north to attack Ye
As for the city, it is more than a hundred miles away, and without the benefit of boats, it is easy for our cavalry to block the food route."
Shi Le nodded silently.
"Your Majesty, Ye is a famous city in Hebei Province. Shao Xun couldn't bear the temptation——" Diao Ying said again.
Shi Le stopped what he was saying and asked directly: "How are Pingyang's monarchs and ministers doing?"
"The King of Zhongshan received reinforcements, with more than 40,000 troops, and won several battles in a row. I heard that this group is recruiting the heroes in Guanzhong." Diao Ying replied.
Shi Le laughed when he heard this.
In conquering Guanzhong, the most important thing is not to capture cities and territories, but to recruit local nobles, powerful people, and chiefs of various tribes.
If you want to expand your territory, Chang'an can be occupied now. But it is just an empty city, which is of little significance. The most important thing now is to take advantage of the favorable opportunity to win and let the heroes in Guanzhong change their banners and join the imperial court.
.
I just don't know whether the people who came to appease him were from the imperial court or from Liu Yao.
But Shi Le also felt tremendous pressure.
The proposal of the strategy of "crossing Yongzong" was a strategic change that the imperial court had never seen in many years, which meant that the imperial court invested a huge amount of resources to the west of the Yellow River.
In fact, even if Diao Ying didn't say it, Shi Le knew some inside information, and he had his own information channels.
There are rumors in Pingyang that Wang Can of Hanoi is about to become the commander-in-chief of all the armies in Guanzhong and the governor of the war.
If this appointment is implemented, it will be of great significance.
The emperor would hand over his best soldiers and generals to the King of Hanoi, but he would never hand them over to the King of Zhongshan. After all, there is a difference between closeness and distance.
Speaking of which, this matter is also related to Shao Xun.
He is so capable that he can force a big country with a control of 200,000 people to turn around. This alone is enough to be proud of.
But this is not a good thing for Hebei.
From now on, even if the emperor is willing to send troops to support Hebei, it will most likely only be partial divisions instead of the main army.
"Have you collected all the goods you sent?" Shi Le asked again.
"I collected it and no one returned it," Diao Ying said.
Shi Le hummed.
Just accept it, even if you don't necessarily mean to speak for him, it is better than turning him away.
In the future, if you sell it badly and say a few soft words, you might be able to trick some of the imperial army into coming for reinforcements. After all, the emperor doesn't want to see all of Hebei fall into Shao Xun's hands, right?
"Meng Sun..." Shi Le moved a few steps, walked up to Zhang Bin, and whispered: "If Shao Xun goes north along the Baigou, how can he refuse?"
Zhang Bin was silent for a long time and said: "We run Guangping, Julu, Zhaojun and Zhongshan. With Bingzhou as our back, we serve as a vassal screen for the imperial court."
Shi Le was silent for a long time, with the expression on his face changing. At the end, he suddenly smiled freely and said: "I think that at the worst time, I only had 18 riders, but now I have tens of thousands of riders, and I have made a lot of money. During the journey, I am destined to not be able to win.
Smooth sailing, haha, it’s a small thing.”
"Your Majesty is wise." Zhang Bin praised him sincerely this time.
Having an indomitable will is an essential quality for those who achieve great things.
In this regard, Dahu was much better than the emperor and his ministers in the Pingyang court.
If it weren't for Shao Xun's obstruction, he might have had a chance to skyrocket, but now he doesn't have it, or the hope is very slim. But even so, Da Hu still didn't lose heart, but gathered his mood and waited silently for the opportunity. That's all.
If you don't do it at all, you won't be wasting your time by following him.
Let's take a step at a time.
****
At the top of Suiyang City in the Liang Kingdom, Yu Chen, the internal historian, silently watched the sergeants passing by the city.
The enemy cavalry withdrew one after another and quickly disappeared into the distant horizon.
Before leaving, they set fire everywhere, burned down many houses, and blocked ditches and wells.
The most regrettable thing is that the mulberry trees that were just transplanted this year were almost destroyed.
Yu Chen felt a little angry in his heart, both at the Huns for their indifference and at the lack of solid walls and clear fields in eastern Yano and Henan.
The grain in the fields was easily harvested by the Xiongnu and turned into their own supplies, which helped them attack everywhere, burning, killing and looting.
They have caused such trouble this year, but I don't know how much energy and cost it will take to recover.
He looked back at the city, which was full of people, with almost no place to stand.
This situation shocked him. If a plague broke out, few people, including him, might survive.
I heard that this is already the case in some places. People who are infected are directly driven out of cities, forts, and manors, and are left to fend for themselves, but many people still die.
This scene reminded him of the time when he kept time for Ji County.
Under repeated harassment and destruction, the husband was unable to plow and the woman was unable to weave. The more they were beaten, the weaker they became, and finally they could no longer hold on.
Even if you finally drive them away and capture a batch of heads, you will still be at a huge loss when you finally calculate the total.
Yu Chen raised his eyes and looked to the north. In the vast and empty wilderness, a group of knights were surrounded and shot by the Huns.
Every time the knights wanted to charge, the Huns immediately scattered and retreated at high speed in the open fields, looking back and shooting arrows as they ran.
The knight stopped chasing, and the Huns came back and continued shooting arrows.
The knights chased again, the Huns fled again, and then outflanked them.
The knight wanted to lead the Huns to a complex terrain with woods and rivers, but the Huns stopped and the two faced each other.
In the end, the knight could only retreat into a manor to temporarily avoid the danger.
Yu Chen watched intently.
These scenes are actually very common in Hebei. The shock cavalry under his command were worn out bit by bit in this way.
To deal with them, we still have to make a surprise attack, attack their camp, or use logistics to drag them to death.
In their reverie, the Huns slowly gathered their troops, retreated eastward, and disappeared into the wilderness.
The scene outside Suiyang County is just a microcosm.
Although Shi Le did not issue an order to retreat, after learning that Fangtou's fortification was completed, Zhao Lu and Kong Dou understood that there was no point in fighting for it any longer.
Although the army's food and grass supplies can still last for a month or two, new food supplies can no longer be obtained in the fields. If the battle continues, the food and grass supplies will become less and less day by day, and they will eventually have to leave.
So they sent messengers to various places and ordered the tribes to gather quickly
On October 13th, the Huns cavalry almost completely withdrew from Jiyin. When the last troop passed by Shanfu for rest, they were tipped off by Commander Wubao, and the Yi Congjun pursued them, beheading more than 300 of them.
On October 17, Xi Jian led hundreds of cavalry to raid Rencheng, destroying a camp and killing more than 700 infantrymen left behind.
On the 20th, the entire army retreated to the territory of Dongping. Kong Dou set up an ambush in Onezawa. Taking advantage of the Jin army's eager pursuit, he annihilated more than 300 aristocratic cavalry and 200 vanguard cavalry from the Yi Cong army who came from Mount Tai and Lu.
On the 21st, the main force of the Yi Cong army pursued them to Dongpinglu. A single charge broke through the Hun cavalry behind them, beheading five hundred of them.
…
The fighting between the two sides lasted until the end of October. The Huns abandoned a large amount of baggage and roared back to Jibei, detouring through Qingzhou.
Xun Zhen, the Marquis of Jibei, took the opportunity to intercept and captured and killed more than 400 Xiongnu cavalry.
In Dongping, the 3,000 infantry sent by Cao Yi and the 4,000 men from Yanzhou captured along the way surrendered in despair to the approaching Gaoping soldiers.
The fighting has calmed down.
Although there was no spectacular scene of tens of thousands of troops arrayed in a field battle, the three major battlefields of the front, flanks, and rear were still extremely bloody.
The commanders and generals of both sides are above the horizontal line, and strive to follow the principle of "use one's own strengths to attack the enemy's weaknesses". One side takes advantage of the heavy infantry, and the other takes advantage of the mobile and flexible cavalry. The battle to the end depends entirely on who can.
Just carry it.
There are no tricks or any blind moves caused by a sudden drop in IQ. It is completely a head-on battle between men.
Just after the Xiongnu cavalry withdrew, the first snowfall since autumn fell on the land of Henan.
Heavy snow is flying down, falling on the Wubao, falling in the fields, falling in the forest...
All traces of the war seem to have been covered up.
But outside Fangtou City, nearly 20,000 soldiers from both sides who died in the battle were still telling everyone about the cruelty of this battle.
South of the river, countless destroyed mulberry forests, ditches, and houses clearly show the trauma of the war.
But this is not the end, but a beginning.
If Chen Gong wanted to take a breather for two years before, but after building the city in Hebei, he could no longer stop the war.
This time, it may be him who will be the one to attack.
Chapter completed!