On the morning of April 11, the Silver Spear Army stationed in Tongjue Park and the Southwest Military Camp began operations.
The two battalions on the left and right were fully equipped and their morale was high.
Jingxing Pass has been broken, and Bingzhou has been successfully broken into. The war situation has become quite clear.
These 12,000 soldiers are the best among the best. They only fight in the field and rarely attack cities. After the front army clears the road, it is their turn to go out to eliminate all enemies encountered in the field and let the army
The enemy troops did not dare to appear in front of them, and various soldiers took advantage of the situation to attack the cities, forts, and passes.
This is what everyone does.
Before them, more than 2,000 cavalrymen of the Luoyan Army had already set off as the vanguard.
After them, there were a large number of auxiliary troops (Ding Zhuang from various counties in Henan) who set off a day later.
Except for the 5,000 men who stayed behind in Yecheng, the remaining 35,000 people all sent out and headed towards Shexian County and Hukou Pass.
Before leaving, Shao Xun stood on the Tongque Terrace, overlooking the dense crowds in the wilderness.
In particular, the fleets and convoys transporting grain extend far into the horizon, day and night.
"It's time to go." Shao Xun waved and hugged off Liu Xiaohe, Liu Yena, Yang Xianrong and Cui one by one.
Liu Xiaohe straightened his robe and said softly: "I'll be back in May."
She is going to stay with Liu's family in Pingyuan for a few days and visit her hometown.
Shao Xun originally disagreed because Xiaohe was too moist and full of food, and she became pregnant again. However, he had been away from home for twenty years, and if he didn't come home to see many of his relatives, he would never see them again, so he agreed.
, allocating two hundred soldiers to escort her back to the plains.
Liu Ye took the bow tip and inserted it into Shao Xun's waist.
Shao Xun pinched her face and whispered: "Liu Cong has twenty sons. I can't be worse than him. When you come back, you will give birth to me."
Liu Ye smiled lightly, not showing any shyness at all, and just nodded.
Shao Xun was very satisfied and said, "Okay, okay, okay! Don't give birth to Shi Le, give birth to me, that's how it is."
Yang Xianrong stood a little further away, obviously wanting to come over, but he couldn't save face and stood there reservedly.
Shao Xun simply hugged her.
Yang Xianrong was a little angry at first, and then a little happy.
Shao Xun said: "When I capture Pingyang, no one will dare to gossip."
There were maids and soldiers around. Yang Xianrong was a little embarrassed and just said: "Then hurry up."
Shao Xun let go of her and walked to Cui again.
Mrs. Cui was like a frustrated little daughter-in-law, no longer as noble, elegant, and proud as before. When she saw Shao Xun coming, she immediately lowered her head, looking pitiful.
Shao Xun patted her round buttocks and said, "After this battle, you can come into my house and become a wife."
Ms. Cui raised her head in surprise.
"I have called two hundred people to escort you back to Qinghe. Do you know what to do?" Shao Xun asked.
"I know." Ms. Cui nodded repeatedly.
She is most afraid of being worthless.
As long as it's valuable, there's still a chance.
She was quite confident in her appearance, knowledge and ability to serve men, but she just wished she didn't have a chance.
I will definitely kill that vulture-raising Hu girl in the future!
After saying goodbye to the four women, Shao Xun walked down the mountain with his two sons in each hand.
The carriage has been prepared, Jin Dao and Badger Lang got on the carriage.
Shao Xun mounted his war horse and slowly left the city under the protection of thousands of soldiers.
Wherever they passed, the marching soldiers shouted loudly.
Shao Xun was happy inside.
This is his army and no one can take it away.
He is about to conquer the land that belongs to him, and no one can stop him.
Destroy the Xiongnu troops so that they dare not resist.
Take away the land of the Xiongnu and place it in China.
Take Liu Cong's wife and daughter and enjoy them as much as you like.
This is the end of life.
****
In the hilly wilderness to the west of Mengyang, groups of light cavalry emerged from the mountains and marched westward in formation.
They were composed of hundreds of people, mainly riding and shooting, supplemented by charging. They hide and seek with the Huns cavalry for several days, and finally drove them out completely.
As the sun set, Li Chong arrived in Yuci County.
The Huns cavalry used this as a way to move out of the base and repeatedly harass and delay the king's division.
Now the Huns have been routed.
After paying the price of hundreds of cavalry casualties, they did not dare to fight again and abandoned Yuci County.
The local tyrants in the countryside claimed that they had been ordered to "warm the wine as a sacrifice" and organized two thousand men to occupy the county seat.
The county magistrate had prepared the Jin banner, but these wealthy people were so evil-minded that they did not listen to the county magistrate's excuses and cut off their heads as a meritorious service.
Officials below the county magistrate level, if you don't have a good relationship, will basically not be spared. It will be too late to surrender - or they won't give you a chance.
Your head is a credit!
Your wealth is a trophy!
Your wife and daughter will be our bed toys!
Why give you the chance to surrender?
Li Chong did not enter the city at all, he only stood on the hillside and observed the terrain.
When you reach this area, you are basically out of the mountains. The terrain is relatively flat, and it is a typical mountain basin (Taiyuan Basin). But this basin is large enough and can theoretically support hundreds of thousands of people, which is different.
"Captain." A literary official climbed up and said, "Liu Ling, Chen Wu and others have arrived at Jinyang City and are fighting against the Xiongnu. Well, there is no winner or lose -"
"Winning or losing?" Li Chong looked at the clerk and asked.
"A small defeat will cost more than a thousand soldiers." The civil servant replied honestly.
Only then did Li Chong let him go.
The official asked again: "General Liu asked when the army will march westward and besiege Jinyang?"
Yuci is in the southeast of Jinyang. Theoretically, Li Zhong could ignore Jinyang, turn around and go south, and attack Shangdang directly.
Of course, we can also surround Jinyang.
Liu Yasheng sent 10,000 cavalry south, and he still had at most 3,000 cavalry on hand, and the number of infantry was estimated to be about the same. He might also be able to recruit some more rural farmers to serve as infantry, but the scholars and powerful men still wouldn't listen to him.
It's hard to say.
Yangqu, Shangai returned to Yiyi anyway, Yuci and Mengyang were presented as cities by wealthy families, and Leping County also sent representatives.
I heard that Wen Qiao went to Qi County to persuade the Wen clan to raise troops. It has achieved results so far, but it failed to capture the city because the Wang clan of Taiyuan defeated them.
Qi County was not yet established, but in Jiexiu, the Wen family united with powerful forces to raise an army and successfully killed the Xiongnu magistrate and captured the city.
From Jiexiu to the south, there is a road leading directly to Pingyang.
Currently, there are three choices before Li Zhong.
One is to besiege Jinyang;
The second is to go south to Shangdang and grab Liu Yao's back;
The third is to go straight to Jiexiu and advance towards Pingyang.
As for bypassing Jinyang and going north to attack Shile, or clearing the mountainous areas to the west, they are of little value at present and are not as good as the first three options.
"Go south to join the party." Li Chong only hesitated for a moment before making his choice.
Supervisor Cheng Xia's eyes flashed and he said nothing.
This decision is in line with Li Chong's consistent style.
He doesn't like to take risks, and he doesn't intend to take risks.
In his opinion, he only has 20,000 troops and horses on his side, and his combat power is average. If he is defeated or even annihilated by the Huns, the situation of the war will change again. Now he should focus on maintaining his existence, so that the Huns always have a ray of light on his back.
What to do.
Therefore, going south to Shangdang is the best choice.
"Send an order to Liu Ling. I will allocate two thousand more cavalry to him. Keep an eye on Liu Yasheng and don't let him come out." Li Zhong added.
The Art of War says that when you encounter a big city on the middle road, you must overcome it or prepare for it.
With Liu Ling's seven or eight thousand troops, it is definitely impossible to "conquer" them and can only "prepare" them.
"Preparation" is of course very dangerous, so if Li Chong goes south, he will have to deploy cavalry on the line between Yuci and Jinyang. In the end, only five or six thousand cavalry can be brought south to join the party.
But enough is enough, the most important thing is existence.
It was enough to make the Huns believe that a large army was coming from behind. After all, they did not know the strength of the army going south.
****
At the foot of Danzhu Ridge, the sound of drums was loud.
Hou Feihu, a person who is usually extremely calm, couldn't sit still.
He pushed the drummer away and struck hard with the drumstick, turning his head to look at the drummer as he struck.
On the mountainside, several small camps were built far apart. Under the call of drums, the sergeants filed out of the camp with incomparable bravery.
After fighting for more than half a month, both sides had lost thousands of lives in Danzhu Ridge, and the battle line slowly extended from the foot of the mountain to the top of the mountain.
It's not that the enemy army didn't fight hard enough. In fact, Liu Yao sat in charge and personally supervised the battle. He personally killed a dozen military officers who retreated without authorization. The soldiers worked hard. They were pushed up the mountain and they simply couldn't beat them.
When the news came that Jingxing Pass had been breached and that the Jin army had marched in, even though it was concealed in every possible way, it was finally spread.
As soon as this happened, it was over! Morale dropped at a speed visible to the naked eye.
The sergeants who were still able to fight hard yesterday only resisted briefly and then withdrew today. Even though on the surface it looked like they were beaten to the core, in reality that was all. Even the veteran warriors could see it.
For example, when the two sides are fighting for a certain commanding heights, sometimes they are just short of breath. It’s not that they can’t persevere if they bite the bullet, but now they are unwilling to bite the bullet.
Or, the enemy has just occupied a certain camp and has not yet established a stable foothold. At this time, if someone raises his arms and charges with strength, he may not be able to recapture it, but there is no such person now.
That's the difference.
It seems that the killing sound is loud and lively, but in fact it is just for the superiors to see. Once the battle situation is unfavorable, they will retreat immediately and no longer insist on waiting for reinforcements.
Of course Hou Feihu also noticed it.
So he decisively invested in the elite soldiers selected from the Shangdang Zahu, Xuchang, and Yanzhou soldiers, and used them as vanguards to take the lead in the conflict.
Eighteen hundred people from the elite Heijin Left Battalion (formerly known as the Heijin Army) followed closely behind and launched a fierce assault on Danzhu Ridge.
The sound of drums became more and more passionate, and the two sides started a fierce battle on Danzhu Ridge.
The first group of more than a hundred people were repelled, and the second group came up. After being repelled, the third group followed.
The corpses of both sides were piled on top of each other, almost covering the mountain road.
Those who advanced fell down, and those who came behind stepped on the corpses and continued to charge, breaking through the horses, crossing the ditch, and fighting through the earth wall...
A group of cavalry rushed out of the Huns camp and took advantage of a rare piece of flat land to launch a charge.
This move was very useful before and saved the crisis several times, but what happened? Our infantry retreated too fast and did not leave enough space for them. The horse climbed up the mountain when the speed was halfway up.
The Jin army's infantry collided head-on.
For a while, people screamed.
The front row of the Jin army faced the charging enemy troops and suffered heavy casualties. The remaining troops calmed down and dispersed to both sides.
In the past, this move had been successful, but today there were too many Jin troops coming up, and the cavalry could not increase their speed. The two sides froze for a while.
There was a stalemate and it was very unfriendly to the cavalry.
You can't move forward while riding on a horse. There are huge gaps on the left and right sides, and the weapons you wield are not as fast and powerful as those who are down-to-earth. In a one-on-one situation, there is a high probability of being killed by infantry, not to mention that they are far from one-on-one...
The black army also came up. When Yaori's armor appeared on the battlefield, there was almost no suspense in this battle.
The remaining enemy cavalry fled in a hurry, and the enemy infantry also slipped away quickly, heading towards the camp.
More Jin troops swarmed up the mountains and plains, chasing the defeated troops and rolling towards Liu Yao's camp.
There was chaos in the camp, and the banner with the character "Liu" moved backwards quickly, as if it foreshadowed the change of hands of Danzhu Ridge.
Chapter completed!