Liu Qiong led 500 cavalrymen who had approached Tongxi County. When they were still three miles away from the county seat, the team stopped running and walked slowly. The fierce sound of horse hooves would alarm the Xixia soldiers in the city.
When they were approaching the county seat, a person ran towards them, it was Tang Qian's men.
He stepped forward, cupped his fists and saluted, and said to Liu Qiong: "General Liu, Tang Dutou has an idea!"
Of course Liu Qiong knew that an idea is a good solution. He smiled and asked, "What good solution do you all have?"
The scout whispered a few words. Liu Qiong thought about it and smiled: "It's really a bad move. Okay, I agree!"
The scouts ran back again, while Liu Qiong led his soldiers to lurk under the left city wall, waiting for the enemy troops to rush out in panic. He really considered a very simple matter too complicated. They only had a thousand escort soldiers, so there was no need to delay it like this.
For a long time, we should have killed them yesterday.
The scout found Tang Qian, the commander-in-chief, and told him that the general had agreed to his plan.
Tang Qian and a subordinate with strong martial arts skills each carried a ten-pound bag of kerosene and climbed down the city wall. Each of them also carried a long iron chain lock, which they planned to use to lock the oxcart.
.
They sprinted forward along the roof. Each of them carried at least fifty kilograms of weight, which was quite difficult.
They quickly found their target, two clusters of siege ladders piled high. Tang Qian tied the fifteen siege ladders with long iron chains and locked them with big locks.
He removed the kerosene bag from his back and poured all the kerosene on the ladder carefully, lest he disturb the coachman in the yard.
At this time, his men also locked the siege ladder with chains and poured kerosene on it.
The two of them ignited the huozhezi and lit the siege ladder almost at the same time.
When the fire ignited, the patrol soldiers immediately saw it and shouted. Tang Qian and his men ran wildly along the roof and towards the city wall. Arrows kept shooting at them. His men screamed and he was hit by an arrow in the leg.
, almost fell off the roof.
The two stumbled to the side of the alley, jumped at the same time, grabbed two ropes, and were pulled up by the soldiers at the top of the city.
Xixia soldiers rushed out of the house one after another, shouting. Some people took basins to get water, but turned around and came back. Let's forget it! The river was more than ten miles away.
The soldiers tried to lower the burning ladder, but found that the ladder was as heavy as a mountain and could not be moved at all.
The general shouted: "Leave the ladder alone, transport the grain away, and leave the county quickly!"
The ladder is already on fire. Even if the fire is extinguished, it is probably useless. We must leave quickly. There are Song troops in the city. If they set the whole city on fire, we will be in trouble.
The fire got bigger and bigger, and the soldiers became more frightened. The driver drove the ox cart slowly, and the soldiers were anxious and rushed out of the city.
Liu Qiong had been waiting for them for a long time. When the soldiers came out, he shouted, "Kill!"
The five hundred cavalrymen attacked at the same time, with dust flying and murderous intent rising to the sky. The five hundred cavalrymen attacked the Xixia soldiers not far away with the momentum of a thousand troops.
The Xixia soldiers were already panicking. As soon as they left the city, they saw a large group of cavalry coming. They thought they were ambushed by the Song army, so they were so frightened that they ran wildly on the official road.
Five hundred cavalry chased for more than ten miles and killed nearly half of the enemy troops. They stopped chasing and turned around to look for the cart. They found it soon. The cartmen all fled cleanly, and the cart was abandoned in the city.
There were lit torches everywhere in the city, and there were many dark shadows in the light of the fire. It turned out that the residents of the city ran out and scrambled to grab rice, creating a mess.
Liu Qiong asked the soldiers to stop them from robbing the rice, and said loudly to them: "There are two thousand shi in total of these grains. We only take a small part with us, and leave the rest to everyone. Everyone should hide the rice well and don't leak the news, otherwise they will be attacked by Xixia."
People take revenge!”
Thousands of people knelt on the ground and kowtowed in thanks.
Liu Qiong asked the soldiers to unload 1,500 shi of grain and asked the people to take it home. They only took 500 shi of grain, completely burned the siege ladder, and drove the cart to leave Tongxi County and return to Tongxi Fort.
Cao Baozong's supporting troops arrived a step too late. His logistics team was attacked by Song cavalry, causing heavy casualties. The siege ladder was burned and food was robbed. The worst thing happened.
The baggage team that was attacked was actually just an exploratory logistics team. Cao Zongbao specially arranged for this team to make a trip in order to test whether it was safe along the way.
The two thousand stones of food that had been looted was of little significance to them. On average, each soldier only had one bucket of rice. The thirty siege ladders were even more meaningless for them to attack Longxi County. Three hundred siege ladders were about the same.
After the news came that the supplies team had been robbed, Cao Zongbao ordered the news to be blocked. He did not want this kind of news to affect morale.
At this moment, the men who went to Jingzhao to contact Qi Jun came back.
Li Taiyue hurried to the Chinese army's tent. Seeing that Cao Baozong was in a bad mood, he felt a little bad and asked quickly: "How about it? Is the Qi army willing to send troops to respond to us?"
Cao Baozong shook his head, "They rejected him flatly!"
Li Taiyue was stunned, "Why?"
Cao Baozong sighed, "Our news is too limited. The Song army is counterattacking the Central Plains. The Qi army in Jingzhao has been transferred to fight in the Central Plains. The Qi army in Jingzhao only has less than 20,000 people, and Fengxiang's Jin soldiers are even less.
There are only about 10,000 people. They are struggling to protect themselves at this time. How can they join forces with us to deal with Chen Qing? This time was not chosen well!"
"However, when the general came out of Xingqing Mansion, the military headquarters did not tell the general about these situations!"
"Those idle bureaucrats only think about how to do business and make money all day long. They don't care about such things. The emperor has also been deceived."
The more Cao Baozong talked, the more disappointed and annoyed he became. He added: "There is also news that the baggage team sent by Dingxi County was attacked by the Song army. It is said that there are one or two thousand cavalry."
"Don't you ask the general to send troops to support me?"
"The army was sent, but it was a step too late. It only received the defeated generals who were being hunted down, a thousand escorts, and half of them were killed or wounded."
Li Taiyue was speechless for a long time. It seemed that they were very unlucky. They were unlucky at the beginning of sending troops. The Qi army was restrained by the war situation in the Central Plains. They didn't know it. And now they are even more unlucky. The troops sent to support the logistics team actually
Only half a day late,
After a while, Li Taiyue asked: "What is the general going to do?"
"What else can I do now?"
Cao Zongbao sighed and said: "We have no siege weapons, and we are no match for the opponent in battle. We can neither advance nor stay, so we have no choice but to withdraw our troops!"
Li Taiyue nodded, "I support the general's withdrawal, the sooner the better!"
In the middle of the night, Chen Qing received news from the patrolling soldiers that there was something strange in the enemy camp. Chen Qing quickly got up, put on his clothes, and followed the soldiers to the city.
Li Muqing was on duty tonight. When he saw Dutong arriving with a large group of sergeants, he quickly stepped forward and bowed, "See Dutong!"
"What happened?"
"The patrolling soldiers noticed unusual movements in the opponent's camp, with large groups of soldiers coming in and out. I observed the situation for a while and felt that the opponent was retreating!"
"retreat?"
Chen Qing frowned slightly. Will the troops be withdrawn after only a few days here?
He came to the battlements and looked towards the opponent's camp. The moonlight was very good. Under the moonlight, there were indeed troops mobilizing. Although he couldn't see clearly, the movement was obvious.
"Capital, do you want to send troops out to test it out?" Li Muching asked in a low voice.
Chen Qing shook his head, "You can send scouts to investigate, but don't send troops. If the other party really retreats, we will have many opportunities, so we are not in a hurry right now!"
"I humbly obey my orders!"
Li Muching immediately sent a scout team to detect the enemy's movements.
