Liu Guangshi took a two-pronged approach. On the one hand, he wanted to actively seize Bashu, and on the other hand, he also wanted to leave a way out for himself. He wanted to use the excuse of defending against Chen Qingdong's advance to sit on Jinghu South Road and become the local emperor of Jinghu South Road.
Two days later, Liu Guangshi received an edict from the emperor, in which the emperor Zhao Gou urged him to send troops as soon as possible to capture Bashu before the New Year.
Liu Guangshi immediately ordered his trusted general Wang De to lead 20,000 troops to guard Jiangling. He also ordered Li Qiong to lead 20,000 elites as the vanguard and march towards the Three Gorges Road. He himself led 80,000 troops as the rear team and arranged for more than 300 ships to transport them.
With supplies of food and grass, a hundred thousand troops marched towards Yiling County in a mighty manner.
From beginning to end, Liu Guangshi ignored Li Hui at all. Not only did the two have different factions, but they also had fundamental conflicts of interest. How could Li Hui control Liu Guangshi without an army to back him up?
Just as Liu Guangshi's army had just set off, a homing pigeon took off from Jiangling County and flew towards the Three Gorges Road.
Yiling County belongs to Xiazhou, and Xiazhou is the entrance to the Three Gorges Road and has been occupied by Chen Qing's army. The current defender of Yiling County is General Commander Wang Bin. Wang Bin was Jiang Yanxian's subordinate at that time and followed Jiang Yanxian.
After surrendering to Chen Qing and Jiang Yanxian becoming a civil servant, Wang Bin became Yang Zaixing's general.
Wang Bin had guarded Yiling County before and was very familiar with and experienced in Yiling County. This time Yang Zaixing asked him to guard Yiling County again.
Wang Bin was indeed familiar with Yiling County. After he led two thousand troops to Yiling County, he immediately built a beacon on Yiling Mountain. Yiling Mountain was so high that he could see the scene on the official road thirty miles away.
That afternoon, the defenders of Yiling County suddenly saw three puffs of black smoke burning on the mountain. The soldiers immediately sounded the alarm, 'Dang! Dang! Dang!' The city gate was then closed and the suspension bridge was pulled up.
After a while, Wang Bin led more than a thousand troops to the city wall. He also saw three beacon smoke. He looked at the official road in the distance for a long time. He had already seen a long black line. He turned back and ordered: "Light the beacon!"
The beacons in Yiling County were lit, and soon the beacons in Xialaoguan were also lit. The beacons were passed down from station to station.
The buildings in Yiling County are all very low and dense. In a large house not far from the east city gate, 80 elite scouts have been lurking for a long time. This is the most common method of attacking the city. Send people to lurk in first, and coordinate the inside and outside.
.
Not only Chen Qing's army often used this move, but other Song armies also used it. When the army retreated through Yiling County two months ago, Li Qiong left eighty scouts lurking in the city using various identities.
So far, they have gone relatively smoothly, they have weapons and armor, and the defenders have not doubted their identity, but let them participate in transporting supplies.
The leader of this scout is called Wang Qian, who is the chief of the scouts under Li Qiong. He has been in the city for two months and has witnessed with his own eyes that the Western Army is gradually evacuating the people in the city. They have all withdrawn, and now there are only a few young people left in the city.
Strong man.
Wang Qian also heard the alarm bell at the top of the city. He knew that his army had been discovered by the Western Army. In this case, how to cooperate with the army to seize the city would be a big problem...
Just when Wang Qian was worried, an opportunity came. A Western Army general came to him and asked them to participate in the night defense of the city. Not only Wang Qian's 80 men, but also 300 other young and strong laborers.
They put on simple leather armors, took spears, and were organized into the defense team in the middle of the night.
The reason is also simple. There are only 2,000 defenders, which is too small. To ensure that the soldiers have sufficient physical strength during the day, they can only let civilians participate in defending the city at night. However, the siege army has not appeared for a long time, which also gave the Western Army some opportunities.
slack off.
The time gradually came to the fourth watch, and the soldiers of the Western Army could not bear the sleepiness and went down to the city to find a place to sleep. One of them repeatedly told Wang Qian that if there was any movement outside the city, he would immediately sound the alarm.
"Don't worry, Wu Dutou, we can't fight, but there will definitely be no problem in being vigilant!"
The generals also fled, and there were only a few soldiers and 380 civilians left on the entire east city wall. Wang Qian drove the other civilians away, and he seized the opportunity to guard the city gate. Soon, his men were completely
Controlled the city tower and the city gate below.
The opportunity came.
At the top of the west city, Wang Bin stared coldly at the east city gate several miles away. A captain came to report: "General Qi, those people have seized the city tower, and they have controlled the suspension bridge and the city gate."
Wang Bin snorted and ordered: "Order brothers to be ready and evacuate at any time!"
"Follow the order!" They all ran away in a hurry.
Wang Bin felt really helpless. In order to lure the troops into the city, they thought of all kinds of methods, and even asked the other side's spies to guard the city gate, which was simply ridiculous.
At this time, three gunpowder arrows were shot from the east city gate, and 20,000 troops in the distance rushed towards Yiling County. Li Qiong waved his sword and shouted: "Speed up and rush into the city!"
The city gates were opened, the drawbridge was lowered, and soldiers began to rush into the county town. The alarms in the city were blaring, "Dang! Dang! Dang!" The rapid sirens resounded throughout the city.
The defenders in the city quickly evacuated to the west of the city, and three hundred young and strong civilians also rushed down the city and ran to the west, like wind and clouds. In a very short period of time, the defenders in the city retreated cleanly.
Li Qiong led the army into the city, and the army rushed towards the military camp in a mighty manner. Wang Qian hurriedly came down to the city to see him.
"For humble positions, see Li Tongzhi!"
"Let me ask you!"
Li Qiong pointed at the city with his riding crop and asked: "Why is the city so empty and there is not a single person in sight?"
"Reporting to the general, the people have all evacuated. They started to evacuate a month ago. At that time, a notice was posted saying that the county seat would be converted into a military city and all the people would evacuate to Shu."
"But even the army retreated, and no one was left behind."
"As soon as I opened the city gate, the alarm bells in the city rang, and all the enemy soldiers evacuated."
Li Qiong's brows furrowed. This is a bit unreasonable! When the city gate is opened, enemy soldiers should rush up to block the attack instead of retreating and escaping. This is completely inconsistent with the style of Chen Qing's army.
At this moment, the soldiers shouted and saw countless rockets fired from outside the city. Many places in the city immediately burst into flames. It was only because of the kerosene that they burned so fast.
Li Qiong was furious and asked sternly: "What's going on?"
Wang Qian was dumbfounded and said, "I don't know if I am in a humble position!"
"asshole!"
Li Qiong cursed and shouted: "Get out of the city! Retreat!"
He had already realized that the opponent had laid out the empty city strategy just for the purpose of attacking with fire. He had started to implement it more than a month ago. His men had been discovered by the opponent a long time ago, so he kept following the plan.
Suddenly, there was a sound of wailing and screaming outside the city. Li Qiong urged his horse to leave the city. He saw thousands of cavalry coming from the north, followed by dense enemy troops. However, his four thousand troops outside the city could not resist it.
They were killed so much that they howled like ghosts and wolves, and fled in all directions.
At this time, countless soldiers rushed out from the city. Li Qiong saw that the enemy army was strong and his own army was attacked by fire. This battle was bound to be defeated.
He shouted helplessly: "Follow me!"
He waved his sword and charged down the slope, followed by thousands of soldiers. Li Qiong fought desperately to open a bloody path and fled in panic towards the east with more than a thousand people.
The fire attack inside the city and the ambush outside the city frightened the 20,000 imperial troops. The soldiers were surrounded by tens of thousands of troops and had no way to go, so they knelt down and surrendered.
Yang Zaixing was still relatively lenient. Although the fire in the city was huge, there was no fire starter arranged in the east of the city. The east of the city burned slowly. As long as the soldiers in the city could escape back to the east of the city, they could basically escape with their lives.
But it was useless to escape with their lives. The retreat had been cut off by Yang Zaixing's army, the general had fled, and the morale of the army had completely collapsed. Apart from surrendering, the soldiers had no other way to go.
A fire that burned the city lasted for two days and two nights before it was extinguished. More than a thousand soldiers did not escape, and eventually the city and the city were burned to the ground.
More than 17,500 people surrendered, and only more than 1,000 people escaped with Li Qiong, which meant that Li Qiong's front army was almost completely destroyed.
