The next day, regardless of fatigue and injuries, the Tang army withdrew three miles to the southeast before dawn.
At noon, by a small river, the Tang army had no time to cross the river, and the Yuan army had already caught up with them. The two sides then set up their positions and faced each other head-on.
This place is called Hetan Mountain. At the beginning of the war, Li Xia took Bao San and Pifeng's troops as the front army and formed an infantry formation; Song He and Hu Legen's troops were on the left; Lu Xiaoyou and Desuamu's troops were on the right.
Kublai Khan first sent a small group of cavalry to lure the Tang army's infantry, but the Tang army was not fooled and kept forming a mountainous formation. Kublai Khan then sent cavalry to sneak attack the Tang army's rear formation, but was blocked by Lu Xiaoyou.
Seeing this situation, Kublai Khan understood Li Xia's intention to hold on and decisively ordered Zhang Hongfan to lead his cavalry to take a long detour and outflank Li Xia's rear.
In the evening, Zhang Hongfan finally reached the rear of the Tang army and wanted to complete the siege, but he encountered Kong Xian of the Tang army arriving with his troops.
The battle was tense for half a day. Although the Yuan army had the advantage, it was like a vicious dog biting a tortoise shell, unable to break through it. So far, the Tang army had increased its troops to 60,000. Although there were still 20,000 tired troops, the number was still small.
However, the gap with the Yuan army was getting smaller and smaller. At night, the troops were withdrawn, and the generals returned to camp and apologized one after another.
"Great Khan, it's my incompetence." The leader of the Eight Thorns said: "Those Tang Army infantry were wearing heavy armor and standing there with spears raised. It would be difficult for our cavalry to defeat them in one day. But according to the past method of defeating the Song Army
, we only need to take a detour to cut off their food and grass, and surround them for a few days, and they will weaken. It is a pity that Zhang Hongfan did not successfully outflank today."
Although Tacha'er, Hu Lahu'er and other kings of the East Road usually don't like Ba Ci, the king of the West Road, they are all from the Golden Family after all, and now they started to cling to each other again.
"Ba Ci is right. Today we left the Tang army in Hetan Mountain, but Zhang Hongfan failed to push their retreat. Tomorrow the Tang army will be able to retreat to Dingyuan camp, and this battle will be difficult to fight."
Kublai Khan saw that the kings were all blaming Zhang Hongfan, but he turned to look at Shi Tianze, Yan Zhongji and others, as if he wanted to see if the princes dared to unite.
In fact, if the Han nobles were really united, Kublai Khan would be afraid of them.
At this time, no one spoke for Zhang Hongfan. Kublai Khan waved his hand magnanimously and said: "Don't blame this guy, just tell me how you think this battle should be fought."
Shi Tianze was the first to go out and responded: "I think that tomorrow Li Xia will retreat to Dingyuan camp and defend the small mountain camp. According to my opinion, instead of attacking by force, it is better to seize the three passes, cut off their supplies, and kill him in the course of time."
.”
Hu Ci Hu'er sneered, "Does Prime Minister Shi only know how to say, 'I'll kill him with time' when he goes to war?"
Shi Tianze shook his head, thinking that he was indeed good at killing people with time, but it was a pity that these Mongolian clansmen were too anxious to eat hot tofu, and they were all bad people. If Hu La Hu'er hadn't kept urging, and if Bala hadn't been young and careless, Li Xia would be here today.
He has already followed in Li Fen’s footsteps.
"That's enough. I don't know how to fight. I only know how to ridicule my colleagues." Kublai Khan scolded Hu Ji Hu'er and said, "Shigong continues."
"Three Passes is the first strategic road in Helan Mountain. The Tang army's support and supplies came from this post road in a steady stream and could be retreated at any time. I thought that I would occupy this place at any cost. Firstly; secondly, Zhang Wenqian is still in Xingqing.
Your Majesty can summon him to the government and ask him to persuade Lian Xixian to surrender. Once Lian Xixian surrenders, Gansu will be gained."
Hearing this, Kublai Khan nodded.
This time, he realized more deeply that these princes were indeed much more able to do things than his relatives. The vague doubts he had about the Han princes in his heart a while ago had dissipated a lot at this time.
"Let Prime Minister Shi lead the troops to seize the three passes." When Kublai Khan said this, he thought that Shi Tianze's troops were not enough, so he turned to look at Ba Ci again.
Shi Tianze followed Kublai Khan's gaze and fell among the kings. He couldn't help being surprised and said quickly: "I have received the order, but I am incompetent. Please let Marshal Zhang Jiu help me."
Zhang Hongfan frowned, sincerely he didn't want to get too close to Shi Tianze. Without him, he didn't want to appear to be in a group.
This small expression fell in Kublai Khan's eyes, but Kublai Khan sighed in his heart, secretly thinking that there were still too many internal fights in the Yuan Dynasty.
"Zhang Jiu, you and Shi Tianze join forces to win the three passes.
Remember, war is the most important thing." "I accept the decree."
It was a sweaty night, and Zhang Hongfan and Shi Tianze rarely walked side by side. "From a war perspective, at least there are no constraints this time." "Shi Gong, you should not hide the fact that Shi Gang was captured from His Majesty."
"What? Even Jiulang doesn't believe me? Others don't know it, and you don't know what Shi Shu and Shi Quan's death means to me." "I believe in Shi Gong's loyalty." Zhang Hongfan said: "I just think that Shi Gong should be more honest with your Majesty.
"
"Honest?" Shi Tianze shook his head and sighed.
What Zhang Hongfan was talking about was not just about Shi Bang, but also about Shi Tianze's murder of Li Fen when he was in Jinan.
In his opinion, the reason why Kublai Khan allowed Hu Lahuer to test Shi Tianze was because of Shi Tianze's dishonesty. This is also the reason why Shi Tianze has been constrained recently.
"Does Mr. Shi know my tenth brother?"
Shi Tianze turned to look at Zhang Hongfan and said, "Zhang Hongzheng."
"That's right. During the Battle of the Yellow River, Shiro and I were both in Shi Gong's army. Shiro made the same mistake as Shi Sanlang." Zhang Hongfan said, "But I confessed to your majesty."
Shi Tianze narrowed his eyes and asked, "Who did your tenth brother marry?" "Princess Tacihutuo'er."
Shi Tianze chuckled and remembered. After the Battle of the Yellow River, Zhang Hongzheng suddenly got the daughter of Shang Shuchi's eleventh son Boci Mahamo in marriage.
It seems that the Zhang family has been favored, but the problem is that Bosi Maha was originally a concubine. His daughter was married to the chief of the Geluolu tribe in her early years. After her husband died, he led his troops to join the Yuan Dynasty. She was almost fifty years old when she remarried.
Well, several of his children are older than Zhang Hongzheng.
Shi Tianze finally understood who was the mastermind during the Battle of the Yellow River, and thought to himself, this is the same fault? No wonder His Majesty treated the Zhang family like this.
"Kuroro is really honest." He sighed, not sure whether he was admiring or ridiculing.
Zhang Hongfan's eyes were steady and he said, "I hope this frankness will prevent Li Xia from using this matter to drive a wedge between me and Mr. Shi again." Shi Tianze sighed deeply, nodded solemnly, and said, "This time, I will not let Li Xia use this matter to drive a wedge between me and Mr. Shi."
The reason failed."
~~
"The Yuan army has moved!"
Lin Zi galloped back and said: "Your Majesty, the Yuan army attacked before dawn. Your Majesty ordered me and Hu Legen to investigate whether they had sent troops to bypass the desert to attack the third pass, but the west side was blocked by the Yuan army. Hu Legen
The people from Lurgen haven’t come back yet, so I’m afraid they’ll have to go around from the south.”
"Tell me about the arrangements of the Yuan army."
"Yes! Look at the flag, Tacha'er led nearly 20,000 people to attack the north; Baqi, Hulanji, and a few thousand people led a total of several thousand people to attack the west; Aibuhua, Hong Junqi and others led three to four thousand people to the east
.”
"Wait a minute, there are mountains to the east." Li Zengbo said, "Your Majesty, please look at the Yingpan Mountain to the east, the terrain gets higher and higher, until it reaches the top of the Helan Mountain." Li Xia looked up and saw that the top of the Helan Mountain was still there all year round.
melted snow.
Lin Zidao: "According to the intelligence, Yuan General Hong Junqi is a Korean, and I'm afraid he has some experience in attacking mountains. If they occupy the high mountains to the east, they can gain a lot of advantages in terms of terrain."
"Hong Junqi? Any other information?" Li Zengbo asked again.
"The ancestors of this man were from the Central Plains. During the Tang Dynasty, eight talented men were ordered to go to Goryeo to teach, and the Hong family was one of them. They were Goryeo aristocrats. Hong Junqi's father, named Hong Fuyuan, surrendered to Mongolia in his early years and was appointed as the general manager of Tokyo.
The soldiers and civilians of Goryeo. They once helped Goryeo's proton Wang Jian, but were later framed by Wang Jian until he died. He formed a deep hatred with Hong Junqi. This incident was a big deal at that time, and everyone in Liaodong knew it."
Li Xia nodded and said, "You can find a way to send someone to Hong Junqi's army to contact him." "Understood."
"Continue to talk about the arrangements of the Yuan army."
"Yes, Kublai Khan not only sent troops to the north, west, and east, but also ordered Hu Xihu'er, and Manggu led more than ten thousand troops to encircle them from the west to the south. It was their soldiers and horses that separated Hu Legen's exploration horses.
It’s farther west.”
Li Xia marked it on the map and said, "Calculated this way, there are about 40,000 people in the four directions."
"Not only that, there is also a group of Mongolian warriors plundering the formation outside. Their number is about one
"More than 10,000 people." Lin Zidao said, "These cowards are the most powerful part of the Yuan army."
Li Xia and Li Zengbo looked at each other.
"With more than 50,000 troops, Kublai Khan left nearly 30,000 men to guard the camp?"
"As your Majesty said, ten thousand brave soldiers are enough to guard the camp." Li Zengbo said: "I must have sent twenty thousand people to take the three passes. Shi Tianze and Zhang Hongfan, these are the two most difficult people to deal with."
"How does Li Qing think we should respond?"
Li Zengbo wanted to say something, but he looked embarrassed and pondered.
"There are three important places at the three passes. One is Dead Man's Mountain, the second is Hongjinggou, and the third is Fort Liang. I think Song He can guard Dead Man's Mountain, and Pifeng can guard Hongjinggou. As for Fort Liang, Lian Xixian's faction can
If you want to defend it manually, you don’t need many troops. After all, except for Dead Man’s Mountain, the other two places are dangerous places, and soldiers and horses can come for reinforcements later.”
Lin Zidao said: "There is a war at the three passes. The baggage coming for reinforcements will have to go through Su Yukou?" "Yes, we have to pass on the letter to Lian Shanfu, and the baggage must be diverted." Li Zengbo said.
Li Xia asked: "Is it enough to send 10,000 people to defend it?"
"The troops are sufficient, and there will be reinforcements later. But the distance between Sanguan Pass and Dingyuan Camp is too far, and Shi Tianze and Zhang Hongfan are both talented people, so a commander must be in charge."
Thinking of this, Li Zengbo patted his knees and said, "Let me go, shall we?" Li Xia looked at Li Zengbo, thought for a long time, and nodded.
"After finalizing the three points, I think that Yang Ben can take charge of his own business, and it will be enough for him to face Tacha'er." "Yes."
Li Xia looked at the map and muttered: "Let Lu Xiaoyou guard the west, and I can rest assured."
"These boys are all mature." Li Zengbo picked up a war chess piece, pushed it on the map, and said, "Bao San can lead the infantry to guard the east."
Lin Zi understood immediately and said, "I can help him."
"That's right." Li Zengbo laughed loudly and said, "This veteran is the most at ease."