Li Xia read the information that was handed over mysteriously by the Military Intelligence Department, and handed it to several close ministers.
"Is this an opportunity?"
"Our plan worked. Brother Yi Xiang is finally willing to fight." "What do you think of Marshal Zhang?"
Now Zhang Rou took Zhang Liulang to the Taihang Mountains. As for Zhang Erlang, he has been living in seclusion since he was rescued. Currently, only Zhang Hongdao is in front of the emperor.
Zhang Hongdao stared at the strategic map sent from Yuanying for a long time and said: "If we are really retreating, Brother Yixiang's sneak attack can cut off our army neatly. But since we got it in advance
Intelligence can actually be used to ambush him."
He walked to the big sand table in the hall and placed several war games.
"Your Majesty, please see, we only need to set up an ambush to the north of the camp in the north of the city, and send a surprise force along the Taihang Mountains to go behind Brother Yixiang's defense line, and we can take the opportunity to take down his camp."
After hearing these strategies, Dong Wenyong nodded repeatedly, but then asked: "Is this news credible?"
Lin Zi responded: "Hao Jing passed it on."
Zhang Hongdao then raised his hand to Li Xia and said: "Your Majesty, Mr. Hao is my husband, and I know him very well. Although he also served in the Mongolian Yuan Dynasty, it was definitely not for his personal future. He actually looked forward to restoring the Han Dynasty.
, he not only deplored the Jin Kingdom, he also deplored the Song Kingdom's inability to defend the Central Plains. You only need to read his early poems to know.
After saying that, Zhang Hongdao immediately recited two poems by Hao Jing.
"The Jin people did not dare to station in Youyan, and Liu Yu still ordered the emperor for eight years. If we defend Bianliang and fight, half of the Guanhe River can be saved."
"Shaokang fled south as soon as he arrived, leaving the heroic country to survive. Zong Zeyun killed Li Gang, and his clothes and clothes no longer returned to the Central Plains."
Dong Wenyong actually said: "I also trust Mr. Lingchuan." Li Xia thought for a while and turned to Shi Jun.
Shi Jun had already nodded secretly, but when he saw Li Xia's gaze, he was stunned for a moment. He came to his senses and said, "It's not that he doesn't believe Mr. Lingchuan. It's just that on the battlefield, the difficulty is not to collect intelligence, but to distinguish it."
Intelligence. Now we are following our plan and pretending to retreat. Will the Yuan army also be following our plan and pretending to pursue?"
Zhang Hongdao said a little strangely: "Brother Yixiang is a rough guy, how can he see through His Majesty's strategy and trick Mr. Hao into passing on false information?"
Shi Jun had no choice but to bite the bullet and said: "It's not that I don't believe Mr. Lingchuan. But this matter is precisely because the information was sent back by Mr. Lingchuan, so it can be considered that the Yuan army is setting up a trap.
~~Two days later.
Brother Yixiang personally climbed up to Langya Mountain in the northwest of Baozhou City. The view is very good and you can see far to the southeast.
"Your Majesty, if the Tang army wants to go north along the Taihang Mountains to attack our camp, this is the only way to go."
"The Han people are smart." Brother Yixiang said, "You said that Liu Bingzhong first designed to attack the Tang army's military morale, and then came up with such an idea. No wonder he was able to help the Great Khan seize the throne."
"But I heard that his hometown has been captured and his brothers have surrendered. How can the Great Khan still trust him?"
"Nothing can be trusted. The person holding the knife knows whether it will stab someone or himself."
Brother Yi Xiang said this with calmness and confidence in his eyes.
After waiting for a long time, there was still no movement of the Tang army coming, and the Yuan army ambush troops guarding the foot of the mountain were already a little tired.
"Your Majesty, is the Tang army not coming?"
Brother Yixiang also frowned, remembering that Liu Bingzhong said that the Tang army might not come.
This time it was mainly a test, first to test whether Hao Jing had surrendered to Li Xia, and secondly to test whether Li Xia really wanted to retreat.
For example, if Hao Jing had not surrendered, of course he would not have sent out the information.
Brother Yixiang believed that Hao Jing was a traitor, and as long as Li Xia received the information, he would probably use this information to fight back even if he planned to retreat. So he was always sure that the Tang army would come.
"Keep waiting."
So the ambush soldiers did not move and stayed in the mountains overnight to wait.
At dawn the next day, finally, a scouting horse from the Yuan army came running towards us from a distance.
"Your Majesty, Your Majesty."
Brother Yixiang was sleeping in a small tent in the forest. When someone pushed him, he woke up immediately and left the tent without saying a word.
"The Tang army is here, let me ambush them."
"Your Majesty, there is no Tang army. He Renjie from the east road sent a detective horse here.
He Renjie was the soldier sent by Brother Yixiang to attack the Tang Army's camp in the north of Baozhou City. Brother Yixiang had already prepared him to be ambushed by the Tang Army.
"How is it? Tang Jun ambushed He Renjie?"
"No."
"What?" Brother Shifting was surprised and said, "No?"
The Tan Ma finally stepped forward and reported: "The Tang Army camps outside Baozhou City are all empty. Except for less than 50,000 people in Baozhou City, the other main forces of the Tang Army are no longer in Baozhou."
Brother Yi Xiang was very surprised and said to himself: "Really retreated?"
"Also, Li Xia has sent envoys to Yanjing again to negotiate peace with the Great Khan, saying that Baigou will be the boundary.
"The Great Khan never thought of negotiating a peace with him, just to delay time." Brother Yixiang said: "Now that the Song army has attacked, Li Xia is in a hurry to send troops back to Sichuan and Shu, and still wants to negotiate a peace?"
Only then did he realize that he had been a little too cautious before. "Pass this king's order to mobilize troops and horses to surround Baozhou City."
Brother Yixiang gave the order, stood on the top of the mountain in person, and shouted: "Warriors! The counterattack has begun!"
The hammering sound kept ringing, and a huge return cannon was torn down from the high platform.
Because the range of the Huihui artillery was inferior to that of the Tang army's artillery, in order to make up for this, Brother Yixiang built a high platform at any cost. Now that it was to be demolished, the militiamen had to build a slope next to the high platform, put wheels on the cannon, and slowly transport it down.
.
"Slow down, slow down! Oh! Be careful, be careful." The whole process was extremely laborious.
And this was just the beginning. It was a hundred miles from the Yuan army camp to Baozhou City. They had to push the giant cannon away from the earthen walls and deep trenches they had worked so hard to build.
The Mongolian cavalry did not rush to Baozhou first, but followed them leisurely on horseback.
The cavalry said that it was spring now and it was the time for the horses to gain weight. They wanted to make sure that the horses were fed first.
The militiamen looked at these cavalry with envy, imagining that they could be promoted to cavalry and own horses and armor because of their meritorious service on the battlefield.
The sound of wooden wheels tinkling and clanging all the way.
The wooden wheel rolled across the bumpy land, and the militiamen held it with their hands. The constantly shaking wood wore their palms, and at the same time, the wood was also polished and smoothed by their palms.
Finally, after completing the one-hundred-mile journey, Baozhou City appeared in front of us. The flag of the Tang Dynasty was clearly visible hanging on the top of the city.
"Defeat the enemy and defend your hometown!"
The horn sounded, and the militiamen, urged by the cavalry, pushed the cannon towards the city.
Sweat dropped with each step forward, and finally, "Boom!"
There was a loud thunderous noise in front of them, and two iron balls landed more than fifty steps in front of them, crashing directly into the ground, causing the ground to tremble slightly.
Many militiamen were so frightened that they fell to the ground. But the cavalry began to urge loudly.
"The range of the artillery is right there! Go over and build the platform, mount the cannon and blast the city!"
The frightened militiamen had no choice but to continue moving forward, pushing the heavy cannon with difficulty.
The person responsible for transporting the stones followed behind, walking heavily. He had not even gone fifty steps.
"boom!"
There was another loud noise from the front, and a fire bomb hit hard, smashing a huge return cannon into pieces.
"Bang!"
Wood chips flew into the air, the artillery carriage burst apart, and wood fragments hit the militiamen on their heads.
They held their heads and ran back, only to find that several people had been beaten to pieces.
"ah"
"Don't run!" The governor's cavalry drew out their scimitars and came forward, driving the militiamen to continue the siege.
"Right here, set up the gun carriage!"
After another two days, the frightened militiamen set up the remaining cannons from a distance.
The stone bullet was thrown towards the city wall with a "boom", crossing a beautiful arc, hitting the moat and causing high splashes of water.
"Not enough! Build a high platform!" -~
At the top of Baozhou City, Jingjie looked at this scene, feeling worried in his heart. He turned around and walked down the city to the Lotus Pond Courtyard.
When he arrived at the place, he handed over to the guard. Before he could speak, he saw Zhang Hongdao coming out.
"Go in, His Majesty also plans to summon you." Jingjie was stunned for a moment, not understanding what he meant.
"Wulang, what happened to Mr. Hao?" "Have you heard about it too?"
"Gong Jing told me, will Hao Gong be okay?"
Zhang Hongdao patted Jingjie's arm and said: "It is common for all Han ministers to be suspected in Meng and Yuan Dynasties, especially when Hao Gong has met His Majesty. It is true that the news he sent back was most likely intentional by Yuan Meng. , His Majesty ignored it just to protect Mr. Hao, don’t worry.”
"I understand." "Go ahead."
Jingjie felt relieved and walked all the way to the main hall, only to see Li Xia still sitting there.
"Meet Your Majesty."
"I thought that as soon as the Yuan army started to attack the city, you Baozhou locals should come to ask for an audience." Li Xia said, "Let me talk about another thing first. I believe that Jingxuan and Zhao Fu have also told you. I am in a hurry now. There is a shortage of officials to govern Henan and Hebei. You are willing to become officials and be my subordinates instead of the Zhang family's subordinates.
He could also have said it more beautifully, such as replacing the sentence "Be my subordinate" with "The parents and officials of the people of the Central Plains", but he wanted to be more direct. Jingjie hesitated and realized that he had no choice.
Zhang Rou and Zhang Liulang went to Taihang Mountain to recruit bandits and were not in the city, which may be some kind of statement.
Li Xia's desire to undermine the power of the prince was much more ruthless than Kublai Khan's. "I am willing to do your best for your majesty."
"Okay." Li Xia asked: "The Yuan army attacked Baozhou, are you panicked?" "I am really puzzled." Jingjie asked: "Before Oruchi led his army south, your majesty ordered the general to attack, and did not give the Yuan army any chance. The opportunity for the army to approach Baozhou. Why did Yi Xiang Ge be allowed to attack the city this time?"
"Before Zhang Rou didn't return, people in Baozhou were unsettled, but things are a little better now."
"I am still puzzled. Our army clearly still has strength. Why did we deliberately retreat and allow Brother Xiang to attack the city?"
"How do you think this battle should be fought?"
Jingjie shuddered slightly and said: "I am incompetent and dare not teach your majesty. I just
"It's just that you are worried about Baozhou City." Li Xia stood up, patted him on the shoulder, and said: "Yes, I am indeed using Baozhou City to contain the main force of the Yuan army and wait for a result. This is for the overall situation. You see
It is inevitable that you will be worried when you come out. But I am here and promise with my life that Baozhou will not be lost."