In the Mongolian army's tent, Shi Tianze, wearing a fox fur coat, sat by the stove and listened to the scouts reporting on the war.
Tonight was just his exploratory attack. He sent a few troops to cross the river on the ice. If it goes well, he can occupy the stronghold on the other side of the Yellow River. If it doesn't go well, he can find out the Song army's troop deployment on the other side of the Yellow River.
The result was not smooth, and the Song army was prepared.
"Report, the Song army is supporting Xia Yangdu again..."
Shi Tianze made some calculations and believed that the Song army at Xia Yangdu was only 3,000 strong at most, so he planned to send more troops there to continue the attack. Suddenly, another scout horse came back.
"Report! Commander, we saw Li Xia's flag, he's in Hancheng."
"Hancheng?"
Shi Tianze thought for a moment and did not add more troops to Xia Yangdu, but instead increased his troops to attack Hancheng.
After a long time, Tan Ma hurriedly reported back again.
"Commander, the ice surface of the Yellow River near Hancheng collapsed?"
"How can it collapse?" Shi Tianze asked in return.
Even if a cannon stone hits the ice, it can only make a small hole at most, and it is far from collapse.
But I heard the detective horse say: "The villain doesn't know, and the Song army doesn't know what object it is using. The sound is like thunder. One cannon hit, which can break several people and collapse the ice..."
While listening and marking on the map, Shi Tianze frowned slightly and was sure that Li Xia was in Hancheng.
He thought about it over and over, but he really couldn't think of what kind of artillery car it was that made a sound like thunder.
After a while, he asked: "Which soldiers and horses have crossed to the other side of the Yellow River tonight?"
Several of the scouts looked at each other, and finally one of them came out and responded: "Hao Wanhu sent a villain to report that he has successfully reached the other side..."
This Hao Wanhu refers to the son of the famous general Hao Monk Batu, named Hao Tianyi.
Hao Tianyi was still very young and very courageous. He only led more than a thousand people to cross the river from Yumen and go to a remote place.
You must know that the river in Yumen is very fast, the ice is not solid, and after crossing the river, there are steep mountains on the other side. There are no strongholds that can be occupied, and there is no baggage or support across the river...
Only reckless young people dare to go like this.
The Yellow River is so long that the Song army cannot completely defend it. There are always places to cross, but not every place has strategic significance.
In Shi Tianze's view, Hao Tianyi was taking a risk.
He lets the other party take risks, what if he succeeds?
Ignoring this small group of troops, Shi Tianze asked again and found that in tonight's offensive, no troops other than Hao Tianyi captured the stronghold on the opposite side.
Of course, the war had just begun and he was not in a hurry.
"Li Xia is in Hancheng..."
After repeating this conclusion, Shi Tianze ordered: "Send the order to withdraw all the troops and horses."
…
After hearing Shi Tianze's order to withdraw his troops, He Bichi leaned slightly, as if he wanted to say something.
But after thinking about it, he added: "Don't worry, it's impossible for the Song people to defend everywhere in such a large Guanzhong. Sooner or later there will be gaps in the defense line. Fighting is like hunting, the prey has been surrounded , just find its weak belly, shoot an arrow, and stab it with a knife."
Shi Tianze nodded and praised He Bichi's insight.
After that, he raised his real doubts.
"Li Xia's troops are definitely insufficient. He has less than 100,000 troops in total, but he has to defend such a large place. We can concentrate our troops and defeat them one by one... However, Li Xia's preparations are too sufficient. If he hadn't been prepared in advance, For many months, he could not have defended himself so fully."
When discussing these military discussions, Shi Tianze always spoke Mongolian.
Even though he speaks Mongolian very well, it is still a bit troublesome to think about strategy and how to translate it into Mongolian.
Although Shi Tianze was the actual commander of this battle, He Bichi, the sect king, was the nominal head coach. Therefore, it was up to Shi Tianze to adapt to He Bichi.
This kind of pandering made him somewhat unable to feel the majesty of the commander-in-chief.
"One month in advance?" Hebichi asked, "What do you mean?"
"We got rid of Li Fen in October and stabilized the situation in Shandong in mid-November. Only then did we receive the Great Khan's call to conquer Li Xia in the west. It was not unpleasant. But Li Xia still got news."
After saying this, Shi Tianze thought for a while and couldn't find any other Mongolian words to express his suspicions euphemistically. He simply said bluntly: "I suspect that there is a prince who has tipped off Li Xia, and his status is not low."
"Yan Zhongji?"
He Bichi asked, then shook his head and asked again: "Zhang Hongfan?"
Shi Tianze pondered and said nothing.
"Catch them and interrogate them and we will know." Hebichi said with a smile.
This smile shows that he is not really reckless, but contemptuous.
Hebichi knew very well why Kublai Khan appointed him as the commander-in-chief. It was to check and balance the princes. Even if the checks and balances were too much, Kublai Khan would naturally be able to clean up the situation without being too particular.
Faced with such undisguised contempt, Shi Tianze shook his head with a wry smile and said: "No need, as long as Li Xia is destroyed, naturally no other prince will dare to collaborate with the enemy like this."
"Then we have to catch this weasel that has mixed up with the wolves."
"Prince Zong, don't worry, I have a way..."
Hancheng.
Hancheng is located in the northeastern corner of the Guanzhong Basin, facing the Luliang Mountains across the Yellow River. The terrain is higher in the west and lower in the east.
This is probably the northernmost end of the Yellow River defense line deployed by Li Xia.
To the north are high and deep mountains. Even if the Mongolian army crossed the river, they could only shuttle through dangerous terrain. In the end, they had to attack Hancheng.
Or further north, there is the Loess Plateau, defended by Zhang Jue.
Li Xia walked on the ice of the Yellow River to take inventory of the battlefield, and at the same time listened to the scouts from various places reporting on the battle situation last night.
There were heavy casualties in various places. For example, Xia Yangdu was attacked by the largest number of Mongolian troops. Fortunately, He Tai and Zhang Shun did not take it lightly and managed to hold on.
Although he held on, Li Xia still frowned deeply after hearing the battle situation.
The Yellow River defense line is too long, and his troops cannot completely block it. Now Shi Tianze is fighting steadily and likes to camp step by step. His main attacks are Li Xia's various strongholds on the west bank.
Shi Tianze's style of play was the opposite of Liu Zheng's. Although Liu Zheng also seized the Heyang camp, he actually liked taking risks. As soon as he crossed the river, his cavalry drove directly to Chang'an. It didn't matter where he crossed the river; Shi Tianze was one of the few Mongolian generals who disliked him.
When taking a detour, he prefers to seize strategic locations to avoid being cut off from his retreat.
It's a bit clumsy to seize the advantage in military strength and use strength to overcome skill, but the clumsier the method, the harder it is to find flaws.
Li Xia hasn't found a chance to win yet.
His troops were already small and scattered across the Yellow River. Shi Tianze concentrated his forces to attack, resulting in even greater casualties. The battle only started last night, and it already looked like it could not hold on.
…
"News is coming." Lin Zi hurried over from the east and reported in a low voice: "Shi Tianze brought fifty or sixty thousand people to Shanxi to attack mainly along the Yellow River, and sent two more teams to attack Tongguan and Wuguan..."
"We didn't receive any news about Shi Tianze's sneak attack last night." Li Xia asked, "Did he not get the news, or did he lose confidence?"
As far as Li Xia was concerned, he could calculate Shi Tianze's troop distribution. What he was more concerned about was whether the prince who delivered the news to him had a change in mentality.
Lin Zidao: "He said that the decision was made temporarily last night, and he didn't get the order in advance..."
"It's not a temporary decision." Li Xia said: "The sneak attack on the night of the first day of the first lunar month must have been arranged long ago. Maybe Shi Tianze has suspected that someone has sent me a message."
"I will be more careful in the end."
"Have you asked? Is it possible to attack the Mongolian army by surprise?"
Li Xia doesn't like passive defense, especially when it is no longer possible to win by passive defense alone, so it is better to use offense instead of defense.
"Yes." Lin Zi replied and was about to answer again.
Li Xia had already asked a question.
"have?"
"Yes, Shi Tianze has ordered the camp to be moved to the vicinity of Longmendu. We can take it by surprise, cross the river on ice from the north, and take a small path around to the back of the Mongolian camp..."
"Is the news reliable?"
"Reliable. After passing the news so many times, the other party has never deceived us..."