In Jiping County, the streets and alleys are almost empty.
For many years, Jiping County has been considered peaceful. Although the taxes on the people are heavy, there have been almost no military disasters.
After Zhao Shengtai led hundreds of people into the city, although the people in the city were a little surprised, they did not fall into panic.
After all, after this group of soldiers entered the city, although they controlled many officials and soldiers in the city, they did not harm the common people.
When Yuwen Chengchao led the cavalry into the city, the people in the city finally panicked.
People soon learned that the army outside the city was approaching the city. Everyone was frightened and hid in their homes. No one knew what kind of suffering they would face next.
In fact, after Zhao Shengtai entered the city and took control of the north and south gates of the city, he had already begun to prepare to defend the city.
In addition to taking out all the few weapons and arrows from the arsenal in the city and sending them to the two city gates, they also collected a large number of stones in the city to use as falling rocks when defending the city.
The city wall of the county town is not thick, so the walkway on top of the city is also very narrow, making it impossible to deploy too many people. Four to five hundred people can already fill the city head.
The Liaodong Army left and returned, approaching the city but did not immediately launch an offensive.
After arriving at the city, the Liaodong Army repeated its old tactics and divided some troops to go to the south gate. The strength was not large. Yuwen Chengchao knew that the opponent's purpose was to contain the south gate. Firstly, it was to disperse the strength of the defenders in the city, and secondly, it was also to block the city.
The retreat route for the defenders.
Although the south gate was not the enemy's main attack direction, Yuwen Chengchao did not dare to neglect and ordered Zhao Shengtai to lead five hundred soldiers to guard the south gate.
He knew very well that the battlefield was full of emptiness and reality. Although the troops outside the south gate were only used for containment, if the enemy found that the defense of the south gate was too weak, they might not launch an attack.
The Liaodong Army has not launched an offensive, but Yuwen Chengchao took this opportunity to dispatch some sergeants to collect defensive supplies in the city. In the face of a powerful enemy, in order to defend the city, he could only act urgently.
The garrison soldiers on top of the city stood ready. The Liaodong Army had arrived at the city at dawn, but they still did not launch an offensive until after lunch.
Yuwen Chengchao personally sat at the top of the city, but he was looking to the northwest.
"Lord Lieutenant, why haven't the enemy troops taken any action?" A voice suddenly sounded from beside him: "What are they planning?"
Yuwen Chengchao turned his head and looked over, and saw that the person speaking was none other than the Dragon Scale Forbidden Army Sig Nie Laoben.
Nie Laoben was a low-level general in the Forbidden Army, but he was easy-going and quite prestigious among the Forbidden Army.
Yuwen Chengchao smiled and said: "Maybe I am afraid of heavy casualties, so I dare not act rashly."
His smile was gentle and he looked calm, which made the soldiers around him feel at ease when they saw his smile.
But Yuwen Chengchao's heart was not as calm as it seemed.
Thousands of soldiers and horses of the Liaodong Army were under the city. Logically speaking, it was natural to launch an offensive as soon as possible and capture Jiping as soon as possible. However, there was something fishy about their delay in moving.
At first, Yuwen Chengchao was unable to guess the enemy's plot, but now he could vaguely understand the fishiness.
The Liaodong Army surrounded but refused to attack. It was obvious that they were not in a hurry to capture Jiping immediately.
Standing still will only give the city more time to prepare, and the opponent's general cannot be unaware of this. The later the attack occurs, the more difficult it will be to attack the city.
The other party knew this, but still gave the defenders time to prepare. This is enough to prove that the main target of the enemy's operation does not seem to be Jiping City.
He connected these unusual signs of the Liaodong Army together, and finally came to a shocking conclusion, that is, the purpose of the Liaodong Army's siege of Jiping City was probably to encircle the site for reinforcements.
Just like Qin Xiao, Yuwen Chengchao immediately realized something was wrong when he discovered at the city gate that the enemy troops besieging the city were mainly infantry.
Among the various armies of the Tang Dynasty, the Liaodong Army was able to dominate the world because of its powerful cavalry regiment.
The cavalry is the trump card of the Liaodong Army. Although today is different from the past, the Liaodong Army has long lost its courage as it once was, but they know that the cavalry they rely on most in the military is the cavalry, so the strength of the cavalry has always been preserved.
Although the cavalry could not play a big role in siege operations, among the four to five thousand troops, there were only two to three hundred cavalry, which was certainly not right.
Yuwen Chengchao concluded that the Liaodong cavalry must be ambushing somewhere, and the most likely target of the cavalry was the follow-up reinforcements led by Qin Xiao.
He carefully looked at the map of Jiping County and also discovered that the fatal area was between Longbagou and Jiping City, a plain area of dozens of miles. Once the reinforcements marched here and the Liaodong cavalry suddenly came out, the consequences would be unimaginable.
He was anxious in his heart, wondering if Qin Xiao was aware of this serious problem and wanted to send more scouts to inform him. However, by the time he understood the conspiracy, both the north and south gates of Jiping City were blocked, making it impossible to send any more scouts.
People go out.
He knew that Long Rui's army was really in an extremely dangerous situation. If this battle failed, Long Rui's foundation in the Northeast would probably be uprooted.
At the moment, he was unable to rescue Qin Xiao, but instead faced huge pressure from the besieging troops.
And he knew very well that if Jiping City fell quickly and the Liaodong Army captured Jiping, these thousands of troops could even immediately dispatch some of their troops to cooperate with the cavalry to attack Qin Xiao, so defending Jiping could also help Qin Xiao share some of the burden.
pressure.
But of course he couldn't tell his soldiers about this situation.
Now Jiping is facing huge pressure. Once the soldiers know that the Liaodong cavalry has set up an ambush and is preparing to encircle the main reinforcements to attack Qin Xiao, then the morale of the defenders will inevitably suffer a heavy blow, which will definitely be fatal to the defenders.
of.
Yuwen Chengchao's gaze slowly returned from the northwest direction and fell on the enemy troops outside the city.
In the enemy's formation, smoke curled up.
They were actually burying pots to cook and lighting fires to cook under the eyes of the defenders. This also shows that the enemy was very confident and did not take the defenders in the city seriously.
Yu Wencheng held the handle of the sword at his waist with one hand. The veins on the back of his hand were bulging, and his eyes were like knives.
It was already evening when Qin Xiao arrived at Longbagou.
The terrain of Longbagou is very special. There are large areas of wheat fields here. Due to the government's collection, almost all of the wheat fields have been harvested. Going south through the large wheat fields, there is a river ditch, which runs from west to east. The river ditch is quite wide and has abundant water.
It is precisely because of this ravine that the wheat fields in the north have always received sufficient moisture.
Bounded by the ditch, there are large wheat fields to the north of the ditch and an earthen dam called Longba to the south.
The earthen dam stretches for seven or eight miles, going up like a staircase. It is not as steep as the mountain, but the slope is very high. The two sections below the earthen dam are also used as wheat fields, but going up is a forest. In late autumn, the fallen leaves are withering.
, most of the trees on the dam are already bare.
After arriving at Longbagou, Qin Xiao ordered the entire army to stop advancing.
This group of soldiers and horses cannot advance or retreat. If they continue to advance towards Jiping, they are almost bound to encounter an ambush by the enemy cavalry. However, if they want to withdraw to Guangning, once the enemy's probing horses are discovered, the Liaodong cavalry will know that the attack plan has been seen through, and naturally they will not watch it.
As Qin Xiao retreats to Guangning, he will definitely launch a pursuit.
Qin Xiao knew that the only choice at the moment was to use Longbagou as a stronghold and wait for help.
The whole army stopped at Longbagou. Many soldiers who did not understand the situation were confused. After Qin Xiao ordered the whole army to line up, he got on his horse and stopped hiding. He said loudly: "There is something I can tell you now.
.Not long ago, our whereabouts had been tracked by the Liaodong Army, and they had a large number of cavalry ready for a surprise attack. If nothing goes wrong, we would soon encounter a surprise attack by the enemy's cavalry when we walked through Longbagou.
"
He was in the Great Heaven Realm and had extremely deep inner strength. Although his voice was low, it spread far away and most of the soldiers could hear it clearly.
Everyone was horrified when they heard that they had been targeted by the Liaodong cavalry and that they would be attacked at any time.
There was a commotion among the crowd.
Even the most ordinary soldier knows that this situation is extremely dangerous.
If a tired infantry reinforcement is attacked by a strong cavalry, it will be a nightmare.
Everyone thought they were marching urgently to Jiping for reinforcements, but who could have imagined that they were facing such a desperate situation before they reached their destination.
"Don't panic, everyone." Qin Xiao suddenly smiled and said: "The cavalry attack was as expected. The Liaodong Army sent out all its elite this time, attacking Jiping all the way, and raiding us all the way. This is what I want to see.
Achieved results.”
As soon as this statement came out, even Chu Hua and the few generals who knew the truth were a little surprised.
"Everyone doesn't know that I have mobilized a group of troops from Guangning, and they are advancing towards Shunjin City." Qin Xiao said loudly: "General Gu has also led his troops from the pasture to march out. The two groups of troops are marching out.
The troops have gathered together and will soon launch an offensive against Shunjin City. In order to recapture Jiping and to sneak attack on us, the Liaodong Army has sent out all the main forces of Shunjin City, but we just took this opportunity to capture Shunjin City.
"Let me tell you the truth, although Shunjin City is well-defended, our people have long been lurking in the city. As long as General Gu launches an offensive, the people in the city will immediately cooperate with General Gu to capture Shunjin."
Everyone was excited when they heard this.
"So this plan is for me to personally lead my brothers to Jiping for reinforcements. The purpose is to attract the main force of the enemy's cavalry." Qin Xiao said seriously: "Although Shunjin City is about to be conquered, our task at the moment is also very arduous.
, is to withstand the enemy's offensive." He raised his hand and pointed to Longba and said: "This is the defensive stronghold I selected. As long as we hold on here for three days and withstand the enemy's attack, they will definitely withdraw.
They did not bring much food with them in this attack. Shunjin City is surrounded, and the logistics and food supplies will definitely not be supplied. When Shunjin City is broken, their logistics will be completely cut off, and it will be impossible not to withdraw their troops."
Chu Hua and other generals looked at each other, not knowing whether what Qin Xiao said was true or false.
Is it possible that the general really used himself as bait to attract the main force of the enemy's cavalry?
Is there really an insider inside Shunjin City?
It's just that the general's words were full of confidence, as if he had everything under control.