The number of defenders in Hengzhou was not large, and coupled with the lack of defense of the defenders, when Xiao Jingxuan's army rushed into the city, many defenders began to surrender to Xiao Jingxuan.
In the afternoon, Xiao Jingxuan's army had taken control of Hengzhou City and began to march towards the surrounding counties.
The results of this raid were quite good. Of the 10,000 Zhao troops defending the city, they killed 3,000 and captured 7,000 of the enemy. However, Xiao Jingxuan’s men only lost a few hundred casualties. It can be said to be a complete victory.
For these prisoners, Xiao Jingxuan plans to move all the prisoners and their families to Yingzhou for resettlement, while other food, grass and baggage will be reserved for military use.
Now that Hengzhou has been captured by Xiao Jingxuan, the next step is Yunzhou City.
According to the information from the secret guards, there are currently 8,000 troops stationed in Yunzhou, and together with the young and strong, it is estimated that the number can reach 10,000.
The reason why Yunzhou's garrison is so small is also due to Xiao Jingxuan's bloodbath in Hutu Khan's court before, which makes the barbarians dare not go south easily.
At this time, Xiao Ran had already sent Zhao Waner to Hengzhou City with his subordinates. Xiao Jingxuan was very worried about Zhao Waner's placement.
Let her go, I am a little reluctant to let her go, so just stay, she has no name or status, and she is still in the army.
After thinking about it for a while, Xiao Jingxuan decided to just make do with it for now.
Now that the attack on Yunzhou is imminent, Xiao Jingxuan ordered the army to rest for two days and set off two days later.
On this day, Xiao Jingxuan was inspecting the defense of Hengzhou on the city tower. He saw a pro-soldier running over and reported in a low voice to Xiao Ran. After a while, Xiao Ran took a wax pill and handed it to Xiao Jingxuan.
Xiao Jingxuan frowned, took the wax pill, crushed it, took out a small piece of paper and read it.
This is a secret message from the secret guard. It is a coincidence that this secret order should have been sent directly to Yingzhou for Zhao Gang to review.
However, the secret guard learned that Xiao Jingxuan was in Hengzhou, so he passed the news over.
After reading the note, Xiao Jingxuan handed the note to the generals behind him and asked them to pass it around.
The content on the note was very simple. It turned out that the State of Zhao learned that Youzhou and Jizhou had fallen, and ordered Yu Wenyue to lead his army to provide support.
After the generals read this, their expressions became serious. Apparently they were quite afraid of Yu Wenyue.
This is understandable, as most of the generals around Xiao Jingxuan are from the Knight Guards Cavalry.
When he was in Beijing, Xiao Jingxuan was the general of the left Xiaowei, and Yu Wenyue was the general of the right Xiaowei. It can be said that many of Xiao Jingxuan's troops were Yu Wenyue's old troops.
In addition, when Yu Wenyue and Xiao Jingxuan fought, the two sides fought so hard that they could not separate each other. Although Yu Wenyue lost in the end, it was still an honor to lose.
Seeing the fearful expressions of everyone behind him, Xiao Jingxuan couldn't say anything for a while.
Looking at Xiao Ran standing aside, Xiao Jingxuan said: "Immediately select people from the pro-army to investigate."
"yes."
Immediately afterwards, Xiao Jingxuan looked at everyone and said: "It seems that we can't go to Yunzhou. Send the order, the army will continue to rest, and we will have a good fight with Yu Wenyue."
"Yes, the general will take the order."
On the third day, Xiao Jingxuan received a report from the pro-army. Yu Wenyue led 40,000 cavalry and was marching towards Hengzhou. Judging from the situation, he probably didn't know the situation in Hengzhou yet.
After hearing the report from the pro-army, Xiao Jingxuan knew that the news of Hengzhou's change of ownership could not be kept secret for long.
Staring at the map, Xiao Jingxuan studied for a long time and found out helplessly that the surrounding terrain was not suitable for a surprise attack. For the current plan, he could only go head-on.
Yu Wenyue was always cautious, and the possibility of a night attack was unlikely. According to reports from his own troops, Yu Wenyue could only march more than two hundred miles a day. Once the distance was reached, he immediately ordered the army to camp and rest.
Xiao Jingxuan knew that Yu Wenyue was preparing for Xiao Jingxuan's sneak attack and deliberately preserved the energy of his subordinates.
In essence, Xiao Jingxuan is not willing to fight head-on because the casualties to the army would be too great.
However, he can't care about that much now. Once he is allowed to join Yuwen Tuo's army, Yizhou will be even more impregnable.
So, Xiao Jingxuan began to gather all the troops and began to march in the direction of Yu Wenyue's army.
At noon that day, Xiao Jingxuan finally met Yuwen Tuo's army.
Because of the investigation by scouts from both sides, it was not surprising that the two sides met.
Xiao Jingxuan and Yu Wenyue did not come to catch up with each other before the battle. Neither side talked nonsense, but launched a charge at the same time.
Xiao Jingxuan still acted as the arrow, and the pro-army troops followed closely, followed by the Tiger and Leopard Cavalry, and finally Yang Xiong and Zhou Tong.
Although Xiao Jingxuan's number is slightly lower than that of Yu Wenyue, the Tiger and Leopard Cavalry under Xiao Jingxuan are selected from the entire army. Every Tiger and Leopard Cavalry sergeant is one of the best warriors, very brave.
Even Xiao Jingxuan didn’t know the outcome of this battle, because the gap between the two sides was not big.
At noon, the two armies met and fought until sunset, but there was still no winner.
It can even be said that Xiao Jingxuan had a slight disadvantage. However, it was getting late, and both sides were exhausted, so they gave up in a tacit agreement, and both sides took the initiative to retreat for dozens of miles.
Retreating to a dense forest, Xiao Jingxuan immediately arranged for everyone to start resting and asked people to count the battle losses.
In this battle, Xiao Jingxuan directly lost more than half. As an elite Tiger and Leopard Cavalry, three thousand people were killed in the battle, and the other two units also lost more than half.
Hearing this news, Xiao Jingxuan was still very heartbroken. These cavalrymen were the elite under his command.
After calming down for a while, I realized that although I had suffered heavy losses in this battle, I was relieved that Yu Wenyue did not get a favor either.
But we can’t just forget about it, Yu Wenyue must be eliminated. Looking at the tired sergeant, Xiao Jingxuan planned a night attack.
Xiao Jingxuan summoned the three generals and began to give orders. Xiao Jingxuan ordered Zhou Tong and Yang Xiong to return to Hengzhou immediately to organize defense.
He personally led his troops and the Tiger and Leopard Cavalry to launch a night attack on Yu Wenyue. This afternoon, both sides were exhausted. No one could have imagined that he would launch a night attack when he was at a disadvantage.
After hearing Xiao Jingxuan's instructions, Zhou Tong and Yang Xiong quickly led their troops and drove towards Hengzhou with great fanfare.
And Xiao Jingxuan also started to hide with the remaining people.
Around midnight, Xiao Jingxuan took the remaining soldiers into action.
In order to prevent exposure, the horseshoes of all the horses were tied and their mouths were muzzled. The army did not light up the torches, but cautiously marched towards Yu Wenyue's troops in the dark.
Sometimes I have to say that smart people all thought of something. At this time, Yu Wenyue also selected five thousand elites from the army to attack Xiao Jingxuan and others.
The difference is that although the whereabouts of Yu Wenyue's army are hidden, the waves of horses still betrayed them.
After hearing the report from the pro-army, although he did not know the number of people Yu Wenyue attacked at night, Xiao Jingxuan decisively avoided it.
After Xiao Jingxuan led the Tiger and Leopard Cavalry to carefully avoid Yu Wenyue's army, they went directly towards the enemy's lair.
Because Yu Wenyue was not in charge, Yu Wenyue's lair was not very vigilant. They did not even place sentries outside the camp. In addition, all the elites had been taken away by Yu Wenyue.
Therefore, although the Zhao army in the camp still had an advantage in numbers, they could not stop the elite tiger and leopard cavalry.
When Xiao Jingxuan led the army to attack the enemy's camp, the enemy did not even react.
Since there was no general to command, the massacre began when the shouts of killing resounded throughout the camp.
Xiao Jingxuan was not merciful this time. The military order Xiao Jingxuan gave to his subordinates was one word "kill."
At this time, Yu Wenyue had already arrived at the place where Xiao Jingxuan built his camp. When he saw the empty camp, Yu Wenyue's first reaction was that there was an ambush.
But when Yu Wenyue led the army to withdraw from the camp, they were not attacked by Xiao Jingxuan.
Could it be that he really retreated? It was impossible. He did not need to attack Hengzhou City. As long as he led the army to Yizhou, Xiao Jingxuan could not easily eat him with the strength of Yizhou.
Xiao Jingxuan is also a famous general. For the sake of the overall strategy, he will never let his army go.
Unfortunately, Yu Wenyue soon remembered his omission and began to lead the army back to his home base quickly.
However, everything was already too late. When Yu Wenyue led the army and arrived, Xiao Jingxuan had already led the army to withdraw from the battlefield.
Yuwen Yue looked at the ruined camp and the corpses on the ground, and almost vomited blood in anger.
At this time, Xiao Jingxuan was leading the remaining troops and loot towards Hengzhou. In order to avoid running into Yu Wenyue, Xiao Jingxuan deliberately led the army in a large circle.
When Xiao Jingxuan returned to Hengzhou, he immediately ordered people to treat the wounded soldiers, and at the same time, let the uninjured soldiers seize the time to rest.
Yu Wenyue thought correctly, Xiao Jingxuan would never let this cavalry go to Yizhou to disrupt the situation. If possible, Xiao Jingxuan hoped to kill all of this cavalry without leaving any one behind.
The biggest gain from this night attack was that all the enemy's horses, armor, and weapons were captured.
Even if Yu Wenyue reorganizes his army in the future, these baggage will be the biggest difficulty.
I don’t know what Yu Wenyue will choose and whether he will support Yizhou.
With doubts in his mind, Xiao Jingxuan leaned against the city wall and began to close his eyes and meditate.
After dawn, Xiao Jingxuan began to send a large number of scouts to investigate Yu Wenyue's troops.
Unfortunately, until noon, the scouts found no trace of Yu Wenyue.
Xiao Jingxuan looked at the map and began to think about the next move with Yu Wenyue's thinking.
After thinking for a long time, Xiao Jingxuan believed that there were only two ways in front of Yu Wenyue. The first was to withdraw the troops, but it would not be a complete withdrawal. He would mobilize nearby troops again, and after the army was mobilized, he would support Yizhou again.
The second is to set up an ambush. There are 40,000 defenders in Yizhou City. As long as Xiao Jingxuan's elite cavalry is severely damaged, the pressure on Yizhou will be greatly relieved. It can even greatly damage the morale of the Yan army besieging the city.
Looking at the map, Xiao Jingxuan felt that there were only two places where he could set up an ambush. However, the army was tired now, so he should rest for a few days before talking.