A soldier rushed over in a panic and reported: "General, Qin General Huo Bing led 10,000 cavalry to raid Zhi County. Suddenly, our army had no preparations, and the Qin army captured the city in less than half a day.
"
"What?"
Wang Mang couldn't help but pale when he heard this.
Zhi County stores a month's worth of food and grass for the 130,000-strong army, which is equivalent to half of the total food and grass for the Union Army.
So much food and grass was taken away by the Qin army. This loss was too great for the Southern Allied Forces, which was already short of food.
Wang Mang was secretly distressed, but at the same time he was very grateful. Fortunately, he had collected the food and grass from the people in advance, otherwise even if he returned to Bingnan successfully, he still wouldn't be able to last long.
"How did the Qin army know that there was food in Zhi County? Who is this Huo Bing?"
Several questions came to Wang Mang, which made Wang Mang fall into deep thought, but he could not figure out the twists and turns.
The first is the issue of food and grass.
Apart from Wang Mang himself, the only people who knew the location of the grain storage were Yang Jian and Li Shimin.
After all, it was the food aid sent by Liang Junzeng, so no matter where Wang Mang was hiding, the two men in charge of the Liang Army intelligence system could definitely figure out where the food was hidden.
But neither Yang Jian nor Li Shimin could reveal the news to Qin Hao. They wanted to fight Qin Hao and both sides would lose, and they would never stab him in the back at this time.
Then there is the issue of Qin army selection.
Being able to use the cavalry attack so fiercely and defeat Zhi County within half a day shows how powerful this person is in the use of cavalry. Such a person cannot be an unknown person, but there is a famous general in Chinese history, Huo Bing.
A famous cavalry general?
People like Bai Qi, Liu Xiu and Liu Ji, although their names have become different in this life, can at least be distinguished by homophones, but Wang Mang has no influence on the name Huo Bing.
Could it be that I am ignorant?
After thinking hard to no avail, Wang Mang could only think so. After all, he was only proficient in the history of the Western Han Dynasty. It was normal for him not to know the unknown famous generals from other time periods.
Wang Mang didn't know Huo Bing's cousin, so he didn't think that Huo Bing was Huo Qubing. However, when he learned this many years later, he realized that he had not lost the battle unjustly.
Many years later, Bai Qi, Su Lie, Xue Rengui, and Huo Qubing had all become the backbone of the Qin army, and the only battle worthy of all four of them being dispatched at the same time was against Wang Mang.
In addition, four super generals including Jiang Song, Gao Chong, Ran Min, and Yuwen Chengdu appeared in this battle, as well as many famous generals of the Qin army such as Zhao Yun, Huang Zhong, and Pei Yuanqing.
Wang Mang didn't know whether he should feel honored or sad about this.
Back to the topic.
Seeing that the Qin general who captured Zhi County was not a famous general like Bai Qi, most of Wang Mang's fears disappeared, and he even had the intention of taking back Zhi County.
"Zhi County is unwilling to leave here. If we concentrate our efforts on counterattack, we may not be able to recapture the food and grass..."
Before Wang Mang finished speaking, he saw another soldier coming to report, saying: "Report, Bai Qi and Su Lie have mobilized all their troops and divided into two groups to attack our army."
Wang Mang couldn't help but show a solemn look. The combined strength of these two armies was no less than 80,000. Such a force was enough to overwhelm the 120,000 coalition troops. If he was entangled for Zhi County, he would want to leave by then.
They can't leave anymore.
"In addition, after Yuwen Chengdu surrendered to the Qin army, he also recruited 40,000 Liang troops to surrender for the Qin army. Now he is leading 40,000 Liang troops to kill Hedong."
"What, Yuwen Chengdu surrendered to Qin?"
Wang Mang showed a look of disbelief and thought to himself: Yuwen Chengdu, Yuwen Chengdu, as a loyal and courageous General Tianbao, shouldn't you have sworn to refuse to surrender? Why did you surrender to Qin Hao, a fool like Qujie?
Yuwen Chengdu surrendered to Qin Hao, which added another 40,000 troops to the Qin army, which caused the Southern Allied Forces to lose their advantage in strength.
After learning this, Wang Mang was even more eager to return to Bingnan. Today's Sizhou was so dangerous that he really didn't want to stay there for even a moment longer.
"Send the order to the entire army to cross the river and retreat immediately." Wang Mang shouted.
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Shortly after Qin Hao's army set out, he received news that Wang Mang was confiscating the people's food. Qin Hao's first reaction was that Wang Mang was probably going to run away, so he decisively sent a flying pigeon message ordering Su Lie and Xue Rengui to pursue them immediately.
After Su Dingfang and Xue Rengui received the letter, their expressions turned extremely ugly. They were fighting against an opponent several times the enemy's strength with a weak force. Naturally, they had to be extremely careful in all aspects to prevent them from falling into the enemy's scheme and losing their troops.
.
Wang Mang and Chen Qingzhi had used similar methods before to lure them out of the city for a fight to the death, so this time they naturally thought they were repeating their old tricks, but they didn't expect that this time it turned out to be true. It seemed that what they had done before was the real thing.
What a foreshadowing to confuse them.
Su Dingfang and Xue Rengui both sent troops decisively, but it was too late.
When Su Dingfang arrived at the Yellow River ferry, the last batch of enemy troops had all boarded the boats. The Qin army had no boats to cross the river and could only watch the enemy troops disappear on the river.
Although Xue Rengui did not catch up with Chen Qingzhi, he managed to secure Mengjinguan and Xiaopingjinguan, the northern gates of Sizhou, in time after defeating Chen Qingzhi's troops.
So far, among the eight passes in Luoyang, except Xuanyuan Pass, which was held hostage by Yuan Shu, seven passes have fallen into the hands of the Qin army. Together with Hangu Pass in the west, Sizhou's defense system has become even more
improved.
As the allied forces of the southern princes withdrew from Sizhou, hundreds of thousands of Qin troops used the autumn wind to sweep away fallen leaves and occupied Hanoi and Hedong counties in just a few days, completely unifying the four counties of Sizhou.
Unifying Sizhou would have been a great thing, but Qin Hao was not happy at all, because there was still a mess to solve next.
"My lord, Wang Mang was really cruel this time. He directly plundered all the rations for the people of the Liang army, but left millions of hungry people for us."
Liu Bowen's eyes were full of anger and he said angrily: "He wants to rely on the people in Hanoi and Hedong to consume our army's food and grass, so as to slow down the speed of our army's advance."
Qin Hao couldn't help but rub his temples with a headache. Of course he knew this was Wang Mang's plan, but it was a conspiracy and he had to step on it even though he knew it was a trap.
When millions of people in the two counties saw the Qin army coming, it was like seeing the savior. This was the best time to win over the people.
But once food relief is provided, the Qin army will probably fall into a situation of food shortage, let alone cross the Yellow River and eliminate the four major princes in the south.
"Food still has to be provided, so be it..."
After Qin Hao thought for a while, he said: "We provide rations to the people on a daily basis, but they are limited to two meals a day, porridge in the morning, dinner at noon, and in the evening... just be patient for a while, anyway, you will not die of hunger even if you skip one meal.