Chapter 12o1: Decisive Battle in Changping (Part 1)
[Ding dong, the effect of Su Lie’s skill ‘Yong Lie’ is 3 active.
Heroic Effect 3: Destroy a Country: When serving as the leader to destroy a country, all attributes will be permanently 1. This effect can be activated up to 4 times.
Su Lie captured Wang Kuang alive, killed Zhang, and destroyed two vassal states in succession. All attributes are permanently 2. The current five dimensions are: Commander 1oo, Force 1oo, Intelligence 87, Politics 7o, and Charisma 91.]
Wang Shichong and Zhang died one after another, Zhang Yang surrendered, and Wang Kuang surrendered after being captured.
At this point, the four major princes who formed the Southern Alliance Army have now been completely wiped out, and only Wang Mang is still struggling to support them.
After Wang Kuang and Zhang Yang surrendered, Shuofang and Shangjun naturally returned to Qin Hao.
After the death of Wang Shichong and Zhang, Xihe and Shangdang returned to Wang Mang. The four major vassal states had disappeared. Two of them died because of Su Lie. The vassal states are naturally states, so there is nothing wrong with saying that Su Lie destroyed the two countries.
But the most bizarre thing is that Wang Mang is only Wang Shichong's younger brother. He is neither a prince nor a title, but he unconsciously replaced the four major princes of Bingnan and became the master of the timing of the Bingnan coalition.
.
After the entire army of the four major princes was annihilated, Wang Mang took over the military power legitimately, but the situation faced by the coalition forces was even more dangerous.
Zhang Yang surrendered and lost another 20,000 troops. After Wang Kuang surrendered, he persuaded 10,000 old troops to surrender. In addition, Su Dingfang defeated five strongholds and Wang Renze's entire army was wiped out...
Under various measures, Wang Mang lost nearly 40,000 troops, and the 110,000 troops on the front line were reduced to 70,000.
In addition, the tigers and wolves of the Qin army were pressing forward step by step, and the leopards and Ming troops were pressing forward step by step. At this time, the coalition forces were obviously at the end of their rope.
Correspondingly, the strength of the Qin Army did not decline after the war. On the contrary, due to the surrender of Zhang Yang and Wang Kuang, its strength increased from 130,000 to 160,000.
The strength of the Qin army increased instead of decreasing, which also greatly increased the morale of the army. Taking advantage of the strong morale, the general took advantage of the superior force and the general momentum, and the result was naturally overwhelming.
In order to resist the Qin army, Wang Mang built three lines of defense in Bingnan.
Wang Mang's first line of defense was a mountainous defense line stretching more than 300 miles along the mountains on the north bank of the Yellow River to the south. Twenty-four strong camps, large and small, were placed.
These strongholds were built based on favorable geographical conditions. Wang Mang personally observed the location of each one, and it was checked by Chen Qingzhi. Their defensive power was similar to that of Xiongguan, if not as good as that of Xiongguan.
Wang Mang originally wanted to use these twenty camps to hold on for half a year, but he did not expect that less than ten days after the war started, nearly half of the forts were captured by the Qin army.
Wang Mang originally thought that relying on these strongholds could consume at least 50,000 to 60,000 troops of the Qin army. However, the surrender of Zhang Yang and Wang Kuang caused the Qin army's strength to increase instead of decrease, forming an overwhelming military advantage over the coalition forces.
Now that the Qin army has become invincible, and the left and right wings of the coalition have been broken through, even if they continue to hold on to the remaining camps, there is no longer much meaning.
After weighing the pros and cons, Wang Mang decided to abandon the first line of defense and retreat to the second line of defense with the remaining 70,000 troops.
Wang Mang's second line of defense relied on the cities in the south, central and eastern areas and the steep terrain of the mountains for defense.
The combination of the city and the terrain showed extremely strong resilience. As long as there were sufficient food, grass and troops, Wang Mang was confident that he could hold on for a year.
As for the third line of defense, it was Huguan, which was also Wang Mang's last retreat.
If both the first and second roads cannot be defended, the battle with Qin Hao will be lost. At that time, Wang Mang will lead the remaining army to retreat to Jizhou through Huguan.
Wang Mang was well aware of the strength gap between him and Qin Hao, so he had prepared a way out early, but God could not predict who could make up for it. Wang Mang, the leader of the Ming Dynasty, betrayed him unexpectedly, and Long Qie even made a surprise attack and captured most of Shangdang.
and Huguan.
The fall of Shangdang and Huguan not only caused Wang Mang to lose most of his food, grass and equipment, but even the road to retreat to Jizhou was completely blocked.
Originally, Wang Mang was still thinking that it didn't matter who gave it to Qin Hao this time. As long as he had military power, he would not be able to go anywhere in the world. He would naturally make a comeback after leaving Bingzhou.
However, once Huguan was lost, even if Wang Mang could escape from Bingzhou, he would not be able to take his troops with him. If he really escaped alone, he would have to start a new business from scratch.
It is not that Wang Mang has never made a fortune from scratch. He is well aware of the difficulty and hardship of starting from scratch. But now that all the regions in the world have been carved up, and none of the princes in various places are simple things, it is almost impossible to start from scratch.
Wang Mang also knew that under the attack of the Qin and Ming armies, retreating to the second largest army and just drinking poison to quench his thirst would not last long.
Yes, since Daming betrayed and stabbed him in the back, Wang Mang no longer had any hope in this battle, but in order not to wander around the world alone, even if the chance was slim, Wang Mang had to fight to the death.
Only by trying his best to protect his army could Wang Mang have a chance to make a comeback, so he chose to continue to grit his teeth and carry on.
Facing the Qin Army's 170,000 troops, even if Wang Mang wanted to fight to the death, he obviously couldn't do it with the 70,000 troops in his hands.
Wang Mang wanted to defend and at the same time provoke the Qin army and the Ming army to fight. After all, according to this trend, the two families would definitely face each other, and he could survive in both directions, so he ordered to recall Chen Qingzhi and Guo Tai.
During Chen Qingzhi's attack on Shangdang, although he captured several cities, he did not capture the eldest son's city, nor did he capture Huguan, so it did not provide much help to the overall battle situation.
After receiving Wang Mang's edict, Chen Qingzhi and Guo Tai did not hesitate and decisively decided to return to Wang Mang's aid.
They and Wang Mang are already grasshoppers on the same rope. Once Wang Mang is defeated, they cannot survive alone, so they can only help Wang Mang.
On the way to attack Shangdang, Chen Qingzhi lost thousands of troops. After several days of rapid march, the two armies joined forces, and the coalition's strength also recovered to one hundred and five thousand. It was possible to persevere relying on the mountain city and the favorable location.
After the two armies joined forces, they continued their march with the Southern Alliance Army. Their goal was the junction of Shangdang and Xihe, the dozens of precipitous cities under the control of the army. Now they could only rely on these cities to support themselves.
During the march, Chen Qingzhi carefully observed the surrounding terrain, and the further north he went, the tighter his brows could not help but frown.
The topography of this place is a basin sandwiched between two mountains. The mountains are undulating and winding, making it an excellent place that is easy to defend but difficult to attack.
"General Wang, the terrain here is so steep. Where is it?" Chen Qingzhi asked with a frown.
Wang Mang was not familiar with the terrain of Bingnan, so of course he didn't know the name of the place, so he called a spy and asked, "What is the name of this place?"