Chapter 1629: The decisive battle in Qingzhou begins
Chapter 1629: The decisive battle in Qingzhou begins
Northern Han United Army Camp.
"Report...to the Right Prime Minister, Qin Army reinforcements, totaling 5,000 cavalry, have entered Beihai City."
"What?"
Now Wang Mang was not the only one, almost all the generals present subconsciously exclaimed.
In the previous battle, due to the uprising of the Liao army, although the coalition army failed to catch up with the main force of the Qin army, it also eliminated the Qin army's Huben camp and killed Qin general Ran Min, which greatly boosted the morale of the Northern Han coalition army.
.
The Qin army lost the Huben camp and the total number of cavalry dropped to less than 2,000. It can be said that it has lost the capital to fight out of the city and can only defend the isolated city.
But with the assistance of these five thousand cavalry, the Qin army would have the means to go out of the city to fight, and the coalition's previous efforts would be almost in vain.
"How could it come so fast?"
Wang Mang frowned and asked, "Didn't Han Xin's iron locks and hidden stakes work?"
"Qin general Zhou Yu used fire ships to break the iron lock and seal the river."
"What about the hidden pile? Has it also been discovered?" Zhu Tianpeng asked quickly.
Among the Northern Han Allied Forces, Zhu Tianpeng was undoubtedly the best at water warfare. He knew that unguarded iron locks were easy to crack, but hidden stakes were not so easy to crack, so he also seemed to know that Zhou Yu was
past.
"But even if they are discovered, it is impossible to pull out those hidden piles so quickly." Zhu Tianpeng said to himself with a puzzled face.
"Well, well, the Qin army didn't clear the hidden piles at all. Zhou Yu seemed to have predicted the location of the hidden piles and led them directly through the hidden pile waters."
"What?"
Zhu Tianpeng and other generals all exclaimed in unison.
The difficulty of Zhou Yu's operation is much more difficult than clearing hidden piles. If he is not careful, his troops may be killed. Even a veteran of the southern water station may not be able to do it, but Zhou Yu, who is new to water management, may not be able to do it.
The young general who had just entered the army successfully broke through.
"The Qin Army already has unparalleled cavalry, and the infantry is also one of the best. Now it has a talented navy commander like Zhou Yu. Now the Qin Army has almost no shortcomings."
At this thought, Zhu Tianpeng could not help but flash a trace of murderous intent in his eyes, and secretly said: "This Zhou Yu should be my greatest enemy in my life."
For Yuan Shao and Liu Che, once they lose against Qin Hao, there will be no chance.
But for Zhu Tianpeng, even if he lost the Battle of Hebei, although the impact on him was great, it would not be to the extent of destroying the country.
The Qin army's goal this time is Hebei, and once it is captured, it will be the Central Plains, so that will be the time to decide Zhu Tianpeng's life or death.
The best way for the Qi State to fight against the Qin Army is undoubtedly to block the Qin Army to the north of the Yellow River and prevent the Qin Army from crossing the Yellow River. Naturally, there will be no danger.
Zhu Tianpeng was very confident in this in the past. After all, the Qin army was not good at water warfare, and he believed that his ability in water warfare could not find any opponent in the north.
But now that he had a preliminary understanding of Zhou Yu's methods, Zhu Tianpeng discovered that although the Qin army's navy was immature, its generals were not weak at all, so he already regarded Zhou Yu as a formidable enemy.
Wang Mang naturally knew about Zhou Yu, the Grand Governor of Chibi,'s water fighting ability, but what he thought about was far less than Zhu Tianpeng.
Wang Mang is already tied to the princes of the Northern Han Dynasty. Once the Northern Han Dynasty loses, there will be no eggs left in the nest, and he will also face eternal disaster.
Therefore, for Wang Mang, the most important thing was to prevent Qin Hao from unifying Hebei, and naturally he could not care about anything else.
Just when Wang Mang felt troubled by the Qin army's waterborne cavalry coming to support Beihai, another piece of news came that shocked everyone.
"Report...to the right prime minister, Li Jing has personally led an army of 40,000 people. He has left Beihai City and is heading towards our army camp."
Before crossing the Yellow River four times, the Qin army had a total of 64,000 troops.
The water flooded the Qi army. Although Qi's 45,000 elite soldiers were killed, the Qin army also sacrificed 4,500 naval troops;
In the battle with Wang Mang, the Qin army withdrew without fighting, eventually losing generals such as Ran Min and three thousand Huben troops.
Defending Beihai, Fusu was damaged, and more than 2,400 of the 3,000 defenders were killed.
At this point, the total strength of the Qin Army in Beihai dropped to 54,000.
It can also be seen from this that although Li Jing fought constant battles in Beihai, and each battle was extremely fierce, and even many generals died in the battle, the casualties among the soldiers were not small.
Now another 5,000 cavalry came to the rescue, and the total strength of the Qin army returned to 59,000. Therefore, Li Jing left 19,000 Liangshan surrender troops to defend the city, and personally led the main force of 40,000 Qin troops out of the city to fight Wang Mang.
"What?"
When Wang Mang heard this, he stood up and said with disbelief: "What does Li Jing want to do? A direct decisive battle? Or is there some other conspiracy?"
In the eyes of normal people, the Qin army managed to escape the disaster, and General Ran Min was killed in the battle to demoralize the general. It must have taken some time to calm down before taking any action.
But Li Jing didn't.
As soon as the 5,000 cavalry arrived, Li Jing, in addition to leaving nearly 20,000 defenders to guard Beihai, immediately led 50,000 troops out of the city. This was obviously too irrational and did not resemble Li Jing's military style.
"It's just an army of 40,000 people. In a direct decisive battle, with the strength of our army, we are not afraid of the Qin army at all."
Zhou Yafu stood up and said in a deep voice: "Since Li Jing wants to fight, we are still afraid of him."
"right……"
"Yes……"
Most people agreed to go to war, but Wang Mang always felt that it was not simple. However, seeing that Chen Qingzhi also agreed to go to war, he didn't say anything more.
On the other side, the generals of the Qin army were also surprised that Li Jing sent troops again so quickly.
For the Qin army, which had just suffered a small defeat, just holding Beihai City was already a great achievement. However, Li Jing wanted to have a decisive battle with Wang Mang, which also left the generals a little confused.
Unlike other generals, Huang Feihu and other generals who came to support supported Li Jing's move. After all, they had traveled all the way not just to defend the city, but Li Jing's attack was just what they wanted.
"Master Taishou, our army was defeated for the first time, and the reinforcements had just arrived, so we left the city for a decisive battle. Isn't it a little too hasty?" Jintai asked in confusion.
Li Jing smiled coldly and replied: "Our army hastily fought a decisive battle, so how can the enemy not rush to respond? What's more, compared to our army's haste, the enemy has a more fatal weakness."
Hearing what Li Jing said, all the generals cheered up. Huang Feihu asked: "What's the weakness?"
"Among the 75,000 Northern Han coalition forces, there are already 30,000 Zhao recruits.
After Gongsun Shu died in battle, Wang Mang couldn't wait to annex more than 20,000 Liao troops. It can be seen that the morale of the more than 20,000 Liao troops must be in turmoil at this time. How much combat power can they exert?
Therefore, although the enemy army is larger in number than our army, it has at least 50,000 troops, and its combat power is weak."
Li Jing's eyes flashed and he said confidently: "If Wang Mang dares to fight decisively, our army will win."
"But there is no need to dispatch only 40,000 troops, right? Our army still has nearly 60,000 troops. We can definitely dispatch 50,000 troops and leave 10,000 troops to defend Beihai." Huang Feihu said puzzled.
Li Jing said, "If 50,000 men are dispatched, Wang Mang may not dare to fight decisively."
Li Jing didn't say he had a thorough understanding of Wang Mang's thoughts, but he also had a general understanding. Wang Mang naturally knew the situation of the coalition forces, so sending too many troops would only make them retreat, and 40,000 was not much.