Facts have proved that Yan Jin still slightly underestimated the power of the Zhang River, but he also guessed one thing correctly, that is, Huang Yingda's arrival would cause Guo Wei to release the blocked Zhang River water.
On the night when Huang Yingda arrived at the entrance of the valley, they had not even found a place to camp, so Guo Wei led his close guards and sneaked from Fuyang to the entrance of the valley overnight.
With an order, the water of the Zhang River, which had been blocked for more than two months, surged out along the entire valley!
The Zhang River first rushed to the vicinity of the fort where Li Rong was located. The rushing river directly destroyed all the buildings at the entrance of the valley, leaving only the three forts built at the highest point.
After leaving the mouth of the valley, the river outside the mouth was wide, and the floods quickly covered the entire plain outside the mouth of the valley.
The vast flow of water instantly turned Huang Yingda's troops who were camped at a low place upside down.
Yan Jin's estimate that it was at most up to his knees was inaccurate. Many places were flooded up to his crotch, but the impact of the water flow was indeed not very strong.
Therefore, the losses of Huang Yingda's men and horses were not great, but because at night, they could only take care of people, a large amount of baggage and food were all soaked in the water.
Even Huang Yingda's own tent was soaked by the flood. Fortunately, he was calm enough. Even if he was suddenly attacked by the flood, he could still take the risk to set up a torch in the tent and let the sergeants shout loudly to the soldiers who were frightened by the water. Give directions.
The whole army shouted and gathered in the commander's tent. When dawn came, he saw, good fellow, there were only 700 or 800 of the 1,500 Uighur followers gathered around.
The rest of the people were scattered everywhere, many of them were pale from the cold and shivering all over.
However, the effect of the Zhangshui pouring down should have exceeded Guo Wei's expectations.
Because Guo Wei placed Li Chongjin's 5,000 men at the mouth of the valley, although they had already evacuated in advance, they were still affected by the Zhang River, and it seemed a bit chaotic.
According to Guo Wei's pre-design, Shi Hongzhao's 5,000 elite troops and thousands of Wang Jingchong's troops who stayed behind in Hezhang were supposed to ride down the river on sheepskin rafts to attack Zhang Zhaojun's troops at the same time. However, they were unable to do so because the water in Zhangzhou was too fast than expected.
Li Rong, who was at the highest point and was not affected by the flood, was very anxious when he saw the flood in Haotang in the distance. Zhang Quan beside him was much calmer.
Zhang Quanming, who had good eyesight, climbed to the highest point to observe. When he saw that the flood only hit Huang Yingda and did not affect Zhang Zhaojun's troops, he immediately felt relieved. He turned to look at Li Rong and said.
"Soldiers and Horses, there are floods everywhere now. Even if the Duke of Zhangye comes to rescue us, it won't be possible in a short time. We only have one day left to store food. We are ready to fight to the death. What do our Soldiers and Horses think?"
While he was talking, the Wuwei Imperial Guards under Zhang Quan quietly separated Li Rong from the tooth soldiers of the Yicheng Army.
The tooth soldiers of the Yicheng Army realized that something was wrong. They had long seen that the Hexi people who were treated several times better than them were dissatisfied, so they quickly ran over.
The air was filled with the smell of gunpowder. Li Rong looked at Zhang Quan fiercely, the expression on his face changed twice, and finally he spoke bitterly.
"Zhang Quan! Do you think Ye Ye is the kind of person who sells his goods to seek glory? If Ye Ye were, he wouldn't have taken the risk to fight back against the Khitans in Yanshi City.
Yeye is an envoy of an army and was received and comforted by the saint himself. Isn’t it better to know the loyalty and righteousness than you all?"
When Zhang Quan heard what Li Rong said, the expression on his face softened. He waved the Wuwei Town Imperial Army behind him to disperse, and raised his hand to Li Rong.
"A certain person was originally a shepherd slave in the mountains of Shanzhou. Fortunately, he was saved by the Great Merciful Dharma King. Even if he dies in battle today, his soul can go to the ninth heaven of bliss and enjoy the immortal blessings of eternity. He will definitely fight to the death.
The soldiers and horses are willing to be with a certain person. If he is lucky enough to survive, he will be attacked by mountains and fires in the future. If he feels that he is disrespectful today, he will go back to Tokyo and have his own town, governor, and military law.
But if the soldiers and horses are unwilling to fight to the death, then kill someone and go join the Hedong bandits!"
Li Rong took out his riding whip and slapped it all over Zhang's body, "You are a coward, farm slave! When you go back, I will make you kowtow to apologize, but today, I want you to see the loyalty and bravery of our Yicheng Army."
Zhang Quan was whipped, but he was not angry but happy. He was afraid that Li Rongsheng would bend the knee, which would make him disgraceful even if he died in battle.
"As long as you kill the bandits from Hedong and it doesn't harm the saint's affairs, what does it mean to kowtow and apologize?
Then invite soldiers and horses to join a certain group and rush to the east of the river where the bandits are. Even if you die in battle, you will still be considered a hero!"
Li Rong looked at Zhang Cheng, who seemed to have a flash of fire in his eyes, and suddenly threw away the riding whip in his hand, awe-inspiring. He knew what the Wuwei town leader from Hexi in front of him wanted to do.
According to the usual rules of the Zhou army, no matter how great the difficulty is, no one can abandon his comrades, but at this time, the flood is flooding, and it is unknown how much it will cost to rescue these 1,500 people.
But if they took the initiative to die in battle, there would be no need to rescue them! He wanted to die to relieve the army outside the mouth of the valley.
"I have heard for a long time that there are many loyal ministers and righteous people in Hexi, and now I know it is true!" Li Rong cupped his hands and said, "But rushing down now is tantamount to dying in vain.
Everyone looked up and saw that the bandits from the east of the river were preparing a sheepskin raft at the foot of the mountain, which must be going down the river.
After they have left one or two thousand people, we will rush down, kill all the bandits from the east of the mountain, seize the remaining sheepskin rafts, and then go down the river to join the Duke of Zhangye. Not only is this not a fault, but it is a meritorious service."
Zhang Quan nodded, but then shook his head, "I heard that the commander of the Hedong bandits at the foot of the mountain is Shi Hongzhao, the commander of the Wujie Army in Beijing. He is rigorous in running the army and extremely brave. He will definitely be on guard. How can he calmly let me wait for him?
Against the odds?
If you don't rush in suddenly, you might still be able to fight."
After hearing this, Li Rong laughed, pointed at his nose and said, "A certain family is from Taiyuan, Hedong!
King Ping of Hebei Province has a friendship with a certain family. If a certain family can tie up several Hexi soldiers and go to see Shi Hongzhao and express their intention to surrender, he will definitely believe it."
Zhang Quan looked at Li Rong, and after a long time he put down his hand and threw the horizontal knife on his waist to the ground, "Then please ask the military commander Fu to see Shi Hongzhao."
Li Rong quickly picked up Zhang Quan's horizontal sword, held his hand and said, "How can we really tie up everyone's heads and go to see him? But a certain person needs five warriors to put on general uniforms. Who is willing to go?"
"
As soon as he finished speaking, dozens of warriors from Wuwei Town behind Zhang Quan came forward. No one hesitated at all and shouted loudly: "Please use the soldiers and horses to restrain us and go to the Hedong bandit camp."
Li Rong moved his face and sighed, "With such a brave man, sooner or later the world will belong to us, the Zhou Dynasty."
After selecting warriors and changing into officer clothes, Li Rong sent someone to pick up white clothes to see Shi Hongzhao. After Zhang Quan had gone away, he looked at his nephew Li Shousi beside him and said, "Do you know why Mr. and Mrs. didn't go to the King of Peking?"
Li Shousi nodded solemnly, "Not to mention that the King of Peiping is already old, but judging from the hundreds of soldiers in this mighty force, there are very few warriors under the King of Peiping who can fight to be the first, even though they know that they are going to die.
The world belongs to the saints, and we should get great wealth from it."
....
At the foot of the mountain at Erzhai Fort, Shi Hongzhao, who was surrounding Li Rong, was also having a headache.
He had five thousand men, and according to Guo Wei's instructions, at least four thousand men were to be sent down the river to fight against the flooded Hexi soldiers.
But unfortunately, when he broke through the two strongholds a few days ago, the Zhou army soldiers and horses on the hillside made Li Rong very alert. Although he captured the two strongholds, his troops were not lost.
There are still 1,500 people on the mountain. If he takes away 4,000 people, the remaining 1,000 people may not be able to defeat the Hexi soldiers.
While he was having a headache, there was loud cheering outside. Shi Hongzhao opened the door and curtain with a cold face and walked out.
This man was very strict in running the army, and he treated everyone equally, from soldiers to high-ranking officials such as commanders. Anyone who dared to disobey his military orders would be killed directly.
The former military deputy envoy of the Wujie Army disobeyed military orders and was killed by Shi Hongzhao himself with a short stick. Therefore, the loud cheering of the Wujie Army at this time was not normal.
As soon as Shi Hongzhao walked out of the door, his younger brother Shi Wen came up to him overjoyed.
Shi Wen knew his brother's temperament, so he quickly said before he could hold him accountable: "Li Rong, the Hexi thieves and horsemen on the mountain, ordered his people to kidnap several Hexi Forbidden Army generals and came down the mountain to seek refuge."
Shi Hongzhao raised his eyebrows. He was not surprised at all, because Li Rong's choice was exactly in line with the choice of a warrior in this era.
In Chinese culture, especially in the imperial era, the two most important qualities are loyalty and filial piety.
The emphasis on filial piety can be traced back to ancient times. Emperor Shun's small staff was carried away by the big staff, which is the embodiment of filial piety. By the Han Dynasty, filial piety was used to govern the world and was highly praised to the extreme.
The word "loyalty" actually finally stabilized its position during the Northern Song Dynasty.
Before this, although loyalty was also a promoted quality, it did not reach the point after the Song Dynasty where loyalty and filial piety could not be both, and one could only be loyal but not filial.
Not to mention that in this era, it is common for five generations of warriors to rebel.
However, Shi Hongzhao was still very cautious, because he knew in his heart that Liu Zhiyuan's chances of winning, even with the addition of the Khitans, were not too high.
In this case, there should be many Hedong soldiers defecting to Hexi soldiers. But it is unlikely that many Hexi soldiers would defect to Hedong.
But after waiting for the trapped Hexi soldiers and the envoy sent by Li Rong, Shi Hongzhao became more convinced in his heart.
Because these Hexi generals were not only wearing the kind of cloth-covered iron armor commonly worn by Hexi petty officers, but they were also beaten extremely badly.
Several of them were beaten to bloody mass, and the lighter ones also had swollen faces and were covered in dust. They had obviously gone through fierce fighting.
"Li Shousi of a certain family has met with Commander Shi. Our military envoy has tied up the Hexi soldiers in the army. If he wants to join us, we would like to ask the commander to take him in."
Shi Hongzhao snorted with a straight face. He looked at the short and strong man named Li Shousi and shouted loudly: "Since we are surrendering, why can't Li Rong come down and send you a pawn?"
Li Shousi scratched his neck, "The commander's words are unreasonable, and the price has not been agreed upon. How can a general surrender and surrender? He is the nephew of Li Bingmao, how can he be called a soldier?"
Right! It was quite familiar. The scent of the Five Dynasties Warriors' high prices immediately hit Shi Hongzhao's nose.
He knew that even if Hexi soldiers were pretending, they could rarely pretend to be like this.
Because they had not been in the Central Plains for decades, the Emperor Shao Ming was too particular about loyalty. As a result, the soldiers and generals in Hexi were all a bit stupid and stubborn in the eyes of the warriors in the world.
However, just by locking down a few Hexi generals, it is impossible for a ruthless general like Shi Hongzhao, who climbed from the bottom to reach his current position, to believe him.
"Why are Commander Shi still hesitating? You might as well say it clearly.
A certain military envoy was actually from Taiyuan, and had a hometown friendship with the King of Peiping.
However, the emperor of the Zhou Kingdom only valued the soldiers in Hexi and despised the warriors in the Central Plains. He had promised the military envoy Yicheng Jun Jiedushi, but he never fulfilled it because he wanted to reduce the power of the Jiedushi.
Therefore, all of us in the Yicheng Army have long wanted to follow the King of Peking in glory and wealth."
Mu De, it makes sense! No wonder Shi Hongzhao didn’t believe it.
Prince Shaoming came from Hexi, so it was inevitable that he would emphasize soldiers from Hexi and despise warriors from the Central Plains. It was also known to everyone that Prince Shaoming showed off his horses and horses to reduce the power of the envoys.
"Find a few Taiyuan locals to come. If you match, I will believe you. If you don't match, you will be chopped into pieces!"
Shi Hongzhao gritted his teeth when he said this, but Li Shousi didn't panic at all, because they were indeed from Taiyuan.
Li Rong was originally a personal follower of Qin King Li Congrong, the second son of Emperor Mingzong Li Siyuan. When Li Congrong rebelled, Li Rong also shot dozens of people with his bow. He fled after seeing that he couldn't do anything.
In fact, it can be seen from this that it is impossible for Li Rong to seek refuge with Liu Zhiyuan, because everyone in Henan Province knows how well Zhang Gao treats Li Siyuan's children.
The good eldest son, Murong Nobunaga, was Li Siyuan's son-in-law. Li Siyuan's fifteenth daughter, Princess Yongle, could enter the palace at any time and was called a good daughter-in-law by Zhang Zhang.
Li Siyuan's only bloodline, Li Congyi, was Zhang Gao's adopted son and always accompanied him. Zhang Gao's adopted daughter married Li Siyuan's grandson Zhao Kuangzan.
Ugh! It's really messy.
But chaos returned to chaos, Zhang Yan took over Daibei, and the bond between Hedong warriors lies in this somewhat messy relationship.
So Shi Hongzhao called several Taiyuan soldiers. Not only did Li Shousi give fluent answers about the local dialect and the situation in Taiyuan, but several of them even recognized who Li Shousi was.
After all, although Li Rong did not become a general, he also served as the commander of the inner palace and the commander of Konghe in the Later Tang Dynasty.
The birthplaces and resumes of both parties revealed that Shi Hongzhao, a native of Yingze, Zhengzhou, was not as good as Li Shousi, whose roots were Hongmiao Zheng.
Now that he had no doubts anymore, Shi Hongzhao rewarded Li Shousi with two pieces of brocade and asked him to carry the brocade up the mountain and report to Li Rong. Li Rong immediately threw down more than a hundred pieces of weapons and armor from the mountain to show his sincerity.
Shi Hongzhao felt more relieved, seeing that the speed of the Zhang River had begun to slow down, so he ordered his brother Shi Wen to leave 1,500 men to guard the fortress, while he personally led the remaining 3,500 men down the Zhang River.
Attack the Hexi soldiers trapped in shallow water.
Shi Hongzhao also ordered Shi Wen to just stick to the fort and not open the gate, but to still maintain a certain degree of vigilance against Li Rong.
However, Li Rong was even more clever. He trapped the hands and feet of dozens of soldiers and ordered them to kneel on the hillside to once again show his sincerity.
When Shi Wen saw that Li Rong first gave away the hostages, then threw away the weapons and armor, and finally tied up the Hexi soldiers for him to see, Shi Wen had already lost his vigilance and felt that his brother was too worried.
....
It was only April at this time, and the weather was still very cold. Huang Yingda's thousands of Uighurs had been soaking in the water all night, and they were already unable to hold on.
The terrain in the mountain where Zhang Zhaojun camped was limited, and it was impossible to put everyone ashore. Even to resist the Hedong Army's attack, people still needed to form formations in the water.
Guo Wei saw this and released the water in the middle of the night. As he expected, Huang Yingda's 1,500 men were washed away by the water all night. They would be at their limit until dawn and could not form an array in the water at all.
So he only needed to kill these more than a thousand people to easily trap Zhang Zhaojun, and then force the Zhou army to wade into the water to rescue him.
But when Guo Wei personally led Bai Zairong, Shi Hongzhao, Li Chongjin, Wang Jingchong and other generals with ten thousand soldiers to cross the water to attack, they had to sigh after seeing the situation.
It turned out that those wading into the water opposite him were not Huang Yingda's Uighur followers, but Zhang Zhaojun's more than a thousand Zuo Jinwu guards.
In Guo Wei's opinion, these must be the extremely proud soldiers of the Zhou Kingdom. Instead of shrinking, they gave up the clean land to Huang Yingda's tribe. He stood in the water and formed an array, lit a few firewood, and took out medicinal materials to treat colds.
, brewing medicine for the Uighur followers.
Zhang Zhaojun looked at the banner of the Hedong Army in the distance, his head burning with anger. This was the first time he had suffered such a big loss.
This fierce general of the Yuan Cong faction stood in the water with a hard bow in his hand and shouted angrily, "The bandits from Hedong think that our horses can't do it and they can easily defeat me on foot.
Humph! How can Xia Chong talk about ice? Let them see the power of my Hexi heroes."
The soldiers of Zuojinwu Guards responded with a bang and their morale was high.
Huang Yingda, who was repairing at a high place, listened to the noise outside and shouted unusually calmly to the commander who was drinking medicine.
"We were originally here to support Zuo Jinwu Guards, but now we have dragged them down. This is our shame!
Only blood can wash away the great disgrace I have suffered today. I, Huang Yingda, am sorry for you. After a good rest, I will fight to the death and see you all again in the underworld."
The entire Uighur Yi Cong, more than a thousand people, blushed with shame. The Ganzhou Uighurs were the life-and-death enemies of the Han'er in the Uighur Yi army. This time, the two battalions of the Uighur Yi Cong were actually Zhang Yan who risked being called a woman.
He took the risk out of benevolence and insisted on saving it.
Now that they have not made any achievements and are dragging down friendly forces, everyone wants to rush out immediately to avenge their previous humiliation.
At the fortress on the mountain, Li Rong sent Li Shousi down again to inform Shi Wen, saying that Li Rong would personally take dozens of prisoners of the Hexi soldiers to visit him, and was also willing to give Shi Wen ten cloth-covered iron armor collars as a meeting gift. Shi Wen would definitely not come.
reject.
As soon as Li Shousi left, Li Rong summoned the officers above the military squadron.
"Four of the five thieves from the east of the river have been eliminated. Our enemies are outnumbered. Although they are strong as a fortress, they are not strong enough to defend them. This is a God-given opportunity!
If we can capture it in one fell swoop, seize its boats, and use our rafts to attack the backs of the bandits from the east of the river, it will be a great achievement.
Can our Yicheng Army become a Yicheng Town or even a Yicheng Guard? Can we bless our descendants? It all depends on this one blow!
A certain Li Rong only keeps heroes and warriors. Cowards and cowards can stay here!"
After hearing this, all the officers of the Yicheng Army gathered around Li Rong and replied in a low voice: "I am willing to follow the soldiers and horses to win eternal wealth!"
....
Although Zhang Yan from Yecheng did not know that Guo Wei had released Zhang Shui and left Huang Yingda in a state of embarrassment, he had quickly adopted Murong Nobunaga's advice.
As soon as daybreak, Zhang Gao immediately ordered Yan Jin to march 15,000 troops westward to the mouth of Hezhang Valley, repel Guo Wei's army, and rescue Zhang Zhaojun, Huang Yingda and others.
Zhang Gao even left his trusted generals Zhang Zhaozhong and Zhang Zhaojiu, as well as seven hundred infantry soldiers in Hanshan, to Yan Jin.
Moreover, Zhang Gao asked Yan Jin to display all his ceremonial guards, including yellow umbrellas, large banners, Sanchen flags, etc., making Guo Wei think that he personally led the army to relieve the siege. Yecheng was temporarily guarded by He Fujin.
Among the troops still in Xiangzhou, Zhang Jian ordered Feng Hui and Luo Shande to lead an army of 20,000 troops and immediately stationed in Yecheng. The gold and silver coins were also left here. After Guo Wei returned to Fuyang, he immediately blew up Fuyang City.
He then ordered Fan Quan to lead an infantry of 10,000 horses and take the 150 cyclone cannons from the Shenji Battalion, and leave Weizhou along the Yongji Canal to Beizhou, thinking that the troops were suspicious and pretending to support Fu Yanqing.
After making these arrangements, Zhang Hao personally mobilized the left and right Yulin Guards, the left and right Longxiang Guards, the right Jinwu Guards, the right Qianniu Guards, and the Forbidden Army's 17,000 good cavalry and archers, as well as 6,000 elite righteous followers, for a total of 23,000 thousand.
Leading 21 generals including Murong Nobunaga, Li Cunhui, Bai Congxin, Zhang Zhaojie, Fanshun, Wang Tongxin, Zhang Cheng, Zhao Yanjin, Zhao Kuangyin, Murong Yanzhao, Wang Shenqi, Wang Quanbin, Feng Jiye, He Jijun, Hou Renbao, Zhang Xibao, etc., elite Get out.
It was up to him, the emperor, to personally go into battle, sneak through the battlefield before Liu Zhiyuan besieged Beizhou, and give his good nephew and uncle Yelu Ruan a surprise first.