In Baidao City, all the armies gathered together, and the sixty thousand cavalry of Chu were gathered here.
On the road from Yanmen to Baidao City, thousands of infantry troops were still transporting carts of grain and grass, and they were continuously transported to Baidao.
After three battles, Tuoba Liwei had lost more than 20,000 cavalry, almost one-third of his troops. At this moment, he no longer dared to send out troops to go south of Baidao to attack the Chu army's supply line.
With the logistical threat removed, Yan Liang can safely let his transport team cross the grassland to deliver food and grass to the frontline soldiers.
Although the three-pronged attack plan started extremely smoothly, the troops and horses in each route did not carry much food and fodder. Yan Liang had to wait until enough food and fodder was gathered before he could carry out the next attack.
Yan Liang was resting in Baidao City, while Tuoba in Tieshan City was weak but frightened.
His strength was severely damaged, so he quickly transferred all the soldiers and horses from the Yinshan area to Tieshan, and assembled 40,000 iron cavalry to try to stop Chu's massive attack.
Forty thousand cavalry, this is already Tuoba Liwei's entire strength.
He did not dare to let the Chu army take another step forward. If Tieshan was lost again, the Chu army could drive north to reach the Yin Mountain. At that time, Tuoba Liwei and his tribe would have no choice but to cross the Yin Mountain and the desert and escape to Mobei.
Went.
Although Mobei is vast, it is far away from the Han Dynasty. Without the wealth plundered from the Han Dynasty, the western Xianbei will decline sooner or later.
Northwest of Baidao, the Jin army camp.
In the imperial tent, Sima Yi sat cross-legged with his eyes closed, listening to Sima Lang's report.
Since fleeing to Xianbei, Sima Yi has been recuperating his strength and gathering his old troops. In the past few months, many people have indeed escaped from Bingzhou and come to the grasslands to attach themselves to him, the down-and-out Jin emperor.
Most of the people who came to rely on Sima Yi were aristocratic families who were closely related to the Sima family. These people were afraid that Yan Liang would be liquidated sooner or later. In order to save their lives, they had no choice but to come to Sima Yi.
After piecing together things here and there, Sima Yi managed to assemble a cavalry force of more than 10,000 people. Such a force was simply insignificant in front of the Chu State that dominated the world.
Therefore, when Sima Yi heard the news that the Chu troops were leaving Yanmen, he watched with a cold eye and did not dare to easily send troops to participate in this war.
"Yan Liangmi sent three groups of troops to kill Yuwen Tuo and defeat Tuoba Liwei. He captured Dingxiang and Baidao City within a few days. Tuoba Liwei lost his troops and retreated to Tieshan City. He did not dare to take a step south." Sima Lang reported.
intelligence.
After hearing this, Sima Yi slowly opened his eyes and snorted coldly: "I have known for a long time that Yan Liang is a deceitful man. He declared with such great fanfare that he wanted to destroy Xianbei in the east. There must be deceit in it. That Tuoba was arrogant and arrogant.
Sure enough, I fell into Yan Liang’s trick.”
Sima Yi was playing an afterthought here. It was as if Yan Liang's raid on Xianbei in the west and Tuoba Liwei's defeat were all within his expectation.
As soon as he finished speaking, the soldiers outside walked into the tent and presented an urgent document from Tuoba Liwei.
Sima Yi unfolded it and glanced at it, with a sneer on his lips: "Tuoba Liwei finally looks up to me and wants me to send troops to Tieshan to help him fight."
Since Sima Yi was defeated and fled outside the Great Wall, forcing him to rely on Xianbei, Tuoba Liwei changed his past respect and treated Sima Yi with great contempt.
This contempt was not only due to the decline of Sima Yi's strength, but also because Tuoba Li had slightly destroyed Kebineng and conquered Xianbei in the central region. With his strength greatly increased, it was a sign of arrogance with an explosion of self-confidence.
"Your Majesty, if your lips are dead, your teeth will be cold. Should we go to Iron Mountain to help Tuoba Liwei?" Wang Ji asked.
Sima Yi glared at him: "I only have 10,000 soldiers and horses, and most of them are infantry. What do you think this force can do?"
Wang Ji was startled, and then said: "But if Tuoba Liwei is defeated, we can't survive alone. If we don't save Tuoba Liwei, are we going to watch him perish?"
Wang Ji's words shocked all the Jin officials present, and Sima Lang also nodded secretly.
"The Yan thieves are so powerful that they can no longer be stopped by manpower. Given the current situation, rather than just losing soldiers, it is better to preserve our strength and wait and see the outcome of this battle before making any plans." Sima Yi sighed.
Sima Lang was shocked and said hurriedly: "If Tuoba Li has a slight victory, of course it's easy to say anything, but if Tuoba Li has a slight defeat, what should we do?"
Sima Yi stood up, walked to the entrance of the royal tent, stood with his hands folded, and looked toward the distant west.
"If Tuoba Liwei is really defeated, what else can I do at that time? I can only continue to retreat further to the west..." Sima Yi's tone was gloomy, implying the slightest hint of helplessness.
…
Baidao City.
Da Chu's 60,000 cavalrymen are stationed here.
Under the cover of the cavalry, Yan Liang sent out 80,000 infantry troops and built dozens of forts, large and small, on hundreds of miles of grassland from Dingxiang to Baidao. Each fort was stationed with more than a thousand troops as a transit for transporting grain and grass.
.
With these fortresses, Chu's grain and grass could be transported to the front line unimpeded without having to worry about Xianbei raids.
In addition, Yan Liang also used Qingqi to launch a war of harassment against the Xianbei people.
Once upon a time, only the Hu people went south to herd horses and burn, kill, and loot the Han people. Now the situation has changed, and it is finally their turn to enjoy the pain of being burned, killed, and looted.
Groups of Chu cavalrymen went out in all directions. Under Yan Liang's orders, they killed the Xianbei people on sight, burned their tents, and robbed their cattle and sheep. They were not allowed to show any sympathy for the Xianbei people.
For a time, the Monan grassland was full of beacon smoke, corpses were everywhere, countless Xianbei people were killed, and tens of thousands of cattle and sheep were robbed by the Chu army.
The various Xianbei people scattered on the grasslands were afraid of the Chu army, so they had to gather from various places to the north of Tieshan to seek protection from Tuoba Liwei.
Hundreds of thousands of Xianbei people gathered along the Yinshan Mountains. Six to seven hundred thousand cattle, sheep and horses, so many animals, consumed countless amounts of fodder every day. Although the pastures in the Yinshan Mountains were rich, how could they feed such a large number of people?
Many beasts.
Soon, the Xianbei people fell into conflicts over lack of pasture, competing for forage resources, and conflicts between various tribes from time to time.
How could the endless internal fighting in the rear affect the morale of the Xianbei troops on the Tieshan front line?
When the Xianbei soldiers who belonged to different tribes learned that their families in the rear had conflicts with other tribes because they were robbing grasslands, they naturally became hostile to the Xianbei soldiers from other tribes.
Although Tuoba Liwei suppressed the dissatisfaction of the soldiers with his powerful deterrence, so that they did not dare to kill each other, the hostility among the soldiers became more and more serious, which put the Xianbei army at a disadvantage.
It’s even worse.
In order to divert internal troubles, Tuoba Liwei once tried to send troops to attack the Chu army's food road and conduct an anti-harassment operation.
It was a pity that the Xianbei cavalry could not conquer the strong fortresses where all the Chu army's food and grass were gathered, and Tuoba Liwei did not dare to spare the Chu army's frontal defense line and go deep south of the Great Wall to harass them.
To disturb the enemy was fruitless, and he himself was faced with many internal dangers. Tuoba Liwei, who once had great ambitions and claimed to go south to herd horses, was now in many difficulties.
The arrogant Tuoba Liwei finally realized how powerful Yan Liang was and was deeply afraid of him.
Tuoba Liwei's life was difficult, but Yan Liang's life was very tight. What he did every day was to sit in Baidao City, drink wine, and listen to the reports of his subordinates who burned, killed, and looted the Xianbei people.
This year, the Chu states like to have a good harvest. Yan Liang has enough food, so he fights a war of attrition with Tuoba Liwei. He doesn't even need a single soldier, and his attrition can kill the Xianbei people.
This is the benefit of a strong country.
What's more, the war has only started less than a month ago, and the fun has just begun. Yan Liang has plenty of time to slowly kill Tuoba Liwei, an arrogant bastard.
On this day, Yan Liang was in the imperial tent, drinking wine to keep warm, and talking about strategy.
The imperial forest sergeant outside the tent came in and reported that Tuoba was weak and sent his confidant Dugulou Mo to come to ask for an audience with the emperor, who was waiting outside the tent to meet him.
Dugulou Mo?
Yan Liang, Xu Shu and other ministers looked at each other with smiles in their eyes, and quickly reached a common opinion.
"Your Majesty, if Tuoba Liwei sends his confidants here at this time, I'm afraid he won't be able to hold on any longer and plans to surrender." Xu Shu said with a smile.
Yan Liang nodded slightly, but snorted disdainfully: "Hulu have always been so shameless. They surrendered if they were afraid of being beaten. Within a few days, the wounds became scarred, and they immediately forgot about the pain. In turn, they bite you again, Tuoba Li.
You boy, Wei, do you think that I am just like those emperors of the Han Dynasty, only coveting the vanity of paying tribute and becoming a vassal?"
Yan Liang does not want the so-called vanity of coming to court from all directions. What Yan Liang wants is real benefits, and this benefit is to wipe out all the evil spirits and uproot all the moths entrenched around the Central Plains.
"Bring me Dugu Loumo's wild dog." Yan Liang waved his hand and shouted.
Not long after, the curtains were raised again, and Dugulou Mo stepped into the tent nervously.
"Your Majesty, Dugulou Mo, pays homage to Your Majesty." Dugulou Mo bowed down, showing great respect and humility.
When he paid his respects, he slightly raised his head and glanced at Yan Liang. After just one glance, he was intimidated by Yan Liang's supreme power. He shivered all over, and even felt like he was suffocating.
"Is this the invincible Emperor of Chu, who is like a demon king? My spirit was so powerfully oppressed just by looking at it. It is really powerful..." Dugu Loumo was surprised in his heart.
Yan Liang looked down at the frightened Hu man and said coldly: "Dugulou Mo, you came to see me in such a humble way. Could it be that that bitch Tuoba Liwei has finally given in and is ready to surrender to me?"
Yan Liang openly called their Xianbei ruler a piece of shit, showing no concealment of his contempt.
But Dugulou Mo did not dare to show his dissatisfaction, and hurriedly bowed his head and said: "My lord has been deeply impressed by His Majesty's power. I am willing to lead the Xianbei tribes to submit to Your Majesty. I hope Your Majesty will calm down." (To be continued...