Chapter 573: Unable to Obtain the City
Meng Gong also said that when Commander Zhao ordered the troops to be stationed in Hedong, both of them opposed it, and all the reserve troops were left in the Suide-Yulinzhai line, resulting in a shortage of troops.
We are currently secretly crossing the sea to the east. What do you think of the way we should proceed?
The generals were delighted to learn that the 100,000 reserve troops in Hexi had been mobilized. Lai Chuanfang said excitedly: Speed is of the essence in war. Let's go north to Bingzhou immediately. If we take this city, we can threaten Datong Prefecture.
All the generals looked expectant.
Bingzhou was built on the mountain, which is the Taiyuan of later generations. It is the throat of Hedong leading to the northern grassland. Taking Bingzhou is equivalent to opening the door to attack Datong Prefecture and closing the way for the Mongolian army to move south to Hedong.
Cao Youwen shook his head and told him to think about it again. He said that the Ministry of War had received a secret letter, saying that our legs were short and the cavalry advantage of the grassland empire would be more obvious the further north we went. They suggested that we move eastward to capture iron smelting cities such as Anyang and Damingfu to cut off the enemy's supply of weapons.
In this way, the enemy will certainly take it back, and we can then sit back and wait for them to come and attack their reinforcements.
The generals began to look at the battle map and felt that it made sense.
The Shenwei Army does not fight with the enemy for a city or a piece of land. It needs to destroy the enemy's manpower. As long as the enemy is destroyed, there is no need to worry about not being able to take the city.
Meng Gong asked everyone to consider sending troops directly to Luzhou in Longde Prefecture, taking Xiangzhou, and destroying the Mongolian army's steel smelting city. In this way, even if the enemy is strong, the enemy will lose an important source of materials for weapon manufacturing after we retreat.
The generals agreed with this and quickly worked on the map to refine the strategy.
In Chengdu, Zhennan Prince Duan Xiaolin went to Zhao's house to pay a visit to Zhao Feiyan. After explaining his purpose, he handed over Zhao Yulin's letter. He thought there would be some twists and turns, but unexpectedly, his sister-in-law agreed straightforwardly and picked up the red pen to write "Approved." She told Duan Xiaolin that the transaction must be in cash and not on credit.
Because Dali still owes the New Song a large amount of debt, and the old debts have not been paid off yet and are temporarily put on hold, the arms sale requires cash.
Duan Xiaolin happily agreed, and it would be smoother to go to the Ministry of Rites to do business. The Ministry of Rites contacted the Ministry of War, and the Ministry of War arranged for him to go directly to Jiading to pick up the goods. After the arms transaction was completed super smoothly, this guy was in a good mood. He took Zhao Sihan to play around in the city for two days, and only set off to go back after meeting his eldest son Duan Yu.
The spies of the Grassland Empire have learned that the New Song Dynasty and Dali have reached an arms deal, and that it was the Dali King Zhennan who personally took action, with a huge number of troops. It is suspected that the New Song Dynasty intends to arm Dali to fight Pagan.
After receiving the information from the spy, Kuanduan felt much more at ease.
Ever since your friend led his troops westward, he has been anxious and unable to sleep. The new Song army has been constantly training on the border, and there are troop movements every now and then. He is very worried that the Song army will suddenly attack him, so he constantly strengthens the defense of important cities at the pass, and even sends a letter to Hu Bili by flying eagle to remind him to pay attention.
After receiving the warning letter from Kuan Xiao, Hubili sneered and threw away the incense burner. He had known about these things for a long time.
Prince Hu still has someone working undercover in Chengdu. His people not only try to gather information, but also pay close attention to his sister Hu Lan. It can be said that Hubili's control over the situation in the Central Plains exceeds the level of intelligence of the grassland empire.
He knew that Zhao Yulin was still in Chengdu, that his sister had gone to Wenjiang to serve as a county magistrate, and that the empress dowager and emperor of the previous dynasty had sparked demonstrations and parades in an attempt to restore the monarchy after returning to Chengdu. Every single thing made him happy.
At this time, what Hubili was worried about was not the attack from the New Song army.
The empire's westward expedition army is almost reaching Altai, and is nearly halfway through the journey. His big and fierce brother should have taken action, but I don't know if he has done so yet?
Did you succeed?
This is a risky move.
To seize the Khan's throne, you must kill Guiyou Khan.
However, it was easy to kill Guiyou Khan, he only needed to recruit some strange people to rush over and hack him to death. But it was extremely difficult to kill Guiyou Khan without anyone noticing, because Guiyou was not an ordinary prince, he was the Khan of the grassland empire, and the area around him was heavily guarded, and the food he ate had to be inspected at five checkpoints, and someone had to taste it before he could eat it.
However, none of these could stop Badu who was determined to seek revenge.
When Da Meng learned that your friend's westward expedition was a plan to kill two birds with one stone and wanted to kill him and Badu, he immediately sent someone to deliver a secret letter to Badu. After reading the letter, Badu smiled contemptuously, snorted coldly and said: There are many people who dream of killing me, but the one who can kill me has not been born yet.
He called his personal guard to his side and ordered him to start the Firefox plan immediately. Therefore, an invisible sharp blade had been waiting for your friend the Khan on the way to the west.
Zhao Yulin rushed to Jiankang Prefecture and learned that Cao Youwen had started the battle in Pingliang Prefecture in Hedong. Lai Chuanfang attacked quickly and had cleared the outer obstacles and surrounded Longde Prefecture.
When he saw that the Eastern Expedition Army had come out in full force, he knew that they would capture Luzhou City in a few days, so he immediately headed north to Kaifeng.
Lai Chuanfang and his men decided to capture Luzhou and Xiangzhou, advance eastward to Damingfu, destroy the Mongolian army's steel base, and then take immediate action to attack Longdefu first.
This was to mobilize Tachaer of Damingfu to send troops for rescue and disrupt the Mongolian army's deployment in Damingfu before taking the next step.
However, Tachaer was not stupid. His chief subordinate was Shi Tianze. This leader of the Han army had many brave generals under him, and his sons were all ruthless and fearless men.
This guy was determined to follow the Mongolian leader and become a traitor. He advised Tachaer to keep the troops in place, on the grounds that Liu Changan, who was guarding Longde Prefecture, was absolutely reliable because his brother was the Han army general Liu Hengan who had died in battle and had an irreconcilable hatred with the New Song army.
Longde Prefecture has 30,000 Han Chinese signed soldiers and 10,000 imperial cavalry as military supervisors, which will definitely be enough to hold out for a while.
Daming Prefecture is the gateway to Hebei. Once the troops are withdrawn and the defense is left unattended, the Shenwei Army lurking on the opposite side will definitely seize the opportunity to attack.
Daming Prefecture must not be lost.
However, they ultimately underestimated the combat effectiveness of the Divine Might Army.
After Lai Chuanfang surrounded Luzhou in Longde Prefecture, he immediately sent out the Heavenly Army to bomb the city. Dozens or even hundreds of hot air balloons took off to fight, and they flew over Luzhou City in large numbers and carried out intensive bombing, leaving the Mongolian army with no place to hide. Two days later, Liu Changan's troops could not find a military camp to stay in, and had no choice but to drive the people out of their homes and hide in private houses.
Once these soldiers entered civilian houses, they became like hungry wolves. They not only demanded food, but also robbed people of their money and forced them to sleep with their wives and daughters. The city of Luzhou was in a mess, and many civilians could no longer tolerate it, so they picked up kitchen knives and killed the soldiers with their machetes.
Lai Chuanfang took advantage of the situation and launched an attack.
Kuoduan understood the principle of "the lips and the teeth are in danger", and ordered the Bingzhou army to provide support. However, they were ambushed by Gu Shan and lost most of their 20,000 soldiers. After fleeing back, they never dared to go south again.
Lai Chuanfang immediately concentrated the red cannons to bombard the south gate. The city was blown open and no soldiers could hide. After the gate was blasted open, the Shenwei Army quickly rushed in. Luzhou fell in five days, and Longde Prefecture changed its flag. Liu Changan desperately broke through and fled to Xiangzhou.
Tachaer was shocked as he did not expect Longde Prefecture to be defeated so quickly. He immediately ordered Shi Tianze to lead 30,000 troops to Xiangzhou to deploy defenses and then sent an urgent request for help to Hubli.
Lai Chuanfang captured Longde Prefecture and quickly marched his troops eastward, approaching the city of Xiangzhou. The army then moved south to wipe out the remaining Mongolian troops and completely controlled the ferry in front of Luoyang. The reserve troops in Henan quickly crossed the river and headed north, greatly increasing the strength of the Eastern Expedition Army.
When Zhao Yulin rushed to Kaifeng, Yang Xingyun was very anxious.
After the Shenwei Army conquered Longde Prefecture and entered Xiangzhou, Tachaer still did not mobilize a large number of troops to support them. This made Yang Xingyun embarrassed.
Cao Youwen's military order to him was to wait for the opportunity to attack, waiting for the opportunity to mobilize the Tachaer tribe. But they were not fooled and sat in Daming Mansion without moving.
Zhao Yulin said that the enemy is not moving, can't we make another move to mobilize them?
He ordered Zhou Ping of the navy to cross the sea and head north immediately, pretending to threaten Daxing Prefecture. He ordered Li Dagui's troops to forcefully cross the Yellow River to capture Liaocheng and march to Dezhou, saying that the area was originally Shandong's territory, and the troops were ready to fight the enemy with bayonets on the plains.
This is called an all-out fight. Let's see how Hubili responds.
Yang Xingyun immediately took the order and left.
The Shandong Corps quickly took action. Li Tan led the two reorganized columns to cross the Yellow River flood area and fought fiercely for three days in Liaocheng, taking the first strategic fulcrum. Then he marched northward and marched into Dezhou, with the intention of cutting off the enemy's retreat.
The Mongol army's important military base, Daxing Prefecture, was shaken, and major cities such as Zhending Prefecture and Daming Prefecture felt in danger, and a large number of civilians fled with their families.
Upon receiving the report, Hubili quickly mobilized 100,000 reserve troops from Daxing Prefecture to march south for reinforcement.
However, the Shenwei Army had already launched a full-scale attack. The flags of the South China Sea Fleet and the East China Sea Fleet appeared in Bohai Sea one after another, and a large number of ships went north against the current to Daxing Prefecture.
As soon as his reinforcements arrived in Cangzhou, he received news that the Shenwei Army's navy was invading along the Haihe River. Its marines landed at Zhigu Village and were taking the city and the village with great momentum. He was immediately stunned.
Zhiguzhai is the Tianjin of later times, which is the gateway to Daxing Prefecture. The Shenwei Army launched a massive attack along the Haihe River, which was to cut off the enemy's retreat. Taking over Daxing Prefecture was like trapping them.
Hubili did not expect that the Shenwei Army would launch a cross-sea attack in a leapfrog manner. His rear defense was empty and extremely dangerous. He immediately ordered his troops to return and stop the Shenwei Army.
This guy was thinking in the military tent that the Shenwei Army suddenly became stronger and more fierce, and it must be that Zhao Yulin had arrived at the Shandong front.
The Shenwei Army launched an all-out attack on him. The Shenwei Army was mobilized from Hedong to Hebei, along the entire Yellow River. The total force was at least 500,000. He could not withstand it with just the few troops he had.
Daming Prefecture will fall sooner or later.
Hubili quickly sent a letter via flying eagle, requesting that they must go south to snipe the Shenwei Army in Longde Prefecture.
However, this guy is very clear that under the current situation, Kuangduan must preserve his strength, and the possibility of going south to fight with the New Song Army is greatly reduced. Even if he sends troops, they will be ineffective.
Hebei, still can only rely on themselves.
He didn't know that Kuoduan's Bingzhou army had been defeated and retreated.
