Chapter 399 The townspeople are fierce
As the general was captured, the battle quickly ended.
A group of about a hundred Eastern Army knights saw that the opportunity was not good and fled north along Lingshui. As for the other infantry and cavalry members, they did not have such good luck. After some of them were intercepted and killed, the rest They can only abandon their weapons and surrender.
The prisoners were driven to one place. Liu Aqi, who had escaped to lure the enemy, finally returned with all his strength. However, the size of the team was reduced by more than half compared with before. In addition to heavy casualties, some of them escaped directly in the wilderness. .
However, the remaining people were enough to take care of these Eastern Army prisoners. Although they were said to be Eastern Army prisoners, in fact, most of them were Jihu disciples. At least Li Tai could not tell any racial differences between them by observing them with the naked eye.
The captured Xianbei soldiers were obviously different from those bastards in terms of temperament, appearance, words and deeds. Even though he had surrendered, he still subconsciously maintained the formation. It can be seen that as a professional soldier, some military rules and regulations have already become instinctive.
Of course, these high-quality soldiers also received Li Tai's special care. The other miscellaneous soldiers could only be driven to one place after disarming, while those Xianbei soldiers still needed to be tied up with ropes. Anyone who dared to resist would A wave of the hand is a knife.
The battlefield outside the city was cleared, and more than a thousand enemy infantry and cavalry were captured. Except for a few hundred who were killed during the battle and those who escaped, all the enemy troops who came out of the city to fight had been wiped out.
Li Tai sent the guard general Pi Jing and Tuan to the city gate and shouted to the city guards to surrender obediently. However, a soldier commander who stayed behind ordered the city guards to draw their bows and shoot at them. They were still determined to resist. , not caring about the lives of Pi Jinghe and other prisoners.
Seeing this scene, Li Taixin said that Pi Jinghe couldn't do it either, but he didn't let him continue to face Fei Ya and persuade him to surrender. This guy was by no means an unknown person. He was even crowned a king in the late Northern Qi Dynasty. He almost hit himself with an arrow just now. If he managed to capture him and was shot to death by one of his colleagues, it would be a huge loss.
He waved to Liu Aqi again, and led him to lead a dozen captured Xianbei soldiers to the city gate and slashed them with swords. Then Liu Aqi shouted and called on the bastards in the city to revolt and surrender. Keep them alive.
The reason why the alienation tactic is commonly used is because it is so easy to use, especially between two groups with unequal status and conflicting interests. Without provocation, the gap will be deep. Once it is aroused, it will inevitably explode more violently.
Thousands of Jihu soldiers who were defending the city were driven out of the city to die. It can be seen that they were also oppressed. Seeing that the situation was so bad, the authority and intimidation of the past was naturally gone, so soon the city was filled with riots and fighting. After about half an hour, the head of the soldier commander who was still resisting at the top of the city was thrown out from the top of the city.
After the people and horses outside verified that everything was correct, the rioting barbarians in the city slowly opened the city gate, threw their weapons on the ground, and then filed out and knelt on the ground in front of the city gate to ask for surrender.
At this point, the first small target after crossing eastward was captured. Li Tai was not in a hurry to enter the city, but asked Liu Aqi to lead his troops into the city to take over the city's defense.
Success or failure cannot be judged by whether the battle is won or not. Just now, there was still a group of enemy knights escaping to the north. If they really summoned the Eastern Wei Dynasty's successor army, they could live outside the city and be flexible in fighting or running.
After the city was captured, there were still more than 700 miscellaneous soldiers left. They themselves were prisoners captured during the Qing Dynasty's suppression of Jihu the year before, and were assigned here to be used as slaves. Now that they had rioted and then surrendered, they saw Liu Aqi, a Hu chieftain who was well-known in the Lishi area. There was no obstacle to his being recruited, and he was even excited. He just said that Zuo Xianwang's troops came back and left. Stone will soon become their Jihu paradise again.
According to Pi Jinghe who surrendered, the city's defenders originally consisted of 800 Jinyang soldiers and nearly 3,000 enslaved soldiers led by him.
The five hundred cavalrymen who followed him out of the city were naturally Jinyang soldiers, and there were still more than a hundred people staying in the city. If these warriors hadn't made noise and made trouble, he wouldn't have even planned to come out. After all, his mission was to defend Wutu City and report any situation immediately.
He is not rigid and does not know how to adapt. In fact, he cannot completely control these arrogant soldiers. Once they go out of the city to fight, many variables and accidents will inevitably occur. It is better to stay in the city.
Li Tai also felt the same. The anti-foreign sentiment among the soldiers was very serious. For example, He Basheng's old troops, like his adopted son, committed suicide and followed him. Later, some of the old Wuchuan troops returned to He Ba Jingwei's brothers. , Zhu Meng and others who still follow him today are those brought back by He Basheng from Jiangdong, and they are not Zhenbing themselves.
Therefore, the xenophobia of the Zhenbing is actually a special moral core and spiritual culture within them. The lower the level of the Zhenbing, the more they identify with this.
Although Pi Jinghe was young and brave and was recognized by Gao Huan and became a confidant, because he was not a soldier, he could not control the troops assigned to him. Even after the surrender, his original subordinates shot him. It can be seen that in addition to his official position Apart from itself, no other identity is constructed.
Although these soldiers were unruly, their combat effectiveness was considerable. The 500 cavalry led by Pi Jinghe did not wear sophisticated armor because they were chasing Jihu under Liu Aqi's command. Li Tai's command used them to attack the outnumbered. They were even more well-armed, and despite all their efforts, they were still not wiped out, which showed how difficult they were to deal with.
As for the Jihu who rioted in the city, they were even more pitiful. There were only more than a hundred Jinyang soldiers left in the city, while the rioting Hu soldiers numbered more than 1,300. As a result, they lost nearly half of their lives with casualties. Killed all these soldiers.
Li Tai could not help but feel emotional about this, that is, as long as the old soldiers of the Six Towns Mutiny did not die, the world would never be unified.
Because these town soldiers were strong in combat effectiveness and their private nature was too strong. Even if Gao Huan, who was as powerful as he was, rescued them from the hands of the Erzhu family and led them to defeat the Erzhu family and establish the Jinyang Overlord Palace, when it comes to loyalty, these town soldiers still loyal to their respective generals, and Gao Huan was ranked behind.
At first glance, these people are too tempting with high loyalty and combat effectiveness, but their strong private nature makes them carry a split gene in their bones.
Although the Gaoqi regime replaced the Eastern Wei and the system construction looked very good, it actually failed to complete the transformation from the Overlord Palace to the central government from beginning to end. The Jinyang soldiers are a rich legacy left by Gao Huan to future generations, and also a burden throughout the whole process of the Northern Qi Dynasty.
Of course, these situations are not what Li Tai needs to consider. What bothers him more is that the fighting power of the Eastern Wei soldiers is indeed strong. If he rushes all the way to Jinyang without any strategy, he is likely to fail halfway. It is indeed not the same feeling to fight these garrison soldiers and the water-traders like Jihu.
After conquering Wutu City, Li Tai immediately sent a message back, ordering Han Guo to lead 3,000 troops to cross the river and enter Wutu City quickly. This city is the largest garrison of the Eastern Wei in the western foot of Luliang Mountain, and it is also related to their retreat. Naturally, they are not assured of letting the Jihu troops defend it.
In addition to the 3,000 Longyou warriors, he also has more than 3,000 Guqu who have been stationed in Weiping since last year. If necessary, Heishui Defense City can mobilize more than 2,000 troops to the north to reinforce in the short term. In addition, Han Guo has also gathered more than 2,000 state soldiers in Dongxiazhou, which means that he can invest more than 10,000 troops here.
If you don't want to break through Jinyang and occupy it for a long time but just make trouble, these troops are sufficient, but if you want to get the biggest results at the lowest cost, then the route and plan still need to be carefully considered.
Pi Jinghe almost shot Li Tai to death on the battlefield before, and now he was captured and surrendered, and he was still frightened. In order to make up for his mistakes, he told everything he knew about the Eastern Wei intelligence.
Li Tai saw that this guy was so sincere, and he couldn't help but laugh secretly. What kind of eyes did the big brother have? He chose such a person as his trusted governor? But when he thought that Gao Huan had been a trusted governor for Erzhu Rong, he was relieved. Which Lu was not the boss's sweetheart?
According to Pi Jinghe's confession, in addition to Wutu City, although the Eastern Wei also set up other defense strongholds here, most of them did not have direct garrisons, but were stationed by local powerful Xiangqu and accepted the control of the Wutu City Lord.
Strictly speaking, Wutu City was only a place to monitor the dynamics of the Jiehu people. The places that the Eastern Dynasty really used to prevent the Jiehu riots were Xiurong City in Lanzhou, north of Wutu City. This was the former residence of the Erzhu family. Hengzhou, one of the six states of Xianbei, was also located here. Tens of thousands of Jinyang soldiers were stationed here all year round.
The other was Liubi City, located in the territory of Xihe County, Fenzhou, on the south side of the eastern foot of Luliang Mountain. For many years, it has been an important town for preventing and controlling the various Hu people in Lishi. Weizhou, Lingzhou and other places were successively located in the territory. There are more troops stationed here than in Xiurong City.
Of course, the so-called stationed troops are in ordinary times. Now that the Jinyang army is moving south in a large scale, how many troops are still left in these positions? Pi Jinghe is not clear, and dare not make a random estimate to avoid interference and misjudgment.
In addition, Pi Jinghe also explained that there are still many remaining Jiehu people in the Lishi area. The Jihu people have lived and multiplied in this area for a long time. They made full use of the complex and changeable terrain to avoid the encirclement of the army, and started to move again after the army withdrew.
On the third day after the capture of Wutu City, Han Guo led the successor troops to rush to reinforce and took over the defense of the city. During this process, there was no large group of troops from the Eastern Wei Dynasty, which to a certain extent confirmed the accuracy of the intelligence provided by Pi Jinghe and the fact that the remaining troops around Jinyang were empty.
However, the situation of the fall of Wutu City must have been leaked. Li Tai knew that the longer the delay, the more time Jinyang would have to prepare its forces and lose the effect of the surprise attack. So when he had no worries, he immediately launched the next plan.