Chapter 403 Encounter on a narrow road

Chapter 403 Encounter on a narrow road

Although Li Tai did not experience any difficult battles in his attack on Zuoguocheng, when the news spread through Liu Aqi's troops in the Lishi area, the response was very enthusiastic, and many Jihu people flocked to it. Come.

At the same time, Han Guo was also very effective in searching and gathering the scattered Jihu people in the area. And as more and more people gathered, the effect grew exponentially. When the two parties gathered in Zuoguo City, the number of Jihu people gathered far exceeded tens of thousands.

The number of people exceeds 10,000 and is boundless. Li Tai did not have any civil servants to accompany him on this trip and had no way to organize his troops. Moreover, the clan relationships among these scattered Jihu have been completely destroyed. How many are there exactly? It’s really hard to count.

With so many people gathered together, the destructive power is staggering. When Li Tai came to attack Zuoguo City, he had no time to touch the dock walls he saw along the way. But when the Jihu people from all over the mountains and plains came, those dock walls were suddenly overwhelmed by the crowd.

Zuo Guocheng has been abandoned for a long time. Apart from some spiritual appeal among the Jihu group, it has no other value. If a large number of people gather here for a long time, eating immediately will become a big problem.

Therefore, the next step is to quickly choose a target for these people to attack and plunder, which can not only allow them to vent their hatred and violence after being slaughtered and persecuted by the Eastern Dynasty for several years, but also obtain enough food to survive.

To meet these two points, the Lishi area is obviously not possible, and one must go over the Luliang Mountains to the other side.

There are two routes to choose from. The first is to continue northward along Lishi River to the Chiji (Hong) Ridge of Lishi Mountain in the north. After entering the Xiurong area, turn eastward and head towards Jinyang!

The second is to go southeast from Lishi, rush into the hinterland of Fenzhou via Huangshu Ridge, break through a series of fortifications such as Liubi City, and then plunder the fertile Fenshui River Basin in the south of Jinyang.

Both routes have their own advantages and disadvantages. After some discussions with Han Guo, Li Tai decided to choose the second southward route. Han Guo led the Lishi Hu people to cross the Huangshan Mountains and attack the cities of Fenzhou.

First of all, this route is shorter, and there are almost no difficulties and obstacles on the way. Only when you reach the junction of the mountains and the plains will you encounter a series of defense fortifications deployed by the Eastern Wei Dynasty.

After rushing here, for the Lishi Hu people, there are rugged and difficult mountains behind them and it is difficult to retreat, but in front is the fertile Fenzhou River Valley. They only need to rush over and eat in large quantities, so their fighting spirit will undoubtedly be stronger. of firmness.

Fenzhou is located on the main artery of the supply line of the Eastern Wei army attacking Yubi City. Once this area is invaded, it must be a matter that needs to be taken seriously. Neither Jinyang Bafu nor Gao Huan's army on the front line of Yubi can take it lightly. , needs to be resolved as soon as possible.

As a result, the troops around Jinyang will be further mobilized, further weakening its defensive capabilities. And Li Tai can wait for the opportunity and rush out of the Luliang Mountains along the north road in time, causing a substantial collision with Jinyang.

He doesn't expect to be able to really shake the Jinyang city defense, but as long as he goes to Jinyang city, pees, and writes a "visit here", it will be a great achievement. When he returns to Guanzhong, he will be able to blind those northern towns. The dog eyes of old veterans!

You have been fighting life and death for so many years, but have you ever touched the wall of Jinyang City since you entered Kansai? It’s really exciting just thinking about it!

So after being encouraged by Han Guo and Liu Aqi to steal food, money and revenge, the Jihu people headed southeast in a mighty manner.

People are really strange. There are thousands of thoughts between two or three people in the blink of an eye. No one can fool anyone, but the more people there are, the better they are. They can be filled with enthusiasm and full of heroes if they just instill anything. If you are angry, killing gods and Buddhas is not a problem.

Therefore, if you want to be a leader, you must have a conscience. It is hard for Li Tai to say how many of these Hu people will be left after this storm. If Gao Huan really leads an army to fight back in anger, he may have to explain everything there.

Of course, even if Li Tai has a conscience, he has very few people to share with Ji Hu. The only thing he can do is to seize the opportunity to create as many lively spots as possible around Jinyang, so that even if Gao Huan sends troops to return reinforcements, the primary destination will be It must be the more important Jinyang rather than the anti-Hu strongholds such as Liubi City.

While the Jihu troops were rolling south, Li Tai was also constantly sending scouts to explore north along Lishi River. On the one hand, he was monitoring the movements of the Eastern Wei troops in the Xiurong area, and on the other hand, it was of course to grasp the terrain.

Now that he was deep in enemy territory fighting against foreign troops, he had to act separately from Han Guo, a human navigator. Naturally, he needed to master more geographical elements in order to avoid making stupid mistakes due to unfamiliar terrain.

What makes Li Tai feel strange is that a long time has passed since he first captured Wutu City and then captured Zuoguo City. Calculating, Big Brother probably had to spend several days with Wei Xiaokuan in Yubi City. Although they were recruited, there was still no obvious movement of troops from the Eastern Wei Dynasty in the north, and the number of scouts they sent was not even as many as what they sent themselves.

This situation is also a bit abnormal. Either Gao Huan sent too many troops southward, so that the surrounding areas of Jinyang were only able to protect themselves and were powerless against external harassment.

However, this is obviously impossible. Although Gao Huan's move to conquer the Jade Bi is a failure of strength, it does not mean that he will abandon his hometown in Jinyang. Does he really want to change homes with Yuwentai to the extreme?

There should be quite a lot of people left behind around Jinyang, but Li Tai doesn't understand what the trick is. Even if an ordinary person feels itchy, he has to take off his clothes to catch lice, but now he is a little indifferent to him. Isn't it as powerful as lice?

Or maybe Jinyang wanted to focus on defense and stability in the north, but then attacked the Lishi area from below. If this is the case, it would play into Li Tai's wish and he would just happen to bump into Li Shihu who was heading south. Even if Li Shihu is defeated, he can still make their faces bloody.

This also shows that in the eyes of those who stayed in Jinyang, these intruders did not dare to leave Shishan and invade Jinyang. Then Li Tai really had to raise his bar and could not lose the battle!

So after a few days of going south of Lishi Huzhong, he estimated that the front should have crossed Huangshu Ridge, so Li Tai led two thousand cavalry to advance along Lishi River. Whether he could attack Jinyang all the way, he didn't say yet. Occupy the fortress of Xia Chiji Ridge and take the initiative to advance and retreat.

When Li Tai's troops advanced north, more than 6,000 Hu merchant armed forces who had completed their gathering and integration in Malingsu also moved south in a mighty manner and arrived at Xiurong City. They rested for a while outside the city and were then captured. The general of the town, Yan Zixian, drove south to Chiji Ridge and attacked the bandits.

Six thousand Hu merchants were armed in front, while Yan Zixian personally led three thousand elite Jinyang soldiers behind. Nearly ten thousand people marched along the mountain road. Due to the terrain, they formed a long snake, with lofty mountains on both sides. People feel severe visual oppression.

Chishi Ridge is located in a wide valley and deep ravine between two mountains. The soil turns red under the sunlight, hence the name. There are strong walls on both sides of the valley, but the bottom of the valley can travel freely from north to south. There is a garrison above the narrow pass in the north. The terrain is easy to defend but difficult to attack. If you master it, you will master this pass.

Both parties came straight to this pass, and both discovered the other party's movements at the same time.

Not to mention what those Hu merchants' armed forces thought, when Li Tai learned that nearly ten thousand troops from the opposite side were approaching, he suddenly cursed in his heart, "What the hell are you kidding me?" Even though they have so many men and horses, they still refuse to send troops to attack. They wait until they lead their troops to march north before they come head-on and block their way. What kind of evil is this?

He felt a little upset in his heart. Although he didn't know how the remaining troops in the Eastern Wei Dynasty were allocated, it was definitely not easy to gather nearly ten thousand troops.

It should be noted that as soon as the war started, it was an incinerator. While the Jinyang base camp could meet the material consumption of the frontline army, it would never be able to support the defensive brigade in the city, unless he happily dug into the inexhaustible large grain cellar of Emperor Sui Yang. Otherwise, the Jinyang defenders must choose a place to stay to reduce the pressure on logistics operations.

Therefore, these nearly 10,000 troops should be the result of Jinyang Bafu's recent mobilization efforts. It will not be easy to gather so many people in the short term.

Therefore, Li Tai only needs to wait patiently for a few days. When this group of troops is attracted to the south by the news that Fenzhou has been invaded, he will be able to advance north unimpeded. He wanted to create a time difference that could not take care of both the north and the south, but he didn't expect that the opponent hit him. After these nearly 10,000 men defeated the more than 2,000 men under their command, they could easily catch up with Li Shihu when they went south to attack him from behind!

Sure enough, the world's heroes cannot be underestimated, Li Tai sighed in his heart, there are experts staying in Jinyang, and just the choice of a fighter plane includes considerations of dealing with various variables.

If the opponent comes earlier, he can rely on the tens of thousands of Jihu to pile up to stop them. If the opponent comes later, he can rush out of Chiji Ridge and wander around Jinyang, making them afraid to move lightly.

But now that we have encountered it, it is redundant to think about anything else. Although the brave will win when they meet on a narrow road, the open valley space is still enough for the formation of troops. He has seen the combat effectiveness of the elite Jinyang soldiers, and he does not think that his more than two thousand soldiers can defeat the opponent's elite several times his own. The right plan is to retreat slowly before formal contact and fighting. It seems that the soaked urine must be taken back to Suizhou.

Although he had made a rational decision in his heart, Li Tai was still somewhat unwilling to give in. The pro-communist scouts came forward to see which opponent he was forced to retreat by. Next time he came, he might have to pay his respects to Big Brother's grave.

However, when he entered the middle of the valley of Chishi Ridge and saw the people and horses on the opposite side rushing into his field of vision, he was stunned for a moment. How could the scattered formations and the wild canine tooth formations have any of the elite spirit of the Jinyang soldiers?

Li Tai even suspected that he had seen it wrong, so he continued to ride his horse forward a short distance and pinched his thigh. However, there was still no change in the opponent's formation in his field of vision. These were by no means elite Jinyang soldiers, just a group of unknown soldiers. Where did you get this rabble?

Damn what kind of bullshit expert you are, looking down on me! Li Tai turned around on his horse and after returning to the main formation, he ordered the soldiers to dress up and prepare to collect the vegetables.