Chapter 490 Calling for help
The two sides withdrew their troops and made a truce, and Li Tai entered Heyang Nancheng surrounded by the crowd.
This city that fascinated the kings and ministers of the Western Wei Dynasty was not known for its grandeur and steepness. It was a city built on the waterfront. Because of its special location, it is not a foundation of rammed earth, but built with rocks and wooden piles.
Linhuai Wang Yuan Xiaoyou had already led other city officials to wait at the city gate, but he did not come up to him immediately. He stood there and observed carefully for a while until he was sure that he was surrounded by He Ruodun and others. The handsome and somewhat overly young man was in the middle. Talent is the core of the team, so he strode forward, clasped his fists and saluted from a distance: "This one must be Li Kaifu, Duke of Xihe. I have heard about Li Kaifu for a long time, and today I am finally lucky enough to see him. His handsomeness and grace are unparalleled in the world." !”
"The king is so complimentary."
Li Tai had long heard what He Ruodun and others had said about Yuan Xiaoyou, and now he also smiled and bowed: "I was ordered to march eastward to fight against the thief Kuang Yi. I am really lucky to have the great king work with me! All the generals under my command told me, I owe a lot to your Majesty for all the city defense matters, and I am truly grateful."
The group of people entered the city chatting with each other. After they sat down in the military mansion, Yuan Xiaoyou said with a smile on his face: "I would like to ask Li Kaifu if he knows Lu Rou and Lu Zigang? Is his family well in Guanxi now? ?”
"Lu Zigang is my cousin, how could I not know him? When I first entered Guanxi, I relied on my cousin and other relatives and friends for support and support, so that I could establish myself there and have the opportunity to make contributions. My cousin's family now lives in Chang'an, where they are peaceful both inside and outside. We admire each other, does your Majesty have something to do with my cousin?"
Li Tai said with a smile after hearing this, and was a little curious about the relationship between Yuan Xiaoyou and his cousin Lu Rou.
"Not only is there a reason, it's actually a deep connection!"
When Yuan Xiaoyou heard this, the smile on his face became more warm and friendly, and he immediately talked about his relationship with Lu Rou's family. It turned out that he was the biological uncle of Lu Rou's wife, the Yuan family, and his title as King of Linhuai was inherited from his elder brother because Lu Rou's father-in-law had no children.
Hearing that the relationship between them was so close, Li Tai showed even more respect to Yuan Xiaoyou. After all, his cousin still had to give him face.
However, a personal relationship is a personal relationship, and business matters are business matters, especially now that they are still at the forefront of the war between the two countries. After establishing a relationship, Li Tai quickly brought the topic back to business. The first thing he needed to understand was naturally the current personnel situation in Heyang South City.
Yuan Xiaoyou was also a person who knew how to observe people's appearance. He did not rely on the newly formed relationship to be negligent. He also had a correct attitude and introduced everything in the city one by one.
Originally, there were more than 20,000 soldiers and civilians in the garrison of Heyang Nancheng and its nearby cities such as Huiluocheng. The core of these were the thousands of elite Jinyang soldiers under Xue Guyan. However, now they are all scattered in the city due to the defeat of Jingu City. outside.
After He Ruodun and others entered the city, in order to delay the attack by the city defenders north of Heqiao, they sent back thousands of soldiers from Hebei. At the same time, many soldiers and civilians in the city were dispersed. Up to now, with the appeal of Yuan Xiaoyoujiu, an official in this realm, there are still nearly 2,000 Japanese soldiers remaining in the city.
Most of these soldiers are locals in Henan. Although they are called soldiers, they are actually just soldiers from rural households recruited in Heluo Township. They have not experienced systematic military training. Even if they are organized and armed, they can only use Some simple short-edged instruments basically have no combat effectiveness.
The Eastern Wei Dynasty was relatively wary of the development of local armed forces in Henan. The defense of many cities, including the three cities of Heyang, was basically dominated by Jinyang soldiers, Hebei state soldiers and powerful tribes.
But these people have no local feelings for the Heluo area. Whether they are Hou Jing and other Beizhen military leaders, or former Hebei powerful men such as Gao Aocao, they often destroy more and build less in Henan.
Therefore, after Xue Guyan's main force was crippled and all the Hebei soldiers were expelled, the remaining soldiers and civilians here did not have any resistance to the Western Wei troops occupying the south city of Heyang, but they did not have a food pot The reason why Wang was so happy to welcome Master Wang was probably because he knew that the Western Wei Dynasty was poor and weak, and he thought that people like them would have to leave soon, so he didn't bother to express his position.
In addition to the manpower of these soldiers, there is another important content in the battle with the Eastern Wei Dynasty, and that is the captured materials, and the seizures in Heyang South City will definitely not disappoint Li Tai.
When he saw Yuan Xiaoyou taking out the rolls of storage material accounting books, Li Tai seemed to see a team of Gao Aocao standing in front of him waiting for review. Although Gao Aocao never entered this city until his death, he still existed here in another form, and there were still many of them.
Long before the arrival of Li Tai's troops, Hu Lujin, who was responsible for guarding Heyang, had proposed a plan to join forces with the Han Rail troops who were rushing to Yingchuan to suppress the Henan rebels. This plan also included intercepting the Jingzhou Army and the troops who were blocking Wang Sizheng. The conception of the Guanxi people and horses in the Western Wei Dynasty.
Although this plan has not yet been fully implemented, related material preparations have actually begun.
The reason why Xue Guyan reacted so fiercely to Li Tai's invasion of Heluo and mobilized all his troops to attack and stop him was because if the Heyang troops wanted to join the battlefield in Henan, they had to ensure that the situation in the Heluo area was relatively stable, otherwise The troops here did not dare to leave the three cities of Heyang.
Soldiers and horses should move forward before food and grass are moved. Since there is such a plan, Heyang Nancheng, as the most important Guancheng fortress on the south bank of the Yellow River, naturally becomes the best choice for the front station for transporting supplies southward.
Therefore, the grain stored in the southern city of Heyang is nearly 300,000 shi, and various weapons are countless. There are hundreds of large crossbows used for defending the city in the warehouse, because Hulu Jin plans to wait until the turmoil in Henan ends, and then adjust the overall defense of Heluo according to the performance of various places during the turmoil, and add some defense points.
But now these materials are cheap for Li Tai, which makes him feel more and more that fighting with the Eastern Wei is really a promising thing. Of course, the premise is that he can win. If it is the battle of Mangshan last year, it will make people vomit blood and become autistic.
Although the material reserves here are very rich, Li Tai also sees the hidden crisis, that is, will the Eastern Wei troops stationed here allow him to swallow and digest these materials smoothly?
It is certain that the Eastern Wei is richer than the Western Wei, but its material reserves are definitely not inexhaustible. Gao Huan sent a big wave in the battle of Yubi last year, and Wei Xiaokuan and other Hedong troops are still burping. Now Henan is in chaos again, and it is unknown how much material investment is needed to fill this big hole.
The large amount of military equipment and materials stored in Heyang South City cannot be quickly replenished by collecting money from ordinary households. This represents the war potential of the Eastern Wei in the next period of time. Whether it is Heyang South City or these materials, the enemy here will surely do their best to snatch them back.
Li Tai will certainly not take out the things that fall into his pocket. After realizing that the enemy's counterattack will inevitably be more fierce, this time he really has to give up his fantasy and prepare for battle.
Compared with the river bridge fixed on the river surface, the enemy's boat crossing needs more careful defense.
But it is too difficult to set up a defense line without loopholes along the long river bank, so Li Tai selected several nearby places that are convenient for boats to land and fight, and used fences and trenches to pull up a relatively simple defensive fortification, and moved those large bed crossbows out of the warehouse and set them on the river bank defense to attack the enemy's boats.
As for the city itself, no more fortifications were built. After all, when the enemy from the south could pose a real threat to the city defense, he would no longer consider whether the city could be defended, but whether he could swim all the way to the Bohai Bay along the Yellow River with his swimming skills.
As for holding on here and waiting for reinforcements, he really didn't count on it. He would be secretly thankful that Zhao Gui, the old man, didn't add insult to injury and block his retreat.
And waiting for Guanxi Yuwen Tai to organize troops for reinforcements was not a big hope. Yuwen Dao's going to Longyou to replace Dugu Xin seemed calm, but there were undercurrents. At the beginning of the year, the Rouran invaded Gaoping, and Dugu Xin took the opportunity of preparing for the border defense against the Hu to control part of the military in Longyou.
This time, Li Tai was selected as the vanguard of the army. Although it was proposed by Zhao Gui, it was not necessarily because Yuwen Tai didn't want him, Dugu Xin's son-in-law, to stay in the center of the Bafu at this time, so he found a reason to send him out.
So even if Li Tai took over the southern city of Heyang, Yuwen Tai might have to think about whether this was a collaboration between the father-in-law and son-in-law to induce the Bafu to continue to increase its military investment in Guandong. Even if they decided to send troops, they would definitely drag Dugu Xin along. It would take at least one or two months to complete the round trip. By then, Li Tai might really have to paddle out of the Bohai Bay.
In the chaotic times of the post-Three Kingdoms period, the competition was not about whose national strength was stronger, but whose mess could withstand more damage. Many contradictions were irreconcilable, and whoever couldn't hold on first would collapse first.
Of course, Li Tai did not have friendly forces that could be used as references, such as Han Xiong and other Henan tyrants. They themselves did not belong to the core forces of the Bafu, and they were more concerned about the changes and development of forces in the Heluo region.
However, these forces were too fragmented, and there was no leader with enough prestige to bring them together. It was still a bit unrealistic to expect them to become reliable reinforcements, but it was better to have them than not.
So after a brief consideration, Li Tai dispatched three messengers to different places to announce that he had taken over the southern city of Heyang. In addition to the Bafu and Li Bi's central army, there were also the Henan troops that would attack Yiyang.
In addition to notifying the battle situation in the letter to the Bafu, he also had to indicate that he was ready to continue to attack northward and try to implement the previous battle plan. The report to the commander of the central army naturally indicated that he had successfully completed the task assigned by the commander. I have blocked Heyang, and the enemy here cannot leak out at all. As for what to do next, I have to ask the commander for instructions.
It is much simpler for the Henan troops. I accidentally took down a large arsenal. If you want to buy and arm your troops for free, then hurry up and come!