Chapter 504 Yingchuan Fertile Fields

Chapter 504 Yingchuan Fertile Fields

The northern Jingzhou prefecture was located in Fuliu City in the Yishui River Basin. After Li Tai received the transfer order, he led his troops to Luoyang to join the troops from western Henan who had withdrawn from Heqiao, and then continued southward via Yique in Luonan. It only took a few days to arrive at Fuliu City.

At this time, Li Bi's troops also withdrew from Yangdi and passed through Fuliu City. With Li Bi's cooperation, Li Tai took over the city defense and sent Li Bi out of the country. Only then did he have time to summon the generals here and make detailed arrangements for their military affairs.

"I have finally met Mr. Xihe."

In front of the gate of the camp outside Fuliu City, two generals in military uniforms came forward and crossed their hands to salute Li Tai.

Li Bi went to Heluo this time and only took away the Bafu soldiers and horses brought from Guanxi. There were also two troops left in Fuliu City and returned to Li Tai's control. They were the Buqu Xiang soldiers commanded by Zheng Wei of Xingyang. and the local volunteers in Henan led by General Zhao Gang.

Li Tai and Zheng Wei knew each other, and his son Zheng Quan also served as the best man at his wedding. They were both very happy to see each other here again.

As for the cavalry general Zhao Gang, he was not a stranger. He had met him several times before at his father-in-law Duguxin's house. Zhao Gang has been active in the Henan area all year round, even though the states in Henan have fallen to the Eastern Wei Dynasty. When He Basheng and Dugu Xin stayed in Nanliang, they were able to return thanks to Zhao Gang acting as an envoy to inform Nanliang.

"You two generals don't need to be polite. Although the duties are divided into masters and subordinates, I still have to rely on you to ensure that you fulfill your duties."

Since they were all acquaintances, Li Tai had no need to put on airs to emphasize his authority and waved his hand to invite the generals to join him in the camp to discuss matters.

When he left Kansai before, Li Tai's troops had more than 5,000 troops. After several battles, they were captured and collected. Now, the troops under his troops are nearly 7,000, including deputy general Tian Hong and others. They also came with him. Fuliu City.

Among the troops in western Henan, in addition to Han Xiong, who had been cooperating, Wei Fabao, Li Yisun, Chen Xin, Wei Xuan and other generals and their respective tribes totaled more than 12,000 troops. These troops were fully armed in Nancheng, Heyang, and are now under the command of Li Tai.

The two groups of Zheng Wei and Zhao Gang had more than 6,000 troops in total, but their military appearance was somewhat inferior to that of the Henan Western Volunteer Army, and even worse than Li Tai's own troops.

The total number of these people and horses totaled more than 25,000. This is the force Li Tai currently controls. It can also be said to be the largest number of troops he has commanded since he joined the army.

There are three tasks assigned to Li Tai by Bafu. The first is to defend Fuliu City in Northern Jingzhou, the second is to cooperate with Wang Sizheng, and the third is to rescue Hou Jing.

The importance of the three tasks decreases in order. Defending Fuliu City is naturally the most important. With the success of the two cities in Heyang, Daxingtai Yuwentai is obviously going to fight another big battle between Heluo and Luo. It is naturally very important to ensure the safety around the battlefield.

Li Tai was assigned to the south gate of the Heluo area. His most important task was to ensure that the chaos in Henan would not spread to Heluo. Therefore, he needs to carefully guard not only Fuliu City, but also a series of passages in and out of Henan such as Shenyuan Pass.

While ensuring this premise, Li Tai is also responsible for cooperating with Wang Sizheng to take over as much of Hou Jing's personnel power in Henan as possible.

Wang Sizheng entered Henan with only more than 10,000 Jingzhou troops under his command. The deployment of troops was inevitably stretched. Some places that were difficult to control directly naturally required Li Tai to send troops to provide a certain degree of assistance.

As for rescuing Hou Jing, that's just talk. As long as Li Tai led his army to appear in the surrounding areas of Henan, it would be equivalent to giving Hou Jing rare support. If he really takes this matter seriously, the boss Yu Wentai will have to deal with him.

After analyzing the severity of the matter, Li Tai began to arrange the troops under his command.

Fuliu City is the core of this mission. Li Tai arranged for 10,000 troops to be stationed there. The main force of 3,000 troops plus the main forces of the volunteer divisions in western Henan Province stayed in Fuliu City and could not be transferred easily.

As for other passes, different numbers of garrison troops were stationed according to local conditions and the importance of their respective geographical locations.

In this regard, the abilities of local snakes such as Li Yisun have come to the fore. They not only know the geographical situation well, but are also very familiar with the various power situations in the region. They can make full use of the local powerful and barbarian armed forces to coordinate Be vigilant and defensive to prevent the main force from being too dispersed in the area. You only need to focus on guarding a few key core locations and be prepared to respond to surrounding strongholds at any time.

After such an arrangement, Li Tai still has more than 10,000 mobile forces in his hand that can be mobilized from all directions at any time. He can deploy all the way east along the Ru River and reach the Henan plains.

When the defense arrangements around Fuliu City were almost completed, Li Tai also received a message from Yangzhai, and Wang Sizheng invited him to meet him.

Li Tai did not have any direct experience of dealing with Wang Sizheng, but he did have indirect memories.

When he first came to this world, he was on the evacuation road from Hengnong to Tongguan. At that time, the guard of Hengnong was Wang Sizheng. Because of his background, Wang Sizheng asked someone to give him a skinny donkey to travel around, but he kept his weapons in Hengnong.

After reminiscing like this, his impression of Wang Sizheng was not very vivid. Li Tai only felt that his butt hurt a little again. Putting aside his own curiosity about Wang Sizheng and his affairs, he indeed needed to go to Yangzhai to fully communicate with Wang Sizheng before he could cooperate flexibly in the future.

So Li Tai led more than a thousand light cavalry and headed east along Ru River under the leadership of Zhao Gang and others who had just withdrawn from there.

From Fuliu City to the east, there is a distance of nearly a hundred miles that still belongs to the mountainous area of ​​Waifang Mountain. The road is winding and rugged, but the river valleys gradually become more open along the way. After passing through Rubei, we officially entered the Henan Plain. As far as the eye can see, there are almost no obvious geographical obstacles except some natural and artificial rivers.

Li Tai and his entourage were galloping in the plains until they had traveled several dozen miles to the northeast. Only in the distance could they see the ups and downs of the mountain topography. However, compared with the tall and stretching Qinling Mountains, these hills with low and gentle slopes were just that. Like an ordinary dirt slope.

This river plain is the world-famous Yingchuan, which can nourish a series of famous families in the late Han Dynasty. The natural environment and farming conditions of Yingchuan are naturally excellent.

Just between Ruying, where Li Tai was traveling, villages of all sizes were scattered across the wilderness. Even in some sparsely populated wilderness areas, you can still see many traces of artificially built river banks and ditches, as well as traces of rivers and ditches that often stretch for dozens of miles. acres of wild mulberry forest.

With such a superior natural environment, the folk customs must be quite simple. Because even committing a crime requires a lot of brainpower and effort. If you have that time, you might as well circle a field to cultivate and weave.

Anyway, Li Tai was really greedy for what he saw along the way. If he could carve out a piece of land here to develop safely, the income from farming alone would be much better than in Guanzhong, let alone the ravine-ridden northern Shaanxi.

Of course, it is not easy to own such a piece of land. Even Hou Jing, the most ferocious among the soldiers, cannot sit back and enjoy all this peacefully. He will soon be chased by others and run around like a wild dog.

However, after walking on the ground, Li Tai somewhat understood why Wang Sizheng set up his base in Yingchuan, where both offensive and defensive advance and retreat were somewhat inconvenient. As long as such a fertile land is occupied, a considerable amount of money, food and materials can be accumulated quickly. These are precious war potentials!

Of course, Wang Sizheng himself may not have such thoughts, but this has nothing to do with Li Tai.

He came here originally as an assistant. Although he would also put forward certain opinions on how Wang Sizheng would run the business next, if Wang Sizheng just didn't listen, he could only put aside his desire to help others and respect the fate of others.

Yangzhai City is located on the west bank of Yingshui River, facing Jishan Mountain in the distance. The size of the city is not too large, and there is a large fort outside the city.

"The last general, Guo Xian, is here to greet Duke Xihe on the orders of the prince of Taiyuan. The lord has already held a simple banquet in the camp. Just go straight in."

As soon as Li Tai and his entourage arrived at the west bank of Yingshui River, a group of soldiers rode up to the gate on the opposite side. The first general clasped his fists at Li Tai from a distance and said.

"General Lao Guo."

Li Tai nodded in response, and when he arrived at the camp gate, he ordered Gao Le and others who were accompanying him to let the horses drink along the river. He only took a dozen of his followers into the camp under the leadership of Guo Xian.

The group of people soon arrived at the Chinese army's tent. Outside the tent, a tall middle-aged man wearing an old robe and a neatly trimmed beard stood in front of the door surrounded by people. When he saw Li Taixing coming, , he raised his hand to call me from afar and said with a smile: "Li Boshan, do you remember me?"

"General Mo has met Mr. Taiyuan. Heng Nong met him in a hurry last year. Unexpectedly, it was several years before we met again. Mr. Taiyuan's demeanor is as good as yesterday. General Mo will still remember him. How dare he forget it!"

Facing this world-famous general, Li Tai did not dare to treat him arrogantly. After hearing this, he cupped his fists in salute and responded with a smile.

Wang Sizheng also looked very happy to see Li Tai. He raised his arm and patted Li Tai on the shoulder, still smiling and saying: "The son of the Li family has a beautiful voice and appearance, which makes people fall in love with him at first sight. I don't care about your greed for merit anymore." It's a bad deed to rush in and hinder my plan. It's just that I have to drink a few more drinks later to relieve the pent-up anger of my subordinates. "

After Li Tai heard this, the smile on his face suddenly faded. He leaned slightly to avoid Wang Sizheng's hand patting his shoulder, and then said: "The Taiyuan public opinion is very unfair, which is puzzling. The last general was ordered to come here to help." Ji, this is what you are doing. If you have something to do, you may as well speak up. Even if the general is unable to do anything, there are still talents in the country who can be used!"