Chapter 618 Murong throws himself into the water

Chapter 618 Murong throws himself into the water

As the capital of Huainan and the strategic hub between the north and the south, Shouyang, in addition to its own city defense, the gains and losses of its surrounding important fortifications are also crucial to the defense of the city. Some wars in ancient and modern times revolved around the battles for these strongholds, which were sometimes much more intense than the offensive and defensive battles of the city itself.

For example, the East-West Xiashi on both sides of the Huai River in the north of Shouyang City were waterway fortresses guarding the Huai River. The Ma Tou garrison in the west of Shouyang City is an important fortress on the western border of Shouyang land route. Once these places are lost, Shouyang City will be directly exposed to the enemy's attack, and can only rely on the inner and outer city walls to resist the enemy's offensive.

Although Wang Xiangui did not go out of the city to meet Murong Shaozong, he still pointed out the location where the boat was parked.

Murong Shaozong was just dissatisfied with Wang Xiangui's attitude, but he didn't have any doubts about it. In the eyes of Wang Xiangui, Shouyang Jincheng was his lair in the world, but in the eyes of Murong Shaozong, it was just a prison where he bound his hands and feet.

Even if he can enter the city, but loses control of the surrounding strongholds, he will be trapped in the city and unable to fight back. Even if Shouyang Jincheng could be used to drag the Western Wei army to retreat, it would be a loss of dignity for Murong Shaozong. Li Tai, a rising star in the Western Wei Dynasty, was not worthy of his being so conservative.

Although there are boats in Xia Shi, there are only a dozen dilapidated ships, which are difficult to use in water battles. Murong Shaozong did not intend to engage in water battles with the enemy, so he only arranged two hundred soldiers in the east and west Xia Shi. Defense.

There were originally iron ropes used to intercept cross-river rivers and racquet poles for directly striking warships between the stones. However, the iron ropes had long been cut off by Hou Jing's crew to forge armor, and the racquet poles were also damaged and difficult to use.

Now it was too late to repair these defenses, so Murong Shaozong sent an envoy south along the Fei River to Hefei to inform Li Bomu of his arrival, and asked Li Bomu to send a boat division north to coordinate the defense. Although he did not have the right to order Li Bomu, Shouyang and Hefei were at loggerheads. If Shouyang fell, Hefei would inevitably be in turmoil.

After crossing Xiashi, Murong Shaozong did not stay here for long. Instead, he led his troops to bypass Bagong Mountain and arrived at the foot of Shouyang City for inspection, and determined that Shouyang at this stage did not have much value for defense.

Although he was not in a hurry to enter the city, he still ordered Wang Xiangui in Jincheng to provide a batch of military rations. Wang Xiangui did not dare to show up to meet him, but he tried his best to meet this request and ordered his tribe to carry hundreds of stones of food from Jincheng to feed Murong Shaozong's tribe.

Seeing that Wang Xiangui was still cooperative, Murong Shaozong first led his troops to cook and eat here, and left 500 troops to garrison here. Then he led his troops westward along the Huai River, and on the way he assigned troops to garrison the defenses along the Huai River. garrison, and he also arrived at Ma Tou garrison and garrisoned.

In fact, Murong Shaozong currently leads only 5,000 troops from the south. His military strength is not superior, so it is not appropriate to divide the troops.

However, since his unit did not have an organized naval force to resist the enemy's navy, the enemy could travel freely in the river and choose to land at any time and anywhere.

In order to prevent this, Murong Shaozong could only temporarily distribute his men along the banks of the Huai River to restrict the enemy's landing. If Li Bomu can lead the Hefei Marine Division into the battlefield in time, even if it only slightly restrains the enemy's naval division, then he can concentrate his forces to focus on attacking the enemy's land forces.

The Western Wei Dynasty also responded to the arrival of Murong Shaozong. It was difficult for the boatmen sailing in the Huai River to speed up suddenly, but the cavalry on land were not restricted by this restriction. Soon there was a troop of thousands of people. The cavalry team separated from its main force, accelerated forward, and appeared outside the Matou garrison a few hours later.

"Bang the drum and attack!"

Facing the enemy's spying and testing, Murong Shaozong was not polite and directly ordered all the troops in the city to come out. Thousands of cavalry divided into several groups to attack the enemy cavalry.

Hou Zhi, who led his troops to inspect the enemy's situation, did not expect that the enemy's counterattack would be so swift and violent. Seeing that the enemy was outnumbered, he naturally did not dare to fight, so he hurriedly led his troops to rush back along the way.

When he returned to the Chinese army's camp, Hou Zhi felt a little frightened. If he had reacted a little later, he might have been surrounded and annihilated by the enemy. After being defeated all the way back, there were more than two hundred people scattered along the way. When it came to the specific strength of the enemy's troops, he didn't have very accurate figures. He just saw the fighting formation and estimated that the enemy must have tens of thousands of elite troops.

Li Tai did not believe that Murong Shaozong could lead so many people to Ma Nan. The larger the army, the lower the marching efficiency. Calculating the time, Murong Shaozong should only have arrived in Shouyang in five or six days. The daily marching distance was more than Hundreds of miles.

Even if Murong Shaozong himself was proficient in the art of war and had good marching skills, horsepower alone was a hard indicator. It was impossible to march at such a high intensity without changing horses. Even if Murong Shaozong had so many war horses, he would never be able to afford them.

The so-called war is never tired of deceit. Creating some illusions to mislead the enemy into making wrong judgments is also a basic skill of a general. It's just a pity that Murong Shaozong has fallen into a trap carefully prepared by Li Tai without realizing it. Any response is just a futile struggle.

Next, in addition to the regular dispatch of scouts, Li Tai did not send any more troops to challenge Murong Shaozong, but continued to move forward according to the established rhythm.

However, in the afternoon of the second day of the march, a strong east wind suddenly blew. Because the fleet was traveling against the wind, the speed of the fleet dropped sharply. In order to ensure timely arrival on the battlefield, Li Tai could only lead the land cavalry one step ahead.

In the Ma Tou garrison, Murong Shaozong also knew the enemy's movements in advance. He did not sit in the garrison, but wore light armor and led his troops in an array in front of the garrison, making it clear that he would attack instead of defend.

When two people in the wilderness saw each other, a solemn atmosphere suddenly filled the world. As the drums and horns sounded, Murong Shaozong's troops, who had arrived one step ahead and were waiting for work, took the lead in launching an attack. The soldiers galloped their horses and charged straight towards the enemy. The sound of killing filled the field for a while, which was moving.

Li Tai did not choose to remain silent this time. He raised his hand and ordered his soldiers to blow the horns. His troops were divided into three teams and rushed towards the enemy like three steel torrents. He himself also held a horse spear and led the troops. , personally led the left-wing cavalry into the enemy's front.

Two cavalry formations running at high speed collided head-on. The scene could only be described as tragic. The moment the soldiers from both sides met, life or death could be determined. After a charge, each of them suffered a lot of casualties.

"Gather to kill!"

Murong Shaozong's cavalry formation was even more sparse. After a round of charge, the men and horses were exhausted for a short time. However, there were still a considerable number of Western Wei soldiers who were scattered in the Eastern Wei formation and had not completely separated. Following Murong Shaozong's order, At the short trumpet sound of the soldiers, the military formation suddenly shrank and condensed with Murong Shaozong as the center. Those Western Wei cavalry who had not completely escaped were immediately strangled in the formation.

At this moment, Li Tai did not come back to rescue him. Instead, he raised the horse in his hand and shouted loudly towards the front of the horse garrison: "Continue to move forward and seize the city!"

Although there were banners on the city and there were many people running around, Li Tai still believed that Murong Shaozong did not have that many troops to take care of both defending the city and fighting in the field, so he did not engage in field fighting with the enemy, but went straight towards the seemingly defensive building. The tight garrison rushed away.

Sure enough, after seeing this, Murong Shaozong gave up his military formation to gather and surround the enemy, and directly led his troops to return to Ma Tou garrison to defend. The troops on both sides were in tandem, only a few horses away from each other. Li Tai knew that once the city gate was blocked, he would be attacked and killed by the rear, so he could only lead his troops to bypass the garrison and regroup in the countryside south of the garrison. .

Murong Shaozong did not continue to form a bluff formation under the city, but led his troops into the city. Although the previous fight was relatively short, each side suffered hundreds of casualties. When each side looked at the other side, hatred suddenly arose in their hearts.

"Murong Shuigui, I even withdrew my troops before, but now I am bringing troops to harass you. I will definitely die in the Huai River!"

Outside the city of Li Thelema, the soldiers came in and yelled and cursed at the city.

Murong Shaozong was quite taboo about this. After hearing this, he was furious and shouted: "The arrogant Qiang thieves are trying to make big things out of small things. If they dare to invade our Huainan, they will die in a foreign land!"

The two sides exchanged trash talk for a while, and each was very angry and uncomfortable. Seeing that it was getting late, suddenly a beacon smoke rose into the sky from the Ma Tou garrison. Soon, beacon smoke continued to respond from the garrison points along the Huai River in the east, and the sounds of galloping horses were heard one after another, all converging in this direction.

Of course, these were the men and horses that Murong Shaozong had distributed along the Huai River before, but Li Tai was unaware of these arrangements. Seeing such a battle, he couldn't help but feel suspicious in his heart. Could it be that he had really misjudged the strength of Murong Shaozong's troops from the south?

Due to distance limitations, although Yang Zhong lurked into Shouyang City in advance, the communication between them was not smooth. The last message Li Tai received was that Murong Shaozong had arrived in Huainan, and there was no contact after that. Obviously Yang Zhong's communication ability was also subject to certain limitations.

While Li Tai was still in shock and doubt, the city gate of Ma Tou Shu was opened again. After more than an hour of rest, the soldiers once again rode out of the city to form an array. Cavalry squads continued to join from the east, making Murong Shaozong's troops It is getting stronger, and it is difficult to judge whether it is true or false.

However, after some careful consideration, Li Tai still made up his mind and did not choose to retire his troops. Instead, he bypassed the Eastern Wei troops who formed a formation in front of the city and led his troops straight to Shouyang City, which was more than ten miles away to the east. go.

"The madman throws himself to death!"

When Murong Shaozong saw the unusual behavior of the Western Wei people, he immediately sneered.

His original intention was to bluff, first frighten the enemy troops on Li Tai's branch and retreat, and continue to widen the disconnect between the land and water forces, so as to find opportunities for fighting again. However, he did not expect that the enemy general would be so stubborn and stubborn. He ran straight towards Shouyang City, probably hoping that his navy would arrive in time and land to provide support.

But Murong Shaozong would not give him such a chance. After seeing this, he led his troops to pursue them, directly blocking the enemy's westward retreat, forcing them to move forward.

The distance of more than ten miles passed by in a flash. When Li Tai led his troops to arrive outside Shouyang City, it was already night, but the vision did not get dark. This day was the Mid-Autumn Festival in August, and a bright moon was like a silver disk. Hanging high in the sky, although the light is not as hot and dazzling as the sun, it can still clearly outline the outlines of the characters.

Seeing that the enemy was finally pushed into a desperate situation, and his boatman did not appear on the moonlit river within sight, Murong Shaozong ordered his troops to form a formation in Wu Yicheng, and was about to launch a final charge against the desperate enemy. .

"Murong Shaozong must die in this situation!"

Hearing the trash talk shouted by the enemy in vain, Murong Shaozong just sneered, and then waved his hand, and the sound of attacking drums and horns suddenly sounded.

At this time, the gate of Shouyang Jincheng, which had been silent all this time, also opened, and a group of soldiers walked through the ruins of Luocheng and walked out from the gap in the city wall. When Murong Shaozong saw this, he smiled and said: "Wang Xiangui is as timid as a chicken. He even took the initiative to go out of the city to help in the battle, this battle is decided..."

However, as soon as he finished speaking, the so-called Wang Xiangui's disciples actually waved their butcher knives towards the flanks of his military formation. The Eastern Wei troops who were full of momentum and were about to enter the formation to kill the enemy were suddenly chopped to the ground. Everything became chaotic.

"Charge! Kill the enemy Jianxun now!"

Li Tai knew that the opportunity to fight was fleeting, and saw that Murong Shaozong was already ordering to move the formation and quickly separate the center and right-wing troops from the chaotic left wing, so he spared no effort and directly led his troops towards Murong Shaozong's central army. Chase and kill wherever the flag is.

Although Murong Shaozong was a little surprised and uncertain at this time, it did not affect the thinking of his command team's battle. In order to avoid more variables, he first cut the formation and then moved to the direction of Xiashi while fighting and retreating. .

The open battlefield outside Shouyang City was not conducive to his reorganization of the somewhat scattered troops. The location of Xiashi was easy to defend and difficult to attack. He stayed there for the time being and allowed the soldiers to digest the sudden change before making further plans.

During the fighting, Li Tai and Yang Zhong met up. Murong Shaozong did not defend the city, which made their latent plan not have the greatest effect. Moreover, due to the influence of his false and real arrangements, Li Tai advanced into Shouyang City prematurely. In addition, Yang Zhong had to lead his troops to respond, and the timing was not very good.

But no matter how sophisticated the plan is, there will inevitably be variables in its execution. At least for now, Murong Shaozong has been successfully lured to Huainan, and the situation on the battlefield has taken advantage. Next, he only needs to pursue and kill hard in order to achieve a good result.

Although the moonlight was bright at night, it was not brighter than the day. Although Murong Shaozong was outstanding in military skills and was still at a disadvantage, he was still able to command his troops to fight without defeat. However, his troops inevitably fled after all. When they retreated to Dongxiashi, there were many people around them. There were less than two thousand men left in the army.

Murong Shaozong was still waiting to board the city to defend, but his generals took him and advised him: "Wang Xiangui, a thief, surrendered to the enemy and lured the lord to rescue him. Today's battle may not turn around again. There is a general who will lead his troops to garrison in Xiashi City. Please My lord, please board the ship and cross north first, reorganize your troops, and then seize the city!"

Murong Shaozong saw the enemy's strength and felt that it was not a good idea to be trapped in Xia Shi. So he suppressed the resistance in his heart, boarded a fast boat under the escort of his own soldiers, and ordered the rest of the people to enter Xia Shi City and wait for him to lead him. People came to help, so they ordered the soldiers to row the boat to the other side.

However, most of Murong Shaozong's soldiers were from the north and did not know how to use skill to maneuver a boat. In panic, they just rowed with brute force. Although the boat was also offshore, it did not sail as well as imagined. Swift and violent.

Just as the boat was spinning into the river, two speedboats were sailing quickly through the waves on the river upstream in the south. Standing on one of the speedboats was Liu Fanggui. Seeing the boats spinning in the river, he suddenly guessed in his heart. It must be the general of the Eastern Wei Dynasty who was defeated and fled. He immediately commanded the speedboat to approach the ship and ordered to attack the enemy ship with the shooting pole on the ship.

Violent blows continued to fall, and the hull of the ship was also shaken by the attacks. The soldiers on the ship were panicked and were about to call out Murong Shaozong's identity to save their lives, but Murong Shaozong raised his hand to stop him.

Seeing that two speedboats had already surrounded him and protected him, and hooks were constantly being thrown from the speedboats to catch the side of the ship. The enemy soldiers were all holding short blades and waiting for the battle. Murong Shaozong looked up at the bright moon and sighed: "Murong Shaozong I am a heroic husband in this world, so why should I beg for mercy from the enemy anymore since the adversity is inevitable?”

After saying this, he jumped into the Huai River.