Chapter 658 The Thief is in the Trap

Chapter 658 The Thief is in the Trap

"The Western bandits went to Jingling in Mangling, but did not attack Jinyong City?"

When Zhu Hunyuan heard the defeated generals report the enemy's movements, even if he ignored the garbage information about the so-called thunderbolts, the rest of the content surprised him.

It was definitely a very serious mistake to make mistakes in judging the enemy's movements. However, Zhu Hunyuan did not have time to reflect on himself at the moment, but began to wonder why Li Boshan risked being sniped in the middle of the road to cross the Heluo Plain and go to Jingling?

"Mangling is close to Mengjin Ferry. Could it be that the main force of the Western bandits in Guanxi will come from the east by water this time, so Li Boshan wants to seize Mengjin in advance for the landing of the army?"

Thinking of this possibility, Zhu Hunyuan could not help but be secretly suspicious and a little unsure.

The Western Wei had taken the land route several times to the east before, and did not make enough use of the Yellow River waterway. First, the northerners are not good at water battles. Second, if tens of thousands of troops march by water, the number and scale of boats required are also very large, which is also a considerable burden for the national strength of the Western Wei Dynasty, and it is definitely not possible to prepare in a short time.

But this is not absolute. After all, the Western Wei Dynasty is no longer what it used to be, especially in the Jianghan area, where it has gained huge benefits.

Since last year, Li Boshan has led his army to annex large tracts of territory in Handong and Huainan. Perhaps he has plundered a large number of craftsmen and materials and transported them back to Guanzhong, and then built boats and prepared to take a boat to the east unexpectedly. This is also possible.

In addition, the terrain of Mangling has a certain suppressive effect on the river valleys and mudflats where the Chanshui, Gushui and Luoshui rivers meet. Especially when elite cavalry is in control, if these rivers want to dispatch any personnel and materials, they will be harassed by their iron hoofs.

In this battle report, in addition to the more than 3,000 light cavalry led by Li Boshan, the Qi army also had a group of troops ambushed in Mangling early in the morning, but the number was small. Judging from the situation reported by the generals, it seems that the local bandits moved from Guannan to Mangling.

These bandits also numbered several thousand. They usually only scattered among the mountains around Heluo, occasionally causing some harassment and trouble to the defenders, but most of the time they were not a threat. Moreover, the cost of in-depth clearing was extremely high and the success rate was very low, so they remained.

Now these people are also mixed with Li Boshan, which undoubtedly adds a lot of unpredictable variables.

But Zhu Hunyuan imagined many possibilities. If it was the first case, the main force of the Western Wei army came by boat across the river, this was beyond his ability to deal with.

Because there was a more convenient means of transportation such as a river bridge, and the Jinyang soldiers did not like to travel between the two sides of the river by boat, the Mengjin ferry was not a key defense area, and of course there were no ships moored.

If Li Boshan's goal is there, Zhu Hunyuan can only give up temporarily. Even if he divides his troops to garrison there, it will probably be futile, and it will further dilute his forces. He can only rely on the arrival of reinforcements from the rear of the country to stop the Guanxi army.

But if Li Boshan's intention is to rely on Mangling and Chanshui to cut off the connection between Heyang and Yiyang, then his idea is wrong.

Previously, the transfer station for the transfer of materials between Yiyang Jiuqu City and Heyang was set up at Qianjinyan, west of the ancient city of Luoyang. The last time Li Boshan invaded Heluo, he captured the Cangcheng there after a fierce battle with Xue Guyan, and the Cangcheng was also greatly damaged.

After recovering Heluo, although they added many garrisons, they gave up Qianjincang City directly, and instead added Baiting City in Baiting, dozens of miles upstream of Luoshui River, replacing Qianjincang City and becoming the material transportation and storage center between Yiyang and Heyang.

Although Baiting City does not have the convenience of being close to many rivers like Qianjincang City, it is located between Jinyong City and Jiuqu City, and the location is more reasonable for the transportation of materials to Yiyang.

Now Li Boshan's troops are stationed in Mangling and Chanjian, less than 20 miles away from Qianjincang City, and are within the range of sending light cavalry to harass at any time. But that place is nearly 50 miles away from Baiting City, and there are several garrisons in the middle, making it difficult to carry out light cavalry harassment.

If Li Boshan's purpose is to harass Yiyang's logistics, then his rash entry into Mangling is a bit like walking into a trap. The defenders of Jinyong City and Baiting City were like two pliers, relying on the Luoshui River to block them in the Mangling area and making them unable to move. If they could gradually shrink the encirclement with superior forces, they might even be able to catch Li Boshan in a jar!

Two possibilities, one bad and one good, but Zhu Hunyuan certainly hoped for the latter, but he had to guard against the former.

So he sent people back to Hebei through the river bridge to report the enemy situation and remind Jinyang to be prepared for contingency, while leading an elite unit back to Jinyong City again to personally command and strengthen the blockade of Chanjian.

After successfully arriving at Mangling Chanjian, Li Tai was not in a hurry to deploy the next move, but first camped in Chanjian for two days to rest, waiting for the arrival of Han Xiong and other troops, and waiting for the fermentation of some personnel arrangements made before leaving Yique.

He was not worried about being surrounded by the enemy between the rivers. The Chanshui River Valley was shaped like the mouth of a trumpet flower, facing the entire Heluo Plain. Li Tai was now stationed in the middle section of the trumpet shape. If the Qi army wanted to set up a line of defense in front, it would be impossible without tens of thousands of troops.

And even if there are tens of thousands of troops deployed in the wild, the effect may not be good. It is better to rely on key defenses on several rivers such as Luoshui and Gushui to more effectively cut off Li Tai's retreat.

This is exactly what the Qi army did. During the two days when the Jingzhou army rested here, many Qi army camps were added between Luoshui and Gushui in the section explored by the scouts. They responded to each other and seemed to want to completely defeat Li Tai. The posture of encirclement here.

Seeing that the enemy army was well prepared, Li Tai was no longer idle and began to plan the next move. Of course, the main reason is that with the arrival of the Guannan Rebel Army's back-up troops, the team's logistical pressure has increased sharply.

In order to quickly pass through the Heluo Plain and arrive here smoothly, Li Tai and his party did not carry too much supplies. Even the heavy armor and heavy equipment such as the sword that usually relied on for victory only carried more than ten Most of the soldiers went into battle lightly, and they all brought food and grass with them, even though the amount of luggage was not much.

However, the situation of the Guannan Rebel Army is very miserable. In the past few years, they have been wandering around the mountains and fields, and each of them has a lot of food. After arriving, the first thing they do is not to discuss killing the enemy, but to eat porridge with open belly. The food and cakes brought by Li Tai and his party were originally expected to last about 20 days, but when the rebels arrived with more than 2,000 people, they ate more every day than Li Tai's more than 3,000 people.

Li Tai doesn't feel bad about this stutter. The key is that we have to wait for a while to post autumn fat. Judging from this posture, I'm afraid that they will have to kill horses to satisfy their hunger in less than ten days. Therefore, it was better to kill the opponent quickly and enter Xiongcheng. Even though Li Tai was quite bold, he still felt a little nervous when he stayed with these hungry guys with green eyes every day.

Because the front of Xianjian was not blocked, Li Tai left several hundred soldiers to guard the camp and continued to set up flags to show off his bluff. He himself led about 5,000 men and horses, supplemented by the Guannan Rebel Army, to leave Xianjian. Jian, stationed at the White Horse Temple to the west of the ancient city of Luoyang.

At this time, Zhu Hunyuan had already moved to Jinyong City not far away, and had been paying close attention to the enemy's movements in Xianjian, so the information about the enemy's garrison at Baima Temple was soon delivered to his desk.

"The thief has found his way, and God will destroy him!"

When Zhu Hunyuan heard the news, he was overjoyed and couldn't help but clap his hands and burst into laughter. His mood was even more joyful than when he successfully escaped from Longyou back to Jinyang last year.

Although they only advanced a dozen miles, this action directly revealed that Li Tai's men had no intention of advancing on Mengjin Ferry, which meant that the worst case scenario that Zhu Hunyuan expected did not happen. So what is happening now is naturally that Li Tai's cleverness was mistaken by his cleverness, and he fell into a trap and entered a dead end!

That is to say, Li Tai didn't have the unique skill of eavesdropping on his opponent. If he knew about Zhu Hunyuan's guess about his intentions, he would definitely be able to sneer at him: How can you think that my relationship with my boss is so good? I want to send the craftsmen's supplies obtained from the southeast to Guanzhong, and Black Otter wants to eat them! I'm going to do you Eastern Wei and Northern Qi, it has nothing to do with whether I'm loyal to Yu Wentai or not, right?

Of course, Zhu Hunyuan couldn't hear Li Tai's voice, so he repeatedly misjudged Li Tai's plot. But this time, he finally saw hope of victory.

Since Li Tai's intention is not Meng Jin, it means that the main force in Kansai is still marching in a conventional way. As long as Yiyang cannot break through, it will not be able to successfully enter the Heluo area.

In other words, Li Tai was alone all the way. Although many of his people were bluffing, Zhu Hunyuan had already estimated that he only had a few thousand men and horses, and the supplies he carried were very limited.

On the other hand, Zhu Hunyuan's place had 50,000 troops in the entire Heluo War Zone. Excluding the more than 20,000 troops deployed around Jiuqu City in Yiyang, there were still more than 30,000 troops. Although these 30,000 troops are scattered in various places, the most ferocious enemy has been blocked here, and Zhu Hunyuan can mobilize the troops in other places at will.

So Zhu Hunyuan mobilized a total of 20,000 troops and set up two blockades along Gushui and Luoshui. He was bound to capture Li Boshan alive or snipe him to death within the encirclement!