Chapter 659 The effectiveness of barbarians
"The thieves in the city will come out quickly! When the two armies are fighting, they should form their battle formations and decide the victory openly and openly. Now we only encircle without fighting. What kind of war is it! My general has said that if the thieves are too timid to fight, the white flag will be hung in the city. , our army can bypass it. If we remain stubborn and refuse to surrender, we will die without a place to die when the city is broken!"
Several soldiers of the Jingzhou Army rode their horses and rushed to the foot of Jin Yong City, shouting and inviting battle toward the top of the city. However, the only response they received was arrows flying from the top of the city and the yelling curses of the Northern Qi defenders.
"Stupid thief, your lord Li Boshan mistakenly led the troops to death. Running out of food and grass will lead to death! My king has an order. Anyone who is able to capture and kill Li Boshan as a sacrifice should report to the imperial court and ask for the title of governor or governor. Many gifts!”
Hearing the response from the defenders at the top of the city, Li Tai's anger suddenly surged up. Damn it, I have been struggling for so many years, but one life is not enough to make me a king? But Zhu Hun Daoyuan is simply too deceptive!
In the evening, he returned to the White Horse Temple angrily and ordered the soldiers to prepare the stoves for cooking. After thinking for a while, he then ordered: "The number of stoves will be reduced by another 20% today."
After hearing Li Tai's instructions, the young man Han Qinhu standing aside showed a look of hesitation, opening his mouth several times but finally closing it.
After seeing his expression, Li Tai smiled and said, "If you have something to say, you might as well speak up."
Naturally, he was very optimistic about Han Qinhu. Knowing that the dangers were high when heading north this time, the other close disciples arranged to follow Li Renjie and others. As for Han Qinhu, he went north with him. After consulting Han Xiong for his opinion before, Han Xiong was also very happy for his son to follow Li Tai, so Li Tai accepted him as a confidant, and even handed Han Qinhu the horse he used when he went to battle.
"General, I would like to ask the general, is the current situation of our army really as the enemy said? We are in danger and will be in danger if we don't fight?"
Hearing what Li Tai said, Han Qinhu stopped holding back and asked directly about his doubts and worries.
"How can there be no harm in holding a sword and using troops? But if you are not afraid of the enemy and have strong will and strength, why should you be afraid of where you are?"
After Li Tai heard this, he smiled and replied: "There is no constant momentum in the war, and the relationship between life and death cannot be determined until the moment when victory or defeat is determined. Who can say for sure?"
"But today the general is reducing his efforts day by day. He thinks he is trying to make it look like he is running out of food and fodder to lure the enemy into fighting..."
Hearing that the general was just being reasonable and not talking about the specific situation he was facing now, Han Qinhu couldn't help but say again, saying that he was not a simple naughty boy, but could also see some of the inner truth behind the surface of things.
Seeing that although this boy is not old, he is already quite discerning and knowledgeable, which shows that his talent is really good, Li Tai then said: "Why are you luring the enemy to fight instead of intimidating the enemy so that they don't dare to fight? The truth of the matter Maybe it’s the same, but different people will have different effects.”
After hearing this, Han Qinhu frowned, lowered his head and pondered for a while before suddenly smiling: "Yes, the general entered this situation, seemingly putting himself in danger. The enemy general If you are greedy for merit, you will definitely not let go of this great achievement, but the general is famous and has won many battles. If he is not surrounded by several times the number of troops, it will definitely be difficult to defeat him.
Now it seems that the general is trapped here, but if he wants to win, he still has to fight hard. But if we see that our army is short of food and grass, the enemy will not be in a hurry to attack. As long as the defense line is firmly guarded, we can sit back and watch as our military supplies are exhausted and we can win without a fight.
Therefore, the more eager our army is to seek battle, the less likely the enemy will go to war! Different techniques used by different people have different effects. If the general used this strategy, the enemy would probably be unable to hold back and attack in groups. How could they hold back until now? "
Li Tai was very pleased to hear that this boy was so good at it. He raised his hand and patted his shoulder and said with a smile: "If you pay more attention, you can get what I want."
After hearing this, Han Qinhu raised his eyebrows, slightly unconvinced, and didn't believe there was something else he hadn't imagined.
"The way to use troops is to attack the heart first and attack the city second. The thieves surrounded me here with several times the number of troops, but they are too timid to fight. It seems that they don't fight, but in fact they don't fight every day. They have the advantage but they don't dare to come. If we attack, the situation will turn around in the future. Will the thieves dare to fight fiercely?"
Li Tai said with a smile, sometimes wars are fought with momentum, but Zhu Hunyuan wanted to use the minimum cost and the safest way to deal with himself here, but he took this opportunity to spend his time in different ways every day. The vigor and fighting spirit of the Northern Qi troops.
Although morale is difficult to quantify and describe, it actually affects the combat effectiveness of an army. Just like the previous battle with the Northern Qi Jingqi in Xianjian, the opponent was still fighting fiercely even though they clearly did not have the upper hand. However, after being intimidated by Li Tai's envoys, they were immediately defeated and abandoned. The uncle's body was evacuated.
When Han Qinhu heard this, he was sincerely convinced. It was just a bluff and pretending to be weak, but it actually contained so many game considerations.
"No wonder the general can defeat the general of the East Thieves many times. Zhu Hunyuan is also a veteran among the thieves. Because he is based in Heluo, even if we have a plan, it will be difficult for us to implement it. But now that he has come to fight against the general, his troops have failed. Being so stupid and slow, everything falls within the general’s plan.”
After understanding this, Han Qinhu couldn't help but sigh and said, because he had heard his father sigh when he mentioned Zhu Hunyuanlai, so he admired Li Tai's ease in fighting him even more.
After hearing this, Li Tai sighed again: "But Zhu Hunyuan is not wrong, he just wants to beat me too much. He thinks that his fortune is prudent, but he cherishes his own life in the face of battle. How can he defeat a desperado?"
But Zhu Hunyuan, who was far away in Jinyong City, could not hear Li Tai's comments about him. At dusk, he stood on the top of Jinyong City, looking at the obvious decrease in stove smoke in the direction of White Horse Temple, and frowned slightly. His expression was both happy and sad.
Such an obvious and rhythmic reduction of cooking smoke cannot be the actual situation. But it is unclear whether Li Boshan deliberately made this arrangement out of fear or in reverse.
But this is not important. There are now more than ten miles between Gushui and Luoshui, and there are thousands of elite cavalry who can support the camps at any time, ensuring that Li Boshan's men and horses can be firmly trapped in this situation.
In fact, when the situation developed to this point, Zhu Hunyuan could also guess that Li Boshan was using himself as bait to attract the mobile forces between Heluo and Luo. The purpose was obviously to create opportunities for other troops.
But in the face of absolute strength, the effect that any conspiracy can achieve is actually very limited. Now Li Boshan is trapped here. Even if there are other troops who want to capture some fortress, it will be difficult to do so in a short time. After all, before the main force of the Kansai army arrives, Li Boshan can mobilize very limited troops.
When the crisis emerged, Zhu Hunyuan still had enough time and strength to respond. After all, he had the absolute initiative in the current confrontation between the two sides.
Although he is not attacking now in order to preserve his power, after Li Boshan's tricks elsewhere are revealed, if it is really very difficult, he will still have time to attack Li Boshan here and kill him before moving on to deal with the crisis.
On the fifth day after Zhu Hunyuan set up the encirclement, Li Tai's backhand was finally revealed.
"Tens of thousands of barbarians descended from Zhoushan Mountain to attack Baiting City?"
When he heard the news that the scouts had arrived, Zhu Hunyuan's expression suddenly changed. He had long guessed that Li Tai might have the intention to attack Baiting City, but he didn't expect that he would not use his own troops, but his own troops. of barbarians, and I didn’t expect that he could mobilize so many barbarians!
"How could Li Boshan command so many barbarian troops with less experience than here? Is the information wrong?"
The barbarians are an important force among Yiluo people, but when Zhu Hunyuan was here, he naturally paid great attention to pacifying the people, wooing or conquering them. Therefore, there were many barbarian chiefs in his army to serve for him.
But even for him, the chief of Heluo, it is difficult to easily mobilize tens of thousands of barbarian armed forces. And Li Tai does not even have the experience of being in charge of Heluo for a long time, so how can he get such a huge appeal? ?
"Everyone, all the barbarians are shouting. After Li Da and Li thieves break through the cities in Heluo, they can share the food, fodder and weapons in the cities equally! Among the thieves is Li Renjie, the grandson of Yichuan thieves Li Changshou, whose family has been a barbarian chief for a long time. , when Li Thief broke into Heyang City last year, he indeed did similar behavior..."
The barbarians are naturally not fools, and they never get up late when there is no advantage. However, Zhu Hunyuan is indeed majestic when he is sitting here, but no matter how strong your troops are, it is so great that I can seize the mountains and old forests without messing with you.
But General Li's appeal was built with real money, food and military equipment. Although when the Heyang military resources were divided up, Han Xiong and other volunteers accounted for the majority, but because the total amount was very considerable , the various barbarian chiefs who helped fight also suffered a lot.
Therefore, General Li's reputation for generosity and forthrightness is also very loud among Yiluo. Now he has once again led his troops to fight back to Heluo, and there are hundreds of thousands of Kansai troops behind him who are about to kill him soon. If you don't follow at this time, Do you want to take a hot bite while making trouble and dividing the spoils?
When Zhu Hunyuan figured out the logic, his face suddenly turned livid, and he couldn't help but stamped his feet and complained angrily: "Pan Le and Xue Guyan are really mediocre people causing trouble!"
He had many plans, but he never thought that Li Tai could directly raise a new army of tens of thousands of people in Heluo. Even if the fighting power of the barbarians is not too high, in the current delicate and tense situation, Zhu Hunyuan does not dare to underestimate the destructive power of these barbarians.
"Call the troops to attack the White Horse Temple immediately! Defeat the White Horse Temple, capture Li Boshan alive, and then suppress the rebellious barbarians!"
The situation was like this, so naturally we could no longer care about the losses caused by storming the White Horse Temple. The only plan now was to make a quick victory before we could free up our hands to deal with other changes, so Zhu Hunyuan quickly ordered.