Chapter 662: All I owe is the British Master

Chapter 662: All I owe is the British Master

The battle that just ended outside the White Horse Temple can be described as a hearty victory.

The soldiers who accompanied Li Tai north from Jingzhou only regarded it as a continuation of their winning streak. However, for Han Xiong, Wei Xuan and other Heluo Yishi who had been suppressed for more than two years, this great victory was It’s so exciting!

There were nearly a thousand war horses captured on the battlefield alone in this battle, and most of them had no injuries on their bodies. They were just a little tired and could continue to be ridden after a short rest.

As for the captured soldiers of the Northern Qi Dynasty, there were even more soldiers. There were more than 3,000 dead and wounded. It should be noted that the total number of troops invested by the Northern Qi Dynasty in this battle was only over 10,000, which resulted in a direct loss of nearly one-third. Even if the other troops successfully returned, it would be difficult for them to exert their strength without a long period of rest and reorganization. Fighting ability.

In addition to the capture of men and horses, the most important thing is the collection of armor and materials. When the Northern Qi troops evacuated the battlefield outside the White Horse Temple, they were actually in a state of panic and collapse. In order to speed up their escape from the battlefield, the cavalry soldiers behind them abandoned all discardable armor and equipment to reduce weight.

Therefore, the soldiers of the Western Wei Dynasty also collected a large number of armors and artifacts on the battlefield, and transported them all back to the White Horse Temple in carriages that were also abandoned on the battlefield. They piled them high in the temple's vestibule, filling the vestibule to the brim.

Seeing this scene, Han Xiong, Wei Xuan and others seemed to have returned to the time when they followed Li Taiyong to capture Heyang and plunder supplies. However, many of the people who fought side by side at that time could not wait for this moment of victory and died. During the difficult battles over the past two years.

For a while, several people couldn't help but feel a lot of emotions, and Wei Xuan couldn't help but shed tears, lowering his head and sobbing: "I wish General Li could forever suppress Heluo and lead a certain class to defeat the bandit army! Although a certain class of people did not lose He has the ambition to serve the country, but he only has the courage of an ordinary man. If a wise general like General Li takes charge of the command, the thieves will not be able to defeat him..."

These words also expressed the thoughts of many righteous soldiers. If the last time we fought side by side was during the Hou Jing Rebellion in the Eastern Wei Dynasty and the army of the Western Wei Dynasty came out together, then this time it was Li Tai who single-handedly defeated the enemy. The army was spinning around.

After this great victory, although the situation between the enemy and ourselves in Heluo could not be said to be completely reversed, it was undoubtedly greatly improved compared to before. At this time, it was only more than ten days before Li Tai returned to the Heluo area.

With such a huge disparity in power between the enemy and ourselves, these Heluo Yishi were still able to persist in fighting the Eastern Wei and Northern Qi. Their ambition and combat effectiveness were indeed very tenacious.

But as Wei Xuan said, they lacked a commander who could coordinate the overall situation and be resourceful to coordinate all parties, so battles with the enemy often had to be head-on. And since they themselves are weak, they will not have much advantage in such a battle.

Han Xiong knew that Li Tai's situation in Jingzhou was now more powerful, and it was not up to him to decide which side he would sit in. If this topic continued, it would be a bit embarrassing, so he quickly said: "The general has already led his troops. After a battle, the bandit army was defeated and fled. However, there were still garrison camps left among the rivers. In order to prevent the bandits from coming back, it was time to carry out a large-scale raid while their people were in panic, so that the thieves would not be able to come. Get a foothold!"

Li Tai also nodded after hearing this. Although the results of the battle just now were brilliant, the current situation was still one in which we were outnumbered and the enemy was outnumbered. But now Zhu Hunyuan is busy cleaning up the mess of the army's defeat, and he can't care about repairing the encirclement he set up for the time being. If he is allowed to react and continue to arrange the siege, the effectiveness of this battle will undoubtedly be greatly reduced.

So Han Xiong and Wei Xuan, who had been leading their troops to stay at the White Horse Temple, each led their troops to the rivers on both sides of Luoshui and Gushui to sweep away the remaining enemy forces along the rivers.

Although there are still a lot of Northern Qi troops remaining in these places, having witnessed the retreat of the army during the day, I was already at a loss. Now that I was attacked by the enemy again, I naturally lost my will to resist. They all abandoned the strongholds they were guarding and fled towards Jinyong City.

After some raids, Han Xiong and others burned and destroyed some of the fortresses set up by the enemy. Although there were still a few fortifications that were difficult to destroy, it was difficult to build the airtight encirclement that they had before.

After this sweep, Han Xiong and others obtained a batch of food that was most important to them at the moment. They collected nearly a thousand stones of food from various camp strongholds. For them, who are about to run out of military rations, this will undoubtedly greatly alleviate their urgent needs.

Early the next morning, Li Tai, who had just regained some energy, led his troops to occupy Qianjincang City, which he had previously occupied. But now this Cangcheng has long been dilapidated, and the Northern Qi Dynasty has not repaired it. They can only set up a temporary camp with some remaining rammed earth wall foundations.

While his army was still setting up a camp, a cavalry team of 100 people in the southwest and upstream of Luoshui was marching along the Hebei River. Soon they came to a position several miles away from the camp and looked around.

Li Tai thought this was a scout team from Northern Qi and ignored it. At the moment, he doesn't need to conceal his whereabouts. Instead, he needs to be more publicized to emphasize his presence. He just orders the soldiers to continue working.

But the scout team was particularly bold. Seeing that the camp ignored them, they continued to move forward. Their behavior could be described as very bold.

So Li Tai simply sent a team out of the camp to drive them away. However, when this team approached the enemy, they actually mixed together and returned to the camp.

"I, Quan Xu, kowtow to the Lord. I was ordered by General Shi to go north to report military information to the Lord. I was supposed to go to Mangling, but I unexpectedly met the Lord here. I also heard that the Lord defeated the enemy yesterday. I deeply regret that I was not able to follow the order and fight bravely in the battlefield..."

It turned out that this group of people was the troops that Li Tai had divided in Yique before. The leader was a strong young man in his twenties. He was from the Quan family of Tianshui and was named Quan Xu. He was also a descendant of Quan Jingxuan and one of the three thousand Longyou disciples who followed him. After entering the camp, he bowed to Li Tai and flattered the Lord with admiration.

Li Tai has always been approachable. When he is not busy with work, he will not get tired of listening to the flattery of his subordinates for a whole day. However, because he is concerned about the situation of other troops, he waved his hand to interrupt Quan Xu's words and signaled him to excuse himself. Then he hurriedly said, "No need to be polite, Mr. Quan. How is the progress of your troops?"

"My Lord, Yique divided its troops a few days ago. We followed the great commander Shi and went deep into the mountains. Under the leadership of Li Yitong, we visited the barbarians. With the great reputation of the general, we successfully recruited more than ten barbarian tribes, with tens of thousands of soldiers. Now they have surrounded the Baiting City!"

Although Quan Xu and others did not follow the general to the north, they did not waste these days. Their tasks were much more arduous than those of Li Tai and his party. They worked tirelessly over mountains and ridges and finally completed the tasks assigned by the general. When they talked about this, they clapped their hands and sighed: "Just as the general defeated the bandit army here, if we can lead the troops to the south to join them, the barbarians will be more excited after seeing the general. The day of defeating the bandits is just around the corner!"

After learning the news, Li Tai was also overjoyed. Last night, he interrogated several Northern Qi prisoners overnight, trying to find out whether Zhu Hunyuan's sudden attack on the White Horse Temple was related to changes in the situation elsewhere, but those prisoners were all vague. It seems that Zhu Hunyuan deliberately concealed the news.

Now that he finally got the accurate information, Li Tai was delighted and couldn't help but sigh that it was true that hard work pays off. If he hadn't generously shared the spoils with the people of Heluo, he would not have such a strong appeal now.

However, after thinking about the second half of Quan Xu's words, he shook his head and said, "I shouldn't go to Baiting City for the time being. I have to stay here to keep an eye on the bandits in Jinyong City and prevent them from going south to rescue. The military affairs there are still in the hands of Li Yitong and General Shi. There is no need to rush to attack Baiting, just besiege it strictly."

Although he has defeated Zhu Hunyuan and disintegrated his siege of his troops, Zhu Hunyuan's main force is still intact and still has the strength to fight.

If Li Tai abandons this place and goes to Baiting to join the barbarian divisions, although the army will be stronger, the division and restriction of the enemy forces between Heluo will no longer exist, and Zhu Hunyuan can integrate and dispatch all the troops between Heluo to fight with him again.

Although there are many barbarians, their combat effectiveness is very low. It is difficult to expect them to achieve the beautiful results of yesterday. Once they see the powerful enemy army, they may directly collapse, which will implicate Li Tai's troops.

Now Li Tai is in Qianjincang City, directly trapping Zhu Hunyuan, so that he dare not send troops south to reinforce Baiting City. At the same time, the defenders of Jiuqu City are also worried about the Tonggui Defense on the opposite side and the Guanxi army that may appear from Nanqiao Road at any time, so they have no time to look back.

In this way, Baiting City, which was originally a link between Yiyang and Heyang, became an isolated city, and the situation between the entire Heluo was deadlocked, which is exactly what Li Tai wants to achieve.

Once such a situation is formed, the seemingly integrated Beiqi Heluo defense will be disintegrated into isolated strongholds one by one. As the situation stalemates and the passage of time, there will inevitably be a place that cannot stand and collapse, which will then cause the chain collapse of the entire Heluo defense!

Li Tai reminded Quan Xu of some details, and then asked him to quickly return to Baiting City to inform Shi Jing and Li Renjie, while he continued to supervise the repair of the camp.