Chapter 686 Stop the enemy from entering Huaihe River

Chapter 686 Stop the enemy from entering Huaihe River

"The general is waiting to greet the general!"

Outside Yiyang City, Zhao Gang led a group of Han barbarian generals to line up to greet them. Seeing Li Tai's close associates approaching on horseback, he hurriedly strode forward to greet them.

"Everyone, please excuse me. The former is out on an expedition. Can you please help me guard the border city so that our territory will not be disturbed?"

Li Tai smiled and responded one by one before entering to greet the generals, but he did not enter the city immediately. He first asked the generals to return to their posts, and then asked Zhao Gang to lead him on a tour around the city.

"There were no battlements here in the past, but if they are added now, they will be very convenient for blocking enemies coming from the north..."

Zhao Gang has been sitting here since the Xiahou clan captured Yiyang City the year before last. Now nearly two years have passed, and the city's defense has been greatly strengthened under his management. Zhao Gang rode beside Li Tai, pointing at various parts of the city defense and introducing them in detail while inspecting.

Li Tai also saw Zhao Gang's efforts. The city was much taller and stronger than when he came before, and it became more and more powerful to control Huainan. But in addition to the city itself, the military and political management of the city is also crucial.

"Now there are more than 30,000 soldiers and civilians in Yiyang. Most of the people who have moved from all directions have come from all over Huainan. Last year, more than 1,000 hectares of land were reclaimed in Linhuai. From then on, east to Rukou, there are many people from counties and counties. Many people support each other..."

Zhao Gang was originally very good at making trouble in turbulent situations. He was able to make trouble in the enemy territory of Henan occupied by the Eastern Wei Dynasty. Now he is backed by the entire Jingzhou General Mansion and sits in the fortress of Yiyang, and his management is also very good. At the same time, he couldn't help but sigh with regret: "Although the general is brave and young, the power of a government is limited after all. If the Chinese and foreign government is willing to inject a large number of people into the military government and let the general use it at his disposal, there is no problem in annexing Huainan!" "

Li Tai just smiled after hearing this, knowing in his heart Zhao Gang's unwillingness. At present, the Huainan region has not yet recovered from the war and is still in a state of disorder. Whether it is the Northern Qi or the Southern Liang Hou Jing's rebel army, including our own side, although they all have territorial divisions, they are not very reliable. Under such circumstances, if one party increases the stakes, it is not impossible to support Huainan.

Historically, this scrape was taken away by the more powerful Northern Qi, but now the situation has changed due to Li Tai's victory in Huainan.

Historically, with the defeat of Wang Sizheng, the entire Henan and Huainan were successively acquired by the Eastern Wei and Northern Qi. Now, the Huaixi area west of Shouyang is under the control of Li Tai's Jingzhou Governor's Office, with Yiyang as the center. Quite a considerable amount of land.

This is still under the condition that Li Tai intends to shrink the front line, because if he wants to control more territory, he will inevitably invest more manpower and material resources, which is obviously not in line with Li Tai's strategic vision and layout.

After patrolling the city and sitting down after entering the city, Li Taicai asked Yiyang what the enemy situation was.

"Last winter, Qi soldiers on the southeast road used Tai Xin Shu to unite all the armies and crossed to the south of the Huaihe River. They intercepted and burned millions of stones of Hou Jing's army, and then took the people captive and returned. The Jianghuai River was shaken by this, and many strongmen fought for attachment. Qi issued an order He became stronger in Huainan."

Hearing what Zhao Gang said, Li Tai couldn't help but sigh secretly. It’s true that crazy people are rewarded. Hou Jing has traveled through the Three Kingdoms since the rebellion, and has enjoyed endless glory, but he has also made many enemies because of it. The millions of stones of military rations in Huainan are probably the result of the desperate search by his subordinates in Jiangbei since the uprising. Now they have been Burning it with a torch would be a huge blow to it.

He was eager to help him before, and even promised huge profits, which must be related to this. After all, the most important Sanwu land in the south of the Yangtze River has been destroyed by him, but there is no place that can provide him with another million shi of military rations. Yes, Chen Baxian still has 500,000 stones there, but I don't know if he can get it.

There is no doubt that Xin Shu's action can be said to have greatly established his power. It is reasonable for the Huainan powerful men who were already caught in the turmoil not knowing where to go to join forces again.

The Western Wei Dynasty's Eastern Expedition came to an anticlimactic end. Although the crisis in Northern Qi was relieved and Qi leader Gao Yang further strengthened his control over the situation, it obviously did not make him feel satisfied. The breakthrough in Huainan is naturally a good opportunity for him to make breakthroughs in foreign affairs and establish his authority.

So after things happened in Jinyang, Gao Yang had just returned to Yecheng, so he took advantage of the opportunity of Shaoling King Xiao Lun to ask for help and the power of Xin Shu's previous battle, and sent his clan member Gao Yue to lead his army south to strengthen his intervention in the Huainan area.

If it were just that, Gao Yuenanlai's relationship with Li Tai wouldn't be big. After all, his demand for Huainan is limited. As long as he keeps the bridgehead of Yiyang and can more easily enter Huainan when he has the power to intervene in Huainan next year, there is no big conflict with Beiqi's current strategy of operating Huainan.

But the key is that it also involves the troublemaker Xiao Laoliu of Shaoling, which makes Li Tai unable to calm down.

Appealing power is really amazing. It’s like people in later generations know that some anchors are shit, but they still have many fans to build momentum for them.

Xiao Laoliu is in such a situation right now. As the head of the Nanliang clan, although his talents and moral character are very low, he still has many loyal followers. Although he was driven away from Yingzhou by Lao Qi, tens of thousands of people quickly gathered together. Even though these people were just a mob and couldn't bear seventy-nine yuan, at least the posture was open.

Now that Xiao Lun has been named King of Liang by the Northern Qi Dynasty, he has received support in terms of title. If he receives substantial military assistance from the Northern Qi Dynasty, then this dog-skin plaster will be even more difficult to deal with, and maybe it can really bring substantial benefits to the Suilu area. of disruption.

Therefore, Li Tai came to Yiyang this time to prevent Gao Yue from going south. At least for now, the Northern Qi troops could not be allowed to enter the Huainan area in large numbers and have any wonderful interactions with Xiao Laoliu.

"Now the Qi thief King Gao Yue of Qinghe has arrived in Woyang with an army of 50,000 people. The King of Ping Qin Gao Guiyan has entered Zhongli. The governor of Hezhou has also gathered more than 10,000 troops. All the troops are about to join forces in Shouyang..."

After listening to the military situation reported by Zhao Gang, Li Tai pondered for a moment and then ordered Yiyang City to immediately gather 3,000 elite cavalry, and together with the 2,000 men and horses he brought, he formed 5,000 elite cavalry and went straight to the city near Shouyang. Horse head garrison.

Because there was an advance base like Yiyang, the relevant personnel and materials were quickly collected. In the afternoon of the next day, Li Tai led the assembled five thousand elite cavalry to the east along the Huai River.

Although Gao Yue's army was one step ahead and had already arrived at Guoyang, its marching speed was inevitably slow due to the mixture of foot and cavalry and the heavy baggage. Li Tai's troops arrived first and arrived near Shouyang in just a few days.

Compared with the year before last, Shouyang City today looks even more dilapidated. After Murong Shaozong died here, the Northern Qi Dynasty did not send any more generals to settle here. Only Li Bomu, the governor of Hezhou, guarded Hefei and did little business in Shouyang.

However, when Li Tai led his troops to arrive, a large number of troops were already stationed in the dilapidated walls of Shouyang City. They were all Huainan powerful men and bandits who had heard about the Qi army and came here to wait to join. They did not expect that the first people to arrive here were the Jingzhou troops of the Western Wei Dynasty. After being charged and driven away by Li Taylor's order, they immediately dispersed.

After driving away these miscellaneous fish, Li Tai led his troops to occupy Ma Tou and divided his troops to defend Xiashi City.

At this time, on the north bank of the Huai River, the forward scouts of the Northern Qi Army could actually be seen. They were gathering manpower to ferry and wait for the rear army. However, after seeing the elite cavalry of the Western Wei Dynasty appearing here, these Northern Qi scouts were also quite panicked. He was so busy that he sent his companions to report to the rear.

When he learned that the cavalry of the Western Wei Dynasty had arrived near Shouyang first, Gao Yue, who was still leading his troops southward, couldn't help but frowned. On the one hand, he ordered the cavalry brigade to go ahead, and at the same time, he sent an envoy to cross the Huaixia River to inform King Ping Qin. Gao Guiyan followed him and paused in the downstream area, waiting for his army to advance to the north bank of the Huai River, and then both sides joined forces to defeat this blocking division of the Western Wei Dynasty.

"Qingheqian was attacked by thieves in Jinyang, and he was very discouraged. Now he has led an army south, but he dare not go in. It's just that he is timid, but he actually ordered me to hold back to cover up his timidity. It's really ridiculous!"

However, Ping Qin King Gao Guiyan, who led his troops to march westward from Zhongli, scoffed at this order. Instead of standing still, he ordered his troops to speed up their advance.

Naturally, Li Tai would not tolerate such an enemy. When he learned that the enemy troops on the east route were accelerating their advance, he abandoned his defenses before the north route arrived and assembled the main force to ambush the enemy troops at the eastern foot of Bagong Mountain.

"The dog thief wants to use the enemy to kill me! Preface: The enemy occupied Shouyang, why did he appear here again?"

Gao Guiyan was originally a member of the clan and lacked combat experience. When he saw the Western Wei cavalry charging directly into his formation from the side of Bagong Mountain, he was shocked. He had just given some instructions to resist the enemy and had not yet passed them to the formation. He saw a fine cavalry charging straight towards his center. Seeing that it was difficult to resist the front, he hurriedly led his troops to retreat, and the division was immediately routed.

As Gao Guiyan was defeated and fled, Gao Yue's army also lost support in Huainan. Facing Li Tai's troops who controlled the Huai River, they naturally did not dare to bravely cross the south, so they could only lead their troops to retreat to wait for future orders. .

What Li Tai was fighting for was a time lag. Seeing Gao Yue lead his troops to retreat, he also withdrew to Yiyang and ordered Zhao Gang to continue to pay close attention to the situation in Huainan before returning to Jingzhou.

The reinforcements from the Northern Qi Dynasty, which had high hopes, were defeated before they arrived. The troops of Xiao Lun, the king of Shaoling, who were stationed in Qichang, were immediately panicked and lost their fighting spirit. In addition, Li Yunxin led his troops to attack fiercely day and night, and they would be defeated in a few days. The city was captured and King Shaoling and his subordinates were captured alive in the city, and then they were escorted back to Jingzhou.

After Li Yunxin defeated the Shaoling King's troops, he temporarily stationed here to observe the battle in Yingzhou.