Chapter 806 Invincible

Chapter 806 Invincible

Fertilizer water originates from Guangyang Township, flows northward into Shaopi, and flows north from Shouyang into Huaihe River. Shishui also originates from Guangyang Township, flows southward into Chaohu Lake, and joins the Yangtze River at Ruxukou.

Every summer when the water rises, the source of the water will merge with the fertilizer water, so this place is named Hefei. In other words, during this period, the Huaihe River can be directly connected to the Yangtze River through the fertilizer and water supply channels, and Hefei is an important hub of the Jianghuai waterway.

Historically, the reason why Sun Quan insisted on Hefei was because of Hefei's important geographical location on the Jianghuai waterway. Taking Hefei would mean controlling the Jianghuai waterway.

However, the city of Hefei, where Sun Shiwan had fought fiercely, had already been destroyed in the war. During the Qi and Liang Dynasties in the Southern Dynasty, Pei Shuye, Shouyang and others of the Southern Dynasty surrendered to the Northern Wei Dynasty. Hefei also became part of the Northern Wei Dynasty. The famous general Wei Rui blocked the river and was dammed. Hefei was flooded and the original old city of Hefei was destroyed.

Today's Hefei City was built on high ground on the south bank of Shishui River after Nanliang regained a series of towns in Huainan. On the eve of the Hou Jing Rebellion, it was also one of the important towns in Huainan. However, after Hou Jing's rebellion, Jianghuai shipping was cut off, and Hefei's importance was reduced.

Although the Northern Qi Dynasty successively took over a lot of Huainan city land, its use of the Jianghuai waterway was very limited. Last year, we planned to plan a southward invasion with Hefei as the center of economic transfer from north to south. As a result, due to the uncoordinated dispatch of the northern and southern troops, the front man Guo Yuanjian's troops were directly defeated by the troops led by Nanliang Wang Sengbian at Dongguan in the south of Hefei.

Li Tai is no stranger to Hefei City, and he even led troops to occupy Hefei City before. It's just that that time Hefei guard Li Bomu had no intention of resisting. Li Taigang defeated Murong Shaozong in Shouyang and sent Gao Le south to lobby, and was able to enter Hefei city without any bloodshed.

But this time he was not so lucky. When he led a large group of troops to arrive outside Hefei City, the defenders in the city had already noticed it. The sight of the enemy.

Li Tai was not surprised by this. His five thousand elite cavalry came from the east in a mighty manner. Coupled with the preparation of horses, pack horses, and necessary drafts and baggage, it is difficult to complete the scale of such a huge army. To deceive others. Moreover, Huainan was still the home ground of the Northern Qi Dynasty. Just like the powerful people in the cities along the way provided food and drink for their troops while sending people to report to Hefei, it was also a normal operation.

Long before the arrival of the large group of troops, Li Tai sent Gao Le to lead the forward troops to inspect the area and select a suitable camping location. After the large group of people arrived at this time, they began to set up camp directly.

Generally speaking, although the cavalry has excellent mobility, it is weak in attacking fortresses, especially when facing a solid city. Except for some particularly extreme situations, such as the opponent's city being completely undefended or having internal forces that can release the city's defenses, etc., generally Generally speaking, cavalry has little chance to perform in siege warfare.

Li Tai did not expect to be able to easily capture the city of Hefei, not to mention that his troops were lightly equipped and did not carry any heavy ordnance. Even if they carried siege weapons like the Heyang Cannon, they still needed to match the usage scenarios. can work wonders.

Nowadays, there are no special techniques for attacking fortified cities. Regardless of whether they are famous or mediocre generals from the north and south, they rarely have any outstanding achievements to boast about in siege operations.

Li Tai's ability to attack Heyang City twice was already the most powerful record in this era, although there were also quite a few tricks in it. But war itself is about amplifying the advantages that are beneficial to oneself and avoiding the disadvantages. Soldiers are cunning. If they don't know how to use tricks, it will be a sign of failure.

Methods such as damming rivers and digging tunnels to pile up earth mountains require too much work and are not suitable for use. Li Tai's hope in using troops this time was to encircle the city for reinforcements, completely siege Hefei City, apply pressure step by step, and use psychological warfare to disintegrate the fighting spirit of the defenders in the city, thereby taking the city.

Of course, if the Hefei defenders like Wang Sizheng and Wei Xiaokuan have their defensive skills maxed out, and the psychological warfare will be completely ineffective, then they can only choose another method. After the troops from the Jinxi direction arrive, they can use the human sea tactic to attack the enemy. seize.

It was now midsummer, when farming was busy. Due to the sudden arrival of the Western Wei army, most of the people scattered in the four fields had gone to the city to avoid the disaster, leaving no one to take care of the weeds in the fields.

Hefei is located in the hinterland of Huainan. Although wars have continued in recent years, it is still a densely populated place. Li Tai did not launch a cavalry attack on Hefei, but still gave the defenders enough time to react. He must have gathered enough people into the city.

When a city is besieged, it is true that one more person will increase the defensive strength, but each additional person will also increase the food consumption and increase the burden of the united front.

Last year, Guo Yuanjian was defeated in Dongguan. After that, there was no news that the Northern Qi Dynasty was adding troops and supplies to Hefei. Now in midsummer, it is not the time to get a large harvest, so supplies will also be the decisive point in this attack. one.

"Reporting to the general, the last general led the forward troops to inspect the surrounding areas of Hefei. He saw that the surrounding Qi garrison locations include Beiqiao City, Xiaoxian garrison and other cities. Among them, Xiaoxian has the largest number of soldiers..."

While the sergeants were busy setting up camp, Gao Lekuo stepped forward and explained to Li Tai the enemy's situation detected by the troops on their way.

Beiqiao City is located on the upper reaches of the Chu River. You can reach Qinjun along the Chushui River to the east, and you can reach Guabu Ferry through Qinjun to the south. From there, you can cross the river to Jiankang City.

Xiaoxian is the Hanshan Mountain in Chuzhou, Anhui Province. It is the strategic location of the Huainan land route. Through it, you can reach Liyang, the important town in the north of the Yangtze River. It is an important pass for the northern army to reach the north of the Yangtze River by land when they cannot take advantage of the waterway. When Hou Jing was raising troops in Shouyang before, he chose to bypass Hefei and reach Liyang via this land route because he did not have enough boat divisions.

The situation that Gao Le found out was roughly similar to what Li Tai had expected. At present, Qin County is still in the hands of Nanliang, and it does not make much sense for Northern Qi to occupy Chushui. On the one hand, they do not have enough naval force, and on the other hand, even if they did, they would not be able to enter the Yangtze River directly.

As for the key defense in Xiaoxian, in addition to losing control of the waterway after the defeat of Dongguan, it is probably also to protect Liyang, an important town in the north of the Yangtze River.

This also shows that the previous Qi envoys who went to Jiangling to propose returning several towns in Jiangbei in exchange for military cooperation were completely nonsense. The Qi people and their heavy troops were deployed around several important towns in Jiangbei, and there was no sign of giving up!

In addition to the general garrison direction of the Qi army, Gao Le and others also investigated the key points of the surrounding water and land passages. At this time, they can station troops and horses in these places to give warnings and provide strongholds for scouts to patrol and investigate. Keep track of all enemy dynamics around Hefei to ensure that you can respond as soon as possible and attack enemies wherever they are discovered.

When the Jingzhou troops were arranging various combat tasks in an orderly manner, the defenders on the top of the city were also looking down anxiously.

The shadow of a famous tree. For the soldiers of the Northern Qi Dynasty, Li Boshan's name was definitely one of the targets that needed to be vigilant and guarded against. Therefore, when they learned that he was leading his troops to come here, the soldiers guarding the city immediately Under the order of the governor Hu Sizhao, the soldiers and the people were quickly gathered and the defense was reorganized.

As a large town in Huainan, Hefei originally had a garrison of more than 30,000 troops, including 10,000 troops from the Northern Qi Dynasty, and more than 20,000 powerful tribesmen from Huainan who had defected to the Northern Qi Dynasty.

After the former governor Li Bomu was transferred back to the court, the successor governor Hu Sizhao soon took advantage of the fact that the Nanliang army was busy recovering Jiankang and had no time to visit the north. He led his troops to attack Liyang and stationed thousands of troops in Liyang.

However, due to the subsequent acquisition of Guangling and other places, Hefei made little progress here, so it received less and less attention. Not long ago, thousands of troops were transferred from Hefei to Jingzhou.

At present, there are still more than 10,000 soldiers in the city garrison, and the number of soldiers and civilians is over 30,000. This is also obtained by gathering the surrounding wandering people and powerful tribes. Overall, the strength is relatively strong, and ordinary intrusions are difficult to shake. city ​​defense.

But Li Boshan is obviously not an ordinary person. His miraculous record in fighting the Eastern Dynasty cannot be overestimated.

At this time, the generals on the city wall saw that the enemy troops were only a few thousand in number, and most of them were light cavalry. Some people who were adventurous and aggressive could not help but feel contempt for them. They couldn't help but ask the governor for a fight, hoping to take advantage of the enemy. The army came from afar and had a hard time, but their footing was not stable. They went out of the city to catch them by surprise.

However, all these requests were rejected by Hu Sizhao. He said seriously with a straight face: "How can we judge the outcome of a battle based on the number of soldiers? If it were so simple, the Western bandits would have been destroyed many years ago. Li Boshan used many deceitful soldiers. It is not as simple as it seems on the surface. Last year, when he came into trouble in Jinyang, many ministers and generals in the city were unable to deal with it.

Don't be greedy for great achievements in today's confrontation, but you can hold on to the city defense without losing it, and wait for all the armies to come here to join forces to suppress the bandits. If you can force them to retreat far away, all the soldiers who participated in the battle will be able to return home and boast of their achievements! "

Hu Sizhao made up his mind to stay in the city, not seeking merit but seeking no fault. Anyway, as long as he defended Hefei without losing, he would have no fault. The surrounding armies also sent people to notify them. Even if the enemy troops came and went freely, their rescue was not timely enough.

So the first day when the Jingzhou troops arrived in Hefei passed without incident. Although Li Tai arranged for vigilance and emergency response troops at night, the city did not even do basic disturbances with drums and horns. It was so peaceful that it made people feel a bit calm. Accident.

But in the afternoon of the next day, scouts from the southeast reported that a cavalry team of more than a thousand people was rushing towards them. After Li Tai learned the news, he personally led a cavalry team to fight. However, after wading across the river downstream of Shishui, he only saw the enemy's smoke and dust sweeping away to the south.

This situation is a bit embarrassing. Li Tai originally thought that because of the importance of Hefei City, he would personally lead his troops to attack it. The Northern Qi garrison on the borders of Huainan would definitely not be able to ignore death, and then they could use the field battle to Defeat the people coming to help one after another.

But now it seems that, not to mention the defenders in Hefei City who are just cowering in the city, the surrounding parties have also reacted indifferently to this matter. This can't help but make Li Tai feel self-doubt. Could it be that his deterrent power is still not enough in the Qi people's eyesight? They believe that they can't capture Hefei, so they don't come to the rescue?

No matter what, it's coming, and we can't just stay in a stalemate like this. So Li Tai rested outside Hefei City while continuing to guard and clear the surrounding areas. Of course, he also sent people to shout to the city to persuade them to surrender, but he did not receive any response.

A few days passed like this, but there were still no significant reinforcements around, but there were a lot of scouts. When there were a lot of scouts, thousands of them could be found scattered around nearby every day.

The scouts of the Jingzhou Army also captured some of them. After interrogation, they found that in addition to those sent by the garrisons of the Northern Qi Dynasty, there were also some sent by the local powerful in Huainan to investigate the situation of the battle. This also shows that everyone is still very concerned about the war situation here, and is not as indifferent as it appears on the surface.

Finally, under this depressing wait, Dugutun, a man from the south route, finally arrived here with two thousand light cavalry in the vanguard. With reinforcements, Li Tai no longer has to be trapped here and can expand the scope of his activities.

Although his arrival is no longer a secret now, and even if he moves to fight elsewhere, it will be difficult to achieve any surprise effect, all the garrison troops in Northern Qi maintained a silent attitude, which also made Li Tai decide to increase the intensity of provocation.

Although it is too arrogant and annoying, if these Huainan powerful men can see that the Northern Qi people are all honest and do not dare to be arrogant in front of them, it will also help offset part of the Northern Qi's control and influence on the Huainan region.

So Li Tai selected another 3,000 troops and planned to head east along the Chu River. If the road was clear, he would go to Guangling City to see how the battle was going with Chen Baxian. Anyway, he was idle.

Li Tai felt depressed and bored here, but in fact, the entire Huainan battlefield was also very lively.

First of all, there was the military dispute that had begun at the beginning of the year. The Suyu rebellion in the Huaibei region of the Northern Qi Dynasty was still going on. Qingxu's troops had no way to deal with Dongfang Bai'e, who was occupying the city and causing trouble. Moreover, Chen Baxian also dispatched his general Du Senming. Go to help in the battle.

In fact, Jinyang had already ordered Duan Shao, the governor of Jizhou, to lead his army south to quell the rebellion at the beginning of the year. However, due to the Rouran rebellion and attack, the main force of the Jinyang army was dragged by Gao Yang to fight with Rouran in Monan. Therefore, Duan Shao could only recruit soldiers again in Hebei. By the time he came south, it was already late.

Last year, the Northern Qi Dynasty also sent Bu Dahan Sa and other generals to lead their troops south to join Guo Yuanjian in attacking Nanliang. As a result, Guo Yuanjian was defeated by Wang Sengbian first, and the offensive naturally came to nothing. Bu Dahansa temporarily stayed in Zhongli. After Duan Shao arrived in Suyu, he sent him to lead 40,000 troops south to Jingzhou to break the siege of Jingzhou.

In Nanliang, Chen Baxian's siege of Guangling has been going on for several months. At the same time, Yan Chaoda, the governor of Qinzhou, led his army to attack Jingzhou. As Li Tai's troops marched to Hefei, Wang Sengbian also took advantage of the situation to gather troops in Gushu, preparing to cross the river to seize Liyang. The defenders of Liyang were threatened by this, so naturally they did not dare to divide their troops and go north to relieve the siege of Hefei.

Therefore, what Huainan is currently experiencing is a chaotic situation among the Three Kingdoms. Among them, the most fierce fighting between Nanliang and Northern Qi is in Guangling, Jingzhou and other places. As for Li Tai, a latecomer, he still has not integrated into the brawl because of his own deterrence and the fact that he has not yet shown his destructiveness.

However, this situation would not last long, because Qi General Bu Khansa, who currently had the most mobile power in Huainan, received news that Hefei was besieged by the Jingzhou Army of the Western Wei Dynasty not long after leaving Zhongli and heading south.

Bu Dahansa couldn't help but be surprised when he learned about this. Now the middle school was already stretched due to the frequent use of troops in Monan and Huainan, and the counterattacks of the Liang people in Huainan were pressing forward step by step. However, in the end, such a powerful enemy was added. , which naturally gives people like them in Huainan a headache.

Faced with this situation, Bu Dahansa did not dare to make his own decision. He first sent people to Suyu to ask Duan Shao for instructions on which side he should rescue, and then while maintaining a slow speed, he marched towards the previously established target of Jingzhou. On the other hand, the detachment will lead two thousand Qingqi to Hefei to investigate the specific situation.

Originally, this kind of response would have been more prudent, but he met Li Tai, who was running around in Huainan looking for an opponent with complacency. On the third day after Li Tai left Hefei and headed east, he encountered this light cavalry force in Nanqiao Prefecture.

The people and horses came all the way to the south at a high speed and did not know the details of the army on the opposite side. At first, they only saw a few hundred rangers, then they rode their horses to chase and question them, and then they were lured by the hundreds of riders who pretended to retreat in fear. He rushed directly to the vicinity of the Jingzhou Army camp, and was naturally routed without any suspense.

After interrogating the prisoners, Li Tai learned that there was such an enemy army in the northern part of Nanqiao Prefecture. After thinking about it for a while, he immediately decided to lead his army to catch up.

No matter where this force goes, it is still Northern Qi's effective force in Huainan. If he wants to capture Hefei and station the army for a long time, sooner or later he will have to confront this force.

Listening to what these prisoners meant, it seemed that they didn't know much about the situation in the direction of Hefei, so Li Tai immediately ordered these prisoners to be dressed up as the defenders captured after Hefei was captured, and then fled along the route of the defeated soldiers. Chased all the way in the direction.

At this time, Bu Dahansa had no idea that danger was approaching him. As he continued to march, he was still thinking about Li Boshan's intervention in the Huainan war. Was he going to retreat immediately after winning like the previous times, or did he have a deeper conspiracy? Does choosing such a moment mean that some profound alliance has been formed between the Western Wei Dynasty and the Southern Liang Dynasty?

"Lord, it's not good, it's not good! The Wei army is advancing north, and Li Boshan is leading his troops to kill!"

In the evening, the soldiers were setting up tents at the campsite and preparing to stay and rest. However, the general who had been sent before rushed back with more than a dozen soldiers in a panic. After seeing Bu Dahansa, he reported this amazing incident to him. information.

Bu Dahansa's face changed suddenly after hearing this: "How many Wei troops are there? Did Li Boshan come in person? Has Hefei been lost?"