Chapter 808 All Gains
The battle did not last too long. On the contrary, it took several times longer to clean up the battlefield than to fight.
The effect of this raid, which detoured behind the enemy's rear and intercepted its retreat, was even more gratifying than Li Tai had imagined. The main enemy force did not even organize any effective resistance and counterattack, and was defeated on both sides of the river.
As for other enemy divisions, except for some who were attacked and fled in all directions, there were not many stubborn ones left, and some even surrendered their entire army.
The enemy's rout stretched for more than ten miles. It was not that there were really so many men and horses, but that the distance between the armies was too large, and the equipment and mobility of each other were also significantly different.
The team at the rear even had very few oxen and horses, and the heavy baggage vehicles were dragged forward and backward by manpower. They should be auxiliary troops with relatively low status and combat effectiveness. But what is surprising is that more supplies were seized from these troops than the men and horses at the front.
The two pontoon bridges erected on the river broke apart under the violent trampling of people and horses. Li Tai, who stayed on the left bank, had to rely on boats to cross the river. When he reached the other bank, good news came one after another.
First of all, Bu Dahansa, the leader of this group of troops, was not able to leave the battlefield. When his troops were escaping along the river from the bottom to the north, he was noticed by several phoenixes who had led the troops to swim across the river first. After chasing each other, they finally caught up with the man in a dense forest several miles away, and successfully killed him after a hand-to-hand fight.
When he saw several phoenixes covered in blood but with smiles on their faces, holding the heads of enemy generals in front of him in both hands, Li Tai couldn't help but sigh that the naughty boy back then had grown up now, and was as brave as his father. Although this uniform was It's still red, but it's dyed red by the enemy's blood!
"Good boy, your father knows the truth, so you should be happy to have a successor!"
Li Tai signaled his soldiers to take the enemy general's head and clean it, while he stepped forward, patted Shuofeng on the shoulder and said with a smile.
Shuofeng also looked proud after hearing this, and said loudly: "The general's bravery will not stop here. I only hope that he can be reused by the general. There is no telling if the young man will excel in the future!"
Except for a few phoenixes, the rest of the soldiers also made gains. Although the number of enemy troops was large, the elites were mainly concentrated in the front. After the front troops were halfway across the river, they were hit head-on by the Jingzhou Army who had already ambushed here, and their combat effectiveness was basically destroyed.
The battlefield was initially sorted out, and many captured prisoners of the defeated army were driven to a river bend. Roughly speaking, there were tens of thousands of them. As for the chariots, horses, implements, sticks, etc., they were equally numerous and piled together like several hills.
It is worth mentioning that if Li Tai's thousands of elite cavalry were alone, they would not be able to clean up the battlefield even after dark, especially the crowds running around and the artifacts scattered all over the ground would make people's scalp hair-splitting just looking at them. numb.
However, there were some who were extremely obedient and cooperative. They not only helped intercept the crowd, but also took the initiative to collect and gather the scattered weapons, staff and luggage. It was really touching to see their hard work.
After Li Tai briefly interrogated the leaders of these teams, he found out that they were all locals from Huainan. They were forcibly recruited by the Qi army. They were also conservative, discriminated and suppressed in the army. They had no sense of belonging to the Northern Qi. Seeing Qi Jun's misfortune, he felt even more sincerely happy about his misfortune.
With the help of these Huainan scholars, the control of these rural prisoners became smoother. Due to the rapid march along the way, they only slept overnight after reaching the enemy's rear yesterday for a short rest. Li Tai and his party were also very tired, so they simply found a place to camp nearby to rest.
The Huainan soldiers also dutifully drove the prisoners into a temporary camp surrounded by fences. When they saw the Jingzhou army setting up a stove to cook, they couldn't help but look over with wide eyes. Seeing the soldiers on horseback taking off their round shields and chopping them with swords, they couldn't help but utter surprises.
"It's this kind of grain cake, just... do you see it? Do you see it?"
At this time, shouts suddenly rang out in the prisoner camp. Some Henan soldiers who had failed to convince their comrades in the argument last night pointed at the objects in the hands of the Jingzhou Army soldiers, exhaling and raising their eyebrows, but no one responded to them.
After dinner, Li Tai discussed the next action with the soldiers. Through the interrogation of the prisoners, he also learned that except for this group of troops, the Northern Qi Dynasty no longer had another considerable mobile force in Huainan, but there was a force led by Duan Shao, the governor of Jizhou, in Suyu in Huaibei. an army.
After hearing this, all the generals looked eager to try, especially Shuofeng, who had just killed the enemy general, and said excitedly: "Our army has a new victorious spirit. After collecting supplies from this side, we can continue to fight." , it is better to advance towards the Huai River and defeat Duan Shao's army, then I will pick up the huge Huainan!"
After hearing this, everyone nodded in agreement.
Compared with the founding kings of the Northern Qi Dynasty, Duan Shao's reputation is really not loud enough. The east and west have been in conflict for many years. Except for saving Gao Huan when He Basheng was chasing him during the Battle of Mangshan, no one has ever heard of him being famous. Achievements. Some people even didn't know that there was such a general in the Northern Qi Kingdom. After asking around for a while, they found out that this person was a relative of the Northern Qi Dynasty. Naturally, they had no respect for such an opponent.
But Li Tai knew when to be lazy and when to be stubborn. In another time and place, he would not be afraid of fighting Duan Shao, but it is obviously not cost-effective to fight Duan Shao now.
With the new force of the Northern Qi Dynasty in front of them being crippled, Duan Shao's troops alone were actually not enough to reverse the bad situation of the Northern Qi Dynasty in Huainan. And even if he crosses the Huai River and defeats Duan Shao, it will be difficult for him to fully support Huainan. Instead of being proud and regretful, it is better to give up as soon as possible.
Although he is running around happily now, in fact, except for Yiyang in the northwest corner, he doesn't even have a stable foothold in Huainan at the moment. It is better to take advantage of this victory and continue to attack Hefei.
When the generals heard that Li Tai had made the decision to withdraw their troops, although the generals felt quite sorry, they did not insist on it any longer.
After Li Ya, who was not qualified to participate in the discussion but was qualified to stand guard, heard the decision in the tent, she glanced at Shuofeng and sighed: "Duan Shao's fortune has not declined. It's a pity that the general did not allow me to become famous in this battle."
When Li Tai heard what this boy said, he thought that when he fought against Beiqi in the future, he would have to avoid arranging this boy to fight Duan Shao, otherwise he would probably have to cut the mutton himself.
The group of people rested here for a day and then set off, unable to return. Due to the hasty defeat of the enemy, most of the baggage and food were captured. The food and grass that originally provided for tens of thousands of people now only lasted for more than ten thousand people. It was naturally more than enough, and even the captives had to enjoy a full meal. Coupled with the enthusiastic control of Huainan's powerful tribesmen, Li Tai's more than 3,000 men escorted several times more prisoners and a lot of baggage, but they did not violate the agreement.
Because he was worried about being attacked by Duan Shao from behind, Li Tai personally led a thousand elite troops to Xu Xing to suppress the rear. After all, Northern Qi also had a considerable number of elite cavalry. If they really wanted to attack, their mobility would not be as good as that of the Jingzhou army. Even if Li Tai did not directly control the high-quality horse sources in Longyou and Hexi, he would probably still lag far behind Northern Qi in terms of cavalry organization.
During their retreat, relevant news spread quickly in Huainan.
The first person to learn about this situation was naturally the Jingzhou side closest to the battlefield. Here, Yan Chaoda, the governor of Qinzhou in Nanliang, led his army to attack Jingzhou City. At the same time, Hou Qi and Zhang Biao were also engaged in the fight. of men and horses.
"Isn't this true? Doesn't it mean that Li Boshan is still besieging Hefei City, so why did he suddenly go north to defeat tens of thousands of Qi troops?"
When they first heard the news, these Nanliang generals couldn't believe it, but soon more conclusive news came one after another. They couldn't help but not believe it, and they couldn't help but sigh: "Is this Li Boshan a god?" ? Why is it difficult for Qi people to win even if they are so weak in battle?"
After putting aside these emotions, they began to think about the impact of this change on them based on their own standpoints. Yan Chaoda naturally attacked Jingzhou City even harder. Because Bu Dahansana's army originally came to Jingzhou, but was defeated by Li Boshan on the spot, which undoubtedly helped him a lot.
As for Hou Qi and Zhang Biao, after seeing that the Northern Qi's power in Huainan was severely weakened, their minds immediately became excited, and their mentality changed. They soon locked in a target and jointly sent troops to attack Xuyi further north. Kill and go.
Outside Huaibei Suyu City, the generals of the Northern Qi Dynasty were shocked when they learned the news. They were not shocked that Bu Dahansa was defeated by Li Boshan and his entire army was annihilated. After all, no matter how exaggerated the record, Li Boshan was also in their Northern Qi Dynasty. Brushed on the body. Are they worried about Li Boshan's sudden and profound intervention in the situation in Huainan? What is his big plan?
Different from the generals who were surprised, Duan Shao was furious after learning about this incident and ordered the generals to continue to besiege Suyu City. He led his elite cavalry to go south to Zhongli to attack Li Boshan. Let Duan Shao lead his troops to the south.
Just when everyone thought that there would be a fight between dragons and tigers in Huainan, Duan Shao, who was supposed to go to Zhongli, suddenly appeared outside Xuyi City and killed Liang Jun who was besieging the city with lightning speed. Tens of thousands of Liang Jun soldiers. In the first battle, they broke up and captured Liang general Zhang Biao alive in the formation, while Hou Yi fled in haste.
Duan Shao then took advantage of this victory and continued to fight in Jingzhou. On the way, Li Tai had already led his troops and tens of thousands of Qi army prisoners back to the outside of Hefei.
When the defenders in Hefei City saw many men and horses wearing Qi army robes and flags appearing outside the city, they were full of joy and thought that reinforcements had finally arrived. However, when they discovered that the so-called reinforcements were actually prisoners, the huge The gap directly causes psychological collapse.
After returning to Hefei, Wang Jie, Lu Xida and other back-up troops had also arrived at the city, so Li Tai began to formally make arrangements to attack Hefei City. Two days later at night, the sergeants and civilians in the city rose up in violence, beheaded the governor Hu Sizhao and surrendered to the city.