Chapter 916: Sand Siege
Just when Hongnong was captured by the Qi army and the Wei army was defeated, Xiangyang's army also arrived at Yique. But after learning about Heluo's current situation, Li Tai couldn't help but be a little dumbfounded.
"Otsuka Zai died of suspected illness, and Jiuqu City's brigade collapsed?"
Although Li Tai had already made pessimistic predictions about the situation in Heluo, after listening to the reports from Gao Le and others, he did not expect that the situation would be even worse than he imagined.
Originally, he led his troops to the north in response to Yu Wentai's emergency. However, when he arrived at the border, the person who needed rescue no longer existed. Moreover, this situation was not just a wasted trip, it also contained an extremely dangerous crisis for their entire Western Wei regime.
What was before him now was either to continue marching towards Heluo. But now that the Jiuqu City troops have been defeated, and he has no plans to enter Tuheluo for the time being, there seems to be no point in continuing to advance to Heluo.
Either retreat, return to Mianbei along the Sanya Road, and then march to Guanzhong via Wuguan, aiming to get to Guanzhong as soon as possible to seize the power vacuum left after Yuwentai's death.
When Li Tai frowned and pondered, all the subordinates in the tent were silent. This is the working atmosphere of the Taiwan government. Before a decision is made, the people can speak freely and have full debates. However, as things begin to proceed after the decision is made, unless Li Tai clearly expresses his position and allows everyone to express their opinions, no one can express their opinions. Challenge the previous decision.
Among everyone present, although Yu Jin was not a member of the Taifu government, when he heard the situation, he couldn't help but frown. For a moment, he had no plan in his mind, and he didn't know how to remedy the situation in the fastest and most effective way.
"How is the current situation with thieves in Heluo?"
After pondering for a while, Li Tai looked at Gao Le and said.
After entering the new city, Gao Le also quickly deployed scouts to disperse all sides. The scouts' investigation and the reports from the barbarians here gave him a very detailed understanding of the enemy situation between Heluo and Heluo.
After hearing the king's question, Gao Le quickly stood up and said: "To inform your king, on the day when the garrison in Jiuqu City evacuated, the main force of the Qi army, fifty thousand men, went east to pursue it. There were thousands of garrison troops in Jiuqu City, Jin Yong, Henan There were nearly 30,000 troops garrisoned in various cities, but after learning that our army had entered Heluo, the troops in various cities retreated one after another to occupy Jinyong City..."
While listening to Gao Le's report, Li Tai sketched a picture of the battle situation in his mind. After a while, he said: "Since Jiuqu City is not defended, Hongnong will definitely be in danger. Whether he rushes to Xiaoling or transfers to Wuguan, These are urgent needs that are difficult to solve. Only by attacking the enemy and inflicting heavy losses on the enemy can we solve this dangerous situation!"
Everyone heard that Li Tai had made a plan, and they all secretly breathed a sigh of relief in their hearts. However, they were still a little confused about what to do next. Is there any place that their troops can reach and the thieves are sure to attack? Saved?
"Jin Yong City, the army is attacking Jin Yong!"
Li Tai saw everyone's doubts and directly pointed out the goal of the next battle.
The situation between Heluo and Heluo had collapsed like this in such a short period of time. It was basically certain that Yu Wentai should have passed away, and other personnel disputes broke out within the army. Li Tai did not know whether his father-in-law was involved in it. Clearly, but now he doesn't dare to have any high expectations for these guys.
Jiuqu City, a fortress related to advance and retreat, was abandoned so carelessly. It is obviously impossible for the tens of thousands of Northern Qi troops to go west just for an outing. The possibility of another city is equally great. Even if those guys are more wasteful, can Tongguan be defended? It's all an unknown quantity.
No matter what the situation is in the west, Li Tai is currently beyond his reach. If he continues to pursue rashly, he will not be able to catch up with the enemy troops heading west. It will also lengthen his own supply line and amplify his own crisis.
So many famous ministers and generals went out to fight in Guanzhong and the results were like this. Now Li Tai did not dare to have too high hopes for the situation in Guanzhong.
Judging from the worst-case scenario, it is necessary to temporarily and strategically abandon Guanzhong in order to severely damage the enemy forces on the Heluo battlefield. At least the Northern Qi will not be able to continue its large-scale invasion to the west and south in the next few years. Li Taicai There is enough time to clean up the domestic mess and eliminate the many problems left by this defeat.
"But, but before, Otsuka Zaishin's brigade besieged Jinyong City, and it was difficult to get down for ten days, but now there are more defenders in the city..."
Hearing that Li Tai chose to attack Jin Yong City, Gao Le couldn't help but say.
"The old slave is afraid of me and has withdrawn himself into the city so that I can calmly besiege it. After besieging Jinyong City, if the bandit army is still blocked to the east of Tongguan, they will worry about their way back and return to the army in a hurry to rescue them. By then, they will stop the Luochuan army. Encounter Xin'an's returning troops and defeat their troops separately."
If those guys haven't been defeated yet, it would be best to stop the enemy at Tongguan. If the enemy's advance is blocked, they will have to retreat. At that time, we can use the different distances and road conditions of the north and south Xiaodao to create a time difference and try to defeat the enemy separately. military.
But if the enemy breaks through Tongguan and successfully enters Guanzhong, then Heluo will not be its only retreat. Puban and other places can evacuate to Hedong.
Speaking of this situation, Li Tai's tone also turned serious and said: "If this is true, then I need to try my best to capture Jinyong City and restore Heyang. I will first occupy Heluo and then invest Shannan personnel here to threaten Hebei. To control thieves!"
After Yu Jin heard this, he couldn't help but sigh. If the latter situation really happens, the future hegemony between the two parties will need to be centered on the Shannan Daotai Prefecture, and the Kansai hegemony that they have struggled for many years will be forced to give up.
Li Tai had no intention of understanding Yu Jin's feelings at this moment. At the moment, he still needed to make two preparations. First, he ordered Gao Le to lead his troops to garrison in the Yin River Valley in the lower reaches of Luoshui River, north of Jiuqu City, in order to prevent the Qi army from returning. Then he sent his troops back to the Taifu to continue to strengthen the armament. Li Yunxin temporarily replaced He Ruodun to guard Jiangxia in preparation for the lower reaches. He Ruodun led 10,000 horses north to garrison Rangcheng and standby for reinforcements.
After making these arrangements, Li Tai personally led the army directly to Heluo. Since Hulujin had been on the defensive before and took the initiative to withdraw the troops garrisoned in Zhucheng, the advance this time went smoothly, and soon the army arrived at the south bank of Luoshui.
After some exploration by the front troops, Li Tai naturally chose Henan City, where Yuwentai's army had previously stationed, as the army's garrison. After all, this city was the largest among the cities in Luonan, and it was also the closest to Jinyong City, and it also had the previous The military roads, earthen mountains and other fortifications built by the people of the Chinese and Foreign Prefectures can be used.
In the twelfth lunar month of winter, the frozen ground is frozen, making it inconvenient to carry out large-scale civil construction. Judging from the destroyed city gates and battlements of Henan City, as well as the filled wells in the city, it seems that the Qi army also tried to destroy the fortifications outside Jinyong City before evacuating the city, but in the end the effect was limited due to the weather.
However, the long siege built by the Chinese and foreign government forces outside Jinyong City was destroyed a lot, and the numerous ruins and gaps made this long siege useless. The earth hill south of Jinyong City was flattened by less than half, and the earth below was preserved because it was too heavy.
After the troops settled in Henan City, Li Tai led a group of soldiers to inspect the outside of Jinyong City. When he saw the destroyed long siege, he couldn't help but frown.
Generally, when a large army besieges a city, it is necessary to invest several times or even ten times the enemy's force in the camp alone. Otherwise, certain fortifications will be needed. Long siege is the most common type, which can effectively isolate communication between inside and outside.
Especially in the wars in the north, each country often has a large number of cavalry. If the enemy cannot be restricted by a long siege, the attacker will not be able to station outside the city for a long time and attack the enemy city.
Li Tai turned over and dismounted, took out his saber and chopped the ground beside the long wall and short wall. There were a few white marks where the blade fell, which were ice ballast after the frozen soil was chopped into pieces.
Seeing this scene, Li Tai couldn't help but frown deeply. The number of troops he led on this trip was only a little over 20,000, which was not even as large as the number of defenders in the city. If he wanted to besiege Jinyong City, he would definitely need to rely on fortifications. But looking at the current frozen soil conditions, it is obviously very difficult to rebuild Changwei in a short time.
“You can actually build sand embankments!”
Li Taizheng frowned and thought to himself, when suddenly a voice came from behind him. He turned around and saw Li Yazheng in the personal soldiers looking at him cautiously. He immediately asked: "What should I say?"
"If your Majesty is worried about how to trap the city, you can actually build a sand embankment. The sand not near the river is soft and easy to dig, and there is much that can be dug along the Luoshui River. Then you can dig ice to get water for pouring, and the layers of ice will be sealed and are stronger than earth and stone. I, I am with you. Brother Bodhidharma and others used to play in Shangyuan Township, and they used this method to build a siege in winter!"
Li Ya saw the king looking at her and said quickly.
After Li Tai heard this, his eyes lit up. He remembered that he had indeed told Shuofeng and others about similar things in his early years, but it had been too long and even he had forgotten about it. At this time, Li Ya I remembered it again after being reminded.
So he immediately led the crowd back to the Luoshui coast and chose a beach where river sand was widely distributed. The river sand closer to the frozen water had been frozen and solidified, but the sand a few steps away was frozen. The water content has dropped sharply, but it can still be easily dug, and the frozen sand blocks are hard enough to be cut with a knife, which also proves the feasibility of this idea.
After finding a suitable method, Li Tai immediately ordered his men to start building a new long perimeter along the outside of Jinyong City, and began to share this experience with Gao Le who was going in the other direction.
In Jinyong City, all the generals from Hulujin on down also paid close attention to the movements of the enemy troops outside the city. When they saw the enemy troops lingering outside the city, digging sand and earth as if to build a long siege to surround the city, many soldiers He couldn't help but laugh loudly. If things were so simple, would they still let the mountain of dirt in the south of the city still stand in the distance?
But early the next morning, when they saw a new long siege rising from the ground combined with the ruins of the original long siege, the soldiers of the Qi army in the city suddenly stopped laughing, and their eyes couldn't help but twinkle. Looked panicked.
"Hulüjin died here!"
After the long wall was built, it still needed to be strengthened and raised to about one foot. Li Tai asked people to hang a long banner on the re-levelled earth hill outside the city and write a few big words on it, because he was afraid that Hu Lüjin would not be able to read. He thoughtfully sent people to climb Tushan Mountain and continued to shout into the city in Chinese and Xianbei.
"Draw out hundreds of prisoners from the city and kill them on the city to establish your authority!"
When Hu Lujin saw the long siege rising outside the city and the sergeants shouting on the mountain, his face became extremely ugly, and he immediately gave the order in a deep voice.