Chapter 1058 Battle of Changping

Chapter 1058 Battle of Changping

Amidst the cheers of the soldiers from all the camps, Li Tai arrived at Pingyang City. Looking at the city that had been surrounded by long fortifications, he couldn't help but become excited.

"Your Majesty, there are still about 20,000 defenders in the city. Since the arrival of General Mo and his brigade, the defenders have not attacked..."

Liang Shiyan followed behind and told Li Tai about various situations of the defenders in the city.

"More than 20,000 troops are not that small. They have been sitting back and watching the forward division go north? Just sitting back and watching our army build a long siege outside?"

Li Tai couldn't help but look surprised when he heard this, and asked in disbelief. He knew that Wei Can, the governor of Jinzhou, was judged by Wei Xiaokuan and others as an incompetent general. However, when he heard that Wei Can, the governor of Jinzhou, was in such a crucial position and did nothing in the face of the enemy's invasion, he couldn't understand it for a while. What on earth was this guy thinking.

After Liang Shiyan heard this, he shook his head and said with a smile: "The general is also quite surprised by this. When he first entered the city, the army was less than 10,000, which was far inferior to the defenders in the city. They could not form a siege at all. They could only build forts on the plateau to defend themselves. We were on guard day and night until the arrival of Duke Jianzhong's successor brigade two days later, and then the general breathed a sigh of relief..."

When Li Tai heard this, he couldn't help but sigh that the general was really incompetent and exhausted the entire army, especially the position of general in a border town, which really not just anyone could hold.

In the past few years, Wei Xiaokuan has been stationed in Yubi City. In addition to resisting Gao Huan's army of the Eastern Wei Dynasty many years ago, he also conducted many personnel operations on the border. For example, they built a city north of the Fen River and at the southern foot of Luliang Mountain, and timed the transportation of personnel and materials to the north of Fen, so that the city could be completed before enemy reinforcements arrived within ten days.

Similar operations are repeated many times, and this is still in a weak situation. And it was precisely because of Wei Xiaokuan's business foundation in this border area that everything could develop smoothly when Li Tai invested additional personnel in Hedong.

Of course, the top border guard generals like Wei Xiaokuan themselves are scarce talents, and it is difficult for ordinary people to reach them. However, Lieutenant Can sat guarding Pingyang and still had 20,000 divisions and brigades in his hands, but he did nothing at all and did not cause any obstruction or trouble to the forward divisions and brigades. This kind of determination is beyond the reach of ordinary people.

Putting aside these circumstances, Li Tai, accompanied by Liang Shiyan and others, patrolled around the city and inspected all the surrounding geographical conditions.

Although Pingyang's geographical location is important, Baima City, where the prefecture is located, is not large in size. It is only at the level of a medium-sized city, about the same as Jinyong City in the Heluo area.

Generally, such a city is not large in size alone, but must form a complete strategic defense line together with the surrounding city garrison. It's just that now that the enemy's garrison strongholds around Pingyang have been removed, the significance of this defense center has been greatly reduced.

When the group returned to the camp, Wei Xiaokuan, who had gone to Hongdong and other places in the north to inspect the situation, also returned, so the generals followed Tang Gong into the big tent to discuss the next battle plan.

"I inspected Hongdong and other places. From Gaobi to the south, all the enemy's fortifications have been removed. As long as they hold on to two important roads, it will be difficult for Jinyang's enemy to fly to the south unless they take a detour to unite the army. Sichuan."

Wei Xiaokuan first briefly described the situation in the north, and then pointed to the marked position on the map and continued: "Tongjunchuan is the flow of the Fen River to the south of Hongdong City, and the cities of Yining and Wusu that go east through this The enemy's main garrison is to pass through Fukou and enter Hebei. This is the so-called Wusu Road in the old days. If the two roads to the north are difficult to pass, Jinyang's army may cross the mountains and join the people in Hebei on the Wusu Road, and then attack. …”

"But it's also possible to stay in Jinyang and not leave!"

When Li Tai heard this, he also added a possible situation. Then he pointed to the map and said to everyone in the tent: "A few days ago, we used Yuzhou in the north as a bait to induce the enemy troops to split up. Now the thieves are gathering here. , Jinyang, Yecheng and Heyang. If the thieves want to save them from being trapped, they must come through these three roads.

Although the current military strength in Jinyang is weak, it has always been the ancestral nest of thieves. The gathering of soldiers and horses must be rapid and fierce, and it will also be the strongest military strength. Don't fight here for now, take the easy part first and then overcome the hard part. If its other path is frustrated, Jinyang's unique momentum will not last long. "

Speaking of this, Li Tai looked at Wei Xiaokuan and said: "Although the two roads in the north are being held, good generals still need to lead with caution. Please go there and choose a place to build a city, thinking that it will be a long-term barrier. The thieves are not strong now." Being poor requires long-term confrontation.”

He did not expect to completely defeat the Northern Qi Dynasty with this battle, but if he wanted to maintain a longer-term initiative in his hands, it was naturally the most reliable way to build a city for defense. Naturally, he still needed to leave this matter to Wei Xiaokuan before he could rest assured.

Wei Xiaokuan had already expected and prepared for this. After hearing this, he nodded and said: "The general will rush to the north tomorrow and choose a place to build defenses. The Jinyang thieves will be blocked. Please rest assured, Your Majesty."

Li Tai then pointed to the Heyang area and said: "The area between Heluo and Heluo has long been a place for troops, and many bandit soldiers are stationed there. But this time they misjudged the military planes, and the people must be upset and eager to call back the divisions and brigade. But it is also necessary to We are afraid that some thieves will get angry out of shame and use force to attack us in the west of Henan Province, or invade Hanoi. Therefore, not all the troops will go northward, and Duke Anlu and others still need to stay behind and wait for the enemy."

This time, Bafu's overall military strength reached 160,000, which does not include some local garrison forces. Wei Xiaokuan and others first sent 50,000 troops. In fact, the Bafu envoys only sent more than 30,000 troops. The remaining nearly 20,000 divisions and brigades were all garrisoned in Hedong, including Yubi City, Baibi City and other places.

The 20,000 troops of the Eastern Vanguard led by Yang Zhong crossed the river to the north and went to Shaozhou to join forces with Yang Yu after arriving in Hongnong, and then entered the carriage of Jianzhou.

The main force led by Li Tai had 100,000 troops, and 80,000 troops actually followed him to the north, and 20,000 stayed in the upper reaches of the Sushui River.

Since we want to surround the point and attack the reinforcements, we must first find out where the reinforcements are. With the passage from Jinyang to the south being controlled, the only troops from Heyang and Yecheng that can actually reach the battlefield quickly and in time in Northern Qi are the troops from Heyang and Yecheng.

The route for Yecheng troops to come to the battlefield is relatively simple, and the only route is to go to Fukou via Wusu Road to come to the rescue, which is the Tongjunchuan mentioned by Wei Xiaokuan just now.

As for the selection and variables of the troops in Heyang, there are relatively large numbers, which is also an opportunity for the development of the next war.

At present, Heyang has gathered the largest number of troops, and conservatively estimated to be more than 100,000. If these troops wanted to reinforce the battlefield in Jinzhou, they could either return to Yecheng and enter Fukou with the troops in Yecheng, or go north from Heyang to Jianzhou, and then follow the Qinshui River to the vicinity of Yining, and then join forces with the troops in Yecheng before moving west.

But in addition to these two conventional choices, the troops in Heyang actually had two risky moves. One was to besiege Wei to save Zhao, and launch an attack on western Henan from the Heluo area. If they could break through the defense lines in western Henan such as Xin'an and Yiyang, they could directly advance to Hongnong and Tongguan.

The second was to advance west from Henei to Qiziling, and then advance north through Guzhongdao after entering Shaozhou, and directly reach the north of Yanchi in the heart of Hedong. They could cut off the Sushui River and directly cut off the retreat of the Western Wei army!

For the Western Wei army, the most dangerous situation was naturally the last one. Once the retreat was cut off and the flank was attacked by the troops in Wusudao, it would not be a siege, but an attack on all sides.

However, the possibility of the Northern Qi Heyang adopting the last strategy is also the smallest, because this requires too high a quality of the army and the courage and spirit of the commander. To accomplish this feat, the difficulty is no less than Li Tai's sneak attack on Jinyang City when Gao Huan attacked Yubi City.

Although it may be small, he, the sixth brother, still arranged nearly 50,000 troops from Yang Zhong's troops and the upper reaches of the Sushui River. The reason is also very simple. On the one hand, he is used to stealing chickens, so of course he has to focus on protection. On the other hand, if you don't come, then I will go!

In fact, in addition to the neglect of the border town of Pingyang, Jinzhou, the Northern Qi also has another place that is not paid enough attention. Or it was originally more important, but it was ignored after the war started. And this place is still within the reach of the Western Wei army, that is Jianzhou.

Jianzhou is located in the Jincheng Basin on the west side of the southern Taihang Mountains. It is connected to Henei and can reach Heyang. It is adjacent to the Shangdang area in the north and can enter Hebei from Fukou. It can reach the west side of Pingyang along the Qinshui River in the northwest. It is also an important geographical hub and one of the goals of Li Tai's military operation this time! Before the war began, the Northern Qi Dynasty subconsciously regarded the Heluo area as the main combat area and invested a lot of manpower and material resources in Heyang. As the Western Wei army marched into Jinzhou and pointed at Jinyang, the entire Northern Qi military resources must be adjusted around the encirclement of Jinyang and the rescue of Jinzhou. But in fact, Jinyang was not in the target sequence of Li Tai's military operation this time. His primary goal was naturally to occupy Pingyang and then engulf the entire Linfen Basin, putting the blade directly under the eyes of Jinyang. The second goal was Jianzhou, and the occupation of Jianzhou further cut off the interaction and communication between different regions of the Northern Qi regime. Moreover, after mastering Jianzhou, they can attack Henei and Heyang in the south, and harass Shangdang and Yecheng in the north, thus increasing the pressure on the border defense of Northern Qi to the greatest extent.

Therefore, it would be a pleasant surprise if Yang Zhong and other troops in the rear could wait and repel the enemy troops from Heyang. If not, there is no need to be disappointed. They can cooperate with the military operations of the northern army, cross Zhongtiao Mountain to the east at the right time, and capture Jianzhou in one fell swoop when the main force of the enemy is attracted to the northern border.

If we want to make a more vivid summary, it is that Li Tai did not launch the Battle of Taiyuan this time, but the Battle of Changping. The real focus of this battle is to meet and defeat the reinforcements of Northern Qi from Fukou West.

Of course, to achieve such a tactical concept, we still have to take it step by step. The main task facing the Wei army at present is still the attack on Pingyang.

So after a meeting, Li Tai ordered: "Tomorrow at 1:00 a.m., all camps will have a meal and prepare to attack Jinzhou City!"