Chapter 1084 Looking for water to become a marquis

Chapter 1084 Looking for water to become a marquis

After a battle, the Wei army killed and captured more than a thousand enemies in this valley. It was a beautiful victory. The food and supplies lost in the previous attack on the mountain road were now returned in the form of men and horses. Especially the capture of a noble general from the Northern Qi clan made the soldiers participating in the battle smile with joy.

However, Gao Le did not have time to stop and carefully take stock of the results of the battle. He just asked Guo Yan and other troops who had withdrawn from Wusu City to stay here to clean up the battlefield, while he led his troops and captured enemy horses to chase after the enemy's defeat. The people in the rear continued to pursue him all the way to the east, facing the way he came from.

During the journey, Gao Le couldn't help but sigh that Gao Xiaoxu was worthy of being a young member of the Northern Qi royal family, and he was willing to gallop on the mountain trail to chase his opponent.

Although the dried up valley was relatively flat, it was still no better than flat ground. War horses were galloping on it, and if they were not careful, their legs would be broken and injured. During their pursuit, they also saw people abandoned and sad on the side of the road. The neighing war horse with its broken legs. If it were Gao Le himself, he would really be reluctant to waste his war horse like this.

Qi general Wei Gu led the remaining troops to flee all the way to the rear. When they arrived at Wusu City and joined the remaining troops, they were stunned.

At the same time, Wuxing King Gaopu finally led other forward troops to the south of Wusu City. However, when he learned from Wei Xun that Gao Xiaoxu was ambushed by thieves and captured by the thieves, his expression suddenly changed and he stamped his feet repeatedly. He sighed and said, "I have said before that the Qiang thieves are not easy to fight against, and you must not be careless! Zhuzi relies on strength and willfulness, but refuses to listen to instructions. Now that he has suffered this disaster, who should he blame!"

In addition to many complaints against Gao Xiaoxu, who underestimated the enemy's aggressive advance, Gaopu even ordered the troops to evacuate to the rear, regardless of the dissuasion of Wei Xun and others, and did not dare to stay near Wusu City.

Just as Gao Pu was leading his troops to evacuate to the rear in a hurry, Gao Le also happened to lead his troops out of the mountain road and galloped towards Wusu City. When he saw an enemy group retreating hurriedly between the slopes to the south, Gao Le communicated with the general who was coming out of Wusu City to meet him. After understanding the current situation, he immediately led his troops to rush towards the enemy's rear. And go.

Gaopu was already panicked and regretful. When he saw the enemy chasing him from behind, he suddenly became more and more panicked. He did not dare to stop and form a formation to meet the enemy. He just kept urging the soldiers around him to rush forward. The troops he led were a mixture of infantry and cavalry. As he led the cavalry troops to flee south without hesitation, the infantry and baggage troops were immediately abandoned behind, and were soon surrounded by Gao Le and his troops. Block it down.

"The Great Wei and Tang Gong commanded a large army to attack Wudao. Your followers are not giant bandits. If you are guilty, you will die. If you abandon your weapons, you will live!"

Gao Le led his troops directly into the chaotic infantry, chariots and horses of the Qi army. When he saw those who were holding weapons and wanted to fight, he would kill them with his sword, and at the same time shouted loudly.

Under the repeated piercing, outflanking and siege of a cavalry squad, the thousands of abandoned Qi army infantry were divided into small groups, ranging from a few people to a hundred or so, each occupying one place. Either they abandon their weapons and beg for surrender, or they still want to resist. Some enemy soldiers simply abandoned their armor, staff, equipment and other supplies, and started running away into the nearby mountains and fields.

In such a situation, the knights of the Wei army only fired a few arrows with their bows. It would be best if they could shoot down the deserters and defeat them. If they couldn't shoot them, they didn't bother to continue the pursuit. They fled to the mountains and fields, but they still stayed. Control the chaotic enemy brigade here.

In Wusu City, Han Guo also led the few thousand cavalry in the city out of the city to assist in the battle. When he caught up and saw this scene, Han Guo was overjoyed.

He previously led his troops to attack Wusu City, and the military supplies he brought were consumed a lot and there was not much left. Although Wusu City was captured, no spoils were captured. The previous reinforcements from Guyuan City were intercepted and burned. , in the past two days, in order to save military rations, the defenders in the city have only been given one meal a day.

Now that a considerable amount of military supplies have finally been seized, it is naturally an urgent need. At this time, Gao Le had led thousands of cavalry to continue pursuing south. Han Guo stayed here and ordered the Wusu City defenders to send another division and brigade here to collect all the personnel and materials here and escort them back to the city. middle.

After more than an hour of cleaning up, the battlefield was finally cleaned up, and all the captured characters were escorted back to Wusu City. So Han Guo led another light cavalry team, hoping to go south to meet Gao Le and his party.

As soon as he led his troops to march a few miles, he saw smoke and dust rising from the ridge to the south. Before long, Gao Le had already led hundreds of knights over the ridge and rushed back here. However, the figures of the men and horses were in a state of embarrassment. It did not look like they were returning from victory, but instead Like returning defeated.

"I was reckless and underestimated the enemy. I pursued all the way, but was ambushed by the thief general Duan Shao and his troops were ambushed in the middle of the road. I was in danger of being robbed!"

After meeting Han Guo, Gao Le did not hide the failure he had just experienced. Originally, he led his troops in pursuit all the way south, and saw that the enemy was getting closer and closer. However, he was ambushed and intercepted by a team sent by Duan Shao at the Xialiju Pass near the Tongtan River in the south of Wusu. After a lot of fighting, he was able to escape and come back.

"The terrain here is complex and changeable, and the mountains and roads are winding. You have to be careful when chasing the poor bandits. If you are not careful, you will inevitably be taken advantage of by the thieves. Fortunately, the enemy generals were unable to escape in a hurry and left behind many soldiers and supplies, which have been collected. Come on, this battle is not in vain!"

When Han Guo heard what Gao Le said, she opened her mouth to comfort him.

War is a game of all aspects, from the national strength of a regime to the physical and psychological game of each soldier. Gao Xiaoxu was greedy for merit before, so he was defeated and tied up, and Gao Le just became the victorious party as an ambusher, but now he almost became a prisoner of the enemy because of similar problems. It can be seen that before a war is over, everything is variable.

Hearing Han Guo say this, Gao Le can only be glad that the previous results of the battle were finally preserved, and he was able to lead his troops to escape, which was a blessing in disguise, so he sorted out his mood a little, and then returned to Wusu City with Han Guo to rest for a while.

Not to mention the victorious Wei army, Duan Shao in Shangdang area received the order from Qi Lord Gao Yang to go south to attack the enemy. In order to ensure that the next battle can proceed smoothly and not be affected by the harassment of Jianzhou, he took advantage of the fact that the Jinyang army had not yet arrived and went south to Changzi, Huguan and other places to deploy defenses.

After receiving the message from Gao Xiaoxu, the King of Xiucheng, he learned that the vanguard division of Jinyang was about to clash with the enemy, so he hurried back after arranging the defense in the south. When he returned to Shangdang City, he was told that the vanguard of Jinyang had already headed towards Wusu City.

Because he was not clear about the enemy and our situation in Wusu City, for the sake of safety, Duan Shao first sent a division to Xiaweiju in the Tongdi River Basin.

The Tongdi River flows through the south of Wusu City and is one of the tributaries of the western source of Zhuozhang River. There is Shangweiting in the upper reaches and Xiaweiju in the lower reaches. Both are dangerous gullies and narrow passes. They are the throats of Qinyuan area entering and exiting Shangdang area through Wusu Road.

Shangweiting originally had Weiting Garrison, which was a defense system with Wusu City. In order to lure the enemy deep into the city, it was abandoned together with Wusu City and occupied by the Wei army. Now, in order to ensure the safety of Shangdang area, it is necessary to defend Xiaweiju.

Facts have proved that Duan Shao's caution was not unnecessary. The Jinyang Vanguard Division was defeated and returned, escaping Xiaweiju all the way. Xiaweiju went further south to the heartland of Shangdang area, such as Anmincheng, Xiangyuan and Tunliu. Most of the families of the soldiers in Wusu were moved here. Once the enemy took advantage of the situation and invaded here, it would cause great unrest in Shangdang area.

After the Xiaweiju defenders received Wuxing King Gao Pu and his party, they immediately sent them to Duan Shao's camp, and Duan Shao also asked in detail about the war that had taken place in Wusu City recently.

When he saw that Wuxing King was still trembling and terrified, he couldn't help but feel disdain in his heart, so he simply sent Wuxing King and his party to Wuxiang City where the holy carriage is now.

Wuxiang City is located at the intersection of Nieshui and Wuxiangshui. These two waterways are tributaries of the northern source of Zhuozhang River. Qi Lord Gao Yang has led his army to Wuxiang City for several days, and Wuxiang City is not far from Wusu City. Although there is no direct road between the two places, even if it is a winding mountain road, the distance is only a little over 100 miles.

However, the advance and retreat of the army is not as casual as the light travel, especially such a large army needs to choose a suitable open area just for camping, and so many people and horses need to drink water every day, which is a huge consumption. Once the water supply is lacking, the consequences will be disastrous.

Although the area around Wusu City was originally the territory of Northern Qi, since the establishment of Northern Qi, there has been no such a large number of troops stationed in this area for a long time and held battles. In addition, the drought since the beginning of summer this year has greatly changed the hydrological conditions of the rivers and streams at the foot of Taihang Mountain. Many rivers that were originally abundant in water have suffered from drying up to varying degrees this year, and some springs and streams have disappeared due to drought.

In order to prevent the army from being defeated due to the drinking water problem, Gao Yang did not choose to go directly to Wusu City, but sent scouts to explore the roads and find water sources around the area.

As a result, while he was still preparing for the war, the vanguard brigade had already returned in defeat, which naturally made Gao Yang very angry. When Wuxing King Gao Pu was sent to Wuxiang City, Gao Yang immediately ordered him to be beheaded and displayed to the army, to show that the guilty must be punished in this battle, even the dignity of the prince is inevitable!

Next, Gao Yang issued a more generous reward to the scouts. Anyone who found a mountain stream spring that could provide drinking water for thousands of soldiers and horses would be immediately granted the title of county marquis, in order to motivate the morale of the soldiers, so that the army could be put into the battlefield as soon as possible and start a large-scale battle with the Western Wei!