Chapter 1254: Advancing to Jingxing

Chapter 1254: Advancing to Jingxing

After leaving Jinyang, Duan Shao went straight back to Jingxing. His return to Jinyang this time made him feel a little heavier. Especially the emperor's words that he wanted him to return to Jinyang and that he wanted to abdicate in favor of someone more worthy made him feel even more uneasy.

For Northern Qi at the moment, the biggest threat is naturally the Wei army that is constantly advancing on the battlefield. If they cannot force the Wei army back and reverse the situation, the country may be destroyed in a battle. But it was obvious that in the emperor's mind, there were other issues that were equally or even more important.

If it weren't for the emperor's performance of abdicating the throne and making way for the next generation, Duan Shao would not have clearly realized this problem. Now that the enemy is approaching step by step and Jinyang is in danger, why should we choose another wise king?

It's nothing more than the evil he did in the past, and now it has become a nightmare that lingers and tortures him. Back then, Wen Xuan failed and he was forced into the palace. Now the successive defeats in the war also made the emperor wary. After all, he knew best how he got his position.

Making such a performance is either to test whether Duan Shao really has such intentions, or to imply that the nobles who are dissatisfied with him have already expressed their intention to make way for talents, so that they can be calm and calm, or to deal with foreign enemies. First. No matter what kind of thoughts, they are all inappropriate thoughts.

After leaving the palace, Duan Shao thought carefully about it. The emperor had summoned him before and wanted to keep him to guard Jinyang. I am afraid that it was not just to respond to the enemy, but because Hu Luguang had a slight disobedience before, which made him want to recall Duan Shao to maintain his position. An internal and external balance. Before that, Duan Shao was excluded from Jinyang because he did not warn Liaoyang soldiers. This change in his internal and external status was strange.

Fortunately, the pressure exerted by the Wei army was too great, leaving the emperor no room to use his mind. Even if there was any change of mind, he still had to follow the needs of the facts.

After this thought flashed through his mind, Duan Shao couldn't help but have a wry smile. He felt lucky that the enemy's invasion had resolved an internal dispute! But as the latest news from Jingxing came, he soon couldn't even smile bitterly.

Originally, Duan Shao planned to go to Bafu Ridge for a patrol on the way, but when the news came that more than 20,000 people were fighting from Tumenguan Camp, he was shocked and had no time to go elsewhere to speed up. After traveling day and night, he returned to Tumen Camp. When he saw the generals, he immediately said in a deep voice: "What's the situation now?"

It had been a long time since Gao Changgong led his army into battle, but the battle reports returned were not optimistic. Fortunately, Duan Shao finally returned in time, which made the generals feel relieved. When they heard his unkind tone of voice asking about the situation, they Duan Xiaoyan, his younger brother, hurriedly spoke and said: "King Qi Lu, this battle was all done by King Lanling's willfulness..."

Hearing that Duan Xiaoyan was eager to clear up their relationship, Duan Shao glanced at his half-brother with some displeasure, then turned to his son Duan Yi and said, "Say!"

Duan Yi hurriedly recounted what happened in the past few days after Duan Shao left. After hearing this, Duan Shao immediately frowned deeper and snorted: "What a powerful enemy Li Boshan is, didn't I tell you? When an eagle and a harrier fight against a rabbit, it is especially necessary to strike with all your strength. What kind of fanatics do you think that you want to win with only half of them? "

"This, this... what I saw before was just another enemy unit, and there was no full-scale military appearance. King Lu had given instructions before leaving, and a certain talent was not, was not..."

When Duan Yi and others heard the scolding, they were all nervous for a moment. They lowered their heads and did not dare to look at Duan Shao's angry eyes.

Duan Shao frowned and thought about countermeasures quickly in his mind. After he returned to Jinyang this time, he learned another important information from the emperor, that is, Hu Luxian, the governor of Youzhou, would lead tens of thousands of Northeastern troops to return to defense from Lingqiu in the north of Taihang Mountain. At that time, he could try to attack Sizhou The Northern and Southern forces attacked the Western Wei and Turkic coalition forces from both directions.

If you want to implement this tactic, you must ensure that no new and greater threats will appear around Jinyang, so that Jinyang can send enough divisions and brigades to move north. The defense of Jingxing is naturally particularly important.

Therefore, after Duan Shao returns to Jingxing this time, he intends to continue to hold on. As long as the Hebei Wei army can be blocked in the east of Taihang Mountain, and if the Hu Luguang brothers can cooperate with each other and perform well, Jinyang can have a good turn. .

But now nearly half of the division and brigade have been attracted out of the Tumen camp. With Li Boshan's meticulousness and viciousness, if there is no support from Tumen, the possibility of these troops returning safely is extremely slim. Even if Tumen still can't get out, the sudden loss of half of the troops will be fatal to morale, so Duan Shao has to save him now.

"Instruct all camps to prepare for war!"

After pondering for a moment, Duan Shao immediately gave the order. Then he looked at Gaoyang King Gao Shi and said: "This time we go out to fight with the thieves, the battle will be dangerous and fierce, and the safety of the way back cannot be ignored. There have been frequent emergencies in Pingdu recently. Please, Your Majesty And lead the troops to Yangquan to guard and respond."

Gao Shi, the king of Gaoyang, was appointed as the governor of Zhaozhou. He was not considered to be Duan Shao's subordinate. However, after the Wei army captured Yedu, all parties in Hebei responded to its trend. Fearing that he would be attacked, Gao Shi simply led his troops to Tumen to join Duan Shao. .

Duan Shao knew that after the Tumen army attacked without authorization, he transferred five thousand soldiers from the Yangquan garrison to accompany him back to Tumen. At this time, he arranged for Gao Shi to go to Yangquan to garrison.

Compared with Tumenguan at the exit of Jingxing, Yangquan is located in the rear and is undoubtedly safer. Gao Shi did not hesitate, and nodded and agreed, and clasped his fists to Duan Shao and said: "The invasion of a powerful enemy will affect the fate of the country." It is difficult, but fortunately King Lu and other loyal and brave ministers are guarding the country. I wish King Lu a happy victory and a happy song!"

Duan Shao's eyes dimmed after hearing this, then brightened again. He nodded to Gao Xi, then bowed and said goodbye, turning around and going out of the tent to inspect the camp.

At this time, the latest battle report came from the north bank of Hutuo River. The soldiers of both sides were confronting each other in the ruins of Zhending City. Apart from this, no new changes occurred for the time being. As for the scouts who continued to investigate the enemy's situation in the north, they had not returned yet because of the long journey.

Duan Shao led 5,000 elite cavalrymen to leave the camp and head north. On the way, he saw many Dingzhou people coming to the Tumen camp. After a moment of hesitation, he ordered: "These Dingzhou people are not allowed to come to the camp. They are all driven to the south bank of Huchi Lake for resettlement."

The generals beside him did not understand what he meant, but seeing Duan Shao's cold and serious expression, they did not dare to ask more questions. They nodded and responded quickly, and then sent their troops to execute this order. In addition to persuading the people who were still on the way to return, even those who had rested near the Tumen camp were driven north again.

At this time, in the ruins of Zhending, after a fierce battle, the soldiers of both sides temporarily separated and each occupied an area in the ruins. Among the ruins of the buildings in the city, the bodies of the dead soldiers were lying everywhere, both from the Qi army and the Wei army. Looking around, there was almost no vacant land, which shows how fierce the battle was just now.

Gao Changgong led his troops to the southwest corner of the city. He was standing with his sword in his hand, staring at the Wei army formation more than ten feet away, breathing heavily with a fishy and hot breath. There was a shocking knife mark on his left shoulder armor. If he had not been a general in the army with excellent armor and timely rescue by his personal soldiers, he would have been chopped and killed by the enemy's young general who was as brave as him. Even though he was brave and resolute, he couldn't help but feel scared when he recalled the battle just now. The threat of death that was just a hair's breadth was hard for anyone to ignore.

Even though he fought bravely after entering the city, he still failed to reverse the disadvantage formed by being caught off guard before. Although there were more Qi troops in the city, they were still suppressed. The most intuitive manifestation was that the formation was still in a scattered state and had not been fully gathered. There were even more than a thousand Qi soldiers surrounded by the Wei army. The sound of resistance and fighting was getting weaker and weaker. I don't know if they had given up resistance or had been completely wiped out.

The street fighting in the city was close combat, and if the reaction was not timely, it would inevitably be suppressed and suffer heavy casualties. In particular, this Zhending ruined city was more dilapidated and messy than ordinary cities, and it was difficult to arrange a large army battle formation, and often small teams were needed to fight.

This was not the strong point of the Qi army, especially the Xianbei army of the Six Towns. Their war experience came more from cavalry field battles. They also had experience in infantry battles, but they were often large army battles in open terrain, such as Heluo Mangshan.

As for the Wei army... Gao Changgong remembered the chariot formations arranged by the Wei army on the north bank of the Tongdi River in the Battle of Tongdi that year. Relying on limited obstacles to fight small elite battle formations, this seemed to be the most proficient tactics of the Wei army. And the seemingly messy building debris in Zhending City seemed to have played the role of the chariot formation in today's battle.

Could it be that when the Wei army destroyed Zhending City before, it had already preset this ruined city as an important battlefield in the future?

After this thought came to his mind, Gao Changgong looked around the city again, and his heart couldn't help but feel cold.

Zhending City was not in a strategic location, and the Wei army conquered it easily at that time, but it took more energy and time to destroy the city than to attack the city. At that time, the generals in the Tumen camp only regarded this action as a provocation and venting, but after personal experience, Gao Changgong realized that this was a battlefield that was conducive to the Wei army on the north bank of the Hutuo River, which was flat and flat!

But even if the Wei army had such foresight, there would be fools who would jump in...

Thinking of this, Gao Changgong was even more depressed. Because of the warning of King Pingyuan, he did not despise the Wei army, and he had been paying close attention to the situation of its reinforcements in the north, but the Wei army's abandonment of tens of thousands of war horses just to put the soldiers into the battlefield as soon as possible had surprised him, and what surprised him even more was that the trap had been placed under his nose!

Of course, if the tens of thousands of Wei soldiers had not been thrown into the city to fight in an amazing way, this trap could hardly be called a trap. But now...

Gao Changgong looked at the rest of the troops isolated by the Wei army in the distance. Because the troops were divided into different places, he didn't know how much damage he had suffered in the battle just now, but a thought flashed in his mind that he dared not think deeply, that is, is the strength of his own troops in the city still dominant now?

However, this battle was not without gains. While the two sides were fighting, the Qi army soldiers who stayed outside the city had collected most of the war horses abandoned by the Wei army. The gains of tens of thousands of war horses are not insignificant, especially for the Wei army in this city, which has lost its mobility. If there are enough troops to fight in the city now, it is not a dream to annihilate this Wei army!

But will Tumen provide reinforcements? Moreover, the battlefield that the Wei army has spent so much effort to set up here, is it really just this skill? It should be noted that Gao Changgong had invested more than 20,000 soldiers in this city, and there were only more than 2,000 reserve soldiers outside. If another force of the Wei army arrived in time, the consequences would be unimaginable!

This feeling of being full of unknowns and the harder you try, the deeper you seem to step into the enemy's trap, really makes people feel helpless.

In the past, Gao Changgong also had experience fighting against the Wei army, but he was always executing the decisions of the main commander as a partial division general. Now he is truly in charge, formulating his own tactics and executing them, but this feeling is very bad, as if there is an invisible thread. The rope pulled him firmly, the more aggressive he became, the more passive he became. Now he no longer knows whether he should continue to persevere, or get out in time before he sinks completely, or can he leave?

Just when Gao Changgong's mind was full of distracting thoughts, a galloping horse hurriedly came from outside the city, shouting loudly towards the city: "Inform King Lanling that King Lu Ye has returned to Tumen and is marching north with an army for reinforcements. He will be here soon! Please!" The king is here to fight with peace of mind and annihilate the bandit army!"

After hearing this, Gao Changgong and the other officers and soldiers, who had been a little depressed before, all looked happy and cheered up. Gao Changgong also took the opportunity to shout loudly in the city to boost morale, and ordered the soldiers who were divided in various directions to come to the city. Its closer.

The Qi army had good news about Duan Shao leading a large army to reinforce them, but there was no such thing as the Wei army. They should have been depressed, but the Wei army also laughed together with the Qi army, and many people shouted loudly: "In the past, the Eastern bandits were unable to retreat, and our army tried to defeat them but failed. Now the bandit general Duan Shao finally couldn't bear it any longer and left the camp to die. The sons and sons have achieved great results. After this battle, they went straight to Jinyang to capture and kill the bandit leader. !”

"Capture and kill the thief leader, capture and kill the thief leader!"

The officers and soldiers of the Wei army in the city also raised their arms and shouted. Even though the situation seemed to be unfavorable to them, they still had no fear. This attitude made Gao Changgong shocked and suspicious, but he still put away his distracting thoughts, raised his arms and shouted: "Thieves are outnumbered." , You are seeking your own death, now tens of thousands of our troops have gathered here to kill them like mowing grass! All armies gather towards me quickly, don’t let the thieves break them up.”

The soldiers on both sides had just recovered some strength, and then they started fighting again. As Gao Changgong shouted, not only the Qi troops who were divided in various parts of the city gathered towards him, but the Wei troops also rushed to kill him in his direction. Come.

"I know it, I know it! This thief must be good. I couldn't kill him with my knife before, so I must have this merit!"

In the Wei army formation, when they saw Gao Changgong shouting and gathering the crowd, the young general who had fought with him before but whose identity was unknown couldn't help but clapped his knees and sighed, and then roared and attacked the opponent again. This young general is Yang Zhong's second son, Yang Zheng. He has the same bravery as his father. Although he is not the longest among the young men, he has an aura of fearlessness after going to the battlefield.

"Haha, you will quickly follow Yang Lang to kill the thief, and don't take this meritorious service for my son!"

It was General He Ruodun who had led reinforcements here before. When he heard Yang Zheng's roar in the formation, he immediately waved his hand and ordered a group of elite soldiers who had experienced many battles to charge with Yang Zheng.

He did this not to flatter Yang Zhong, but because Yang Zheng was his son-in-law, and it was reasonable and reasonable to help his son-in-law win military glory. And right now, He Ruodun's eyes were still shining, and he was thinking to himself: "The Duke of Hanoi knows a good son-in-law with his wise eyes, and he is known all over the world. I dare not compare myself to the beauty of God and man, but the Duke of Hanoi and his son-in-law are not the only one. A brother." If there are virtuous and unvirtuous people, they will naturally be judged!"

He was so envious of Shiliu's praise of Duguxin's vision that he even took up the idea of ​​Yang Zhong's sons. The Lord is naturally a figure that is difficult for the world to match, but if Yang Zheng's reputation and meritorious service exceed that of his brother Yang Jian, doesn't it mean that He Ruoden's eyesight is at least half of Dugu Xin's?

He Ruobi, who was also fighting the enemy bravely in the formation, glanced at the scene where the father-in-law and his son-in-law were in love, and felt a different kind of emotion flowing through his heart. He then let out a loud roar and slashed at the enemy general with the Mo Dao in his hand. .

A good man naturally has to work hard on his own to make a world of his own, so what's the point of clinging to his skirt! Only those ignorant people would think that the Lord was led by Lord Hanoi, and that the great achievements achieved by the Lord were even beyond the reach of Lord Hanoi himself! Including his father, they all have common sense!

Fighting broke out again in Zhending City, and the troops led by Duan Shao were getting closer and closer. When he learned that the Wei troops were still fighting in Zhending City on the north bank, Duan Shao couldn't help but frowned, and he called his son Duan Yi closer. He came to give instructions: "Since Li Boshan has been the first to attack many times, he will never be without plans again. I suspect that he is not under Dingzhou City at all, and has already hidden elsewhere.

You no longer need to march with the army, and quickly lead three thousand elite cavalry north to Dingzhou to report the rebellion. When the Wei army comes from the south, there will definitely be an empty space outside Dingzhou city. If the king of Nan'an can take advantage of the situation to break out and attack the remaining Wei army outside the city with you and inside to relieve the danger of Dingzhou, then even if the war here is unfavorable, it will not be called a great defeat. If things don't work out...you don't have to go back, but go to Youzhou to see what happens next. "

When Duan Yi heard his father's serious tone, he opened his mouth to comfort him, but Duan Shao waved his hand to stop him, so he nodded heavily.

Duan Shao was not mistaken. Li Tai was indeed not outside Dingzhou City at the moment. He had only presided over the siege battle for the past few days under Dingzhou City. Then he transferred his troops in batches and attacked from left to right, seemingly to eradicate Dingzhou. The strongholds around the city are actually transferring the main force.

Dingzhou City was a goal that the Wei army set up for the Qi army in Hebei that must be captured. It was mostly used to attract attention, but in fact, what really mattered to the progress of the war was the Northern Qi army in Tumen.

After leaving Dingzhou City, Li Tai led his troops to Xianyu City, southwest of Dingzhou City. It is more difficult to hide the movement of a large group of people in the Hebei wilderness. The scouts roam with a vast field of vision. If they want to completely avoid the search, they have to take the troops to a completely insignificant place.

And since it is irrelevant, it means that once the war starts, these places will not become the center of the war at all. Xianyu City is such a place. In fact, most of the counties and cities in Hebei are such places, including the fierce fighting between the two sides today. Zhending City, it was because Wei Jun spent a lot of money to attract Qi Jun there.

But as long as this battlefield is formed, the scope of subsequent tactical execution will be there. The distance between Xianyu City and Zhending City is about the same as the distance between Tumen and Zhending City. In other words, as long as the war starts here, the time for the main forces of both sides to enter is about the same.

The tactics of the Western Wei Dynasty were based on the fact that the Qi army in Dingzhou on the Tumen side left the camp privately to meet their relatives, and subsequent attempts to lure the enemy were also expanded based on this.

The only deviation from the truth is that Li Tai's supposed target of luring the enemy was Duan Shao, so when Han Qinhu and his troops entered the remaining city of Zhending, what he expected was that both sides would immediately attack Zhending City. The surrounding areas were engaged in a war, so the war horses withdrawn from Zhending City were actually rotating war horses prepared for the next day's battle.

But he didn't expect that what he lured was only a part of the people, which made him a little bit unpredictable about what Duan Shao was thinking. He was a little too trusting and looked down on himself, right? You have been an old turtle for such a long time, and you think you respect me a lot. Why do you really think you can conquer me with one hand when you really give me a chance?

A total of seven to eight thousand fine cavalry were suppressed in a place where the Qi army could directly attack them. Anyone would be tempted by this bait. By doing this, Li Tai put one hand under the enemy's sword first, while the other hand was still fighting in Dingzhou City. He only relied on two kicks to fight against the enemy in the Tumen camp. As a result, But I didn't expect Tumen to be so polite. I only came to fight you half way.

Although he didn't know that Duan Shao was not in the Tumen camp at the time, he could analyze that the Tumen Qi army was a little abnormal, especially that this series of events was originally caused by the Qi army's private actions, so he made A bold speculation is that Tumen's military may have lost control.

In this case, it is natural to go straight to Huanglong! Therefore, after sending He Ruodun's troops to reinforce Zhending City and attract the Qi troops leaving the camp, Li Tai left Xianyu City with a brigade of 20,000 troops and headed straight to Lingshou City in the west.

Since the Qi army was so indifferent to the battlefield of Zhending City, he also attacked Tumen Pass. In fact, with the dispatch of the Wei army, the control of the surrounding areas has also weakened. The Northern Qi Dynasty has sent a large number of additional scouts to the north and expanded the scope of investigation. There was a chance of discovering Li Tai's group. The army.

But when Li Tai was preparing to attack Tumen along the way to Lingshou South, he deviated from the normal route of travel, his camera angle was stuck, and he disappeared from the sight of the Qi army's scouts for several hours. It should be noted that Lingshou is located more than fifty miles northwest of Zhending City, the battlefield selected by the Wei army. According to normal thinking, no matter how erratic the Wei army is and how worthless the legs and feet of the war horse are, it is impossible to enter the battlefield from this position and angle.

When Li Tai led his troops to cross the Hutuo River from Lingshou south, preparing to pass through Luquan and then go straight to Tumen Pass, the scouts finally came to report that the Qi army was rushing towards Zhending City.

After learning about this, Li Tai was also suspicious, and he was a little confused about the situation for a while. But judging from the current situation, on one side was Tumen Pass, which seemed to be defenseless, and on the other side was his own true city or even the city. The troops outside the city are sending troops away. Is Duan Shao competing with himself to see who is more ruthless?

After pondering for a while, he first dispatched Shi Jing to lead a thousand troops to continue rushing to Tumen Pass according to the original route, while he quickly led the rest of the troops to Zhending City. Is it a trap? It's enough for a thousand people to step on it immediately.

But if Duan Shao really goes out in full force, and if he doesn't rush back to help, then the people in the north may be wiped out! In the plain terrain of Hebei, there are no so-called surprise soldiers. What can really determine the outcome is the timing and the performance of the soldiers in battle.

At this time, Duan Shao had also led his troops to arrive near the Hutuo River. When he heard the tragic killings in Zhending City, he couldn't help but frown slightly. When he asked the scouts again, he learned that no enemy troops had appeared in the north.

This inevitably made Duan Shao suspicious, so he did not order his troops to cross the river to join the battle. Instead, he ordered the scouts to continue to expand the search area. He never believed that Li Boshan would be careless enough to leave so many people here for him to devour.

While waiting for the scouts to report back, Duan Shao also ordered the Dingzhou soldiers and people who were driven back along the way to be rearranged back to the south bank of the Hutuo River. At that time, the Dingzhou troops could be arranged on the north bank to fight the enemy. They did not hesitate to violate military orders in order to protect their loved ones. Now that their loved ones were on the other side, they naturally had to fight to the death to kill the enemy. The morale-boosting effect was no less than a last-ditch battle.

Just when Duan Shao was about to cross the river to check out the fighting in Zhending City, suddenly a sergeant from behind came rushing here and reported hurriedly: "Report to King Qilu, the Wei Army Brigade has appeared in Luquan and is heading here to kill!"

"The enemy is coming from behind?"

Duan Shao was shocked when he heard this, and then a thought flashed through his mind. Li Boshan's use of troops was really unpredictable. He had invested so many troops in Dingzhou City. Who would have thought that he would go around and attack from a long way, treating the troops here as grass? Wasn't he afraid of being wiped out by the Qi army in one fell swoop?

Fortunately, he did not let the troops rush out at once, but advanced in batches. At present, only his 5,000 elite cavalry had arrived in Zhending City. Other divisions were still on the way, but they were attacked halfway, and the situation was also critical.

Duan Shao naturally did not dare to neglect it. He had no time to carefully observe the situation in Zhending City. After leaving a part of the troops, he immediately led the others to the place where the enemy appeared.

Of course, he did not forget to send a message to the direction of Tumen Pass, telling King Gaoyang not to rush to Yangquan, and temporarily led his troops to assist in defense, so as to prevent the battle from happening too close to Tumen Pass, which would make the remaining soldiers panic and be taken advantage of by the enemy. Although there were still a large number of soldiers left behind in front of the pass, the sudden appearance of the Wei army in this direction was too shocking.