Northern Dynasties

Chapter 609
When Li Tai returned to Rangcheng, the hearts of the Jingzhou clan members relaxed a little.

The Wanluo group of barbarians who harassed the Three Crows Road were not terrible. Even Guo Xian himself stated in the letter that he would be able to stick to Luyang Pass and prevent the control of the Three Crows Road from falling into the hands of the group of barbarians.

But Murong Shaozong behind these barbarians made the people of Jingzhou not calm down. In the past two years, the most famous person in the whole world is naturally Hou Jing, and Murong Shaozong is probably the next.

When it comes to the display of personal talents, Murong Shaozong still ranks ahead of Hou Jing. After all, no matter how fierce Hou Jing tosses in the south of the Yangtze River, it can't change the fact that he was chased and beaten by Murong Shaozong, and he couldn't escape. .

Being targeted by such a prestigious person, no matter how arrogant and confident a person is, they will inevitably feel nervous.

However, although Murong Shaozong is famous, Li Tai is indeed still slightly behind, but the difference is not much.Not to mention his old achievements in the past few years, the two great news brought back by his return to the town alone made the people of Jingzhou very excited.

The first is naturally that he marched lightly and regained Hanzhong, which had been captured by Nanliang for more than ten years, and the second was that he defeated the famous Nanliang general Liu Zhongli after joining forces in Xiangyang, and Yang Zhong was still leading his troops to pursue Liu Zhongli. Fight hard, and the land of Handong has become a pocket.

But now that a strong enemy is on the sidelines, it is naturally not the time to celebrate indulgently.Li Tai also only briefly explained the situation of the development of various parties to the masses to inspire people's hearts, and then began to focus on the current crisis.

After the fall of Yingchuan, Wang Sizheng's tribes in all directions were under the control of Li Tai. At that time, Li Tai focused on the Hanshui strategy, but only ordered the troops to shrink to the north. Right now, he doesn't know much about the specific situation in Henan. .

Although Guo Xian reported that Murong Shaozong ordered the barbarians to invade, he didn't know where Murong Shaozong was now, how powerful he was, and his specific goals and intentions.

Before Li Tai's return, the people of Jingzhou had actually had an in-depth discussion based on this. They were more inclined that Murong Shaozong said that the barbarian invasion was actually a trick to ask for directions, rather than really launching an attack from the Three Crows Road. .

The reason is also very simple. Compared with other passages from Henan to Mianbei, Sanya Road has no obvious advantages except that it is fast, so it is usually used as a passage for rapid strikes.

But now that the barbarians are harassing, the effect of surprise soldiers has long been lost. Unless Murong Shaozong likes the mountain scenery of Funiu Mountain, it is impossible to imagine why he would attack Mianbei from Sanya Road.

Li Tai also agrees with this conjecture, and based on this, he puts forward a new conjecture, that is, he believes that Murong Shaozong's primary goal this time is not to capture the city, but to loot supplies.

The reason is also very simple. If Murong Shaozong wants to expand his territory and expand his territory, Mianbei will never be his primary goal.It's not that Mianbei is unattractive to it, but that the Huainan area in Nanliang is now more readily available. Even if Murong Shaozong can occupy Mianbei, he will face continuous attacks from the south from Wuguan and other roads from the Western Wei Dynasty. Henan, which has been severely bullied, is definitely not enough to support Murong Shaozong's big march.

This guy is also contrary to the bold and unrestrained style of play of the Eastern Wei Dynasty. When he harassed the Three Crows Road, he had to drive barbarians instead of dispatching the Eastern Wei army. It can be seen that the personnel resources at his disposal have been greatly reduced. Not all will be invested in Mianbei, the place of the Four Wars.

Although Li Tai didn't know Murong Shaozong well, he was very clear about those guys who wanted to separate themselves.

If you have a general understanding or guess about the logic of the enemy's behavior, then it will be much easier to discuss countermeasures.

Originally, before Li Tai returned, Dou Chi and other remaining generals were discussing to be prudent and focus on defending important cities such as Rangcheng. As long as the important cities can be kept, even if Murong Shaozong invades, the loss will be within an acceptable range. .

But now that it is determined that Murong Shaozong is here to fight the autumn wind, then such a conservative response method is only to provide convenience for the enemy's robbery.After all, the current season is the end of July, summer and early autumn, and the field crops will not be ripe, even if they want to fortify the walls and clear the fields, they can't do it.Things are booming in Mianbeitian, and supplies can be obtained everywhere after the enemy enters the country.

Based on this speculation, Li Tai proposed to gather elite troops to go straight to Fangcheng and other cities in the north of Mian. The best situation is naturally to be able to keep the enemy from outside and save the mainland of Mianbei from looting and destruction.Even if it was too late to do this, and Murong Shaozong led his army to break in ahead of time, he could still guard the door, close the door and beat the dog.

On some important military and political affairs in Jingzhou, although the masses can discuss and put forward opinions, the final decision-making power rests with Li Tai only.Now that he has made such a decision, there is nothing to say, and the people in the general manager's mansion are busy implementing it.

Although Li Tai has launched and participated in many military operations recently, Jingzhou's troops are not too scattered.The Jingzhou prefectural capital before the intersecting, and the current Jingzhou general manager's mansion have the most direct increase in the 7000 troops brought by Li Tai from Guanzhong and the 1 troops brought by Zhao Gui on the spot.

When he pretended to be an army going west to lure Liu Zhongli to take the bait, Li Tai himself took away and added more than [-] troops, and then stayed in Xingzhou with [-] people and Xiangyang West with [-] people. There were nearly [-] people who came to Li Qianzhe's department, so when he returned to the town, there were still more than [-] people.

Cai Yang added 5000 troops before and after, and Liyang City, where Zhao Gang and others were stationed, added another [-] troops. These troops and Li Tai were assigned to Yang Zhong's dispatch to maintain his strategy against the Eastern Han area.

Therefore, there are still over [-] troops in the town of Jingzhou today, not including the newly recruited state soldiers and barbarian armies. This part of the army has nearly [-] troops, but Li Tai does not plan to use these troops for the time being.To fight against an old man like Murong Shaozong who has been in troubled times for many years, a large number of soldiers may not be a big deal. If it is not for the elite soldiers, it is estimated that they can only deliver food.

Regarding the troops in his hands, Li Tai first led Dou Chi to lead 3000 troops to move to Xinye to ensure that no matter what happened in Mianbei, it would not affect the progress of the Handong battle.

At the same time, Li Tun led [-] elite soldiers to the north to support Guo Xian who was stationed on Sanya Road. Although Li Tai made his own guess, who knows if such old oily people will make any unreasonable disturbances? The operation is the same as Liu Zhongli's attack on Xiangyang City, so Sanyadao can't relax here.

As for the rest of the troops, Li Tai led [-] cavalry and went straight to Fangcheng County in the east of Mianbei to garrison.

This is based on his guess about Murong Shaozong's military strength, and the upper limit of his flexible command in the face of battle, he determined a size that would not be besieged and wiped out by Murong Shaozong in a short period of time, and ordered Cui Qian who stayed in Rangcheng , Every two days, an additional [-] elite cavalry will be sent to him.

Facing Murong Shaozong, a top-notch general in the post-Three Kingdoms, Li Tai also put up all his energy. Regardless of the factors affecting luck, he tried to do his best within his ability, marching and camping. In accordance with the rules and regulations, every day in the morning, we set off in the morning, and in the afternoon, we used scouts to search for the camping place, and the daily march was only between three and fifty miles.

Under his procrastination, which was as formal as taking a driver's license test, he finally saw Murong Shaozong's troops who had crossed the border on the fifth day of marching eastward, when he was still nearly sixty miles away from Fangcheng County. .

At this time, it was already late afternoon, and Li Tai's cavalry troops had reached more than [-] troops after two rounds of reinforcements, and Murong Shaozong's troops seemed to be larger than his troops. Thousands more people.

Although the enemy was outnumbered, Li Tai did not panic. Seeing that the enemy troops had stopped and started to put on their armor, he ordered his troops to arrange the carriages carrying the luggage in an orderly manner. The chariot formation was filled with saber and shield sergeants, and on the side of the saber chariot formation, a vertical spear formation was formed, and two thousand fine cavalry left the main formation, each hanging in the outer room for a while. Outside the Pigang.

The two sides encountered each other in the wild, and each prepared for battle. With the sound of drums and horns, it was Murong Shaozong's Qingqi who took the lead in attacking.

In the process of rushing in, the three groups of light cavalry gradually changed their routes, and two of them no longer aimed at the knife-car battle formation halfway through the journey, but strangled towards the cavalry group hanging outside the left wing.

As for the rest of the light cavalry, hundreds of powerful soldiers in front first tried to destroy the formation with cavalry and shooting, and the powerful soldiers with horses in the rear charged into the formation.However, under the interception of the frame, the effect of this charge was not good. It only destroyed the two outermost trucks, but several cavalrymen were slashed and killed in the formation.

The cavalry of the Western Wei Dynasty on the left also circled from the rear to the rear of the formation along the front line, and the two cavalry of the Eastern Wei Dynasty pursued them tail-to-tail. fell to the ground.

Murong Shaozong in the back formation frowned immediately when he saw this, Dang even waved his hand and ordered Ming Jin to withdraw his troops, and waited until the Qingqi from all directions returned to rest for a while, then interspersed with two groups of troops, trying to shake the front formation, but the results were similar, This formation could not be broken.

"Who is the thief general? The formation is so stubborn!"

Although Murong Shaozong is a famous general in the world, he is good at creating and grasping opportunities, but the enemy just consolidated his position and was slow to deal with all kinds of attacks and attempts, which made him unable to strike for a while.

However, the situation between the enemy and ourselves did not come to a stalemate. In the evening, the sound of galloping war horses came from the western field.

After Murong Shaozong heard this sound, his complexion changed suddenly, Dang Shi waved his men and horses to retreat to the east.His troops marched quite fast, and when the rear Qingqi arranged by Li Tai arrived, they had already retreated to the hills several miles away.

Taking advantage of the enemy's retreat, Li Tai ordered his troops to evacuate to the west in batches, looking for a place suitable for camping overnight on the way, and turning a blind eye to the invading enemy army several miles away, and not Attack blindly.

When Murong Shaozong waited for a while, and then led two thousand Qingqi back to fight back, he saw that Li Tai's troops had retreated several miles and set up camp, so he ordered his troops to come forward and shouted: "Mianbei rats, If you don’t dare to fight, why don’t you come out and surrender quickly!”

Li Tai was not angry when he heard this, but cheered and shouted in response: "Murong Shuigui, this is not the hometown where Ertu was buried, so take the edge for now!"

(End of this chapter)