Jiuxi

Chapter 529 Chapter 527 [White Horse]

North of Cuiting.

More than 10,000 infantrymen led by Jingjun general Shu Bulie have withdrawn to Changshou County.

This time he sent his troops to attack Cuiting, originally to cooperate with Tuoman Wulu's plan, just to attract the attention of the main force of Jingzhou Yingze Army and Feiyu Army, so that Tuoman Wulu could confidently and boldly attack Shiquan in the east. .

Shu Bulie completed this step perfectly. Although he still failed to capture Cuiting, the hard nut to crack, the strategic goal had been achieved. The main force of Yingze Army and Feiyu Army were trapped here, unable to move.

However, the appearance of a cavalry team ruined their plan.

Fortunately, Tuoman Wulu did not just focus on escaping, and sent someone to deliver the news to Shu Bulie in time. Therefore, this Jing army was able to retreat in time and return to Changshou County more than 20 miles away to avoid being destroyed by Dingzhou Ding who had completed their rest. The Northern Army intercepted the retreat.

The appearance of the Dingzhou cavalry on the Jingzhou battlefield was a bit surprising, but it was not too outrageous.

As everyone knows, after the Jiangbei War two years ago, Jingzhou and Huaizhou in the Southern Qi Dynasty were connected through the Shuangfeng Ancient Road.

At present, the defense line of Jishan Tun in Dingzhou is relatively stable. The Huai and Ding armies can block the offensive of the Jingchaodong Route Army. The Dingbei cavalry can play a limited role. Let them go south to Huaizhou and cross the Shuangfeng Ancient Road, and then come to Jing It is common sense for states to assist in prevention.

There is no need to go into details about the strength of the Feiyu Army. The performance of the Dingzhou and Dingbei Army in the Battle of Shiquan is enough to prove that they are not weaker than the Jingjun cavalry. These two cavalry units add up to tens of thousands of horses and are indeed capable of assisting in the defense of the outskirts of Yongqiu.

Although Changshou County and Cuiting in the south are not as strong as Yongqiu or Heluo, Shu Bulie is not worried that the other party will take the initiative to attack north. After all, the cavalry can play a very small role in the siege. The Qi army will not suddenly change its strategy of holding on just because of the arrival of a cavalry reinforcement.

Shu Bulie was most concerned about the opponent's next move, so while withdrawing his troops and returning to Changshou County, he sent a large number of scouts to pay close attention to the situation in the south.

In fact, Tuoman Wulu did not attack Shiquan on his own initiative. He wanted to capture Shiquan and then control the entrance to the Shuangfeng Ancient Road in the southeast, thus completely cutting off the connection between Jingzhou and Huaizhou.

Shu Bu Lie fell into hesitation.

However, things did not go as expected, and the Dingbei Army relied on its tyrannical strength to successfully reverse the situation.

The centurion said: "The cavalry was indeed under the banner of the Dingbei Army. They stayed southwest of Cuiting City for a long time, and then they joined up with another cavalry Feiyu Army and headed west together."

As a general under Qing Yugong who can act independently, he is quite familiar with the situation of the Qi army. He knows that this Dingbei army is one of the trump cards under Lu Chen of Southern Qi. The main backbone of them are all from the former Rui Shi battalion, and those who joined later The soldiers are also the elite of Huaizhou's armies.

Two days later, a captain named Ye Ning hurried over. After saluting, he immediately said: "Da Xiangyin, the cavalry has appeared!"

It is not unusual for such a fierce and powerful division of 8,000 men to kill Tuoman Ningda on the spot and lose most of the 5,000 cavalry of Jingjun.

Shu Bulie muttered to himself and paced back and forth.

Shu Bulie's eyes narrowed slightly, his expression became solemn, and he asked: "Then what?"

Ye Ning said respectfully: "This is indeed a possibility, but the general is more inclined to think that they really want to rush to the west to help."

In this way, the purpose of the two cavalry groups in the south joining together and heading west is self-evident.

"To the west?"

Shu Bu Lie frowned slightly.

They were most likely going to deal with the cavalry under Qing Yugong's command, at least to ensure that the connection between Yongqiu City and the outside world was not cut off, so that Li Tianrun could continue to command the various departments of the Jingzhou Army without hindrance.

There is Yongqiu City in the far west, where a battle between spears and shields is going on.

"Why?"

"Dingbei Army..."

After a moment, he looked up at Ye Ning and said hesitantly: "Do you think the Southern Qi cavalry deliberately made a gesture of marching westward, and then induced our army to continue going south to attack Cuiting?"

"Yongqiu City is currently under siege by our army. Li Tianrun's opponent is Prince Qingyu. These four words alone cannot tolerate the Qi army's neglect. If Yongqiu is captured by our army, not only the armies of Southern Qi will lose this battle but also Even if Li Tianrun fails to survive, this is a more unacceptable loss for Nan Qi than losing the city, so they will definitely do their best to rescue Yongqiu."

Shu Bu Lie nodded slightly and agreed with his judgment.

Ye Ning was greatly encouraged and continued: "Another one, the enemy Dingbei Army won a great victory outside Shiquan City, and General Tuoman was forced to retreat. In the eyes of the Qi Army, at least for a period of time, our army will not be able to threaten it again. Shiquan and other places did not even dare to go south to attack Cuiting. This battle undoubtedly gave the Qi army enough confidence that even if they only have a few infantry to defend the city, the cavalry can naturally rush to Yongqiu."

Shu Bu Lie was silent.

Regardless of whether he received news of the opponent's cavalry heading west, he could choose to stand still and only need to send this information to Qing Yugong.

The problem is that he can't do that.

At the beginning of the war, the task given by Qing Yugong to him and Tuoman Wulu was to put enough pressure on the Jingzhou Army on the eastern front and to seize the opportunity in time when it appeared.

Now the Tuoman Ulu tribe has suffered heavy losses. Although there are still more than 10,000 troops, this defeat has a great impact on the morale of the army and it will take some time to adjust. Therefore, the heavy responsibility of continuing to exert pressure falls entirely on Shubulie.

If he watched the Qi cavalry rush to Yongqiu and did nothing except deliver a message to Qing Yugong, but only worked on the eastern front, he would definitely end up committing a serious crime of delaying the military plane.

However, what Shu Bulie was worried about was that the Qi cavalry made a feint, deliberately making a gesture of marching westward in the sight of Jing Jun's scouts, and then quietly turned back to kill a returning carbine. When Jing Jun attacked Cuiting, he repeated the same trick. As a result, Jingjun's deployment on the eastern front was ineffective. Ye Ning asked cautiously: "Is Da Xiangyin worried that the Qi army's cavalry is cheating?"

Shubulie nodded and said: "It will be difficult for Tuoman Wulu's subordinates to make a comeback for the time being. Naturally, our army must be more careful."

Ye Ning said tentatively: "Da Xiangyin, our people are now far behind the Qi army's cavalry. As long as we make sure that the other party is far away, we can attack Cuiting. If it doesn't work, once the Qi army's cavalry turns around, our scouts will be faster." Fast, the news can be sent back in time, and Da Xiangyin can still withdraw his troops calmly. "

"That's fine."

Shubulie stood up and walked to the corridor, looking at the clear sky in the south, and said in a deep voice: "Ask the scouts to watch carefully and be sure to confirm the traces of the Qi army's cavalry."

"Follow the order!"

Ye Ning responded excitedly.

Three days later, Ye Ning brought a definite reward.

"Da Xiangyin, the Qi cavalry has been advancing westward, at a pace that is neither too fast nor too slow, which is in line with common sense. They are currently more than 160 miles away from Cuiting City. Even if they can turn back at all costs, even if our scouts do not send back this news , when they rushed back to Cuiting, they had no time to fight and rush into battle. Our scouts only dared to follow from a distance, unable to see the specific situation of the enemy's cavalry, but one thing is certain, the opponent has at least tens of thousands of horses. "

After hearing the news, the stone hanging in Shubulie's heart finally fell to the ground.

The Qi army can lie about the formation in many ways, but there is only one thing that cannot be lied about, and that is the extremely rare war horses.

There was no suitable land to raise horses in Southern Qi, so the more than 200,000 frontier troops in the three states of Jiangbei could only muster less than 20,000 cavalry. The reason was the lack of horses that could charge into battle.

Shu Bulie took a deep breath and said loudly: "Give me the order to attack Cuiting tomorrow. This time our army must capture this bridgehead."

Ye Ning said solemnly: "Follow the order!"

Cuiting City still stands on the main road.

Jing Jun had been here many times during this period, and various methods including surprise attacks, forced attacks, and feint attacks had been used, but this time Jing Jun's soldiers had a very firm goal.

Even if he was sure that the Qi cavalry had gone far away, Shu Bulie was still very cautious.

This time Jingjun only attacked one side of the north city and ignored the other three walls.

Although this arrangement will allow the city's defenders to have enough rotating troops, Jing's army can also maintain a stable and solid formation. Even if the Qi army's cavalry can fly back directly from two hundred miles away, Jing's army will not suffer the same fate as Tuoman Wulu. The same mistakes outside Shiquan City.

The war drums beat, and the war begins again.

Shu Bulie sat under the flag of the central military general and looked at the situation on the city in the distance.

The defenders in the city were in high spirits. Facing Jing Jun who had been holding back his anger during this period, their defense was very methodical.

Under the north city tower of Cuiting, Huangfu Yu, the commander of the Yingze Army, observed the battle situation in front of him and said to the young man next to him: "Master Marquis, the general opposite is named Shu Bu Lie. This guy has an extremely cautious character. Even if you Send the main force of the cavalry to the west, but he still refuses to go all out at this time."

Lu Chen stood beside him, trying his best to avoid Jingjun's sight from below the city, and said calmly: "He doesn't need to go all out, as long as he is willing to come out of Changshou County."

Huangfu Yu nodded with conviction.

At this moment, he couldn't help but feel something. When they met by chance at Songyangyi in the northern suburbs of Beijing, he was keenly aware that this young man had an unlimited future.

Just a few years later, he was still the commander of the army, and Lu Chen had grown from an ordinary captain to the prince he needed to look up to today.

He is also the coach second only to Li Tianrun in this battle.

Jingjun's offensive came one after another. Although Cuiting was not as good as the big cities like Yongqiu and Heluo, it was much stronger than Shiquan. In addition, the defenders were elites trained by Huangfu Yu himself and were not afraid of those The fierce Jinglian people.

The two sides gradually became stalemate.

Time passed slowly, and Shu Bulie had already sent three groups of people to attack the city wall.

The garrison in the city also rotated twice.

At this moment, something different suddenly happened outside the city.

Huangfu Yu said excitedly: "Master Hou, the eldest lady is here!"

Logically, he should be called by his military title, but he had been Li Tianrun's personal soldier and was used to calling Li Bingxue this way.

Lu Chen looked around and saw three thousand cavalry rushing to the battlefield outside the city. The leader was riding the distinctive white horse and holding a horse pole in one hand.

Stepping on the clouds to catch up with the moon, he led his army and rushed forward.

(End of this chapter)