Do you know: I have a different surname: Wang, uncle Minglan.

Chapter 312 The general attack begins

In the eighth year of Jiayou, at the end of March, Lin Zhaoyuan successfully recovered Tangyi.

Within half a month, they successively captured two city gates heavily guarded by the Liao army, allowing many generals to see the strength of Lin Zhaoyuan's leadership.

Although the casualties were heavy, with about 15,000 men killed in an army of 200,000, the result was good, and that was enough.

If Wei Yuan had led the troops, there might have been fewer casualties.

But he is the commander-in-chief of the three armies, and he needs to train his own team.

If Lin Zhaoyuan and others were not allowed to personally command some battles, they would never be able to grow.

However, the price of doing so is the loss of troops and generals.

As the saying goes, the success of a general is the result of the sacrifice of thousands of soldiers. The growth of a general is often accompanied by mountains of corpses and seas of blood. This is inevitable.

Dayingli, Tangyin County.

The 300,000 troops from Daming Prefecture have arrived here.

In order to quickly form a unified fighting force with the Danglu Army, Jiangnan Army and other military branches, military training before the war is a necessary measure.

At this time, Xiao Yuming was following behind Wei Yuan, talking about Qin Zhen.
"General Wei ordered Qin Zhen to transfer troops from Daming Prefecture to Tangyin, but he was against it."

"He believed that Yelu Xinxian was facing a situation where he had no defenses. If he concentrated his forces and launched a large-scale battle in Damingfu, there might be unexpected results."

"But if we insist on attacking Xiangzhou, both the enemy and us will suffer heavy losses."

Wei Yuan walked in front of the soldiers who were training, suddenly stopped, turned around, looked at Xiao Yuming, and said with a smile:
"This isn't just Qin Zhen's idea, right?"

Xiao Yuming shook his head and smiled, "It's true that nothing can be hidden from General Wei. Now many generals in the army have this idea."

Yelu Renxian was stationed in Xiangzhou, while Yelu Xinxian only built his camp on the mountain. From a geographical point of view, launching a general attack on Yelu Xinxian is more appropriate for the current situation.

Wei Yuan asked: "Do you have the same doubt?"

Xiao Yuming nodded without hesitation and said, "Yes, but I know that Commander Wei must have a reason for doing this."

Wei Yuan smiled without saying anything and went straight to the main tent.

Xiao Yuming followed closely behind.

The two stood in front of the sand table.

Wei Yuan said earnestly, "Yelu Xinxian is stationed outside Damingfu. His goal from the beginning to the end was not to capture Damingfu, but to use the battle of Damingfu to delay the main force of our army and buy time for Yelu Renxian to attack Bianjing."

"During the Battle of Bianjing, Yelu Xinxian put all his efforts in Damingfu to stop the reinforcements from Damingfu. From this point of view, the real main force of the Liao army has always been Yelu Renxian."

After hearing his long speech, Xiao Yuming gradually understood.

Xiangzhou's geographical location is particularly special, and Yelu Renxian will not easily choose to withdraw his troops.

But Yelu Xinxian was different.

His real purpose was to stop the Damingfu army from returning to support at all costs after the Battle of Bianjing broke out.

At that time, Qin Zhen was determined to annihilate Yelu Xinxian in Daming Prefecture, so he only sent a small number of reinforcements to Bian Jing.

Because Qin Zhen didn't believe at all that Yelu Renxian was really capable of capturing Bianjing in a very short period of time, and Wei Yuan also led his army from Jiangnan to Bianjing.

This gave him enough confidence not to worry too much about the safety of Bianliang.

Who knew that the city of Bianjing was almost conquered by Yelu Renxian?

Whenever he thought of this, Qin Zhen couldn't help but feel scared.

"So, in the battle of Xiangzhou, General Wei wanted to annihilate the real main force of the Liao army?"

Xiao Yuming asked curiously.

Wei Yuan smiled and said, "Whether they are the main force or not, let's not talk about it for now, but it is not realistic to want to annihilate most of the enemy forces in one battle."

"Besides, our target is not necessarily Xiangzhou."

Not necessarily Xiangzhou?

Xiao Yuming was confused again.

But this time, Wei Yuan did not explain it to him again.

Xiao Yuming was praised as a Confucian general, partly as a compliment, and partly because he was said to be suitable to be a military strategist or staff member rather than to lead troops in battle.

But Wei Yuan wanted to train him into a great scholar.

So, I told him some things.

But the most critical factor requires him to guess it himself.

This will be beneficial to his growth.

Wei Yuan liked to read the life story of Liu Bang, the first emperor of Han Dynasty.

He discovered that as a knight-errant, the thing Liu Bang did most in the first half of his life was to travel around and gain knowledge.

Later, during the period of struggle among many heroes, Liu Bang, who was good at employing people, took the initiative to discover the shining points of the soldiers around him and trained them, allowing them to become capable generals.

Later, rumors spread among the people that the talent of one county was enough to govern the world.

In fact, it was because those who followed Liu Bang had experienced enough growth, honed themselves through continuous learning and progress, and then it was natural for them to govern their country later.

Being able to survive this growth process was half due to Liu Bang, and the other half was thanks to themselves.

Now, Wei Yuan’s way of cultivating talents around him is actually no different from Liu Bang’s approach.

On April 1, the eighth year of Jiayou, according to the original plan, Yang Huairen led an army of 100,000 to attack Handan.

Yelu Renxian deployed a total of 30,000 troops in Handan. Logically speaking, even if 30,000 people could not hold the city, they could still hold out for a considerable period of time as they had abundant food and supplies.

But Yelu Renxian overlooked one problem. The warriors of the Liao army had lived on horseback since childhood. They were good at field battles and were invincible.

But if it is a battle to defend a city, without a general who is good at defending a city, it would be somewhat inferior to Yang Huairen who is good at attacking strongholds.

Despite this, the Liao army also demonstrated extremely strong combat effectiveness. Facing Yang Huairen's three consecutive days of siege, they did not allow a single Zhou army soldier to climb onto the city wall.

At this time, Yang Huairen's army had suffered nearly 10,000 casualties.

In order to preserve his own strength, he had no choice but to ask Wei Yuan for help, hoping to capture Handan at the lowest cost.

At this time, in the Tangyin camp, Wei Yuan summoned all the generals to discuss matters.

After discussing for half a day, everyone agreed that they should send more troops to Handan.

After careful consideration, Wei Yuan believed that once more troops were sent to Handan, it would mean that the decisive battle would come early.

Today, the most critical deployment has not yet been put in place - Wuan.

If we fight a decisive battle now, it will be easy for the Liao army to tear open a gap and give us ample room to advance or retreat.

"Once we increase our troops, Yelu Renxian will definitely choose to fight a decisive battle in Handan."

"If we don't send more troops, Yelu Renxian won't dare to act rashly."

"Tell Yang Huairen to take Handan at all costs. I don't want casualties, I just want Handan!"

When he said this, Wei Yuan's face became extremely serious.

Three days later.

Outside Handan City.

In the Zhou army camp.

After days of fighting, the Zhou army soldiers, who were all a little dusty and dusty, were now standing in front of Yang Huairen.

In his hand, he held a top-secret letter from Wei Yuan.

Yang Huairen looked at the generals and said seriously:
"Everyone, General Wei said that we must take Handan at all costs!"

The soldiers who can stay here are all Yang Huairen’s confidants, and his confidants are also Wei Yuan’s confidants.

They all had an almost crazy trust in Wei Yuan, as if Wei Yuan was the soul of their army and their belief that they would win every battle.

But this time, they really didn't understand Wei Yuan's decision.
"General Wei has 600,000 troops at his disposal. We only need to send 100,000 soldiers and our army can recapture Handan at the lowest cost!"

"One hundred thousand soldiers is not a big deal for the commander of the guards, right?"

"."

From Wei Yuan's perspective, once more troops are sent to Handan, there will be movement in Xiangzhou.

By then, Handan will become a huge meat grinder.

Both the enemy and us could only continue to send reinforcements to Handan, which went against the deployment Wei Yuan had made from the beginning.

Fighting a major war in Handan would be a losing deal for the Zhou army.

Because the focus Wei Yuan really wants to target may not be Xiangzhou.

Yang Huairen could roughly understand Wei Yuan's thoughts, but only roughly.

As a general, obeying military orders is your duty.

"enough!"

"How can we question or refute Marshal Wei's decision?"

"Order the entire army to rest for a day. Tomorrow, all soldiers will take turns attacking the city and recapture Handan in the shortest possible time!"

Yang Huairen spoke slowly.

On April 7th of the eighth year of Jiayou, 100,000 soldiers from Daizhou arrived in Wuan and began to attack the city.

There were only 10,000 defenders in Wu'an City, which was not a problem for the soldiers who came from Daizhou.

Therefore, among the battles of Wuan and Handan, the most brutal fighting and the most tragic sacrifices were in the Battle of Handan.

Later historical books recorded that "Duke Hu Yang Huairen led his army to fight Handan, but failed for half a month, with more than half of his soldiers killed and wounded. Later, he attacked the city on a rainy night and recaptured Handan."

After a full half-month siege, with 60,000 to 70,000 casualties among the 100,000 soldiers, Handan was finally recaptured and all the Liao troops guarding it were wiped out.

It was said that they were completely annihilated, but in fact, not a single Liao soldier guarding Handan surrendered!
When Yang Huairen recalled this battle in his later years, everything seemed to be vivid in his mind, and he told future generations about this extremely brutal siege.

That night.

The pouring rain washed away the walls, the bodies and the blood outside the city.

The entire ground looked like a lake of blood.

When they attacked Handan, every soldier of the Zhou army was covered in blood.

Even the footprints were stained with blood.

There were some bloodstains that seemed to have stuck to the city wall.

Even the heavy rain could not wash away the bloodstains.

The city gates and the city walls were piled with corpses.

Every step they took was stepping on corpses.

There were endless lightning and thunder in the sky.

The whole city of Handan was like purgatory, shocking the souls of every living person.

Even the soldiers who had experienced many battles could not help but feel turbulent in their hearts when they saw this extremely tragic scene.

The smell of blood and the stench of rotting corpses completely blended together after being washed away by the rain.

The entire city of Handan has become a ghost town.

After completely annihilating the Liao army soldiers, Yang Huairen and others, as the victors, did not have the joy that the victors should have on their faces.

This battle is really too cruel and tragic!
On top of the city wall of Handan.

Yang Huairen stood with several Zhou army generals, watching the soldiers carrying corpses to the city wall, and their hearts trembled at the same time.
"To be honest, I have never seen such a brutal offensive and defensive battle in all my years in the army."

"In just half a month, nearly 100,000 people were killed or wounded on both sides, plus the bodies of the civilians in the city. We are lucky to win this battle."

"General Wei said that after we recapture Handan, 30,000 troops will be sent from Wu'an to help us defend the city."

"."

In the Battle of Handan, they paid such a heavy price just because of Wei Yuan's military order.

After everyone discussed it, Yang Huairen slowly said:

"Send someone to inform the commander-in-chief that Handan has been recaptured."

On April 10th of the eighth year of Jiayou, 100,000 soldiers from Daizhou recaptured Wu'an City.

April th.

Tangyin.

Xiao Yuming was reporting the situation in Handan to Wei Yuan.
"Although it took half a month, General Yang has lived up to your expectations, Commander Wei."

Having said this, he acted as if he wanted to say something but hesitated.

Seeing this, Wei Yuan asked curiously: "Anything else?"

Xiao Yuming said solemnly: "The specific number of casualties in the Battle of Handan has been revealed."

Wei Yuan asked again: "How much?"

Xiao Yuming said: "More than 63,200 people."

Sixty thousand?

When Wei Yuan heard this number, he was also stunned.

More than half of the troops were lost, which in a sense was equivalent to being completely wiped out.

However, even though most of his troops were lost, Yang Huairen still managed to grit his teeth and capture the city of Handan.

It can be seen that he has a strong talent for commanding troops.

After a while, Wei Yuan sighed, "In a war, there will always be casualties."

After that, he returned to normal and said to Xiao Yuming and others: "Order Wu'an to secretly send 40,000 more troops to Handan."

"Have all the troops arrived at their designated locations?"

Shen Qing bowed and said, "They have all arrived at the positions previously deployed by the Guards."

Wei Yuan nodded, "Order."

Just say the word "ling" first.

The generals stood up from their seats.

Wei Yuan looked at everyone with an unprecedented serious expression, and said word by word:

"Wu'an and Handan, keep your troops in place."

"Yong'an and Tangyi, be on guard against Yelu Xinxian's return for assistance."

Having said that, he took a deep breath and made another decision.
"In the eighth year of Jiayou, on April 20th, at the first quarter of the morning, we will launch a general attack on Xiangzhou!"

"Gentlemen, whether you can avenge your previous shame depends on this battle!"

Chen Daniu and the others said in unison, "Yes!"

The Battle of Xiangzhou was the first battle in the Great Zhou's counterattack, and it was also a battle destined to go down in history.

The total number of troops deployed by both sides has exceeded one million.

In the era of cold weapons, major wars involving more than a million people were always battles of destiny and battles to determine the fate of the country.

If Wei Yuan wins this battle, he will be able to regain lost territory and even lay the foundation for annihilating the main force of the Liao army in the Central Plains, and then fight all the way to the Sixteen Prefectures of Yanyun.

If he loses this battle, Yelu Renxian can lay the foundation for unifying the northern part of the Great Zhou.

It’s just like the Battle of Guandu.

The total number of troops deployed by Yuan and Cao was nearly 300,000.

Both sides deployed a total of more than 200,000 troops, which, converted to today, is no less than a historic war with the participation of millions of people!

This war was planned, initiated and organized by Wei Yuan.

It was also the first large-scale battle he launched since he led a large-scale military corps, and it was of extraordinary significance.

(End of this chapter)