Late Tang

On the fifth day of February in the 15th year of Xiantong, Gongsun Lan came to meet Li Jing again and brought the latest situation in Liaohai.

On the third day of February, Duli Town and Beisha City secretly joined forces to advance both by land and water.On the evening of the third day, the troops from Duli Town and Beisha City launched a surprise attack on Qingnipu at the same time. This time, the two armies dispatched a total of 3 horses, not including the logistics auxiliary soldiers and civilians. .The powerful combined fleet of 2 people in Duli Town, with nearly [-] warships, raided the islands outside Qingni Bay by night.

From the very beginning, he was overwhelming, catching the opponent by surprise, advancing steadily all the way.Before dawn, the nine outer islands of Qingnipu had already been broken.However, successive victories blinded the officers below. Although Pei You, who was commanding from the rear, felt that the battle was a bit weird, the reports from the nine captured islands showed that it seemed that each island was captured before it was conquered. The people of Duchong Island escaped by boat.

It's normal for one or two islands to have such a situation, but if nine islands in a row don't make frontal resistance and flee as soon as they are touched, things are not so good.

Pei You reported this situation to Wang Pu, the city lord who came to escort the battle in person, which aroused Wang Pu's vigilance.Wang Pu is not a literati city lord. He is a veteran with more than 20 years of military experience and has fought more than a dozen tough battles. He is very experienced in judging that the situation ahead may be a trap.Pei You immediately ordered the ships to slow down the attacking rhythm, and began to maintain the training formation, and first firmly occupied the nine islands as the forward base.

However, it was a little late when the order was sent out. The officers of the warships in Duli Town, who had just won successive battles, would not let go of such a great opportunity. Qian Bo is desperately trying to load it onto the ship.Under such stimulation, without waiting for the military order from the rear, the warships of the United Fleet had already opened the nine island passages in advance, rushed through the first island chain of Qingni Bay, and rushed directly to the harbor.

The progress of the matter was as expected and judged by Pei You and Wang Pu. The scouts from Qingnipu had already detected such a movement of the United Fleet.The previous abandonment of the nine outlying islands was nothing more than a false defeat, in order to lure the enemy to advance lightly.After about 3000 or [-] fleets rushed into the harbor.The Qingnipu fleet with only [-] people hidden in the dark of the outer island suddenly broke out and cut into the chaotic formation of the United Fleet from both wings.

Rockets, kerosene, bows and arrows, racket sticks, and even catapults stormed around.On the other hand, the nine islands that had just been attacked before suddenly saw countless defenders appear from nowhere. They directly pulled up ballistas and catapults, and stormed from the shore the warships that were docked on the pier of the islands and loaded with spoils. .There were also a large group of swordsmen and archers who rushed out, chasing and killing the soldiers of Duli Town who were all wrapped in silk and held strings of money in their hands.

In the fierce melee, warships were set ablaze one after another. Although Wang Pu and Pei You wanted to rescue them, the nine newly captured islands were soon recaptured by the defenders.The garrison re-blocked the entire periphery of the harbor, and the coastal defense catapults and ballistas of dozens of islands and the Qingnipu fleet of 3000 men cruised around, completely locking the fleet that invaded the harbor. in.

At the time of Guan Jian, the strong man Wang Pu broke his wrist, and he ordered Pei You to withdraw the fleet to reorganize.In front of the well-defended blockade line consisting of more than 40 islands and 27 naval fleets, a chaotic and disorderly attack would be of no benefit at all.After the retreat, an inventory was made, and the combined fleet lost 27 warships at once, of which nine of the main battleships were lost. 3000 warships with more than [-] troops were thrown on the battlefield.Although more than half of the warships lost were locked in the harbor and were not annihilated, in fact they were no different from being annihilated. They couldn't get out, and it was only a matter of time before they were annihilated.

In the first battle, the Duli Town Fleet suffered heavy losses and was completely caught by the defenders' strategy.First a bluff, then an ambush.After suffering a big loss, Wang Pu didn't dare to attack easily, but began to gather warships starting from the outermost periphery, concentrating his strength to prepare for the advancement of islands one by one.

At the same time, Beisha City had 3 cavalry, [-] infantry, and more than [-] logistics auxiliary soldiers and civilians. The so-called [-] horses also began to attack from land.However, the horse thieves in Beisha City are very cunning. Although they did not march with great fanfare on the surface, they actually marched without Sihao's cover-up.He intentionally leaked the news of the march to Qingnipu's spies, but secretly sent the [-] cavalry ahead in secret, sneaking all the way to Qingnipu city.

When the fleet of Duli Town was ambushed, three thousand cavalrymen from Beisha City repaired the plank road, crossed the Chencang secretly, and walked smoothly into the range of Qingnipu.And bypassed several fortresses in a row, and went directly to Qingnipu City.

Seeing that it was only thirty miles away from Qingnipu City, the commander of the cavalry was excited, looking forward to a time when they would attack Qingnipu City at night.Li Lingfu, the lord of Qingnipu City, personally led [-] elite cavalry to control the crane cavalry to set up an ambush here. When the cavalry from Beisha City arrived, countless bows and crossbows flew out all over the place, covering them like rain boats.Then Li Lingfu led the Crane Controlling Cavalry Army which he formed after the name of the elite Forbidden Army of the Tang Dynasty to charge out.Afterwards, the Beisha cavalry, who were not as elite as the Crane Controlling Army, were defeated without any suspense. Most of them turned back and fled, while the rest were beheaded and captured.

After dawn, the news that both the land and water armies had lost the vanguard spread to all ministries, and Wang Pu and the generals in Beisha City were shocked and angry.However, the battle then fell into a routine confrontation from the raid.The Duli Town Fleet was cautious and did not dare to enter lightly.And Beisha City also started to regroup on foot and cavalry, and then moved forward slowly, first step by step with Qingnipu surrounding the surrounding villages and fortresses to build an offensive and defensive stronghold.In a short period of time, the results will never be seen.

Hearing this result, Li Jing couldn't help being amazed.This Qingnipu had one against two, and the situation was originally critical, but after these two battles, Li Lingfu easily reversed the situation of the entire battlefield with two ambushes.

"Who is this Li Lingfu? Is there any information about him?"

Gongsun Lan smiled slightly, "Li Lingfu is not simple. Everyone calls Qingnipu a den of horse thieves. In fact, when Qingnipu was first captured by the Han forces, there were only a small number of horse thieves. When the Tang forces withdrew When leaving Liaodong, there were a large number of Han Chinese in the entire Liaodong and Liaoxi. Many of them were the children of the Pinglu Army guarding the west and Liaodong. The Han people later joined the Pinglu army, and later, some descendants married the daughter of the dead royal family of Goguryeo. After that, their family was a mixture of Han and Goguryeo. Speaking of it, it is said that the Li Lingfu family came to Shandong from Yingzhou , and finally seized the position of Jieshuai in Ziqing Town, and Li Zhengji, a Goguryeo native who created the 60-year pattern of three generations and four generations of the Li family who ruled Ziqing separately, still has some relatives."

"Li Lingfu's ancestors stayed in Yingzhou at that time, and then gradually developed to the south. After Li Zhengji became the commander-in-chief of Ziqing, they received Li Zhengji's secret support, and began to gather many Han people who had not evacuated. Some bandits, horse thieves, and pirates used their power for their own use, and finally occupied Qingnipu and managed it steadily. The 60 years when Li Zhengji’s family controlled Ziqing Town was also the decades of steady rise and development of Qingnipu. It wasn't until the Li family was finally attacked by the imperial court that Ziqing Town was divided, Qingnipu was also greatly affected, and its power dropped drastically. Only then did Duli Town dare to change its previous secret pursuit into an open attack."

"This Li Lingfu is even more difficult. He was originally his father's fifth son, and above him were four older brothers who had inherited the throne. When he was 15 years old, he took the initiative to take several families and left the Qing Dynasty. Nipu, go far away to the grassland. Twenty years later, Li Lingfu is already the most famous horse thief in the West Liao Corridor. He has a thousand elite horse thieves under his command, which he calls the Crane Control Army. At that time, Duli Town once again When attacking Qingnipu, they even bought many generals of Qingnipu that time, and lured one of Li Lingfu's elder brothers to join forces secretly. That time Qingnipu almost fell, the old city lord and his three sons were all in another son's He died during the sudden rebellion, and almost all the outer islands fell. But at the time when Qingnipu City was about to fall, Li Lingfu, who had been away from home for 20 years, appeared and led his thousand horse thieves to turn the tide and kill the rebellious brother , stabilized the situation. Afterwards, he was ordered to become Qingnipu's new city lord, and then led those people to defend Qingnipu."

"Legendary, so legendary, Li Lingfu's experience is so legendary." Li Jing had to sigh.

Gongsun Lan also chuckled: "Yeah, now it's been another ten years, and Li Lingfu is only 45 years old. It's the time when he is the most ambitious and vigorous. For the past ten years, he has been working hard to rebuild Qingnipu. His men The Crane Control Army has grown from 1000 people ten years ago to 3000 people today. This is Qingnipu's strongest support now, and they are all the bravest and fiercest knights. There has been a big battle in Li Town, but he has never stopped making small moves in the past ten years. His [-] Crane Controlling Army took turns attacking, specifically robbing the land merchant groups and forts in Duli Town. Through these actions, his Crane Controlling Cavalry Army not only surpassed He is becoming more and more brave and valiant, and has robbed a lot of money, and dealt a big blow to Duli Town."

"The icing on the cake is worse than sending charcoal in the snow!" Li Jing mused, "Li Lingfu is a hero, do you think if I take the initiative to contact him and am willing to secretly form an alliance with him to help him deal with Duli Town, will he accept it?"

The smile on Gongsun Lan's face disappeared all of a sudden, leaving only a face full of shock. She didn't understand why a small force in Shamen Town would take risks in the battle between the two fierce tigers in Duli Town and Qingnipu To participate, not to mention, now you have to join Li Lingpu, who is the weakest.And now Qingnipu, in addition to the powerful enemy Duli Town, also has the evil wolf Beisha City.

(To be continued)