Late Tang

Of course Li Jing is not a casually kind-hearted person, the decision he made was after careful consideration and careful and repeated discussions with the generals and counselors.

At the beginning, the Zhendong Army first defeated General Gao, then Li Quanzhong of the Left Army, and then encircled Li Maoxun of Wozhou.Lu Long's veteran Liu Yue and Fan Xinglong's Right Route Army retreated a hundred miles, all the way back to Lu County, without fighting.After that, Li Jing went all the way north and approached the city of Youzhou. Not only did Liu Yue and others receive Li Keju's request for help, they would not save them, but they continued to retreat northward.

After retreating to Xianzhou east of Lushui, Liu Yue and the others did not stay idle.While watching the movement in Youzhou, they are intensively contacting the various departments of the Lu Army and gathering troops.Liu Yue had a very good idea and asked Li Jing to attack Youzhou, a famous city in Hebei.

Li Jing and Li Keju killed each other, Li Jing's soldiers were excellent, but they attacked from afar, Li Keju's troops were weak, but they occupied the fortress of Youzhou.The two sides fought fiercely and fiercely, and the result must be a loss for both sides.Whether Li Jing captured Youzhou in the end, or Li Jing retreated halfway, they were all looking forward to seeing it.

If Li Jing defeated Li Keju and took Youzhou City, there must have been a lot of casualties at that time.The Zhendong Army came across the sea and went deep into Youzhou.At that time, they only needed to join forces to block Li Jing's retreat, and then they could close their doors and fight dogs. No matter how strong Li Jing's Zhendong army was, they would be surrounded by the hinterland of Youzhou, so what?At that time, even if it is a strong dragon, if it rests on the shallows, it will be inferior to even small fish and shrimps.

At that time, Li Jing was dealt with, and Youzhou was returned to their control.

Either, Li Jing and Li Keju failed to capture the battle, or simply withdrew, which is naturally better.At that time, when Li Jing left, they would join forces to find out and slaughter the Uighur liar's son in Youzhou City, and Youzhou still belonged to them.

Everything was going well, and Lu Longjun's ministries were somewhat dissatisfied with Li Maoxun's stealing of the position of commander-in-chief.Now that the liar is dead, the position of the commander-in-chief will naturally go to the strong.After Li Maoxun won the commander-in-chief position, he promoted a large number of generals in Guizhou, which made many military leaders dissatisfied.Right now, Liu Yue and Fan Xinglong called on all the ministries to send troops to drive Li Keju away, so everyone was naturally happy.Even if Liu Yue's commander-in-chief position is likely to belong to him, if everyone sends troops, it will definitely not be in vain.

By September 25th, the mighty army, Zhenyuan army, Jingsai army, Xiongwu army, Liucheng army, Beikou Shouzhuo, Yancheng Shouzhuo, Yuguan Shouzhuo, Hongshui Shouzhuo, Hengshan Township Army, Dawang Township Army, Pingzhou, Jizhou, Tanzhou, Yanzhou, Guishun Prefecture, Xianzhou and other states and counties, except for some left behind, sent troops to gather one after another, and [-] soldiers and horses have been gathered.

Liu Yue is full of ambition now, with such a large army in hand, how can that kid Li Keju compete with him for the position of Marshal Lu Long.

Excitedly, Liu Yue, who is over half a hundred years old, feels like he is ten years younger.

It's a pity that he was not happy for long, Fan Xinglong came in a hurry and told him a piece of news that he didn't want to hear.

"What? Li Keju, a bastard, actually recognized Li Jing as his uncle, and even married his younger sister to Li Jing's clansman. Now Li Jing has entered Youzhou City without bloodshed?" Drink Naluoshizi new tea.The clear soup with little water was full of bitterness, but arty so I endured it all the time. When I heard the news at this time, I was so angry that I even threw the precious purple clay teapot to the ground.

"What is Li Keju? What qualifications does he have to give up Youzhou to Li Jing?" Liu Yue said angrily.

"It's not a resignation, but it's attached to Li Jing from now on, and [-]% of the annual tax of Youzhou Town has to be handed over to Li Jing." Fan Xinglong said.

"It's not considered selling, what's called selling!" Liu Yue has already regarded himself as the commander of Youzhou, and everything in Youzhou is considered to be his. It is really unreasonable for Li Keju to dare to give away his things. .

What annoyed him even more was that he sat on the mountain and watched the tiger fight, and his plan of making a profit fell through.Not only did Li Jing and Li Keju not fight, they became uncles and nephews. Is there anything more irritating than this in this world.

But what made him even more angry was that before he decided to fight back, Li Jing and Li Keju had joined forces to send troops, and the same [-] soldiers were coming to kill Lushui.

Before Li Jing sent troops, he sent envoys to the city of Xianzhou, and sent Li Jing's personal letter to Liu Yue and others.In Li Jing's letter, he told the generals to suspend the army, but the angry Liu Yue ignored it at all.

Then, on the first day of September, Li Keju's general Li Quanzhong led [-] soldiers and horses to the south bank of Lushui as the vanguard.

In Peach Blossom Valley in the south of Yanzhou, Li Kuangwei, the eldest son of Li Quanzhong, led a thousand soldiers and horses to take the lead in fighting the mighty army.As soon as the two sides fought, Li Kuangwei, who was known as the golden-headed king, defeated the mighty army. Fortunately, Fan Xinglong led the army to respond. Thousands of corpses, Li Kuangwei led dozens of riders to escape alone.

Fan Xinglong covered and killed for more than 30 li, until Li Quanzhong's other son Li Kuangchou arrived with his troops, and then retreated.

Liu Yue was very happy to receive this good news.Although these Hu Qimen in Guizhou are fierce, they are nothing more than that.These soldiers and horses are also frontier garrison soldiers who have always been stationed in the border areas, and they often fight with the Hu people. How can these Uighur soldiers be comparable.

On the night of the first grade of junior high school, it was pitch black, with no stars.

However, it was rare and sunny, with a breeze blowing, and it was not cold. Instead, there were bursts of late-blooming sweet-scented osmanthus fragrance.

While blowing the mountain wind, Li Jing rode that one-foot-long black horse.

Li Wei of Feiying Battalion rushed back on his horse, found Li Jing among the marching cavalry, and quickly reported: "Liu Yue's soldiers and horses have accumulated grain and grass in Sanhe City behind Xianzhou. There are 20 shi of grain and [-] bundles of horse grass. "

Sanhe is located on the bank of Haihe River in the middle of Baoshui, Haihe and Gushui.It is a small city with a population of about [-].Thirty miles east of Xianzhou City.

The information that Liu Yue's soldiers, horses, food and grass are stored in Sanhe City is not too secret.Because Sanhe City was located next to the base camp of Xianzhou City and at the rear, Liu Yue and the others were not worried.

However, Li Jing never liked to take the usual path.

Liu Yue and the others thought Sanhe City was safe, but it was actually the most unsafe.

After Li Jing heard the news of Liu Yue's gathering of soldiers and horses, he was ready to fight him hard.

Youzhou City doesn't need to be united, and Li Jing doesn't want Li Keju's family to dominate.But Li Keju cannot be allowed to be too weak, too weak, and may be wiped out at any time.Then all his hard work would be in vain.The best situation, of course, is to balance.Let Li Keju and Liu Yue have similar strengths to each other. It is best for Li Keju to be slightly weaker, but not too weak.In this way, Li Keju needs the support of Zhendong Army if he wants to secure his position in Youzhou.

With the balance of power between the two sides, this Youzhou will not want to end the chaos, and naturally it will take advantage of Li Jing's chaos to profit.

In this battle, Li Jing wanted to beat Liu Yue to death and weaken his strength.

However, Li Jing didn't want to get too deep in such a battle.So this will definitely be a quick battle. After discussing with Li Zhen and others for a long time, Li Jing's battle plan is to raid Sanhe's grain and grass warehouse.Tens of thousands of soldiers and horses gathered together, and the food and grass went first.As long as their food and grass are burned, these soldiers and horses will be destroyed by themselves.

Li Jing asked Li Keju's troops to attack the two cities of Liaoxi and Huairou, while Li Jing's Zhendong army went straight to Xianzhou.However, Li Jing didn't want Liu Yue to spend it hard, so the infantry led by Wang Zhong attacked Xianzhou. Their mission was to feign an attack to attract the attention of Xianzhou city.The real killer move was the five cavalry battalions led by Li Jing himself.

In the middle of the night, Wang Zhong punctually led the Zhendong Army infantry to launch a feint attack on Xianzhou City. Immediately, the Xianzhou City was lit up with flames, and the sound of killing shook the sky.Li Jing stood on a small hillside on horseback, and had a panoramic view of all this.

After half an hour, Li Jing saw that the time was almost up, and with a wave of his hand, five thousand soldiers and horses, like ghosts in the dark night, quietly bypassed Xianzhou City from one side and rushed straight to Sanhe City.

Along the way, Li Wei scattered the Flying Eagle Battalion, and shot and killed all the Youzhou scouts and patrols he encountered.

At the third watch, Li Jing led [-] cavalry to the city of Sanhe.At this time, Sanhe City was still in a deep sleep.The news of the battle in Xianzhou [-] miles away did not reach here, and the road communication between Xianzhou City and Sanhe City was cut off by the Flying Eagle Camp.

The city wall of Sanhe City is also an earthen wall, not covered with bricks, and only two feet high.On the top of the city, there is no arrow tower, only a few soldiers holding spears on it to watch the night.

To deal with such a small town, special warfare has no pressure.They directly chose a slightly remote corner, took out the iron awl and nailed it directly on the earth wall, then stepped on the iron awl to quickly climb up the city wall, and lowered the rope ladder to allow the soldiers behind to enter.

Li Jing led his soldiers and horses to hide two hundred paces outside the city, keeping a close eye on the movement above the city.

After about a cup of tea, three shaking torches suddenly appeared on the top of the city.

Li Jing smiled, and the top of the city has been taken.

With the general in hand, Li Jing waved forward: "Go to the city!"

The knights rode their horses and spears horizontally, urging their horses to gallop, and the distance of two hundred steps was reached in a blink of an eye.At this time, the suspension bridge and the city gate just opened, and the cavalry rushed in.

The deployment of defenses in Sanhe City, and even the information on the storage of grain and grass, had already been inquired in detail by spies. Before departure, Li Jing had already passed these information to the cavalry below.Moreover, according to these, different tasks were formulated for the cavalry.

Therefore, as soon as they entered the city, the cavalry immediately rushed to the place marked by their mission in an orderly manner.

Some rushed directly to the various gates, some to the barracks, and some directly to the grain depot and fodder storage.

Those who seize the door seize the door, those who kill kill kill, and those who set fire set fire.

The extraordinaryness of the Zhendong Army is reflected everywhere, even if they kill people and set fire to them, they can still be so methodical.

One hundred thousand stones of grain and 20 bundles of fodder instantly ignited, and the entire Sanhe City became a sea of ​​flames.The sky over Sanhe was illuminated by the fire like daytime, and even Xianzhou City, thirty miles away, could be seen clearly.

Liu Yue, who was supervising the battle on the top of the city, suddenly heard the exclamation of the soldiers, and couldn't help but raised his head to look at the sky in the east.

"It's Sanhe City, the grain and grass in Sanhe City have been burned!" Someone shouted loudly, and the soldiers on the city suddenly panicked.The morale of the army plummeted, and when it was almost dawn, a cavalry suddenly emerged from the mist in the direction of Sanhe, and it was the Zhendong Army.

Li Jing led his troops back after burning Sanhe grain and grass, and joined the soldiers and horses besieging Xianzhou City.

"Siege three gates and one, get out of the north gate!" Li Jing saw that the defenders on the top of the city were gradually exhausted, so he ordered loudly.

As soon as the military order was issued, the number of soldiers and horses besieging the city at the north gate suddenly decreased.Liu Yue in the city originally thought he was going to die here today, but when he suddenly heard that Beicheng had repelled the enemy's attack, he immediately ordered the entire army to break through at the North Gate, regardless of whether it was a trap or not.

As soon as the gate of the city was opened, soldiers from Youzhou swarmed out, and many soldiers and horses behind rushed out of the city, trampling on each other.

Immediately, the south gate of Xianzhou City was breached, followed by other gates.Many Youzhou soldiers had no time to escape, and they all fell into the city and became prisoners.Liu Yue led the army battalion first and rushed out of the north gate on horseback, followed by many soldiers who were quick to see the opportunity.

But before they breathed a sigh of relief, a cavalry suddenly rushed out halfway, and it was a young general in white robes on a white horse who shouted: "Liu Yue, if you want to pass by from now on, first ask the bright silver in my hand." gun!"

Seeing the silver gun, and the white horse and white robe, Liu Yue suddenly remembered that this person was the son of Gao Shunli from Guizhou, the so-called White Horse and Silver Gun Gao Sichi.This kid's family surrendered to Li Jing after the defeat, and now he is still here halfway to intercept him.Liu Yue, who knew how powerful Gao Siji was, couldn't help but let out a cry of distress, so he had to call for soldiers and horses to rush forward together.

The two armies fought against each other. During the melee, Liu Yue took off the mountain armor that appeared on his body, and exchanged armor with a soldier in a hurry, and let the soldier flee to the southwest with a group of people, attracting Gao Siji led his troops in pursuit, but he fled to the north with other soldiers.

Gao Siji chased after the fake Liu Yue, and shot him down. He was happy, but found that it was a fake. He immediately turned around to look for him, but he couldn't find Liu Yue again.They had no choice but to lead the newly reorganized cavalry of the Yin'an Battalion to kill other Youzhou soldiers indiscriminately. They cried for their fathers and mothers, and finally collapsed and abandoned their weapons to beg for mercy.

After cleaning the battlefield, Gao Siji returned to Xianzhou City, which had been completely captured by Li Jing at this time.Gao Siji reported that he ran away from Liu Yue and pleaded guilty to Li Jing.

Li Jing laughed: "It's just Liu Yue, it doesn't matter if you run away, it doesn't matter. You also go to rest, and tomorrow morning, we will return to Youzhou."

Gao Siji was startled: "I'm going back to Youzhou tomorrow, Liu Yue has been defeated, why don't you take advantage of this time to completely defeat them in one fell swoop?"

Li Jing smiled and did not reply.

(To be continued)