Late Tang

Yizhou, Hebei, Yongle County.

Li Keyong, who had taken Yizhou lightly, was discussing with Wang Jingchong, who had successfully captured Dingzhou and went north. This time the troops were dispatched very smoothly.Before dispatching troops, both Li Keyong and Wang Jingchong thought that it would be a fierce battle, and believed that Li Quanzhong would definitely fight a trapped beast, with the intention of fighting to the death. They never thought that Li Quanzhong would run away without a fight, while Hejian and Mozhou The Qin army at the third pass stood still and did not respond for a long time.

Although they couldn't guess Li Jing's intentions at the moment, the two armies were still very happy that Yiding and Erzhou were captured by them again.

Today's discussion in Yongle City on the border of the two states of Yiding is to discuss the next action.

Wang Jingchong's dispatch of troops this time was originally at the invitation of Li Keyong, and he did not really want to fight this battle.Now, things are going well, and the other seven counties in Dingzhou have been taken back at once, and the Sha people have also taken back Yizhou. He believes that although Li Jing has not moved before, it does not mean that Li Jing can be ignored.Therefore, Wang Jingchong advocated accepting as soon as it was good. Anyway, the territory was also taken, and the revenge of the Shatuo people was considered revenge. Let's stop fighting here, lest things get out of control.

However, Li Keyong was not in favor of withdrawing troops. He believed that Li Quanzhong's withdrawal without a fight was entirely because he could not get the support of the Qin army in advance.But Li Jing did not send troops to rescue Li Quanzhong, there are only two possibilities, one is to kill people with a knife, Li Jing wants to use their hands to get rid of Li Quanzhong.Or, like the latest information he got, it's not that Li Jing doesn't want to save him, but that he is too busy to take care of himself.Because he had information that the 10,000+ miscellaneous army sent by Li Jing to the grassland was ambushed by the Khitans, and nearly half of the battle was lost, and the rest were still trapped in the grassland. Li Jing was in a hurry to send troops to rescue. Do you spare any effort to rescue Li Quanzhong?

Li Keyong discussed these two possibilities carefully with his subordinates and generals, and they all felt that killing someone with a knife was unlikely.After all, Li Quanzhong still has more than a dozen counties under his command. Li Jing may really want to get rid of Li Quanzhong, but he will never sit back and watch them swallow up the land in Yiwu Town when they get rid of Li Quanzhong.Therefore, the biggest possibility is that the matter on the grassland is indeed true. Li Jing was in trouble at this time and was unable to go south to rescue Li Quanzhong.

If this is the case, then they now have an excellent opportunity in front of them, an opportunity to counterattack the Qin army.

"King Zhao, this opportunity is once in a thousand years, so don't miss it?" Li Keyong sat side by side with Wang Jingchong, pulling his newly sworn brother and his daughter's future father-in-law patiently.

Wang Jingchong was also said to be a little moved. Qin Jun's power is getting stronger and stronger, and it is difficult to control it.If things are really as Li Keyong said, then they really have a great opportunity this time. "It's just that Li Jing has always been cunning. I'm afraid this is Li Jing's trick to lure us into the trap!" Although Wang Jingchong is XX years older than Li Keyong, when it comes to war planning, he is still the same. It's worse.But he is very cautious, it's not that he is timid, he has fought several battles with Li Jing, and suffered a lot.

"But at least there is still [-]% of the possibility, isn't it?" Li Ke looked straight at Wang Jingchong with piercing eyes. In three years, maybe two years, we will be annexed by Li Jing. Instead of sitting still and waiting for death, it is better to fight desperately, at least we still have a [-]% chance right now, don't we?"

Wang Jingchong thought for a long time, nodded and said, "Okay, let's give it a go!"

After finally deciding to let go, the two armies immediately began to discuss the next step.

"Then we will send troops to Zhuozhou and uproot the perfidious villain Li Quanzhong!" Wang Jingchong clenched his fists.

"No! We won't fight Li Quanzhong from now on!" Li Keyong waved his hand aside, "King Zhao, I think it's pointless to fight Li Quanzhong. Our enemy is Li Jing, and Li Quanzhong is already a lost dog, and he can't make waves. Since we want to fight, we have to concentrate our strength and strike hard, this time, it must hurt Li Jing, and finally knock him out."

Li Keyong asked the guards to open the bundles of sheepskins and stitch them together one by one to form a huge map of Hedong and Hebei on the east and west sides of Taihang Mountain.

He found the locations of Yi, Ding, Zhuo, Mo, and Ying states on the map, pointed to them and said, "Look, King Zhao, now the troops led by the king are in Yizhou, and the troops led by King Zhao are in Dingzhou." , Li Quanzhong huddled in Zhuozhou in the north of Yizhou, where there was a flat river, Youzhou in the north, Mozhou in the south, and the sea in the east. Li Quanzhong was not afraid, but beating Li Quanzhong would make us fall into the open pocket of the Qin army. If you are not careful, you will be blocked by the Qin army and surrounded by all sides."

"And as you have seen, King Zhao, the second state of Moying is to the east of the second state of Yiding. If we go north to attack Zhuozhou, then the 6 people stationed by Li Jing between the third pass of Mozhou and the river of Yingzhou We can insert our right wing into our rear at any time and cut off our retreat. At that time, we will still be in a state of siege. Therefore, my king's proposal is that we don't fight Li Quanzhong's bereaved dog, we directly We will attack Li Jing. And we will not send troops to Youzhou, because the city of Youzhou is hard to fall, and we will not attack Hejian, we will attack Mozhou. Mozhou happens to be in the middle of Li Jing's Youzhou, Mozhou, and Hejian's heavily armed defense lines. Youzhou and Hejian, one south and one north, are both important fortress towns managed by Li Jing. Not only are the walls high and strong, but also a large amount of supplies, food and grass have been accumulated, making it difficult to attack for a while. But Mozhou is different. Although there are three gates here, they can The garrison is relatively small, and the troops are relatively scattered. The key point is that there is Li Quanzhong separated from Youzhou in the north of Mozhou."

"Mozhou is the weak point of Li Jing's chain in Hebei. As long as we act quickly and gather heavy troops to raid Mozhou, as long as we can win a pass city, then Li Jing's entire chain will be broken. Control Mozhou State, we can split Li Jing's Hebei soldiers into two and split them on both sides, and then we can unite with Wei Bo to besiege Hejian and eat Li Jing's tens of thousands of elites in Hejian in one fell swoop."

Li Ke drew a circle heavily on the map with his big hand, as if he had already besieged Hejian City.

Wang Jingchong's eyes gradually brightened. If they can really do this, then they will be able to take down the original Yichang Town Zhuzhou, and then go northward with the coalition forces to drive Li Jing out of Hebei, and then stop Li Jing in the Outside the customs, they occupied Hebei at that time, and they could go south and swallow Shandong in one fell swoop.Thinking of the bright future, Wang Jingchong smiled.

"Just do as King Jin said, do it!" Wang Jingchong waved his arms vigorously.

Li Keyong immediately ordered that the whole army should finish its rest and reorganize. Tomorrow, it will cook at the fourth watch and dispatch troops at the fifth watch to attack Mozhou directly.

Regardless of the wind and rain, the Jin army and Zhao army marched all the way eastward.

On the marching road, the rain continued until dusk.The next day, the Jin army and Zhao army did not see the sun either. Under the gray sky, everyone huddled their heads and wore leather helmets and iron helmets to avoid the cold rain.It rained heavily that day, the roads were muddy, water was everywhere, and the cold wind was howling.

Groups of cavalry galloped by from time to time, and the mud kicked up by the horseshoes was thrown onto the infantry who were walking forward in the mud with one deep foot and one shallow foot, causing waves of shouting and cursing.All kinds of swear words are flying all over the sky, it seems that the only way to vent everyone's irritability.

"This kind of marching speed is too slow. When we arrive at Waqiaoguan in Mozhou, it will be three days at the earliest. After such a long time, our marching will not be able to be hidden at all. The sentry of the Qin army will definitely be able to find out. It is impossible for the Qin army to attack Waqiaoguan in a surprise attack." Li Ke said worriedly, frowning tightly.The army walked for almost two days, but they only traveled less than a hundred miles, and they only entered Mozhou for tens of miles.In winter, it gets dark early, and in the continuous rainy days, even just after the afternoon, the sky is completely dark.

Although he was in a hurry to march, he had already entered the territory of Mozhou. Li Keyong did not dare to march in the dark, so he camped on a hillside when it was dark.Sitting in the leather tent that had just been tied up, Li Keyong already had a bad feeling about this march.

"The march can't be hidden, so let's fight all the way. Tomorrow we will take down Qingyuan County first, and take a supplementary rest in the city. At least we can take a hot bath and have a dry and warm bed to sleep in." Wang Jingchong explained. The already soaked cloak smiled wryly.The continuous rain is not the biggest problem. The biggest problem is that after the continuous rain, the road is muddy and the army walks, and it almost becomes a swamp. He was still outside Mozhou, so he couldn't follow him.

Li Sizhao also nodded with a sad face. Although the two armies had many cavalry, the three passes in Mozhou were all dangerous passes, which could not be defeated by cavalry alone, and had to be attacked by infantry.And only infantry is not enough, and there must be professional and sufficient siege equipment.But now, food, grass and equipment are stuck on the road, and the infantry can only walk dozens of miles a day.

Li Siyuan maintained an optimistic mood, "This ghostly weather is certainly not good for us, but the Qin army will certainly not be able to send too many patrolling rangers in such weather. However, our supplies, food, grass and equipment cannot keep up for a while. The speed can't be improved, the original raid plan seems to be useless. I agree with Zhao Wang, it is better to change the raid on Waqiaoguan to advance step by step. Let's fight all the way, attack the city and break the county, and we can wait later If the supply battalion comes up, secondly, we can solve our food and grass problem on the spot first, and thirdly, we can clear the periphery of Waqiao Pass.”

There was no better way, so Li Keyong had no choice but to consider this proposal.At dawn the next day, Li Keyong sent Li Cunzhang to lead [-] Qingqi as the vanguard to Qingyuan County to Daqianzhan.

When Li Cunzhang led [-] Shatuo cavalry to Qingyuan County in the heavy rain and mud, he found that the city gate was already closed, and the black flying eagle on the top of the city was under the flag of the Qin Army, and neatly lined up defenders had already waited. with.He couldn't help scolding his mother, knowing that it was impossible to take this county by surprise.Although there may not be many defenders in the city, with only [-] cavalry under his command, he was unwilling to attack by force, so he had no choice but to send the cavalry back to report.

When Li Keyong received the news, he couldn't help yelling loudly, yelling at the damn weather, and yelling at the vigilant Qin army.His good luck seemed to have run out after taking Yizhou. It had been three days since he dispatched troops from Yizhou, but these three days made him feel like he had spent three years.

But now, the plan to enter Qingyuan County to replenish food and take a break has also failed.

God seemed to do it on purpose, when he thought it would be difficult to attack Yi Ding, the result went smoothly and unexpectedly.But when he thought that the deployment of troops to Mozhou would go smoothly, it turned out to be unsatisfactory and difficult everywhere.

In the evening, the Chinese army of Li Keyong and Wang Jingchong had arrived at the city of Qingyuan. Qingyuan was only a small city with no more than [-] defenders, but at this time they stood firm and ignored the tens of thousands of troops that surrounded them.Li Keyong sent people to the city to persuade them to surrender, but what they responded was a meal of bows and arrows, and those who persuaded them fell in the rain and mud under the city.

As the sky was getting dark, Li Keyong suppressed his anger and ordered the whole army to camp under the city and attack the city after dawn.

Both Zhao Jun and Jin Jun were a little disappointed. They thought they could spend the night in a house with a fire without wind or rain, maybe even take a hot bath, eat a hot meal, and even have a bowl of hot water. Drinking soup, but I didn't expect that when I got to the city, I would have to endure the wind and rain in the open mud, and the ground was wet.

After eating a few mouthfuls of cold and hard dry food indiscriminately, the soldiers of the two armies took off their frozen armor and boots that were full of mud and foul smell and threw them aside. , everyone fell asleep early, hugging the only warm blanket, hoping to fall asleep early and have a good dream.

Although there were [-] enemy troops in the city among them, no one took them seriously.Surrounded by tens of thousands of troops, soldiers on patrol had been arranged earlier. They didn't think that the three thousand Qin troops would dare to come out of the city in the middle of the night to seek death.

After Li Ke used the guards to inspect the camp for the last time, he also quickly fell asleep.Lying in the tent, he couldn't help thinking of his wife who stayed in Yanmen, his precious daughter, and his newborn son.He now has three sons and a daughter, although Liu only gave birth to a daughter for him, and the three sons were all born to concubines, but Li Keyong likes them all equally.The daughter is engaged to the nine-year-old eldest son of Wang Jingchong of Chengde Town.Wang Chongrong of Hezhong Town chose his third son who was just born to be his future son-in-law.

Although the three sons were all bastards born to concubines, the mothers of the eldest son and the second son were just slaves in his tent, without even a status.Although the mother of the third son is a concubine, her family is also from a wealthy family in Daibei. Wang Chongrong is very good at choosing, and he really likes the third son more.

Perhaps, after returning from victory this time, I should give those two women a title, at least not let them continue to be slave girls.The third child has already made an engagement with Wang Chongrong's daughter, so he should also arrange a good marriage for the eldest and second child.Perhaps, it can also bring a few allies.

After all, Sha Tuo is still weak and weak, he should seize the opportunity to form more allies.

Thinking of this, he was a little envious of Li Jing, who had married a lot of women, except for the main wife and the second concubine, the rest were all daughters of famous families, which added countless help to Li Jing.I heard that he has just made an engagement with Yu's daughter again, and he wants to marry Yu's daughter as his equal wife, and this time, the other three brothers of Yu's, a top wealthy family, even have a daughter to marry each other, which really makes him envious Jealousy, thanks to the help of the Yu clan, Li Jing's power has increased again, alas!

Thinking of this in his mind, Li Ke gradually lowered his eyelids and fell into sleep!

Half asleep and half awake, he seemed to feel a slight vibration under his body, but he was so sleepy, and he was so exhausted after walking in the rain for days, that he didn't wake up immediately!