Chapter 988 Turning Point (6)
The red sun in the evening turned into stars all over the sky, and then turned into billowing clouds in the daytime.
The news of the great victory at Wangyuan Bridge in the southwest and the panic of Zong Han's troops had spread to various places in the south of the Yangtze River and the Central Plains in April.
A war that can be said to determine the trend of the world has now shown a trend that is inconsistent with most people's expectations. The combat power and tenacity of the Chinese army have stunned the eyes of many people. Some were stunned, some were frightened, some were inspired by such results, and some were wary of it. But no matter what attitude and mood they hold, as long as they are slightly qualified to dance on the stage of the world, no one can be indifferent or indifferent to them, but it is impossible to argue with it.
Even though they were thousands of miles apart, the two armies on Liangshan were excited. Grass bandits from the mountains and fields came from all directions to surrender, and even the Huaxia Army led by Zhu Biao and Liu Chengzong and the Guangwu Army led by Wang Shanyue and Xue Changgong In between, this victory also caused two small-scale frictions and fights, which made people laugh and cry.
Wanyanchang, who is far away in Baoding, has strengthened his defense forces in the Central Plains area because of the instigation on Liangshan Mountain, and is wary of those people in Shandong area being encouraged by the war situation in the southwest and taking risks to cause something big.
Farther away, within the Kingdom of Jin, a large-scale impact is gradually brewing. In the cloud, after the first round of news arrived, it was not made public and was only quietly circulated among some high-ranking families in the Kingdom of Jin. After learning about the defeat of the West Route Army, some of the founding clans of Dajin pulled out the Han slaves from their homes, killed a group of them, and then went to the Yamen to pay the fine.
It will take more time for the tragic news about the retreat of the West Route Army to come back from thousands of miles away in the southwest. By then, a huge wave will occur in appeared within the Kingdom of Jin.
Jin Land.
When the horse team passed through the rolling hills and turned towards the small basin on the side of the mountains, Lou Shuwan opened the curtain in the middle carriage and saw vague black smoke and residual fire below. .
The flames ravaged the villages and wheat fields, and nearby troops came over to save what could be saved in the mess. The closer the cavalry got, the more clearly they could hear the cries in the wind.
"...beast."
She clenched her fists and cursed like this.
This is a scene in March.
If it hadn't been for what happened this spring, Lou Shuwan might have received more encouragement from the information about the Southwest War. But at this moment, Jindi was troubled by a sudden attack, and was in a state of panic for a while.
When the winter snow melted in the second month of the lunar calendar, the battle for Shanxi led by Lou Shuwan's side and Liao Yiren's side started again. This time, the sudden appearance of foreign reinforcements from Liao Yiren's side used various methods to eradicate two counties and towns from Lou Shuwan's side. The other side was brutal and killed many people. After some investigation, it was confirmed that many people involved in the attack were killed. Maybe they were grassland people who came all the way from Xixia.
This newly emerged alien mercenary has flexible combat skills and a strong desire for fighting and massacre. They broke into the city twice, both times pretending to be merchants and contacted the defenders in the city. After obtaining permission, they used a small number of elite troops to The city gates were captured, followed by massacre and burning. Just judging from the opponent's battle to seize the city gate, it can be confirmed that this army is indeed an elite combatant in this era that cannot be underestimated.
The capture of the city in February had aroused the vigilance of Lou Shuwan and Yu Yulin. By the end of February, the other side's operations were hindered. After being discovered once, in early March, this army They also attacked two small counties and towns by sneak attacks on patrols and spreading false news. At the same time, they also launched more brutal and inhumane attacks on civilians in the areas under the jurisdiction of the Tiger King.
Using small teams of cavalry and elite hunters with flexible combat capabilities, they penetrated the villages and towns here and attacked the villages at night. The most important thing was to burn down the houses and burn down the wheat fields. Even Liao Yiren would never dare to use such a battle strategy in previous wars, but in March, this side encountered such frenzied attacks more than ten times.
Winter wheat is often planted in the eighth or ninth month of the lunar calendar one year earlier and harvested in May of the next year. For Lou Shuwan, it is the most critical harvest for the revival of Shanxi. Liao Yiren is also a local rich family. They fight to the death on the battlefield, but they always point to the one who defeats the opponent and can live a good life. No one will set fire to the people's wheat fields, but the arrival of the prairie people has set a precedent for this.
In February and March, Yu Yulin gathered his troops and regained two more towns. However, the areas outside the army and near the plains were also harassed by prairie troops. They relied on their superb volley shooting skills to attack the weaker troops. After one round of shooting, they turned around and ran away. After closing the distance, they fired another round. They only pinched the soft persimmons and never gnawed the hard bones, which caused a certain degree of damage to Yu Yulin. Troubled.
As a general who has led troops for many years, Yu Yulin and many others can see that the fighting power of the grassland people is not weak, they are just used to adopting such tactics. Perhaps because the survival of Jin Land had nothing to do with them, Liao Yiren invited them over, and they kept poking at everyone's weaknesses. For them, this was a relatively simple and easy battle, but for Yu Yulin, Lou Shuwan and others, there was only resentment.
The only thing that can comfort this side is that due to the lack of help, Liao Yiren's power on the frontal battlefield is completely no match for Yulin's attack. But the opponent was on the defensive. Even if everything went well, it would take nearly half a year to defeat Liao Yiren and recover the entire Jin Dynasty. But no one knows how many crazy things this group of grassland people will do in half a year, and it is difficult to fully confirm what will happen if these guys are determined to launch an attack in Jin.
During the friction and investigation after the two parties came into contact, the battle situation in the southwest was reported one by one. Zhan Wu, who is in charge of affairs here, once reminded Lou Shuwan that although not many people paid attention to the situation in Xixia and other places after the northwest was wiped out, Mr. Ning once took people to Xixia before coming to Jin. I have investigated the news about this group of prairie people.
The forces that will make Ning Yi secretly pay attention to them are themselves a signal and a hint. Lou Shuwan also paid more attention to it. She asked Zhan Wu what Ning Yi thought of this group of people and whether he had any countermeasures or back-ups. Zhan Wu was a little embarrassed.
"...The time Mr. Ning came here, he only arranged things about the Tiger King. Perhaps he did not expect that these people would reach out to the Central Plains. What he saw and heard in Xixia was not mentioned to anyone..." < br>
Lou Shuwan was in a depressed mood when she heard something like this She answered with a fierce frown: "Go away, you Black Flag Army are just like that Ning Yi. They feed you with good food and drink, and it's useless!"
She encountered something about Ning Yi. I had to scold him a few times, sometimes vulgarly, and Zhan Wu was helpless. Especially after receiving assistance from the other party last year, everyone in the Chinese Army was short-tongued and soft-handed in front of her, and they could only leave in despair. What face is, it doesn’t matter anymore.
Ning Yi had no idea what he thought of the grassland people, so Zhan Wu had to write a temporary letter to report back the situation here. Lou Shuwan summoned Yu Yulin and others to ask them to be more vigilant and prepare for a tough battle. For Liao Yiren, try to plan to solve it as quickly as possible. Although the grassland people have a slippery tactics for the time being, they must also have the psychological expectation of fighting a tough battle with the opponent. All methods to check and balance the opponent's guerrilla strategy must be implemented now.
So the fist was withdrawn, and the planned time for the Liao family's overall battle was postponed to April. During this period, Lou Shuwan and others launched a conservative defense on the outside of the territory, but reports of villages being attacked were still reported from time to time.
Every burned wheat field and village seemed to be a knife in Lou Shuwan's heart. Under such circumstances, she even brought her personal guards to press the center of governance toward the front line. There was still some time to prepare for the attack, and the private efforts to persuade and lobby Liao Yiren to surrender were also going on in full swing. The beacon smoke in Jin was still blowing. By the beginning of April, the atmosphere was chilly, because people suddenly discovered that the prairie people were interspersed and harassed. , started at the end of March and stopped for some reason.
A long period of silence may be preparing for the next round of attack. Realizing this, Lou Shuwan ordered the army to be more vigilant, and at the same time let the people in front of them inquire for information. Not long after, extremely strange news came from the army of the Liao family...
...
North of Fenyang, Huixian, where the ancestral home of Liao Yiren's hometown is located, Chaos continues here.
Prairie people suddenly attack.
It was the evening of March 28th. A dinner party hosted by the Liao family was held in this mansion. Soon after, the Mongolian cavalry launched an attack on a nearby military camp. They captured the general of the army. Seized various commanding heights in the Liao family's inner courtyard. After that, the Mongols controlled the Liao family for four days. Due to previous arrangements, the nearby armaments were looted. A large number of prairie people came over and dragged away the gunpowder, iron cannons, ammunition and other items they valued most at this time.
Although it seemed premeditated, the Mongols still showed a lot of haste throughout the entire operation. At the time, it was difficult to determine why they chose such a time to attack the Liao family. But in any case, in the next four days, all kinds of cruel and inhuman things happened in the Liao family mansion. Liao Yiren was not dead at the time, and no one sympathized with him in later generations. But in early April, he and part of the Liao family were missing for a time. As the Liao family's power fell into chaos, no one paid attention to the whereabouts of the Liao family after the Mongols robbed them.
On the second day of April, the Mongolian cavalry left the Liao family, and the nearby military camp suffered a massacre. On the third day of the Lunar New Year, the first group of people who came over found the bodies of the Liao family all over the ground. Starting from the fifth day of the Lunar New Year, people The idea of surrender was conveyed to Lou Shuwan one after another. At that time, people were still in confusion and did not understand why all this happened, and they still could not clearly see the impact it would have on future situations. Where did the Mongols go? The conscious pursuit was started after the fifth day of the lunar month, and the shocking feedback came only after the tenth day of the lunar month.
It will be many years before people can sort out a rough outline of what happened in Jin Dynasty from the mouths of survivors...
No one knows what happened on March 27th. That afternoon, when two Mongolian generals named Jamuka and Chi Laowen were discussing matters in their room in Jindi, what disturbed the outside window was a bird flying by or someone passing by accidentally. The Liao family. But in short, the order to prepare for action was sent out soon after.
In the three months since they arrived in Jin, the Mongols were fighting while learning more about the situation in the world. At this time, they already knew that there was a more powerful force in the southwest, and they defeated Wanyan Zonghan's enemies. What Jamuka and Chi Laowen discussed was what they were going to do next, and things were brought forward because of the movement outside.
By the time the Mongolian army led a group of Liao family members like animals towards the north, they had tortured enough information.
The key to the operation lies in several stewards and immediate relatives who were involved in the Liao family's business in the past. On the seventh day of the lunar month, a caravan carrying the flag of the Liao family arrived at Yanmen Pass in the northernmost part of the Central Plains.
After the Jurchens controlled Yanmen Pass and essentially controlled the Central Plains, due to the decline of the Central Plains, there was not much business travel between the two sides. But there are always. The Liao family is one of the forces with trade qualifications, and after resolute confrontation with Lou Shuwan, Yu Yulin and others, the Liao family's status among the local warlords has become very high.
This is a large team composed of more than two hundred people. They transport a lot of goods. More goods also means that the troops stationed at the checkpoint will have more fuel and water. So the two sides held friendly negotiations: the Jurchen team guarding Yanmen Pass made things difficult, and the Liao family who led the team couldn't wait to throw out a lot of treasures to bribe the other party - such eagerness was originally unusual, but the Jurchen team guarding Yanmen Pass The general had been soaked in the filial piety and favors from all parties for a long time, and he didn't notice anything unusual for a while.
More than two hundred people entered through the gate of Yanmenguan. Among the more than two hundred people, there were many Mongolians who would become famous in the future. They were: Jamuhe, Chi Laowen, Mu Huali, Zhe Farewell, Borshu, Tuo Lei, Hesar and Bor Jijin-Temujin...
More cavalry are waiting quietly in the mountains south of Yanmen Pass...
This is the Jurchen Queen Guard against empty moments.
The tiger showed its fangs. The Mongols' front will soon penetrate the entire sixteen states of Yanyun and reach Yunzhong...
Well, let's change the title of the next chapter.
(End of this chapter)