Chapter 374 Mobilization
After passing Gong County, there were more and more enemy troops.
The nearly 20,000-strong army composed of the Yinqiang Army, the Yi Congjun and Yuyan Dingzhuang were like a huge magnet, attracting countless Xiongnu infantry and cavalry.
On September 20th, we arrived in Yanshi, rested for a night, and continued moving forward.
Throughout the journey, Shao Xun did not step in to direct, but chose to be a bystander.
The combat quality of the Silver Spear Army is quite high. Even the eleventh and twelfth buildings, under the leadership of the veterans of the first ten buildings, fought better than in the previous days.
Fighting power has many components, one of which is mind.
You must have a big heart, be calm and calm, and take your time.
Not everyone can do this.
What is the performance of ordinary infantry when facing overwhelming cavalry? The outcome of the Battle of Heshui has been revealed.
Don't think of it as a raid. Even if it is a frontal attack, repeated harassment will always distract and exhaust the main force of Gou Xi's infantry, and eventually reveal its flaws.
In this era, only a few people, such as Ma Long, Liu Yu, etc., can rely on a highly qualified infantry to run rampant in the sea of cavalry, and even win repeated battles.
Shao Xun was glad that he brought the Silver Spear Army to escort the grain.
If it is the Yamen Army, the outcome is not easy to say, 50-50.
If it were the Tuntian Army, the largest force under his rule, it would have collapsed midway and might not even be able to reach Gong County.
Man Yu and Qiao Hong captured a few more prisoners. After some torture, they finally got something new: Liu Can, the king of Hanoi, once lived in Hanoi, but later left, and he had no idea where to go. Know.
The other one is about the direction of Yiqueguan.
Because Shao Xun was too difficult to deal with, the Huns mobilized most of their mobile forces, and the south could no longer stop Liang Fen's more than 14,000 men from going north.
After hearing the news about the interrogation, Shao Xun drew on the ground with a dagger, and the generals gathered around to watch.
“Liang Fen might arrive in Luoyang before us.”
"Yique Pass is not far from Luoyang. The whole Xiongnu army is rushing towards us. Liang Fen also has Liangzhou horses. If we are besieged by the main force of the Xiongnu, we may be defeated. Now, the Xiongnu may have given up on that route. "
"Did Liu Cong give an order to encircle and annihilate our troops?"
"Since Liang Fen can enter Luoyang, let's just withdraw and return to Xuchang."
"We're almost to Luoyang and you're still leaving. You're stupid."
Shao Xun stretched out a hand to signal silence.
Everyone immediately shut up and listened to Master Shao’s teachings.
"There is no point in arguing about Liu Cong's purpose." Shao Xun said: "They have many horses and people, and they can easily turn the partial division into the main force, and the main force into the partial division. If I didn't come to Luoyang, Liu Cong—— No, it's Liu Can - he really focuses on attacking Luoyang. He watches us take action and then changes his tactics. "
For a regime with many cavalry, there is a debate about which route is the main force and which route. It makes no sense to be a partial teacher.
It’s not like we went all the way to the northeast and all the way to the northwest, thousands of miles apart. They are all just wandering around in Henan. If necessary, Liu Can can completely adjust the direction of his main attack.
I don’t know what the situation in Luoyang is now.
According to previous understanding, the food can probably last until the twelfth lunar month. Later, a group was sent to Beijing, and the imperial court recruited more than 30,000 civilians to serve as defenders. The food could probably last until the end of the year, that is to say: more than three months.
Considering that the rivers are frozen, the window for grain transportation is actually less than two months.
If food cannot be transported in these two months, Luoyang will fall into famine and will be invincible and self-defeating.
"Now that I have come to Luoyang, Liu Can can choose to fight me here, or he can choose to avoid the reality and attack the two states of Yan and He. What do you think he will do?" Shao Xun looked at the generals asked.
"The Huns don't look like they are fighting a decisive battle." Wang Que'er said bluntly: "Throughout this fight, the only truly ferocious fight was in Gong County. The others were mostly harassment, a bit like errands. "
"A lot of prisoners have been captured in the past few days, including many rebels. There should not be many Xiongnu soldiers around Luoyang before, but they have probably been transferred away now," Jin Zheng said. : "Master Shao, why not find an opportunity to cross the river and go north, attack Hanoi and Shangdang, and then contact Liu Kun to attack Pingyang together."
Wang Queer, Sun He, Zhang Daniu, Lu Heigou and others all Looking at Jin San with surprised eyes, isn't this a bit too risky? If you are not careful, it is very possible for the entire army to be annihilated.
Furthermore, are you sure that the Huns penetrated the two states of Yu and Yan first, or that you attacked Pingyang City first?
The Huns have many more soldiers than you. If you go to their home base, your inside advantage is gone.
Jin San is so crazy!
"Okay, enough rest. Let's go back to our respective camps and continue moving forward. Cai Cheng, please inform the troop transporters and ask them to put down their trackers and continue moving forward." Shao Xun actually had a guess in his mind.
There are only two possibilities.
After arriving in Luoyang, one of the possibilities should be eliminated.
After the car formation and fleet resumed operations, the Huns surrounded them again and harassed them.
But this trick is no longer of much use.
What troubled Shao Xun the most was actually the pitted roads, which forced them to stop frequently to fill the potholes and ravines with soil, which greatly slowed down their marching speed.
It wasn’t until the night of September 23rd that they saw the brightly lit Luoyang City from a distance.
The area around Dongyang Gate and Jianchun Gate was even blazing with fire. There were traces of smoke and fire on the city gate. Jianchun Gate was even half burned, and the inside and outside of the city gate were filled with corpses of both the enemy and ourselves.
Have you ever been in a street fight?
Shao Xun was speechless when he stayed at Prince Yang's Mansion in Southeast City for the night.
But he could barely understand.
The field battles were defeated twice in a row, with nearly 10,000 casualties and casualties.
The food reserves are running out day by day.
The wilderness is full of overwhelming Hun cavalry - actually there may not be many, but the visual effect is amazing.
There is no news about the reinforcements, no news can be sent out, and no news from the outside world can leak in.
They are like an abandoned island, terrified all day long. When defending a city, the most taboo thing is to defend it to death.
A defensive battle with no hope at all will not last until the end, especially a huge city like Luoyang with a very messy interior.
Confidence is the key, you must give people hope.
******
Hou Feihu led the four Silver Spear Army troops all the way and retreated to Xiangcheng in five days to collect a supply of supplies.
As for the Duyang side, it will be left to the Duyang Tuntian Army.
Farther away in Nanyang, Cao Fu has issued an order to appoint Le Kai as the left commander-in-chief of the rear army to take charge of the overall situation, and Yang Dan as the right commander-in-chief to assist Le Kai.
They have only one mission, don't let the war burn to Luonan.
Even if Nanyang is disrupted, as long as the situation is stabilized, it will be a crime.
When we arrived at Xiangcheng, we could see soldiers and tribes leading horses and walking everywhere on the post road.
Hou Feihu encountered a group of government soldiers coming north from Luyang on the road, a total of more than 490 people.
According to what they said, everyone who could take part in the battle was here, including even some childish-looking teenagers.
The young man is the nephew of the soldier.
They are still young, have no martial arts skills, and have little combat experience. Their weapons and equipment are very poor, but their military situation is strong. Now is the time for them to work hard.
Xiangcheng is even more crowded.
In the wilderness by Ru River, the tribesmen walked around, fetching water for cooking.
The soldiers took off the girdle of the horse and led it to jog for some exercise.
Some people even gathered young people who had never been in battle to teach them some tips on the battlefield.
On Yingqiao, a large number of horses, donkeys and mules were passing by, heading east.
"Old horse, old horse, I have to sacrifice your lives this time." Hou Feihu sighed with emotion.
The benefits of Chang'an's siege of Xianbei have not been fully absorbed yet. It has been six or seven years, right?
In six or seven years, these horses played a huge role. Especially in the battle against Gouxi, the old horses ran to death and were destroyed. In the end, they successfully sent the knights on their backs to Heshui and defeated the enemy in one battle.
"Leave!" A loud roar came from not far away.
Hou Feihu followed the sound and saw Chang Can, the deputy governor of the Long Sword Army, waving his hand and taking more than 500 soldiers who had finished their rest on the road.
That should be the three defenses of Shiqiao, Lijia, and Yongxing in Liang County. The government soldiers plus troops, more than a thousand people lined up in an orderly queue, crossed Ru River, passed Xiangcheng without entering, and went straight to the direction of Yingyin .
After a while, the Ruyang and Nanshan Second Defense Force soldiers dispatched after finishing their meal.
After a while, the Lushan and Funiu defenses were dispatched.
"It is said that Master Shao has gone to Chen County. At the critical moment, he still relies on the old foundation he laid in Luonan a few years ago." Looking at the mighty army of government soldiers, Hou Feihu couldn't help but think. Feeling.
While we were talking, soldiers from the Shuyin and Princess Second Defense Forces newly installed in Ye County and Wuyang this year also arrived one after another. After a short rest, they will head east tomorrow.
Guangchengze’s field army also dispatched five thousand people.
The number of the tribe has dropped to about 27,000, and this year another 5,000 people were transferred to Duyang to serve as the field army - the vacancies were filled by Wang Sang's tribe captured last year.
These five thousand people were led by the Jing brothers and went to Xuchang to serve as auxiliary troops. After the war, they will become field troops who can own property, marry wives, and receive rewards.
On both sides of Ru River, there are huge armies.
Near Xiangcheng, war horses are galloping.
The Xuchang shogunate gave an order, and the soldiers who were usually scattered everywhere gathered one after another, and in an instant they gathered nearly 15,000 capable soldiers.
This is only the first mobilization.
The garrison troops in Luyang, Duyang, Guangchengze, Yingyang, Yangguan, Langling and other places have not yet carried out large-scale mobilization.
The only shortcoming is that they are mostly infantry, lack mobility and are slow to move. It is not a problem when facing rogue bandits, but it is more troublesome when facing Huns with a large number of cavalry.
But the order has been given, there is nothing to hesitate.
The autumn harvest is over, and there is plenty of food in various places. Even if they are squatting in a defensive position, they are still valuable.
Almost at the same time, hundreds of Huns cavalry suddenly appeared on the east bank of the Yellow River in the northwest of Fan County.
With just one charge, they captured the ferry with almost no soldiers.
The county magistrate had tried his best. He and his only two to three hundred people persisted until the last moment before fleeing in panic.
In the afternoon of the same day, more than a thousand infantrymen crossed the river and came ashore, and began to cut wood, build boats, and build pontoons.
Throughout the night of the 25th, more than a hundred small boats came back and forth, constantly ferrying the Huns on foot to the east bank of the river.
The infantry began to build forts and strengthen the bridgehead.
Hundreds of vanguard cavalry, led by commanders and leaders, divided into two groups and headed toward Linqiu and Fan County to create panic.
When the war has reached this point, there is no need to cover up our tracks anymore.
The Huns have already shown their fangs: they crossed the river from Dongwuyang, entered Dongping, bypassed the Sijin defense line in the Puyang section, and went deep into Yanzhou in a roundabout way.
After three years of unsuccessful attacks on Luoyang, the Huns suddenly changed their combat goals.
(End of this chapter)