Chapter 591: Strength
What happened in Luoyang City is still spreading and fermenting. At present, it seems to have caused a certain degree of ripples and people are talking about it. But in the end, the discussion was just "discussion". From this perspective, it was of little help to Emperor Sima Chi, and his situation became even worse.
On the Qixi Festival, Pei Kuo personally arrived at the front line outside Xin'an City and inspected the camps.
After arriving at the city, the Huns assumed a posture of being unable to hold on. Perhaps, they want to repeat the process of victory three years ago, that is, focusing on defense, wearing down the attacker's vigor, strength, and military resources. When the attacker is exhausted, the new force that has been waiting for a long time will suddenly rush out and win the final victory. .
The last time the coach was Xun Song of the Central Guard Army, and this time it was Pei Kuo, the Northern Army Lieutenant. The former had almost no war experience, while the latter had a lot of experience, so the style of play was very different.
Pei Kuo knew that his troops were not effective in combat, so the first thing he did was to dig trenches, build earthen walls, and surround Xin'an City. In this way, even if one's own side is defeated and the defenders want to go out and pursue them, it will not be that simple.
The Luoyang Chinese Army cannot withstand the disastrous defeat three years ago. If it happens again, this army will inevitably disintegrate.
When Pei Kuo arrived outside Xin'an City, the Forbidden Army soldiers were sweating profusely, working hard to dig trenches and build earth walls.
Left Guard General Chen Jin shouted in front of him and pointed at a place in the west of the city with his riding whip. When he saw Pei Kuo, he immediately came over to salute.
"How's the fight going?" Pei Kuo looked at the smoke and dust and asked.
"Xu Lang still used his life. Huang Biao, the commander of the forward battalion, personally led the soldiers to attack and drove the thieves to Baichao City." Chen Jin replied.
"The soldiers did not participate in the battle?" Pei Kuo said in surprise.
Chen Qi was a little embarrassed when he heard this and said: "We won the previous few times with the help of them. If we rely on other people's help this time, it will not be justified in any case."
Because Luoyang Zhong The army's combat effectiveness was limited, so after arriving at Xin'an City, the first few battles were fought by Chang Can and his troops. The scale was not large, but the battles were crisp and clean, which greatly boosted morale. So much so that later on, whenever they heard the sound of the horses' hooves of the soldiers in the distance, the enemy troops began to panic. After seeing them dismount and put on their armor, their morale dropped rapidly.
This battle on the bank of the valley in the west of the city was fought by the Imperial Army.
Left Guard General Chen Qi personally suppressed the formation and sent forward the capable advance battalion, Qiannu battalion, and Youji battalion. He also personally improved military discipline and killed hundreds of fleeing sergeants one after another. After a deadly battle, Wang Mi's reinforcements were finally driven away.
However, even though he won the battle, he was still ashamed. Because the reinforcements sent by Wang Mi were not necessarily elite, but the reinforcements he sent were the backbone of the left guard. In the end, it took a lot of effort to win.
What does this mean? This shows that the overall strength of the Forbidden Army is similar to Wang Mi, or even slightly inferior.
The Bai Chao Base he mentioned is located fifteen miles northwest of Xin'an City.
The Yellow Turban uprising occurred in the late Han Dynasty, and local tyrant Bai Chao built a fortification here to consolidate himself. The location of the city fort was chosen very cleverly. There were high mountains on the left and right, more than a hundred steps away from each other, and the main road came out of it.
Today's Baichaolei is Wang Mi's logistics distribution center, mainly used to support Xin'an City. Therefore, a year ago he built an additional fortress and named it "Baichao City", also called "Baichao Wu". It was a large dock for garrisoning soldiers and civilians.
The families of the sergeants and ordinary people are farming and grazing behind Baichao City.
In addition, there is also a large-scale iron smelting industry here.
There was an iron official in the Han Dynasty. During the Wei and Jin Dynasties, the valley water was diverted into water smelting for state use, but it was later destroyed by war. Wang Mi recruited craftsmen in every possible way and tried his best to restore part of the production capacity. The tools he made were mainly supplied to Xin'an City.
Therefore, if you want to surround Xin'an, you must cut off the support from the direction of Baichao City.
Wang Mi knew this very well, so he repeatedly fought against the imperial army. General Qingchao Jiaoqiu was defeated in the wilderness between Xin'an and Baichao. After escaping, he was captured by Pei Kuo and sentenced to death.
As for the fifth Yi, he brought the inexperienced soldiers and horses from Henan County - almost all temporarily recruited peasant soldiers - and was defeated by the defenders outside the city in a field battle at the foot of Xin'an City. He himself died. In the chaos of the army.
The smoke and dust in the west gradually dispersed, and another battle ended.
Pei Kuo climbed up and looked into the distance, looking at the road dug and widened by Cao Cao, and remained silent for a long time.
"Retribution." After a long time, he sighed: "At the beginning, the soldiers had no intention to fight and the people were panicked. As soon as the Xiongnu feather arrows arrived, they fled each other. Thirty thousand soldiers and horses only dared to hide in Luoyang City and tremble. Hongnong was easily abandoned. Now that the initial reorganization has been completed, Wang Mi has been running this place for several years and the fortress is complete. He wants to restore Hongnong, but he doesn’t know how much it will cost.”
Chen Jin was speechless and speechless.
Sometimes war is like this. When the battle line was not stable, they either made strides forward or retreated. Many cities and fortresses changed hands repeatedly, as if the great passes built in dangerous areas were useless. Just like a small village on the plain, the defenders retreated easily. It can be captured by armed march.
But once the battle lines are stabilized, you will know how cruel and bloody these passes are.
The territory that was easily defeated and lost now needs to be recovered at the cost of blood, because Hongnong is also very important to the Huns, and they will not give up easily.
Nowadays, Wang Mi is mainly responsible for it. There are troops stationed in the Xiongnu court, but most of them are grazing and farming in the mountains and hills behind, and they are not sent to the front line at all. But once Wang Mi can't stand it anymore, they may have to go into battle, and they may even mobilize troops from Pingyang and Chang'an.
“I don’t know how the imperial court did it!” Pei Kuo became angrier as he thought about it.
Chen Jin felt the same way, and looked at each other with Pei Kuo, knowing clearly what the other party was thinking: This bullshit court is doing all the damn evil!
Both of them came from aristocratic families, but they had been in the military for a long time and spent most of their lives with warriors. Over time, their ideas slowly changed and they no longer looked like traditional scholars.
Moreover, after the melee between the kings, the Huns invaded, and the imperial army was repeatedly defeated and suffered heavy losses. Many of their friends and old enemies died in the battlefield, and they were very dissatisfied with the imperial court - if we say that the Jin Dynasty in the past ten years If there is any department in the imperial court that is most dissatisfied, it must be the Forbidden Army.
"Have the Governor heard about the recent events in Luoyang?" Chen Qi asked.
Pei Kuo's expression did not change, he just nodded slightly and said, "I heard something."
"Mr. Chen has great ambitions and can win the battle. Without him, Luoyang would have been gone." Chen Jin said, "If In ordinary times of peace, I would not support Chen Gong doing this, but what time is it? In an emergency, he should do something extraordinary. Leading the imperial army to attack Xin'an is a rare opportunity to make meritorious deeds..."
Pei Kuo didn't say anything. Chen Jin pointed out the fact that most of the Pei family's strength was in Hedong and failed to switch to Chen Gong in time. Once Chen Gong defeated the Xiongnu and conquered the world, Pei's achievements would not be very dazzling. The benefits will be shared in the future. , you may not be able to make much money, and you may even be suppressed by others. This is often an important reason for the decline of a family.
"Since the governor has captured Jiao Qiu, don't keep him, just kill him." Chen Jin said: "Don't shrink back in the battle of Xin'an City. At this time You should use all your strength. There is no way to kill someone in a war. The governor might as well visit General Haochang today and ask him to help suppress the situation. If there is any sign of rebellion in the army, the sergeants will have no choice but to turn around and fight to the death. If you dare to turn your back on the enemy, the governor will go to Chen Gong to ask for a batch of goods and reward the meritorious soldiers. If this is the case, the army's morale will be strong, so why worry about Xin'an not being broken?"
Pei Kuo nodded slowly.
Next, he needs to borrow other people's heads to fight for the future of the Pei family.
The Luoyang Chinese Army, plus the levied men, totaled more than 40,000. The garrison in Xin'an City was probably between 5,000 and 7,000. As long as the Xiongnu reinforcements were blocked, it would be a grind.
Actually, he had already had this idea before Chen Jin reminded him.
Recently I had a heart-to-heart talk with the military lieutenant general and learned a little bit about their thoughts. Even those officers who had been won over by the emperor recognized Duke Chen's illustrious military exploits and were extremely disappointed with the court.
Some of these people can be won over again.
As for those who were disappointed with the court, but still loved the emperor, Pei Kuo had already figured it out and secretly wrote down their names.
In the next battle, he can calmly "arrange his troops" and completely eliminate the emperor's last influence in the Forbidden Army, just like he got a secret letter from Shao Fan, the brother of Chen Gong, and let Wu Yi and Jiao I beg the two of them to come forward and die, and then find another mistake to remove Li Shu from his official position.
At this time, his confidence in Mr. Chen was also growing.
He believed that before entering Luoyang, Mr. Chen was not sure what the consequences of his actions would be. After giving it a try, there didn't seem to be any serious backlash, which is saying a lot.
Chen Gong tried it out and understood.
He watched for a long time and understood.
So he decided to act as a knife in Mr. Chen's hand and eliminate people with evil intentions for him. Mr. Chen has always been wise, and you must be able to see his efforts - it is not a shameful thing to be someone else's knife. Mr. Chen also acted as the sharpest knife in Sima Yue's hand at the beginning, and he gained the rank of advancement.
After making up his mind, Pei Kuo was on the line.
From Qixi Festival to late July, for half a month, while resisting the Xiongnu's harassment, he surrounded the east and west sides of Xin'an City, and erected many pontoon bridges over the valley water to force the crossing. To the north of Gushui - there is a mountain to the north of Xin'an City, and there is Gushui two miles south of the city.
There were more than a dozen battles, large and small.
By July 25th, the Xin'an defenders had not dared to leave the city to fight in the field for seven consecutive days. In the direction of Baichao City, the soldiers led by Chang Can defeated the reinforcements sent by Wang Mi several times and forced them back.
In the East and West Erxiaoshan area, Shao Shen led the Zhongwu Army and Ding Zhuang from the three counties of Yiyang, Luhun and Xincheng to go north, and fought several fierce battles with Wang Mi, with both sides winning or losing.
At this point, the war has officially started for a month. More than half of Wang Mi's troops have been restrained in the directions of Xin'an and Baichao, and another seven or eight thousand people have been invested in the east and west direction of Erxiao Mountain. Wang Mi has all the mobile troops at his disposal. , nothing more than a few thousand.
But he could hardly save even these thousands of people.
On July 26, Wang Queer, who had finished hoarding food, grass and military supplies, led more than 35,000 troops to the Yewang City.
Liu Yaxi, the Xiongnu Anxi general, mobilized Shi Hu to return reinforcements and asked Pingyang to reinforce Hanoi.
A few days later, an envoy arrived in Shaanxi City, planning to dispatch 10,000 infantry and cavalry people from the nearby Hongnong direction to reinforce Hanoi.
Wang Mi suddenly felt a big head.
Just when all the fronts began to accelerate and the Huns began to feel the pressure, Shao Xun spent a calm month in Luoyang.
His "violent action" did not encounter backlash for the time being, and he tested the bottom line of the officials and officials, and the sausage-slicing tactic was successful.
At the end of July, he humbly resigned from the title of "Lu Shangshu Shi" and let Wang Yan take his place.
Zheng Shida arrived in the capital and took over the post of servant servant, taking charge of the halberd-wielding warriors in the palace.
Pei Chun, the governor of Xingyang, was transferred to the city gate school captain and was in charge of the seven gates of Luoyang.
Shang Shulang Yu Bing was appointed as the order of Luoyang.
Shang Shu Zuocheng Lu Yan served as the Yin of Henan.
Chen Guocheng Pei Kui was promoted to Huangmen Shilang. He served the emperor and went in and out of the forbidden areas, passing on information and giving orders.
Cui Gong, the prime minister of Chen State, was promoted to the post of Dasi Nong and took charge of Taicang, Dongyang Gate.
Yang Jiezhi, the governor of Yuzhou, came to Beijing and was appointed as a Weiwei. He took charge of the Luoyang arsenal and various smelters, and rebuilt the official car and guard system. Chu Hui, the great farmer of the Chen State, succeeded the governor of Yuzhou.
Without the previous temptation, there would be no such series of appointments and dismissals.
After completing all this, he prepared to patrol Heyang in the north.
The war in Hebei has also entered its most critical moment.
(End of this chapter)