As far as the overall strength is concerned, Chen Sangliang wants to destroy his love rival Li Er with ease. Regardless of manpower, material or financial resources, Chen Sangliang, who has occupied Guanzhong, has beaten Li Erba by eight streets, and his strength is still rising In a head-on confrontation, as long as Chen Sangliang doesn't get overwhelmed like Dou Jiande, and doesn't suffer the rare misfortune like Dou Jiande, Li Er has absolutely no hope of defeating Chen Sangliang. In the battle to wipe out Li Er, there was only one problem that worried Chen Sangliang, and that was that Li Er's tactics had too much room for detours.
Thanks to Qu Tutong's unfavorable advances and suppression, Li Er, who had few soldiers, actually controlled most of the four counties of Linfen, Longquan, Wencheng, and Jiangjun. Changping County, which was lonely in the east, was also famous Surrender to Li Erjun, although the money and food in these counties are limited and cannot support too many troops for Li Er, and many counties are also secretly riding on the wall, preparing for the idea of surrendering as soon as Chen Sangliang comes over, but there is such a large space for tactical activities. It still gave Li Er too many chances to flee. When facing Chen Sangliang's main force, as long as Li Er insisted not to carry the front and dragged Chen Sangliang to hide and seek, he dare not say that he would drag down Chen Sangliang's main force and let Chen Sangliang waste a lot of money. There is absolutely no problem with time and money.
That's why Chen Sangliang ordered Liu Heitai to entangle Li Er's main force at all costs, and later Liu Heitai advanced alone. Here, Liu Heitai must also be praised. Chen Sangliang just gave Liu Heitai Heitai gave a general order without actually instructing Liu Heitai on how to act. He used the excuse that his concubine's family was killed and wanted to find Duan Zhixuan to fight for his life, but it was false to seduce Li Er's main force to go south, and to fight head-on with the enemy who had a local advantage at any cost. As the main force of Li Er, these tactical strategies were all figured out by Liu Heitai and a few staff members, and there was no credit for Chen Sangliang.
Fortunately, Liu Heikai successfully completed the task, and Chen Sangliang, who let the elite soldiers pretend to be the second-line soldiers in Hedong and ran all the way, got his wish and caught the decisive battle with Li Er's main force. But it's not that Li Er was too stupid to fall into Chen Sangliang's trick to hide the truth. It was because in this tactical plan, Chen Sangliang became Li Er, changed his style of using troops, and copied Li Er's tactics that he liked to take risks.
Chen Sangliang's previous style of using troops has always been to seek stability. Before thinking about victory, he must first consider how to be undefeated. Minimize losses - Yanmen decisive battle is a typical example. At the same time, Chen Sangliang also has a very disdainful habit of using soldiers, that is, he loves the soldiers too much. In every battle, he must consider how to minimize the casualties of the soldiers, and in every battle, he must consider how to prevent the soldiers from being too tired. Although one point made Chen Sangliang gain the love of the soldiers, it would often delay the opportunity of the fighter and let the enemy escape with their lives.
Chen Sangliang changed these habits this time. He no longer worried about casualties and let Liu Heitai take his life to haunt Li Er. He no longer cared about soldiers forcing the army to travel long distances. , left the newly recruited second-line army behind to hold food, and put the elite soldiers in the front for a quick march. The tactics almost completely copied Li Er, the rival in love. In the end, he killed Li Er by surprise, and made Chen Sang A good soldier used to capsize in the ditch of Emperor Li Er who knew everything well, but unfortunately fell into the trap of the unscrupulous generals Chen Sangliang and Liu Heitai.
Occasionally, the price of a miscalculation is very heavy. Seeing the sudden appearance of the Nationalist Army that should have been 600 miles away, even the young and mature Li Er was shocked, let alone the generals and soldiers under Li Er's command. The screams and screams came one after another, and the morale plummeted. The Liu Heita army, who had been pressed and beaten by the main force of Li Erjun before, cheered like thunder, and the morale suddenly exploded. The line of defense also immediately launched a counterattack against Li Erjun who had already rushed into the camp, defeating the frightened Li Erjun soldiers and retreating steadily, and could no longer continue to expand the results of the battle.
Li Erjun still has a chance. The Baoguo Army rushed all the way, and the physical strength of the soldiers and horses will definitely be greatly affected. At the same time, Li Er also knew that the Baoguo Army had doubled in size before, and wondered how the Baoguo Army's combat effectiveness would be. They will all be affected by this, so Li Er didn't hesitate after he came back to his senses, and immediately ordered his cousin Li Shuliang to lead a thousand infantry to attack. I want to buy time to adjust the infantry formation and fight against the Baoguo army.
Li Er soon discovered that his judgment was wrong again. After Li Shuliang's infantry rushed forward, they not only failed to entangle the Baoguo army, but were also submerged in the dust and smoke brought up by the Baoguo army's iron hooves in the blink of an eye. The sound of screams, the neighing of war horses, and the screams of dying soldiers echoed in the dust and smoke, and then in just a moment, the banner of loyalty to the country rushed out of the dusty battlefield, and more white-robed cavalry followed the banner. They came out, leaving corpses and bloody limbs all over the floor, and the scattered Li Second Army infantry in a daze in the gradually thinning dust and smoke, as if they hadn't figured out how they were defeated until now.
The formation of Li Erjun hadn't had time to adjust and turn around, and the Baoguo Army, who was as good at assault warfare as Li Er, directly ran into Li Erjun's team that was being mobilized in a hurry, like a steel knife stabbing tofu, directly penetrated into Li Erjun's interior, and the new call for killing The sound of sound and gold and iron clashed in Li Erjun's heart, blood spattered, and heads rolled. During this period, there were continuous explosions of gunpowder bottles, and Li Erjun was thrown into chaos. At the same time, Liu Heikai, who had been beaten by Li Erjun for almost two days, also seized the opportunity to take revenge. He opened the gate of the camp and personally led the army to launch a counterattack. Terrified, he involuntarily backed away.
At the critical moment, Li Er calmed down again. He carefully observed the situation on the battlefield and constantly calculated and analyzed in his mind. If you don't fear casualties in fighting, you may annihilate the incoming enemy after paying a heavy price; Liu Heita's army is exhausted from repeated battles, and now the counterattack is fierce and only depends on one breath. It can still regain the upper hand, so as long as the battle situation does not change, Li Erjun still has a chance to win a big victory. but…
But will Chen Sangliang give Li Er this chance? Li Er, who knew Chen Sangliang very well, was not sure this time. The Nationalist Army had already arrived, and Chen Sangliang's main infantry and other cavalry were definitely not far from the battlefield, so Li Er turned around and imitated Chen Sangliang. Sangliang chose not to make adjustments and waited for the changes, let the infantry brigade continue to fight head-on with the Baoguo Army and Liu Heimai, and at the same time sent fast horses to scout the way to the south to confirm the position and distance of Chen Sangliang's main force.
The tactical style of Chen Sangliang and Li Er is a typical mutual restraint. At the critical moment, Li Er learned from Chen Sangliang and rescued him with prudent troops. Soon there were scouts from the south reporting that an unknown number of Sui army infantry had been found in the south. The cavalry was less than twenty miles away from the Wenxi battlefield. Li Er only thought about it for less than half a minute when he heard the report, and immediately ordered loudly: "Order all the troops to abandon the camp and Wenxi city, and retreat to Zhengping. I will personally lead the cavalry to the rear!"
"You Commander, you don't need to give up Wenxi City directly, right?" Duan Zhixuan next to him hurriedly said: "Chen Thief's army is exhausted from a long distance, our army retreated to Wenxi City to rest for a while, and take the opportunity to adjust the team. Chance?"
"Chen Yingliang's traitor will not give us such an opportunity." Li Er said coldly: "Since Chen thief dared to rush all the way to Wenxi, and let the Nationalist Army serve as the vanguard to open the way, it means that he must bring the most elite under his command. The main force of the army is far superior to our army. Withdrawing to Wenxi City at this time will only hit Thief Chen's arms and give him a chance to fight us. Withdrawing to Wenxi City at this time is courting death, so we have to abandon it immediately. Going north of the city, and lengthening the route of Chen Yingliang's traitors' advance and supply routes, we can gain a chance to breathe and adjust."
After explaining the reason for the immediate retreat, Li Er repeated the order again. The generals of Li Er's army did not dare to disobey, and could only hastily give the order to abandon the city and camp. Yu Xuanjia's cavalry stood in the rear, resisting the counterattack of the Sui army.
Of course, Li Er's commanding power is nothing to say. After the order was issued, his soldiers and horses immediately left the camp and Wenxi City and fled all the way north. They were still in a hurry to retreat. Abandoning the camp and fleeing north, followed by Wenxi's garrison, followed by Zhu Can's camp garrison, and finally the main force of the infantry fighting the Baoguo Army and Liu Heitai, and then the cavalry led by Li Er immediately caught up with the Baoguo Army , and fight and retreat at the end.
The reaction of the Sui army made Li Er furious and helpless. It was fine for the Baoguo army to chase after him, but Liu Heikai also left the camp and chased after the Baoguo army with 3,000 troops. Biting Li Er's tail, Li Er led the cavalry to fight desperately. Several counterattacks failed to kill the Bao Guojun and Liu Heitai.
It was only a quarter of an hour after Li's second army withdrew, and the main force of 14,000 cavalry led by Chen Sangliang had already arrived at the Wenxi battlefield, and hurried up to greet Chen Sangliang, except for the generals who stayed behind in the camp Liu Heikai, and others Several men on horseback dressed as ordinary people, the leader of them cupped their hands to Chen Sangliang and said, "Wenxi Pei Xuanji, I have met Prime Minister Chen of the Great Sui Dynasty and Prime Minister Jin An."
"Brother Xuanji, why are you being polite to me? Without the support of your father Zuoxiang Pei, where would I be today? You and I will be called brothers, and there is no need to be called an official taboo." Chen Sangliang returned the gift immediately with a smile, and said quickly : "Brother Xuanji, I have something to ask you. My army rations are limited, and it will take some time for the rear army to deliver the rations. During this period, I can only temporarily borrow my rations from you. I can help you with this Is it?"
"May I ask Prime Minister, how many soldiers and horses do you have in your former army?" Pei Xuanji, the only son of Pei Ju, the head of the Wenxi Pei clan, asked calmly.
"The former army is 15,000, plus Liu Heita's army, it should be 22,300." Chen Sangliang replied.
"Please rest assured, Prime Minister, I dare not say too much. Within half a month, I, Wenxi Pei's family, will bear the rations for your former army." Pei Xuanji replied respectfully.
"Then please, I will definitely pay you back in the future." Chen Sangliang was overjoyed, and immediately arranged for the soldiers and horses left by Liu Heita to follow Pei Xuanji and others to the secret warehouse of the old Pei's house to collect food, and then immediately led the army to continue Go north to pursue. In the end, Chen Sangliang naturally had to tell Pei Xuanji: "Brother Xuanji, you have to go north with my food team, and moreover, bring more young talents from your relatives."
Pei Xuanji smiled and replied respectfully: "Don't worry, Prime Minister, I will."
Wenxi Pei, who has a deep relationship with Chen Sangliang, will definitely help Chen Sangliang. This is naturally expected by Li Er. The only thing Li Er did not expect is that Wenxi Pei's background will have so deep. When Li Yuan led the army to the south, Pei Ji had already extorted a lot of food and soldiers from his family. Bao, honestly donated a lot of food, salary and personnel to Li Er. At this moment, Chen Sangliang finally came with the returning home team. Wenxi Pei, who should have been hollowed out by Li Er, unexpectedly returned To be able to provide so much food and grass to help the evildoers, this is something Li Er never expected beforehand.
This also made Li Er miserable. When his army had just withdrawn to the Fenshui River and started to cross the river, the main force of infantry and cavalry led by the carefree Chen Sangliang had already killed behind him. Seeing that the situation was not good, Li Er could only It was to let the whole army cross the Fenshui River by force, and try to keep the army back to the city. Chen Sangliang learned from Li Er, and also attacked with all his strength regardless of the exhaustion of the army and the danger of the forced crossing. On the surface of the river, Li Erjun was forced to cut off the pontoon bridge regardless of the fact that there were still fellow troops on the bridge. Soldiers of Li Erjun who had not crossed the river fell into Fenshui countless times crying and shouting, and many soldiers of the Sui Army were chasing after them. People fell into the water and sacrificed. In the end, the 25,000 troops Li Er brought to Wenxi and the more than 3,000 Wenxi defenders under Duan Zhixuan's command fled back alive to Zhengping City, leaving only 16,700 people.
What made Li Er gritted his teeth was still to come. Originally, with Chen Sangliang's military habits, at this point in the battle, he must first establish a strong camp to let the army rest well, and then cross Fenshui to fight. Li Er can also win. Taking a breather, he readjusted the Jinnan defense line to stabilize his position, but what Li Er didn't expect was that after his defeated troops retreated to Zhengping City, Chen Sangliang did let the army rest for a while, but immediately began to build a pontoon bridge to cross the river. Li Er was not given a chance to rest.
Although Zhengping City is relatively strong, it is definitely not a place to be guarded for a long time. It is too far away from Lao Li's old nest in Taiyuan. When Li Jiancheng sends the main force to the south for reinforcements, Chen Sangliang's rear army must have surrounded Zhengping City long ago. Wencheng County It is far away from the garrison in Linfen County, and its combat effectiveness is weak. It is impossible to be the opponent of Chen Sangliang's elite soldiers and strong generals. Sticking to Zhengping is obviously courting death. So Li Er only rested for a day, and immediately led the main force to flee northward overnight to Linfen, leaving Li Shenfu to lead more than a thousand troops to guard Zhengping for a while, and allowed Li Shenfu to abandon the city and retreat after holding on for three days.
Chen Sangliang's reaction made Li Er lament that the world had changed. As soon as he withdrew from Zhengping and headed north with the main force, Chen Sangliang immediately launched a pursuit, leaving only Liu Heitai with three thousand troops to confront Li Shenfu and personally Leading the main force to launch a pursuit, Li Er did not believe that Chen Sangliang would be uncharacteristically persistent in pursuing to the end, leaving behind the army behind Chen Sangliang's pursuit speed, and fled north without stopping. The horse also continued to go north without stopping, biting Li Er's tail and not letting go.
He crossed Taiping Pass and entered Linfen County in a panic. Originally, he hoped that Taiping Pass would delay Chen Sangliang's pursuers a little bit, and buy his own army a rest time. Who would have thought that after crossing Taiping Pass just ten miles away, the sound came from behind? The bad news is that Chen Sangliang actually imitated the old Li's signature siege tactics and asked the soldiers to climb the wall with their weapons in their hands. After paying a lot of money, he took the Taiping Pass abruptly and ordered all the defenders in the pass to be killed. Soldiers revenge. Apart from cursing Li Er, he could only urge his exhausted horses to continue northward to Linfen City to rest.
Xue Dading, the prefect of Linfen appointed by Li Yuan at the beginning, betrayed Li Er, who was almost at the end of his life, at a critical moment. He refused to open the city gate to welcome Li Er into the city. It is useful to wait for the opportunity anyway—although Xue Dading was just a commoner when he took the initiative to run to be Li Yuan's dog. Li Erda scolded Xue Dading for being shameless, and then he could only continue to run northward. Xue Dading immediately opened the city gate again, and led all the officials in the city to run to Chen Sangliang to flatter Chen Sangliang with seals in their hands.
In the end, Li Erjun borrowed grain from the people all the way for food, and managed to escape to the city of Huoyi two days later. Fortunately, Li Deliang, who was guarding Huoyi, was Li Yuan's cousin, Uncle Li Ertang, and immediately opened the city gate to welcome Li Er into the city. With only 8,000 soldiers left, Li Erjun had a place to eat, drink, and rest. He could rest in peace, and finally he was not wiped out by his love rival Chen Sangliang in the escape battle.
The crisis has not yet been lifted. Li Er got a rest and rest in Huoyi, and Chen Sangliang also got a chance to rest and rest in Linfen City, which voluntarily surrendered. With only two days away from Huoyi, Chen Sangliang still had a chance to rest. It is possible to attack Huo Yi, and at the same time, Li Shentong, who was separated from Li Er on the way to escape, escaped back to Huo Yi City with a few soldiers, and while gobbling food and water, he reported to Li Er vaguely. It is said that Taiping, Xiangling, and Yang County in the south have surrendered to Chen Sangliang, Chen Sangliang is more at ease, and has more or less obtained some food and grass supplies, and the possibility of attacking Huoyi is even greater.
The powerful enemy kept approaching, counties and counties kept surrendering, morale was low and the battalion was full of wounded soldiers. Under such circumstances, Li Shentong, Li Deliang and others suggested that Li Er abandon Huoyi City and retreat to Jiexiu. In order to prevent Chen Sangliang from capturing Jiahu Fort and Queshu Valley after going north, completely cutting off Li Er's escape route. However, after careful consideration, Li Er resolutely shook his head and said, "No, you must not give up on Huo Yi! You must keep Huo Yi at all costs!"
"Why?" Li Shentong asked quickly.
"Because Huo Yi controls the initiative on the Jinnan battlefield!" Li Er replied coldly: "Huo Yi tightly controls the mouth of the Queshu Valley. Controlling Huoyi is equivalent to controlling the entire Queshu Valley. If our army gives up Huoyi City went north and shared the natural danger of Queshu Valley with Chen Yingliang's traitors, so they could only be blocked by Chen Yingliang's traitors in the north of Queshu Valley, and there was no chance to go south. But as long as we hold Huoyi, we can look down on the whole southern Shanxi. Fight if you want to fight, defend if you want to, and recover the counties in southern Shanxi as soon as you have the opportunity, and then march into Guanzhong! Such a strategically important place is hard to find, and we must not give up!"
"But can we hold it?" Li Deliang asked worriedly.
"Why can't we keep it?" Li Er said with a sneer: "Huoyi has five thousand defenders, and I brought nearly eight thousand troops, plus the scattered soldiers who returned one after another and organized the people to help defend the city, and there is no problem with 20,000 troops. No problem. Huoyi City is a strategic location, the terrain is dangerous, the city is high and deep, and there is still room for strengthening the city's defenses. Chen Yingliang's traitors have always been afraid of attacking a fortified city. As long as there are no internal problems, let alone defend Huoyi City, There is great hope for Chen Yingliang and the traitors who have been severely injured in the battle of defending the city!"
"As for food and grass, don't be afraid. The food in the city is enough to support 20,000 troops to fight for a month and a half. Now that the autumn harvest is just around the corner, it is not a big problem to borrow food from the people and transport food from the neighboring Fenxi City for three months. "Li Erfei quickly analyzed: "Chen Yingliang's traitor is advancing too fast and too hard this time, and it must be very difficult to supply food and grass. Three months is enough for us to survive until the food is exhausted. And there are quite a lot of hidden dangers behind him. He definitely doesn't dare to stay away from Daxing for a long time, winter is coming again, three months must be too much time, at most one month, if he can't win Huo Yi in one month, he must just get out of here!"
Hearing that Li Er's analysis was reasonable, Li Shentong and the others nodded in agreement, and then said: "There is also Governor Zuo, we can also ask him for help."
"Of course." Li Er said with a sneer: "As long as we can defend Huo Yi without losing it, Chen Yingliang's traitor will have to detour thousands of miles if he wants to attack him. It will be of great benefit to him if we defend Huo Yi , he will definitely not be stingy to take out some soldiers, horses and food to help us!"
When Li Shentong and the others nodded in agreement, Li Er turned his bloodshot eyes to the southeast again, and said secretly: "Yu Wenhuaji, let's fight, if you can stab Chen Yingliang's traitor in the back at this time, it would be too much for me." It's beneficial."
At the same time, after discovering that Li Er fled directly into Huoyi City, Chen Sangliang, who was also exhausted, heaved a sigh of relief, and immediately ordered the whole army to rest at ease, waiting for the arrival of the rear army led by Yuan Tiangang before attacking northward. Of course, the exhausted soldiers of the Sui army cheered happily, but Yuchi Jingde and other generals who assisted Chen Sangliang in leading the former army were a little puzzled, and asked Chen Sangliang: "Prime Minister, you have always let us do whatever we want regardless of fatigue. The pursuit of the price, now that the Li family's bandit army has suffered heavy casualties and is exhausted, it is our opportunity to take advantage of the momentum to attack, why did you ask us to stop and wait for the rear army?"
"I asked you to chase after the Li family's bandit army, because I was afraid that Li Erlang would get a respite in the south of Huoyi, regroup his troops and horses to fight steadily, or flee to other places to waste time and food with us." Chen Sangliang smiled. Said: "But since Li Erlang has run into Huoyi City, I'm not afraid. A poor man loves beans, an adulterer loves a prostitute, Li Erlang is a smart man, he can see how important Huoyi City is to him, and he will never give up easily So even if we don't go after him, he won't leave Huoyi to go to other places, he will only obediently strengthen the city defense, stick to Huoyi city, and wait for us to come to kill him, of course we don't need to work hard again Go after it."
"But Huoyi City is very strong?" Yuchi Jingde asked again in doubt: "When the general followed you south from Yanmen, I saw the situation of Huoyi City. The city is high and deep, and the terrain is dangerous. , if the Li family's bandit army sticks to the city, how can we break the city?"
Chen Yingliang smiled, and smiled easily, and said: "It's okay, I'm sure, I have a way to destroy the city, it was originally planned to be used in the Daxing inner city battle, but it's useless for Chai Shao and the others to offer the city." , right now, it can still be used on Li Erlang."