As Li Jing expected, the Liu-Li Allied Army chose to establish a defensive position on the Dongwo River in the south of Taiyuan City. The main camps of the two armies were built on the north bank of the Dongwo River. They built fortifications, and stationed a troop in Yuci City, just east of Taiyuan, and established a defensive position based on the city to prevent the Sui army from seizing the upper reaches of the Dongwo River. Prepare to rely on the favorable terrain to gain a foothold in the defense, and then take advantage of the large number of cavalry in Liu Wuzhou's army to wait for an opportunity to harass the Sui army's grain road.
Although the calculations of the Liu-Li Allied Forces were good, it was a pity that their tactical plans were all within the expectations of Chen Sangliang and Li Jing, and they had prepared countermeasures in advance. After joining forces with the former army in Qi County, Chen Sangliang and Li Jing Arranged a strategy of advancing troops with equal emphasis on front, back, left, and right. Li Jing led Cheng Yaojin, Xue Renguo and other fierce generals to lead the way. The national army sits in the middle army, and Qu Tutong leads Liu Shishan and Qiu Shili to guard the grain road at the back. The left wing on the west bank of Fenshui is handed over to Liu Heita, the nemesis of the Li family. , Chen Sangliang's trump card, the national defense army, can also be pulled out from the central army at any time to serve as a mobile reserve team, giving full play to the many advantages of elite soldiers and fierce generals, and putting on an arrogant posture that I will bully you more by relying on the elite.
Through various channels, we found out about the deployment of the Sui army's troops. The Li family brothers, who were already few and far between, had no way to deal with it other than scolding Chen Sangliang for being treacherous and cautious. Feeling that the opportunity is coming, he took the initiative to find the Li family brothers who were also camping outside the city and said: "You two brothers, Chen Yingliang's traitor spread the army, taking care of the front and rear wings, and weakened the force by itself. The distance between each other is still relatively far away. It is a great opportunity for all the armies under his command to defeat each other, how about we concentrate our mobile forces and defeat his relatively weak two-wing armies, so how about frustrating his spirit?"
They looked at each other with wry smiles, and then Li Er said: "Second brothers, your proposal is indeed good. Compared with the front, middle and rear armies, it is not bad that Chen thief's troops on the left and right wings are relatively weak, but Qin Qiong and Liu Heitai and these two bandit generals are not easy to mess with. Qin Qiong's fame on the battlefield was before Chen Yingliang's traitor, but Liu Heitai is even more courageous and skillful in using troops, and he has joined Chen Yingliang's traitor for less than two In one year, he was able to lead the Hedong side division alone, ranking above Wang Xingben and Huo Shiju and other veterans of the previous dynasty, and left other civil and military officials under Chen Thief's command speechless. It will be harder than reaching the sky."
"Can there be so many generals under Chen Yingliang's traitor?" Both Liu Wuzhou and Song Jingang were skeptical. After discussing for a while, Liu Wuzhou said again: "My dear brothers, if this is not the case, our army will send out a cavalry first to make a detour. Going to attack the right wing of the Chen bandit army, how do you respond? We did this first to find out the specific situation of the Chen bandit army, and secondly because we heard that Qin Qiong was defeated by Dou Jiande several times on the Linfen battlefield. It’s more certain to beat him.”
"Qin Qiong was defeated in Linfen because he ran into Wang Fubao, and Wang Fubao was just..."
Li Jiancheng's words of persuasion were interrupted by Li Er, who rushed to say: "Brother, since you are determined to send troops to fight, then we will not force you, you can go and fight the bandits at ease, little brother, I will personally lead an army to meet you behind. "
Liu Wuzhou and Song Jingang were overjoyed when they heard that they hurriedly discussed the time and route of sending troops, and then they left. Then when Li Jiancheng asked Li Er why he agreed to send troops, Li Er replied: "It's better to let them suffer a little bit, so that they don't have to worry about it." We didn’t know that the sky is high and the earth is strong and we are going to lead the main force to fight across the Dongzuo River. At that time, it was difficult for us. Let them learn some lessons earlier, and they will not dare to take this risk.”
Li Jiancheng suddenly realized what he heard, and he didn't hesitate to applaud. He immediately asked Li Er to lead 3,000 infantry eastward to Yuci. The same went to Yuci to cross the Dongwo River, and then Xun Xiang led the cavalry to attack first, and Li Er led the infantry to advance slowly, ready to cover Xun Xiang to retreat across the Dongwo River at any time, or to rush forward at any time to help the surprise attack win Finding a phase to expand the results of the battle—although Li Er knew very well that there was absolutely no such possibility.
There is indeed no such possibility. After the scout sentry reported the news of the Dingyang cavalry's roundabout attack to Qin Qiong, Qin Qiong not only didn't feel nervous or afraid at all, on the contrary, he even squinted his eyes with a smile, and said with a proud smile: "This It is the advantage of having fewer troops, and this good start belongs to us!"
Laughing, Qin Qiong quickly formed an army, ordered 4,000 infantry to fight in formation, and led 3,000 cavalry to the rear, preparing to teach the ignorant Ding Yang army an unforgettable lesson. Who would have thought that Qin Qiong had just When they saw the dust and smoke brought up by the horseshoes of the cavalry of the Dingyang Army, the Chinese army several miles away rushed forward to count the cavalry, holding Chen Sangliang's order arrow and sent an order to Qin Qiong: "General Qin, His Highness Tang Wang has an order. In a battle, defeat is not allowed to win, for the sake of the overall situation, your army must feign defeat and move closer to the Chinese army!"
"Why is it my turn to do this hard work again?" Qin Qiong complained, but he had no choice but to immediately lead the cavalry to attack first, and at the same time ordered the infantry to prepare for a false defeat and retreat to the central army.
So, just like that, the Dingyang cavalry led by Xunxiang got off to a good start. Qin Qiong led the cavalry and Dingyang cavalry only had a little contact, and immediately retreated to the Chinese army pretending to be invincible. The Sui army's infantry also scattered. Ding Yang's cavalry took advantage of their speed to catch up with the Sui army's infantry and made many gains. Chen Sangliang immediately dispatched Kan Leng to lead his army eastward to meet them, using strong bows to fight against them. The crossbow shot at Ding Yang's cavalry and covered Qin Qiong's army from escaping back to the central army. Ding Yang's soldiers did not dare to directly attack the Sui cavalry, and detoured to attack Kan Leng's wings and back. Deliberately showing weakness, Ding Yang's cavalry circled around Kan Ling's tortoise formation for more than a dozen times but could not find a chance to break into the formation. In desperation, they could only retreat a little, widening the distance and waiting for the infantry led by Li Er to respond.
The front battle report was sent to Li Er. Of course, Li Er complained endlessly, scolding Chen Sangliang for being treacherous and shameless, deliberately defrauding his defeat. Not only did he not give Yang Jun the opportunity to understand the Sui Army's reality, but he also had the effect of luring the enemy by the way. The wishful thinking of killing two birds with one stone made a lot of noise. But there was an agreement in advance, and Li Er would never dare to break his promise to Ding Yang Jun at this meeting, so he could only lead the army to rush to reinforce him to find the prime minister, while secretly praying that Chen Sangliang would not send anyone to keep an eye on him. .
Li Er's luck was indeed quite good, because the Sui army's scouts had not had time to find out who was leading the army behind Dingyang's cavalry, and Chen Sangliang, who just wanted to show weakness and lure the enemy, did not want too many casualties, so he let Kan Ling Leading the army to retreat, the main force of the Chinese army stopped advancing to prepare for the battle, and threatened the Dingyang cavalry who were not far away with their numbers. Seeing that the Sui army was already on guard, even if Li Er led the army to come, it would not be of much use, so he chose to accept it as soon as he was good, and led the cavalry back the way he came, Li Er also did this I escaped a catastrophe - based on Chen Sangliang's jealousy towards Li Er, if it is discovered that Li Er led the army to come to meet him, he would rather give up the plan to lure the enemy and seize the opportunity to kill Li Er!
After standing, Qin Qiong, who was forced to lose again, naturally had to go to Chen Sangliang to complain and complain, asking insinuatingly whether Chen Sangliang deliberately made him embarrass himself again and again? Chen Sangliang said with a smile: "Don't blame uncle, I really didn't do it on purpose this time. I always thought that the first target of Liu Li's bandit army should be our former army, and I was going to let uncle take the blame After this defeat, I thought that your charisma is so great that the bandits would attack you first in a detour, so I had to let you feign defeat again. But don’t worry, the last time, if there is such a bad thing in the future, I will never I won't send you on my head again."
"Really?" Qin Qiong was skeptical, and asked again: "What if the bandits come to attack my right wing again?"
"No more." Chen Sangliang shook his head, pouted forward and said: "Our army's forward is only 30 miles away from the Dongwo River. If everything goes well, we can set up camp tonight, and then we will stand by the river in the Yanyue formation." Battalion, the bandit army has no chance to attack you again. Even if there is any mission to lure the enemy, I will not let you be wronged again."
Qin Qiong was a little relieved when he heard the words, but Luo Shixin and Guo Feng and other bad friends next to him prayed to God and Buddha in front of him, praying for the blessing of the gods, and let the Dingyang army attack the right wing of the Sui army again, so that he could watch again. Once Qin Qiong was forced to lose the embarrassment of a battle, Qin Qiong was furious when he heard this, and played and played with all the bad friends without mentioning it.
Qin Qiong was playing and playing with a group of bad friends in front of Chen Sangliang, but Li Er was having a hard time in front of General Ding Yang's search. He had to worry about the face of the friendly army, so he could only beat around the bush to remind Xunxiang to pay attention to the details of the battlefield, and carefully distinguish whether the Sui army's defeat was true or false. Fortunately, General Ding Yang Xunxiang was also a calm person, and he did not indiscriminately blame Li Er for the late arrival of reinforcements, and he also somewhat suspected that the Sui army did not use all their strength at all, so he nodded and dismissed the matter.
Of course, just because Xunxiang himself is calm does not mean that the soldiers of Dingyang Army under his command are also so rational. Naturally, most of the cavalry of Dingyang Army under Xunxiang's command expressed serious dissatisfaction with the delay in receiving infantry reinforcements. In front of the sergeants, besides being arrogant, of course, they also had to say a few strange words, sarcasm and ridicule. Of course, the soldiers of Taiyuan were very unhappy when they heard this, and some subtle cracks and contradictions began to appear between the two armies-this is the nature of human beings. It's normal, it's been like this throughout the ages, and it's not surprising at all.
In the evening of that day, the main force of the Sui army arrived at the Dongwo River battlefield fairly smoothly, joined forces with the forwards of the Sui army led by Li Jing, and then set up a camp five miles south of the Dongwo River, and set up a defensive force with its back against the Fenshui River. Very powerful Yanyue Camp. Xun Xiang and Li Er, who could no longer find a chance to make a call, immediately led their troops across the Dongwo River and returned to their camps to report the battle situation to Li Jiancheng and Liu Wuzhou.
Like Li Er, when he learned that the Sui army was deliberately swindling and refusing to reveal their true strength, Li Jiancheng also complained that his friend was too cunning, and then Li Jiancheng didn't dare to neglect, so he could only quickly take Li Er over to the camp for a visit. Liu Wuzhou explained the reason to Liu Wuzhou so that Liu Wuzhou would not underestimate the enemy and give Chen Sangliang the chance for a quick decision.
Fortunately, Liu Wuzhou is also a good talker. After listening to the explanation of the Li family brothers, not only did he not question or refute, he also laughed and said: "Don't worry, my brothers, I still rely on fighting for a living. Is it a real defeat or a fake defeat, so you can’t tell the difference? In fact, after brother Xun introduced the situation on the battlefield to me, I immediately understood that Thief Chen was deceiving our army. He had never fought against him. He didn’t want to expose his strength and deliberately showed weakness to lure the enemy , I want to lure our army to give up the favorable terrain and take the initiative to cross the river for a decisive battle, how can I make him get his wish?"
Seeing that Liu Wuzhou's bright expression did not seem to be fake, Li Jiancheng and Li Er breathed a sigh of relief, and hurriedly complimented Liu Wuzhou's insight and knowledge, and never thought that Li Er's fiancée Liu Xiaomou suddenly came out from behind the tent, and said in a strange way: It must have been the feigned defeat of the Chen thief, but there are people who know that the feigned defeat of the Chen thief still dare not enter the army, and missed the opportunity to expand the results of the battle in vain, isn't this courageous?"
Li Er looked very embarrassed, Liu Wuzhou also opened his mouth to reprimand his sister not to talk nonsense, but Liu Xiaomou put on a serious face and said fiercely: "Am I talking nonsense? The cavalry under Brother Xun have already said that if they have infantry cover, they can at least kill There were thousands of enemies, but it was because the infantry reinforcements did not dare to move too fast, which gave Chen's army a chance to escape! Also, didn't someone say that Chen's bandits would definitely have envoys to sow discord? Why is Chen's bandit here now? It's already completely dark, and you haven't seen half of the Chen thief's messenger yet?!"
Liu Xiaomou was kicked out of the big tent by Liu Wuzhou in the end, and then Liu Wuzhou said to Li Er apologetically: "Don't blame my brother, my sister is spoiled by me, I love her and can't bear to beat and scold her. Cultivate her with this temper, after she passes through the door, you have to discipline her more."
"Brother has already said it, but I don't dare to take it." Li Er smiled modestly, then looked to the south with some doubts, and said to himself: "Why hasn't Thief Chen sent an envoy yet? Could it be that he really changed his temper this time and didn't want to Did you use his favorite and best at alienation?"
Chen Sangliang really changed his bad habits this time. Not only did he not play any tricks and counter-measures as soon as he came up, but the next morning, while the main force of the Sui army went all out to reinforce the camp, Chen Sangliang also fought with Li Jing, Yuan Tiangang, and Yuchi. Jingde and the others led a cavalry out of the camp, and went to the Dongwo River to check the terrain first, and learned how to attack the enemy and how to defeat the enemy with dignity.
As the second largest tributary of the Fenshui River, the Dongwo River still had a large amount of water in this era. Even before the flood season, the width of the river was almost three feet, making it difficult to cross. Liu and Li's allied forces also camped east and west based on this location. The main force of the Taiyuan army, about 26,000 people, set up camp to the west, three miles away from Fenshui River in the west, and about three miles away from Dongwo River in the south; Dingyang Army set up camp in Taiyuan. About five miles to the east of the military camp, it was also carefully kept three miles away from the river bank, so that the Sui army's artillery, which had a range of only two and a half miles, had no chance of directly bombarding the Dingyang army camp.
Naturally, the solid wooden bridge on the river has been demolished by Liu Li's allied forces, and replaced by six pontoon bridges that can be destroyed at any time. At the end of the pontoon bridge, there are earth fortifications to protect the soldiers guarding the bridge. Once the Sui army launches an attack, the soldiers guarding the bridge can cut it down at any time. The rope destroyed the pontoon. In addition, the Liu-Li Allied Forces also built a large number of horse-repelling antlers on the shoal of the river with gentle flow. Behind the antlers, a wall of sheep and horses was built to cover the defenders shooting arrows to kill the enemy from the opposite bank. At the same time, Chen Sangliang and Li Jing They also discovered that the Liu-Li Allied Forces deliberately built the sheep and horse walls very thick, obviously to guard against the artillery bombardment of the Sui army.
After carefully observing the enemy's fortifications, Chen Sangliang probably had a solid idea, so he asked Li Jing: "Uncle, although the bandit army's defense along the river has learned some lessons, it is still basically the same. I don't think so. Difficult to break through, what do you think?"
"It's really not difficult to break through." Li Jing nodded, and said: "With artillery weapons in hand, timber fortifications such as antlers and fences are useless in front of us. It is not difficult for our army to break through the Dongwo River head-on. One difficulty is that Liu Wuzhou and the Li family brothers help each other defend and rescue each other, if we don't solve this problem, even if we succeed in the forced escape, the loss will not be too small."
"I'm also worried about this issue." Chen Sangliang agreed, and said: "We are sure to defeat the enemy head-on, but we cannot immediately put our troops into the battlefield on the north bank of the Dongwo River. There are only two ways to solve this problem, one is to attack the two camps of the Liu and Li allied forces at the same time, and the other is to lure the enemy across the river to fight."
"Attack two enemy camps at the same time. Although our army's strength is still enough, your Highness certainly doesn't like this tactic?" Li Jing asked with a smile: "Your Highness still wants to lure the enemy across the river, right? Qin Shubao deliberately ate it again yesterday." After losing one battle, shall we try to lose again?"
"I'm afraid the bluff trick won't work anymore. Qin Qiong just used this trick to defeat Cao Dan in Yueyang some time ago. The Li family brothers will definitely learn a lesson." Chen Sangliang smiled and said: "I let Qin Qiong bluff yesterday. , the main purpose is not to expose our strength, and not to allow Ding Yang's army to grasp our strength too early, so that we can keep the hope of luring the enemy to cross the river. Otherwise, we will have no chance at all."
"Then what kind of scheme does Your Highness use to lure the enemy to cross the river, do you have any plans in mind?" Li Jing asked with a smile.
"Don't worry, I'm thinking about it." Chen Sangliang said with a smile: "As long as Liu Wuzhou's bandits don't know our true strength, we have great hope to lure him across the river, but let me think about it..., Hey, it seems that our chance has come, there is movement from Liu Wuzhou's bandit army."
Li Jing, Yuan Tiangang and the others quickly turned their attention to the Dingyang Army camp in the east, and saw that the Dingyang Army had opened the camp gate, and there was a group of Dingyang Army knights with distinctive flags leaving the camp and rushing here. The leader was a man with a golden helmet and a golden armor riding a dark horse. Chen Sangliang and Li Jing expected that it must be Liu Wuzhou himself, so they went up to meet him together. As expected, one of Dingyang's troops was wearing a hunting suit and galloped to the Dongwo River first, and shouted at Chen Sangliang and the others in a clear female voice: "I heard that Chen Yingliang came in person, I'm here!" Brother wants to talk to you, Chen Yingliang, do you have the guts?"
"Why is it a woman?"
Chen Sangliang, who didn't know that someone had already come to Taiyuan, heard the woman's voice, of course he couldn't help being stunned. Fortunately, there was an old driver's cousin beside Chen Sangliang. Smiling slightly, he also shouted loudly: "Niece Xiaomou, I haven't seen you for more than three years, why don't you come?"
"Huh? How do you know my name?" Liu Xiaomou was also taken aback. After carefully looking at Li Jing's appearance, Liu Xiaomou couldn't help but exclaimed in surprise: "Uncle Li, why is it you? Why are you in Chen Yingliang's army of traitors?"
"Xiaomou, you are a girl, don't swear like a man, can you?" Li Jing reprimanded Liu Xiaomou loudly, and then said: "His Royal Highness Tang and I are relatives, of course I am in his army, why? You don't know about this thing?"
"Are you related to Chen Yingliang's traitor?" Liu Xiaomou had never heard of this, so he hurriedly said, "What relative? Why have I never heard of it?"
"Li Shangshu is my cousin, and also the closest relative to me in this world by blood. Xiaomou Xianmei, even you call me cousin, so I will call you Xianmei too, okay?"
Someone took up the conversation, and Liu Xiaomou looked carefully again, only to see that the man in silver armor with a white horse and a white robe appeared in front of her. It looks like an unreliable little boy, but his smile is much more kind and gentle than that of Li Er. Combined with the boy's words, Liu Xiaomou couldn't help asking in surprise: "Are you Chen Yingliang's traitor?"
"Exactly." Chen Sangliang nodded, and said with a straight face: "Sister Xian, didn't you hear your uncle Li reprimanding you? You are a girl, you need to be polite. Now if you want, you can call me I call Brother Chen, if you don’t want to, you can also call me His Highness Tang Wang, imitating those country folks who utter foul language at every turn, what kind of words are they like?”
"What are you, you dare to teach me?"
Liu Xiaomou jumped three feet high, and she seemed to want to argue with Chen Sangliang, but Chen Sangliang didn't bother to pay any attention to her, but secretly praised her, "It's really good, but it's a pity, such a cabbage was really beaten by a pig .”
At this time, Liu Wuzhou also patted his horse and came to the Dongwo River, clasped his fists to Li Jing, and laughed loudly: "Uncle Li, I haven't seen you for more than three years, why don't you come? The person in white robe next to Uncle Li should be Tang Your Highness, right? Yes, as handsome and elegant as in the legend, how about it? Your Highness Tang, you didn’t expect it? You refused to entrust me with Yanmen County, and I will bring an army to repay you?”
"Brother Wu Zhou, for the sake of being polite to my cousin, I will call you Brother Wu Zhou for my cousin's sake." Chen Sangliang sneered, and said loudly: "But brother Wu Zhou, you made a mistake. To be clear, the fact that you sent troops to be buried with Li Rebel was not only expected by me, but I also hope that you will do so from the bottom of my heart!"
"Your Highness wants me to send troops?" Liu Wuzhou asked sarcastically.
"That's right." Chen Sangliang nodded, pointed at Liu Wuzhou with his horsewhip, and said loudly: "Because you sent troops to bury Li's rebels, this king will save the trouble of sending troops to Mayi, and don't have to go north to conquer. I can destroy you right here in Taiyuan City! I will wipe out you and the traitors of the Li clan!"
Being an official, he was used to showing off his power in front of his accomplices and lackeys and the people who didn't know the truth. Chen Sangliang really had a bit of courage this time. Captured by Chen Sangliang's aura, Liu Wuzhou, who was nothing more than a bumpkin nouveau riche at heart, couldn't help being stunned, but Liu Xiaomou, who was next to him, looked at Chen Sangliang in surprise, and thought to himself: "This embroidered pillow seems to be much more domineering than that embroidered pillow. what?!"