Chinese New Year

Chapter 474 Offensive and defensive momentum
Amid the clanging sound of houses being built, Shao Xun climbed to the top of the city wall and looked towards the north.

Several days have passed and today is the sixth day of October.

The abandoned campsite was still charred black, with collapsed earth walls and charred trees complementing each other, revealing a kind of messy beauty.

Shi Le did not send anyone to seize the camp.

Both sides seemed to have tacitly agreed to use it as a buffer zone, and they stopped fighting and confronted each other from a distance.

During these few days, Shi Le selected 500 elite soldiers and took more than a thousand cannon fodder to sneak across the Qikou, trying to attack the ferry from behind, but was repelled by He Lun and his troops.

Since then, the fighting has been at a standstill until today.

At this time, Shi Le deployed the cavalry on both sides and the infantry in the middle, digging trenches and building earth walls day and night, and it seemed that he was going to besiege the northern city of Fangtou.

But in fact it cannot be encircled. As long as the Yellow River is still there, ships can continue to carry supplies, reinforcements, and transport the wounded.

Shi Le certainly knew this. He dug trenches mostly for self-protection, or to feel more secure. He should now be worried that Shao Xun would take the initiative to attack him.

But now Shao Xun was too lazy to pay attention to him.

The north city of Fangtou does not directly lead to the Yellow River, and is still seven or eight miles away from here - although it is only a few miles, it may be used by the enemy.

So he planned to build Fangtou South City, which integrated the dock and the city, and then dredge the old river channel of Qiku so that ships could go directly to Fangtou South City. There would be no need to unload large quantities of supplies on the beach as was done now, and then have horses and people carry them, moving forward with difficulty in the soft mud along the river.

After the two cities were built, they could garrison more than 20,000 troops and store more than half a year's worth of combat supplies, becoming a fulcrum north of the river.

Shao Xun was looking at Shi Le, and Shi Le was also looking at Shao Xun.

So far, although he knew that he could not take the city that had been built, Shi Le was still waiting for news from Henan.

This is the last hope and the only hope.

If his cavalry could succeed in burning, killing and looting in the heart of Henan and shake the morale of Shao's army, the war would still be fought.

If it doesn't work, even though we are extremely reluctant, we have no choice but to withdraw.

But what are the consequences after the withdrawal?
Shi Le looked at Zhang Bin and Diao Ying who had just returned from Pingyang.

"Do you two have any good ideas for the future strategy?" Shi Le turned around with a nonchalant expression, but looking at the corners of his eyes, he had dark circles, and it was obvious that he had not had enough rest recently.

"Your Majesty, Shao Xun will definitely attack Yecheng, so we need to prepare early." Diao Ying said first.

Shi Le did not comment and just looked at Zhang Bin.

Zhang Bin cupped his hands and said, "Shao Xun may not attack Yecheng directly. He may go east along Baigou, or north to Neihuang and Weixian. If so, both Dunqiu and Yangping will be in danger. If he goes north to attack Yecheng, it will be more than a hundred miles away, and there will be no boats and ships, so it will be easy for our cavalry to block the food supply route."

Shi Le nodded silently.

"Your Majesty, Ye is a famous city in Hebei. Shao Xun couldn't resist the temptation--" Diao Ying said again.

Shi Le stopped him and asked directly, "How are the king and his subjects in Pingyang?"

"The King of Zhongshan has received reinforcements, with an army of over 40,000, and has won several battles in a row. I heard that he is currently recruiting the heroes in Guanzhong." Diao Ying replied.

Shi Le laughed when he heard this.

When attacking Guanzhong, the most important thing is not to capture cities, but to pacify local nobles, powerful people, and chieftains of various tribes.

If you want to expand your territory, you can occupy Chang'an now. But it's just an empty city, which doesn't mean much. The most important thing now is to take advantage of the favorable opportunity of victory to make the heroes in Guanzhong change their flags and join the court.

I just don't know whether the people who went to persuade them were from the imperial court or Liu Yao's people.

However, Shi Le also felt tremendous pressure.

The proposal of the strategy of "crossing Yong and annexing" was a strategic shift that the court had never made in all these years. It meant that the court invested huge amounts of resources to the west of the Yellow River.

In fact, even if Diao Ying didn't say it, Shi Le knew some inside information, and he had his own channels of information.

There was a rumor in Pingyang that Wang Can of Henei was about to become the commander-in-chief of the armies in Guanzhong and the governor of the war.

If this appointment is implemented, it will be of great significance.

The emperor would give his best soldiers and generals to the King of Henei, but would never give them to the King of Zhongshan, after all, there is a difference in closeness.

Speaking of which, this matter is also related to Shao Xun.

He was so capable that he forced a big country with a force of 200,000 men to change direction. This alone should be enough for him to be proud of.

But this is not a good thing for Hebei.

From now on, even if the emperor is willing to send troops to support Hebei, it will most likely be only a small force, not the main force.

"Have you received all the wealth and goods that were sent?" Shi Le asked again.

"They accepted it and no one returned it." Diao Ying said.

Shi Le hummed.

Just accept it, even if you don't necessarily speak for him with all your heart, it's better than turning him away.

If he plays a bit pitiful and says a few soft words, he might be able to trick some imperial troops to come and reinforce him. After all, the emperor doesn't want to see Hebei fall into Shao Xun's hands, right?

"Mengsun..." Shi Le took a few steps and walked in front of Zhang Bin, and whispered: "If Shao Xun goes north along Baigou, how can we stop him?"

Zhang Bin was silent for a long time, and then said, "He manages Guangping, Julu, Zhaojun, and Zhongshan. With Bingzhou as its back, it serves as a vassal for the imperial court."

Shi Le was silent for a long time, his expression changing constantly. At the end, he suddenly smiled and said, "When I was at my worst, I only had 18 riders. Now I have tens of thousands of cavalry and infantry. I'm already making a profit. The journey of war is bound to be bumpy. Haha, it's nothing."

"Your Majesty is wise." This time Zhang Bin praised sincerely.

Having an indomitable will is an essential quality for those who want to achieve great things.

In this respect, Da Hu is much better than the emperor and ministers of the Pingyang court. If Shao Xun hadn't been there, he might have had a chance to soar to the sky, but now he doesn't have that chance, or the hope is slim. But even so, Da Hu still didn't lose heart, but instead gathered his mood and waited for the opportunity silently. Just for this reason, it was worth following him.

Let's take a step by step.

******
On the top of Suiyang City in Liang State, Internal Secretary Yu Chen silently watched the soldiers passing around the city.

The enemy cavalry retreated one after another and quickly disappeared into the distant horizon.

Before leaving, they set fires everywhere, burned down a large number of houses and blocked ditches and wells.

The most regrettable thing is that the mulberry trees that were just transplanted this year were almost destroyed.

Yu Chen was somewhat angry, both at the Huns' inaction and at the failure of the Yandong and Yudong regions to fortify their defenses and clear the countryside.

The grain in the fields was easily harvested by the Huns and turned into their food supply, helping them to attack everywhere, burn, kill and loot.

After all the trouble they caused this year, I don’t know how much energy and cost it will take to recover.

He looked back at the city again. It was packed with people and there was almost no place to stand.

This situation shocked him. If a plague broke out, few people, including him, would survive.

I heard that this has already happened in some places, where those infected with the disease were directly driven out of the city, fortress, and manor and left to fend for themselves, but many people still died.

Such a scene reminded him of the old days when he was the governor of Ji County.

Under repeated harassment and destruction, men could not farm and women could not weave. They became weaker and weaker and finally could not hold on.

Even if you eventually drive them away and kill a group of people, in the end you will still suffer a huge loss when you take the final account.

Yu Chen raised his eyes and looked towards the north. In the vast wilderness, a group of knights were surrounded and shot by the Huns.

Every time the knights tried to charge, the Huns immediately scattered and retreated at high speed in the open wilderness, looking back and shooting arrows as they ran.

The knights stopped chasing, and the Huns came back and continued shooting arrows.

The knights chased again, the Huns fled again, and then they made a detour to outflank them.

The knights wanted to lead the Huns to a complex terrain with woods and rivers, so the Huns stopped and confronted each other.

In the end, the knight had no choice but to retreat into a manor to avoid the attack.

Yu Chen stared intently.

These scenes are actually very common in Hebei. Back then, the shock cavalry under his command were killed bit by bit in this way.

To deal with them, we still have to launch a surprise attack, strike their camps, or use logistics to wear them down.

While I was daydreaming, the Huns slowly gathered their troops, retreated eastward, and disappeared into the wilderness.

The scene outside Suiyang County is just a microcosm.

Although Shi Le did not give the order to retreat, after learning that the construction of Fangtou City was completed, Zhao Lu and Kong Tun realized that there was no point in continuing to fight.

Although the army had enough food and fodder to last for a month or two, they could no longer get new food from the fields. If they continued fighting, the food and fodder would become less and less, and they would eventually have to leave.

So they sent messengers to various places, ordering the tribes to gather quickly.

On October 13, the Xiongnu cavalry almost completely withdrew from Jiyin. When the last unit passed through Shanfu for rest, they were informed by the commander of the fortress. The Yicong army pursued them and beheaded more than 300 people.

On October 17, Xi Jian led hundreds of cavalry to raid Rencheng, destroyed a camp, and killed more than 700 infantrymen who remained behind.

On the 20th, the entire army retreated to Dongping. Kong Tuan set an ambush at Daye Lake, and taking advantage of the Jin army's eagerness to pursue, he annihilated more than 300 aristocratic cavalrymen who came from Taishan and Lu State and 200 vanguard cavalrymen of the Yicong Army.

On the 21st, the main force of the Yicong Army chased to Dongpinglu, and with a charge they defeated the rearward Xiongnu cavalry and beheaded five hundred of them.

……

The two sides fought on and off until the end of October, when the Huns abandoned a large amount of baggage and rushed back to Jibei, taking a detour via Qingzhou.

Xun Jun, Marquis of Jibei, took the opportunity to intercept and capture and kill more than 400 Xiongnu cavalry.

In Dongping, the 3,000 infantrymen dispatched by Cao Wei and the 4,000 young men from Yanzhou captured along the way surrendered in despair to the Gaoping government troops who arrived.

The war subsided at this point.

Although there was no spectacular scene of tens of thousands of troops fighting in a field battle, the three major battlefields of the front, flank, and rear were still extremely bloody.

The commanders and generals of both sides were above average and tried hard to follow the principle of "using one's own strengths to attack the enemy's weaknesses". One side took advantage of its massive infantry, while the other took advantage of its mobile and flexible cavalry. In the end, it all depended on who could carry the battle.

There were no tricks, nor any stupid moves caused by a sudden drop in IQ. It was just a head-on battle between men.

Just after the Xiongnu cavalry withdrew, the first snow since the beginning of autumn fell in Henan.

Heavy snow fell on the fort, on the fields, and in the forest...

All traces of the war seemed to have been covered up.

But outside Fangtou City, the nearly 20,000 soldiers who died on both sides were still telling everyone the cruelty of this battle.

South of the river, countless destroyed mulberry forests, ditches, and houses clearly indicate the trauma of war.

But this is not the end, it is a beginning.

If Mr. Chen wanted to take a break for two years before, after building the city in Hebei, it was difficult for him to stop the war.

This time, it might be his turn to attack.

(End of this chapter)