Chinese New Year

Chapter 510: Getting Closer
It felt like I was stabbed by a silver spear. God finally decided to let it rain, and it rained for several days, making both sides of the river clear, although it was a little late.

Huangchi is located in the west of Neihuang County, not far away. Looking from the top of the city, the blue waves are endless and rippling.

There are some sandbars hidden in the lake, which seem to tell people that this lake is not entirely deep water, but there are many shallows, so one must be careful when sailing.

"Is this the place where Liu Can once hunted?" Shao Xun asked, looking at the dense aquatic plants by the lake.

"My lord, when Liu Can was stationed in Wei County, he came here to hunt for three days." The fortress owner Huang Tong replied respectfully.

His son Huang Tao stood behind him, stealing glances at Shao Xun from time to time, as if he wanted to see what this man who was so powerful in the north looked like.

"During the Battle of Gaoping, I had always been wondering where Liu Can was. If I had known he was in Huangchi, I would have come directly to kill him and would not have gone to Gaoping," Shao Xun said with a smile.

Because they didn't know where Liu Can was, they went to Gaoping to deal with Jin Zhun. This guy seems to have no movement in the Xiongnu now, and he should have been excluded from the top power.

A disastrous defeat at a critical moment, with so many competitors, had a far-reaching impact. If Jin Zhun wanted to get promoted again, he could only rely on a surprising strategy.

Today, Shao Xun also came to Huangchi to hunt, and most of the invitees were the commanders of nearby forts and manor owners.

After hunting for half a day, they didn't get much, and some people even returned empty-handed.

It’s not that they don’t try hard, but they really don’t know how to hunt.

In times of chaos, some of the fort commanders and manor owners gathered refugees and built their own forts. These people were generally quite brave.

But there are still many who rely on generations of family slaves, retainers and farmhands to protect themselves. To put it bluntly, these people rely on the "rules" formed by social traditions, inertia and values ​​to control everyone. They may not necessarily be skilled in archery and horse riding, even in the midst of chaos.

For the former, Shao Xun gave silk as a reward.

As for the latter, try to talk to them more. After all, they should have children or nephews who are skilled in archery and horse riding.

Yu Chen followed behind him.

Compared with Shao Xun, he said more. After all, he had guarded Ji County for many years and had considerable influence in Ji, Wei, Henei, and Dunqiu. He had even met many people in front of him more than once. In the past, he relied on these people to provide food, equipment, and even soldiers to defend Ji County. The relationship was extraordinary.

After he was appointed as the Inspector of the Imperial Capital, he was in charge of the work of recruiting and pacifying the people, and he also opened up gaps among these people. Otherwise, do you think that once the army arrives, you can just say a few passionate words and they will bow down to you? It's not that simple.

Everything has a premise. In this matter, Yu Chen has made great contributions. Shao Xun is very clear about it and is very grateful to him. At the same time, he also feels how important it is to have a useful helper around.

He has always been the one taking others flying, but in fact, he also wants to be taken flying by others.

"Boom, boom, boom..." The sound of drums and horns rang out on the surface of Huangchi Lake.

Everyone looked over subconsciously.

Ships are anchored in deep water, and the boatmen are busy, carefully checking all kinds of supplies.

Neihuang is not the end, it is just the starting point of the battle in Hebei.

After the stored grain in the two cities of Fangtou in the north and south were transported here bit by bit, Shao Xun would use it as a logistics transfer node, enter the Huan River westwards and head straight to Anyang.

He didn't believe that Shi Le would not show up when he got there.

******
The cities on both sides of the Qi River have already taken shape.

The names of the cities were also very vulgar, called Shiqiao North City and Shiqiao South City. They were thirty or forty miles south of Chaoge County and more than forty miles north of Dangyin County.

When the city was almost completed, Li Chong transferred 10,000 troops from Yang Dan's tribe and stationed them inside and outside the north city.

Liang Su's 10,000 troops were stationed inside and outside the South City.

As for Chaoge, it was garrisoned by the 5,000 Luonan Dingzhuang who had recently arrived. This was also the only support force Shao Xun gave him.

After careful calculation, he found that the Western Army under his command included 3,000 Heiliang soldiers, 10,000 Nanyang soldiers, 10,000 Guanxi soldiers, 5,000 Luonan men, and 2,000 Yicong soldiers, totaling 30,000 infantry and cavalry.

The only two troops that actually had some combat effectiveness were the Heiliang Army and the Yicong Army.

There are two thousand people in Yang Dan's tribe who are more durable in battle. They are mainly elite troops of the Nanyang nobles. They have iron armor, relatively sophisticated equipment, and they train very diligently on weekdays. The others are just so-so.

The Guanxi soldiers are actually hereditary soldiers from Wancheng, and there are only about a thousand of them who can really fight.

Therefore, Li Chong has always adopted a step-by-step strategy. He first stabilized the food supply and stored supplies. At each critical point, he built a city strictly according to the pre-war deployment to ensure that there were enough supplies to last the army for more than two months. Then he would head north to find the enemy and fight them.

Because of this, Yang Dan privately nicknamed Li Chong "The Old Man with the Cane", mocking him for being as timid and slow as an old man.

Today is June 16th. I don’t know if “The Old Man with the Cane” took the wrong medicine or what, but he actually ordered the North City defenders to send a part of their troops north to act as a vanguard and advance towards Dangyin.

Yang Dan directly selected the two thousand elite troops, took the two thousand farmhands, and the five hundred cavalry assigned to him, and headed north with the chariots. They walked more than twenty miles that day and set up camp at a place called "Changshagou" - this place was only about twenty miles away from Dangyin.

At dusk, the four thousand pioneers set up camp around the vehicles and spent the night in the wilderness.

Yang Dan climbed up a tree and looked around.

After finishing his meal, he saw that there were a lot of Hun cavalry lurking outside, which made him calm down a little. He was worried that he would encounter a large group of Hun troops and suffer heavy casualties.

He first looked to the south, which was the way they came from, and it was quiet.

Then he looked to the west, and it was still peaceful.

There was smoke and dust rising from the north and east, quite a lot, slightly more in the north and slightly less in the east. If nothing unexpected happened, it was caused by a large group of cavalry, at least more than 5,000 cavalry, which made him a little worried.

really!

The sound of hurried horse hooves could be heard from the north. Yu Wei, the leader of the Yicong army, rode back quickly and shouted, "The enemy cavalry is coming from the Dangyin direction, and there are no less than 3,000 of them."

"You can't defeat us with only three thousand cavalrymen?" Yang Dan jumped down from the tree and asked maliciously.

Damn it! Yu Wei almost cursed, but considering that he was now under the command of Yang Dan, he held back and snorted coldly, leading the cavalry into the chariot formation.

Yang Dan sneered and began to give orders to his subordinates.

The auxiliary soldiers shouted slogans, moved the crossbows onto the baggage carts, and loaded them with arrows. The melee infantry began to put on armor, hold shields, and hold swords.

The archers gathered together, divided into several groups, and prepared to take turns in battle.

The smoke and dust slowly approached and stopped not far away.

At this time, the last ray of light in the sky also disappeared. Torches and braziers were lit, illuminating half of the camp - without firelight, it would be inconvenient to command, and too strong firelight would be a bad thing, as it would easily make people become targets.

Yang Dan put on two layers of heavy armor and, under the protection of his personal soldiers' large shields, looked into the distance, his heart filled with excitement.

******
Zhi Quliu and Kui An dismounted from their horses and observed the Jin army camp.

"The number of Shao's cavalry is increasing." Kui An sighed as he watched, "They only have a few thousand vanguards, but they are equipped with hundreds of cavalry."

"The combat effectiveness of these cavalrymen is average, not as good as before." Zhi Quliu said this with a little lack of confidence, but he still insisted on his opinion.

"Those used to be the Luoyang Imperial Guards." Kui An smiled and said, "But after several rounds of wars, almost all of the old ones died, and the people nowadays are not very good either."

Zhi Quliu nodded secretly.

No one can fight all the time, and no one is always strong.

Since the infighting among the kings of Jin State, he has realized a truth: in this world, it all comes down to who can bear it.

The Duan tribe of the Xianbei joined the melee early on, and tens of thousands of them died. Later, five thousand of them were killed by Shao Xun in Chang'an, and then they were hunted down by Murong Xianbei and Yuwen Xianbei. Recently, they fought a fierce battle with Tuoba Xianbei and them, and their situation was extremely weak.

Otherwise, they would not have surrendered to Da Hu after falling out with Wang Jun.

At present, it seems that Tuoba Xianbei is also a person who is seeking his own death.

Fighting against Wang Jun, against the Duan tribe of the Xianbei, and against the Pingyang court for years, Zhi Quliu didn't even know how many of their men had died, but he guessed that the number could not have been less than 10,000, or even more.

These were the 10,000 most battle-hardened soldiers in the tribe, and they were slowly being consumed. It was hard to say whether they could be replenished later.

If Shao Xun had not intervened, Zhi Quliu felt that the Da Hu might have been able to come from behind and drive all the Xianbei out of the Central Plains, or even make them their vassals - there was no need to do anything else, just learn Shao Xun's tactics and fight with you every year, in spring and summer, and in autumn and winter, to see who can't stand it first.

"Woo--" the sound of cow horns rang out, carrying with it the unique sense of desolation of the grassland.

Hundreds of cavalry rushed out and began to circle around the chariot formation, occasionally shooting an arrow.

The darkness became their best cover, preventing them from becoming living moving targets for the infantry.

As the horses turned around, someone plucked up courage and began to move closer. After quickly shooting an arrow, he immediately turned his horse's head and galloped away into the distance.

A huge "buzzing" sound from a crossbow was heard in the convoy.

The thick crossbow arrows flew out of the air with a death whistle. Most of them missed, but a few still hit the horses and caused a lot of noise.

Arrows shot from bows also flew out and scattered in the vast night sky.

People on both sides kept falling down, emitting terrifying screams.

"This group of Jin people is not as good as the Silver Spear Army." Kui An watched quietly for a long time and said with some joy.

Zhi Quliu's heart moved, and he asked, "Should we keep them?"

"Da Hu is still collecting food, and the infantry has not yet returned to Yecheng." Kui An shook his head and said, "However, Tao Bao has a lot of troops, maybe we can invite them."

When Zhi Quliu heard this, he immediately said, "I know Tao Bao. He claims to be a wise general and will not agree."

"There is nothing we can do about it." Kui An ordered his men to beat the gongs and retreat, and said casually, "We all have to obey his orders, what can we do?"

Zhi Quliu sighed and was about to say something when several riders came galloping from a distance. After being stopped by his personal soldiers, he realized that they were messengers from Yecheng.

"What do you mean?" Kui An asked.

"Lord Tao has ordered that you immediately head east to Neihuang to harass the Jin army. You must slow down their advance and not make any mistakes." After the messenger said this, he handed a letter of order to Kui An.

"What happened in the east?" Kui An asked in a low voice.

The messenger hesitated for a moment, and whispered, "The Shao bandit has gathered his fleet on the Huangchi Lake and called together the nobles of the counties and prefectures. Many people responded."

Kui An understood.

Since the main force of Shao's bandits has reached Huangchi, there is no need to hold on to Dangyin anymore. Anyang is the next focus.

If Anyang cannot be defended, then we must prepare for the defense of Yecheng as soon as possible. There is no other way.

Shao Ze didn't play any tricks on you. He just came straight towards you without any intention of hiding his intentions.

For such people, you can either confront them head-on or think of other ways.

A decisive battle between the two main forces is what Shao wanted.

In fact, everything he did was to force Da Hu to fight him.

Kui An was getting a little impatient.

He felt that the situation was not very good. How could he dispel Shao's intention of a decisive battle? And he had to do it quickly!

The vanguard of the Jin army's western route was almost reaching Dangyin, while the eastern route army was gathering in Huangchi.

With each passing day, they were getting closer to Yecheng.

Kui An felt a heavy pressure.

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(End of this chapter)