Chinese New Year

Chapter 613 The Aftertaste
There was silence in Changshan City.

The new conquerors only sent more than 3,000 men into the city to control various key points.

Most of the troops were still stationed outside the city, including the Youzhou soldiers heading south.

Gai Zhi, Liu Ying, Sun Bo, Kou Ji and others walked across the snowy field after the war, looking at the shocking battlefield, their hearts trembled.

"In this battle, the royal army may have lost more soldiers and horses than the Xiongnu." Gai Zhi looked at the Shao soldiers who were digging pits to bury the bodies, and said with emotion: "Liu Yao and Shi Le actually fought well, but they were inferior in skills and were defeated."

Compared with the grand battle of Changshan, the mutiny he launched in Jicheng was simply not worth mentioning.

Tens of thousands of people risked their lives, fighting from the scorching sun to the heavy snow, and finally the winner was decided. In this process, the attacking side was brave, but the defending side also repeatedly went out of the city to fight, and did not just defend to the death. It can be said that they were evenly matched.

Shi Le's final defeat was not due to the war, but the difference in strength. After the battle of Yecheng last year, this outcome was actually doomed. It was just that Liu Yao led his troops to help, which added a little variable to this war.

As of today, with the Youzhou troops marching south in large numbers, the war is over and Hebei has completely changed hands.

"After this defeat, the Xiongnu had no choice but to retreat to Bingzhou and lick their wounds." Sun Bo also felt a little emotional.

In the past, they were somewhat panicked when they saw Shi Le's army coming to attack. But when the battle in Hebei reached the critical stage of the competition of will, they became the winner, which was a bit proud of them.

The only dissatisfaction was that the various tribes were not cautious enough. When they went south to intercept the Huns, they had mixed successes and losses. Liu Yao defeated them several times and lost a lot of soldiers.

Alas, the land of the Turks, which was once famous all over the world, can no longer defeat anyone. Who can be blamed?
The soldiers from Bingzhou, Henan, Hebei and Guanxi are stronger than them. Murong Xianbei, Yuwen Xianbei and Tuoba Xianbei are also stronger than them. If they keep losing, they won’t even be able to defeat the soldiers from Jiangdong. You know what, if the two sides fight with infantry, the private soldiers of the Jiangdong big families may not lose. What they lack is just cavalry.

Be ashamed!

"With Henan and Hebei under his control, Lord Chen's power is assured." Liu Ying said, looking at the majestic Taihang Mountains.

The pattern is almost clear.

The Xiongnu controlled most of Bingzhou and all of Yongzhou, so they should be attacking Qinzhou now. The troops they sent before might have been Liu Can's detachment. After the complete failure of the battle for Hebei, they might have to focus on solving the three states of Qin, Liang, and Liang.

As a result, there was a situation of confrontation between Kanto and Kansai.

Oh, we also have to add Jiangdong and Shu, dividing the world into four parts.

Mr. Chen occupied the most essential provinces of Henan and Hebei, and was already the best man in the world.

The four of them walked and chatted.

On the northern horizon, there was an endless stream of carriages and horses.

Grain carts loaded with millet were heading south from Youzhou to supply the royal army which had just won a great victory - by now the army's rations were almost gone.

Are you willing to use the blood and sweat of the people of Youzhou to support the Northern Expedition Army? Deep down, I am definitely not happy about it, but who dares to object? Are you going to die?

Wang Pengzu plundered for many years, but in the end, all the money went to Chen Gong. It has to be said that it was a huge irony.

But as the saying goes, it is better to let my friend die than to let myself die. For the scholars and powerful people in Youzhou, Wang Jun is a thing of the past. Now they have to seize the opportunity to get a share of the military and political group created by Chen Gong and have a place as a Youzhou person.

This time when we went south, the army fought hard to make achievements and also supplied food to support the army, which was two great achievements in total. Great!
******
While Jin was on his way to Changshan, he received the news that Shi Le and Liu Yao had fled and Changshan had been peacefully taken over, so he immediately began to gather his troops.

He didn't even plan to go to Changshan to take a look. Instead, he spent three or four days gathering the scattered troops, then adjusted the direction and marched towards Zhangwu.

He wanted to defeat the Duan tribe of the Xianbei, kill Linghu Ni, and put an end to this year's war.

However, the Duan tribe of the Xianbei had already begun to retreat.

Their fighting power is quite good, with spears, halberds, iron armor, leather armor, excellent horse bows, saddles, etc. Their tactical style is also the traditional face-to-face charge of the Central Plains, which is very tough.

The Yicong army had been fighting with the Huns for a long time, and when they were transferred to attack the Duan tribe of the Xianbei, they were actually unable to defeat them and suffered heavy losses.

At this time, the Yicong army realized what a wise move it was ten years ago when Lord Chen surrounded the gates of Chang'an, trapped 5,000 Xianbei cavalry in the city, and eliminated them in an infantry battle.

If those 5,000 men had mounted their horses and were fully equipped for a head-on battle, the outcome would probably have been different.

The death of those 5,000 people had an almost subversive impact on the situation in Northeast China.

Duan's Xianbei tribe was defeated in successive battles and gave Liaoxi County to Murong, leaving themselves confined to Beiping and Yan. After falling out with Wang Jun, they glared at each other and finally had to endure for the sake of their country.

By this time, those who had first participated in the Rebellion of the Eight Kings had seen their power greatly reduced, and had become a small local force without any roots.

Perhaps it was difficult for Shao Xun's cavalry to fight them, but it was not too difficult to organize a mixed infantry and cavalry force of tens of thousands of people to directly raid their lair.

Attacking the enemy where they must rescue has always been the only way for infantry to deal with cavalry.

After the Xianbei people fled, Linghu Ni, who was still defending Dongpingshu, was suddenly in trouble.

On the fifth day of November, there was panic in Zhangwu County.

Linghu Ni climbed up to the top of the city wall and looked at the Jin cavalry galloping around in the wild and the Bohai soldiers slowly surrounding them, and tears fell down his face.

His father advised Liu Kun not to favor the actors and to focus on his work, but was killed by the furious Liu Kun.

You have to know that my father has worked for him for many years, risking his life and making great contributions, but in the end, he is not as good as a lowly male concubine.

What's wrong with betraying Liu Kun, a man with high aspirations but poor skills and who doesn't listen to good advice?

At this point, Linghu Ni did not hate that he was about to be defeated, but only hated that he did not see the death of Liu Kun, the murderer of his father, before he died.

Haha, it doesn’t matter!

As long as Liu Kun still had his heart set on the Jin court, Shao Xun, who was eager to usurp the throne, would not let him go. It was just a matter of dying sooner or later. Perhaps, before Shao Xun had time to kill Liu Kun, the Huns had already killed him.

Thinking of this, Linghu Ni laughed neurotically.

When the attendants saw this, they were all shocked.

Linghu Ni glanced at them and said, "You have followed my father for many years. First, you fought in Jinyang for years, and then lived under someone else's roof. Now you are trapped in Zhangwu and have not had a single day of good life. My father and I really owe you a lot."

Having said this, he sighed and went downstairs. Before leaving, he turned his head and took one last look at everyone, saying, "Today, I will send you a step forward."

Everyone looked at each other.

A moment later, a servant of the Linghu family came over with a wooden box in his hands, his eyes red, and said, "The Lord has committed suicide. Before he dies, you should hold this head, open the city and surrender, and don't throw away your useful body lightly."

A cold wind blew and everyone fell silent.

******
The news of the recovery of the entire Hebei province soon reached Anping.

Facing the messenger, Shao Xun had someone reward him with ten pieces of silk and said calmly, "The children have already defeated the enemy."

After sending the messenger away, he stopped pretending to be cool and happily hugged Liu Ye and spun around several times.

"We have defeated Liu Yao and Shi Le, and occupied Changshan. Hebei's major events have been settled." Shao Xun smiled and said, "Are you happy?"

Liu Ye rolled her eyes at him as she felt his hands kneading her buttocks hard.

Shao Xun pretended to be unhappy: "Are you still thinking about Shi Le?"

Liu Ye was so angry that he refused to let him touch him and said without thinking: "You don't want me!"

After saying that, her face immediately turned red and she didn't dare to look at him.

Shao Xun laughed and whispered, "Give me a baby tonight."

Liu Ye spat, but did not stop the man from touching her again.

The two of them laughed and joked for a while before parting ways.

Liu Ye Na hummed a shepherd song from the grassland in Jie language and began to make tea happily.

Shao Xun took out the old military newspapers and read them over and over again.

The battle of Hanoi was over.

Shao Xun originally thought that Wang Que'er would gather the light and heavy cavalry at his disposal, set up an ambush circle, and encircle and annihilate the pursuing cavalry of Liu Ya's army.

Unexpectedly, he sent out all these 10,000 cavalrymen, carrying five days' rations, and set out from Yewang to actively attack the Huns who were gathering in the Qinshui area.

After Liu Ya learned about it, he led his army to fight, and the two sides fought several battles. With the help of the armored cavalry of the Luoyang Central Army, he once gained the upper hand.

Wang Que'er took the opportunity to rescue Yewang and withdraw his troops in batches.

Shi Hu had just headed towards Qinshui area to reinforce Liu Ya when he learned that Wang Que'er had withdrawn his troops. He immediately sent several thousand cavalry to pursue southward. By the time they caught up, Wang Que'er's troops were less than seventy miles away from the north city of Heyang.

He personally led the Silver Spear Left Camp to cover the rear.

Shi Hu was greedy for merit and wanted to keep this elite force, but repeated harassment was ineffective. When they ran to a place only 40 miles away from the north city of Heyang, he finally gave up and attacked other retreating troops, capturing and killing more than 3,000 people - most of them were young men from Luonan.

On October 27th, the cavalry that had attacked Liu Ya from the north retreated, forcing Shi Hu to retreat. The entire army fought and retreated, and the Silver Spear Left Camp remained at the end, using chariot formations to resist the enemy.

The soldiers would sometimes mount their horses to charge, and sometimes dismount to form a battle array. Finally, they successfully retreated to the northern city of Heyang at the end of October.

The total loss was more than 5,000 infantry and cavalry, with heavy casualties, but the main force was successfully withdrawn, although a lot of baggage, equipment, and draft animals were abandoned.

Overall, it was a success. The main reason for this success was that Wang Que'er took a gamble and deployed tens of thousands of light and heavy cavalry to attack the enemy by surprise.

In the Battle of Qinshui, both sides suffered heavy losses. When Wang Que'er's main force of infantry and cavalry retreated, Liu Ya was a little hesitant to pursue them. Later, he made up his mind to pursue them again, but it was a little too late.

Of course, the distance from Yewang to the northern city of Heyang is only a hundred miles, which is too close.

If it was a large-scale retreat of hundreds of miles like Liu Yao withdrew from Zhangwu and Hejian to Lingshou, it would not be that easy.

The Battle of Hanoi can be called a victory for the Huns, because they saved Hanoi and their troop losses were far less than that of the Jin army, so they won on the tactical level.

But from a strategic perspective, Zhao Gu, Liu Ya and Shi Hu were pinned down here, and at one point they even wanted to dispatch Wang Mi's troops for reinforcement - but were rejected by Old Wang - which was another clear loss.

But then again, even if Wang Que'er did not attack Henei, it would be difficult for these troops to be used in Changshan and Zhongshan, for no other reason than that they could not be supported by supplies. They could only exert their strength in the direction of Jijun and Weijun, but if the Jin army held on, they might not be able to capture Chaoge, Fangtou, Gongxian and other cities.

The war has now become a competition of comprehensive national strength.

The Huns lost because of their lack of national strength, but they actually fought well on the frontal battlefield.

"Pack your luggage and head north to Youzhou in two days." Shao Xun patted Liu Ye gently and said.

It's very elastic, firm and perky, not bad, I'm in luck tonight.

Shi Le was completely defeated militarily and emotionally as well. It felt great.

After letting the woman go, he calmed himself down, picked up his pen and wrote a letter reporting the victory, which he sent to Luoyang.

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(End of this chapter)