Chapter 80: The Sui and Tang Dynasties (10)

When Hu'er heard the news, he led his army to come, Liu Hongji had already led the Tang cavalry to go away. The valley was covered with mess, and the food was robbed, and the food that could not be taken away was piled up together. It was burned by a fire, and all three thousand cows were killed by the Tang army and fell in a pool of blood.

In addition to the oxen being killed, the fallen Sui cavalry and hundreds of civilians who had no time to escape were seen everywhere. The valley was filled with the smell of fireworks burning from food and grass and the pungent bloody smell. The civilians returning from the mountain knelt in front of their ox carts and burst into tears.

Lou Chong was also hit by two arrows. He was helped by the soldiers and knelt down on one knee to apologize. "Reported to the general, he has a heavy responsibility for his humble position and has failed to lead the army, which has caused heavy casualties in the Sui army. I apologize to the general!"

In this battle, nearly 400 Sui army suffered heavy losses, and Lai Hu'er's face was ashen. Although he had realized that the Tang army would come to harass the food team, he did not expect it to arrive so quickly. He restrained the anger in his heart and asked again: "How many Tang cavalry are there?"

"I have reported to the general, about 5,000 Tang army cavalry, and they have very strong combat power."

Lai Hu'er had a headache, and it was indeed a bit unprepared for defense. The grain transport team was too long, hundreds of miles long, while the opponent was a cavalry, and it was like the wind. His 20,000 troops wanted a grain protection team and pursued the enemy, so they seemed too passive and could not take care of it at all. What should I do?

At this time, a general suggested: "It is better to gather all the ox carts together to march together and guard the army. If the Tang army attacks, we will quickly concentrate our forces to deal with it."

This suggestion is good, come to Hu'er nodded and do it like that.

The sneak attack on Ziwu Mountain forced Lai Hu'er to change his strategy. He gathered 30,000 grain-carts together, and 20,000 Sui cavalry guarded the front and back, stretching for more than 20 miles, continuing to march westward...

In a forest fifty miles away from the official road, five thousand Tang army cavalry were resting and eating, waiting for the scouts' information.

Liu Hongji succeeded in Ziwu Mountain and his morale was greatly boosted, but Liu Hongji also knew that the harassment in Ziwu Mountain was not enough to cut off the Sui army's food route. There must be a heavier blow to completely destroy the Sui army's food trucks and make the Sui army's food transport without a cart for the time being, so that the Sui army could completely interrupt the Sui army's food supply.

Liu Hongji was very nervous. He had realized that perhaps his food and grass battle could change the entire situation in Guanzhong, and that Liu Hongji could save the entire Tang Empire. Thinking of this, his legs trembled a little excitedly.

At this moment, a sound of horse hooves came from afar. The scout who went to investigate the grain team was back. Liu Hongji immediately stood up and greeted him. He saw two scouts flying over and dismounting, and knelt down on one knee to report: "Report to General, 30,000 Sui army grain trucks are coming and going together, with about 20,000 cavalry guards in front and behind, and are heading west."

Liu Hongji frowned and marched together. This was not easy to deal with. He pondered for a moment and asked again: "How long is the grain chariot team?"

"Report to the general, it's more than twenty miles apart."

Liu Hongji's eyes rolled, and he had a plan to deal with the Sui army's ration truck.

.........

The Sui army's 30,000 grain chariots were marching westward. After passing Ziwu Mountain, the road became flat. This was a road that was wide and flat, allowing five horses to run in parallel. Two grain chariots were driving side by side. There was a cavalry guard on both sides. Because the team was too long, Lai Hu'er did not disperse his troops too much. He divided the army into three sections, front, back and middle, each with six thousand cavalry, and the other two thousand cavalry were scattered and guarded along the way.

It was gradually dusk, and the team arrived at a relatively open basin, a radius of hundreds of miles, with dense forests in the basin, and a smooth road directly leads to both sides of the basin. The team had entered Beidi County, and then headed west for another 120 miles to reach the Sui Army camp of the Sui Army.

Lai Huer was located in the central army. He looked at the terrain on both sides. There were undulating and gentle earth slopes on both sides. A large area of ​​forest was distributed one or two miles away. Since it was almost dusk, the woods on both sides seemed a little blurred. Lai Huer suddenly felt a strong uneasy feeling in his heart. He felt that the Tang army must have been ambushed in this forest.

At this moment, someone suddenly shouted behind him: "General, there are police officers in the rear army, and the Tang cavalry attacked the rear army."

Lai Hu'er was shocked, and he immediately ordered: "Tell me my order, and the Central Army will go and rescue the rear army."

As soon as he ordered, his mind suddenly moved. The Tang army should also know his deployment. The rear army had 6,000 Sui cavalry. Even if the Tang army pushed forward, they might not have taken advantage of it. Could this be the enemy's plan to lure the tiger out of the mountain?

Thinking of this, he suddenly turned his head and looked at the forests on both sides. He seemed to see through the forest. There were thousands of Tang cavalry eyeing him in the forest. He decided to gamble. He immediately changed his military order and shouted, "The Central Army is not allowed to move rashly, and order the former army to come quickly to aid the Central Army."

Although this order was a bit strange, his subordinates still did it, and three rockets shot into the sky, which was a signal to order the former army to help the central army.

Lai Hu'er immediately ordered, "Burn the woods!"

Dozens of cavalrymen ran towards the forest with torches. As Muraha Hu'er speculated, there were only more than 500 Tang troops attacking the rear army, and the real main force of the Tang army was hiding in the middle of the woods.

It was a plan to lure the tiger away from the mountain, and transferred the central army that came to protect the rear army, leaving the middle-level grain truck without guards, so the Tang army pressed on the whole line and seized the opportunity to kill cattle and destroy grain.

At this time, Liu Hongji saw that the Sui army was about to go to the rear army, but he stopped. He immediately realized that Lai Hu'er had seen through his plan. Seeing three rockets rising into the air, dozens of cavalry rushed over with torches, obviously coming to burn the forest. Liu Hongji was very anxious and immediately ordered: "Assault!"

A shout erupted in the forest to the south, and more than 4,000 Tang cavalry rushed out of the forest and rushed towards the grain convoy.

Lai Hu'er sneered. As expected, Tang Jun used the trick of pulling the tiger away from the mountain, and he immediately ordered: "Arrow array and shoot the enemy!"

The grain chariot team stopped moving forward, and the civilians were so scared that they got into the grain chariot. The Sui army began to counterattack. Six thousand cavalry formed into three rows, and they opened their bows and arrows to shoot at the Tang cavalry that was coming from the sky. The arrows were like rain, and the Tang cavalry rushing forward were overturned.

Lai Hu'er saw that the Tang army was coming fiercely and could not be stopped by arrows alone. He waved his sword and ordered again: "Stop shooting arrows and fight!"

Six thousand Sui cavalry shouted and rushed towards the Tang cavalry with spears. More than 10,000 cavalry teams fought fiercely on a gentle slope that lasted several miles. At this time, the sky was not completely dark. In the dim light, both sides could still distinguish the enemy and us.

The war horses neighed and shouted and killed the sky. Soon, more than 10,000 Sui cavalrymen came from front and back, surrounded and attacked the Tang army from left and right. Although the Tang army had very strong combat power, there were few people after all, and they could not withstand the strangulation of the cavalry that was several times more than the Sui army. Gradually, the Tang army suffered heavy casualties, and the number of people became smaller and smaller.

Seeing that the defeat was decided, Liu Hongji shouted anxiously: "Break through the south!"

He led the last 2,000 cavalry to break through the south and attempted to rush into the forest, but Lai Hu'er was so experienced that he had long expected that the Tang army could only escape back to the forest and escape through the forest. He would not give the Tang army another chance to escape. He had already transferred three thousand cavalry to block the Tang army's cavalry's escape route from the south.

When Liu Hongji led hundreds of people to finally break out of a bloody road toward the forest, he was greeted by three thousand dark crossbow arrows. The crossbow arrows rose flat and pointed the sharp tips at hundreds of Tang troops who were escaping.

With a clapper, three thousand crossbow arrows were fired at the same time. The dense arrows were like a storm and storm towards hundreds of people coming towards them. Only then did Liu Hongji realize that they were trapped from one encirclement to another. He watched the dense arrows shoot at him, and he had nowhere to hide. He screamed and closed his eyes in despair.

Lai Hu'er sneered coldly, "Younger, I'm still far from fighting with me!"

...........

If Hu'er came to Hu'er to annihilate the Tang cavalry that sneaked into the grain road, it was just a defense, and protecting the normal passage of the Sui army's grain road would not have much strategic impact.

Then Cheng Yaojin's trip to the bronze official road was a step earlier than the Sui army on the eastern front, which had a decisive impact on Li Shimin's main force in Qianshuiyuan.

Cheng Yaojintii made up his mind to enter Guanzhong first. When he led 10,000 troops to Tongguan County, he unexpectedly received information. A Tang army, which was also 10,000 people, was coming to Tongguan County, only thirty miles away from Tongguan County.

This sudden news scared Cheng Yaojin to fear. He immediately ordered the Sui army to enter Tongguan County and rely on the city to fight the Tang army.

Tongguan County is a small county with a circumference of only ten miles, the city is only ten feet high and there is no moat. Such a city wall has no defensive significance. Cheng Yaojin stood on the top of the city and watched the arrival of Tang army reinforcements from afar. He had already seen a Tang army running towards the county town, about ten miles away from the county town.

But what surprised him was that the Tang army was very slow. Did they already know that the same officer had been occupied and slowed down specially?

At this moment, Xiao Yannian led several scouts to gallop on horseback and shouted under the city: "General Cheng!"

In view of Xiao Yannian's regaining Centipede Ridge and not competing for merit with him, Cheng Yaojin, Cheng Yaojin's attitude towards Xiao Yannian was a little better, no longer so fiercely, and occasionally smiled a little. He leaned his head and asked, "What did you find?"

"Reported to General Cheng, this Tang army is all new recruits, with a disorganized team, a poor army, and a poor physical strength. Most of them are exhausted. I suggest not to give them a chance to rest and immediately hit them head-on."

Cheng Yaojin blinked his eyes. Is this okay? You should know that his personality is to hide first and never have any thoughts of head-on attacks. He was a little hesitant.

Xiao Yannian saw Cheng Yaojin's hesitation, understood his thoughts more, and shouted: "General Cheng, this is an opportunity to make great contributions. If we defeat this army, we can take the lead in entering Guanzhong. General Cheng's prestige shocked the world. This is an opportunity to be awarded the title of Duke. Please be sure to seize it!"

The four words "Quan Gong of the Kingdom" touched Cheng Yaojin, yes! This is his last chance. If he doesn't seize it, he can only be a county duke.

"Damn it, whether it's dead or alive, take a gamble!"

Cheng Yaojin made up his mind and turned around and ordered: "Get out of the city and attack the enemy head-on with me!"
Chapter completed!