Chapter 1249: Troops Force Dingyang

In Guanzhong, Liang Wang Ma Teng and Jincheng Duke Han Sui and Qin are also gathering troops. Judging from the situation of the three families, there should be another war this year.

In addition to these major princes, there is another place that has attracted Huangfu Chaobo's attention, that is Shangyong Duoqing Sword, which now has a large number of soldiers and generals. After swallowing Zhang Lu's Xi County and Xicheng last year, it is now mobilizing troops and generals. Judging from the posture, it should be planning to send troops to Hanzhong.

However, Huangfu Chaobo is not very optimistic about Duoqing Sword's battle this time. The reason why Duoqing Sword was able to capture two cities in a row last time was because it caught Zhang Lu off guard after recruiting the Shen brothers to surrender, and Li Meng and Wang Fang, who were newly surrendered, were not reused by Zhang Lu, so Xicheng was easily taken away.

Now Zhang Lu must have taken precautions, so Duoqing Sword sent troops again, and the war between the two families will not be so simple.

However, what Huangfu Chaobo didn't know was that the reason why Duoqingjian wanted to attack Zhang Lu so much was because after he captured Xicheng, he gathered two more generals, one was Xiang Lang, a famous scholar in Jingxiang, and the other was Zhang Ji, a famous scholar in Xiliang. And Zhang Ji has a characteristic, that is, "pro-Qiang".

If this characteristic is under the subordinates of the Central Plains princes, it may not have much effect, but it is different in Hanzhong. There are Qiang and Di tribes of the Han Dynasty around Hanzhong. After Zhang Ji joined Duoqingjian, he used his own characteristics to secretly gather several Qiang tribes. In addition, Duoqingjian himself has tens of thousands of soldiers and horses, so there is still a considerable success rate.

In Yizhou, which is further south, although there are four forces now, the relationship between Liu Yan, Xiaobai, Ma Xiang and Meng Huo has not yet broken, so there is no war between them, and the territories occupied by Ma Xiang and Meng Huo are too bad, so Liu Yan and Xiaobai are not in a hurry to send troops, but have become the most stable place in the world.

In Jingzhou, the rise of Jianling has been unstoppable. After Liu Biao raided Jianling, he failed to steal a chicken and lost a handful of rice. No, it should be said that several handfuls of rice. First of all, he lost soldiers and generals, and most of the soldiers and ships were sent to Jianling. Not only that, the bad consequences of the raid on the governor under his rule also gradually emerged.

First, several clan forces in Jingnan, Su Dai, Bei Yu, Zhang Hu, and Chen Sheng, successively surrendered to Jianling, which greatly increased the strength of Jianling. What made Liu Biao even more angry was that Han Song, a famous scholar in Jingxiang who had been unwilling to surrender to Liu Biao before, also came out and accepted Jianling's recruitment.

Now Jianling and Liu Bei have become the actual controllers of the four counties in Jingnan. Both families have begun to infiltrate Lingling County in Jingnan. It is estimated that sooner or later there will be a big battle between the two families.

As for Sun Ce in Jiangdong, most of his energy is now focused on Jiangbei, because if he does not weaken the power of Qi to a certain extent, he is afraid that his territory in Jiangbei will be unstable, so he has no time and energy to take care of Liu Yao in Yuzhang and Yan Han in Wujun. These two people just use this period to stabilize their power.

In Jiaozhou, the southernmost part, there is not much conflict between the Shi family and the battleships for the time being. Because the environment in Jiaozhou is harsh and the Shanyue are rampant, the two families are busy stabilizing their sphere of influence, while the battleships put more energy on the opposite Qiongzhou Island.

…

The situation in the world has nothing to do with Tian Yu and others. What they are doing now is to continuously transport the soldiers and grains from Hedong across the river and store them all in Hukou Town. The other is to strengthen the defense of Hukou Town. In addition to finding out the situation in the three aspects of Hukou Town, north, south and west, several beacon strongholds were set up ten miles south to prevent the possible attack of the Qin army from the south.

At the same time, Hua Xiong had led 10,000 Xiliang cavalrymen and escorted 5,000 soldiers to explore the road from Hukou Town to the west and the mountain ridges and valleys on both sides. As expected by Tian Yu and Pang Tong, Xu Huang arranged some soldiers to hide quietly in the valleys when he evacuated.

Hua Xiong spent two days to clear out all the soldiers and horses of Shangjun hidden in these valleys,

and then led the army to Xu Huang's camp more than ten miles west of Hukou.

The Tang army's every move did not escape Xu Huang's investigation. Seeing that the Tang army was so cautious, even Xu Huang, who was calm, felt extremely helpless. You know, he now had less than 2,500 infantrymen. Only more than 3,000 of the 5,000 infantrymen were withdrawn from Hukou Town. Along the way, he arranged nearly a thousand soldiers to hide in the valleys along the way. Although there were not many trees in the mountains in the southern part of Shangjun, it was not difficult to hide more than a thousand soldiers in the valley road of more than ten miles.

However, he did not expect that the Tang army commander would be so cautious and had no intention of attacking quickly. Instead, he sent soldiers to search valley after valley and found all the hidden soldiers.

In desperation, Xu Huang had to consider how effective his arrangement would be. Fortunately, an order had been sent from Dingyang City, asking him to try to slow down the speed of the Tang army. If he failed, he could lead the army to withdraw. Now the defense of Dingyang was basically ready.

On the 28th, Tian Yu left 5,000 guards and 1,000 cavalry to defend Hukou Town, and personally led the rest of the army to the west of Dingyang City. With the clearing of Hua Xiong in the previous two days, the Tang army quickly arrived at the camp set up by Xu Huang.

This is an ordinary camp. After careful observation, Tian Yu and his men attacked without stopping for too long. It took only half a day for the Tang army to break through the camp, and Xu Huang led his troops to evacuate again. However, this time he did not stay for long. Under the escort of 4,000 Xiongnu cavalry, he led the remaining 2,000 infantry to Dingyang City.

However, Tian Yu did not chase and rush, but continued to fight steadily and confirmed that there were no Shangjun soldiers and horses hiding along the way, and then led his troops to continue to move forward. Although the speed was not fast, the journey was only 30 to 40 miles a day, but it was safer. You know, under this terrain, if the Tang army left Shangjun soldiers and horses behind, it would be a fatal threat to the Tang army's food route, so Tian Yu would rather slow down and ensure the safety behind him.

It was only more than 120 miles from Hukou Town to Dingyang City, but Tian Yu led the Tang army for nearly five days. It was not until the afternoon of March 4 that the Tang army arrived at the foot of Dingyang City. Although the speed is not fast, it ensures the safety of their food routes.