Chapter 1309: Sending Troops to Sheyan City

The sudden change in the battlefield situation reminded Zhang Xiu of what Jia Xu had said to him before he set out: "Major General, you must be careful of the Yingxi Army when you go out to fight this time. Our Nanyang Army and the Yingxi Army have been fighting for many years. Only at the beginning, Zongheng Tianxia launched several attacks on Duyang, but each time we repelled them, and in the past one or two years, they have never intended to move westward. This time, they suddenly sent troops to Duyang. I suspect that the Yingxi Army must have some tricks that we don't know about."

At this point, Zhang Xiu knew the purpose of Zongheng Tianxia, ​​which was to leave all his 10,000 cavalry in Duyang. As the only heir of Zhang Ji, Zhang Xiu knew the importance of 20,000 Xiliang Iron Cavalry to their uncle and nephew. Now there are only 1,000 cavalry around him, and the remaining thousands of cavalry are all fighting with the infantry of the Yingxi Army.

The only plan now is to retreat. If he hesitates any longer, all the 10,000 cavalry will surely be buried here. Thinking of this, Zhang Xiu said in a hateful voice: "Pass the order, disperse and evacuate! Quickly..."

"Woo...Woo..."

As the unique horn sounded throughout the battlefield, the Xiliang Iron Cavalry, who were fighting with the Yingxi Army, suddenly stopped attacking, turned their horses' heads, and ran away from the battlefield in groups of three or five. When the coalition cavalry arrived, more than a thousand Xiliang Iron Cavalry finally broke through the gap in the encirclement of the coalition cavalry.

Seeing that more than two thousand Xiliang Iron Cavalry followed Zhang Xiu to break through, Zongheng Tianxia was a little annoyed, but he did not focus all his attention on that aspect. Now there were still three or four thousand Xiliang Iron Cavalry surrounded by his two coalition forces. Now what he had to do was to get rid of all these cavalry as soon as possible and be careful of any changes.

An hour later, except for the 2,169 people who followed Zhang Xiu to break through, the remaining 7,000 Xiliang Iron Cavalry died on the spot, and the remaining 3,000 were all captured. After the defenders in Duyang witnessed the destruction of these cavalrymen on the top of the city, their morale plummeted. The Yingxi Army that attacked the city easily broke into the city after only one round of attack. After several years, Duyang City fell into the hands of Zongheng Tianxia again.

After conquering Duyang, the coalition forces did not stay for long. After leaving 5,000 infantrymen to defend the city, guard the prisoners, and treat the wounded, the rest of the troops took a short rest and immediately set out to Wuyin in the south. Conquering Duyang and consuming Zhang Jijun's cavalry was only the first step of their action. The second step was to occupy Wuyin, which was 60 miles south of Duyang. Only by occupying these two cities at the same time and supporting each other could they defend these two cities for a longer time.

After occupying Wuyin, Zongheng Tianxia's troops immediately returned to Duyang, while Zhao Zilong's troops immediately entered Wuyin City for reorganization, and at the same time prepared to continue to attack Biyang in the south.

…

Just when the battle of Duyang began, Huangfu Chaobo had already appeared in the city of Qiuci. Five days ago, the Tang army left Fushi, and 30,000 cavalry and 20,000 infantry, led by Xu Huang, marched towards Sheyan City in the west. Huangfu Chaobo, escorted by 12,000 guards and 10,000 soldiers, arrived in Qiuci City after passing the pass of the Great Wall. Here, he would prepare supplies for continuing to go north, while waiting for Xu Huang to lead the army back after capturing Sheyan City, and then lead the troops north after joining him.

Sheyan City is the westernmost county town in Shangjun. Further west is Sheyan Lake. After passing Sheyan Lake, there is a vast desert. After walking through the desert hundreds of miles wide, you need to reach the river. On the other side of the river is the border of Beidi County in Liangzhou.

According to Liu Bao's previous intelligence, the people occupying Sheyan City and Sheyan Lake are a loose alliance composed of several different tribes, with a total population of less than 20,000, but only a few thousand after the war. If it weren't for the fact that the Tang army began to attack Shangjun soon after Jiangshan occupied Qiuci, Jiangshan would have sent people to annex all the tribes here.

Based on the principle of using all his strength to fight a rabbit, although the other side had only 20,000 people, Huangfu Chaobo still sent out 50,000 troops,

including 30,000 cavalry including Tuqi, Xiongnu cavalry and Yuanrong crossbowmen, and he himself entered Qiuci County with a large amount of food and supplies under the protection of Xianzhen, Tiebi Camp, Tieying Ruishi, Yingyang Camp and Shangjun County and State Soldiers, ready to march north.

Sheyan City is located ten miles east of Sheyan Lake, and its location is exactly at the corner of Sheyan River. Sheyan River flows from west to east, turns north at the southeast corner of Sheyan City, and after a few miles, turns northeast again, and finally turns southeast near Fushi and merges into the river.

Because of this environment, the best location around Sheyan City is in the area east of Sheyan Lake to west of Sheyan City. The news of the Tang army's dispatch soon reached Sheyan. In Sheyan City, the heads of several tribes gathered in the city to discuss countermeasures.

Now Sheyan County is controlled by the Xiongnu's Molu tribe and a tribe of the Qiang people. The leader of the Molu tribe is called Molu Xiong, with about 5,000 people and about 2,000 soldiers. The leader of the Qiang people is called Yao Changbao, with a slightly smaller population than the Molu tribe, about 4,000 people, and about 1,700 to 1,800 soldiers. The Molu tribe and the Qiang people each occupy half of the city, and several other small tribes are distributed around the county.

The largest building in Sheyan City is the county government office in the county. Inside the county government office, Molu Xiong and Yao Changbao summoned the heads of the surrounding tribes to discuss how to deal with the attack of the Tang army.

Wu Luxiong is a big man seven feet tall, with a full beard and a mouth full of yellow teeth: "Everyone, let's talk about it. Now that the Tang Army has come to us, let's talk about how we should act." Bar."

Yao Changbao is a middle-aged man in his forties. Compared with Wu Luxiong's rough image, Yao Changbao looks more like a middle-aged scribe. However, Yao Changbao, who appears to be loyal on the surface, is actually a vicious person. .

After hearing Wu Luxiong's words, Yao Changbao said: "What I didn't say, if you don't want to lose your tribe, then unite and fight the Han army."

Since the two large tribes had already announced that they would go to war with the Han army, the remaining small tribes with only one or two thousand people did not dare to say anything. So after several discussions, they gathered together six or seven thousand people, but they did not have any. Thinking that the Tang army dispatched more than 50,000 troops this time.

When the two armies met more than ten miles east of Sheyan City, they discovered that the Han army on the opposite side actually numbered tens of thousands. At this time, it was too late for them to retreat.