Chapter 1335: Fighting Xi'an Yangcheng Again

In Shangjun, outside Shuofang City on the south bank of the river, one hundred thousand Tang troops braved the severe cold and marched towards the river in an orderly manner. Twenty thousand cavalry were constantly cruising on both sides of the army. Fifty thousand elite soldiers from the Yingyang Camp were sent to the Ten Thousand County Army. The supply battalions composed of national soldiers and civilians were surrounded in the middle, approaching the river that had not yet been frozen.

Tian Yu was leading the generals Gao Lan and Xu Huang at this time, riding towards the river. Soon the group came to the river. Looking at the thick ice on the river, Tian Yu turned to look at Xu Huang and said, "General Xu, have you confirmed the thickness of the ice? Are you sure that the army and the baggage have crossed the river without incident?"

Hearing this, Xu Huang turned around on his horse, cupped his fists and saluted Tian Yu and said: "Don't worry, general, Wei Jiang personally took someone to confirm yesterday. The ice layer is thick enough. In the past few years, Wei Jiang has been in Shangjun almost every year." We have been leading troops on expeditions in winter, and now the ice on the river is the thickest we have seen in recent years.”

"Okay," Tian Yu already knew how steady Xu Huang was, so he no longer hesitated and said to the messenger beside him: "Send the order, the cavalry will cross the river first and monitor the Zhao army on the other side. After confirming safety, the rest of the soldiers will cross the river. "

At this time, the Northland has not yet turned, and ordinary people will basically not go out at this time, but for the Tang army, this is the best time to cross the river. The 100,000-strong army, including their men and horses, were all wrapped in thick winter clothes. They were not afraid of the severe cold, and it had not snowed in the past few days. It was the time for the army to cross the river.

You must know that the winter clothes of the Tang Army's 100,000 troops were delivered as early as last year after Huangfu Chaobo returned to Luoyang, so the Tang Army was so confident. But Zhao Jun is different. Not to mention the winter clothes of an army of 100,000. Now Zhang Liao, the general of the Northern Expedition, is in charge of the soldiers and horses of the four counties of Shuofang, Wuyuan, Yunzhong and Dingxiang. Among his soldiers and horses, he can put together a suit like the Tang Army. There are only 20,000 soldiers and horses in thick winter clothes. The rest of the soldiers basically stay in the military camp during the winter and go out as little as possible.

If the Tang army wanted to cross the river again after spring got warmer, it would be much more troublesome. Therefore, in the face of such a large-scale crossing of the river by the Tang army, although Zhang Liao had the intention to stop it, he was unable to return.

However, Zhao State was not unprepared. After it was basically confirmed that the Tang Army would send troops last year, Lu Bu happily handed over all the troops and horses in the four northern counties to Zhang Liao's command.

Subsequently, with Lu Bu's permission, Zhang Liao ordered the people of Wuyuan and Shuofang counties to begin migrating to Yunzhong, and gathered soldiers and horses from each city. Zhang Liao personally commanded 25,000 infantry and horsemen to garrison at the end of these two counties. One of the good cities is Guangmu City, while the other cities only have three to five thousand soldiers and horses. These soldiers and horses are all based on the elites of Zhao State, and then all the soldiers and horses from several counties are mixed together and trained intensively. , after nearly half a year of preparation, these soldiers and horses are ready for use.

As for the soldiers and horses from Yunzhong and Dingxiang counties, Zhang Liao ordered to select 20,000 of the most elite soldiers and hand them over to the commander of Yunzhong Captain Song Xian to garrison in Feiyang City, while the rest of the soldiers and horses from these two counties were handed over to Dingxiang Duwei Wang He is in charge of the security of the cities in the two counties. However, Wang He has less than 20,000 soldiers and horses. If they are allocated to each city, there will only be more than a thousand people in each city.

Today, among the cities in Shuofang and Wuyuan counties, except for Guangmu and Feiyang, which have a large amount of food and grass, the other cities only have enough food and grass to guard the soldiers for half a year, and in these cities, there are only a small number of young men to serve as assistants. The soldiers were used, and the rest of the ordinary people were ordered by Zhang Liao to move into Yunzheng.

One hundred thousand Tang troops, under Zhang Liao's deliberate retreat,

They crossed the river smoothly, and what they crossed with them was enough food and grass for a hundred thousand troops for several months. Tian Yu knew that after the army crossed the river, they should not think about getting food and grass support from Henan for at least a month or two. So when we set out this time, we simply brought enough food and fodder for the army for several months.

After the army crossed the river, Tian Yu did not immediately send troops to Guangmu to fight Zhang Liao. Instead, he sent his troops eastward and attacked Xi Anyang. He had to arrange the food, grass and baggage first, and then he could safely send troops to Guangmu, and after solving In front of Zhang Liao's army, he could not continue to attack Fuyang with confidence, so Zhang Liao was not in a hurry and stayed at Guangmu with peace of mind, just waiting for the Tang army to take the initiative to attack.

A few days later, the Tang Army's hundreds of thousands of soldiers and horses crossed the river and arrived at Yangcheng in Xi'an. As time went by, 20,000 cavalry also gathered the basic information of Zhao's army north of the river.

Under Yangcheng in Xi'an, inside the Tang Army's camp, looking at the intelligence in his hand, Tian Yu looked at Fa Zheng and said, "In the opinion of the military advisor, what does Zhao Jun want to do?"

Fazheng looked at the Bingzhou map in the big tent, frowned, and thought carefully. Just as Tian Yu was about to get up, he suddenly looked up and saw Tang Shi standing aside, hesitating to speak, so he said, "General Tang, do you have anything to tell me? But there's no harm in saying it."

Hearing this, Tang Shi stood up quickly and said: "Reporting to General, I have learned that Zhao Jun is following what our army did a few years ago. My lord... Oh, when Master Jiejie was in power, he encountered a large-scale attack by the Xianbei army. During the attack, after several adults discussed it, they pulled all the people in the field back into the city, then strengthened the walls and cleared the field..."

When Fa Zheng heard this, his eyes lit up, and then his face darkened, and he said: "General Tang's words reminded me, and I estimate that Zhao Jun did more than that. After all, the intelligence sent back in the second half of last year showed that Zhao State had moved two counties on a large scale. People’s actions.”

"If my guess is correct," Fa Zheng said in a deep voice, "it is very likely that there are only Zhao troops in all the cities within the two counties, and there are probably very few ordinary people left."

Tian Yu also reacted after hearing this and said, "According to the military advisor, Zhao wants to delay the war. As long as the war is delayed, some of the lower princes will definitely be unable to hold back. At that time, our country will need to fight on two or even three fronts. At that time, Zhao's crisis will be broken without being resolved."

"Yes, the current plan is to settle the army as soon as possible, and then figure out the distribution of Zhang Liao's army, and then arrange the next war!" Fa Zheng finished, looking up at Tian Yu, after all, he was the commander-in-chief of the three armies, and he was just a military advisor.

"Okay," Tian Yu stood up and looked at the generals in the tent, saying, "The army will rest for one night, and we will attack Xi'an Yang City tomorrow."

At this point, he turned his head and looked at everyone, "Tomorrow's battle will be led by General Gao Lan and assisted by General Tang Shi. Both generals should be familiar with Xi'an Yang City, especially General Tang. I hope we can win it in one go tomorrow."

The two were overjoyed when they heard this. They looked at each other, walked quickly to the center of the tent, clasped their fists and saluted, saying, "I will obey your orders, General, rest assured, I will live up to your trust!"

Although the other generals were unwilling, they also knew that there was nothing wrong with Tian Yu's move. As the leader of the several coalition forces at the time, Gao Lan did not have any problems with his ability, and Tang Shi was originally the main general of Xi'an Yang, and no one was more familiar with Xi'an Yang than him.

This time, the 50,000 Yingyang Army infantrymen were divided into three parts. Tian Yu personally led the central army of 20,000, Gao Lan and Xu Huang each led 15,000 people, and the three generals of Tang Shi were respectively the three generals, each leading 5,000 troops.

"The rest of the generals, General Xu Huang and General Ju Yan will lead the two Gao Tangs to raid the camp. If Xi'anyang cannot be captured tomorrow, the two will lead the troops to attack the city the day after tomorrow. The central army will stay in the camp, half of the cavalry will stay, and the other half will be dispersed in a thousand-man team a hundred miles around Xi'anyang to monitor the movements of the Zhao army."

Gao Lan and Tang Shi heard this, their faces changed drastically, and they said to Tian Yu together: "General, don't worry, the army will definitely have dinner in Xi'anyang before dark tomorrow."

"That's good!" Tian Yu smiled and said, "I will wait and see!"