Chapter 277

The main forces of the Tianyuan Army were stationed in Tianguan. With the arrival of Tang Yin, the Tianyuan Army, which had been recuperating for many days, began to regroup and march south.

At this time, Peng Haochu suggested to Tang Yin that it was not good for his 400,000 troops to be concentrated together, and there was no need for that. At present, the garrison of Lehu County was less than 50,000. He could divide his troops into three routes and attack Lehu County from three directions. While dispersing the enemy, he could also capture Lehu County in the shortest time.

Tang Yin thought Peng Haochu's proposal made sense and adopted it immediately. He ordered the 100,000 plain troops led by Xiao Muqing and the 50,000 remaining three water troops to attack Lehu County from the west, and the 150,000 Chifeng troops led by Li Wei and Peng Haochu to attack Lehu County from the east. Tang Yin himself led 100,000 direct troops and 30,000 Besa heavy armored cavalry to attack the middle of Lehu County.

The counselors and generals of the Tianyuan Army had no objection to Tang Yin's arrangement. The military order took effect immediately. The 400,000 Tianyuan Army began to leave the Tianguan Pass in batches and teams, heading south all the way to Lehu County.

As soon as the Tianyuan Army took action, Zhong Tian got the news.

During this period, the Tianyuan Army withdrew to Tianyuan County. Zhong Tian thought he could rest assured for a while and sleep well for a while, but he didn't expect that the Tianyuan Army, which was about to rest for a year, would fight back so quickly. After Zhong Tian learned about this, he immediately called the two brothers Zhan Wushuang and Zhan Wudi to discuss countermeasures.

According to Zhan Wushuang, the troops of Lehu County were less than 50,000, and they could not resist the aggressive Tianyuan Army at all. Instead of staying in Lehu County to defend, it would be better to give up resistance, withdraw to Yancheng, concentrate their own manpower, and fight a decisive battle with the Tianyuan Army in Yancheng. Zhan Wudi disagreed with his brother. He believed that the Lehu Army should stay in Lehu County and rely on the advantages of the terrain to wear down the Tianyuan Army as much as possible. In this way, even if the Tianyuan Army could reach Yancheng, it would become a tired army. At that time, they would concentrate their manpower and go out of the city to meet the Tianyuan Army, and perhaps they would still have a chance to win.

Zhong Tian didn't know anything about military strategy. At this time, he felt that the words of the two brothers Zhan Wushuang and Zhan Wudi made sense, and he didn't know who to listen to. However, most of Zhong Tian's advisers supported Zhan Wushuang's opinion and hoped that Zhong Tian could dispatch the Lehu Army back to Yancheng to strengthen the defense of the capital.

Zhong Tian did not listen to Zhan Wushuang's opinion, but did not accept Zhan Wudi's proposal. Instead, he sent people to Lehu County to ask the county governor Geng Qiang what he thought. In Zhong Tian's view, no matter how much he discussed, he was sitting in the rear and could not fully grasp the situation. Whether the soldiers in the front should fight or retreat, he had to ask the commander in the front.

There was nothing wrong with his approach, but the premise was that the commander in the front had to have the minimum talent. Geng Qiang was a corps commander, and was promoted to the position of county chief only because of his loyalty to Zhong Tian. He was stubborn and self-righteous. He was okay as a corps commander and obeyed orders, but he was far from being a commander and commanding operations.

After receiving Zhong Tian's order, Geng Qiang was also thinking about whether he could withstand the Tianyuan Army, whether to retreat or hold on, or to fight a few battles before retreating. After thinking about it, he felt that it was really embarrassing to choose to retreat before the enemy arrived, and he was not worthy of the important task and expectations given to him by Zhong Tian. Besides, he was the landlord of Lehu County. Even if the difference in military strength was huge with the enemy, he could resist for a while with the advantage of geographical location. In addition, the city defense of the county city of Lehu County was strong. Since the Tianyuan Army raised its army, he had been strengthening the city defense. It was far from easy for the Tianyuan Army to attack the county city.

After careful consideration, Geng Qiang wrote a reply to Zhong Tian. This memorial was written with righteous words and awe-inspiring spirit. Not only did he praise Zhong Tian, ​​he also scolded the Tianyuan Army as worse than pigs and dogs. Finally, he expressed his determination and vowed to fight to the death with the Tianyuan Army in Lehu County and never retreat.

After reading Geng Qiang's reply, Zhong Tian couldn't help but nod repeatedly, feeling very happy. He even circulated it to other civil and military officials to let them see what loyalty and what pillars of society are. Geng Qiang is a model!

Geng Qiang's memorial also made Zhong Tian completely give up the idea of ​​withdrawing the Lehu Army. Instead, he gathered the central army and prepared to dispatch it to Lehu County as soon as there was an opportunity to assist Geng Qiang and fight the Tianyuan Army to the end.

The army of Lehu County did not withdraw, but Geng Qiang began to capture able-bodied men in Xibai City. Regardless of whether people were willing to join the army or not, they were first incorporated into the army and given armor and weapons. Anyone who dared to escape would be treated as a deserter and killed without mercy.

Geng Qiang's ability to capture able-bodied men was even better than Zhong Tian's. In just a few days, the Peng army in Xibai City expanded from 30,000 to 80,000. At the same time, he ordered the entire city to be blocked. No one was allowed to enter or leave without his handwritten order. At this time, Geng Qiang had already made a posture to defend Xibai City to the death.

Let's talk about the direct army commanded by Tang Yin. Almost all the senior civil servants and military generals of the Tianyuan Army were in the direct army. Even if the soldiers below had not joined the army for a long time, with these generals, their combat effectiveness could be improved by a level invisibly, not to mention the amazing combat effectiveness of the Besa cavalry to assist.

The direct army taking the middle road had to face Shangbei County of Lehu County first. Lehu County is also a large county, with three counties under it, namely Shangbei, Qingshan, and Baoqing.

The direct army led by Tang Yin arrived at the junction of Jinguang County and Shangbei County and temporarily stationed there. Le Tian and Ai Jia both reported the intelligence they had about Shangbei County to Tang Yin.

Because Geng Qiang deployed most of the Lehu Army's troops in the west of the county city, Shangbei County's troops were relatively empty, with only about 8,000 Peng troops stationed in the county city.

After listening to the information from Lotte and Ai Jia, Tang Yin sneered and said proudly: "A mere eight thousand enemies dare to stop our army of one hundred thousand?" As he spoke, he asked again: "The county of Shangbei County Who is the leader?"

Ai Jia replied: "Sir, the name of the county chief is Mao An. He was sent to Shangbei County after Zhong Tian usurped the throne. It must be Zhong Tian's confidence."

"No matter whether he is Zhong Tian's crony or not, anyone who dares to block the way of my army will be killed!" Tang Yin turned to Qiu Zhen and said: "Master Qiu, please arrange for an envoy to go to the county seat of Shangbei County to persuade this Mao An Kaicheng surrenders, otherwise, our army will let him die without a burial place!"

"Yes! Sir!" Qiu Zhen nodded.

According to Tang Yin's wishes, Qiu Zhen sent a low-ranking civil servant to Linqiao, the county seat of Shangbei County, to persuade Mao An to surrender.

After the envoy was sent out, it was like nothing, and no news came back. It was not until two days later that the Sky Eye spies brought back the news. It turned out that although the envoy met Mao An after arriving at Linqiao City, the latter not only did not accept his side's persuasion to surrender. , and also killed the envoy, and now his head hangs on the top of Linqiao.

After hearing this, Tang Yin's eyes widened, and anger burned from the pit of his heart to his forehead. He raised his leg and kicked the table in front of him far away. He gritted his teeth and said, "This thief dares to kill my envoy. I will definitely kill him." His corpse is in pieces!" As he spoke, he sent an order, and the whole army set up camp and marched towards Linqiao City.

Seeing this, Qiu Zhen hurriedly stopped him and said, "Sir, don't be impulsive. Mao An will not understand this truth when the two armies are fighting and do not kill the envoys. By doing this, he is obviously irritating our army, and his purpose is probably to Lead our army to attack, maybe he has set up an ambush halfway, sir, please don't advance rashly!"

"Ambush?" Tang Yin smiled and asked: "The enemy only has a few thousand people, but our army has hundreds of thousands. Even if the enemy is ambushing halfway, what can they do to me?"

After listening to his question, Qiu Zhen couldn't answer. Yes, the enemy only had a few thousand people. Even if they were well ambush, they would still attack an army of more than 100,000 people with random rocks.

Seeing that Qiu Zhen frowned and stopped talking, Tang Yin asked Letian and Ai Jia again: "Did you two detect that the enemy was setting up an ambush halfway?"

Letian and Ai Jia looked at each other, shook their heads and said, "We didn't notice any ambush from the enemy!"

"Hmph!" Tang Yin sneered. Even the Sky Eye and the Ground Network didn't detect the ambush, so it was even more correct. The enemy must be huddled in Linqiao City. He waved his hand and said decisively: "March!"

Tang Yin gave the order, and the direct army and Besa cavalry started to set off, heading straight for Linqiao, the county seat of Shangbei County.

Along the way, the direct army, led by Tang Yin, was unstoppable and successively captured several towns in Shangbei County. Moreover, these towns resisted very little and most of them were captured without bloodshed.

Tang Yin wanted to invade Linqiao City and capture Mao An to appease his hatred. He repeatedly issued orders to urge the entire army to move quickly. At the same time, he led the two Shangguan brothers and Wu Guang and Zhan Hu to lead 10,000 men. The cavalry ran at the front.

How could the infantry and Bessa's heavy armored cavalry outrun the light cavalry? As Tang Yin charged forward, the entire direct army's camp had been greatly stretched. Often the light cavalry commanded by Tang Yin had already invaded a town, and there was still no chance of them getting there. There is a direct army that has just set off in the previous town. Between the two cities, soldiers and soldiers of the direct army can be seen rushing forward everywhere.

Under Tang Yin's rampage, the marching speed of the direct army was indeed astonishingly fast. It took only one day to reach Linqiao City from the junction of the two counties. This is quite like "three hundred marches in one day, six hundred in two days" formation.

Linqiao City was already vaguely visible. Tang Yin, who was commanding the light cavalry, sat on his horse, sneered, and asked sideways: "Who wants to take the lead and be the first to attack Linqiao City?"

As soon as Tang Yin finished speaking, Shangguan Yuanbiao rushed forward, raised his spear, stepped in and saluted, and said: "Sir, I am willing to go!"

"Okay! Yuan Biao, I'll leave it to you to take the lead. Don't let me down!"

"Don't worry, sir. It's fine if the enemy doesn't come out. If you dare to fight, I'll kill one of them, or a pair of them!" Shangguan Yuanbiao shook his spear and pulled out three silver-colored spear flowers.

"Haha——" Tang Yin looked up and smiled, nodding towards Shangguan Yuanbiao.

When the latter was about to ride his horse and rush to the front of Linqiao City to challenge the enemy, he suddenly heard someone from behind shouting in a long voice: "Report, sir! Something bad has happened -"