Chapter 803
The battle between the Feng and An armies in the northern border of Mo State ended with a great victory of the Feng army. The An army was defeated miserably. Among the 200,000 troops, more than 50,000 were killed or wounded, but 100,000 were captured. The remaining people were all dispersed. Li De, the commander of the An army, escaped by chance, with only about 1,000 people left.
The An army lost not only its manpower, but also its confidence in fighting against the Feng army. After this battle, the An army was simply afraid of the Feng army like tigers and leopards, and fled at the sound of the "wind". In the Feng army, the An army also had a nickname - Peacock. It looks very beautiful, and can spread its wings from time to time to scare people, but in fact it can't stand fighting at all and collapses at one blow.
The Feng army of more than 70,000 people was able to defeat the 200,000 An army, and its own casualties were only more than 10,000. This result was something no one could have expected.
After the war, Li De gathered his own scattered soldiers and defeated generals, and finally barely gathered 40,000 to 50,000 people. Fearing that the Feng army would chase him again, he led his men to retreat directly to the homeland of Anguo.
Anguo actually had a lot of troops, no less than one million, and the loss of more than 100,000 people was not a big loss, but the bravery and fighting skills of the Feng army gave Anguo a great shock and fear, and it dared not send troops to the war easily.
After that, Anguo basically withdrew from the Feng-killing Alliance, and only provided logistical supplies to Sichuan and Zhen for moral reasons.
The reason why Anguo did not continue to send troops was that it was afraid of the combat power of the Feng army on the one hand, and the Pingyuan army released the 100,000 captured Anguo troops on the other hand.
How to deal with these 100,000 Anguo prisoners, Xiao Muqing did not think too much, nor did he apply to Tang Yin, and he released them all on his own initiative.
Fengguo and Anguo had no old grudges, let alone hatred. If so many captives were executed directly, it would be morally unacceptable and would also leave the Feng army with a reputation of brutality. However, if they were imprisoned, 100,000 people would need food, water and guards every day. How much money would it cost? Besides, this battle was too easy to fight, and it was too easy to capture 100,000 people from Anguo. It would not be a pity to let them go.
Xiao Muqing thought about it for a while and thought it would be easier to release them all, and it would also reflect his generosity and magnanimity.
Fengjun did not kill any of Anguo's captives, but only confiscated their weapons and armor, and then returned them all to Anguo. Fengjun treated its captured soldiers so well, so Anguo had no nerve to continue to send troops to attack. Taking advantage of this disastrous defeat, it just stopped and no longer responded to the call of Chuan and Zhen to send troops to Feng. However, in order not to offend Chuan and Zhen, Anguo proposed to provide them with food, grass, weapons and other supplies free of charge.
The battle of the Pingyuan Army went smoothly, but the battle of the Sanshui Army was relatively difficult.
Although the Huan Army did not have a famous general, its combat effectiveness was not bad, at least it had rich practical experience.
Huan State was located in the central and southern part of the Haotian Empire. Like Zhen State, which bordered it to the south, it was often invaded by the barbaric states and other countries in the west. One thing that was better than Zhen State was that Huan State had a large population and rich resources, so it was able to resist the invasion of foreign enemies with ease, and it was not like Zhen State where all the people were soldiers.
Huan and Zhen were close neighbors, and they also faced threats from Western countries and foreign states, so the relationship between the two countries was very delicate, that is, they had to cooperate frequently and join forces to fight the enemy, but at the same time there were territorial disputes, and small-scale frictions and fights on the border continued. It was not until Zhen State and Chuan State reached an alliance that the disputes between Huan and Zhen State were reduced a lot, and Huan State's policy towards Zhen State became mainly concessions.
Liang Qi did not underestimate the combat effectiveness of the Huan Army. He also took great pains to use the Sanshui Army with a force of 100,000 to fight against the Huan Army with a force of 200,000.
Liang Qi did not go directly to the enemy like Xiao Muqing did, and engage in a tit-for-tat frontal battle. Instead, he followed the Huan army from behind and divided the 10,000 cavalry in the army into several small teams, harassing the enemy day and night, making the Huan army restless.
Of course, the Huan army also had intelligence and knew that there was a large Feng army following them. The Huan army commander Xu Qing also took the initiative to turn around and attack, but the Feng army did not fight at all, and huddled in the temporary camp to defend. Although the Huan army had a large number of troops, it was not easy to break through the Feng army's camp. After several rounds of attacks, not only did they fail to break in, but they also suffered a lot of casualties. In the end, Xu Qing had no choice but to withdraw his troops and no longer care about the Feng army, and continued to go to Ningdi.
He didn't want to pay attention to the Feng army, but the Feng army kept pestering him.
As soon as the Huan army left, the Feng army immediately dismantled the camp and continued to follow from a distance. What gave the Huan army the most headache was the opponent's harassment tactics. Small groups of Feng cavalry attacked almost all day long, and ran away after fighting. The fatal thing was that they were all riding Mo country war horses, which were very fast, and the Huan army could not catch up.
When the Huan army was annoyed and turned back to attack the main force of the Feng army, the latter had already set up camp and was ready, making the Huan army's attack fruitless.
After a few days, the Huan army was annoyed by the harassment, and the soldiers were extremely tired and complained. The generals in the army asked Xu Qing to fight to the death with the Feng army behind.
Xu Qing also wanted to fight the Feng army, but the Feng army did not give him a chance to fight head-on.
The Feng army's scouts were hidden somewhere, and the news was extremely well-informed. As long as there was a slight movement on the Huan army side, the Feng army would get the news at the first time.
The previous few times when Huan's army turned back to attack Feng's army, they had just set out when the Feng's army behind them began to set up camp and deploy barricades. By the time they got close to Feng's army, their camp had just been completed. As soon as the attack began, they were immediately shot at by the Feng's army and could not attack at all.
Xu Qing rejected all the generals' requests. At this time, a general named Xue Pei gave Xu Qing a bad idea.
Xue Pei asked him to leave 50,000 soldiers to set up camp to stop the Feng army, and the rest of the soldiers continued to go north and enter Ningdi. His reasoning was very simple. Since the Feng army of about 100,000 could use the camp to stop the 200,000 troops of his side, then the 50,000 soldiers of his side could also use the camp to stop the 100,000 troops of the other side.
Xue Pei's reasoning seemed reasonable, but in fact it could not stand up to careful scrutiny.
The combat power of each army is different. The Sanshui Army can rely on a solid camp to stop 200,000 with 100,000, but it does not mean that other armies can do this. The military books say that the enemy can only be broken when the number is three times that of the enemy, but in reality there are many external factors that are not recorded in the military books.
Xu Qing was unsure whether he could resist the enemy by leaving 50,000 soldiers behind. While he was hesitating, other generals said that Xue Pei's idea was good. Leaving 50,000 soldiers behind would not only stop the enemy from following, but also break the enemy's harassment tactics. The army would no longer have to worry about it day and night.
If one or two people said this, Xu Qing might still have concerns, but since all the generals said so, he could not object.
The idea was proposed by Xue Pei. Xu Qing originally planned to leave Xue Pei behind and let him lead 50,000 soldiers to stay in place, but Xue Pei insisted on not doing so. He went with the army to attack Feng State and make great contributions. How could he stay here to confront the 100,000 Feng Army?
Since Xue Pei disagreed, Xu Qing did not force him and sent Qian Yi and Xiang Tang to stop the Feng Army instead.
Military orders are like mountains. At Xu Qing's command, 150,000 Huan troops left, leaving 50,000 soldiers stationed in the original place, and built camps, set up earth walls, ditches, chevaux de frise, traps, etc., to prepare for a long-term battle with Feng troops.
The spies of the Sky Eye and the Ground Net reported the actions of the Huan troops to the Sanshui Army truthfully. After hearing this, Liang Qi laughed out loud. What he wanted was for the Huan troops to split up, so that he could have the opportunity to defeat them one by one.
As soon as the 50,000 Huan troops led by Generals Qian Yi and Xiang Tang finished setting up their camps, the Sky Eye and Ground Net spies hidden nearby sent the draft of the camp layout back to the Sanshui Army, even clearly marking where the enemy had set up traps, chevaux de frise, and ditches.
After receiving the layout of the enemy camp, Liang Qi did not delay for a moment and immediately issued an order for the entire army to attack.
This attack was just a feint, and its purpose was to paralyze the Huan army.
The Huan army, which had just built a camp, was in high spirits. Seeing the Feng army coming, their eyes lit up with excitement. The archers all climbed up the wall and shot arrows at the Feng army outside.
The 50,000 Huan army had less than 10,000 archers, but the 100,000 Sanshui army was shot back by them.
Seeing the Feng army fleeing and leaving armor, weapons, flags, and baggage all over the ground, Qian Yi and Xiang Tang were overjoyed. They pretended to chase and kill the Feng army. They did not catch up with the Feng army, but they pulled all the armor, weapons, and other items abandoned by the Feng army back to the camp.
In recent days, the Huan army has only suffered losses from the Feng army, but this time they won a great victory. Qian Yi and Xiang Tang were so happy that they couldn't close their mouths.
The two immediately sent a battle report to Xu Qing. In the battle report, they exaggerated as much as they could, saying that more than 10,000 Feng army soldiers were killed and countless supplies were seized. How many people of Feng Army were actually shot and killed? How could they see clearly?
After a great victory in the daytime, 50,000 Huan Army slept peacefully in the camp at night.
These days, Huan Army has not had a good night's sleep. Both the generals and soldiers are exhausted to the extreme. Now Feng Army has just suffered a great loss. People expect that Feng Army will not dare to attack again at night. The whole camp is careless about prevention. Even the soldiers on guard are dozing off and can't get up.
Huan Army rests boldly, but Sanshui Army is actively preparing for war.
The temporary central army tent is full of candlesticks, which makes the tent as bright as day. Liang Qi, the commander of Sanshui Army, Bai Yong, the deputy commander, and Shangguan Yuanrang, Ye Tang, Gao Yu and other generals are all there.
There is no time to set up a sand table in the temporary tent, but it is replaced by stones, earth piles and other objects on the ground in the center.
All the generals stand around on the left and right, and people's eyes fall on Liang Qi, waiting for him to give the order to attack.
At this time, Liang Qi was smiling, holding his chin, and thinking about how to fight this battle so as to completely annihilate the enemy and minimize his own losses.