King Hanjun of the Great Song Dynasty said so. As the commander-in-chief of the Jin Army in Hedong, and having brought the five-color sun flag with him, it was certainly impossible for Ba Lisu to retreat like this. If he really retreated like this, the morale and morale of the army would be completely lost.

So, starting from the evening of the sixth day of October to the afternoon of the eighth day of October, in just two days and nights, the Jin Army and the Song Army carried out continuous battles in the narrow area north of Tielingguan and south of Huishui.

Intensive fighting.

Among them, it is completely measurable that there were fourteen direct battles in which both sides invested more than a thousand troops.

Except for the demonstration-style confrontation of small groups of cavalry on the evening of the sixth day, starting from the second day, the commanders of the two armies almost unanimously chose a similar strategy, which was to send out troops in a dispersed but organized manner... If the Jurchen side took the initiative to attack

, usually with Meng'an as a unit, marching with at least five or six hundred cavalry, and as the day goes on, maybe the auxiliary troops behind them gradually arrive, and then they start to form an organized team of a thousand people, both cavalry and half-mounted. This is also the golden state.

If the Song army takes the initiative to attack, it usually selects a commander and lets this commander lead a different number of subordinates to fight. Some are one or two thousand less, and some are four or five thousand more.

.

No matter which side attacks, the other side will send out troops of comparable strength to respond, or basically respond according to the ratio of one to two to one to three on horseback.

As for the selection criteria, the two sides still have a clear understanding of each other. In the first day of the battle, Ba Lisu followed the order of marching ten thousand households, and whoever's turn it was.

Yan (Deputy Mou Ke, Commander of the Fifty Cavalry) came back with a lottery tube in his hand. He needed someone to fight. Marshal Han drew it casually and handed it over to Deputy Commander Jieyuan without looking at it. Whoever he drew would win unconditionally.

The troops go to war.

In addition, both sides did not forget to tighten the fences of their respective houses. Before and after Tieling Pass, the army camp became more and more solid, and Ba Lisu also withdrew the entire army camp to the north bank of Huishui River and made some concessions.

Wanyan, who was injured, led the troops who returned that day and took up command in Quwo City behind him.

Fighting is just so weird.

It is said to be a fierce battle, but it is definitely a fierce battle. The frequency of fighting is there, and it is impossible to fake a fight after going into battle. The number of casualties is also there, how can it not be fierce?

But it is said that it is tacitly understood, but there is also some tacit understanding.

It was as if after the surprise attack after the war, both sides could not stand the chaos and uncontrollability, and both wanted to take the opportunity to adjust and stabilize the front line so that they could easily fortify themselves, fight the battle, form a confrontation, and prepare for a decisive battle.

The subsequent development of the war situation does indeed seem to be heading in this direction.

In the evening of the eighth day of October, Fan Yihong, the commander of the Liqiong Department, led his subordinates who were adapted from the Eight Character Army to arrive at Tieling Pass first.

That night, messengers from the Liang Xing tribe, who had the most outstanding combat effectiveness among the Taihang rebels, rushed out from Zhi Guanxing and brought news that Liang Xing's troops had failed to block the Longde Mansion army on the other side of Zhi Guanxing.

However, the Jin Army in Longde Prefecture could not do anything better, because the Song Army had already set up camp at the Xileng Mountain Pass at the exit of Zhiguanxing. The Bazi Army reinforcements, who were extremely familiar with the Taihang Mountains, started from Fan Yihong and arrived at Mengde the next day.

They all immediately settled in the built camps as soon as they arrived.

The Jin Army can break through the Taihang Rebels, but it is unlikely that they can break through the Eight-Character Army members who were once the Taihang Rebels at the mountain pass, but are now the main force of the imperial camp.

In fact, the war that broke out on October 9th completely verified this point.

On this day, the main force of the Jin army, with at least 10,000 households, poured out from Zhiguanxing and directly attacked the Song army camp at Xileng Mountain Pass. At the same time, Ba Lisu also mobilized the water-collecting army, but Wanyan Zhejiang walked away.

The night attack on the Jiangxian Pass that day was an attempt to open up Jiangxian and connect with the reinforcements of the Jin Army in Longde Prefecture.

This was a very serious military situation. Han Shizhong did not dare to neglect it. Although he was still sitting firmly in the pass, he sent Ma Kuo to station in Jiangxian County and asked Li Yanxian to immediately lead his troops out of the pass to attack Huishui in an attempt to seize control from the north.

Pull out Li Su's tail and force the opponent to come back for support.

The battle situation was dangerous. The Jin army was separated by Jiangshan Mountain, which spanned dozens of miles. It was impossible to organize an attacking force and then go straight to the city. Not to mention the county seat of Jiangxian, even the Song army was getting larger and larger, and they supported each other and kept watch.

It is difficult to break through the fortresses. And the Song army was not unprepared. Just to break the place, dozens of veteran generals came to their senses and took precautions early - the battles in Guanbei have been non-stop in the past few days.

, they also mobilized local civilians and incoming rebels in the south of Guannan to urgently dig several simple ravines, supplemented by simple fences, to form several military connection lines similar to corridors to connect Tieling Pass-Jiangxian County-Xileng Pass.

At the same time, it also had the side effect of ensuring logistics and hindering the Jin Army's cavalry.

In this case, after a whole day of fierce fighting, both sides had no choice but to stop their troops.

But what is interesting is that the reinforcements from Longde Mansion did not retreat directly, but instead established a stronghold. The troops from Balisu did not directly withdraw to the north of Huishui River, but sent Wanhu Tuhesu to the south bank of the upper reaches of Huishui River, that is,

A camp was set up near the Jiangxian Pass, and the two sides responded from a distance, as if they were sandwiching the Song army between the north and the south, maintaining military pressure, and then waiting for reinforcements to arrive in a stalemate for a decisive battle.

But this style of behavior actually caused some people to have doubts.

"Of course I know something is wrong with the situation."

Early in the morning on the eleventh day of October, Han Shizhong noticed that the weather was getting colder as soon as he got up. He hurriedly drank a bowl of mutton soup and a hot pancake, and then went straight to the gate. However, he saw that the two sides of the gate were shaking slightly, and there were many Song Army soldiers.

The scholar was also a little timid, and he frowned more and more. Then as soon as he sat down, Li Yanxian, who had been waiting here for a long time, told him bluntly that something was wrong with the situation.

But obviously, King Han also knew that something was wrong, but he obviously didn't take it seriously. He didn't even look at the other party, and just looked north in the seat and answered: "But there are some things that cannot be done by human beings... we can only prepare for it."

Li Yanxian was startled for a moment, and then realized that the other party might have misunderstood. Then he looked at the swaying banner above his head without changing his expression: "Does Prince Han think I am saying that the weather is getting colder, which is not good for a confrontation?"

"Li Jiedu, don't pretend." Han Shizhong said seriously. "Others don't know, don't you know? The military report behind is so clear... The river in Shaanzhou is fast, and there are mainstays blocking it, and the logistics are difficult. At this time, the temperature suddenly drops, but

If the ice cannot be frozen quickly, would it be beneficial to have a confrontation?"

Li Yanxian ignored the other party's strange annoyance and continued to talk seriously: "Prince, this confrontation is strange."

"Of course I know there is something strange." Han Shizhong still didn't look at the other party. "Longde Prefecture will send out 10,000 households first, but it can still send out 30,000 households, while Taiyuan Prefecture will send out 30,000 households first, and it is estimated that it can still send out 30,000 households.

Two thousand households will then be the main force of the 90,000 Jin army, more than half of which are cavalry... But we have rushed too far, and there are still Hedong City and Anyi City in the river area. The two large cities have not yet been conquered, so the troops cannot be concentrated. The Taihang Rebel Army

They are coming in droves, and there are too many of them...if one of them is not good, big trouble will happen."

Although Han Shizhong did not understand what Li Yanxian meant, there was no doubt that Li Yanxian knew what Han Shizhong meant.

In other words, now around Tieling Pass, or to the east of Tieling Pass, that is, Wenxi, Jiangxian, and Quwo together are equivalent to the key area at the junction of Hezhong (Yuncheng) Basin, Linfen Basin, and Shangdang Basin.

In the so-called sixty or seventy-mile radius, the density of the Song and Jin armies was already a bit terrifying.

The Jin army currently has three thousand households in the north and one ten thousand households in the southeast.

As for the Song army, it currently consists of Li Yanxian's initial 35,000 troops, Han Shizhong's 12,000 troops, plus the 12,000 troops from the four commanders and officials supported by Li Qiong's tribe, and there are nearly 60,000 troops.

The main force is there, and the number cannot be completely counted, but it is estimated that there are no less than 30,000 to 40,000 Taihang rebels from all walks of life.

As for the reduction in staff, I can honestly say that there will be a lot of reduction, but not too much.

It can be said that a large number of troops were lost in just four or five days. From that day when the two sides met in a chaotic battle, there was almost no day without fighting. This is undoubtedly a huge loss for the main forces of both sides who have not fought in three years and five years.

It was a bit hasty and numb... both sides seemed to be using the lives of their soldiers to recover and warm up.

But at the same time, we have to admit that times have really changed.

Although the two sides have not fought each other for several years, the two sides were still in a state of all-out war for the past ten years. Military technology has basically reached the peak of the Middle Ages. Especially the armor of the main force of both sides, the Zhajia, has reached a level that can be called terrifying.

Unless morale collapses, basically only the Jurchens' close-fitting heavy arrows, heavy armored cavalry spear thrusts, Song people's long-handled axes, and divine arm bows can cause specific damage to each other... Therefore, the fights these days are very intense and fierce.

It is true that it is frequent, but more than half of the reduction in personnel on both sides was still caused in the first two days.

All these seemingly alarming reductions are even less worth mentioning when compared with the huge numbers of armies on both sides.

However, this balance of power is only for now.

As Han Shizhong said, the Jin Army currently only has 40,000 households, which is good, but if you count the days, in a few days the Jin Army will respond across the board, all the main forces will be ready, and then arrive in the form of reinforcements, there will be 50,000 households in the north.

Four thousand households in the southeast and as many as 90,000 main people gathered in the north and south of Jiangxian County.

At that time, a slight movement may cause a chain reaction and form a decisive battle situation.

But at the same time, Song Jun made some mistakes.

This does not mean that Han Shizhong complained that there were still two big cities behind him that had not been captured - this matter did seriously affect the energy of the main force of the Song army. For example, Han Shizhong needed to leave 20,000 people to lock Hedong City, and Li Qiongguo

After the river, he only sent half of his troops over, but he personally went to assist Li Yanxian's tribe to attack Anyi City, which had few defenders.

However, these were things that had been anticipated for a long time. The Song Army had already made preparations to attack Hedong, which was part of strategic prediction... When Han Shizhong said this, he essentially wanted to complain about Li Yanxian's rash advance.

The real problem, or the unplanned problem, actually lies with Ma Kuo... Ma Kuo and his troops came too fast and too many.

This didn't sound right. If it hadn't been for Ma Kuang's quick reinforcements, there wouldn't have been much fun that night. Even though Han Shizhong was behind him at the time, he still had to unconditionally praise Ma Kuan's timely reinforcements.

What's more, Ma Kuo's rebels have undertaken a lot of work these days, building tunnels, trenches, setting up camps, serving as guides, and conducting cross-mountain reconnaissance, all of which they did.

But this did not delay the rapid arrival of Ma Kuo and his rebels, which indeed caused a serious problem... Don't forget that the Northern Expedition of the Song Army was simply hasty. The Northern Expedition was carried out in advance and was originally scheduled to start after spring plowing next year. This meant that the Song Army Even if the imperial court has stored military supplies for the winter, it still needs to temporarily change its plans and temporarily adjust and prepare winter supplies.

However, there were too many troops following Ma Kuo down the mountain, and they suddenly appeared on the front line. In addition, they usually did not have any basic equipment for the convenience of movement in the mountains, so the temporary logistics pressure was even greater. .

What's more, long before the war started, Liu Hongdao, the Minister of War and the Water Supervisor of the capital, pointed out that Shaanzhou was the weakest point in the transportation of the Yellow River waterway, but the Zhao Guan family ignored him.

Therefore, under the influence of several forces, the Song Army's logistics suddenly encountered certain problems, and even Li Qiong's previous crossing of the river was obviously affected.

Now, it happens to be a little colder again.

Han Shizhong, considering the overall situation, is worried that if the current confrontation situation continues, the main force of the Jin Army may gather first, while the Song Army will fall into logistical and military difficulties in a short period of time, and will be pulled away quickly to seize the opportunity to fight. A scene of quick decisive battle.

However, Li Yanxian really didn't want to say this, and he didn't take it seriously.

"King Han's intention is that if the Jin army joins the army first and we are unable to complete the attack, we will gather tens of thousands of cavalry at the end of the battle. They will follow the example of King Xiang in breaking the cauldron and sinking the boat in the battle. They will break through the tunnel, divide and surround the armies, and defeat them in one battle." Determined?" Li Yanxian thought for a moment and said this for Han Shizhong.

"We really have to guard against it."

Han Shizhong thought for a moment and simply admitted.

"I thought it wouldn't be like this." Li Yanxian said seriously.

"Are you saying that I am unfounded?" Han Liangchen, who has studied in Chang'an for several years and has an extraordinary natural speaking ability, still does not go to see Li Yanxian. "Or do you want to say that Ba Lisu is not as brave as King Xiang? You must know that King Xiang only compares one to ten, and If you pull away from here, I'm afraid you may end up with too many hits but too little."

"I'm not saying that you can't use more speed to hit less, but King Han is really worrying in vain... And from what I see, King Han has a narrow vision and cannot see Mount Tai." Seeing that the other party is still arrogant, Li Yanxian Finally I got a little angry.

It was still early, and not many people had arrived at this moment.

But under the slightly swaying banner, it seemed that these two men no longer needed those generals to come over to create atmosphere... After a long pause, the Hedong Marshal finally turned his head and looked at the imperial camp beside him. They all looked at him in unison:
To be continued...