Pujin, the governor of Bingzhou, Chi Jing, was observing the opposite bank with a clairvoyant mirror by the river, and today he somehow always felt uneasy, so he couldn't rest assured, and he wanted to check the situation of the enemy army, lest the other party have any abnormal movements and he could not detect them in time.

Pujin is located on the east bank of the Yellow River, opposite the river is the west bank of Chaoyi, where there is a large camp of the Yongzhou army, the other party has been facing the Bingzhou army across the river for several months, Wei Chiqin is observing the other party's camp at this time.

With the clairvoyant mirror in his hand, Wei Chiqin could barely see the outline of the enemy camp on the west bank, the enemy camp at this time, the flags were sparse, and it seemed that there were no people, and according to the report of the sentinel who ventured to approach the west bank by boat, the number of enemy soldiers seemed to be small.

There are all kinds of indications that the enemy army in Chaoyi does not seem to have many troops, and if they can take it by surprise and force their way through....

This thought flashed through Wei Chiqin's mind again, he had this thought more than once, and he almost couldn't bear it anymore and was about to give an order, but in the end he held back.

The other party is showing weakness, there must be a conspiracy here, maybe it is to lure them across the river to attack, or it is really to withdraw the soldiers and horses, and use a small number of troops to contain the Jizhou army in Pujin.

What kind of conspiracy could it be?

Wei Chiqin felt that it was all possible, but for him, this kind of deception was meaningless, and his own combat deployment should never be affected by the enemy, otherwise he would be suspicious all day long, and he would only be taken the initiative by the other party.

Now that you have decided to take this step by step, you must not act rashly, even if you do nothing for months on end.

Of course, for a war, it is normal to spend months laying out and looking for flaws in the enemy's army, and the captain will not be impetuous because of the temporary slow progress, because if the time drags on, it will only be beneficial to his side.

Wei Chi's territory is the land of the old Qi, rich in products can afford to consume, even if it is consumed for several years in a row, the first can not withstand the other party, not to mention anything else, just the Shaanzhou and Luozhou armies from time to time in Lintong Pass, and the state army soldiers in Pujin, can toss the chickens and dogs in the pass.

Wei Chiqin can figure out this truth, and Prime Minister Wei Chi Dan also understands this truth, so Wei Chi Dan did not urge Wei Chi Qin and Wei Chi Jing to find ways to quickly attack Guanzhong, but put stability first.

It doesn't matter if it drags on until winter, because winter is more favorable for them.

From the end of summer to the beginning of winter, Wei Chiqin and his younger brother Wei Chijing did not make the slightest progress, but the time for the decisive battle gradually came, that is, the weather was getting colder and colder, and when the Yellow River froze, Wei Chiqin could lead the cavalry to cross the river on the ice.

This is the benefit of winter, the north and the south have been fighting for hundreds of years, and most of the wars around the Yellow River are won and lost in winter, and this is the reason: the river is frozen, the Yellow River is not in danger to defend, and those strongholds that hold the river defense are immediately isolated and helpless.

The most typical battle was Liu Song's Yuanjia Northern Expedition during the Wei and Song Dynasty battles, and the Song army took advantage of the rising water level in various places in the summer and autumn to launch a large-scale northern expedition, advancing the battle line to the line of the Yellow River and occupying all the strongholds along the south bank of the river.

As a result, in winter, the Wei cavalry marched south, stepping on the ice and directly crossing the Yellow River, sweeping southward like a flood, Henan, the two Huai Song army strongholds and cities were like isolated islands, watching the Wei army rush to the Yangtze River but did not dare to go out of the city to engage in battle.

The Wei army could not cross the river, so in Henan, Lianghuai opened a killing ring, slaughtered the people of Song State, and finally left, on the surface, the Song State did not lose too much land, but in fact, the people's livelihood withered, and the national strength declined.

This is the fate of the cavalry that is inferior to people, and Wei Chiqin is the elite of the state under his command, and there is no shortage of horses at all, so as long as it takes a while and the Yellow River freezes, he can cross the river and march westward and sweep Guanzhong.

Even if Yu Wenliang is stationed in Chang'an, he can also move most of the people around Chang'an and even Guanzhong, leaving Yu Wenliang with a dilapidated Guanzhong, so tossed for a year or two, the other party will not be able to stay in Guanzhong at all.

So will the Yellow River freeze?

It should be, the weather is getting colder and colder, Wei Chijing asked the local people in Pujin, with the current weather, it is a matter of time before the Yellow River freezes, so he is in Pujin and waits for the Yellow River to freeze, but before that, Tongguan may be broken through by his younger brother.

Wei Chijing, who attacked Tongguan, drew up a strategy of "luring the snake out of the hole", and whether it succeeded or not was in these few days, Wei Chiqin was quite looking forward to this, so he put away the clairvoyant mirror not long after looking at the other side of the river, and wanted to ride back to the camp.

As soon as he got on his horse, he saw more than ten horsemen galloping on the official road in the southeast, heading towards the camp in the north.

Seeing this, Wei Chijing couldn't help but feel a stir in his heart: Could it be that there is good news from Tongguan?

。。。。。。

In the northern suburbs of the city, the camp of the Chinese army, surrounded by armor soldiers outside the big tent, everyone was silent, and there was also silence in the big tent, the generals stood like wooden people, after the first book, the prime minister, the king of Shu Chi Dunxi looked at a battle report in front of him, and his face was pale.

This battle report, sent from Luoyang, had just been handed over to him, and its content was a report on the battle of Tongguan, which had been divided two days earlier: the army led by Chi Jing, the governor of Heyang, was defeated by the Yongzhou army and suffered heavy losses.

The general course of this battle is clearly described in the battle report: Wei Chi Jing saw that he could not attack Tongguan for a long time, designed to lure the snake out of the hole, and successfully occupied Xiaoguan, thinking that he could bypass Tongguan and break through the pass, but he fell into the opponent's strategy.

At both ends of Hongnong's Yang family, at the beginning, he volunteered to serve Wei Chijing to lure the snake out of the hole, but the other party then attacked Hongnong and cut off the official and military food routes.

The grain road was cut off, and the officers and soldiers should have crossed the river to the north bank immediately to avoid being surrounded by all the grain, but because of the small pass, Wei Chijing planned to fight hard, but he fell into the strategy of the Yongzhou army.

The Yongzhou army buried a large number of thunderbolts in Xiaoguan, and the official army was detonated by the thunderbolts that blew up and suffered heavy casualties, and Qi Wang Yuwenliang led the main force of the Yongzhou army to take advantage of the situation to attack and flank Wei Chijing with the defenders of Tongguan.

Because the grain road was cut off and the Xiaoguan defenders were completely annihilated, the officers and soldiers outside Tongguan were in great turmoil, and they collapsed soon after the battle, and fled north in a hurry, and there were only two pontoon bridges connecting the big camp on the south bank and Fenglingjin on the north bank, which could not accommodate so many people to cross the river for a while.

In the midst of the crowding, many people fell into the river and drowned, and the Tongguan defenders released fireboats upstream, and burned the two pontoon bridges in turn, so that most of the officers and troops folded on the south bank, and most of the cavalry who fled to the north bank were cavalry, as well as generals such as the commander Wei Chijing.

An army of tens of thousands of people with young and strong, armor, and baggage, and that's it.

This news is that the messenger spent more than a day traveling day and night, from Shaanzhou through Luoyang to the camp outside the city of Xuan, and sent it to the prime minister.

After getting the news from Pujin's lieutenant Chiqin, he immediately sent troops to attack Chaoyi on the other side, but the Chaoyi garrison resisted stubbornly and held out until the main force of the Yongzhou army rushed back, and the state army returned in vain.

After this great victory, the Yongzhou army will control the entire territory of Shaanzhou sooner or later, then Luoyang east of Shaanzhou will be in danger, and it is necessary to transfer troops from elsewhere to reinforce Luoyang in case of contingencies, so that the strength of the imperial court began to be tense.

But this is secondary, Qi Wang Yuwenliang will definitely be able to stabilize the hearts of the people in Guanzhong by taking advantage of the victory in Tongguan, and those Guanzhong families who were originally watching from the wall are likely to make the final decision.

That's to fall to the Yuwen clan!

A situation at the good end is just like this, although it will not collapse, although it will not reverse the situation, but it means that the strategy of destroying the Yuwen clan will fail, Wei Chi is extremely angry, but he doesn't know how to vent.

In all fairness, if he replaced Wei Chijing with him, he would also suffer this big loss: he would never have thought that the Hongnong Yang clan would harbor such evil intentions.

colluded with the Yongzhou army, and then betrayed the elite of the other party, so that the officers and soldiers could easily earn a small pass, so as to deceive the trust of the officials and the army, but turned around and suddenly attacked Hongnong, occupied the granary, and cut off the grain road, this blow was really fatal.

And because the official army had a small pass in hand, they tried to make a desperate bet and take Tongguan before the food ran out instead of retreating.

As a result, there were a large number of thunderstorms buried in Xiaoguan, and after the "boom", it was all over.

With such a vicious strategy, Wei Chi Dun knew that if he didn't do it well, he would be fooled and end up with the same defeat as Wei Chi Jing, so what else could he say?

Wei Chijing was defeated, but he finally made the right choice in the chaos: the cavalry was withdrawn to the north bank first, with this cavalry, the Yongzhou army did not dare to cross the river easily and occupy Fenglingjin.

The crux of the matter is that Hongnong Yang's betrayal has taken a bad start, and next, it is likely that other families will be ready to move, and the imperial court cannot kill without conclusive evidence, so as not to lose people's hearts.

Thinking of this, Wei Chi Dan became more and more annoyed, last year he was the commander of Ping Sui, from Luoyang to the west, passing through Hongnong, Hongnong Yang and other local clans to welcome Wang Shi, Wei Chi Dan also met with many Yang children, said a lot of good words, in order to show comfort.

I have no deception, I have no worries, but I treat you sincerely, and this is how you return!

Wei Chi regretted that he was not at the beginning, and felt that Hongnong Yang was really a white-eyed wolf, if he had exterminated the other party at that time, where would there be the current defeat of Tongguan!

He was sulking, and the generals had already read the battle report, and all of them looked solemn, but the matter had come to this point, sighing was useless, and they had to find a way to solve it and make amends.

"Prime Minister, the state army is still in Pujin, Yu Wenliang will definitely not dare to go east easily, but the Hedong important land, and the state army cannot be easily transferred, otherwise Hedong will change and endanger Jinyang..."

"Prime Minister, there are more than 10,000 defenders in Luoyang, if you immediately recruit young and strong, with a total of tens of thousands of troops, you will definitely be able to keep Luoyang safe!

"Prime Minister, the main force of the cavalry of the Heyang Army is still there, if you enter Pishan through the river bridge, you can protect the northern flank of Luoyang, or you can station Fenglingjin to restrain Yuwenliang."

"Prime Minister..."

The generals talked a lot, Wei Chidun listened to it, and only felt upset, but he suppressed his anger and quietly listened to the opinions of the generals, although the defeat of Tongguan was very miserable, but it was not to the point of losing everything, and he couldn't mess with himself.

As the prime minister who supervises the Chinese and foreign military and controls the power of the imperial court, he must not be chaotic!

Now that the situation has changed, he feels that staying in the Hanging Gourd to command the siege will do more harm than good, and let the field elite surround the Hanging Gourd, which now seems a little out of place.

The officials and troops have not been able to take the hanging gourd so far, Wei Chidun is helpless about it, Xiyang Wang Yuwenwen has managed the hanging gourd like a rock, and he has consumed a lot of manpower and material resources of the official army, but he has not been able to attack the city.

But even so, the hanging gourd still has to be surrounded, even if it can't be taken for a while, the hanging gourd must be caged, so that the mad dog in the city will not run out and bite people everywhere, and then it will not be good if something bites out.

Therefore, the main force of the siege will be composed of soldiers from other states and counties in Henan, anyway, the officers and troops can rely on the large number of people and the long siege to besiege the city, and the enemy army in the city will not be able to attack for a while and a half, and the officers and soldiers can throw stones with trebuchets to destroy the city wall.

Wei Chidun decided to let the Son of Heaven return to the north, but it was only the Yellow River, stationed in the area of Yingzhou, of course he had to accompany him, and in Yingzhou he could easily command the defense and operations in the three directions of Luoyang, Yecheng, and Xuangu.

And the elite soldiers led by him also went north and stationed in the Yecheng area, beware of Shannan to send troops to attack from Fangcheng, take Yecheng and attack into Henan, and relieve the siege of the hanging gourd.

"King, according to the general, the main direction of attack on the Shannan side may not be Yecheng, and please continue to sit outside the Hanging Gourd City."

Some generals raised different views, but Wei Chidun did not attack, but motioned to the other party to continue.

"Great King, the direction of the assault in Shannan is better than Fangcheng, but our army will definitely go all out to deploy in Yecheng, and the other party should know this, so if you use the strategy of attacking the east and the west, the actual direction of the opponent's assault, the last general will think that it may be Gwangju Guangcheng."

A few months ago, the imperial court sent five armies south to attack the five passes of Dabie Mountain at the same time, but the whole army was annihilated, and the Shannan army soon attacked Guangcheng successfully, and then attacked Xuanjiao successfully.

The army besieging the Hanging Gourd is more than 100,000 troops under the personal command of Wei Chidun, and the army besieging Guangcheng is more than 10,000 Yangzhou troops, and the strength is obviously weak.

If Yuwen wants to choose a breakthrough direction, he will inevitably tend to choose a weaker direction.

Yuwen's Shannan army had only three passages that could be used as a breakthrough direction to break into Henan: Yewan Dao in Jingzhou, Yiyang Sanguan in Tongbai Mountain, and Guanghuang Road at the foot of Dabie Mountain.

For the official army, blocking Ye Wandao only needs to hold Yecheng, Shenzhou Pingyang, which blocks the three passes of Yiyang, is now controlled by the Anzhou army, but the direction of Pingyang is a trap set by the official army "besieging the city and sending reinforcements".

Now the main force of the official army besieging Hanggu is more than 100,000 soldiers and horses, which can take into account the direction of Yecheng and Pingyang, and at the same time can also take into account the direction of Gwangju Guangcheng in the southeast, so the general's opinion is to ask the prime minister to continue to sit outside the city of Xuang.

Just in this "centered" position outside the Hanging Gourd City, waiting for the real main force of the enemy army in Shannan to appear in the three directions of Yecheng, Pingyang, and Guangcheng, and then decide on the next move.

As for the safety of Luoyang, naturally there is the Hebei army to come to the rescue, and there is no need to take care of one or the other.

According to the Anzhou army, which is guarding the hanging gourd, it is an extremely dangerous tumor, which must be removed, Tongguan is defeated, and the official army can also rely on the Luozhou area where Luoyang is located to block the passage of Yuwen's eastward exit, even if the other party occupies Shaanzhou, it cannot threaten Hebei and Henan.

However, if the official army could not recover the hanging gourd, it would have to maintain a large army besieging the city, and it would be too much to consume for this, and it would not be cost-effective.

It doesn't matter if it's winter now, wait until the spring of the next year, the young and strong people who were requisitioned can't return to their hometowns, delaying the agricultural time, and in the autumn, Henan, especially the surrounding areas of Yuzhou, is very likely to cause a large-scale poor harvest to lead to the outbreak of famine, and then the displaced people will rise everywhere, and the situation will really be irreparable.

"That makes sense..."Wei Chidun was persuaded by the other party, he was anxious after learning of the defeat of Tongguan, even if he forced his composure, he was still a little confused, forgetting why he would personally lead a large army to surround the Hanging Gourd.

The hanging gourd must be recovered, and Yuwenwen, a mad dog, must die!

"Prime Minister, our army has been attacking the Hanging Gourd for several months, with little success, it seems that a strong attack is not possible, and the general thinks that he should continue to use the plan."

"Will the plan be released?"

"Prime Minister, the so-called deception, the trick is naturally deceptive, it is said that Xiyang... The one-legged bronze man is suspicious, and the end will think that it can be like this, and this and this..."