Tao Kan judged that Liu Cang was no longer in Yanshi, but must be in the Hu army that went west, and he said that the two countries were at war, and the envoys communicated with each other, and there was no reason to close the door and accept the letters, so why were they afraid of the envoys entering the city? Unless Liu Cang, the commander of the whole army, is no longer in the city, if he sends others to summon the envoys, I am afraid that it will arouse suspicion among us and others, so as to leak this news.

......As for the so-called "Dingxi", is it a civil strife in Hongnong, or as Pei Gai and Zu Ti guessed, the Chang'an regime intends to break through Tongguan and fight eastward, so don't worry about it for now-" and then return to the decisive battle. or order the guards, and when he does not return, he shall not confront me. ”

After repeated discussions, everyone thought that Tao Kan's judgment was very reasonable, and perhaps it was at most one step away from the truth. Then since the enemy is so planned, we must do the opposite, Pei Gai looked around at the generals and asked: "If our army can break the enemy in front of Liu Cang before he returns, and trap the Yan Division, then Liu Cangjin has no basis and will be defeated!" How to lure out the thieves of the city guards, who has a good plan? ”

Fan Ya said what kind of good strategy he wanted-"This will directly force its base, attack the city with strength, and not be afraid that the thieves will not fight!" ”

Zu Ti shook his head: "Yanshi City is high and dense, and the thieves can't defend no less than 30,000 today, which is almost the same as our army. "It's not that you can't use this trick, but if you don't get forced to the end of the mountain, it's better not to fight hard.

He suggested sending an army around the west of the city to build a barracks, build fortifications, and force the Hu army to go out of the city to fight-"If he doesn't come out, my camp will be completed, and Liu Cang will not be able to join when he returns, and there will be 100,000 troops in the city, and they will be like trapped beasts!" Then he pointed to a certain point on the map and smiled at Wei Gai: "This respectful family is also the hometown, can you go there?" ”

Yanshi and Luoyang are both north of Luoshui, about forty miles apart; And in the south of Yanshi City, Luoshui has a canal and goes around to the northwest to the north of Luoyang City, which is called Qilijian. The place that Zu Ti refers to is between the two cities, located on the south bank of Qilijian, and belongs to the jurisdiction of the corpse township. Because of the backwardness of surveying, mapping and mapping technology in these years, even the maps in the army were extremely crudely depicted, so the place he was referring to was just a blank on the map. But Zu Ti immediately said his name, and Pei Gai had also heard of it, and it was called Shiliang.

Shiliang terrain is dangerous, for the gateway to Luodong, think that after the Hu army captured Luoyang, Wei Cai's uncle Wei Jun built a dock fort here, summoned the displaced people to defend themselves, and Wei Gai himself was in the south of Shiliangwu, just the north bank of Luoshui to build a spring dock, and each other into horns, north and south strategy. Therefore, Zu Ti paid attention to Wei Gai and asked, "This respectful family is also home, can you go there?" ”

When Wei Gai heard this, he couldn't help but sigh lightly: "In the past, I and my uncle stationed troops in Luodong, Shiliang, Yiquan, and risky, but unfortunately there was no rescue outside, so they were trapped by the army of thieves. If today, there are two heavy soldiers on the left side of Yanshi, my uncle should not be in trouble......" After sighing, he immediately straightened his chest: "The geography there, it should be clear if the palm print, if you have a thousand soldiers each, rebuild the dock fort, you will ride 100,000, and it will be difficult to cross!" ”

Pei Gai nodded: "If Qing can rebuild the second fort, the Yanshi thief is like a turtle in an urn." But I am afraid that the fort will not be completed, and the thieves will go out of the city to rebel against ......."

Zu Ti couldn't help laughing and said, "If he goes out of the city, won't he just wait for me?" ”

So he ordered Li Ju to have 2,000 troops and go to Shiliangwu to build a fort, and Wei should have 2,000 troops to go to Yiquanwu to build a fort, and the main force also pushed the camp forward to two miles east of Yanshi City, re-establish the wall, and be ready to reinforce the second fort at any time to defeat the Hu army that withdrew from the city to take it.

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As Tao Shixing expected, Liu Cang had already left Yanshi City.

Because Pingyang and Henan were concerned at both ends, he didn't want to lose any of them, so he finally adopted Liu Fu's suggestion, and returned the elite 30,000 to the north through Hongnong County, leaving Liu Fu and Hu Yanyan to lead the rest of the troops to guard Yanshi City.

Before leaving, Liu Cang took Liu Fu's hand and said: "Huyan Qianjun is an important minister of the country, and the virtuous brother should not be self-absorbed in case of trouble, and should listen to the teachings of Huyan Gong." I'll go here for a maximum of two months, and when I calm down, I will definitely come to the rescue of Henan again, but the virtuous brother can not lose the guard, be careful not to fight with the enemy! ”

Therefore, Hu Jun closed the four gates of the Yanshi and refused to accept the challenge to confront the Jin army in Pingye. Hu Yanyan consulted with Liu Fu and said, "I am afraid that the Jin people will see that I am unwilling to fight, so they will come to attack the city, or send their troops to the west of Yanshi......"

Liu Fu said with a smile: "Brother will take away all the elites, and there are many old and weak guards in the city today, if you go out of the city to fight with the Jin people, there is really no chance of winning." However, if the Jin people dare to attack the city, I will rely on the solidity of the city wall, and I can defend it in peace for a month or two, or I will greatly kill and injure the attackers - the repair and defense of the city wall, please ask Huyan Gong. And if the Jin Kou Dispatch Department copied me, you can also ignore it - today's Yanshi can store grain, which can support more than a month, that is, thieves copy and plunder the road, and there is no supply and loss, I can take the grain of the civilians in the city, and I can barely support it. I don't want to fight, wait for my brother to return, and then break the Jin Division. ”

Then he smiled: "Or Jin Kou's grain and straw will be exhausted first, and the embarrassment will retreat, and it is not known." ”

Although Hu Yanyan had fought with Zu Ti in the past, but this time when he arrived on the battlefield, he didn't know that the strength of the Yuzhou army had increased again, and the Xuzhou army ...... It was a completely confusing existence, and he couldn't help frowning and asked Liu Fu: "I heard that the cavalry (cavalry general Liu Xun) was frustrated by Chenggao, and the big order was not conducive to Bishui, and the king's breakthrough into the Yanshi was also heavily damaged-today's Jin Kou, if it is so able to fight?" ”

Liu Fu nodded gloomily: "Zu Li's department, needless to say, I look at Pei Gai's Xuzhou army, I am afraid it is not what I expected in the past, and they are all weak and weak...... Or the Yunxuzhou army is also practiced by the ancestors, and it is honest. The enemy is forty or fifty thousand, and the elite is afraid that there are no less than seven or eight thousand, and it is difficult to fight. ”

Hu Yanyan nodded first, and then shook his head again: "If you don't fight for a long time, and you plunder the west of the city for thieves, the morale in the city will fall, and if the city defense is unfavorable, it may be difficult to support the return of Dadanyu." And the seven miles of the west of the city is the key to Luodong, and the king of Shi'an in the past surrounded him with tens of thousands of elite soldiers, and defeated Wei Jun. If the thief follows this, the Yanshi will become a lonely city, and he will return with a big order, and I am afraid it will be difficult to cross......"

Liu Fu couldn't help frowning when he heard this, so he asked: "What Hu Yangong said is also reasonable. What should we do now? ”

Hu Yanyan said: "The old minister has two strategies, and the king is clear. The best strategy is to send troops out of the city immediately to occupy the stone beams, so as not to be taken advantage of by thieves; The next policy is not to move first, and wait for the thief to have the intention of standing in the stone beam, and then send troops to attack it - but the terrain is dangerous and narrow, and the army is difficult to deploy, only to fight bravely, if the thief's courage is as the king said, it is not easy to break. ”

Liu Fu thought about it for a long time, and finally recognized Hu Yanyan's best strategy, saying: "I should go out to Shiliang in person." ”

Hu Yanyan waved his hand: "The king is the lord of the city guard, and he can't be moved lightly - the old minister is willing to lead the troops there." ”

Liu Fu was not worried about Hu Yanyan, and planned to send Liu Xun or Liu Ya, but Hu Yanyan insisted on leading the troops to go: "Shiliang is not only the key to Luodong, but also the throat of Yanshi. He believes that he has been in battle for a long time, and he really looks down on the younger generation of Liu Xun and other generals, besides, Liu Xun has just been defeated, how can he have the courage to go out of the city to seize important land?

Liu Fu couldn't resist Hu Yanyan, and finally ordered him to lead his cronies and 2,000 elite soldiers in the city, open the west gate of Yanshi, go straight to the corpse township, and then go to Shiliang. Almost at the same time, the soldiers and horses of the Jin army also circled to the north and south of Yanshi, pretending to besiege the city, and then surging westward. Liu Fu saw it from a distance in the city, and couldn't help but sigh: "It's not what Huyan Gong expected!" Then I was worried that there were many Jin soldiers, what should Hu Yanyan do if he couldn't hold the stone beam? Urgent Liu Ya: "Qing can send 3,000 people to help Hu Yangong." ”

But since he closed the city and defended himself, the Jin army sentry outside the city was like entering a no-man's land, and Hu Yanyan had just left the city, and there were Tanma to report to the ancestors and Pei. Zu Ti expected that Hu Jun would see that there were many people in his west, and he would inevitably send reinforcements, so he urgently ordered his nephew Zu Ji to lead his troops around to the west of the city.

Zu Ji happened to encounter Liu Ya, and the two sides fought fiercely near Qili Jian East and Corpse Township. Pei should have reported and sent a fast horse to inform Zhen Sui in the south of Shouyang Mountain, ordering him to reinforce Zuji. Zhen was overjoyed, left Lu He, raised the red fire crow flag, and immediately surged south. But before he could enter the battlefield, Liu Fu knew that the situation was not good, he didn't plan to collide with the Jin army, and he was even more afraid of a war of adding oil, so he had to urgently order Liu Ya to get out of contact with Zu Ji and return to Yanshi.

In this way, Hu Yanyan became a lone army.

Liu Fulian sent spies to sneak out of the city and go to the vicinity of Shiliang to check the situation - if Hu Yanyan can defend the dock first, it doesn't matter, the terrain of that place is dangerous, Hu Yanyan is a general in the country, and the Jin army is not so easy to attack. However, more than a dozen secret agents went out, most of whom were killed by the Jin people, and in the end only three people returned, and they all reported: "There is a fierce battle in the direction of Shiliang, one advancing and one retreating, and it is difficult to win or lose." ”

Liu Fu wandered around the room, and finally paused: "I regret that I shouldn't have made Huyan Gong out of Shiliang - the country can be without Henan, and it can't be without Huyan Gong!" "For today's plan, the only way to do it is to fight!

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Hu Yanyan did reach Shiliang one step ahead of the Jin army, but although the terrain was dangerous, the old fortress had been destroyed by Liu Yao to the point that only a piece of rubble was left - just like what the guy did in Luoyang - it was difficult to hold. He had just arranged for the soldiers to carry the earth and rocks, and planned to rebuild the dock fort, when Li Ju led the troops to arrive.

The Qili stream is very narrow, but the waterway is quite deep, and there are steep cliffs on both sides that are three or four zhang high, like a city wall. Li Ju ordered the archers to shoot Hu soldiers across the stream, if there was a fortress, this kind of offensive would not be able to break the defense at all; But at this moment, there was no fort, only some remnants of the wall remained, and the Hu army was covered in a rain of arrows, and the situation was precarious. Hu Yanyan was forced to order a shield to form a formation, and then draw a bow to shoot, but Li Ju did not dare to cross the stream lightly, and the battle situation fell into a stalemate for a while.

At the same time, Wei should have arrived at a spring, where the terrain is not inferior to Shiliang. "Water Jing Note" said: "Luoshui and east to the south, the city in the north of Sichuan, the north and south of the three boxes of the sky is dangerous, but to build the west, that is, for me to consolidate - the name of the one together." This "Yihewu" is the alias of Yiquanwu decades later.

Therefore, a spring dock is dangerous on three sides, as long as the wall is built on the west side, it is a natural danger block, and the amount of repair work is much smaller than that of Shiliang Dock. This place has always been nameless, and if you don't personally survey, you may not be able to know the military value of this place, so Hu Yanyan only pays attention to the stone beam, and Zu Ti also refers to the stone beam on the map.

If the Hu army first occupies the second fort and echoes the north and south, it is estimated that Li Ju and Wei should be blind; And if Hu Yanyan didn't go to Shiliang and turned to Yiquan, maybe Wei should attack more difficult than Li Ju.

However, Wei Gai had successfully occupied a spring, and when he heard that there was a fierce battle in the direction of Shiliang, he immediately left half of his soldiers and horses to repair the wall, and he sent half of them to the north to Shiliang, and coordinated with Li Ju in the north and south. In this way, Hu Yanyan was quite uncomfortable, he sent people around Wuxi, and ran all the way to the outskirts of Luoyang City, only to get the opportunity to avoid the Jin soldiers, return to Yanshi in a big circle, and ask Liu Fu for help. When I entered the city, I heard people shouting horses, and it turned out that Liu Fu was planning to personally raise the army to rescue Hu Yanyan.

However, Liu Xun and Liu Ya stopped Liu Fu's horse head together, and persuaded him repeatedly, saying that at this time, he went out of the city to fight with the Jin people, and the chances of victory were slim - "The terrain of Shiliang is dangerous, that is, thousands of horses and thousands of troops, it is difficult to spread, only to fight bravely, the king should not move lightly, and it is even more useless to take the main force out of the city!" ”

Liu Fu lifted the whip to drive away the second general, and shouted: "I will die in battle, and I can't make Huyan Gong die before me!" ”

Liu Ya suggested: "It is better for the last general to lead thousands of people, falsely beat the banner of the king, and pretend to save Shiliang, then the thief will send troops and horses to block the west of the city, and the king will open the east gate and force the thief's camp - in this way, it may be possible to stop the effect of attacking the west from the east." If you can repel Zu Ti and Pei Gai, then Hu Yangong's difficulty will be solved. ”

Liu Fu was stunned for a moment when he heard this, and then nodded: "This plan is wonderful!" ”8)