Fifteen miles north of Yongcheng County, in the camp of the Liang army, Li Si quietly thought about the battle strategy. Pen? Interesting? Pavilion wWw. ｂiquge。 ｉｎfo

In the last defeat in Haozhou, he escaped with a dozen guards and eventually returned to Huaibei, where Zhu Quanzhong later dismissed him as punishment.

However, with the restart of the war against Huainan, Li Si'an, who had been at home for less than a month, was once again activated by Zhu Quanzhong and entrusted him with the important task of being the vanguard of the army.

For Zhu Quanzhong's rare tolerance, Li Si'an was naturally grateful, and wanted to behave well, with the shame of Xue's last defeat.

This time, he had more than 10,000 people under his command as vanguards, especially the 3,000 elite cavalry in his hands, which Zhu Quanzhong specially assigned to him.

If these forces are used properly, they will be able to play a great role, and it is not impossible to defeat the Huainan army in one fell swoop.

Li Si'an had no ambition to defeat Yang Wu's 90,000 army in one fell swoop, but he wanted to defeat Wang Maozhang, who was also the vanguard of the Huainan Army on the opposite side!

In the Battle of Qingzhou that year, Wang Maozhang became famous in one battle, not only killed Zhu Youning, but also did not fall behind when fighting with Zhu Quanzhong's main force, which was highly appreciated by Zhu Quanzhong.

Later, Wang Maozhang, as a general of Huainan, led his subordinates to sweep the two Zhejiang, and he was even more famous all over the world.

If he can defeat Wang Maozhang in one fell swoop, Li Si'an feels that maybe his reputation as a "often defeated general" can be washed away.

"General, I just found out the news, the Huainan Army has been prepared for the arrival of our army for a long time, and now it is already waiting for our army outside Yongcheng County!" At this time, the scout reported and interrupted Li Si'an's train of thought.

He frowned and asked, "How many people are in the Huainan Army?" What is the lineup? ”

"The strength of the Huainan Army is about 10,000 people, the army is neat and tidy, and the momentum is quite strong!" Scout said.

"Only 10,000 people?" Li Si'an pondered, according to the establishment of the Huainan Army, the total strength of Wang Maozhang's Right Wuxiang Army should be 20,000 people, but the Huainan Army on the opposite side was only 10,000 at this time, so where did the others go?

Then the scout said, "Yes, there are only 10,000 enemy troops in front of you. According to the news heard by the villain, after the Huainan army entered Suzhou, it looted all the way, but Wang Maozhang's troops were attacking the camp before, and they only joined the looting a few days ago, so when our army arrived, most of Wang Maozhang's troops were still scattered around, and only these 10,000 troops gathered in Yongcheng. ”

Li Si'an's eyes lit up, Wang Maozhang only gathered 10,000 troops to deal with him at this time, which gave him the opportunity to defeat the other party in one fell swoop!

Thinking that he really had a chance to defeat Wang Maozhang, Li Si'an was not only a little excited.

Of course, even if Wang Maozhang only had 10,000 people in his hands, it would not be so easy to defeat him, so Li Si'an quickly calmed down and began to think carefully.

Soon, Li Si'an personally led 3,000 people to attack the Huainan Army, but the result was naturally met by the Huainan Army and retreated in a panic.

"Pursuit! Pursuit! Under the banner of the Huainan Army, Wang Maozhang ordered loudly.

When the Liang army launched an attack just now, he didn't even care about the two wings, and the target was directly aimed at his Chinese army, and he attacked fiercely.

Wang Maozhang was caught off guard by the Liang army, but fortunately, Zhang Chong and Zhu Qianyou, who served as the two wings, were both experienced generals, and they saw that the Chinese army was in danger and hurriedly led their troops to move closer to the Chinese army.

Under the three-way attack, the Liang army was finally repulsed, but because of some mistakes in coordination, Li Si'an escaped smoothly.

Is this worth it? Even the Chinese army almost let the enemy end, if the enemy army escaped again, then he would lose face this time.

Therefore, Wang Maozhang, who was furious, ignored the persuasion of his generals and immediately ordered a pursuit.

At his urging, the Huainan army had no choice but to obey the military order and launch a pursuit.

Behind him, looking at Wang Maozhang's thunderous appearance, Zhu Qianyou said to Zhang Chong with a worried face: "General Zhang, the general raises troops out of anger, which is easy to be taken advantage of by the enemy!" And according to the news of the scouts, Li Si'an's forward force should have nearly 10,000 people, but he only dispatched 3,000 people, and the other troops must be ambushed! ”

"Yes! It's rare for a general to be so angry, he refuses to listen to anyone's opinions, and we can't persuade him, otherwise, let's leave a part of our troops behind, and once we are ambushed, we can also echo back and forth to rescue our army in ambush? ”

Zhang Chong was also worried, when Wang Maozhang asked for a pursuit just now, he proposed to guard against Li Si'an's ambush.

However, Wang Maozhang said that Li Si'an is a brave and unscrupulous man, and there can be no ambush; The reason why he only led 3,000 men to attack was precisely to make the Huainan Army despise him, so as to directly surprise the Chinese army of the Huainan Army and win in one fell swoop.

Now that Li Si'an's plot has been thwarted, there is no danger next.

Therefore, Wang Maozhang insisted on his opinion and refused to back down.

"General Zhang's plan is great and good, and it can be implemented!" Zhu Qianyou nodded.

Immediately, Zhang Chong, as the rear army, deliberately slowed down the march and slightly distanced himself from the Chinese army to avoid encountering an ambush at the same time.

……

That night, in the camp of the Huainan Army.

"What? Wang Maozhang's army was defeated? Yang Wu was so shocked that he stood up. Then, he reacted again and couldn't help but smile bitterly.

After so many years of conquest, except for Liu Zhuangyuezhou, which suffered a big defeat, the Huainan army basically did not lose anything, and swept all the way, even against the Liang army, the first feudal town in the world, the Huainan army played an unprecedented victory.

This victory almost made him feel that the Huainan Army was really invincible.

However, the truth is that wars always have accidents. What's more, although the Huainan Army is very strong, it is indeed not invincible in the world.

Even Zhu Quanzhong, the world's first feudal town, was inevitably defeated, and even the later Li Cunqiao was not invincible, so what qualifications did the Huainan Army have to claim to be invincible?

So defeat is inevitable, the question is just when, by whom, and on what scale.

Fortunately, this time Wang Maozhang's defeat was not too big, his two generals Zhang Chong and Zhu Qianyou were prepared in advance, and when the main force led by Wang Maozhang was ambushed, the rear army they left behind immediately stepped forward to respond, and finally managed to escape with a bloody way.

In the end, the Huainan army lost more than 4,000 people, but after Wang Maozhang led the army to retreat to Yongcheng, he stabilized his position and immediately sent people to ask Yang Wu for his guilt.

Thinking of the reason for the failure of this battle, Yang Wu couldn't help but have a headache.

The consequences of this battle itself were not great, but it was just a defeat in an outpost battle, which had little impact on the overall situation of the Northern Expedition.

As for the loss of more than 4,000 people, this is indeed very heavy, but with the current Huainan family, these losses can be quickly compensated.

What really gave Yang Wu a headache was that although Wang Maozhang was brave and good at fighting, his character was also easily provoked, and once he was provoked, he was easily taken advantage of by the enemy.

This time, it was only Li Si'an, a general who was not outstanding, who set up an ambush, and Wang Maozhang's two generals were also relatively effective, so it did not lead to a greater fiasco.

But Yang Wu remembered that in the decisive battle of Baixiang in the history of Jin and Liang's struggle for hegemony, the commander of the Liang army was Wang Maozhang, who had been renamed Wang Jingren at that time.

At that time, the reason for Wang Maozhang's defeat was that it was difficult for him to make his subordinates obey as a general, which led to confusion in command, and another reason was that the cavalry harassment tactics of the Jin army angered Wang Maozhang, and as a result, he rashly led the army to attack, and was finally defeated by the Jin army.

Maybe Wang Maozhang will not have a general disobedience in Huainan now, but his character flaw of being easily angry still exists, and if he is taken advantage of by the enemy when he leads the army in the future, it will be a real disaster at that time.

Seeing that Yang Wu was silent and his face changed, Gao Miao on the side hurriedly persuaded: "Your Highness, although General Wang is rash of the enemy, he has made great contributions in the past, so his subordinates feel that it is not appropriate to punish him severely, so how about disposing of Liu Cun according to the original treatment?" ”

He also thought that Yang Wu was angry because of Wang Maozhang's defeat and planned to severely punish Wang Maozhang, so he hurriedly dissuaded him.

When Liu was defeated in Yuezhou, Yang Xingmi only lightly punished him as a warning; Later, Liu Cun really made a great contribution.

Therefore, Gao Miao believes that Wang Maozhang should also be treated in the same way.

After listening to Gao Mian's persuasion, Yang Wu reacted, this is indeed not the time to think too much, or to make a decision on Wang Maozhang's defeat and plea first.

Although Wang Maozhang has flaws in his personality, but in addition, his ability in other aspects is indeed very strong, plus his past achievements, Yang Wu naturally can't punish him too heavily because of this failure, so that other generals will think he is mean and unkind.

"The order, Wang Maozhang did not listen to the advice of his generals, and underestimated the enemy's rash advance, so that the army was defeated, and he should be fined for half a year, as a warning! Its subordinates Zhang Chong and Zhu Qianyou are not chaotic in the face of danger, and their decision-making is meritorious, so they should be commended! ”

After disposing of Wang Maozhang, Yang Wu then asked Mi Zhicheng, "General Mi, according to your estimate, how long will it take for the enemy's city wall to collapse?" ”

The battle went relatively smoothly these days, and after a large number of grenades were fired from the Suzhou cannons, the defenders quickly fell into confusion, but because of the imminent arrival of Zhu Quanzhong's reinforcements, the defenders did not collapse.

Although the Huainan army took the opportunity to launch several large-scale sieges, it failed to break the city in the end, so the final key is to look at the side of the Xicheng city wall.

"Your Highness, rest assured, according to the estimation of the last general, the city wall will definitely collapse tomorrow morning at the earliest, and the day after tomorrow at the latest!" Mi Zhicheng said in a very affirmative tone.

"And what about the reaction of the defenders? Did they perceive anything? ”

"Well, at least so far, there is nothing unusual about the enemy, the grenades fired by our Suzhou artillery have already scared them out, and if it is not necessary, they will not come out to observe the damage to the city wall. What's more, those defending generals rarely climb the city wall! ”

Yang Wu breathed a sigh of relief, if the enemy army sensed that the city wall was about to collapse and prepared in advance, then this siege might end in failure.

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