Zhong Lidu took the assembled army of 20,000 and marched towards Gu Cheng, he would never have thought that the Zhao army on the North Road led by Li Yan was already close to Gu Cheng. This can't blame Zhongli for being too slow, it can only be said that Li Yan's troops are moving too quickly. The reason for all this is that Li Yan's combat method completely subverted the cognition of Zhongshan people.

According to the plan, the Northern Route Army began to set off when it set out from the south to Fuliu. Li Yan's army was 30,000 people, about 20,000 cavalry troops, and the rest were foot soldiers, archers and other troops. The biggest feature of the army on the northern route is that it completely abandoned the chariot troops, all the baggage, seven layers were assigned to the infantry, and the remaining three layers were given to the cavalry.

The Zhao army had just entered the Zhongshan border, and the defenders of Zhongshan Zuoren City, who had discovered the whereabouts of the Zhao army, immediately lit a beacon fire and sent a warning to the neighboring cities, and the defenders ordered the troops to hold on and wait for the Zhao army to attack. Of course, this is a consistent war routine, to their surprise, the Zhao army did not mean to storm the Zuoren City, leaving only 5,000 foot soldiers, 5,000 cavalry stationed under the city, and the rest of the troops went directly south. This makes the Zuoren guard very strange, doesn't Zhao Jun plan to capture the Zuoren? But if the left people can't be attacked, how can the logistics channel of the Zhao army be guaranteed? The back road is blocked, and the Zhao troops who are alone in the depths will face the risk of being surrounded, and when the time comes, they will be in a dilemma, and they can only wait to be killed, and the general of Zhao Jun will not be a novice.

Li Yan was not a novice, but it was the first time he commanded such a large-scale operation, and it was also the first time among generals of the same level in Zhao State. After Zhao Xi's death and Niu Jian was in charge of the entire military affairs in Northern Xinjiang, only Li Yan was qualified to command a battle of this level. Zhao Yong had no doubts about him, and told him that the mission of the Northern Route Army this time was still to respond to the actions of the Southern Army, as long as he could ensure that Hongshangsai was not lost, it would be fine.

Zhao Yong said this, but Li Yan was not convinced. While collecting information on the Zhongshan border, he personally planned a battle plan, and finally after thinking hard, he formulated a campaign plan that subverted conventional combat thinking. At least in this era, this plan is ahead of its time, which is why he came to Handan last time and won Zhao Yong's support.

"What does General Li mean is to abandon the fortified Zuoren City, but go deep inland, between Zhongren and Gucheng, looking for fighters?"

In the White Tiger Hall of Longtai, everyone looked at Li Yan's eyes, and they were a little puzzled, because this idea was too bold.

"Yes, that's what the last general means." Li Yan walked to the sand table, "According to our Tanmalai report, since the last Northern Expedition, Zhongshan has distributed all his troops along Yishui, namely Zuoren, Zhongren and Gucheng. Among them, the defense of Zuo and Gu Cheng is the strongest, although it is the same plain, but the city is tall, and it is not easy to break through. ”

"This is understandable." Le Yi said, "Yishui is the boundary between Yan and Zhongshan, so it is natural to gather heavy troops, and the Zuo people and Hongshangsai are far away, and without Hongshangsai, the Zhongshan people can only strengthen the Zuo people." But from the analysis of the territory, instead of dispersing the troops in the various small counties below, it is better to gather heavy troops along the Yishui Tun, first, the vast land can indulge the enemy army to enter, but it is also easy to cut off the back road, even if your army is deep to attack Lingshou, I can also send troops to intercept from behind, or even directly attack Hongshangsai, so that you can't take care of each other; ”

"Second, as an important tool to communicate between the three cities, Yishui can still be transferred from the water even if the road traffic is cut off. If the soldiers besiege the Zuo people, Gu Cheng can transfer the materials to the Zuo people through Yishui and use them, and in the same way, after besieging Gu Cheng, the soldiers of the Zuo and Zhong people can also be continuously gathered to Gu Cheng. ”

"So if you want to capture these three cities quickly, it is difficult to climb to the sky."

"Not bad. This is exactly what the Admiral fears. Li Yan continued, "Daijun's troops are mostly cavalry, and there are fewer siege foot soldiers. Therefore, the general thought again and again, I should give full play to my strengths, take the cavalry troops as the core, first destroy the opponent's soldiers, defeat them in numbers, and then organize troops to attack the city. The difficulty is much smaller, and the requirements for baggage are not too high. Because the most important thing in Zhongshan is grassland. ”

Li Yan's plan was to first besiege the Zuoren with troops, creating the illusion that the troops were attacking the city, and after the other side released the beacon fire, he continued to besiege the city with a small number of troops, and the main cavalry force went south, wandering between Gucheng and the Zhongren. Since the left people are the first line of defense, once the warning is given, the other cities must be reinforced while doing a good job of defense. At this time, the cavalry can give full play to their advantages and eat the opponent's reinforcements one by one in the field. When the opponent's troops are gradually decreasing, it is obviously much easier to attack the city again than to attack the city at the beginning, because at this time, the strength of the two sides has changed, and the number of soldiers defending the city is reduced, and the siege is much easier.

In the minds of the people of the White Tiger Palace, the so-called battles are all to be attacked from city to city, even Fei Yi and Zhao Bao, who are not good at leading troops, also know that with the city, there is a place for troops to assemble, there is a transit station for baggage and grain reserves, and there is also a channel for the transmission of intelligence, all of the above are guaranteed, the morale of the front line can be stabilized, and the troops can be brave in combat.

During the Spring and Autumn Period and the Warring States Period, one of the most basic common sense of warfare was that if two troops met, the first thing the two sides would do was not to go directly to war, and whoever came out on top first would win, but that both sides would retreat several miles and set up camp, and then decide when to fight after all preparations had stopped. This is by no means an act of benevolence and righteousness, nor is it a delay in the fighter plane, but is determined by the nature of the battle.

It is conceivable that an army of tens of thousands of people all the time cannot go hand in hand, but there are first and last. When the vanguard of the two sides meet, if you start fighting directly, even if one side wins by luck, you will definitely not be able to escape the support of the other party's follow-up troops, the same reason, the opponent's follow-up troops win, and before the battlefield is cleaned up, you will encounter our follow-up troops to attack you, so that one after another fighting, both sides will suffer heavy casualties, which is not advisable. We can only wait for the main forces of both sides to assemble before fighting. This is also why, in this period, marching and arranging is the basis for testing whether a general is excellent, and a general commanding such a large-scale battle must have excellent coordination and command ability, not some conspiracy and spell witchcraft. Case

However, if you have a well-equipped formed cavalry unit, these problems will be solved. From the moment the two forces meet, the cavalry units can enter the battle and engage the opposing vanguard without having to assemble again; The problem of grain and grass is not difficult for the cavalry, as long as they carry enough food for the soldiers, the horses of the troops can be completely self-sufficient by grazing on the pasture. As for the back road being blocked, as long as the area is wide enough, the cavalry in the maneuver is like flowing water, and it is not easy to be surrounded at all.

It is precisely on the basis of the above characteristics that Li Yan proposed such a combat plan.

In this era, this can definitely be regarded as a completely new method of warfare, and two conditions are indispensable to achieve such a tactic. First, the combat terrain must be open and flat, suitable for a wide range of cavalry maneuvers, without worrying about the terrain blocking the troops; The second is to have a well-equipped and powerful cavalry unit. Throughout this era, except for Zhao, I am afraid that no vassal state dared to say that it had independent and formed cavalry troops. Even if it was as powerful as the Qin State, it still did not have an independent and formed cavalry unit. Even to put it a little more arrogantly, even Zhao Yong in history, although he established the cavalry independently, was still in an auxiliary position. Only this cavalry, which passed through the stirrups and Takahashi saddles that Zhao Yong gave to cross, can be regarded as basically meeting this condition.

Li Yan in history may be talented but unknown, or he may be just an ordinary general among the many soldiers of the Zhao army, and he may not even have a name in the annals. But when he came up with this battle plan, it was enough for him to leave his name in history.

"It's a very dangerous tactic, but it's a good idea." Pang Cong first agreed with Li Yan's proposal. The way to risk oneself is often also the blind spot of the enemy, and the so-called surprise is not only for oneself, but also for the other party.

"Winning with the right and winning with the odd, and being upright is the way to use the army, but the sword goes to the front, and it may not be impossible to win." Le Yi said, "A certain also agrees." ”

Since the two military commanders, Le Yi and Pang Cong, are in favor, unless the others are completely sure, they will not get the axe. Zhao Yong was very much in favor of this method of warfare, which would also be a battle to demonstrate the military reform of the Zhao State that he led.

The defenders of Zuoren City were very puzzled, and they didn't know why the reinforcements were delayed this time, although they could roughly guess that it was related to the Zhao army that went south, but it was not that a single army could not come to Zuoren City to support. Or is it impossible to cross the river from Yishui to the north on the road?

How could he know that after being alerted by the Zuo people, all the cities would arrange for troops to pass through the road as soon as possible, because Zhongshan is a northern army after all, and Yishui is not a big river, and the soldier resources that can be carried are very limited, but it is not as fast as the road passage. And this is in Li Yan's arms, the cavalry of the Zhao army scattered to attack, with the war horses from Lou Fu and Lin Hu, the weapons and equipment that have become more and more sophisticated and excellent riding skills, on the vast plain, staged a chase and annihilation battle, from the Zhongshan reinforcements from Zhongren and Gu Cheng, although there are also a small number of cavalry, most of them are foot soldiers. How could he escape the pursuit of the cavalry of the Zhao Kingdom? In such an encounter, it would be good to be able to escape back alive, who would dare to support the Zuoren?

And the defenders of Zuoren City, seeing that the reinforcements had not arrived for a long time, also tentatively attacked the Zhao army stationed under the city. Since the stationing, the Zhao army has been closed, but once the gate of the Zuoren city is wide open, out of the test, the remaining 5,000 cavalry will not hesitate to take all the orders, such as a few times, the original Zuoren City, which had nearly 20,000 people, suddenly lost nearly 7,000 soldiers, and the city began to be overstretched. It is easy not to dare to go out of the city to engage in battle. When it was learned that the two cities were also soldiers and had lost about two floors, the three cities reached an agreement: closed doors without fighting, you have the ability to attack the city. Li Yan commanded the troops, luring the enemy by deceit, and looking for traces of the enemy.

In such a stalemate situation, Li Yan saw the troops of Zhonglidu from Lingshou, and since then, the most critical moment to determine the victory of the Northern Route Army has come.

(End of chapter)