On the seventh day of the fifth month, Guo Rong issued an edict to lead more than 16,000 people to Xinzhou with Fu Yanqing, Xiang Xun, Zhang Yue, Shi Yanchao, etc., to intercept the Liao army going south. Pen, fun, pavilion www. biquge。 info

Jinyang to Xinzhou nearly two hundred miles, walking and riding together, at least three days to arrive. Considering that there might be no food in Yizhou, Fu Yanqing ordered the soldiers to set off with ten days of dry food, so that the burden of the march would increase, and the road would not be fast.

And Zhang Yue's department has 1,500 horse troops, which has to carry spare expendable weapons, as well as some war horse food and hay, although some can be replenished along the way, but not too much, the logistics grain road was established, I don't know when, so Zhang Yue asked Li Chuyun and Xue Wenqian to lead the infantry battalion to drive 20 carts with them, and all the grain and grass weapons were brought for more than half a month.

Fu Yanqing's Chinese army also brought a lot of grain and grass, went north to the east of Jinyang, and resupplied once in Yangqu, and then it was difficult to go north, mostly rugged mountain roads. Because at the junction of the northern part of Taiyuan and Yizhou, there are lofty mountains and mountains lying horizontally from west to east, and there are dangerous passes such as Chitang Pass, Zhoushan Mountain, and Shiling Pass in the ridge.

After walking all the way for four days, they arrived at Xiurong County in Xinzhou Prefecture on 11 May, and according to Li Qing, the assassin of Xinfu Prefecture, Yang Gon and Yelu Tart Lie led nearly 10,000 fine horsemen, and arrived at the city of Tanglin County, Xinkou the day before yesterday, and began to attack the city yesterday.

If Xinzhou is the gateway to Jinyang, then Xinkou is the gateway to Xinzhou, if the Liao general Yang Gon captures Tanglin County, the offensive and defensive momentum will change immediately, Yang Gon can ride south, and the entire Xinzhou will not be safe. However, in Tanglin County, there are 800 people defending the Xinzhi Jing Army, which should be able to hold it in a short time.

But Xinzhou is a basin near the state city, and the road to the north is also very difficult to walk, and the state city to Xinkou Tanglin County is still sixty or seventy miles, it takes a day and a half to arrive, the march is fast, the old soldiers are tired, and the gains outweigh the losses.

Out of multiple considerations, or out of fear of the enemy, Fu Yanqing was old after all, and the hero was not as brave as he was back then, so he decided to temporarily stay in the east of Xinzhou City, camp on a slope by the Shahe River, and at the same time send a wide range of sentry horses, with fifty horsemen as a team, in a fan-shaped shape thirty or forty miles north of the state city, west to Yunzhong Mountain, east to Dingxiang County. In this way, the Liao army could have sufficient time to prepare for combat when it went south.

Yang Gon had already arrived north of Xinkou, and the reason why he had only recently gone south to attack the city was because the secret agent buried before reported that Fu Yanqing led the army north. This is to "besiege the city and send reinforcements", so that Fu Yanqing can take the initiative to send it to the door. As long as it is defeated, the main force of the Zhou army will not dare to attack Jinyang with peace of mind, and it can be regarded as supporting Liu Chong.

As a result, Fu Yanqing was unmoved, and only sent detectives to patrol four times a day, and had no intention of going north to Xinkou. Now Yang Gon was a little anxious, the grain and grass he brought south this time was not very sufficient, the soldiers from the grassland were not good at attacking the city, Tanglin County was not taken, and there was no supply, after five or six days, Yang Gon decided to go south.

In fact, Fu Yanqing convened the generals to discuss the night of his arrival in Xinzhou, and he was not ready to go north to rescue Tanglin County, but instead went to Jinyang Guo Rong and asked for additional troops.

In this regard, Zhang Yue was puzzled, it is said that the Liao army will ride thousands of horses in the sky, and his own side has more than 16,000 troops, which completely occupies the advantage of troops, and it is not uncertain that the decisive battle in the north will be carried out. So, Zhang Yue privately asked to see Fu Yanqing and expressed his doubts.

I didn't want Fu Yanqing to smile slyly, squinted and replied: "The old man is nearly sixty years old, an old minister of the four dynasties, and a prince, can he go to the Tokyo court to snort every day if he makes military exploits?" ”

Zhang Yue was choked suddenly, and suddenly realized in his heart that Fu Yanqing did not dare to fight, nor was he afraid of any meritorious achievements, but he was afraid of losing the power to control nearly 20,000 soldiers. Think about it, it is indeed the case, it is difficult to gain a foothold without soldiers in troubled times, if something happens, no matter how high the honor and favor, no matter how big the family business is, it will be wiped out in an instant.

"But the Liao army's southward movement is a huge threat to the main force of our army in Jinyang, and we are ordered to come here without fighting." Zhang Yue wanted to go north to face the battle, so he insisted on his own opinion.

"You are only twenty years old this year, and you are in the limelight again in the first war of Gaoping, but how many years have you been in the army? What are the qualifications? Do you want to arouse suspicion and make countless enemies? Fu Yanqing not only did not want to fight, but also did not allow Zhang Yue to fight, and asked angrily.

"Okay......" Zhang Yue also had nothing to say, it is said that his combat exploits are big enough. Last year's battle of Huizhou, and then pacified Liangzhou, and this year's battle of Gaoping, this is a great achievement, if you are older, the qualifications are a little deeper, and it is appropriate to open the Yajian Festival, but now you can only be a partial general, and I only feel very angry in my heart.

"Wait for a few days when the reinforcements arrive and then go to war, and the merit will be shared by everyone." If it was another general, of course Fu Yanqing would not say this, he really valued Zhang Yue, his nephew, so he said it directly.

Zhang Yue was also quite helpless, so he had to quit, secretly regretting in his heart that he didn't bring Feng Qianhou to Jinyang in the north, but left him in Luzhou to take care of the wounded soldiers, otherwise he would not make any more meritorious contributions, Feng Qianhou can guess people's hearts more accurately and thoroughly.

It was cloudy these days, and it rained lightly the next day, and the ground in the wilderness on the outskirts of the city was soaked, and the green early summer scenery everywhere was pleasing to the eye, but Zhang Yue was full of sorrow, and routinely ordered every day, strictly prohibiting soldiers from leaving the camp and entering the city to wander around, and setting an example to sleep in the camp.

Four or five days later, the weather finally cleared, and on this morning there was a report from the sentinels: the Liao army brigade went south from Xinkou, and the horses were thirty miles north of the city.

Fu Yanqing sent people to consult with Xiang Xun, Zhang Yue, Shi Yanchao and several envoys of the Tianxiong Army, and decided to send troops to set up an ambush in the area of Gaochengling, 25 miles north of the state. At the same time, the main army followed up and swept the formation. Zhang Yue sat bored and didn't speak, Shi Yanchao took the initiative to ask for battle, Fu Yanqing readily agreed, and ordered Xiang Xun to lead two thousand infantry troops to accompany him.

In the previous battle in Gaoping, the casualties of Shi Yanchao's troops were a bit large, and they have not been replenished, originally 2,500 people, but now there are only less than 2,000 soldiers, and only one of them commands the horse army. The Xiang Training Department is the fourth command of the infantry army.

Zhang Yue was worried that they would not be able to complete the combat mission, and after Xiang Xun and Shi Yanchao set off, he sent Du Ximi to take the two young eagles of Xuan Xin and Xuan Ling, and lead a hundred cavalry soldiers to follow from afar, so as to monitor the situation on the battlefield.

At the beginning of the afternoon, Zhang Yue led his troops to follow Fu Yanqing to the north for twenty miles, and waited under the Gaocheng Ridge, as soon as he arrived at the station, his own soldiers came back to report: the Liao army passed through the Gaocheng Valley, Xiang Xun and Shi Yanchao suddenly killed, the Liao army was caught off guard, and the cavalry could not start a battle in the valley, so that the ambush was defeated, leaving 2,000 corpses to retreat north.

Zhang Yue was overjoyed when he heard this, and immediately asked for an order to fight. This time, Fu Yanqing did not dissuade him, and agreed that he would lead his headquarters to Gaochengling to help in the battle.

The terrain of the north of Jin is somewhat similar to the northern part of Guanzhong, there are many hills and beams, the ravines are vertical and horizontal, the high city ridge is not a lofty mountain, just a mountain beam that is not high, the trees are shady on the mountain, and there are ten miles of deep depression plain in the north of the ridge. However, the vegetation on this mountain beam is lush, and it is not easy to expose the thousands of troops hidden, so although Yang Gon and Yelu Tart Lie sent a probe horse, they did not find it.

When Zhang Yue led 4,300 people from his headquarters to reach Gaochengling, the situation was very different from what he imagined. Xiang Xun led the infantry to wait and see from the bottom of the ridge, there were traces of fierce battles in the valley below the ridge, and on the plain of the north of the ridge, thousands of cavalry of the main force of the Liao army were waiting in the distance.

Shi Yanchao only led more than 20 cavalry to clash back and forth outside the Liao army's cavalry formation, and actually tried to impact its main force, while two or three thousand Liao cavalry chased and intercepted from front to back, left and right, and kept staying in the encirclement, so that Shi Yanchao could not advance or retreat. (To be continued.) )