The Luokoucang battlefield thousands of miles away is far away, let's take a look at the situation on the battlefield in Meixian first.

As Chen Fuliang expected, on the afternoon of the 23rd, Xue Renguo's army from afar had already fought with the Sui army's partial division Ma Sanbao's department, and Xue Renguo, the eldest son of Xue Ju, who was able to fight well, was extremely brave and brave. Ma Sanbao adhered to the city according to the order, confronted Xue Renguo's strong wall, refused to pay attention to Xue Renguo's provocation, and never thought that Ma Sanbao's deputy He Panren deceived Xue Jujun to come from afar to be tired, and strongly persuaded Ma Sanbao to fight, and volunteered to personally lead the army to fight Xue Renguo.

He Panren is one of the important heroes of the Sui army's westward entry into the pass, even Chen Fuliang is quite respectful to him, Ma Sanbao can't help but give him a little face, plus Xue Renguo is indeed a little arrogant, and he didn't even bother to set up a camp and ran to fight, Ma Sanbao also felt that it was indeed an opportunity to wait for work, so he agreed that He Panren led an army of 3,000 out of the city to fight with Xue Renguo.

The result of the battle was that Ma Sanbao and He Panren found that they were the ones who underestimated the enemy, and Xue Renguo, who was infinitely powerful and extremely brave, clashed back and forth in the Sui army array, as if entering a no-man's land, the armor was full of feathered arrows like long-haired hedgehogs, and it was also forcefully rushed through the Sui army battle formation, which shocked the audience! The Sui army was in an uproar, and the generals under the command of Xue Renguo, Tong Shizheng and Hun Gan, also took the opportunity to lead the army to attack, He Panren's army was defeated, He Panren himself was also stabbed by Xue Jujun's cavalry on the battlefield, and less than half of the three thousand troops who went out of the city fled back to the city, and Xue Renguo's army took advantage of the situation to launch an attack on the city, wanting to take Meixian in one go.

Fortunately, the Sui army that rushed to the battlefield in Meixian County was not idle a few days ago, and somewhat repaired the dilapidated Meixian city defense, and the Xue Renguo army, which did not have time to prepare siege weapons, wanted to climb the ladder to take the city with the ladder It was not so easy, and the condescending Sui army soldiers relied on the advantage of the city wall to finally repel the attack of Xue Renguo's army, forcing the tired Xue Renguo army to give up the siege after dark and retreat to the Weishui River to rest in the open.

That night there was another thing that made Ma Sanbao vomit blood, originally the Sui army scouts found that Xue Renguo's army did not establish a strong camp and slept directly, Ma Sanbao planned to take the opportunity to launch a sneak attack, who had thought of going out of the city The army just began to assemble, but there was a civil uprising in Meixian County, some people who could not bear the brutal rule of Emperor Yang of Sui set fire to the city, in a vain attempt to open the city gate to welcome Xue Renguo's army out of the city, although the prepared Sui army soldiers quickly suppressed these mutants, but Ma Sanbao was still scared out of a cold sweat, As a result, the sneak attack plan was abandoned.

In the next few days, Xue Renguo's army launched an attack on Meixian County many times, Ma Sanbao and He Panren, who had suffered enough losses, did not dare to take any more risks, but they just stuck to the city and did not come out, and Xue Renguo, who was arrogant and underestimated the enemy, had not been patient to prepare enough siege equipment to attack the city, and several attacks were repelled by the Sui army, and the Meixian battlefield finally returned to the balance of confrontation, but Xue Renguo's army obviously had the upper hand, and the morale of the Sui army in the eastern capital, which had won many battles since entering the pass, declined and was at a disadvantage on the battlefield.

The cavalry of Xue Renguo's army did a very good job in cutting off the contact between the Sui army in Meixian County and the rear, and successively stopped two Sui army messengers, and the Sui army reinforcements led by Li Jing did not pass the reconnaissance of the scout light cavalry until they crossed the mouth of the Sheshui River, and found out that the situation of the Ma Sanbao army was not good, and Li Jing, who was closest to Chen Fuliang's blood relationship in this world, also decisively gave up the plan of crossing Weishui north in the area of the mouth of the Sheshui River, and led the army to continue to march west along the south bank of Weishui, until the Wentang River estuary was under the village, and set up a camp in a place about 30 miles away from the Meixian county.

Li Jing's decision made all the generals of the Sui army a little puzzled, Niu Jinda and Liu Shishan, who had seen Li Jing use troops before, were better, knowing that Li Jing must have a deep meaning in doing this, Qiu Shili and Qiu Xinggong, who had recently joined the Sui army, thought that Li Jing was a little weak in doing so, and admonished Li Jing together: "Deputy Envoy Li (Chen Fuliang's temporary official position to his cousin), our army has 20,000 people, and there are many elites, and there are Ma generals in Meixian County to respond, even if the cavalry is not as good as Xue Renguo's thief army, the overall strength is still above him, Why do you need to garrison the Wentang estuary, isolate Wen and Wei Ershui to confront the thief army? Wouldn't doing this be too much of a show of weakness to Xue Renguo's thief army? ”

"I'm not showing weakness." Li Jing shook his head and explained: "Xue Renguo's thief army has recently defeated our army's Meixian Division, and its morale is at its peak, and it has stopped at the foot of Meixian County for several days. Instead of letting Xue Renguo get his way, it is better to let him down, first rely on the Weishui camp to stifle his offensive, and wait for his impetuousness and flaws, and then our army will take the opportunity to attack again, and it will definitely win a big victory! ”

Li Jing knew that they were not convinced, but he didn't care, but he just asked the army to build a strong camp while ordering the army to build a pontoon bridge over the Wentang River, and put on a posture of preparing to continue to advance westward along the south bank of Weishui, and at the same time sent someone to contact Ma Sanbao to inform him of the situation of his own army, so that Ma Sanbao could continue to hold on to Meixian County and wait patiently for the counterattack fighter to appear.

Of course, the military god Li Jing could not have much deviation in the analysis of the enemy's mentality, as Li Jing expected, Xue Renguo, who was blocked in Meixian County, was indeed in a hurry to fight, but Xue Renguo was not a brave and unscrupulous person, and found that the Sui army reinforcements came west along the south bank of Weishui, Xue Renguo did not take the initiative to send troops to intercept not because he was afraid of dividing his troops, let alone being flanked by Ma Sanbao and Li Jing, but wanted to wait for Li Jing to cross Weishui to the north, and fight Li Jing again on the north bank of Weishui with open terrain, giving full play to his advantage in the number of cavalry. Tactically speaking, Xue Renguo's choice was not only not wrong at all, but also very correct and intelligent.

It's a pity that Xue Renguo ran into Li Jing this time, and the troops on the south bank of Weishui also erected a pontoon bridge on the Wentang River, which made Xue Renguo scream very much, and scolded the accomplices and lackeys under Chen Fuliang's command for being more timid and incompetent than the other, one hiding in Meixian County as a shrinking turtle, and the other simply didn't even dare to cross Weishui, and he didn't have the courage to confront the self-army face to face. Xue Renguo's two assistants, Chen Shizheng and Hun Gan, were also a little helpless, and there was no way to take Ma Sanbao and Li Jing, who were passively avoiding the war, and at the same time, because they found out that Li Yuan's rebels had been defeated, Yan Shizheng and others also had the idea of adjusting their strategy.

"Prince, these are not the way, we have to make a decision." Chen Shizheng pointed out: "The old thief Li Yuan has been killed by the dog officer surnamed Chen, his two sons ran north with the defeated army, we are already isolated on the battlefield in Guanzhong, and the officers and troops are holding on without a fight, blocking our way, it is meaningless for us to fight with them in Meixian, even if we win, we will not be able to continue to march into Daxing." Instead of wasting time and grain and grass in vain, it is better to go back to the army to take Yongxian, force Dou Jin to let us enter the city, take Fufeng County and look down on Daxing, and wait for the main force of His Majesty Xià to arrive, and then consider entering Daxing. ”

Don't think that Xue Renguo has no brains because of his muscles, and don't think that Xue Renguo is an incompetent person because the history books say that Xue Renguo is cruel and greedy. After listening to the advice of Yan Shizheng, Xue Renguo only thought about it for a moment and then nodded and said: "You are right, we sent troops too hastily and poorly prepared this time, and it is indeed impossible to continue to march west to take Daxing, and it is also the best policy to return to the army to take Yongxian County - but we can't do this now." ”

"Why?" Resentful of the government.

"The official army will not allow us to take Fufeng!" Xue Renguo pointed to the direction of the Sui army camp in the east and explained: "Yongxian is only two hundred and ninety miles away from Daxing, if our army takes Yongxian, it can threaten Daxing at any time, and the officials and soldiers will definitely not allow this to be seen. ”

After that, Xue Renguo added another sentence and said: "Don't forget, Dou Jinpifu has not officially played the red and white anti-flag until now, and he is still a person in the official army in reputation, as long as the official army appeases him, he may defend the city and resist, Yongxian County is governed by Fufeng County, and the city is far stronger than Meixian, and it is much more difficult to fight than Meixian." Therefore, if we want to return to the army to take Yongxian, we must first kill the officers and troops in front of us before we can return to the division with confidence, and at the same time after intimidating Dou Jin's heart, it is more likely that he will take the initiative to open the city and surrender to us. ”

If Chen Fuliang, Fang Xuanling and others could hear Xue Renguo's analysis, they would definitely be taken aback and impressed by Xue Renguo. However, for Xue Renguo's henchman Shizheng, it was not surprising to hear Xue Renguo's unique opinion, so he immediately nodded and said: "Prince Yingming, it's true, if we want to take Yongxian, we have to kill the officials and soldiers in front of us first." ”

"You don't need to kill them all, it's enough to kill the new officers and soldiers." Xue Renguo said confidently: "The officials and troops in Meixian County have been scared by us, and their strength is not enough to contain us from attacking Yongxian, so we don't need to pay attention to them." ”

"Then let's just cross Weishui by ourselves and go east to fight a decisive battle with the official army." "The Wentang River is shallow and narrow, and we can directly flow water across the river, as long as we move fast enough, the officers and soldiers will not have time to build a strong camp." ”

As soon as Xue Renguo heard that he was in the middle of the situation, he immediately ordered the army to build a pontoon bridge over Weishui, prepare to cross Weishui to the south, and take the initiative to find Li Jing for a decisive battle. In the evening of the same day, the scouts of the Sui army reported the movement of Xue Renguo's army to Li Jing, Li Jing was not only not shocked when he heard the news, but also applauded and smiled: "Sure enough, it's good to cross Weishui, the terrain south of Weishui is narrow, which is not conducive to cavalry and infantry, just so that our army can play to its strengths and avoid weaknesses." After laughing, Li Jing ordered the army to build a strong camp overnight, and called Yu Le, the military captain of the National Service sent to him by his nephew Chen Fuliang, and whispered in his ear without mentioning it.

In the early morning of the next day, after Xue Renguo's army left 5,000 troops to monitor the Sui army in Meixian County, the main force crossed Weishui and came all the way to the east, but to Xue Renguo and others, what surprised Xue Renguo and others was that Li Jing, the division of the Sui army, who had only arrived at the mouth of the Wentang River yesterday, had already established a fairly strong camp in more than one night, and it was not so easy for them to quickly take Li Jing's camp.

Fortunately, Li Jing seems to have made a big mistake, that is, while quickly collecting troops and returning to the camp to hold on, he actually forgot to dismantle the newly built five pontoon bridges on the Wentang River, and Xue Renguo, who was eager to kill Li Jing, was not polite, and immediately led the army to cross the Wentang River directly on the pontoon bridge. However, after crossing the river, Xue Renguo, who was still a little tender, was unknowingly overshadowed by the treacherous and slippery Li Jing - Li Jing did not leave him enough space to deploy his troops on the riverbank position, and if he forcibly lined up west of the Sui army's camp, the front army would be completely exposed to the cover of the Sui army's strong bows and crossbows.

It doesn't matter, you can't line up in the west or in the south, and after setting up a position in the south of the Sui army camp with your back to the south and north, Xue Renguo once again personally went out and shouted and scolded in front of the Sui army camp, but the old fox Li Jing didn't pay attention to him at all, just let the soldiers stick to the camp fence, and then watched with a smile Xue Renguo wasting his efforts outside the camp and no longer made any arrangements. Xue Renguo scolded so much that his saliva was dry and he didn't see the Sui army fighting, so he had no choice but to order a direct attack and attack the Sui army's camp head-on.

With many enemies outnumbered and strong, and also on the defensive, if Li Jing can't win again, he will have to change his name to Zhao Kuo. Under his command, this camp offensive and defensive battle is simply like a textbook standard, the attacking Xue Renguo army just entered the range of crossbow arrows, and was immediately suppressed by the salvo of the Sui army's hard crossbow, two rounds of salvo down, Xue Renguo's army paid a heavy price to rush to the range of the bow and arrow, and the Sui army archers fired cross-fire on the two wings of the crossbow array, covering the enemy, and the Sui army's crossbowmen with a slow rate of fire were also able to calmly load their arrows and shoot the third wave of strong crossbows that were more lethal enough to penetrate the iron armor, and then more calmly retreated and rotated the knife gunners forward, And when the Sui army finished firing three rounds of crossbow arrows, the cross-firing archers released five rounds of feather arrows to cover it densely, and the poor infantry of Xue Renguo's army finally touched the edge of the Sui army's camp.

After receiving so many arrows and crossbows, the Xue Renguo army attacking the camp team that was able to rush to the front of the Sui army camp was of course already suffering a lot of casualties, with heavy casualties, but their nightmare was not over, there were fences and antlers in front of them to block the horses, and there were stabbing and stabbing of the Sui army's spears and spears, and from time to time there were cold arrows shooting out of the fence to sneak attack, which was miserable, no matter how fierce the attack was, the progress was slow, and the number of casualties had been rising.

If it weren't for the Longxi soldiers who were tall and high-horse, they also had a spear-throwing tactic, which could throw an arc at close range to hurt the enemy, and this battle would be a one-sided slaughter, but in front of the cross-covered Sui army's bow and arrow, it was still difficult for the throwers of Xue Renguo's army to exert their full power, and many of the throwers had not even thrown their javelins, they had been shot by the Sui soldiers' bows and arrows between their arms, screaming and falling to the ground and dying. Xue Renguo's army, which was already short of troops, was also unknowingly forced by Li Jing to fight a war of attrition.

With the continuous expansion of casualties, Xue Renguo's temper gradually began to attack, scolding his subordinates for being incompetent, but also cutting off two of his own deserters on the battlefield, Li Yuan saw this situation in the Sui military camp, and his heart was suddenly secretly happy, and he hurriedly called Liu Shishan, who commanded the cavalry, and whispered an explanation in his ear.

The battle lasted for more than an hour, when Xue Renguo rotated the attacking camp for the third time, the Sui cavalry, who was immediately fully prepared, suddenly went out from the east of the battalion, the number was not much, there were only more than 500 people, but they were very arrogant and detoured to the right flank where the cavalry of Xue Renguo's army was located, and Xue Renguo was suddenly overjoyed because of the disadvantage of attacking the camp, and finally caught a punching bag and refused to let go, so he simply temporarily handed over the command of the infantry to his deputy Chen Shizheng, and personally led as many as 3,000 cavalry to meet Liu Shishan.

Only Liu Shishan, who rode five hundred times, would fight head-on with Xue Renguo if he was stupid, Xue Renguo's cavalry had just attacked, Liu Shishan had already turned around and ran away with the cavalry, and ran directly to the east, Xue Renguo was willing to miss such an opportunity, and the ace cavalry was just in hot pursuit, and was led away from the camp battlefield by Liu Shishan in an instant.

Soon, Xue Renguo's subordinates suspected that this was a plan to divert the tiger from the mountain, and hurriedly reminded Xue Renguo to be careful and not to stay too far away from the main force of the infantry, but Xue Renguo relied on the speed of the horse and trusted the command ability of the Shizheng, so he ignored it at all, and at the same time, Liu Shishan also kept turning back in front of him to scold and provoke, which provoked Xue Renguo to chase after him like crazy, and was soon taken away from the battlefield by Liu Shishan for more than 20 miles.

The enemy's ace cavalry was successfully lured away, and the enemy's main general was also hooked away from the battlefield, Li Jing was of course laughing happier than anyone else in the Sui army camp, and immediately called Qiu Shili and Qiu Xinggong brothers, Li Jing ordered them to lead 3,000 infantry out of the camp from the east gate, and continue to detour back to attack the right flank of the main infantry of Xue Renguo's army.

The Qiu family brothers, who were eager to make contributions, happily took the order, but because Xue Renguo's army still calmly strengthened the defense of the right flank after the cavalry stayed away, and arranged the tired soldiers who had been rotated before on the left flank with a small space, the Qiu brothers did not dare to underestimate the enemy too much, and said to Li Jing: "Deputy Envoy Li, after the last general and others launch an attack, please also send a force on the front to contain the frontal strength of the thief army, so that the last general and others will be more sure." ”

Li Jing smiled and said with a smile: "Of course I will send troops from the front, but I will not send troops from the front until you have defeated the Chinese army of the thief army." ”

The Qiu family brothers looked up in surprise, they didn't know what kind of medicine was sold in Li Jing's gourd, but Li Jing smiled again: "Before our army attacks head-on, I also have reinforcements for you, and when you attack, your reinforcements will appear behind the enemy!" ”

"Behind the enemy?" The Qiu family brothers were startled at first, and then subconsciously flew to see the back of Xue Renguo's army - to the south of Xue Renguo's army, there was the Zhongnan Mountain Range, which was high and densely forested.

"No wonder the deputy envoy deliberately didn't leave an open space to the east of our army's camp, it turns out that you have long been preparing to lure the thief army to set up camp with your back to Zhongnan Mountain!" The Qiu family brothers suddenly came to their senses, and in addition to being overjoyed, Qiu Shili asked suspiciously: "But Deputy Envoy Li, when will our ambush soldiers be arranged in Zhongnan Mountain?" Why didn't we see a movement of our troops before? ”

"Forget that we have an army with very small troops, but very strong in combat?" Li Jing asked with a smile.

Some white shadows quickly flashed in their minds, and the Qiu brothers suddenly realized again, and saluted Li Jing solemnly under great joy, and then rushed down to lead the troops to fight, Li Jing nodded with a smile, and then ordered the soldiers around him: "Light the wolf smoke, send a signal, and let the national army attack." ”

At the same time, Xue Renguo's cavalry had been led away from the battlefield by Liu Shishan for a full thirty miles, but Liu Shishan's army, which was well prepared and lightly armed, was still constantly turning back and scolding, "Xue Renguo, you have the ability to come and fight Lao Tzu to the death!" Come! If you have the ability, bring it to me! I don't know what kind of medicine Li Jing sells in the gourd, but Li Jing smiled again: "Before our army attacks head-on, I also have reinforcements for you, and when you attack, your reinforcements will appear behind the enemy!" ”

"Behind the enemy?" The Qiu family brothers were startled at first, and then subconsciously flew to see the back of Xue Renguo's army - to the south of Xue Renguo's army, there was the Zhongnan Mountain Range, which was high and densely forested.

"No wonder the deputy envoy deliberately didn't leave an open space to the east of our army's camp, it turns out that you have long been preparing to lure the thief army to set up camp with your back to Zhongnan Mountain!" The Qiu family brothers suddenly came to their senses, and in addition to being overjoyed, Qiu Shili asked suspiciously: "But Deputy Envoy Li, when will our ambush soldiers be arranged in Zhongnan Mountain?" Why didn't we see a movement of our troops before? ”

"Forget that we have an army with very small troops, but very strong in combat?" Li Jing asked with a smile.

Some white shadows quickly flashed in their minds, and the Qiu brothers suddenly realized again, and saluted Li Jing solemnly under great joy, and then rushed down to lead the troops to fight, Li Jing nodded with a smile, and then ordered the soldiers around him: "Light the wolf smoke, send a signal, and let the national army attack." ”

At the same time, Xue Renguo's cavalry had been led away from the battlefield by Liu Shishan for a full thirty miles, but Liu Shishan's army, which was well prepared and lightly armed, was still constantly turning back and scolding, "Xue Renguo, you have the ability to come and fight Lao Tzu to the death!" Come! If you have the ability, bring it to me! ”