When Li Chongbao's soldiers and horses bypassed the county seat of Linjin, Li Guangbi had already led his 500 soldiers to cross the Yellow River from the Pujindu pontoon bridge, and found that only two regiments of lieutenants were stationed on the river beach on the opposite bank, and he could not help but be disappointed. He only knew that Wang Sili was defeated in the hands of Li Siye, but he didn't expect that the troops would be so crippled.

He immediately left 500 of his own soldiers at the ferry to consolidate his defenses and went to Puzhou City alone.

Wang Sili was waiting outside Puzhou City with the officers of his Zhaoyi Army at this moment, looking at the direction of the Yellow River, as if looking through the autumn water, and his heart was tormented. But at dusk, at the end of the earth in front of the city gate, only one man and two marquis appeared.

They didn't care at first, thinking that it was a traveler who came and went in a hurry, but when Li Guangbi's figure gradually became clear and came to him, Wang Sili finally stopped calm, and hurriedly stepped forward and bowed and said, "Li Sikong is finally here." ”

He subconsciously glanced into the distance behind him, and the subtext was to ask what about the army you lead? The Emperor won't send you alone.

Li Guangbi didn't bother to talk nonsense with him, and asked directly: "How many soldiers and horses are left in Puzhou now?" The county soldiers of each county are also counted. ”

Wang Sili hurriedly crossed his hands and said: "Qi Li Sikong, there are more than 5,000 people in this Puzhou city, more than 1,000 people in Linjin County, 1,200 people in Yishi County, and more than 800 people in Yongle County. In addition, there are only 12,000 people in Baoding, Wanquan and Hejin. ”

"It's just nonsense! At this time, what are you going to do with the scattered forces? Immediately sent people to Linjin, Yishi, and Yongle counties to order, ordering all county soldiers to rush to Pujin Ferry within four days, as well as all the troops in this Puzhou City, all withdraw to the ferry to defend! The three counties of Baoding, Wanquan and Hejin concentrated on Longmendu. ”

Wang Sili was puzzled, followed Li Guangbi into the city, chased him and asked, "Don't you want this Puzhou City?" In the past few days, the last general has sent people to step up the fortification of the city, and he has decided to live and die with the city. ”

Li Guangbi stopped, the armor on his body clanged, turned his head and said coldly to him: "Now defending the ferry is the top priority, no matter how strong this broken city is, as long as Li Siye sends people to attack and occupy the ferry, the reinforcements of Tongguan are blocked to the other side and can't cross, how long can your thousands of people hold on?" ”

Wang Sili asked dumbly: "The reinforcements from the imperial court have not yet arrived?" ”

Li Sikong lowered his head, spewed out a dull turbid breath from his nose and said: "It's soon, it may take five or six days, so I asked you to occupy the ferry in advance to build fortifications, as long as you welcome the imperial army to cross the river, there may still be hope in Guanzhong." ”

Wang Sili hurriedly retreated to organize his troops, withdrew all 5,000 men and horses from Puzhou City, and went to Pujindu Beachhead to build fortifications.

……

On the second day after Li Chongbao's departure, the Flying Tiger Cavalry led by him traveled day and night around Yishi County, and each of them could be fully replaced by three horses. Prevent the war horse from running away. Two of the horses were alternately ridden, and the other camel was fed. When he couldn't see the road clearly at night, he dismounted and led the horse on foot.

The scouts he sent out turned back and reported to him with crossed hands on his horse: "Eldest prince, Li Guangbi crossed the Yellow River alone and entered Puzhou City, and he has transferred all the troops in the city to Pujindu for defense. ”

Li Chongbao's face sank suddenly, he didn't expect Li Guangbi to give him this hand as soon as he crossed the river, it was really impossible to prevent it.

He asked eagerly, "How many of them are there?" ”

"There are only 5,000 remnants of the Zhaoyi Army, and I'm afraid there are 6,000 people together with the defenders of the ferry."

His lieutenant asked worriedly, "Eldest Prince, what should I do now?" The Pujin ferry port is already on guard, should we withdraw it? ”

"Why withdraw!" Li Chongbao clenched the reins of his horse and said loudly for the army: "The Hexi army is the strongest in the world, and the Flying Tiger Rider is the elite of the Hexi elite!" If you can't even do it with one enemy and two, what kind of flying tiger ride is it! Speed up my march and reach Pujindu by noon tomorrow at the latest. ”

The Tang cavalry team in front suddenly turned back and reported: "Report! There is a county soldier of about 1,000 people in more than five miles ahead, and they are advancing in the direction of Puzhou City. ”

Li Chongbao raised his horsewhip and said in a loud voice: "They must be assembled in Pujindu, the general of the left battalion, and lead people over to disperse them, which can be regarded as a plate of appetizers before the war!" ”

"Whoa!" The general of the left battalion who was following him immediately crossed his hands, planted the flag behind his shoulder, and ordered the deployment behind him: "Brothers, follow me!" ”

The left battalion broke out of the torrent of cavalry advancing like a torrent, accelerated towards the loess road, and traveled five or six miles, and saw a scattered team in front of it.

When the general saw that he was overjoyed, he immediately took out his horned bow from his horse, shook the reins and shouted, "Kill them in a cup of tea!" ”

The cavalry held their bows in their hands and charged forward with the reins in one hand, and the sound of horses' hooves alerted the county soldiers in front. The county commander raised his horizontal knife and shouted: "Don't panic! Fight the enemy! ”

These county soldiers were all strong men drawn from the locality, and they had never been on the battlefield, and when they saw the flying tiger riding on the tall horses rushing towards them, they had already been frightened and scurried around like headless flies.

When the Flying Tiger Rider approached them more than seventy paces away, he freed his hands and drew his bowstring to shoot, and the fleeing county soldiers fell to the ground one after another with arrows in their backs, and those who were not shot fled faster.

When the prefectural commander saw this situation, he hurriedly threw away the knife in his hand and ran away, but the enemy's horses had already caught up, and after pointing the horse gun at him, he grabbed it fiercely. The head of the gun pierced his chest and fell to the ground. The rest fled in all directions, or were killed on the spot.

This little episode really didn't last more than a tea time, and by the time Li Chongbao's army caught up, they were already cleaning up the battlefield.

The 2,000 cavalry led by Bai Xiaode had a similar experience to Li Chongbao, who had bypassed Baoding County and Wanquan County and gradually approached Hejin.

……

Before crossing the muddy beach of the Yellow River in Pujin, the Tang soldiers were digging trenches for trapping horses, and more soldiers made stakes from nearby felled trees and nailed them into the soil to form rows of walls.

Li Guangbi stepped on the mud with his feet, his eyes sometimes looking anxiously at the other side of the Yellow River, and the towering stork tower on the hill downstream was even more vicissitudes under the red sun of the rising sun. He turned his gaze to the direction of Puzhou City again, secretly hoping that the Hexi Army would not attack so quickly, and hoped that his guess was wrong, maybe Li Siye was bent on stability and would not come up with such a dangerous move to win by surprise.

Pujindu is one of the most famous ferries on the Yellow River, and Puzhou is also called the middle of the world by Sima Qian, which is the hometown of Emperor Yan, the birthplace of ancient China. To the east of it is the famous Pufu Temple, and to the southwest across the Yellow River is the Stork Tower.

They want to defend the Yellow River pontoon bridge of the ferry, this bridge is built by the prime minister Zhang Shuo personally in the Kaiyuan period, the wooden stakes that were laid down were changed into more than 40 tons of iron oxen, connected the two banks of the Yellow River with iron chains, and the pontoon boats were hung under the iron chains, and the wooden planks were laid on them, as the lifeblood throat of Guanzhong and Hedong.

Li Guangbi called Wang Sili to the pontoon iron bull, handed him the torch and ordered: "You take more than 100 people to guard here, once we can't hold it in front, you will cut the iron chain of the pontoon bridge, even if you can't cut the iron chain, you will burn the pontoon bridge with a fire." ”

Wang Sili was shocked, but before he could speak, a scout suddenly galloped in front of him, came to the iron bull and turned over and dismounted, walked two steps quickly, knelt down on one knee in front of them, and said: "Report, the Hexi Army Brigade is less than fifty miles away from us!" ”

Wang Sili hurriedly asked, "How many of them are there?" ”

"About three or four thousand."

He let out a long sigh of relief, there were only three or four thousand people, and he should be able to hold it.

Li Guangbi frowned deeply, stretched out his hand to support the iron bull and said: "It must be the elite flying tiger rider of Hexi, but unfortunately our walled wall and fortifications have not yet been completed." ”

"Immediately ordered the whole army, don't fix it! Rest on the spot, eat dry food, and get ready to fight against the enemy! ”