So many Jihu people appeared in the north, even Yu Wengui in Xiazhou could only protect himself, and Li Mu in Eastern Xia Prefecture was almost trapped in the thief army, which shows the strength of this group of Jihu armed forces.

After Li Tai learned about the enemy's situation, his brows suddenly furrowed deeper, and he said in a deep voice: "Where did these thieves come from? Is it a transit raid, or is it an attempt to divide the region? ”

There are many Jihu ethnic groups, and their situations are very different from each other, and only by understanding the origin of their ethnic groups can we make appropriate response strategies for the right medicine.

The range of activities of the Jihu tribes distributed in various regions is generally fixed, and the Jihu tribes in places such as Xiazhou are deeply constrained by the tyranny, and are rarely troubled places. It is undoubtedly very strange that so many people have suddenly emerged, and a wide range of activities have crossed the state and county.

"The specific source is not known, only that Shuo Fanghu is involved. Xiazhou Yuwen envoy Jun guessed that the main force of these thieves was very likely to be from Hedong and Shihu, and was disturbed by the encirclement and suppression of the eastern thieves, so they crossed the river to the west to commit ......"

When Li arrived at this point, there was a little wry smile between his eyebrows.

When Li Tai heard this, his expression suddenly became strange. He often thinks about his big brother He Liuhun here, but he didn't expect that they would be linked to each other in such a way, which is really unexpectedly and irritating.

The Jihu in the Eastern Wei Dynasty was mainly distributed in the Luliang Mountain area between the Yellow River and Fenshui, and the Jihu Liu Lisheng Division, which had existed under Gao Huan's nose for several years, belonged to Shilouhu, and its activity range was located in the central and southern areas of Luliang Mountain. Lishihu is a part of the power that is not inferior to Shilouhu, and it is active in the north-central area of Luliang Mountain.

Last year, Gao Huan spent a lot of effort to clean up Jihu in Luliang Mountain, and the main target was to leave Shihu. Li Tai didn't know exactly what kind of results he had achieved, and he didn't think that this matter would have anything to do with him.

Yu Wengui is well versed in Hu Qing, although it is just a guess, but since he has put forward such an opinion, it should be extremely likely.

After all, most of the local Jihu in Xiazhou were under the control of the overlord, and after Liu Pingfu's forces in Eastern Xia Prefecture were suppressed, there was no Hu chieftain who could gather such a huge force in the short term.

If tens of thousands of Jihu troops were to gather from within the territory to start an incident, there would certainly be traces to follow, and only when they came in from outside the country would people be caught off guard. In the surrounding area, the place where such a force can suddenly appear is most likely to be the Lishi area of Luliang Mountain where Gao Huan of the Eastern Wei Dynasty used troops.

If this is the case, it is actually quite demoralizing, and a remnant of thieves and soldiers who were expelled and scattered by Gao Huan rushed into the country, and actually made several states in the north of the Western Wei Dynasty feel like they were facing a great enemy, which shows the huge difference in strength between the two sides.

Li Tai was in no mood to complain anymore at this time, and his mood became heavy, if this group of people and horses was a Lishihu who came from the Eastern Wei Dynasty, he would inevitably loot places in a big way to collect enough materials to survive, and if he couldn't achieve this intention, he would not stop the pace of raiding.

In the face of such a group of wolf-like thieves, it is conceivable that the Sanfang City is the target that will not be let go.

At present, it can be called a fluke that these thieves are still in the stage of opening the map, and the newly built Sanfang City is still shrouded in the fog of war.

But the situation is not optimistic, the Guangwu City where Li Mu is stationed has been besieged by thieves, and the straight-line distance between Guangwu City and Heishui Defense City is only a few hundred miles, and it is only a matter of time before it is discovered.

"You must not let the thief Kou Nan invade the defense city, you must chase the thief outside!"

After a little silence, Li Tai made a decision, not planning to sit in the defense of the city and wait for the thieves to come south, but to take the initiative to attack.

Heishui Fangcheng is the foundation of Tuntian in northern Shaanxi, and the safety of the Kulichuan front line is even more related to whether the Sino-Chinese law can be successfully implemented in the coming year.

Not to mention whether the strength and defense facilities of the Heishui Defense itself can withstand the attack of these bandits, once the current situation of the Tuntian of the Heishui Defense City is exposed to the eyes and ears of the thieves, it will continue to attract people to disturb them. Once the Blackwater Defense City is frequently plunged into wars, what is the stable development to talk about?

At present, the hegemon's attitude toward the cantonment and defense here has not yet been clarified, and a very important principle is that the military affairs of the hegemon must not be allowed to fall into a multi-front battle. If Sanfang City wants to develop, an important point is that it needs to solve the various crises it is facing alone, and cannot increase the burden on the hegemon.

Therefore, the current three-defense city system is still very fragile, and it is harmful to expose it too early, and at least this layer of war fog must be maintained until the harvest of Tuntian is there next year, which is enough to support greater military investment.

"What is the state of armament in the states today?"

Although he had already made the decision to take the initiative, Li Tai didn't want to stupidly face tens of thousands of enemy troops with just his own men, this was not his own business, of course, he needed the cooperation of friendly troops in the states.

"The defense of Xiazhou has shrunk, and the people and horses of all the departments have returned to the city of Wancheng, and the 2,000 men and horses who originally supervised the construction of the canal in the territory also returned to the town a month ago. In the short term, I am afraid that there is no possibility of going out to fight. ”

Li Zhi replied seriously, saying that the Xiazhou side could not count on it for the time being.

There is no shortage of people and horses in Xiazhou, but it is mainly the private song of the local chieftain, and Yu Wengui's assassination history is only nominally controlling these horses, and his own descendants are not too many.

Before Li Tai went to Xiazhou, he was able to borrow people, but it was because he was clearly fighting a good battle, and the opponent's strength was not strong.

But this time, tens of thousands of horses are like a strong dragon in transit, and they have already taken the first step to stir up Xiazhou, and now they are divided into all sides to plunder, and they no longer regard Xiazhou as the main target.

Without the support of these surface chieftains, it would be impossible for Yu Wengui to lead his headquarters to leave the country to fight, and he would be able to maintain the town of Xiazhou and unify Wancheng without losing, and his people were no longer derelict in their duties. As for who suffers next, then ask for more blessings.

"What about Xi'an? Has the new Yang envoy entered the town? Is there any military intelligence information coming? ”

Li Tai is full of expectations for Yang Zhong's bravery, after having a marriage contract with Dugu Xin, Yang Zhong is also his own person, who recently succeeded Chang Shan as the assassin of Xi'an Prefecture, and turned his head to encounter the invasion of the border state by strong bandits, Li Tai also wanted to know what Yang Zhong's attitude was and what he would do.

After hearing this, Li Zhi shook his head again: "Since the last general returned to Luochuan Defense, he has not received any news from the direction of Xi'an Prefecture. But I heard that several defenders were gathering in Wuyuan, thinking that they should be preparing for war. ”

Li Tai was also a little relieved when he heard this, although they had not yet established effective contact with each other, but it was a comfort to know that at least he was not alone.

"There are more than 5,000 defenders in Guangwu City, and the food in the city can still last for ten days, and the main force of the thief army is trapped outside Guangwu City. In the city, Li Envoy Jun told everyone that if he could help, please go to the dry valley post as soon as possible to contain the thief. If the thieves still gather and do not retreat, they will abandon the city and break through at the beginning of the month at the latest. ”

Dongxia Prefecture was already in serious poverty, and Li Muneng gathered more than 5,000 defenders when the thief army was besieging the city, and the response was also effective. However, if the lonely city is not defended, if there is no friendly army to help defend it in the near future, then it can only abandon the city and leave.

Li Tai naturally would not ignore Li Mu, after all, Li Mu's persistence at the moment can be regarded as buying time for the three defense cities, and after understanding the enemy's situation, he asked again: "How many materials are currently stored in the city?" How many men and horses can be supported? ”

After hearing this, Li Zhi hurriedly sorted out the relevant accounting books and submitted them, but after Li Tai flipped through them, he found that the situation was not optimistic. At present, the amount of grain and grass stored in the city is not large, and it is not enough to maintain the consumption of the brigade of men and horses to save Guangwu City.

In order to participate in the big parade before, Li Tai's men and horses had already carried out some gathering and integration, and nearly 3,000 elite troops accompanied him back and forth. After learning of the military situation, Baishui Dayue asked for reinforcements, and Daxingtai provided him with more than 2,000 elite soldiers of the Sixth Army, which was enough for more than 5,000 elite soldiers to be put into battle, and this force was by no means small.

Although the strength of the men and horses under his command is good, if you want to put it into the battlefield, you still need to consume a lot of food and grass. Yuwentai maintained his usual urine, and although he allocated reinforcements, he did not give him actual food and grass supplies.

Li Tai could only lead 1,000 forward men and horses back to Luochuan first, and the rest of the horses were slowly advancing in the rear, if Luochuan did not have enough material reserves here, the gathering of 5,000 men and horses here would be tantamount to a disaster.

The military situation is urgent, and it is obviously too late to requisition and transfer military rations from the lower reaches of Luoshui, and Baishui Dayue has also almost transferred the reserves of nearby states and counties, and it is difficult to squeeze out much oil and water in the short term.

Li Zhi saw that Li Tai frowned and was silent, so he clenched his fists and reminded: "Metropolitan Governor, although Fangcheng has no food reserves, Luochuan has a ......."

Li Tai knew what he was talking about, and before he attracted the big tyrant of the withered Yin Liu family to join in, and the Liu family also lived up to expectations and lost to 500,000 horses, so Li Tai unceremoniously said that he had to use grain and silk to pay for it. Therefore, at present, the withered Yin Liu clan and other Hu chieftains are now in their hands with a large amount of money, food and materials.

Although it is a bit unsophisticated to say that the wool always catches a pickle, but at the moment, the military situation is important, and there is nothing to worry about. If Sanfang City can't be defended here, Li Tai's hard work will indeed turn into flowing water, and those who have entered the country will never treat the withered Yin Hu as their own kind and open the net.

"Liu's father and son are still in Luochuan? Arrange for them to come and see them now. ”

Li Tai didn't think about it, and even when he commanded, he said: "When the troops enter Guangwu City, I will lead my troops to reinforce within ten days, and ask Li to make Jun'an wait for help." ”

I'm not sure if I'll make it, but you don't want to run. If Li Mu escaped, then the Sanfang City would really be naked under the noses of the thief army.