When Li Tai returned to the city, the hearts of the Jingzhou subordinates relaxed a little.

The Wanluo group of barbarians who attacked the Three Crows Road was not terrible, and even Guo Xian himself stated in the message that he would definitely be able to hold on to Luyang Pass and not let the control of the Three Crows Road fall into the hands of the group of barbarians.

But Murong Shaozong behind these barbarians has made the people of Jingzhou unable to calm down, and in the past two years, the most famous person in the whole world is naturally Hou Jing, and the next one is estimated to be Murong Shaozong.

When it comes to the display of personal talent, Murong Shaozong still has to rank ahead of Hou Jing, after all, no matter how fierce Hou Jing is in Jiangnan, it can't change the fact that he was chased and beaten by Murong Shaozong and couldn't escape.

Being targeted by such a prestigious person, even the most arrogant and confident person may inevitably be nervous.

However, although Murong Shaozong is famous, Li Tai is indeed slightly inferior, but it is not much worse. Not to mention his old achievements in the past few years, the two good news brought back by his return to the town alone made the people of Jingzhou feel very excited.

The first is naturally that he marched straight forward with light troops and recovered Hanzhong that had been captured by the Southern Liang for more than ten years in one fell swoop, and the second was that he defeated the famous Southern Liang general Liu Zhongli after joining Xiangyang, and Yang Zhong was still leading his troops to chase and fight against Liu Zhongli, and the land of Handong has become a bag.

However, with a strong enemy on the side, it is naturally not the time to indulge in celebration. Li Tai only explained the situation of the development of all parties to the masses and inspired the people's hearts, and then began to focus on the current crisis again.

After the loss of Yingchuan, Wang Sizheng's troops in all directions were under Li Tai's control, and Li Tai was focusing on the Hanshui strategy at that time, but he only ordered the troops to shrink to the north, and he didn't know much about the specific situation in Henan at the moment.

Guo Xian reported that although Murong Shaozong instructed the barbarians to enter the Kou, he did not know where Murong Shaozong was now, what his forces were, and his specific goals and intentions.

Before Li Tai returned, the people in Jingzhou had actually had an in-depth discussion on this, and they were all more inclined to Murong Shaozong's barbarian attack was actually a plan to throw stones to ask for directions, rather than really attacking from the Three Crows.

The reason is also very simple, compared with other passages from Henan to the north of the Yangtze River, Sanya Road actually has no obvious advantages in addition to being fast, so it is usually used as a surprise passage for quick strikes.

But now the barbarians are frequently disturbed, and they have already lost the effect of surprise soldiers, unless Murong Shaozong likes the mountain scenery of Funiu Mountain, he can't imagine why he still attacks the north from the Three Crows.

Li Tai also agreed with this speculation, and put forward a new speculation on this basis, that is, he believed that Murong Shaozong's primary goal this time was not to conquer the city, but to loot supplies.

The reason is also very simple, if Murong Shaozong wants to expand his territory and expand his territory, the north will never be his primary goal. It's not that the north is not attractive to it, but now the southern Liang and Huainan regions are more readily available, even if Murong Shaozong gets to the north, he will face the continuous attacks from the south from Wuguan and other routes from the Western Wei Dynasty, and Henan, which has just been seriously affected by Huohuo, is definitely not enough to support Murong Shaozong's march to this big march.

This guy also reversed the previous unrestrained style of play of the Eastern Wei Dynasty, and had to drive the barbarians instead of sending the Eastern Wei army when he disturbed the Three Crows, which shows that the personnel resources at his disposal have been greatly reduced, and he must be used carefully, not willing to make more sacrifices, and he will not all be invested in the four wars in the north.

Although Li Tai didn't know Murong Shaozong and his people, he knew too well what those guys wanted to stand on their own.

Once you have a general understanding or guess about the logic of the enemy's behavior, it is much easier to discuss the countermeasures.

Originally, before Li Tai returned, Dou Chi and other left-behind generals were discussing the defense of important cities such as Qicheng for the sake of stability, as long as they could keep important cities without losing, even if Murong Shaozong entered, the losses would be within an acceptable range.

But now that it is determined that Murong Shaozong is here to fight the autumn wind, such a conservative response method is only to provide convenience for the enemy. After all, the current season is the end of July, the summer and the beginning of autumn, and the crops in the fields will be ripe, even if you want to clear the fields. The affairs of the northern field were greatly prosperous, and the enemy could be supplied everywhere after entering the country.

Based on such speculation, Li Tai mentioned

Gather elite men and horses and go straight to Fangcheng and other northern border cities, the best situation is naturally to be able to defeat the enemy outside, so that the northern part of the city will not be looted and destroyed. Even if it is too late to do this, and Murong Shaozong leads the army to break in in advance, he can still stick to the door, close the door and fight the dog.

Although the masses can discuss and put forward opinions on some important military and political affairs in Jingzhou, the final decision rests only with Li Tai. Now that he had made such a decision, there was nothing to say, and the people of the Governor's Mansion began to busily implement it.

Although Li Tai has launched and participated in many military operations recently, Jingzhou's forces are not too scattered. Before the intersection of the Jingzhou Prefecture, the current Jingzhou Governor's Mansion increased most directly, Li Tai brought 7,000 men and horses from Guanzhong and received 10,000 horses brought by Zhao Gui on the spot.

Previously, when he disguised the army to go west and lured Liu Zhongli to take the bait, Li Tai took away more than 10,000 men and horses and subsequently added them, and then left 1,000 in Xingzhou and 2,000 in Xiangyangxi, but he brought nearly 3,000 people from Li Qianzhe's department from Ankang, so when he returned to the town, there were still more than 10,000 men and horses.

Cai Yang had 5,000 troops before and after, and Zhao Gang and others had 2,000 troops stationed in Liyang City, and these horses and horses Li Tai were all assigned to Yang Zhong's dispatch to maintain his strategy against the Handong region.

Therefore, there are still more than 20,000 troops in Jingzhou's main town today, not including the newly recruited state soldiers and barbarian forces, and this part of the army is nearly 10,000, but Li Tai does not plan to use these troops for the time being. Fighting with an old oiler like Murong Shaozong, who has been in the troubled times for many years, the number of soldiers may not be powerful, if it is not for the elite soldiers, it is estimated that he can only deliver food.

For these forces in his hands, Li Tai led 3,000 men and horses to move to Xinye with Dou Chi first, so as to ensure that no matter what unexpected situation happened in the north of the country, it would not affect the progress of the war in Handong.

At the same time, Li Tun led a thousand elite soldiers to the north to support Guo Xian who was stationed in Sanya Road, although Li Tai made his own guess, but who knows if this kind of old oilman will engage in any unreasonable manipulation, just like Liu Zhongli who attacked Xiangyang City, so Sanya Road can't be relaxed here.

As for the rest of the men and horses, Li Tai first led 5,000 cavalry to Fangcheng County in the east of the north to garrison.

This is based on his guess about Murong Shaozong's troops, and the upper limit of his flexible command when he is in battle, he determined the size of the establishment that will not be besieged and annihilated by Murong Shaozong in a short period of time, and ordered Cui Qian, who stayed in the city, to send him an additional 1,000 elite cavalry every two days.

Facing Murong Shaozong, the first-class general of the Three Kingdoms, Li Tai also played a twelve-point spirit, putting aside the influencing factors of luck, and striving to do his best within the scope of his ability, marching and camping in accordance with the rules, starting every morning after the defeat, and searching forward with scouts in the afternoon to find the camping site, and the daily march was only between three and fifty miles.

Under his procrastination operation, which was as formal as taking a driver's license, he finally saw Murong Shaozong's men and horses who had already crossed the border on the fifth day of the eastward march, when he was still nearly sixty miles away from Fangcheng County.

At this time, it was already nearly late afternoon, and after two rounds of reinforcement, Li Tai's infantry and horses had reached more than 7,000 people, and the size of Murong Shaozong's army seemed to be several thousand more than his army.

Although the enemy was outnumbered, Li Tai did not panic, and when he saw that the enemy's men and horses had stopped and began to put on armor and redress, he also methodically ordered his troops to form a dense and orderly chariot formation with the frame of the cart carrying the baggage, and filled it with sword and shield sergeants, and on the side of this sword and cart formation, a vertical array of guns was formed, and 2,000 elite horsemen broke away from this formation and hung on the post outside the outer room.

The two sides met in the field, each prepared for a battle, and with the sound of drums and horns, it was Murong Shaozong's light cavalry that took the lead in attacking, and the three-way light cavalry rushed straight towards the beautiful sword and chariot battle formation on the opposite panel.

In the process of rushing, these three light cavalry gradually changed their routes, and two of them, halfway through the journey, no longer aimed at the sword and chariot battle array, but strangled towards the cavalry troops hanging on the left flank.

As for the rest of the light cavalry, hundreds of strong men in front first tried to destroy the formation with mounted shooting, and in the rear, strong soldiers holding horse lances rushed into battle. However, under the interception of the frame formation, the effect of this rush was not good, and it only destroyed the outermost two

trucks, but a few cavalry pawns were unstoppable and were slashed in the formation.

The Western Wei cavalry on the left flank also circled from the rear to the rear along the line, and the two Eastern Wei cavalry in the rear pursued at the tail, but hundreds of strong arrows shot straight away in the formation, and even dozens of light cavalry fell to the ground with arrows.

In the rear formation, Murong Shaozong frowned suddenly after seeing this, and when he waved his hand and ordered Ming Jin to withdraw his troops, he waited until the light cavalry of all roads returned to rest for a while, and then interspersed with two roads of men and horses, trying to shake the front formation, but the results were all the same, and he failed to break this formation.

"Who will be the thief? The formation is so stubborn!"

Although Murong Shaozong was a famous general in the world and was good at creating and grasping fighters, the enemy was only consolidating the formation, and all his attempts to attack it were slow, which made him unable to start for a while.

But the situation between us and the enemy did not stop there, and in the evening, the sound of war horses galloping was heard in the western field.

When Murong Shaozong heard this, his face suddenly changed, and he waved his hand to order his men and horses to retreat to the east. His troops marched quite quickly, and by the time the light cavalry arranged by Li Tai arrived, they had retreated to the side of the hills several miles away.

While the enemy army was retreating, Li Tai ordered his troops to withdraw to the west in batches, looking for a suitable place to camp for the night as he saw on the way, and turned a blind eye to the invading enemy troops several miles away, and did not attack blindly.

When Murong Shaozong waited for a while, and then led two thousand light cavalry to fight back, he saw that Li Tai's men and horses had already retreated several miles and camped properly, so he ordered his troops to enter and shouted: "If you don't dare to fight, why don't you go out and surrender quickly!"

Li Tai was not angry when he heard this, but responded happily with a shout: "Murong Water Ghost, this is not the place where the disciples are buried, so take the edge for the time being!"