After returning to the camp outside Jinju City, Li Tai immediately learned about the military information on the back road.

When he heard that Hu Luguang really led his troops from Heyang to enter the pass for a sneak attack, Li Tai couldn't help but sigh that this guy really had a deep grudge against them in the Western Wei or against him.

Launching an attack from Yiguan may seem like a small and big choice, but it is by no means a mature decision with a big picture.

When making such a decision, Hu Luguang obviously did not consider, or did not want to think deeply, whether the current Northern Qi could withstand the risk of failure, and whether there were other better options.

The focus was on how much damage they wanted to inflict on the Western Wei, rather than how to make the Northern Qi avoid causing greater losses in this battle. This kind of thinking seems to be more positive, but in fact it is unrealistic, and accepting failure and bearing losses are also qualities that a general must have.

In this war, from the time Sima eliminated the rebellion in the city, or even earlier, the Northern Qi Dynasty was in a passive state.

In particular, the misjudgment and arrangement made by the initial decision-makers of the war further magnified this passive disadvantage, and it is no less difficult to reverse the whole war situation by relying on the surprise attack of the local battlefield, which is no less difficult than Gao Huan and Yuwentai's respective entrepreneurial experience, not only their own efforts, but also the cooperation of the opponent.

After a little emotion about Hu Luguang's people and affairs, Li Tai began to think about Yang Zhong's idea of attacking Jianzhou immediately, and he also supported it, and the current situation has indeed reached the point where it is time to enter the next stage.

Although since the start of the war between the two sides, except for some local small battles, the main forces of the two sides have not met and started fighting, but they are only deploying their own men. But this is also part of war, and even this is the main manifestation of war.

For example, the two sides gathered their men and horses before and then went to a fixed battlefield, and the battle method of winning and losing clearly after a fight was somewhat contrary to the mainstream, at least for the Eastern Wei and Northern Qi dynasties, it was not enough to fully demonstrate their national strength.

Li Tai's purpose this time was to keep the deployment of military forces in the entire Northern Qi within his rhythmic control, and he had put on a posture of eastward expansion to attract the main force of the Northern Qi army to the direction of Heyang. Then the main force of the Western Wei immediately changed the direction of the attack, entered the east of the river and advanced to Jinzhou, directly pointing at Jinyang, forcing the Northern Qi to concentrate its forces on Jinyang.

Although it is not clear how many Northern Qi troops have been assembled in the direction of Jinyang at the moment, there must be a lot of them. The construction of the Western Wei defense line in the north of Jinzhou has also gradually taken shape, and under the garrison of Wei Xiaokuan, it is difficult for the Northern Qi army in Jinyang to break through the defense line and come south.

Therefore, the next step is naturally to change the direction of attack again, from north to east, from Jinyang to Hebei Yecheng.

Originally, Li Tai's plan was to block the southward passage of the enemy army in Jinyang and then move eastward, and the men and horses of Yang Zhong's troops on the back road got an excellent opportunity because of the defeat of the division and brigade led by Hu Luguang, and they marched in the direction of Jianzhou first, so the main force here in Jinzhou naturally followed.

The only thing that can be a bit of a stop at the moment is that Jinju City has not yet been captured, and a stable base has not been established here.

However, there are also advantages and disadvantages to such a situation, and the advantage is that Jinju can continue to be used as a bait to attract the enemy troops on the Jinyang side to do useless work in the direction of Jiexiu, trying to rescue Jinju, so as to reduce the cooperation between the enemy army in Jinyang and the enemy army in the direction of Yecheng on the East Road.

So then Li Tai adjusted the military arrangement here, and because Wei Xiaokuan took over the defense of the northern border, only 10,000 divisions and brigades were retained to garrison the main road there, and Gao Le, He Ruodun and other departments all returned.

At present, there are about 120,000 people stationed outside Jinzhou City, and in the downstream Fenqu location, Han Guo has led his troops to conquer Zhengping City in Eastern Yongzhou in Northern Qi and opened up the Fenshui route.

Although this year, due to the drought, the Fenshui has not entered the flood season, and the river flow is not abundant, but the method of combining water and land can also be used to transfer materials, so that in addition to the materials previously concentrated in the east of the river, the army can also directly obtain supplies from the Guanzhong along the Fenshui from the Longmen, which greatly improves the safety of the rear road supply and the follow-up combat endurance.

After the Fenshui was unblocked, the dependence of the army's logistics on the Lianshui in Hedong was reduced, so Li Tai ordered the 20,000 divisions and brigades stationed in the upper reaches of the Lianshui on the back road to follow Yang Zhongdong to attack and seize Jianzhou.

As for the main army outside Jinju City, Li Tai did not plan to move the whole army immediately, and most of them still stayed, on the one hand, he continued to besiege Jinju City, and at the same time, he could eat on the banks of the Fenshui River to control the logistical pressure. And he personally led the three guards and 20,000 elite men and horses as the front division and brigade, and went east to open the way for the army.

After arranging the personnel here, Li Tai directly led his troops to march eastward.

On the east bank of Fenshui in the north of Jinju Fortress, there is a stream called the Tongjun River, from which the Tongjun River flows up to the Yumai Heishui Ridge of Taeak Mountain. However, this is only the current name, after the Northern Zhou Dynasty unified the north in history, in order to avoid the secrecy of Yuwentai, Heishuiling was renamed Wuling Mountain.

Although the Heishuiling mountain is also steep and rugged, after all, it is only the remnant of Taiyue Mountain, and there are many naturally formed passages such as valleys and rivers to walk, which is relatively easy to walk compared to other steep places, and some places can even ride horses slowly.

Because since then, the westward movement of large areas of mountainous areas has greatly restricted the exertion of cavalry strength, so the more than 20,000 soldiers under Li Tai's command are mainly infantry, and only more than 2,000 cavalry members of the 100-cavalry battalion and scout team are retained. Because there is no need for a large number of war horses to accompany the army, the pressure on logistics is not too great.

The unified army Sichuan was originally the direction of the army's next attack, so in the past period of time, the Western Wei scouts have also been exploring the east without interruption, and the scope of the investigation is even as far as hundreds of miles. Moreover, there were also Zhang Baoluo, the Qi general who had been transferred to Guanzhong by Nan Chen, and others in the team, so although Li Tai was also coming to this area for the first time, he was no stranger to the geographical situation in between.

Pi Jinghe himself is the battalion owner of the Hundred Cavalry Battalion, and he is also a personnel of Taiyuan, so he naturally also served as the leader of the scout team, and he has investigated the situation in the east more clearly in the past few days, and at this time while on the march he informed Li Tai of the latest enemy news: "There are six enemy garrisons in Heishui Ridge, and the number of soldiers in each varies from more than 100 to 100. Its people are out of Yining, Yining sandwiched Qinshui and stands, left and right two cities, is the upper reaches of Qinshui garrison town, Yining Taishou is the thief general Han Zunian, there are more than 2,000 garrisons in front, after the army enters Pingyang, its guards have increased to more than 7,000 people......"

Yining County was also under the rule of Jinzhou in the Northern Qi Dynasty, east of Pingyang, and its regional core was located in the upper mountains and valleys of the Qinshui Basin. Qinshui originates in Pingyao, Shanxi Province, and flows all the way south until it flows into the Yellow River, which is also an important part of the topography of Shanxi's mountains and rivers. Historically, during the pre-Qin and Warring States periods, the Qin army occupied Pingyang and then entered Qinshui, and launched the Battle of Changping with Zhao in the lower reaches of Qinshui.

"Where Yining is located, Shenwu and He Liuhun have placed 3,000 soldiers in the six towns in the past year to fill the Qinyuan River Valley, sweep the bandits in the realm and suppress the east-west passage, because of the county governance of the lonely city under the Yining Town. Yining Town is connected to Tunliu in the east, and Wusu is in the east, and all of these places are also where the town people live, and they will go out to the east to deter Hebei. ”

Zhang Baoluo, who accompanied the army, also played in detail what he knew: "Han Zunian is the Shu clan of King Ande, and he is also a brave general of the Qi State. ”

Qinshui can be said to be second only to Fenshui in terms of strategic value in the entire Shanxi region, and the Qinyuan area, where its upstream is located, is an important passage from the Pingyang area to the Shangdang area, and its downstream is connected to the Jincheng Basin, where Jianzhou is located.

In the case that the Hedong region was not controlled by the Northern Qi Dynasty, Qinshui was the hub connecting the entire western region of the Taihang Mountains.

When Qinyuan is captured, the connection between the Changzhi Basin in the Shangdang region and the Jincheng Basin below and Jinyang will be greatly damaged, which will then affect the connection between Yecheng and Jinyang, making the territory of Northern Qi more scattered.

The journey to the east along the Tongjun Sichuan was relatively smooth, and there was no trace of the Qi army before arriving at Heishuiling. After all, there are more than 100,000 men and horses stationed under the city of Jinju at present, and the control and deterrence of the surrounding areas are directly full, and the Qi army does not dare to enter the front easily.

There are two higher mountains in the east and west of the Heishui Ridge, all of which are connected by undulating valleys, because this place belonged to the territory of the Northern Qi Dynasty before this, so naturally there is no need to build any strong fortresses between the mountains and fields, and some of the garrisons that exist basically only play the role of a sentry guard and communication, and the real deterrent and defensive effect is not great.

After Li Tai arrived at Heishuiling, he did not rush to order the brigade to cross the mountains, but first asked the scouts to clean up the ears and eyes of the enemy scouts between the ridges and valleys, and he himself first led a light division to follow the dry valley passage east to inspect Yining City.