Northern Dynasties Imperial Industry

After hearing what Li Tai said, Zhao Gang lowered his head and began to ponder, but after a while, he still shook his head and sighed helplessly. It is really difficult to deal with Murong Shaozong in the Huainan area.

Regardless of Murong Shaozong's current power and ability, the area of ​​Huainan is too unfriendly to the Western Wei Dynasty.

Most of the border states and counties here surrendered to the Eastern Wei Dynasty, even if it was only a nominal restraint, but the people's support for the Eastern Wei Dynasty speaks volumes. It can be said that the Western Wei Dynasty has no deterrent or attraction in this land.

Now that the troops have entered Yiyang, it is already considered the limit of the power development of the Jingzhou General Administration. If it extends outwards and the battle line is further stretched, various hidden dangers will be exposed one after another. And once there is a setback, it will not only be as simple as defeat and withdrawal, but also a chain collapse of the areas controlled by the Jingzhou General Administration. The outcome may be even more tragic than Wang Sizheng's.

Zhao Gang dared to put himself in danger and personally sneaked into Yiyang to rebel against the barbarians and seize the city by surprise. He was by no means a timid person. However, when he heard that Li Tai planned to invade Huainan and fight to the death with Murong Shaozong, he was extremely unfavorable.

If a battle between the two sides is really inevitable, it would be better to fight with all their strength when Murong Shaozong's soldiers invaded Mianbei, at least they still occupy the advantageous location at that time.

Nowadays, the new annexation of the Western Wei and Han Dynasties has not yet been decided, and there is no foundation in Huainan. There is no obvious increase in his own strength. On the contrary, Murong Shaozong marched into Xuanhu with his troops, and then recruited many armed forces to attach themselves to the past. His power was stronger than before when he invaded Mian It is even more majestic in the north.

In the past, Li Tai was able to force Murong Shaozong back without losing his composure and prepared for battle. Now Yiyang Chad actually wants to start a decisive battle with Murong Shaozong in Huainan. In Zhao Gang's opinion, this is really unwise!

When Li Tai saw Zhao Gang sighing and being silent, he naturally knew what he was thinking, so he smiled and said: "The decisive victory of the master lies in the use of force. Although Murong Shaozong is a famous general among thieves, if the matter is not his own, he will still have to do it." Their hands and feet are tied. They have been stuck on the road for a long time, and their energy has been lost. It is bound to be difficult for them to fight fiercely. The reason why I did not fight with them is to sharpen their sharpness and vent their energy, so that they can defeat the enemy. The teacher is tired and lazy. Heart."

No matter how wise a general is, it is difficult to fully instill his tactical ideas into every soldier. The vast majority of generals and soldiers use direct external manifestations such as gains and losses in advance and retreat to judge the success or failure of an action.

Since the Battle of Hanshanyan, Murong Shaozong has defeated powerful enemies and has an aura of winning battles many times. The morale of his soldiers must also be high. Fighting with such an army is the most dangerous, because it is not clear when they will directly attack Wushuang on the battlefield.

In Mianbei, due to Li Tai's strict formation, Murong Shaozong was unwilling to pay a high price and took the initiative to lead his army to retreat. There was no way to tell who would win or lose, but for his soldiers, their efforts were always in vain. This slightly interrupted their winning streak.

When Zhao Gang heard this, his expression softened slightly, and he reluctantly accepted this explanation, but he still couldn't help but said: "Nowadays, many parties in Huainan are following the orders of the Eastern Dynasty. Once they know that I am entering the country to fight with the thieves, I am afraid..."

When talking about this issue, Li Tai was no longer worried, and laughed directly and said: "Nan Liang surrendered, but he didn't dare to fight when he saw Hou Jing's giant bandits causing chaos in the country. He watched the emperor's father suffer deeply and stood aside. I am competing with the East Thieves for supremacy, and they are just leading the troops to watch the battle. It would be most satisfying to see both of us lose, so how could I easily enter the battle and die for the East Thieves?"

This reason was so powerful that Zhao Gang had no way to refute it, but he still had some worries and felt that it was too aggressive.

Li Tai also understood that Zhao Gang was not unwilling to agree with this plan to offend his majesty, but he just did not want to overturn the good situation by blindly taking risks. He also had enough patience for such a helpful subordinate, so he transferred his The plan is to be more specific.

"Although there are many people from Huainan Prefecture who have descended to the east, they rarely respond to each other and only keep their own interests. It is difficult to unite to form a force. As long as I hold this thing, I can travel freely in the territory without any restrictions, even directly Take Shouyang!”

As he spoke, Li Tai put out several items, including the imperial edict and talisman tokens from the Eastern Wei Dynasty appointing Xia Houqiang as the governor of Nansi Prefecture. They were all confiscated from the prisoner Xia Houping.

Because Zhao Gang had no further ideas to make further progress, he had already captured Yiyang City, and Xia Houqiang had already fled to Sangui. Therefore, although he had seized the tokens such as the seals and orders sent to him by the Eastern Wei Dynasty, they were only regarded as ordinary seizures. , and didn’t take it to heart.

But this was a big surprise for Li Tai. The ability of a fox to fake the power of a tiger has always been his specialty. Now that he has a token given by the Eastern Wei court, of course he must make full use of it.

Although most of the Huainan prefectures had defected to the Eastern Wei Dynasty, they had no unified subordinates to each other. Li Tai took this token to take advantage of the road, so they must not dare to refuse, which gave him the opportunity to advance without any bloodshed.

It is estimated that Murong Shaozong has not yet received the official order from the Eastern Wei court, so he is still lingering in Xuanhu and does not dare to march to Huainan. But Li Tai would naturally not be polite. He could use this disguise to rush all the way and capture Shouyang City before Murong Shaozong.

After Hou Jing raised his troops and went south, he stayed in Shouyang City with his cousin Wang Xiangui. But while the rebel army was still besieging Jiankangtai City, Xiao Fan, the king of Poyang who stayed in Hefei, sent his generals to attack Shouyang and defeated Shouyang Luocheng, trapping Wang Xiangui and his disciples in Jincheng. middle.

Forced to have no choice, Wang Xiangui surrendered the city to the Eastern Wei Dynasty. However, at that time, the Eastern Wei Dynasty had not yet solved the problem of Wang's political affairs department stationed in Yingchuan, nor had it increased its troops in Huainan. Wang Xiangui still stayed in Shouyang.

Xiao Fan, the king of Poyang, was afraid that attacking Shouyang again might offend the Eastern Wei Dynasty. In addition, King Qin's war in Jiankang was not going well, so he also suspended the attack on Shouyang.

However, Xiao Fan's forbearance and retreat did not earn the Eastern Wei Dynasty's courtesy. After the Battle of Yingchuan, Gao Cheng immediately sent Li Bomu, the governor of Western Yanzhou, to lead his troops to Huainan to press Hefei.

Regarding this situation, Xiao Fan felt like crying. On the one hand, he was afraid of the Eastern Wei Dynasty. On the other hand, Xiao Zhengde, who was being tricked by Hou Jing in Jiankang City at this time, was filled with resentment and wanted to send a letter to summon him. Xiao Fan led his troops into Beijing.

Although the letter was obtained by Hou Jing and Xiao Zhengde was executed for it, Xiao Fan still learned about it and decided to go to Jiankang.

So when the Eastern Wei army was approaching Hefei, Xiao Fan took the initiative to sue for peace. He was willing to dedicate the Hefei he guarded to the Eastern Wei Dynasty, and begged the Eastern Wei Dynasty to send troops to help him put down Hou Jing's rebellion. Then he led his 20,000 troops to leave Hefei and make this important city. He surrendered, and then sent an envoy to escort his two sons to Yedu as hostages, imploring the Eastern Wei Dynasty to send troops, and then led his troops to Ruxukou to dig lotus roots and collect water chestnuts happily.

As a result, Hefei, an important town in Huainan that Sun Shiwan once dreamed of and missed, was easily lost by the Eastern Wei Dynasty. If it weren’t for the Xiao family’s special offer, I wouldn’t have dared to imagine it.

Although Xiao Fan paid such a high price, of course there would be no reinforcements from the Eastern Wei Dynasty. Even Li Bomu, who was tightly closed, only led a few thousand troops, and there were no elite Jinyang soldiers accompanying him.

Li Tai learned all these situations from Liu Zhongli. Although Liu Zhongli himself was not very good, when he talked about Xiao Fan's behavior of handing over his hometown in Hefei to others, cutting off his own retreat, and at the same time leading Hou Jing to Zi Jiankang, Liu Zhongli couldn't help but ridicule and scold him.

After listening to Li Tai's explanation of the plan to attack Shouyang, Zhao Gang still felt that it was quite dangerous, but after thinking about it carefully, he also felt that this plan was very feasible. Even if he doesn't mention his own attack on Yiyang, Li Tai's previous capture of Hanzhong would have been much more dangerous than his capture of Shouyang. After all, there is only one Hou Jing party member, Wang dignitary and his remnant in charge of Shouyang City.

But Li Bomu, who is stationed in Hefei below Shouyang, is also an unstable factor. Even if they succeed in taking Shouyang and Murong Shaozong leads his troops south to fight, if Li Bomu attacks Shouyang from the north, they will be attacked from both sides. Also at a disadvantage.

When Zhao Gang raised this question again, Li Tai couldn't help but chuckle twice, and then turned to look at Gao Le, who was accompanying the army.

"Li Bomu is the brother of my Situ Gong's wife and father-in-law."

Li Bomu was born in the Li family of Zhao County and was the uncle of Gao Zhongmi's ex-wife Li family. Of course, he was now considered a relative of Gao Cheng, so he was quite trusted and was sent to lead troops to Huainan.

Hearing what Gao Le said, Zhao Gang's mind immediately began to think about various operations such as lobbying and estrangement, but Gao Lexuan said: "Although he is outside the Dianjun country, he is not known for his courage. If he dares to lightly intervene in the war, , the general will be captured in battle!"

After recounting all aspects, Zhao Gang thought about it again and couldn't help but feel that although this plan was still a bit risky, it also had a lot of room for maneuver. How can any talk about war be perfect?

Today, Zhao Gang no longer worries that this plan is too aggressive, but is a little worried that Murong Shaozong will not respond if he sees something bad or will not attack. In this way, he will miss an excellent opportunity.

After all, their own strength is limited. Even if they can enter Shouyang, they will never be able to occupy it for a long time. Having a large army hanging outside for a long time will not only increase the consumption of military supplies, but also increase many unpredictable risks.

Li Tai was not worried about this at all. As long as he could enter Shouyang, he would be absolutely sure that Murong Shaozong would come to fight from the south!