Tibet

Two thousand burning quivers of poisonous smoke were shot into the city. White smoke suddenly rose up in the city, and soon the city was filled with thick smoke.

Immediately afterwards, the second round of two thousand poisonous smoke arrows was shot into Guancheng, and the entire Guancheng was shrouded in poisonous smoke.

"Stop shooting arrows and retreat!"

General Zhonglang shouted, and the crossbowmen put away their crossbows, raised their shields and retreated.

Li Sheng looked at it for a long time and then ordered: "Go up and send a scout army to check!"

A group of dozens of scout soldiers rushed towards the pass, and soon they rushed to the foot of the city. The captain looked at the city for a moment and ordered: "Climb up with a hook and rope!"

A dozen hook ropes were thrown up to the top of the city, and the soldiers climbed up. Finally, with a wink from the captain, more than a dozen people jumped onto the top of the city at the same time.

The top of the city was actually empty, there was no one, but there were more than a dozen corpses piled under the corridor. They must have been knocked down by the poisonous smoke when they went down to the city.

The captain pulled out a rocket, lit it and shot into the air.

Wang Sili smiled and said: "It seems that Guancheng has been obtained!"

But the army did not move north immediately. It was not until an hour later that the poisonous smoke gradually dissipated and the army began to enter the pass.

Nearly half of the more than 100 defenders were poisoned to death, and the other soldiers had already seen that the situation was not good and fled.

After coming out of Jingxing, the biggest problem facing the Tang army was supplies. It was too far to send supplies from Taiyuan.

It must be solved on the spot, and there was a plan before, which was to capture Zhending County as soon as possible.

According to the information previously obtained, there are 100,000 shi of grain and 100,000 dans of black beans in the Zhending County granary.

There are also strategic materials such as salt, cloth, pig iron, etc. in the warehouse.

Li Sheng immediately ordered Huben Lang General Wang Kun to lead 10,000 cavalry to attack Zhending County, demanding that he must keep the granary.

Zhending County is the seat of the state capital of Hengzhou, which is today's Zhengding County, Hebei Province. Today's Shijiazhuang was called Shiyi County in the Tang Dynasty, and Yi means manor and Zhuangzi.

Li Baochen currently has an army of 40,000 people, 10,000 of whom have joined the Hezong Army, commanded by Tian Chengsi, while Li Baochen only has 32,000 people in his hands.

Among the 32,000 people, the main force of 20,000 was stationed in Hejian County, Yingzhou, which was also Li Baochen's capital.

The other 12,000 people were stationed in the three states he valued most, Zhending County in Hengzhou, Zhao County in Zhaozhou, and Xindu County in Jizhou, with 4,000 people in each county.

Xindu County was attacked by Li Na, and half of the 4,000 garrison was lost. The remaining 2,000 people retreated to see Zhaozhou, bringing the strength of Zhao County to more than 6,000 people.

There are currently 4,000 troops garrisoned in Zhending County. Unexpectedly, the Tang army's speed was too fast. The garrison had just received news of the defeat of the Jingxing army. The Tang army's 10,000 cavalry rushed to Zhending County, and the 4,000 soldiers had no time to retreat.

The chief defender of Zhending County was called Chen Tao. He was lying on the top of the city, looking at the 10,000 cavalrymen who were fighting under the city. While his soldiers were still cleaning up, the Tang army came to kill them. What should he do?

At this time, several Tang Army cavalry rushed over and shot a letter onto the city wall.

Some defenders picked it up and quickly reported it to the commander-in-chief Chen Tao.

Chen Tao hurriedly opened the letter. There were two options in the letter. First, they surrendered to the Tang army and were not treated as prisoners of war. They were all released home.

The second option is to close the granary and treasury and allow them to retreat to Zhaozhou in the south.

This made Chen Tao very embarrassed. Logically speaking, the first choice was the best for the soldiers, but he couldn't choose. His wife, children, and parents were all in Hejian County. If he surrendered, Li Baochen would definitely kill his family.

He could only choose the second one, but Chen Tao was very worried that Tang Jun would not keep his word. Once he led his army out of the city, Tang Jun might not let him go.

At this time, Lieutenant General Li Shantao came up with an idea: "We can let tens of thousands of people escape from the North City, and the Tang Army's cavalry will be attracted there. Then we retreat from the South City, and then burn the bridge on the Hutuo River in time, so the cavalry will not be able to pursue us. We can retreat to Zhaozhou."

This method is good, although it is a bit risky, but you can try it.

Chen Tao immediately ordered the entire army to assemble at the south gate. At this time, a large number of frightened people wanted to flee for their lives out of the city.

Chen Tao asked his men to guide all the people to the North City, and ordered the North City Gate to be opened. The North City Gate opened, and tens of thousands of people fled outside the city, crying for their fathers and mothers, and there was chaos.

Sure enough, part of the Tang army's cavalry rushed towards Beicheng.

"Open the city gate!"

Chen Tao shouted, the city gate opened, the suspension bridge was lowered, and Chen Tao led four thousand soldiers to rush out of the city and fled toward the Hutuo River in the south.

Wang Kun, the commander-in-chief of the Tang Army, was several miles behind them, watching the enemy leave the city from a distance, but he held his troops motionless. When all the enemy troops left the city, Wang Kun immediately ordered, "Chase the enemy troops!"

Seven thousand cavalry were launched to pursue them, but the Tang army did not pursue them at full speed.

The purpose of Wang Kun's order to chase was to make the enemy troops escape south instead of east.

There are two official roads in the south. One official road goes eastward along the Hutuo River, and the other official road crosses the Hutuo River and heads south towards Zhaozhou.

The Hutuo River is a large river that originates from the Taihang Mountains. It meanders eastward, then turns northward, and finally flows into the Zhangshui River in the north of Cangzhou, and soon flows into the Bohai Sea.

There are many bridges on Hutuo River, but there is only one in Zhending County.

Hutuo River is very close to Zhending County, only three miles away. Four thousand troops are running wildly all the way. Chen Tao is still hesitating whether to retreat towards Dingzhou.

At this time, the soldiers behind shouted that the Tang Army cavalry was chasing from behind.

Chen Tao was so frightened that his thoughts of retreating to the east suddenly disappeared. He hit his horse and rushed towards the south bridge.

The 4,000 German troops were also frightened. They threw away their weapons, took off their armor, and ran wildly. They ran onto the bridge and immediately sprinkled them with kerosene. The Tang army's cavalry had already chased them a hundred steps away.

"Light the fire! Light the fire quickly!"

There were still more than a hundred people on the bridge, and Chen Tao hurriedly ordered to light the fire.

"Boom!"

The kerosene was ignited rapidly, and the entire bridge was instantly ablaze. More than a hundred of the last soldiers were engulfed by the flames, crying and jumping off the bridge, and were swept away by the surging Hutuo River.

The Tang cavalry who ran to the bridge reined in their horses. Wang Kun watched the enemy troops crossing the river. They really fled to the south, and saw that the four thousand enemy troops were gradually fleeing away.

Wang Kun immediately ordered the army to return to the county.

The Tang army immediately occupied Zhending County and persuaded the fleeing people to go home. The commander Wang Kun ordered the soldiers to cut down trees and build a temporary bridge over the Hutuo River.

Two days later, Li Sheng led the army to Zhending County. Although the defenders escaped, Li Sheng did not blame Wang Kun.

Wang Kun's main task was not to destroy the enemy, but to seize Zhending County, the prefecture of Hengzhou, to keep the military rations in the county, so that the 30,000 troops could be supplied in time.

From this point of view, Wang Kun's strategy was actually very successful, giving the enemy a chance to escape, thus saving the granary and the treasury.

More importantly, if he escaped from the south and went to Zhaozhou, he would sooner or later be trapped by the Tang army.

Li Sheng immediately wrote a letter, sent a scout team to the south to deliver the letter, left 3,000 people to guard the city, and the army immediately set out to the south.

According to the regent's prior arrangement, Lei Wanchun's army should be in Xingzhou. After receiving his letter, the two armies would march to Zhaozhou at the same time, completely annihilate the Zhaozhou defenders, and then merge to Hejian County, to defeat Li Baochen in one fell swoop, seize Hejian County, and then the 80,000-strong army would establish a western defense line to the north.