Strange Tales from the Northern Qi Dynasty

Chapter 246 Evenly divided
Outside Woye Town.

The sound of war drums resounded through the sky.

At Liu Yong's command, the elite troops of Yongfeng, who had traveled a long distance, launched an attack.

There were as many as seven or eight thousand of them. When they formed a battle formation, they covered the sky and the earth. Almost every place that could be seen was filled with their knights. And when they launched the attack, it was like a torrent, sweeping down and drowning everything that stood in their way.

The sound of the Zhou people's war drums was even more dull.

They used a big drum, the sound was heavier, and each beat seemed to hit everyone's heart.

Liu Yong sat in the center of the army and led the knights to charge.

Liu Taozi's army stood still. He looked at the distance between the enemy and his own army, and then began to slowly separate the army, with a group in the front and a group in the back. The knights in the front row were ready for defense with the cooperation of swordsmen and shieldmen.

He learned this from Yang Zhong.

When facing charging knights, as long as the front row can slightly reduce the enemy's speed and withstand the initial attack, the back row can be used to launch an attack, causing great casualties.

The heavy cavalry gathered around Liu Taozi, and the steel monsters were ready to counterattack.

At the moment when the two sides encountered each other, the neighing of war horses surpassed the sound of war drums.

War horses collided with each other, people and horses fell, knights screamed, and the torrent suddenly stopped. This was the time for Liu Taozi to attack. At this moment, he led the heavy cavalry to launch a charge. When the enemy's charge speed suddenly slowed down, the enemy's formation was the most chaotic, and the distance between the front and rear armies was difficult to control. At this time, the front row separated the distance, and the heavy cavalry suddenly charged and directly drove into the enemy formation.

It was supposed to be a brief chaos, but it was prolonged because of this head-on attack. Liu Taozi's goal was also very clear, to directly attack the enemy's main general.

Liu Yong's operation was extremely rough, but he was not afraid. The moment the enemy attacked, he changed his position and kept moving backwards.

He had heard of Liu Taozi's reputation for bravery a long time ago.

Neither the Great Zhou nor the Pseudo-Qi was short of such powerful generals.

Especially in the Great Zhou, Yang Zhong could lead fifty people to charge into the battle, and Houmo Chensui dared to lead only a few cavalrymen to attack the city.

They all relied on their bravery and directly beheaded their enemies to win.

Liu Yong thought he was no match for this ruthless man, but the soldiers under his command were numerous and fierce. They were all elite troops, and they were numerous and had the advantage of fighting on their home turf. How could they be afraid of you? ?
Isn't it fine as long as you stand far enough back so that you can't hit you?
But when the commander-in-chief stood behind the queen, his observation of the situation and the issuance of orders were not so clear.

Liu Taozi charged repeatedly, tearing open the enemy's defenses time and time again. When the enemy's offensive began to weaken and they even began to retreat, Kou Liu led more than a hundred elite cavalry from the rear army to attack the enemy from the left wing and began to cut through the formation. Although the Zhou people were numerous, they could not see the enemy in front or behind, and the inside of the formation was in chaos due to Kou Liu's attacks. They collided with each other, and before Liu Yong himself could react, the Zhou people on the front line had already begun to collapse.

Liu Yong was horrified. Instead of thinking about distancing himself and fighting again, he sent the rear troops forward and asked them to urge the front troops to continue charging and not retreat!

This time, the Zhou army was in complete chaos, and after the chaos, they were defeated.

Liu Yong himself didn't understand what was going on. As the fight went on, his own people suddenly started to run away. Liu Taozi led the troops to charge and the Zhou people fled everywhere. Liu Yong immediately joined the fleeing group. He widened his eyes and angrily cursed: "It was Hou Mochen's old general who harmed me!!!"

After the defeat, the war did not end. The people of Qi chased and killed people everywhere, and the sound of Zhou people's wailing could be heard everywhere.

It was not until it got dark that the Qi people stopped their pursuit. The entire land was once again covered with corpses of both sides, with the largest number of corpses from the Zhou people.

These most elite troops suffered another disastrous defeat due to chaotic and incompetent command.

Liu Taozi took the opportunity to gather his troops and quickly marched towards Yongfeng.

The pigeon flew over the jungle in front of it, flapped its wings gently, and raised its position again. It passed through the city wall and arrived accurately outside a training ground. Its speed became slower and slower, and finally it fell into the hands of the warrior.

The warriors untied the letter tied to the pigeon's feet and hurriedly delivered it to the clerk.

Yubi City.

Although winter has not yet arrived, the government office looks a bit bleak.

Wei Xiaokuan, wrapped in thick clothes, sat in front of several clerks.

The clerks took out the letters and explained the situation in various places one by one.

At this moment, a man suddenly walked in with hurried steps. The scholar saluted Wei Xiaokuan, then quickly took out the document and said tremblingly: "General, it's bad. Liu Taozi defeated Liu Yong in Woye and has taken Yongfeng Town. Liu Yong escaped, and several garrisons around Yongfeng have begun to evacuate."

At this moment, Wei Xiaokuan's face suddenly turned red. With his quick hands and eyes, he almost snatched the letter from the other person's hand.

He looked down for a moment, his lips turned pale, and the hands holding the documents began to tremble.

He slowly put away the documents and slowly looked at the confidant in front of him.

"Since ancient times, the key to success in wars has always been the king, not the general."

"If the king is wise, the war will go smoothly; if the king is incompetent, the war will fail."

"Once Duke Liang died, the destruction of the Pseudo-Qi died with him."

"To destroy the Pseudo-Qi, we must split our forces into two groups. One group will tie up the enemy's northern troops, and the other group will go straight to Luozhou, so that the enemy can't connect with each other. Duke Sui can attack from the north, but without Duke Liang in the south, who can take over?!"

Everyone lowered their heads and dared not answer.

Wei Xiaokuan raised his head in sorrow and sighed again.

"It's a pity that we failed to kill Liu Taozi back then. Now we have no chance anymore. The situation is irreversible. Gao Yu is in charge of the dynasty, and Liu Taozi is dominating the north. Now he has taken Yongfeng. In the future, he will definitely use Yongfeng as his base and send troops everywhere to continuously expand his occupied territory. By then, it will not be us who will attack on two fronts, but the enemy who will attack us on two fronts."

Wei Xiaokuan forced himself to calm down again.

"Bring me a pen and paper."

"We must defeat Liu Taozi. Yongfeng must not fall into Liu Taozi's hands, otherwise we will become his captives sooner or later!!"

"Even if it costs 100,000 people, we must take Yongfeng back. We must take it back."

Wei Xiaokuan immediately buried his head and began to write. The clerk looked at him quietly. Wei Xiaokuan's hand holding the pen was shaking. As he wrote, his expression became more and more sad, and he wrote faster and faster.

When Yang Zhong besieged Jinyang, he was really happy in his heart, but in a moment, the situation changed drastically. Gao Yu kidnapped Gao Zhan, and Liu Taozi captured Yongfeng.

As a result, Da Zhou suffered a hemorrhage.

Of course, the enemy's north suffered great destruction this time, and its economic capacity was greatly weakened, but this cannot make up for the cost of the loss of Yongfeng!

Wei Xiaokuan lowered his head and wrote down several strategies that should be implemented at the moment.

The first is to do everything possible to retake Yongfeng at all costs. At the moment, the enemy has no strength to counterattack, and the only ones who can stay in Yongfeng are Liu Taozi and his men. As long as a capable general is sent to lead an army to attack, Liu Taozi will have to spit out what he has eaten.

The second is to take Yongfeng as the center, change the previous offensive style, focus on Liu Taozi, suppress Liu Taozi's development with all your strength, send troops to plunder his territory from time to time, destroy his farmland, and prevent him from developing the rear with peace of mind.

The third is to stop the plan to attack the pseudo-Qi with a large army next year, rest and recuperate, focus on the south first, and store food and troops.
After Wei Xiaokuan wrote all this, he wrote his own name in sorrow, even using a pleading tone.

He then handed the letter to the scholar beside him and said, "Send it to Chang'an for me."

The scribe left quickly.

Wei Xiaokuan just looked at everyone and said, "Gao Yu is likely to support a young ruler to control the government. I need a helper from Yecheng."

"Send all the personnel from all over Qingdu to Yecheng and have them do their best to find out the enemy's current situation. We must not let Gao Yu control the government of the Pseudo-Qi."

"Gao Yu. Liu Taozi."

"If these two join forces, the Great Zhou will be in danger."

Changan.

The Duke's Mansion of Jin State.

Yuwen Hu sat in the upper seat, and his confidants sat below. At this moment, they all lowered their heads and dared not speak.

When the news of the defeat at the front line came, those who had been clamoring to destroy the Pseudo-Qi suddenly calmed down.

Yuwen Hu frowned, looking very ugly.

"Liu Yong is a veteran general, and he is also the commander of Yongfeng's elite troops. How could he be defeated so easily by Liu Taozi?"

Yuwen Yuan said at this moment: "The Duke of Jin lost this battle because Liu Yong underestimated the enemy. He is not up to the task. I told you before that he should not be allowed to go to the border, but you did not listen." "Now we can't delay any longer. Yongfeng must not fall into the hands of the enemy! I am willing to lead the troops to fight!"

"Please give the order quickly, Duke!"

Hearing Yuwen Yuan's words, Yuwen Hu sighed and said, "I should have listened to you at the beginning. The loss of Yongfeng is indeed my fault."

The officials hurriedly pleaded guilty, but Yuwen Hu shook his head and asked, "Then how can we take back Yongfeng?"

At this moment, General Li Bing stood up in a hurry and said, "Duke, the enemy will occupy Yongfeng now. They have money and food. Unless we besiege them with a large army, there is no other way."

"Please gather the army immediately and attack with a large force. Take back Yongfeng while the enemy is unstable."

Yuwen Hu glanced at the other person and his eyes became cold again.

An official immediately stood up and said, "Yongfeng must not fall into the hands of the enemy, but we cannot attack with a large army either. We summoned the army not to recapture a small Yongfeng, but to take down the entire Pseudo-Qi!"

"I don't think there's any need to rush. This battle shows the weakness of the Pseudo-Qi. The enemy has been rotten to this extent. What is there to worry about? Gather the army now, and wait until autumn. We will attack and destroy the Pseudo-Qi in one fell swoop. By that time, will the gain or loss of a city still be a big deal?"

Hearing this man's rebuttal, Li Bing was about to speak, but Yuwen Yuan shook his head slightly at him.

Yuwen Yuan then spoke up and said, "Duke, although the Pseudo-Qi is in a bad state, it is not yet at the point of destruction. Generals such as Duan Shao, Hulugu, and Liu Taozi are still here, and Gao Yu, Gao Rui, and Zhao Yanshen are assisting us. If we gather an army to destroy the Pseudo-Qi, it would be great if we can destroy it. But if we fail to achieve our goal and Yongfeng falls into the hands of the enemy, what should we do?"

"Why, Lord Anhua, do you think that even with an army of 200,000, we can't destroy the Pseudo-Qi?!"

Yuwen Hu's cronies once again jumped out to oppose.

Yuwen Yuan shook his head, "It's just that there are not many people who can lead such a large army in battle, and the Pseudo-Qi has not completely lost its fighting power."

Yuwen Hu, who was smiling before, was a little angry at this moment.

In recent days, there have always been people saying that he forced Houmochensui to death, which led to such a defeat, and that once he died, it would be completely impossible to destroy the Pseudo-Qi next year.

Yuwen Hu was also very angry. If he didn't kill him, would he wait for him to kill him?

He was hanging out with the emperor all day and even instigated the emperor to take action against me. I was already very merciful by sparing the lives of his people.

What do you mean now when you say there is no one who can lead an army?
Could it be that he is also referring to Hou Mochensui's affairs?

Yuwen Hu said coldly: "I am going to gather the armies of 24 prefectures and 200,000 troops to personally attack the Pseudo-Qi."

Hearing this, Yu Wenyuan's mind buzzed and he almost jumped out to object.

You want to lead the team yourself?
Not only him, but also several ministers around him were stunned at this moment.

Absolutely not!!!
Don't think of yourself as Yang Zhonghou or Mo Chensui! !

But Yuwen Hu's expression was quite serious. Yang Zhong's military achievements this time made him know the enemy's strengths and weaknesses. What was there to be afraid of in such a weak Qi State?

If he could destroy Qi this time, no one would be able to shake his position.

Even if Dugu Xin came back to life, he wouldn't be able to show his teeth to him.

Yuwen Hu thought about his elite soldiers and generals, his eyes shining with confidence.

Everyone wanted to persuade him, but at this point, persuading Yuwen Hu not to personally lead the troops to attack Qi was linked to some other things. Why didn't you want the Duke of Jin to make a contribution to destroying the country?
Is she being unfaithful to him?!
For a moment, the hall was silent.

Yuwen Hu looked at the ministers around him and was quite satisfied to see that none of them spoke up to object.

He smiled and said, "Let Liu Taozi be proud for a while. Next year, I will lead the army to destroy the Pseudo-Qi and personally cut off Liu Taozi's head!!"

Yongfeng Town.

Liu Taozi sat in the government office, not feeling very proud.

Kou Liu was quite proud.

He had never expected the battle to go so smoothly. He shook his head and sighed: "Brother, this is really a close match!"

"Gao Zhan wants to kill his own generals, and Yuwen Hu is no exception. The people they arranged are all idiots. The success or failure of this war has nothing to do with the generals. It all depends on which of the two kings is more normal."

"Brother, now that we have captured Yongfeng, can we block Yang Zhong's retreat?"

Just when Kou Liu was thinking about expanding his victory, there were chaotic footsteps outside the door.

Kou Liu hurried out to greet him, and soon, Kou Liu led someone into the house with a big laugh.

The person brought by the bandits was none other than Chu Jiande.

There was a man following Chu Jiande. That man was much younger than Chu Jiande. At this moment, his face was pale and he was trembling with fear.

"Lord!!"

When Liu Taozi saw him, her expression softened a lot.

"Mr. Chu."

He gestured to Chu Jiande to sit next to him. Chu Jiande sat down with a smile and looked at the scholar who was standing in front of Liu Taozi, at a loss.

"My lord, this man is called Xu Zhicai. He used to be a court official and is a world-renowned doctor. Not long ago, Tian Zili sent someone to bring him to me. I brought him with me this time."

Liu Taozi looked at him and sized him up. "Xu Zhicai? The famous doctor in Yecheng?"

"How did you get here?"

Xu Zhicai trembled and hurriedly greeted Liu Taozi, "General, please spare my life!"

"I never said I was going to kill you, what's going on?"

"I don't know either. A few months ago, your majesty was going to Jinyang. I had some problems at home, so I prepared enough medicine for your majesty. I asked for three days' leave and prepared to settle the family affairs before going to Jinyang."

"Then I was arrested and sent to Shuozhou, and then to the border."

"General, I really don't know anything! Please spare my life!"

After Xu Zhicai said this, Liu Taozi looked at Chu Jiande hesitantly. Chu Jiande whispered, "This was stolen by Zu Ting."

"Zu Ting went to Jinyang and used some tricks to keep him, then he led his men to tie him up and let Heba Jun take him back to Shuozhou."

Liu Taozi's lips trembled again for a moment.

Has Zu Ting's condition progressed to the point where he has started cheating on his wife?
Chu Jiande continued, "Zu Ting told Tian Zili that Gao Zhan was alive only because of this man's contribution. If he wasn't here, Gao Zhan would have died. And this man was very capable, so Zu Ting couldn't bear to kill him, so he sent him to the border and told us to keep an eye on him and never let him return to Yecheng."

Liu Taozi nodded and looked at the terrified Xu Zhicai again.

"Don't be afraid. Just stay by my side for now. I won't kill you."

"Thank you, General! Thank you, General!"

Liu Taozi looked at Chu Jiande, "What's the situation in Yecheng?"

"Everything is going well. The emissary from the imperial court is waiting for you in Wuchuan."

"I have talked to the angel. It is said that he will be appointed as the General of the Guards and the Grand Commander of the Six States. By the way, the most important thing is to be appointed as the Grand Governor of Hengshuo."

Liu Taozi was a little confused, "What is the governor of Hengshuo?"

"He concurrently served as the governor of Hengzhou and Shuozhou."

"At present, the King of Pengcheng has been promoted to the position of Grand Prime Minister, in charge of government affairs. Gao Rui and others have also surrendered, and no one is resisting him. The court is dismissing officials from all over the country and replacing them with talented people. It is about the emperor. Zu Ting originally said that the crown prince lacks virtue, and the emperor's second son Gao Yan should be allowed to take the throne."

"But for some reason, after Zu Ting entered the palace and talked to them, he immediately changed his mind and said that the prince must ascend the throne and that Gao Yan was not capable of taking on such a big responsibility."

(End of this chapter)