Lin'an Never Night

Chapter 628 Flowering in the Center

There are many mountains in the Lingbi area north of Suzhou.

"The mountains and rivers are beautiful, and there are rocks as sharp as jade" is the origin of the place name "Lingbi".

The mountains here are not very high, such as Waitou Mountain, Luobo Mountain, Lingshe Mountain, Wuniu Mountain, etc., most of which are seventy or eighty feet high.

There are more than eighty mountains of this height, and the peaks are clustered together, which is very beautiful.

Such a large number of mountains form a complex terrain like a natural maze.

More than 7,000 elite cavalry soldiers under Lu Tianming were lured into these mountains and trapped here while they were chasing the Jin soldiers.

The Jin army that was completely wiped out by Lu Tianming in the mountains was not the main force of the Jin people, but a "grain-shooting army."

The "Sheliang Army" was an army composed of young and strong men recruited by the Jin Kingdom from the occupied areas. It was usually only responsible for maintaining local public order and eliminating banditry, which was equivalent to the Song Kingdom's Xiang Army.

The Jin army that was besieging Lu Tianming at this moment was the elite armed forces controlled by Meng'an Mouke.

Since Lu Tianming's troops were ambushed and surrounded yesterday, the fighting between the two sides has never stopped until this morning.

Both the attacking and defending sides adopted the tactic of taking turns to rest and fight.

Now, Lu Tianming has gathered all the crossbow arrows.

Since there is no way to replenish the weapons, they can no longer consume them at will.

Only when a certain position in the Song army's defense camp was breached would they use one or two rounds of crossbows to help the Song army block the gap.

Officers and soldiers usually carry three days' rations with them. Now that they have only been besieged for one day, they don't have to worry about food for the time being.

But until this point, there was still no news of reinforcements, and the several mountain passes blocked by the Jin soldiers had not been able to break through, which caused morale to drop.

When the fierce battle was in full swing, the defensive formation of the Song army was torn open again.

The Jin soldiers rushed in shouting excitedly, trying to make the gap bigger.

Seeing this, Lu Tianming roared and rushed forward first.

Lu Tianming was at least 1.9 meters tall, with broad shoulders and a thick waist, weighing more than 240 kilograms, and the big sword in his hand weighed more than 40 kilograms.

He swung the broadsword with a thick blade and a thin blade, with a mournful roar like a ghost crying in the night, and cut the Jin soldier who was rushing in front in half with a slant of his shoulder and a pull of his hips.

Blood flew into the air and the body was split into two halves. The scene was so horrifying that the other Jin soldiers who had suddenly rushed in were stunned.

Lu Tianming held the bloody sword horizontally and slashed again.

The enemies in front of them fled in panic. A Jin soldier who rushed too fast and had no time to retreat shouted in despair and stabbed Lu Tianming in the face with a spear.

Lu Tianming's tall figure swayed slightly, and he moved away, allowing the spear to pierce his chest, but was blocked by his sophisticated armor.

The big knife in Lu Tianming's hand had already cut the Jin soldier into two pieces horizontally.

At the same time, fearing that their commander might be in danger, Lu Tianming's personal soldiers rushed forward like crazy.

They stood in front of Lu Tianming, hacking and stabbing with all their might. The gap that the Jin soldiers had finally opened with great effort was quickly sealed again.

"Commander, gather the cavalry and lead them to attack us. This is not a good way to waste time."

"I won't retreat!"

Lu Tianming's pupils were bloodshot because of the continuous tragic deaths of his soldiers. He could hardly control his emotions.

He wielded his sword and killed people to his heart's content. The sword flashed with cold light again and again, with unparalleled force and sharpness. Wherever the sword flashed, blood splattered and heads fell to the ground. It was an extremely tragic scene.

"Commander, you go first, we can't all die here.

You leave, either bring troops to rescue us, or avenge us!"

Seeing that the Jin soldiers began to pile up the chopped firewood in the upwind direction, intending to attack with smoke, the deputy general beside Lu Tianming could not help but try to persuade them anxiously.

Lu Tianming had already retreated behind his personal soldiers. He was tall and strong, and he was truly invincible when swinging his sword.

However, he was burdened with heavy weight, and the sword was also heavy, so his durability was not good. With just one burst of power, he killed the Jin soldiers and horses and was unable to match them.

It’s a pity that the burst time of his unparalleled skill is relatively short, but the CD time is relatively long.

"I won't leave. I grew so tall and gained so much weight just to avoid being looked down upon by others!"

Lu Tianming panted heavily and shouted hoarsely: "We live together and die together. I, Lu, will never abandon my brothers and escape alone."

"not to mention……"

Lu Tianming was full of confidence: "General Li will definitely come to rescue us, grit your teeth..."

Thick smoke rose up, and Lu Tianming shouted loudly: "Pee, wet your sweat towel, and cover your mouth and nose!"

……

Li Xianzhong personally led more than 10,000 elite troops and advanced lightly.

He gave up on attacking Suzhou City and headed straight for Lingbi.

However, about half a day after Li Xianzhong's troops rushed towards Lingbi, the Jin troops stationed in Jing'an and Fuli, the two citadels of Suzhou City, suddenly abandoned their positions and headed towards Lingbi.

About an hour later, the gates of Suzhou were wide open, and the Jin soldiers in the city abandoned the city that they had occupied at great cost without hesitation, and cut off Li Xianzhong's retreat.

Li Xianzhong's troops stopped when passing a lake.

There was a large reed marsh surrounding the lake, and places like this were easy to be ambushed.

So Li Xianzhong waited for the scouts to check whether there were any ambushes before ordering them to speed up.

However, when his army was halfway through the reed marsh along the road, the Jin soldiers suddenly appeared in front and behind.

All the people who appeared were cavalry, so they were moving very fast.

Although the Song army scouts in front and behind gave timely warnings, the Jin army's cavalry had blocked their advance and retreat routes before the central army could react.

The Song army, which had come into contact with the Jin army from front and back, immediately engaged in battle.

The road is surrounded by reed marshes on one side and lakes on the other.

When the front and rear roads were blocked, Li Xianzhong, who was experienced in battle, gave the order: "Cut down the reeds and expand the area a hundred steps!"

Less than half an hour later, the Song army had cut down all the reeds within a hundred steps, and thick smoke began to rise into the sky in the distance.

Li Xianzhong sneered and ordered again: "Light a fire and burn the reeds!"

It is obvious that the Jin soldiers quickly controlled both directions of advance and retreat with their cavalry, and the infantry only arrived at this time.

They wanted to attack the Song army from the flank, but they were unwilling to go into the dense reeds where they could not observe the situation near and far.

Moreover, by burning the reeds, the fire and smoke could deplete most of the Song army's combat power.

But Li Xianzhong had experienced countless complicated and treacherous battlefield situations, and he took precautions at the first opportunity.

The Song army brandished their swords and began to cut down the reeds rapidly, with the main road as the center.

After clearing out an open area of ​​nearly a hundred steps, they piled all the cut reeds at the edge of the reed marsh and set them on fire.

Since there were no combustible materials on the side close to the Song army, the fire could only spread in the opposite direction.

Moreover, the burning of reeds will produce upward airflow, which is supplemented by cold air from below.

The additional airflow from the lower part pushed the fire faster in the direction of burning, and the fire burned more fiercely.

The Jin soldiers wanted to use the fire in the reed marsh to burn the Song army to death, so they lit a fire on the outermost side of the reed marsh, and the fire was surging inwards.

Fires started simultaneously on both sides of the reed marsh, causing the flames to flow towards each other faster, and the possibility of a fire attack was thwarted.

Moreover, due to the smoke from the fireworks, the fighting between the front and rear sides temporarily slowed down.

Several generals of the Song army leaned against the small lake and hurriedly discussed countermeasures.

As generals with rich experience in battle, they all understood at this time that the Jin soldiers were "encircling and attacking the reinforcements."

Commander Yao Jirui hastily expressed his opinion: "General, this is a conspiracy of the Jin soldiers. We should break out of the encirclement immediately."

At this time, the two wings were still fighting, and the sound of fighting was deafening.

A huge fire was raging across the street, and the ashes of the burning reeds were swept up into the sky by the hot air. They were floating in their direction and falling like black snow.

But Li Xianzhong looked calm and was not affected at all.

After listening to Yao Jirui's opinion, Li Xianzhong shook his head slightly: "The Jin soldiers want to surround a point and attack the reinforcements, but the "point" they are surrounding and the "reinforcements" they are attacking are all elite troops of our Song State. Do the Jin soldiers have enough troops to achieve this goal?"

Another commander, Wang Jie, had his eyes light up. "Our scouts have already investigated the total number of Jin soldiers transferred to the Huai River area and their approximate deployment. It is impossible that there are still a large number of troops hiding."

Li Xianzhong looked at Wang Jie with appreciation and said, "That's right. So if they want to complete the plan of 'encircling the target and attacking the reinforcements', they must abandon the Huaixi battlefield, abandon the cities they are attacking, quickly withdraw troops, and quickly concentrate on Lingbi, so as to form a military advantage that will overwhelm me, and then they can achieve their goal."

Wang Jie added: "In this case, in order to prevent our army from reinforcing, they need to fight quickly and decisively."

Li Xianzhong nodded slowly: "Then, what will happen if our bone is hard enough for them to chew quickly?"

Yao Jirui took a deep breath and said, "General, do you want to take advantage of the situation and use yourself as bait?"

"Yes, the Jin people want to swallow us up, so we will have a good fight in their stomachs!
As long as we hold them back until reinforcements arrive from all directions, we can gut the Jin army and achieve our goal in one fell swoop! "Send the order!"

Li Xianzhong shouted in a deep voice: "Break out in the direction of Lingbi!"

Even though he knew that the other side was surrounding and attacking his reinforcements, Li Xianzhong did not choose to break out of the encirclement in time, but instead chose to continue heading north.

“Besieging a point and attacking its reinforcements” is just a tactic. It does not mean that you will definitely win as long as you can “besiege a point and attack its reinforcements”.

Since the Jin soldiers' goal was to surround and attack the reinforcements, Lu Tianming's troops, as bait, should not have been annihilated yet, so Li Xianzhong still chose to go north.

As long as he continued to move forward, joined up with Lu Tianming's cavalry troops, charged into the encirclement of the Jin soldiers, and held out until the Song army arrived to help, he would be able to inflict a heavy blow to the Jin soldiers.

Therefore, after issuing the order to charge northward, Li Xianzhong immediately arranged several messenger teams protected by dozens of elite cavalry. He hurriedly wrote a military letter, stamped it with his seal, and handed it to these messengers.

After breaking through the siege, these messengers would leave quickly and report the news to the various Song troops.

The Jin soldiers were going to set up a tight net in Lingbi, so he mobilized the Song troops from the battlefield in Huaidong to launch a counter-encirclement.

At the same time, he also sent someone to notify Shao Hongyuan, the commander-in-chief of Huaixi, and asked the Western Route Army to cooperate in the battle.

The key to victory or defeat in this battle lies in the speed at which both sides gather reinforcements and their will to fight.

This was an extremely dangerous battle for both sides.

Li Xianzhong, who had already entered the game, chose to fight without hesitation.

Not only did he follow, but he also went all in.

……

Yang Yuan followed the central army and the rear army of the Palace Front Division and set up camp in Qi County.

This place is closer to Suzhou City, where Li Xianzhong originally planned to attack, but it is not far from Lingbi.

While arranging the camp, Liu Molin sent scouts to spy on the movements of the Jin soldiers in Fuli, the capital of Suzhou.

That night, Yazawa Kanon rushed to Qi County and brought the news that Li Xianzhong had been ambushed.

Yang Yuan and Liu Molin were very excited when they heard that the Jin soldiers used the reed marshes to set an ambush, but Li Xianzhong set a fire first, thus foiling the Jin soldiers' treacherous plot and finally breaking through the siege to continue to rescue Lingbi.

Yang Yuan consulted Liu Molin whether they should move their troops and rush to Lingbi, but Liu Molin rejected Yang Yuan's suggestion.

Others may get into trouble, but if something happens to Yang Yuan, the military supervisor, it would be a serious crime that could not be undone no matter how many battles they win.

Moreover, since Li Xianzhong has escaped from trouble, they don't have to worry too much.

If they were stationed in Qi County, they could tie down the Jin soldiers in Fuli, Suzhou and Jing'an, thus reducing the pressure on Li Xianzhong.

After Li Xianzhong rescued Lu Tianming, the armies of both sides reunited and it was a good opportunity to move here for rest and recuperation.

When attacking Suzhou City next time, the rear army and the central army that have already rested here in advance can be transformed into the vanguard and take on the important task of attacking Suzhou City.

Yang Yuan thought what Liu Molin said made sense, so he followed his arrangements.

Seeing that General Yang respected his opinion so much, Liu Molin couldn't help but secretly breathe a sigh of relief.

If this military supervisor suddenly wanted to become a "military god" and insisted on doing so, he would really be unable to stop him.

But at midnight that day, a team of messengers sent by Li Xianzhong arrived in Qi County and met Liu Molin.

The next morning, the scouts heading towards Fuli also sent back news.

The Jin soldiers in Fuli have disappeared. They voluntarily abandoned the city and their whereabouts are unknown.

The scouts continued to move forward to explore the situation in Suzhou.

At this time, Liu Molin already knew where they had gone, because Li Xianzhong's messenger had arrived yesterday at midnight. Now the news sent back by the scouts just confirmed Li Xianzhong's judgment.

Liu Molin immediately went to see Yang Yuan and reported the corresponding changes in military situation to the military supervisor one by one.

Belle was wearing a lieutenant colonel's military uniform. As she listened to Liu Molin's report to Yang Yuan, she adjusted and moved the flags on the sand table accordingly.

"Commander Liu, are you saying that the Jin people want to use the strategy of 'encircling a point and attacking the reinforcements' to deal with us, and Commander Li wants to take advantage of the situation and sneak into the enemy's belly to 'strike the center'?"

Commander Liu smiled and said, "Yes, the military supervisor's summary is very insightful."

Yang Yuan suddenly had a bad feeling in his heart.

This tactic...why does it sound familiar?

Menglianggu, Zhang Lingfu, reorganized the 74th Division...

"For the sake of the Party and the country, lend a hand, brother!"

Hiss~~, Yang Yuan took a deep breath. Don't panic, don't panic, keep calm!
The elite troops of the Palace Front Division, the Cavalry Division, and the Infantry Division are not the reorganized 74th Division...

Hmm..., the elite of the Three Divisions of the Song Dynasty Imperial Army and the reorganized 74th Division, the first of the five elite divisions of the Central Army, are really a bit similar...

Yang Yuan pulled Liu Molin to the sand table and said, "Commander Liu, in your opinion, how sure is Commander Li's plan?"

Liu Molin was full of confidence: "The military supervisor does not need to worry. Our main force in Huaidong is distributed in Xuyi, Linhuai, Sizhou, Huaiyin, Yancheng, Haizhou (Lianyungang), etc., totaling more than ten routes of troops.

Military Supervisor, look at these. The troops closest to Lingbi are only one to two days away, and the ones farthest are only three to four days away. They can arrive at Lingbi one after another."

Liu Molin was worried that Yang Yuan didn't understand, so he drew his sword, pointed it at the small flag on the sand table, and gestured to him while talking.

"In Huaixi, Shouzhou, Luzhou (Hefei), Haozhou and other places also have a large number of elite troops who can quickly march eastward.

The Western Army doesn’t even need to engage in battle. As long as they can outflank the Jin Army from behind, it will be enough to deter the Jin Army from withdrawing from the battle. Otherwise, the Jin Army will fall into our trap…”

Liu Molin gave Yang Yuan a thorough and simple explanation, and Yang Yuan finally let go of his anxiety a little. He nodded and said, "So what do we need to do now? Should we break camp and rush to Lingbi immediately?"

Liu Molin shook his head and said, "Commander Li has already sent out several messengers to issue orders to each army.

After the armies received the order to rush to Lingbi for support, it would take time to march.

If we act too early, we may alert the enemy and disrupt General Li's plan.

So we can now take over Suzhou City while the Jin soldiers are away.

When the reinforcements are about to arrive, our army will set out for Lingbi.

In this way, we can fill the gaps in the big net and catch all the goldfish in one fell swoop."

This is Li Xianzhong's plan to use himself as bait and make the center bloom.

The commander Liu Molin obviously also supports this plan.

Although the "center-blooming" tactic ultimately backfired in that battle later on, the two military commanders, Li Xianzhong and Liu Molin, now agreed, and Yang Yuan, the military supervisor, had no reason to object.

Yang Yuan nodded: "Okay, let's follow Commander Liu's advice."

With the permission of the military supervisor, Liu Molin hurried out and ordered the three armies to break camp and head straight for Suzhou.

Kanon Kona was exploring alone in the direction of Hong County.

Since this place had become a war zone, most of the people had fled, and Xiao Nai did not encounter any enemy or friendly troops. He marched all the way and arrived at the county seat of Hong County smoothly.

Looking at the flag of the Song Dynasty flying over the city wall of Hong County, Xiaonai felt confused.

What about the floods and gullies blocking the roads?
I haven't encountered any obstacles along the way.

Full of doubts, Xiao Nai took out his badge and revealed his identity to the Song army on the top of the city.

The defenders on the city wall lowered her into the city wall in a basket, and Xiao Nai met a general of the Xiang army who stayed behind.

Xiao Nai learned from this Xiang Army general that after Luo Xin, the commander of the Sizhou Youyi Army, led his troops to Kehong County, they rested there for a day and set out eastward early the next morning to attack Tonghai Town.

In other words, General Luo had never intended to go west to reinforce Lingbi.

After learning the truth, Tsubakiya Kona hurriedly asked someone to drop her off in the city, and then left on horseback.

When Xiaonai arrived in Qi County, he found out that Yang Yuan had already gone to Suzhou.

Xiaonai changed horses in Qi County and rushed to Suzhou, telling Yang Yuan the results of her investigation.

Fei Yuye snorted coldly: "The garrison troops and the three imperial guards are each separate systems. This Luo Tongzhi obviously doesn't want his garrison troops to suffer casualties and go to rescue the imperial guards."

Leng Yuchan said angrily: "Beheading the general, seizing the flag, breaking through the enemy lines, and being the first to ascend the mountain are the four great military exploits. Rescuing the imperial army is obviously not as great as conquering the city.

This Luo Xin, disregarding the overall situation, is too greedy for credit!"

Yang Yuan's face looked very ugly. Whether Luo Xin was greedy for merit or disregarded the overall situation, this was just the behavior of his troops and a main general. There was no need to worry.

What Yang Yuan was worried about was that with dozens of troops under the command of each other on the battlefield in Lianghuai, how many generals like Luo Xin were there?
The key to the success of the "center blossom" tactic is to have a faster reinforcement speed and fighting will than the enemy.

If there were more generals like Luo Xin in the East and West armies...

Lingbi will become Menglianggu, and Li Xianzhong will become Zhang Lingfu.

Yang Yuan originally wanted to be the most perfect "military supervisor" in the hearts of the soldiers, sitting back and doing nothing, but now it seems that this cannot be realized...

(End of this chapter)