Chapter 275 Pulling a big
This victory can be considered one of the top five victories in Li Chong's career.
But after the great victory, Li Chong felt very uncomfortable.
Because he was worried about the safety of Wuchuan in the rear, Li Chong did not pursue the army further after defeating Po Liu Han Baling. He only seized the livestock left by Po Liu Han Baling, and then sent people to inquire about the situation in Wuchuan.
As expected, Wuchuan City was broken, and the Jizhou governor Zhang Shijun who led the troops was captured and killed. The Jizhou army abandoned their baggage and equipment and fled to the rear, which made Wei Kegu a huge profit.
The news of Wuchuan's defeat could not be blocked, so Li Chong could only speak to the entire army and promise to take them away from the Six Garrisons.
However, after making the promise, Li Chong did not mobilize his troops immediately. Instead, he continued to check the whereabouts of Po Liu Han Baling, and then sent various teams to collect supplies near Wuyuan, and even built a temporary camp on the edge of Wuyuan City.
When the army is fighting, logistics always comes first.
Wuchuan was attacked, and it was unknown whether Baidao City could be defended. From a strategic point of view, this expedition had failed.
Therefore, Li Chong’s current goal has become to bring as many troops back to Pingcheng as possible.
Li Chong knew that the army he had was all the troops the imperial court could mobilize in the entire Hedong region.
By analogy, the army under Li Chong was probably equivalent to the last imperial army of the Western Jin Dynasty under the command of Sima Yue, King of Donghai, in the final stage of the Rebellion of the Eight Kings.
After the death of Sima Yue, King of Donghai, the last elite central army of the Western Jin Dynasty was destroyed.
What followed was the Five Barbarians' Invasion of China, with local separatist regimes and the rise of many heroes.
If this army was destroyed in his hands, Li Chong would really become the sinner who destroyed the Northern Wei Dynasty.
Li Chong naturally did not want to be like Sima Yue who bore the eternal infamy. He no longer cared about the Rebellion of the Six Garrisons. His only goal now was to bring the army back intact.
Prince of Anfeng Yuan Yanming and Prince of Guangling Yuan Gong also supported Li Chong's idea.
They were members of the Northern Wei royal family, and of course they were responsible for the fate of the Northern Wei dynasty.
The worst-case scenario is that the Six Garrisons are completely destroyed, and the army can then retreat to Pingcheng, where they will of course be on guard against an invasion by the Rouran.
But there is a way to retreat.
This is the difference between a famous general and an ordinary general.
Li Chong is experienced. If he leads his troops to escape to Baidao now, as long as Wei Kegu, who occupies Wuchuan, leads his troops to pursue, the government army will be completely defeated.
There is a way to retreat.
Li Chong summoned all the generals to hold a military meeting in the military tent.
But this time, Li Chong did not discuss the issue of retreat, but rather setting up a defense line in Wuyuan to block the army of Po Liu and Han Baling from returning.
Li Chong looked at the soldiers and said:
"Although the army of Po Liu Han Baling was defeated by our army, the rebel king escaped and there are still a large number of rebels in the rear. If we flee now, we will be surrounded by the rebel army on both sides and our army will be in danger."
"Even though we have to retreat, we must defend Wuyuan before retreating."
Any general who had experienced the battlefield understood the logic of what Li Chong said, but everyone looked at each other and wondered who should be left in Wuyuan?
At this time, Wuchuan Army Commander Hou Mochenshun crossed his hands and said:
"I am willing to defend Wuyuan!"
Seeing Houmo Chenshun volunteering, Li Chong was overjoyed and immediately said:
"Where is the secretary? Bring me the general's military registration book!"
There were many account books in the imperial court, including the Yellow Book for recording population information and the White Book for the military to record the information about recruited generals.
Su Ze’s military office also has such a blank book, which means Li Chong is going to grant an official position to Hou Mochen Shun.
But the generals did not envy Hou Mochenshun at all. Staying in Wuyuan was a life-threatening situation. So what if he was granted an official position?
Can an official position in the Wei Dynasty be taken to the underworld?
Li Chong appointed Hou Mochen Shun as a military officer of Yueqi on the spot, and allocated him 4,000 men. In addition to the several hundred men he brought with him, he also selected 2,000 men from the captives to form an army to garrison Wuyuan.
After everything was arranged, the scouts sent out by Li Chong reported back that his son Li Shengui, who was left behind to guard Baidao City, was still holding on, and Baidao City was still in the hands of the government troops. Only then did Li Chong breathe a sigh of relief.
At both ends of the Baidao, Wuchuan Town on the Liuzhen side has already fallen. If Baidao City on the Hengzhou side is also captured, then his way back will be completely cut off.
Li Chong led his army to retreat slowly, and even released all the captured surrendered soldiers from the Six Garrisons in order to reduce the consumption of food and fodder during the retreat.
When they were leaving, Houmo Chenshun said to his second brother Houmo Chenchong:
"A Chong, I leave all my younger brothers and sisters to you." Hou Mo Chen Chong nodded with determination on his little face.
But the other brothers cried so hard that Houmo Chenshun’s third brother hugged his legs and cried:
"Everyone in the camp said that if you stayed in Wuyuan, you would die. Why did you volunteer to fight?"
Hou Mochenshun picked up his younger brother and said with a sigh:
"With a background like ours in the Six Towns, how can we make it if we don't fight to the death?"
"I have already made it clear with the general in advance that you will be removed from the Six Garrisons Army from today on."
Hearing his brother's words, even the precocious Hou Mo Chen Chong shed tears. The people of Liuzhen were really too humble. His brother went through life and death just to ensure that his brother would no longer be a member of the Liuzhen army.
In the eyes of people of Houmo Chenshun's age, the people of the Six Towns are the mark of slavery engraved in their bones, something they will try every means to eliminate.
But in the heart of the young Hou Mochen Chong, there was a vague thought: why are the people of Liuzhen so lowly?
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Wei Kegu also fought in an unusually steady manner. After he occupied Wuchuan, he did not act like a bandit at all. Instead, he tried his best to win over the military commanders and generals in Wuchuan city, and tried every means to get them to join his group.
Wei Ke Gu was not in a hurry to expand his victory. Apart from absorbing the Jizhou soldiers, he was not in a hurry to attack Baidao City. Instead, he led his troops to rebuild the Wuchuan city wall and set up beacon towers and camps.
In addition, Wei Kegu also sent people to Huaishuo to spread the news of the fall of Wuchuan City in Huaishuo City, forcing the generals in Huaishuo City to surrender.
Wei Kegu was also very ambitious and he wanted to swallow up Li Chong's army.
Wei Kegu thought very clearly that as long as he defeated Li Chong's army, Baidao City and Pingcheng would be within his grasp. By the time the rebels left the Six Garrisons, he would be able to do whatever he wanted!
But Li Chong was an old thorn in the flesh, and Wei Kegu could only carefully send troops to harass Li Chong. The main forces of both sides were far apart, but both sides sent out a large number of cavalry and had begun to engage in long-distance fighting.
Even Li Chong's incompetent son Li Shengui actively gathered the defeated troops from Wuchuan, asked the Wuchuan garrison commander Lou Poqiang who had escaped to recruit soldiers, and appointed Wuchuan Army leader Hou Mochen Yue as the general to defend Baidao City.
The situation in the Six Garrisons became tense, with a constant stream of envoys traveling between Luoyang and Pingcheng every day. Even the exposure of the war in Guanzhong was reduced a lot.
During this period, two "insignificant" "small" battles also took place. Of course, these small battles were only because there were major battles going on in the Six Garrisons and Guanzhong. From the officials in the court to the common people in Luoyang, no one had any interest in paying attention to such "small" battles.
One of them was a rebellion by the sons of herdsmen in Nanxiurongchuan. Erzhu Rong, the chieftain of the Beixiurong tribe, led his troops to suppress the rebellion and suppressed the Nanxiurongchuan rebellion, whose name no one had ever heard of.
Then Erzhu Rong refused to leave Nanxiurong, but Nanxiurong's officials had already fled during the rebellion, so the court simply let Erzhu Rong take charge of Nanxiurong's military and political affairs.
Another "small battle" was when Xiao Wei, the governor of Yizhou in Southern Liang, led his troops from Yizhou to the north to attack Liangzhou.
If it were in the past, the Southern Liang's northern expedition would definitely be big news, but at this time, the court didn't care about the safety of Liangzhou at all.
The rebels in Guanzhong are harassing Tongguan. If Tongguan is lost, the entire Guanxi west of Tongguan will be lost.
The imperial army was trapped in the Six Garrisons. If Li Chong's entire army was wiped out, there would be no soldiers left in the entire Central Plains, and Hedong would be in danger.
What is a mere Liangzhou?
But the war in Liangzhou was very impressive.
Su Ze, who stayed in Liangzhou with Hou Jing, deliberately led his troops away from Nanjiang City, an important town at the exit of Shu Road.
The Southern Liang general Xiao Wei thought that Hou Jing was afraid of fighting, and he looked down on the Northern Wei even more. He simply left only a small number of soldiers to guard Nanjiang City, and then led his troops to attack Nanzheng, the capital of Liangzhou.
As a result, Hou Jing, who had been lying in ambush in the wild, led his troops to quickly recapture Nanjiang City, cut off Xiao Wei's retreat, and then led his cavalry to charge into Xiao Wei's army. The Southern Liang Yizhou army was defeated, and Xiao Wei fled Liangzhou under the desperate protection of his followers. However, he only brought back 2,000 of the 10,000 Yizhou soldiers, which meant that all the capital that Southern Liang had accumulated in Yizhou over the years was lost.
Su Ze reported the victory to the court with a fast horse. The court also needed a foreign war to maintain its reputation, so it fully agreed to Su Ze's report and promoted Hou Jing to the rank of General of Light Chariots.
The General of Light Chariots was a miscellaneous general who did not have the power to establish a government. He was one rank lower than the General of Protector of the Qiang who Su Ze held in the past. In a few years, even the Military Government and the Overlord Government would be able to grant positions to their subordinates at will.
For example, in history, Erzhu Rong issued many positions of Light Chariot General.
However, the rank of General of Light Cavalry is still quite valuable nowadays, and it is a general position that can only be appointed by the imperial court.
However, the court also had its own intentions in this appointment. Hou Jing was appointed as the General of Light Chariots. Even if he was separated from Su Ze's military headquarters, this was also a check and balance strategy of the court.
However, Su Ze did not care. Hou Jing allocated his own troops and provided his own logistics. If the court wanted to win him over by offering an official position, it would be too much of a disdain for him.
However, Su Ze was also secretly alert. Nowadays, official positions in the imperial court still have the greatest appeal. In the last years of any dynasty, it can sustain for several years by granting official positions and titles to the rebel army.
When the time comes that the position in one's military office becomes more attractive than the official position in the imperial court, and the generals and soldiers are more willing to serve in one's military office rather than in the imperial court, then one can be considered to have gained the support of the world.
Just after the two "good" news, the Guanzhong government troops, which had been silent for a while, soon gave the Luoyang court a big hand again.
Beihai King Yuan Hao changed his previous defensive posture and took the initiative to fight a decisive battle with the Jingzhou rebels led by Hu Chen at Shayuan in Weiqu.
King Yuan Hao of Beihai won first and then lost. He first killed the leader of the rebels, Jin Wei, the former deputy governor of Jingzhou.
He was then defeated by Hu Chen, the leader of the Jingzhou rebels.
With the defeat of Beihai King Yuan Hao, Tongguan is in danger!
(End of this chapter)