Fenghou

Wan Yanchang waved his hand and said: "Don't worry, just listen to me. I have written to Liu Yu before, asking him to send more troops to Guanzhong, and he also agreed. Forty thousand Luoyang garrison troops are rushing to Guanzhong. It is estimated that in the next two days Just enter Tongguan, so you will have [-] troops in your hands, and then the garrison defense of Hanzhong, Guanzhong, and Jingyuan Road will be handed over to the Jurchen army, and you will not worry about it. You will lead an army of [-] to attack Chengji County. I believe Your ability and your chances of winning should be great."

Li Cheng bowed his head and remained silent. He really didn't like the feeling of working for Jin Bing. Even if he had an army of [-] in his hands, he didn't want to send troops.

Wan Yanchang knew that persuasion alone was not enough, but promises and heavy profits were needed, so he said in a low voice, "I might as well tell you the truth, Jin Kingdom is very disappointed with Liu Yu, and now it is considering dividing the three kingdoms, one is now The state of Qi, the other is the state of Qin, and the other is the state of Chu in Jianghuai.

If you can destroy Chen Qing, then I will entrust Xihe Road and Hexi Corridor to you and protect you as King Qin. "

A bright light flashed in Li Cheng's eyes, he looked at Wan Yanchang and said slowly: "This is a big deal, Marshal Du, please don't make jokes casually."

Wan Yanchang laughed, "When I told Liu Yu to make him king of Qi, he didn't believe it, but what about the truth? Li Dutong, although we Jurchens have never been taught by Confucius and Mencius, we are as good as we promise , today you share my worries, and tomorrow I will repay you."

Li Cheng nodded, "Let Beizhi think about it for a while."

"I'll give you three days, and you can reply to me anytime within three days."

……

Li Cheng returned to the big tent and ordered someone to find Yao Bing, his staff member. Yao Bing is Li Cheng's fellow villager. He was born as a Jinshi in the second year of Xuanhe. Susukita cannot afford official expenses.

So much so that although he passed the Jinshi examination, he never got a real vacancy official. He was given the title of a secretary province and received a few dollars a month for living expenses. Staff.

Although Yao Bing is dark and thin, he has a bright mind. He advises Li Cheng at important moments and wins Li Cheng's trust.

Yao Bing listened to Li Cheng's narration, and smiled slightly: "Has the general thought about what the consequences will be if the general doesn't do it?"

Li Cheng thought for a while and said, "The consequence is that I will be transferred back to Bianliang, and Liu Yu will send someone over to assist Jin Bing."

"But the question is, Wan Yanchang has already promised to make the general king of Qin, how can Liu Yu accommodate the general?"

Li Cheng was startled, and only then did he realize that Wan Yanchang had dug a big hole for himself. In fact, he had no way out. If he refused, Wan Yanchang would not tolerate him, and neither would Liu Yu.

"Sir, do you think he will really make me King of Qin?" Li Cheng asked again.

Yao Bing nodded, "I think it should be true. It's not about whether the Jurchens will keep their promises, but that the Jurchens are not interested in Xihe Road, but they need a trustworthy person to manage for them. If the general It is indeed the best choice to kill Chen Qing for them, and at the same time defend them from the Xixia people's invasion to the south, but the key is, can the general defeat Chen Qing?"

Yao Bing has a clear mind and can always see the crux of the problem.

Li Cheng thought for a while and said, "If I have an army of one hundred thousand, I have half the chance of winning."

"With an army of one hundred thousand, is there only half the chance of victory?"

Li Cheng was silent for a moment and said: "Chen Qing's army is indeed very strong. If the strength of the army is similar, I am not his opponent. If the strength of the army is twice that of his, I have half the chance of winning. The final victory or defeat depends on the specific situation of the two armies." Game."

Yao Bing thought for a while and said: "Chen Qing snatched [-] barrels of kerosene from Yanzhou, which shows that he is fully prepared for the battle, and the general must not underestimate the enemy."

When mentioning the Yanzhou kerosene incident, Li Cheng's face darkened. This incident was simply a shame to him. The Song army actually leaped thousands of miles and seized [-] barrels of kerosene from the Yanzhou kerosene depot in one fell swoop. The timing was right. , It is impossible to say that no one has tipped them off.

Li Cheng said coldly: "Everyone is fully prepared for the battle. I even made a hidden move beside Chen Qing. I'm still waiting for a surprise!"

"You mean, the general has decided?"

Li Cheng nodded, "Wealth is in danger, since I have no way out, why not do it?"

……

Li Cheng finally decided to accept Wan Yanchang's offer, and led [-] Qi troops to attack Xihe Road. Once the Song army was successfully wiped out, he would be crowned King of Qin, and the west of Longshan would be his territory.

Three days later, Guan Shigu, the governor of Shanzhou, led 20 Qi troops to Jingzhao. Wan Yanchang organized the [-] Qi troops into the Qinfeng Army, appointed Li as the commander of the capital of Qinfeng Army, and Guan Shigu as the deputy capital commander. An army of [-] troops attacked Xihe Road, and Wan Yanchang mobilized [-] civilians for logistics transportation at the same time, forcing [-] carts to transport food and supplies. One hundred thousand Qi troops marched towards Chengji County in a mighty manner, wanting to pull out the back of the Jin soldiers in one fell swoop. This poisonous stinger.

The time was the beginning of April in the fifth year of Shaoxing. At the same time, three flying eagles in Jingzhao City notified Chengji County of the news of the puppet Qi army's dispatch.

In the staff hall of the Chengji County Economic and Strategy Mansion, more than a dozen important generals He He and Zhang Xiao and other senior advisers participated in this military and political discussion.

Chen Qing looked at everyone solemnly, pointed at the sand table with a wooden pole and said slowly: "The latest news I just got is that there are only [-] puppet Qi troops in this Western Expedition, and no Jurchen troops participated. To Fengxiang, there are tens of thousands of carts in the luggage alone. This will be a significant battle. If we win, then we will have the strength to march on Shaanxi Road. If we lose, we will be lost. So this battle , will determine the fate of all of us.”

Zheng Ping asked: "Excuse me, Dutong, if the Jin soldiers do not participate in the battle, is it a strategy to divide the troops, such as the Jin soldiers attacking us from Hanzhong?"

Chen Qing shook his head, "In my opinion, Wan Yanchang is a pity for soldiers. The [-] Jurchen army is his foundation and the basis for him to fight for power within the Kingdom of Jin. He doesn't want any war losses, but things are not absolute. Once When the puppet Qi army captures Chengji County, the Jurchen cavalry will surely rush to fight for the fruits of the war."

"The first battle of the Puppet Qi Army was the Weishui Army City!"

Yang Zaixing suggested: "Are we going to add troops to Weishui Military City?"

Chen Qing said indifferently: "Actually, I want to withdraw the troops from the Weishui Army City. After the enemy troops enter Qinzhou, we will recapture the Weishui Army City, cut off the puppet Qi army's retreat, close the door and beat the dogs!"

Zhang Xiao frowned and said: "Dutong's idea is good, but in this way, the pressure on Chengji County will be too great. If Weishui City can weaken part of the enemy army, it will also be a kind of decompression for Chengji County. What do you think?"

Chen Qing was still unmoved, and continued to explain his reasons, "If the enemy army is 3 to [-], no problem, Weishui City can withstand it with [-] troops, but now the enemy army is [-] troops, Weishui City does not have this The ability to withstand an army of [-], once it can't resist, all [-] soldiers in the city will be killed, this is definitely not what I want to see.

If five thousand soldiers are placed in Chengji County, or after the enemy army is weakened, and then recapture Weishui City, cutting off the enemy's retreat, this will be a fatal blow to the enemy. "

At this time, Liu Qiong, who had just returned to Chengji County, clasped his fists and said, "I will report to Dutong, and I am willing to be the lord of Weishui City to implement Dutong's plan!"

Chapter 538 Under the City

The [-] puppet Qi army stretched for more than [-] miles, and they marched to the Weishui River Valley. They walked on the south bank, while the north bank was full of strange rocks and lush forests. There were no official roads, only pedestrian paths.

On the south bank, there is a flat gap several miles wide, and the official road passes through it, but now the Weishui Military City has been built here, cutting off the mouth of the Weihe valley.

I thought there would be a fierce battle, but to Li Cheng's surprise, the Weishui military city turned out to be an empty city, and the Song army all retreated.

Yao Bing was a little worried and said: "General, the Song army abandoned the Weishui military city, I am afraid they want to regain it and cut off our retreat."

Li Cheng smiled slightly: "If it were me, I would also retreat the defenders. Facing an army of [-], this military city cannot be defended, and the soldiers inside will just die in vain. It’s wonderful to have it, but it’s not easy to do it!”

Li Cheng immediately ordered: "Where is General Wang Long!"

A commander stepped forward and clasped his fists and said, "Humble position is here!"

Li Cheng pointed at Weishui Army City with his horsewhip and said, "I will give you 3000 people to guard Weishui City!"

"Humble post obeys orders!"

Li Cheng instructed him again: "Check thoroughly inside and outside the city, there must be no secret passages left by the Song army, so as to prevent the Song army from attacking and seizing the city!"

"Humble job must be carefully searched!"

Li Cheng nodded, waved his horsewhip, and ordered: "The army continues to march westward!"

Three thousand cavalry were the vanguard, exploring the way ahead, and one hundred thousand troops and countless supplies and heavy vehicles marched towards Chengji County in a mighty manner.

……

At this time, Chengji County was fully prepared. Not only the people within [-] miles around moved into the city, but also all the warehouse materials outside the city were transported into the city. Materials piled up like a mountain, and pig iron, copper ingots, silver nuggets, armor, bows, arrows, kerosene, gunpowder, etc. all reached the limit of the warehouse.

In addition, Chen Qing also transferred soldiers from various places, transferred inexperienced recruits to various places for garrison, and transferred veterans with rich combat experience back to Chengji County.

The total force in Chengji County has reached 5. There are more than [-] heavy-duty trebuchets, more than a hundred medium-sized trebuchets, and five thousand-step guns, which are super-catapults with a throw distance of more than [-] steps. machine.

Not only is the military force strong, the war preparations are abundant, but there are also two unprecedented inner and outer city walls, and the defense of the entire city is impenetrable.

Standing on the south wall of the outer city, Chen Qing looked at the overwhelming puppet Qi army several miles away. He said coldly to the generals: "This is the source of troops sent to us by the puppet Qi army. After this battle, we will completely Rising, no one can control our destiny anymore, this is the arrangement of God, I hope you will fight together with me!"

Hundreds of generals bowed together and said: "I am willing to serve the generals!"

Chen Qing said again: "Send the order out, Liu Qiong can wait for the opportunity to act!"

……

The [-] Puppet Qi Army began to camp in the south. The terrain of Chengji County is different from other counties. It is located between Jishui and Weishui, and Jishui flows into Weihe River two miles east of the city.

It is actually located in a triangular area. The Jishui in the east is open, and the puppet Qi army cannot attack from the east, and the Weishui River is two miles away to the north, so it is impossible to set up a battlefield.

The west is open, but compared to the west, the puppet Qi army is more willing to attack from the same open south, and is willing to camp in the south.

While the puppet Qi army was building a big camp five miles away, two thousand engineering soldiers quickly built a huge wooden platform in the wilderness about two miles away from Chengji County, which was actually an observation tower.

Li Cheng had just found out that his intelligence had gone wrong, and the Art of War said, 'Know yourself and the enemy, and you can win a hundred battles! 'As a famous general of the Qi State, Li Cheng also attaches great importance to intelligence collection.

He installed an intelligence point in Chengji County as early as last year. On the eve of his dispatch of troops, he also received a message from the intelligence point. There are only more than [-] troops in Chengji County. Moved to Huangzhou, and [-] troops escorted to Huangzhou.

The information was reasonable and reasonable, which convinced Li Cheng, but when he arrived in Chengji County, he accidentally discovered that the city had grown bigger. He had always known that the circumference of Chengji County was 25 miles, but now it has become more than 30 miles, or even four ten miles.

This change was not mentioned in the information, but Li Cheng knew the importance of the expansion of the city, so he simply ordered to build a watchtower, and he wanted to check the truth himself.

In just half a day, a huge eight-foot-high wooden platform was built. Li Cheng led a dozen generals onto the wooden platform and looked into the city from a distance.

The scene inside the city surprised Li Cheng immediately, and another city wall was built outside Chengji County, and the two city walls were connected by a chain bridge in the sky.

That is to say, the city wall he breached in front of him was only the outer city wall, and there was an equally tall and strong inner city wall inside.

Why didn't the intelligence point tell me such important information?

Also, didn't Yang Rui say that he was selected into the Jinglue Mansion Guard?It stands to reason that it should be easy for him to assassinate Chen Qing, but why hasn't there been any change in the city?

All kinds of signs showed that his various deployments in Chengji County had encountered major setbacks, and Li Cheng began to suspect that what he had obtained before was all false information, and that his intelligence station might have been controlled by Chen Qing.

"General Li, I'm afraid this battle will be difficult!"

The person who spoke was the deputy general Guan Shigu. He was originally the deputy envoy of Xihe Road Jinglue, but he was surrounded by Jin soldiers in Pingliang Mansion. He surrendered conditionally. More than ten thousand soldiers have become Chen Qing's subordinates, forming the backbone of Chen Qing's army.

Guan Shigu became a general of Qi again, and was highly valued by Liu Yu. He was appointed as the economic envoy of the Henan government and stationed in Luoyang. This time it was his army that was transferred to Guanzhong. Xihe Road.

Guan Shigu was a well-known general of the Western Army with rich experience, and he could see the defensive deployment of Chengji County at a glance.

Li Cheng glanced at him, and said calmly: "General Guan has rich experience, you might as well comment on Chengji County's defense."

Guan Shigu was also not polite, and said frankly: "This is no longer a simple defense, but both offensive and defensive. When we attack the inner city, we are likely to fall into it and be blocked in the sandwich city."

Li Cheng nodded. What Guan Shigu said was indeed reasonable, and he asked again: "How many troops does General Guan think the other party should have?"

Guan Shigu was surprised and said: "General Li attacked Chengji County on a large scale, don't you even know how many enemy troops there are?"

Li Cheng blushed and quickly explained: "I have deployed spies in Chengji County. As far as I know, the number of Song troops should be in the early 2s."

"Such a large inner and outer city, does the general think that 2 people can defend it?"

Guan Shigu said sarcastically, "The general's intelligence spies may be too busy doing business, forgetting about their duties, and making up a random number to make up for it."

Li Cheng was not angry. He sighed and said, "I suspect that they were taken over by the Song Army, and then they were instigated by the Song Army and sent me false information. Otherwise, I would have no idea about the Song Army's construction of the inner and outer city walls."

Guan Shigu also put away the sarcasm on his face, he pondered for a while and said: "Chen Qing is very good at defense, he will build an inner and outer city wall, and he will be equipped with a corresponding number of troops, and there will be no top-heavy situation. I guess he The army in the city should be around 5 people, so I say that this battle is not easy to fight, even if we partially break through the city and the army enters, I am afraid that the entire army will be wiped out."

"General Guan is right. It's just that we've reached this point and we can't retreat. We can only make up our minds to fight this battle. Besides, the opponent's city defense is not without weaknesses."

"Oh? Where is the weakness that the general sees?"

"The moat, their moat is Jishui. When our fleet to transport supplies arrives today, our fleet will sail directly into the moat and use strong bows, hard crossbows and fire oil balls to cover the attacking soldiers!"

"But warships can also be attacked by enemy kerosene."

Li Cheng said lightly: "I know that losses are inevitable, but even if there are losses, they can still cover the soldiers' siege. Maybe this is its fate!"

Chapter 539 Taking advantage of the chaos

The puppet Qi army was busy building a big camp. They wanted to build a plank-wall barracks. If they wanted to accommodate [-] troops, the scale would have to exceed a middle county. Such a huge project would take five to six days at the fastest to complete.

As night fell, the construction site was brightly lit, and thousands of soldiers were still busy day and night.

The [-] troops were resting three miles to the east. Li Cheng deployed three defensive patrols on the periphery, and [-] spies were in charge of guarding the periphery, including the first batch of grain and grass materials accompanying the army, which were also extremely tightly protected.

Li Chengcheng was worried that the Song army would attack the logistics at night, so he ordered that no tents be built before the camp was built to prevent it from being destroyed by the Song army's fire kites.

But in addition to the temporary camps for the [-] troops, there are also more than [-] three-thousand-stone ships moored on the banks of the Weihe River. Inside the ship, it has not been unloaded yet.

For this reason, Li Cheng ordered [-] troops to be stationed on both sides of the Weihe River to focus on the defense of the fleet.

However, the Song army was at home. No matter how tight Li Cheng's defense was, in the eyes of the Song army who was familiar with the terrain and rivers, there were still loopholes.

The flaw lies in the water surface of the Wei River, which is about a hundred feet wide. At night, soldiers standing on the bank can see the river surface thirty feet away at most. If there is no starlight and moonlight, they can only see a dozen feet away.

As a result, the water surface in the middle of the Wei River became a blind spot for soldiers on both sides of the strait. Li Cheng didn't realize this, but the Song Army scouts knew it clearly.

In the middle of the night, the moon shone through the thin clouds, looming, and the water surface of the Wei River was sometimes bright and sometimes dark. There were three puppet Qi army patrols on each side of the bank, monitoring every move on the water.

But right in the middle of the Weihe River, a group of sampans came silently. These sampans were actually pieces of wood with the front end slightly raised. Swim and hold the board.

The sampan walked close to the water surface, passed through the blind spots of the patrolling soldiers on both sides, and slowly approached the Weihe fleet under the cover of night.

There were seventy soldiers in total, and every two soldiers were in charge of a large ship. The soldiers were close to the inside of the large ship, and the patrolling soldiers on the shore could not see them.

Every large ship is covered with tarpaulins, and under the tarpaulins are all kinds of military supplies, basically kerosene, gunpowder, battle flags, war drums, tents, medicines, copper coins and other supplies, all of which are shipped from Fengxiang Mansion Supplies, grain, grass, armor, siege weapons, etc. are transported from Jingzhao in carts.

The soldiers of the Song Army didn't need to climb onto the big ship. They just unscrewed the leather bag and threw all ten bags of [-]-jin kerosene onto the ship. into the hull.

Immediately afterwards, one after another torches were thrown onto the big ship. There was a bang on the ship, and the flames spread rapidly. The soldiers dived into the water one after another and swam westward.

"It's on fire!"

The patrolling soldiers on the shore yelled.

'when!when!when! The rapid alarm bell rang, and countless soldiers woke up from their dreams, got up and ran to the banks of the Weihe River.

Many soldiers poured water on the big ships with buckets, but it was meaningless. The 35 large ships became more and more fierce, thick smoke billowed, and the kerosene in the ships was also ignited. Dozens of large ships were engulfed by the flames.