Chapter 842

Tang Yin carefully studied Fan Shan's opinion and finally decided to adopt the latest chapter. It was not that he thought Fan Shan's strategy was so brilliant, but that he could not think of any other strategy to deal with the enemy. However, Tang Yin did not break his promise and promoted Fan Shan's position of military counselor to military assistant.

The rank of military assistant is higher than that of military counselor, second only to military advisor. He can directly make suggestions to the king and is also qualified to participate in large-scale military meetings.

According to Fan Shan's opinion, Tang Yin left the Western Border Army in Gaochuan County and ordered it to avoid the enemy's edge, hide in the jungle, and specialize in the logistics of sneak attacks on the enemy.

Tang Yin was able to leave the Western Border Army headed by Zuo Shuang in Gaochuan County, showing great trust in Zuo Shuang and the Western Border Army, which made Zuo Shuang very excited and completely determined to follow Tang Yin to death. In the following battles, the Western Border Army in Gaochuan County greatly restrained the Chuanzhen coalition forces and became their confidant, which greatly reduced Tang Yin's pressure.

As for Tang Yin, he sent out the Chifeng Army and the Western Border Army successively, leaving only the direct army and the new army under his command, and the number of troops was sharply reduced to 200,000. However, these 200,000 people still have hidden dangers, and the combat effectiveness of the new army is a big problem that Tang Yin is worried about.

Tang Yin did not stay in Gaochuan County for long, and marched all the way to the northeast, heading straight for Jinyang.

Five days later, the Feng Army arrived in Jinyang.

When he arrived in Jinyang, Tang Yin couldn't tell what he felt in his heart. Jinyang is actually not small, but the problem is that its city is very small, with a radius of only a few miles. Outside the city wall, there are densely packed houses and streets. If all these houses are counted, then the area of ​​Jinyang must be expanded by at least one or two times.

Obviously, there was a problem with Jinyang's original planning. The city was built too small. With the increase in population, the original urban area could not accommodate so many people. The people who had nowhere to live could only build houses outside the city wall.

After the Feng army arrived in Jinyang, they could not deploy defenses first, but had to clear out the people inside and outside the city walls first. Otherwise, when the battle started, the swords and guns were blind, and I don’t know how many people would be killed by mistake!

Tang Yin also ordered Le Tian and Ai Jia to send letters to the city lords of Songqiu, Ningding, and Taifeng respectively, asking them to organize troops and manpower to prepare for defense. The main force of the Chuanzhen coalition could attack at any time. The city lords of the three cities received Tang Yin’s order, so they dared not delay, and sent letters to the county and county, requesting the county and county soldiers to reinforce immediately. At the same time, they also gathered the officers and soldiers in the city to strengthen the city defense and store food and grass.

The Feng army arrived in Jinyang for only one day, and the people of Jinyang were almost all gone, and only some strong men who were willing to stay and do hard labor were left. The city lord of Jinyang City did not run away, nor did he dare to run away. He organized the few officers and soldiers and strong men in the city to cooperate with the Feng army to deploy defenses.

Tang Yin inspected his own defense on the city wall. Looking at the empty houses inside and outside the city, he sighed. When fighting on the homeland, no matter whether the battle went smoothly or not, the people of the country would suffer in the end.

The Feng Army did not waste the houses outside the city wall. They set up traps in every house. Although they were crude, they could definitely kill the enemy soldiers. All the Feng Army's catapults were also concentrated in the city. Once the enemy ran into the houses to avoid their own arrows, the stone bullets from the catapults could collapse the houses and kill the enemy.

Tang Yin made preparations in Jinyang and waited for the Chuanzhen coalition to attack.

At this time, the Chuanzhen coalition was still moving slowly in Gaochuan County.

The terrain of Gaochuan County is too complicated, with many mountains and forests. Ren Fang dared not advance rashly, fearing that he would be ambushed by the Feng Army. Although the spies had reported to him that Tang Yin led his army into Jinyang City, Ren Fang was still cautious. In addition, the Sichuan Army had too much baggage, so it was difficult to move fast. Heavy siege weapons such as catapults, battering rams, thunder chariots, cloud chariots, and arrow towers were extremely difficult to move on the mountain roads of Gaochuan County.

The advantage of slow marching is that it can prevent the enemy's ambush, and secondly, it also gives Ren Fang enough time to figure out the combat intentions of the Feng Army.

Nie Ze disagreed with the Feng Army's retreat to Jinyang. According to the intelligence sent back by the spies, Jinyang was just a small city with low walls. In his opinion, Tang Yin was seeking his own death.

He disliked the Sichuan Army for moving too slowly, so he proposed to Ren Fang that he would lead 250,000 Zhen troops to go first, and wait until he broke through Jinyang and cut off Tang Yin's head, and then come back to meet him. From what Nie Ze said, it seems that even if he led his army to capture Jinyang, the Sichuan Army might not be able to reach Jinyang.

After listening to his words, Ren Fang shook his head and smiled, saying: "General Nie, Tang Yin is not a monarch who does not understand military affairs. Don't you have any doubts in your heart about why he chose to garrison in the small city of Jinyang?"

Nie Ze blinked his eyes and said nonchalantly: "He must have been chased by our army and had no choice but to choose Jinyang to resist our army."

Ren Fang sighed, asked someone to get a map, spread it on the ground, then raised his head to Nie Ze and said: "General Nie, you see, the layout around Jinyang is very interesting. It is adjacent to the three cities. Songqiu, Ningding and Taifeng are less than 100 miles away from Jinyang. If our army attacks Jinyang, once the three cities send troops to reinforce, they can arrive in less than a day. Then, won't my army attacking the city be attacked from both sides?"

Nie Ze took a breath. He really hadn't studied the terrain around Jinyang carefully. He lowered his head and looked at the map carefully. He found that what Ren Fang said was right. The layout of Jinyang and the surrounding three cities was indeed very strange, mainly because they were too close. He subconsciously asked, "How many troops are there in Songqiu, Ningding, and Taifeng?"

Ren Fang shook his head and said: "The spies who went out to investigate have not returned yet. The specific situation is not clear. However, there are many troops who want to come to these three cities. Otherwise, Tang Yin would never be so confident and bold to station in Jinyang."

Nie Ze was also a commander who was good at using troops. After listening to Ren Fang's analysis, he secretly thought that it made sense. He rubbed his chin and murmured: "This is a bit troublesome." As he spoke, he raised his head and asked Ren Fang: "Ren Fang Handsome, what are your plans?"

Ren Fang smiled and said: "I never fail to come up with a good idea. General Nie, do you still want to fight the first battle now?"

This time Nie Ze was no longer eager to ask for a fight. He shook his head and said, "I am confident that I can defeat Jinyang alone, but there are three damn cities as its backup. This battle only depends on me." We can’t fight with one army!”

"So, we should march slowly and think of ways to defeat the enemy as we go." Ren Fang said with a smile.

He said he had no idea of ​​a solution, but in fact he already had a plan in mind. Ren Fang was an expert in fighting tough battles. He had captured at least dozens of cities for the Sichuan Kingdom. He was rich in experience and experienced in using troops. In his opinion, it is easy to defeat Jinyang. Encirclement and reinforcements are simply a feigned attack on Jinyang, leading Songqiu, Ningding, and Taifeng to send troops for reinforcements. Whichever side comes first will attack whichever side comes first, and let them have no chance of coming back.

Fighting is actually about the commanders of the two armies trying to figure out each other's thoughts. If the calculation is correct, they can defeat the enemy step by step in the next battle. If the calculation is wrong, they will be defeated by the enemy.

Ren Fang believed that if Tang Yin dared to garrison Jinyang, there must be heavy troops in the three surrounding cities. In fact, the troops in Songqiu, Ningding, and Taifeng were not many, and together they might not be able to reach 5,000 people. Fan Shan's strategy itself was a risky move. The reason why Tang Yin adopted it was because there was no other way, and he also had a strong adventurous spirit.

The Sichuan-Zhen Allied Forces continued to advance slowly, going back and forth to explore and bring back batches of intelligence to the army. Among them, the detective horses who had inquired about the three cities of Songqiu, Ningding, and Taifeng also returned one after another. The information they found was quite beyond Ren Fang's expectations. The result they found out was that the defenders of Songqiu, Ningding, and Taifeng each only had more than a thousand troops. Man, that's a far cry from Let's Calculate.

If the scouting report is true, and the strength of the three cities is less than 5,000, then there is no way to reinforce Jinyang. Jinyang is no different from Gucheng, but the question is, is our own spying report true? Could it be that the other party has hidden all its main forces?

The better someone is at commanding troops, the more arrogant he becomes. This was the case with Rong Fang, because the intelligence brought back by the spies was contrary to common sense. He did not believe it at all, and still insisted on the tactics he originally conceived, and surrounded the points for reinforcements.

A few days later, the Sichuan army arrived at Lishan City in Gaochuan County. An army of more than 600,000 troops captured Lishan with almost no effort.

After crossing Lishan and heading north, Jinyang was five hundred miles away. Ren Fang deliberately left 20,000 troops to garrison Lishan City and used this place as a logistics base for the Sichuan-Zhen Allied Forces to store grain, grass and luggage.

Three days later, the main force of the Sichuan-Zhenjun coalition finally arrived in Jinyang.

Seeing the weird city of Jinyang, both the Sichuan and Zhen armies were very surprised. Although there are examples of private houses built outside the city walls in other cities, the scales are not large, and there are only a few scattered ones. Jinyang is better, the number of private houses outside the city walls is greater than that inside the city walls, and the area is also much larger.

Nie Ze, who was watching, couldn't close his mouth and sneered: "How was the city wall in Jinyang built? How come it was built into private houses? The city lord who built the city wall in the first place should have been cut into pieces!"

Ren Fang was also happy and said: "I think this person has been buried for hundreds of years!"

Nie Ze asked: "How about we first send out troops to explore the strength of the Feng Army?"

Ren Fang waved his hand and said, "Don't worry, our army has come a long way and is tired. It's not too late to rest for a day."

Nie Ze didn't feel anything else when he fought with Ren Fang, but he was deeply impressed by his caring for the soldiers. Nie Ze had no objection and nodded in response: "Okay, everything is up to Ren Shuai!"

The Sichuan and Zhen coalition forces set up camp two miles away from Jinyang. Later, Ren Fang selected a group of elite men from the Orion army and asked them to wait until dark and sneak into the houses outside Jinyang City. , to destroy the traps set inside.

Nie Ze was very surprised by his order and couldn't help but ask: "Shuai Ren, how did you know there were traps in private houses?"

Ren Fang smiled and said: "The Feng Army did not leave so many private houses outside the city to hide arrows from our army. If my prediction is correct, there must be traps in them."