Chapter 1100: Relentless Pursuit
After a day of fierce fighting, not only Qi Lord Gao Yang was not satisfied with the results achieved, Li Tai was also somewhat disappointed after taking stock of the results of the day.
After today's series of battles, the Western Wei side also had gains and losses. In several battlefields alone, the number of enemies killed, wounded or captured was nearly 5,000, and the actual number may be more, but the side also lost more than 3,000 people. In terms of defense and capture of positions, there were also gains and losses.
The upper reaches of the Tongdi River are relatively narrow and shallow, and some sections of the river with less silt and river sand and stones can be directly passed by cavalry. This is undoubtedly an excellent main attack direction for the Northern Qi, which has a large number of cavalry, so Li Tai equipped the right-wing army with nearly half of the current cavalry forces, including chariots to block cavalry attacks.
He Ruodun and other soldiers of the right army lived up to expectations. They not only successfully blocked the attack of the enemy cavalry brigade, but also directly captured a general of the enemy, Qi Lianmeng, and several other generals. While enhancing the military prestige, it also allowed Li Tai to learn more about the enemy's secret military information.
Of course, knowing more about the military information is not necessarily a good thing. According to Qi Lianmeng and others, the number of soldiers participating in the battle of Qi army this time is more than Li Tai expected.
Originally, he thought that Yang Zhong's troops would be able to contain some enemy troops from Jianzhou to the north and approach the Shangdang area. As a result, it is unknown how many enemy troops are left behind. However, the two armies met here, and there were as many as 150,000 to 160,000 troops involved in the battle, which is three times the number of Wei army participants!
In addition to being amazed at the strong military strength of Northern Qi, Li Tai also had a headache. Although war is not a simple comparison of panel data, panel data can still explain some problems, especially panel data with such a huge gap. For some people with weak wills, just listening to the difference in strength between each other will probably scare them.
Li Tai was not scared by this, but he was not very happy after all. Although he could comfort himself that the enemy army came more and died more this time, and he tried to kill the main force of Northern Qi in one battle.
But judging from the situation of today's battle, this idea is still difficult to realize. Even if Gao Yang also learned from Yuwen Tai to directly pull the gate on the battlefield, it is estimated that it would be difficult to achieve.
Although the losses of both sides seem to be more advantageous in the Western Wei, the Western Wei was originally the defensive party, and the consumption of troops should be less than that of the offensive party to be a reasonable record. Based on this alone, it is difficult to prove that the Western Wei army is more elite than the Northern Qi.
Moreover, due to the huge disparity in military strength between the two sides, once the situation on the battlefield turned into a series of hard battles, the Western Wei Dynasty would basically be defeated.
After all, the Northern Qi was strong and could withstand more attrition, and once the casualties in the army reached a certain ratio, every extra injury could become the last straw that broke the camel's back. No matter how brave and strong the Guanzhong soldiers were, they could not really fight to the last drop of blood here, because it was meaningless.
Li Tai's initial idea was, of course, not to fight a positional war with the enemy honestly, but to prepare to fight and retreat after actual combat with the main force of the enemy, thereby gradually attracting the main force of the enemy to the rear, relying on the advantageous locations occupied in advance such as Wusu City, Jiashiling and Qinshui River Valley to defend and counterattack, so that the enemy army would be immersed in the excitement of gradually regaining lost territory.
The Western Wei could rely on these terrains to move the battlefield back and shrink the front line, stretch the enemy's supply line in a series of tug-of-war battles, and weaken its manpower. After the strength comparison between the two sides is close to an acceptable ratio, they can complete a counterattack!
So he did not lead too many troops to the south to fight, and deployed a certain number of troops at the strongholds along the way. For example, the city of Wusu is no longer on the front line, but there are still more than 10,000 people left to support the transfer of the front-line divisions and brigades.
For the Wei army, if they want to achieve this intention, the powerful cavalry force of the enemy is a big obstacle. The focus of the battle here is to strike and weaken the enemy's cavalry force.
After a day of fighting today, this goal was achieved. The enemy's cavalry has not been able to perform amazingly on the battlefield, but at the same time the losses are not too great, and they still retain various combat capabilities such as frontal impact and roundabout.
Relatively speaking, the response and restraint methods prepared by the Wei army are not flexible enough, and it is difficult to adjust quickly with the changes in the battlefield situation. In particular, the Qi army's health is thicker than expected. According to the personality characteristics of Qi Lord Gao Yang, it is estimated that more extreme attrition tactics will be adopted in the future. Therefore, the next step to achieve the transfer of the battlefield is still a big obstacle.
Of course, these risks are also within the plan before the war. War is full of variables and risks. If you want to get enough benefits before your strength is not enough to form a crushing trend, the risk itself is part of the cost. As long as the tactics are not based on taking risks, there will be corresponding solutions for the twists and turns in the execution process.
For example, at present, after learning that the enemy's health bar is longer, Li Tai began to consider shortening the process of positional warfare here. In short, we must try our best to avoid a situation of attrition where each other cuts and blood soars.
Effective control has been established for the right-wing army position, which is currently the most threatening. It is difficult for the enemy cavalry to rush up along the Tongdi River.
However, on the front battlefield, the enemy has successfully established a forward position on the north bank after an attack. If nothing unexpected happens, they will definitely launch a fierce attack in this direction in the future, making it not only a bleeding point for the Wei army, but also a tie-up stake to limit the transfer of the main force of the Wei army.
There are ways to maintain limited exposure to the enemy and thus escape the battle smoothly, but the more difficult thing at the moment is how to strike a balance between risk and reward. If you just seek stability, you will lose the original intention of going on an expedition. If you just want to fight, you may fall into greater danger.
While Li Tai was still pondering how to choose, a personal soldier outside the tent came in and reported: "Your Majesty, an envoy from Wusu City came to the camp with a token to ask for an audience."
Li Tai frowned slightly after hearing this, and immediately called the envoy in. He found that the envoy was Liu Daiwei who stayed in Pingyang, Jinzhou. He immediately realized something and smiled at him, "Xiaosun, do you have any good news for me?"
After hearing this, Liu Daiwei also bowed and smiled, "Your Majesty, the Western Division lived up to expectations and conquered Baima City a few days ago. General Liang has already followed the Lord and ordered his troops to advance north to join forces with Duke Jianzhong to advance Queshu Valley. Tianshui Gongze led a total of 5,000 troops and brigades to escort the captured enemy generals from Jinzhou to the east. They have arrived at Wusu City. He sent me to the camp to report and ask for follow-up plans. "
Although Li Tai had expected it, he couldn't help but applaud and praised after hearing this: "This feat has finally been accomplished, you are all heroes!"
Although the series of military operations of the Western Wei Dynasty were not greatly affected by the cowardice of Wei Can, the chief general of Jinzhou, Jinzhou, but such a large city still stood in the occupied area, which more or less caused certain obstacles to the deployment of the military forces of the Western Wei Dynasty.
Now that this annoying nail has finally been pulled out, it naturally gives people a sense of refreshing relief. Especially at such a critical moment, it will undoubtedly bring some wonderful changes to the current war situation. Although Jinzhou had been besieged before, siege and fall are different after all, and the feelings it brings to people are also very different.
As for the 5,000 divisions led by Li Yunxin at this time, although they were still not enough to reverse the comparison of the enemy's strength, as an unplanned fresh force, if used properly, it could also play a considerable role!
Li Tai first quickly asked Liu Daiwei about the personnel gains after conquering Jinzhou and the military progress in the direction of Wei Xiaokuan, and then asked someone to lead him down to rest, and sent others to Wusu City to convey his instructions on the subsequent war, and asked someone to send Wei Can and other important enemy generals here at night.
At the same time, he arranged for soldiers to dig trenches, traps, chariots and other obstacles in front and behind the pond where the central army camp was located, creating a false impression of holding on.
While the soldiers were working hard to dig fortifications overnight, Li Tai summoned Gao Le, the commander of the left army defending on the west bank of the Zhuozhang River, and ordered him to launch a night attack on the right division of the Qi army.
The dilemma facing the Wei army at the moment is that the Qi army is too large in size. Even if they bite the hook, it is difficult to get out, and they may even drag themselves into the water. The solution to this problem is also very simple, that is, to cut and dismember the opponent directly!
After inspecting the camp, Qi Lord Gao Yang did not leave directly, but discussed the rhythm of tomorrow's attack with Xue Guyan and several other forward generals. Just as he was about to leave, the Wei army began to build fortifications on the slope.
Seeing this scene by the firelight outside the camp, Xue Guyan's face suddenly darkened, and he sighed: "In the battle during the day, the enemy was afraid of our strength, and now they are building a lot of fortifications, I think they want to hold on and not come out. It will be more difficult to attack tomorrow."
Gao Yang had a different view on this: "What good is it for the enemy to occupy this place? We must prevent them from retreating in the face of the battle and luring us to attack, using Wusu and other cities as barriers. In the battle tomorrow, you must not relax, pursue and attack hard, and do not allow the enemy's main force to retreat and escape from the battle!"
After explaining Xue Guyan and others, Gao Yang was still a little worried. The enemy has a strong control over Wusu and its surrounding areas. Even he was forced to go south to join forces with Duan Shao to fight. Once the enemy's main force withdraws there, the situation will be very different. Now that we have finally got the opportunity to fight the enemy's main force, it is of course more beneficial to Northern Qi to resolve it in this battle.
Thinking of this, he hurriedly sent someone to notify and remind Heba Ren of the right-wing army, asking him to pay close attention to the enemy's movements, and if he detected any unusual enemy situation, he should immediately cross the river to intercept the enemy's retreat and make sure that the enemy could not evacuate!