Chapter 869 Traps and Patience!
After hearing Zheng Chuang’s report, Yuan Song looked at the sand table in front of him and fell into deep thought again···················

Before the war, the Fengwu Army was mainly composed of the Second Army and the Third Army, which had a total of over 100,000 soldiers. Although there were 100,000 soldiers, it did not mean that Yuan Song could use all of them for the attack. After all, the Fengwu Army also had to guard Jinzhong and other counties.

Therefore, after consultation between Yuan Song and the commander of the Fourth Army, Xun Ke, they decided to leave the newly reorganized Fourth Division behind as the general reserve force of the Fengwu Army in the Yunbing battlefield.

Therefore, the troops that Yuan Song could mobilize were the Second Division of the Second Army, the Eighth Division, and the Third Division of the Third Army, with a total number of about 80,000. After fighting for more than a month, although the Fengwu Army won a great victory and wiped out the Yunbing Army of nearly 30,000, it also suffered more than 5,000 casualties in the battle with the Yunbing Army.

In the current situation, with the Fengwu Army's military strength in Yunbing, it would not be a big problem if they were only to deal with Wang Muzhi in Jinyang City and the tens of thousands of defeated soldiers under Wang Muzhi's command.

However, with the arrival of Yang Chongqing and tens of thousands of imperial guards, the Fengwu Army’s manpower seemed a little stretched. After realizing this problem, Yuan Song planned to ask Ye Mingsheng for reinforcements, hoping that Ye Mingsheng would deploy the originally promised reserve troops to the Yunbing battlefield...

However, what surprised Yuan Song was that before he could ask Ye Mingsheng for help, he received a notice that the 9th and 10th Divisions were coming to Yunbing for reinforcements. In addition to the more than 35,000 people in these two divisions, Ye Mingsheng also provided him with military supplies including dozens of heavy artillery.

After realizing that these soldiers and military supplies were about to arrive, Yuan Song's confidence in defeating his former boss Yang Chongqing and winning the battle of Yunbing rose again!

After a moment of silence, Yuan Song asked Zheng Chuang again:

"What's going on in the direction of Pingyang?"

Zheng Chuang preached without hesitation:
"According to the report sent by the Third Army, under your command, Commander-in-Chief Xun has already carried out several artillery bombardments on Wei Pass. In cooperation with the Coordination Office, he dispatched soldiers from the Flying Tiger Battalion to cross Wei Pass through the mountain roads and carried out several decapitation operations against enemy officers and generals in Guanzhong. The results of the operations are remarkable!"

Upon hearing this news, Yuan Song nodded slightly. Seeing this, Zheng Chuang, the lieutenant general, boldly suggested:

"Commander-in-chief, judging from the current situation, Yang Chongqing has basically decided to attack Yunbing Imperial Army from the direction of Shizhou, so it may be a bit of a waste to keep the Third Division in Pingyang!"

"The terrain around Jinyang is flat and suitable for cavalry combat. The more than 11,000 cavalrymen of the Third Division will be an important magic weapon for our army to win!"

Yuan Song gave Zheng Chuang an appreciative look at his suggestion, and then spoke confidently:

"Your idea is very good, but I have other plans for the Third Division..."

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While Yuan Song was listening to Zheng Chuang's report, a few hundred miles away in Shizhou, Yang Chongqing was also standing by the sand table studying the situation in Yunbing.

He had received information from scouts that Yuan Song had withdrawn his troops from the city of Jinyang and the Fengwu Army had withdrawn to Xiaode County.

This also allowed Yang Chongqing to accomplish his most basic goal of leading his troops to support Yun Bing - to lift the siege of Jinyang!
After hearing the news, the imperial guards of Shizhou celebrated, believing that it was Yang Chongqing who came out of retirement. The victory in the battle of Shizhou greatly frightened the Fengwu Army, causing it to flee without a fight. Some even sneered at Yuan Song, who was known as the best general of the Fengwu Army, and believed that he was just a weakling with a silver spear who was frightened by Yang Chongqing!

Yang Chongqing was well aware of these situations, but he chose to let them go. The reason he did so was that in the past year, the Luoan court had suffered a series of defeats against the Fengwu Army, which also affected the morale of the army.

Even when they set out to support Yunbing, some deserters appeared because they heard that they would have to fight the Fengwu Army. Although the number of deserters was not large, it also made Yang Chongqing very angry!
In his eyes, the Imperial Guards were the most elite troops of the Great Zhou Dynasty. How could he be so cowardly before the war even started?
While dealing with deserters seriously, Yang Chongqing was also deeply aware that the imperial guards were somewhat afraid of the Fengwu Army.

As a general who has been on many battlefields, Yang Chongqing understands very well the principle that the brave will win when two meet in a narrow road!

When fighting against a powerful opponent like the Fengwu Army, if you are timid, you have already lost half the battle and it will be difficult to win the final victory!

Therefore, in order to change the Imperial Guards' fear of the Fengwu Army, Yang Chongqing vigorously publicized the victory of the Shizhou Battle and paraded the captured Fengwu Army soldiers through the streets, allowing the Imperial Guards to humiliate them as much as they wanted. In this way, he eliminated the soldiers' fear of the Fengwu Army and strengthened their confidence!

It has to be said that Yang Chongqing's method is still very useful. The morale of the imperial guards is now very high. They are clamoring, and they can't wait to have a decisive battle with the Fengwu Army tomorrow, and the day after tomorrow rush into Yijing to torture the dog thief Ye Mingsheng to death and kill the entire Ye family!

Under such circumstances, after learning the news that Yuan Song had retreated to Xiaode County, the imperial guards also requested to fight, requesting Yang Chongqing to order a march towards Jinyang as soon as possible to join the Yunbing army in Jinyang City and completely save the situation of Yunbing!
However, Yang Chongqing flatly refused this. Although the morale of the army was high due to his various means, Yang Chongqing, as the last famous general of the Luoan court and the commander-in-chief of the army, still kept a cool head and was not swayed by the high emotions of the army...
Yang Chongqing knew very well that the reason why Yuan Song took the initiative to lift the siege of Jinyang and withdrew the Fengwu Army to Xiaode County was not because Yuan Song was frightened by him!

As a general, he realized during his research on the rise of Fengwu that Yuan Song, known as the first general of Fengwu Army, played an indispensable and key role in Fengwu Army's foreign wars! Yuan Song's style is calm and sophisticated, but he is also full of inspiration and surprise. He fully demonstrated his military talent in Fengwu Army's wars against Youyan and Jiyu. So it is impossible for such a person to be frightened by his victory of annihilating thousands of people and give in!

Therefore, in Yang Chongqing's eyes, there were two reasons why Yuan Song took the initiative to lift the siege of Jinyang and withdraw his troops to Xiaode County!
The first reason is that Yuan Song has keenly realized that the current strength of the Fengwu Army in Yunbing is not enough to capture Jinyang, the northern city!

The second reason is the key point. Yuan Song set a trap for himself under the city of Jinyang!
The assembly and mobilization of troops, especially the assembly and mobilization of tens of thousands of troops, is not a simple task that can be completed quickly. It takes a certain amount of time!

It was for this reason that Yang Chongqing, who realized the urgency of the situation in Jinyang at that time, gave up the plan to gather the imperial guards in Luoan for action, and instead went to Yanzhou in person to lead 10,000 Tiger Army troops there to raid Shizhou...

Although almost ten days have passed since the capture of Shizhou, due to the relatively long journey, not all of the assembled imperial guards have arrived in Shizhou. Currently, there are only 37,000 people in Shizhou, and nearly 50,000 more imperial guards will arrive in Shizhou later.

And Yuan Song saw this point and chose to retreat voluntarily, trying to lure himself out of Shizhou and lead more than 30,000 people to Jinyang!

On the surface, there are nearly 30,000 Yunbing troops in Jinyang City, and he now has more than 30,000 troops under his command. As long as he leads his troops to Jinyang, he can basically ensure the safety of Jinyang. Even if he confronts the Fengwu Army head-on, there will be no problem. He even has an advantage in military strength!

But after communicating with Wang Muzhi in Jinyang City, Yang Chongqing realized that the situation looked so good!

Although the current Yunbing Army still has 30,000 troops, more than 70% of them are new recruits who have just joined the army. They have only undergone less than three months of training and have no practical experience.

Not only that, the previous series of defeats basically wiped out most of the Yun Bing army's assets, which also resulted in the Yun Bing army in the city now being equipped with only a small number of firearms. In terms of armor, only a few thousand people have cotton armor, and the remaining more than 20,000 people have no armor at all, only simple swords and spears.
As for the morale of the army, unlike the Imperial Army which was only somewhat afraid of the Fengwu Army, the Yunbing Army was completely discouraged from top to bottom...

Based on all these circumstances, although the Yunbing Army claims to be a regular army, the remaining tens of thousands of people will not be much stronger than the refugees and bandits when facing the Fengwu Army. If they defend the city under the protection of the city, they may still be able to deal with the Fengwu Army. However, if they go out of the city and fight the Fengwu Army in the field, Yang Chongqing doubts whether they will collapse at the first touch!
At the same time, Yang Chongqing was very clear that if he led his troops towards Jinyang, Yuan Song would never let him lead his troops into the city.

Shizhou is about 500 miles away from Jinyang, and Xiaode County is less than 100 miles away from Jinyang. Therefore, when he leads his troops to the vicinity of Jinyang, he will definitely encounter the Second Army of the Fengwu Army led by Yuan Song, who is well-rested. They will engage in a fierce battle with him and prevent him from entering Jinyang City!
Perhaps Yuan Song will arrange several thousand people to guard against Wang Muzhi's Yunbing Army, but his own troops will still be at a disadvantage!

If that were the case, Yang Chongqing would definitely lead his troops to Jinyang. He was very confident in his own abilities and the combat effectiveness of the imperial guards. He felt that even if he was at a disadvantage in terms of physical strength and manpower, he would be able to defeat Yuan Song in the vicinity of Jinyang!

But the problem is that Yuan Song has a very insidious trump card!

This trump card is the 3rd Division of the Fengwu Army located in Pingyang·····························

As the only division-level combat unit of the Fengwu Army equipped with tens of thousands of cavalry, Yang Chongqing never dared to underestimate their combat effectiveness!

Judging from the current situation, Yuan Song seems to have placed them in Pingyang Prefecture to guard against the Luoan Imperial Army leaving Wei Pass and heading towards Yunbing!
However, Yang Chongqing was able to realize that once he led his troops to the vicinity of Jinyang, the cavalry of the Third Division in Pingyang would cut off his retreat!
That's tens of thousands of cavalrymen. Although the terrain of Yunbing restricts their performance to a certain extent, tens of thousands of cavalrymen can still unleash powerful combat effectiveness!

With the Fengwu Army attacking from both sides, there will be no chance of luck, and failure or annihilation will be the only results!
It was because he saw through Yuan Song's trap that Yang Chongqing hesitated to send reinforcements to Jinyang and continued to stay in Shizhou waiting for the arrival of the follow-up troops of the imperial guards.

This method seems very safe, but the fact that you have reinforcements does not mean that the Fengwu Army does not have them. Through the intelligence network of the Supervisory Office, Yang Chongqing already knows that the Fengwu Army's 9th and 10th Divisions, as well as a large number of military supplies will soon arrive at the front line.

Therefore, even if we wait until all the imperial guards arrive in Shizhou, our side will still be at a disadvantage. Yang Chongqing is helpless about this.
In the face of this predicament, Yang Chongqing also thought of ways to break the impasse. For example, when he led his troops to Jinyang, he ordered the imperial guards to take some actions in the direction of Wei Pass to attract the Third Division of the Fengwu Army firmly in Pingyang and prevent them from cutting off his retreat!

But the problem is that the Third Division of the Fengwu Army is the main ace division of the Fengwu Army with a total strength of nearly 25,000 people. So even if more than 10,000 cavalry of the Third Army leave, the Third Division still has more than 10,000 people guarding Pingyang.

Given the strength of the Luoan Imperial Guards in the Wei Pass direction, it would be difficult for them to capture Pingyang, which was defended by more than 10,000 Fengwu troops, so it was basically impossible to tie down the Fengwu cavalry.

Not to mention that the Fengwu Army in Pingyang was very active. First, it bombarded Wei Pass, and then sent a small group of troops to bypass Wei Pass through the mountain roads and enter Guanzhong, carrying out a decapitation operation against the generals and officials in Guanzhong. Although these actions did not have much significance in terms of the battle situation, they had a strong political impact!

They made the dignitaries in Luoan realize that they were not safe, so the people of Luoan would be in panic. Shangguan Changgong was also overwhelmed and could only hope that the Supervisory Office could play a role. Fortunately, Murong Lun had been trying his best to stabilize the court at this time, otherwise things would be even more troublesome!
Therefore, considering the above circumstances, Yang Chongqing could only choose to endure and wait for the right time to show his fangs to the Fengwu Army.
(End of this chapter)