Chapter 170 Plan Failed
The three of them seemed to be having a pleasant conversation, but Li Yuanhui could keenly sense that Murong Jing was pretending to be calm.

And from time to time they would glance at the river in the distance. It was this behavior that made Li Yuanhui realize that there must be something wrong with these two people.

On the other side, Shen Shangze drank and ate calmly, but he rarely spoke.

Outside the pavilion were three guards. Not far away on the river bank were Li Yuanhui's personal guards, the Wuwei Camp, and more than a hundred warships, led by the navy's two five-tooth large ships.

Perhaps because Li Yuanhui brought enough people with him, the meal was relatively peaceful and nothing unexpected happened.

Murong Jing and Shen Shangfa also rejected Li Yuanhui's proposal to withdraw to Jianghuai, citing their responsibility to defend the territory.

Before coming, Li Yuanhui discussed with his staff how to use the Yuzhang County area to induce a fight between the Eastern and Western Wei.

After all, they were not bordering each other before. If you want them to fight, you have to let them reach each other.

The specific plan was to move the soldiers of Yuzhang County, their families and a large number of people to the north of the Yangtze River, and abandon all the counties including Haihun, Poyang, Chaisang, Yangxin and Pengze.

Afterwards, he secretly communicated with the Eastern and Western Wei respectively, and handed over the four counties west of Poyang Lake, namely Haihun, Chaisang, and Yangxin, to the Western Wei, and gave the two counties east of Poyang Lake to the Eastern Wei.

In this way, Poyang Lake became divided into two halves, the Eastern Wei and the Western Wei. However, due to the issue of legal legitimacy, it was impossible for the two to form an alliance.

Both of them are from Wei, and both claim to be the legitimate heirs of the Wei Dynasty, so it is bound to be a life-and-death situation.

To sum it up in four words, it is probably like driving a tiger to swallow a wolf. Of course, you can also say that while the snipe and the clam fight, the fisherman benefits.

But when the two met, Li Yuanhui knew that things were not going well.

Even if they brought too few people, they might not be able to return to Jiangbei. Fortunately, they had made sufficient preparations before coming, so Murong Jing and Shen Xingfa did not dare to act rashly.

"This kid is quite cautious. Did you see the Wuya warship on the riverside? There are at least hundreds of crossbowmen." Shen Shangxing sneered on the way back.

Murong Jing said: "Without any ability, how could you become the governor of Yangzhou before the age of 20?"

Shen Shangxing said: "He should have understood our intentions, and he will probably defend Jiangbei with all his strength. But this matter is not ours to worry about."

Murong Jing sighed and said, "This trip today probably offended Li Zhennan to the end. We can only follow the Great Wei to the end of our lives."

Shen Shangxing said: "Emperor Cao rose from humble beginnings, but within a few years, he had taken control of Jiangdong. He is at least a Sun Quan of the Eastern Wu. Moreover, he has promised us to continue to stay in Yuzhang, which is like a vassal state. What else is there to be dissatisfied about? Moreover, Emperor Cao also said that if he becomes the emperor of the unified country in the future, he can also make you the Duke of Yan and serve the Yan Dynasty as the legitimate ruler."

Murong Jing remained silent after hearing this. There was no room for him to regret this matter.

Open the bow without turning back the arrow.

On the Wuya warship sailing towards the Jianghuai direction, Li Yuanhui returned to his cabin on the top floor, immediately took out the map, and put a cross on the location of Yuzhang on it.

He then ordered someone to inform Zhou Ben that the situation had changed and that Xinchun and Xunyang counties would be abandoned. After the autumn harvest, the military and civilians of the two counties would be immediately withdrawn to Wanxian and Wankou areas.

On the way back, passing by Rushu River, Li Yuanhui deliberately stopped at the Dongguan Water Fort to inspect the defense construction. After confirming that the defense capability of this Dongguan was quite good, he continued to board the boat and return to Hefei.

The trip took nearly twenty days.

These twenty days are enough for a lot of things to happen.

Western Yan in Guanzhong began to gather troops and prepare to attack Longyou.

At the same time, Yizhou's army also began to gather in Hanzhong and transport food and grass.

And in Hebei, the war also began.

General Xue Shixiong, who was crossing the Liao River, led more than 30,000 elite border troops and after entering Yuguan, they joined forces with volunteers from Youbeiping and Liaoxi counties, border troops, and volunteers from nearby vassal states, totaling more than 10,000 people.

More than 40,000 troops were preparing to march south to provide support, but they encountered the army of Dingbei Khan Liu Huzhi and the 50,000 cavalry of the Turkic Yehu Elif in Guangyang County.

In this battle, the elite border troops of the Yan army were at a disadvantage in terms of numbers, with only about 45,000 people. The opponent was Liu Huzhi's army of 100,000, plus 50,000 Turkic cavalry, a total of 150,000 troops.

As a famous veteran general, Xue Shixiong, who was born in the Fenyin Xue family, fought for thirty years and had fought against the Turks, Goguryeo, Southern Wei, and Tuyuhun.

He is very experienced in fighting.

Since the scouts discovered the approximate traces of the main force of the Turks and Liu Hu's troops a hundred miles away last night, and knew that they would be waiting on the road that they had to pass, the Yan army began to prepare overnight. Everyone knew that there would be a big battle today, and everything seemed to be in order.

After a sumptuous pre-war meal, the assembly drums sounded, the drums shook the earth, the trombones blew, and the weeping and low trumpet sounds echoed across the grassland. The 40,000 Yan troops were divided into camps, units, teams, and ten-strong teams, and lined up one by one.

According to Xue Shixiong's deployment, this time the troops were sent out without any military vehicles or baggage, leaving only several thousand auxiliary soldiers to guard the camp. Only cavalry and infantry were used to deal with the Turkic cavalry and the rebel coalition forces, but this combat deployment still surprised everyone.

When Xue Shixiong proposed this plan at the pre-war meeting, it caused an uproar. When the Central Plains army was fighting with the Turks, they were worried about the fierce Turkic cavalry charging back and forth, so they adopted a formation of chariots, cavalry and infantry coordinating with each other. Deer horns, thorns and other objects were placed all around the formation, and the cavalry stayed in the innermost. This has always been the traditional tactic of the Central Plains army. But now they have to abandon the chariot formation and use cavalry to fight in the Turkic way. This is simply using one's own weakness to attack the enemy's strength.

The Xianbei Murong had ruled the Central Plains for thirty years, and most of the army had become mainly infantry. This tactic naturally appeared in the Yan army.

Xue Shixiong believed that if the emphasis was placed on defense and the offense was neglected, the initiative of the offense would be handed over to the Turkic Hu cavalry. In addition, the Hu cavalry was mobile and could come and go without a trace, making it difficult to completely defeat the enemy. The only way was to give up defending and attract the Turkic cavalry for a decisive battle.

Because this time the troops need to quickly defeat the Turks and Liu Hu's bandit army in front of them. After all, they are at a disadvantage in terms of military strength, so the best option is to fight and win quickly.

The cavalry accounted for more than half of Xue Shixiong's border troops, while the infantry only had 18,000 people, and the remaining 27,000 were cavalry. This was also his reliance.

So this time, Brother Xue plans to make full use of the powerful impact of the Central Plains heavy cavalry to defeat the enemy through cavalry warfare.

At this time, fifty miles away, more than 100,000 allied forces were also marching quickly, preparing to fight against the Yan army.

The Turkic Yehu Elif is the son of the former Qimin Khan. He is about forty years old this year, with blue eyes, broad face and a sturdy build.

He is narrow-minded, extremely vengeful, cruel and ruthless, but at the same time, he is as cunning as a wolf.

Elifu's five 10,000-man cavalry troops were not moving very fast. He was also waiting for news from the spies. He was riding on an extremely strong brown warhorse, which was a Dayuan horse tributed by the Shi Kingdom and given to him by his brother Shibi Khan. The horse was just over three years old and could gallop as fast as lightning. It could run for thousands of miles and was called the king of horses.

Ai Lifu looked towards the north with a hawk-like gaze, thinking in his mind how to deal with the chariot and cavalry formation of the Yan army. He had fought against the Yan army when he was young, and knew very well that this formation was not conducive to the Turks' advantage in terms of their sharp war horses. He was considering whether to divide his troops and go around the rear to engage in a war of attrition with the Yan army.

In the distance, three cavalrymen were galloping back. They were the spies he sent out. These Turkic scouts were intercepted by Yan army scouts. Most of them were killed and only these few escaped.

The scout immediately reported loudly: "Ye Hu, the main force of the Sui army has been discovered thirty miles ahead, about 50,000 people."

Elifer asked solemnly, "What is their formation? How many cavalry, infantry, and chariots are there?"

"Reporting to the Khan, it seems that there are more cavalry than infantry, but no chariots."

"What did you say?"

Elifer was stunned. He couldn't believe his ears. "They don't have chariots?"

"Yes! We saw it clearly. There was not a single chariot, only cavalry and infantry."

Elifer was stunned at first, then overjoyed. He dismounted and knelt on the ground, opened his arms to the sky, and shouted excitedly: "God bless me!"

Then he jumped on his horse and shouted to the Turkish cavalry behind him: "The gods are blessing us. We will directly defeat the main force of the Yan army. We will reward you with heads! The glory and spoils are all yours!"

The Turkic cavalry behind them roared to the sky, waving white Turkish flags and flashing swords in the sun. They were like an endless pack of wolves on the grassland, pouncing towards the main force of the Sui army thirty miles away.

Seeing the Turkic cavalry in front suddenly rushing forward, why didn't they let them go up first and consume the main force of the Yan army this time?
Liu Huzhi, who was standing behind the Turks, was a little surprised. "Are these wolf cubs crazy?"

PS: (Wang Fobao’s prototype is not Wang Baobao)

(End of this chapter)