Chapter 496 Watering and Building a Wall
On the west bank of the Qi River, Li Yuanhui pointed to the ice that had been broken in the Qi River and said, "Let's find some people who know how to fish and catch a few fish for me so I can have them for lunch."

Several generals and staff members around him all laughed when they heard this.

During the military meeting yesterday, Gao Kan, Yu Zhining and Jiang Yi all advocated crossing the Qi River to attack the enemy in Fangtou.

Judging from the situation alone, there is no problem with this strategy. Because the Tang army still has a slight advantage in terms of both sides' military strength, if they can defeat the enemy's front, not only will the morale of both sides increase, but it will also build more confidence for the next battle.

Otherwise, when Liu Xuanji leads his troops to arrive, their own forces will be at a disadvantage. The best strategy is to establish a defense line around Ji County and Gong County in the north, adopt a tactical defensive stance to counter the enemy's superior forces, consume the opponent's morale and wait for the moment to counterattack.

But Li Yuanhui had more tactical issues to consider. The first issue was how to cross the Qi River.

When the ground is completely frozen and it's difficult to break the ice, you don't have to worry about this problem and can just walk on it as if it were flat ground.

If there is no ice, it will be even simpler. We can just sail across from Baigou and land the navy.

The ice is not very thick now, so the boat cannot pass through. This is very embarrassing.

The second problem was that the strength of the Han army at Fangtou was not much different from that of the Tang army. Even if the Tang army crossed the river and defeated the enemy, its own losses would not be small.

If they cannot defeat the opponent immediately and the two sides become stalemate, by the time Liu Xuanji arrives with the main force, there will be no recovery.

Therefore, the plan to cross the Qishui River and attack Fangtou was rejected by Li Yuanhui, and defending Jixian and Gongxian was a bit passive, which had some impact on the current military morale.

After careful consideration, Li Yuanhui decided to push the battle line directly to the Qi River and build a camp to the west of the Qi River to induce the Han army to attack.

Because the Han army did not take the initiative to attack and the stalemate continued, Su Dingfang's troops in Wenxian and Yewang had no hope.

Therefore, the Han army's current move of digging open the Qi River feels like shooting itself in the foot.

Li Yuanhui asked people to go fishing, which was not very harmful but extremely insulting.

Under the cover of their colleagues, several Tang army soldiers who knew how to fish set up a tent directly by the river and started fishing as Li Yuanhui said.

As for this tent, it is not only for keeping warm, but mainly for protecting against arrows.

On the other side, the construction of the fortress was also progressing smoothly. After digging up a layer of frozen soil, the soil underneath was still relatively soft, making it easier to dig.

Dongfang Di, Hulu Mingyue and Xue Andu each led several thousand cavalry and tried to launch an attack several times, but they never found an opportunity.

Finally, when retreating, Xue Andu's troops were entangled by the cavalry of the Xiaoguo Army and the Shenwu Army.

Pei Xingyan, Xue Wanche and Duan Wuxuan each led hundreds of cavalry to pursue the enemy alternately. Seeing this, Xue Andu personally led his team to cover the rear, fighting and retreating all the way. Finally, Dongfang Di personally led his team to support them, and both sides stopped fighting and returned to their respective camps.

After Dongfang Di retreated to Hedong, he came to the river with several generals and watched the night gradually fall. It was getting darker, while the Tang army on the opposite side lit a bonfire, as if it was daytime. They continued to build camps.

There were also a large number of soldiers using wooden buckets to fetch water to build the earth walls.

Dongfang Di was a little surprised when he saw this, "What are you doing?"

Huolu Mingyue and Fu Hongzhi were completely clueless. Only Xue Andu suddenly realized, "This is imitating Cao Mengde's strategy of pouring water on the banks of the Wei River to form a wall and setting up camp to drive out Ma Chao!"

The three were all stunned when they heard this, because they knew that Cao Cao defeated Ma Chao on the banks of the Wei River, but they really didn't know how to pour water into a wall.

The main reason is that Hulu Mingyue is a Hu person, Dongfang Di and Fu Hongzhi are from humble backgrounds, and they have not received much education since childhood. Even if they can read now, they are only familiar with military orders, and at most have read military books such as Sun Tzu's Art of War.

As for the big books on classics and history, how could I have the time for that?

As for the military capabilities of these people, they all come from their long military careers and the experience accumulated from countless battles.

But Xue Andu was different. Although he was indeed a brave general, he was from the Fenyin Xue family, a prominent family in Hedong.

He practiced martial arts and studied since childhood. Even though he could not be called a master of both civil and military affairs, he was well versed in classics and history.

So he immediately thought of the content of "Cao Man's Biography" quoted in "Records of the Three Kingdoms". "At that time, every time the public army crossed the Wei River, they were always clashed by the Chao cavalry, and could not set up camp. The ground was also sandy and could not be used to build fortifications. Lou Zibo said to the public: Today is cold, you can build a city with sand and fill it with water. It can be completed overnight. The public followed his advice, and made many silk bags to carry water. At night, the soldiers crossed the river to build the city. By dawn, the city was established. From then on, the public army was able to cross the Wei River."

So he immediately explained to them: "At that time, Emperor Wu of Wei wanted to cross the Wei River to fight Ma Chao, but because Ma Chao's cavalry was so fast, he couldn't cross the river to set up camp. So now the Tang army uses this method, which will definitely make the mud wall stronger."

The faces of several people were a little solemn when they heard this. According to the Tang army's method of building a city wall, they saved the effort of tamping the earth into a wall, and it was enough to build the city wall in one night.

Dongfang Di said: "We can't let the Tang army build the city. We will lead the army to attack at night, and they will be able to build the city easily."

No one raised any objections. In fact, they all understood that the Tang army had bright lights on in front of the battle line and they had attacked the city overnight, so they must be on high alert. What's the point of a night attack?
It is simply to give a better explanation to Your Majesty.

As a result, the two sides fought several more battles at night. Although the Han army suffered some losses, it never had any substantial impact on the Tang army.

The next day, Dongfang Di, Xue Andu, Kuai En, Hulu Mingyue and others led 30,000 infantry and cavalry across the Qi River and launched an attack on the Tang army.

At this time, the Tang army camp had already taken shape, but Li Yuanhui ordered his troops to go out of the camp to fight.

He personally led the six armies of Tian Ce in the center, and ordered Chen Zhen and Liu Yuanqing to lead 10,000 people each to the left and right to fight against the Han army.

The Tang army was already in high spirits, and with Li Yuanhui personally leading the army, they were as powerful as a tiger.

The Han army was also a powerful army that had experienced many battles. When the two sides engaged in battle, it was like two huge waves colliding, merging, and swirling.

Countless waves were crushed in it. Corpses continued to pile up at the intersection of the two sides' battle lines, gradually forming a mountain of earth.

Arrows fell like rain and spears stood like a forest.

On the Tang side, 3,000 Longjie infantrymen were the vanguard, fiercely attacking the front of the Han army. Right Commander Ma Renyu led hundreds of archers to step on the pile of corpses and concentrated on shooting at the enemy. Even the heavily armored infantrymen could not be completely immune to arrow damage with such close range shooting. As a result, dozens of people were shot down immediately, and a gap appeared in the Han army's formation.

The Left Commander-in-Chief Zhang Qiong, wearing two layers of heavy armor, one layer of cotton armor, and one layer of Mingguang armor, was the first to rush into the gap with a Mo Dao in hand, killing people with blood and flesh flying everywhere. He was like a demon and no one could stop him.

Following closely behind were hundreds of elite soldiers, all armed with spears and axes, who immediately forced the Han army to retreat.

Dongfang Di personally went to the front line to supervise the battle. As the commander, he kept moving the banner forward and only then was he able to stop the decline.

But he also knew that he could not continue fighting this battle and had to retreat.

So after the defeat, the Han army slowly retreated, with each unit providing cover. But at this time, Chang Yanheng led the light cavalry to encircle them from behind, and Dongfang Di immediately sent Hulu Mingyue to lead the cavalry to intercept them, thus preventing the Tang cavalry from encircling them.

On the way of retreat, Kuai En, Xue Andu and Fu Hongzhi, three generals of the founding government, personally led the elite troops to cover the rear. The morale of the Tang army became increasingly high. In the end, the three generals were all injured and they fought until nightfall before they were able to escape.

In this battle, although the Han army was in a mess, it was never defeated. This also gave Li Yuanhui a more intuitive impression of the current combat effectiveness of the main force of the Han army.

The Han army did not collapse even after such a battle, which shows that they were well-trained and had a strong fighting spirit. After the battle, the casualties of both sides were very close. In other words, the combat effectiveness of the Tang army was only slightly stronger than that of the Han army, and there was no obvious advantage.

Basically, they are still on the same level. Don't even think about defeating the enemy in one fell swoop.
But after thinking about it, Li Yuanhui felt relieved.

When Liu Xuanji was by his side, he secretly learned a lot of methods of military management and training. The Han army also followed the institutional reforms of the Tang army over the years.

So many times, Li Yuanhui saw the shadow of the Tang army in the Han army.

It's really a copycat.

And as far as he knew, Liu Xuanji himself never shied away from this. He told the generals many times, "When I was dealing with the Li brothers in the past, I saw that they were both extraordinary talents in commanding troops. The ancients said that the wise should be the teacher. Now I am learning from them. Isn't that in line with what the sages said?"

Faced with this frankness, the chief general of Northern Han responded, "The Lord's bearing is beyond the reach of ordinary people."

If you want to defeat such an opponent, it seems that the only way is to make friends with time.

(End of this chapter)