Chapter 34 Seven, mentoring

Murong Shaozong fought a beautiful battle in Hanshan and captured the royal commander of Liang Kingdom alive.But he didn't hold a big banquet in Pengcheng, and held a big celebration party. Instead, he struck while the iron was hot, with banners pointing westward, and he drove forward, and a hundred thousand armored men went straight to attack Hou Jing, the culprit of the disaster.During the march, Du Bi, the commander of the army, wrote an essay to spread in the territory of Liang State, listing Hou Jing's crimes, and warning Emperor Wu of Liang to support Hou Jing's end. Because Hou Jing couldn't capture Qiaocheng (now northeast of Shangqiu, Henan Province) to the west of Pengcheng, he had just retreated to the small city Chengfu (now southeast of Boxian County, Anhui Province) in the south to defend.Hearing that the Liang army was defeated, he led his army to retreat to Guoyang (now Mengcheng, Anhui), the governor of Nanyanzhou.At this time, Hou Jing's supplies had shrunk greatly, leaving only thousands of carts, thousands of horses, and 40,000 soldiers.

Seeing that everything has gone wrong since the rise of the army, Hou Jing, who was originally defiant, was inevitably a little scared.Murong Shaozong approached Guoyang, Hou Jing sent someone to ask "Master" Murong Shaozong: "Duke Ming's army is here, do they want to see me off, or do they want to fight me?" The implication is, Master Is your purpose to restore the old soil, or arrest me and return to my life?If you don't push people too far, you can still have room for negotiation, otherwise, you will have to fight hard. Murong Shaozong was unambiguous, and he immediately responded to Hou Jing and said: "I want to win with the public!" There is no room for maneuver.

Hou Jing was still struggling, and the 40,000 people on hand, although at an absolute disadvantage in numbers, were still the elite of Hou Jing's elite.Since there is no way out, he can only make a desperate fight with the last blood. It was the twelfth lunar month of winter, and the cold wind was blowing heavily. Murong Shaozong took the opportunity to seize the weather, formed an formation against the wind, and sent his subordinates to challenge in front of the formation. (The so-called "wind formation" means that the troops face the wind with their backs blowing. In this way, when fighting, the wind blows right in front of the opponent, making the opponent unable to open his eyes, and the charge is also hindered by the wind, so that he cannot run fast; With the help of the wind, the charge is less labor-intensive and the offensive will be more violent. There are many famous examples in history of using tailwinds to achieve decisive victories, such as the Shanhaiguan battle in the late Ming and early Qing. Fighting on a stone in the north of Shanhaiguan. When the two sides were stalemate, Dorgon's Qing army suddenly appeared and took advantage of the wind to defeat the Dashun army in one fell swoop, thus opening the Qing Dynasty for nearly three hundred years.)

Hou Jing has rich experience, so of course he knows how powerful the wind blows.The hero didn't suffer the immediate loss, so he simply ordered the gates of the camp to be closed, so as not to come out. After the strong wind passed, Hou Jing opened the gate of the camp and led his army to fight.Murong Shaozong, who knew Hou Jing's temperament, was suspicious that Hou Jing would divide his troops to attack, and analyzed to his subordinates: "Hou Jing is a scheming man, and he likes to take advantage of his opponent's unpreparedness to carry out sneak attacks..." He hadn't finished his analysis here, when Hou Jing suddenly rushed out thousands of soldiers, all wearing short armor and holding short knives, rushing into the formation of the Eastern Wei army.The army of the Eastern Wei Dynasty was dominated by cavalry. When Hou Jing released such a group of infantry all of a sudden, everyone didn't understand what was going on, and they didn't know how to deal with it.When the cavalrymen of the Eastern Wei Dynasty were in a daze, Hou Jing's soldiers raised their knives and rushed towards the Xiasan Road of the Eastern Wei Army, cutting off the feet and legs of the horses. When the horses fell, the people fell to the ground with them.

The reason why people have a sense of fear is due to their ignorance of the unknown.For example, people are afraid of death, because no one knows what it is like to die.Hou Jing's move took advantage of this point. In the northern plains, under similar conditions (that is, similar numbers, morale, and combat effectiveness), infantry was almost recognized as impossible to defeat cavalry.The Eastern Wei cavalry had never seen this kind of infantry posture, and the more they didn't understand it, the more frightened they felt.Hundreds of people in front fell to the ground, and those behind were even more panicked.In an instant, the Eastern Wei army was defeated, and even Murong Shaozong's own horse was caught, and fell off the horse. Fortunately, he was protected by his left and right sides, so he was not caught.Some of the rest of the generals had their ankles hacked, some were captured alive, and it was a mess.Seeing that the situation was not good, Murong Shaozong quickly led his army to flee and retreated to Qiaocheng, where he was initially shocked.

Murong Shaozong's generals, Hu Luguang and Zhang Shi, were full of blood, and felt that they lost for no reason. They thought that Murong Shaozong, whom Gao Huan praised as "Hou Jing's nemesis", was nothing more than that, and felt a little bit complaining.Murong Shaozong sighed: "I have experienced many battles, and I have never seen an enemy as difficult to deal with as Hou Jing. If you young people don't believe it, you can fight against him and try!" Hu Luguang was the son of Hu Lujin, a veteran under Gao Huan's tent, and later became a famous general in the Northern Qi Dynasty. How could he stand up to the excitement of Murong Shaozong's words?The two even believed that Murong Shaozong was afraid of Hou Jing's failure, so they were fully clothed and ready to fight.

Murong Shaozong couldn't persuade the two young people, so he warned: "Don't rush in, no matter what the situation is, don't go through the eddy water!" Guoshui is a small river flowing southeast into the Huai River. Guoyang, where Hou Jing is located, is on the southwest bank of Guoshui, and the Eastern Wei Army of Hu Luguang and Zhang Shixian stationed in the north of Guoshui.The two armies confronted each other in a vortex formation. In the Eastern Wei Dynasty, Hu Luguang was known as "The Governor of Luodiao", and he was a veritable "Hero of Shooting the Condors".He went out in person and shot several arrows at Hou Jingjun on the opposite bank, knocking down several soldiers.Hou Jing recognized Hu Luguang, and shouted across the bank: "You came here for meritorious service, and I went to avoid death. I have been friends with your father for many years, why did you shoot me? How can you not understand the vortex? That guy Murong Shaozong must have taught you the truth!" (It is often said that there is no better teacher than a master, but for Murong Shaozong and Hou Jing, at least one more sentence should be added: There is no better teacher than an apprentice .)

Hu Luguang was speechless.Hou Jing was so ruthless that he didn't shoot himself, and ordered his lieutenant Tian Qian to shoot back.Tian Qian was also a first-class archer, and shot Hu Luguang's mount through the chest with one arrow.Hu Luguang returned to the formation to change horses, and came out to challenge again. This time he learned his lesson and hid in the bushes. As a result, Tian Qian shot his horse down again with his precise arrow skills.Hu Luguang hurriedly retreated to the main formation, Hou Jing took advantage of the situation and led his troops to rush through the vortex, and the Eastern Wei army was defeated again.

Hu Lu's legs were fast, and he ran desperately to escape. Zhang Shixian's legs were a little slower, and he was captured alive by Hou Jing.Hou Jing felt that killing Zhang Shi was humiliating and shameless, and it was of no use, so he let him go back.The two returned to Qiaocheng in embarrassment and apologized to Murong Shaozong.Murong Shaozong looked at the two of them, shook his head and said, "Now what do you have to say, are you still blaming me?" General Duan Shao saw that Hou Jing's army was gathered on the south bank of Guoshui, so he had a plan. He secretly led a small team and set fire to the north bank. The fire was driven by the north wind to the south bank.Hou Jing was also very clever, and thought of a way to crack it before the fire burned.He led the cavalry into the vortex. After the horses got out of the water, it was wet everywhere they went, and the fire was extinguished.

Murong Shaozong's move against Hou Jing left the last word: sleepy. This move was fatal, and Hou Jing couldn't afford it due to lack of aid and food.Murong Shaozong ordered that no matter how Hou Jing insulted him in every possible way, the Eastern Wei army would ignore him and stick to it without fighting.In the second year (the sixth year of Wuding in the Eastern Wei Dynasty, the second year of Liang Taiqing, 548 AD), Hou Jing ran out of ammunition and food, and Sima Shiyun, the only governor who actively responded to him, also led his troops to surrender. Seeing that it would be a dead end if he persisted any longer, Hou Jing had no choice but to give up the last piece of land in Huaibei and lead his army to retreat south.When Murong Shaozong saw that Hou Jing couldn't stand it anymore, he ordered five thousand elite cavalry to block Hou Jing.

Hou Jing was fed up with Gao Cheng's political offensive, and wanted to come and sell what he learned, and shouted to his soldiers: "Your family members in Hebei have been killed by Gao Cheng! Follow me alive!" Hearing what Hou Jing said, Murong Shaozong immediately got off his horse, with disheveled hair, pointed his sword in the direction of the Big Dipper, and swore, "Your family members are all intact. If you return to the court, your honor will remain the same! If I, Murong Shaozong, tell a lie , Teach me to destroy heaven and earth!" Consider the situation at that time from the perspective of Hou Jing’s subordinates: If you believe in Hou Jing’s words, you can only break through the siege. It’s hard to say whether it will succeed or not. To be a second class citizen?If you believe in Murong Shaozong, you have to surrender. Everyone is the Eastern Wei army, and now there is no problem in returning to the family. Moreover, Gao Huan still has the prestige from before his death, and Gao Cheng's united front work is very impressive. Murong Shaozong is famous The famous general swears such a poisonous oath again.Naturally, most of the generals and soldiers chose to put down their weapons and surrender to Murong Shaozong.The remaining soldiers had no time to escape, and were scattered by the cavalry of the Eastern Wei Dynasty on the bank of Guoshui, causing countless casualties.Hou Jing "lifted a rock and shot himself in the foot".He fled hundreds of miles with a few cronies in one breath, and crossed the Huai River from Xiashi (now south of Fengtai, Anhui). After counting, there were only more than 800 remnants of the defeated army!Murong Shaozong who was behind him still did not give up and pursued closely. Hou Jing passed by a small town while retreating. Someone climbed up to the top of the city and laughed and said, "Leg slave, lame slave, look what else you can do!" Kill the mocker. After this delay, Murong Shaozong's pursuers arrived.As expected of a wolf, Hou Jing did not lose his strategy even at such a critical juncture.Hou Jing sent someone to throw a word to Murong Shaozong, stopping the pursuers. The sentence that saved Hou Jing's life was: "If Hou Jing is captured, what is the use of Ming Gong?" This sentence pierced Murong Shaozong's heart.Murong Shaozong has appointed the Gao family for many years, and today he has such a bright day, isn't he relying on Hou Jing?After Hou Jingruo died, he was going to live the days of being suspected by others again.So he stopped pursuing him and let Hou Jingnan go. Instead, he marched westward and drove the Liang army guarding Xuanhu and other places to Huainan. (In terms of self-help ability, Hou Jing is no less than Yu Wentai; and his master Murong Shaozong is as shrewd as Peng Le.) Hou Jing fell into the lowest ebb of his life: Thinking about me, Hou Jing, who has been famous and accomplished a lot since I debuted, with hundreds of thousands of soldiers, who would dare to underestimate me?Now they have all lost.The world is so big, where is my shelter?