Compared with the gathering of heavy troops around the upstream cleanse, Le'an, located in the northern border of Qingzhou, is much lonely, so the king's army is moving across Hebei and the battle to attack Leling in southern Hebei is unobstructed. Apart from the invasion of some villages and cross-border bandits, they have almost no decent impedance.

The person responsible for attacking Leling was Xu Ning, the general of the Guanggu Military Office of Qingzhou, Xu Mao, the general of the navy, and Mo Zhong, who was sent to Le'an earlier. Although these three teams were Xu Mao as the main general, they had no obvious master-slave relationship with each other, and it can be said that they were fighting on their own. The governor Chen Mu assigned different combat tasks to them.

Xu Mao's naval army was originally part of the river waterproof army, but with the opening of sea routes, especially the frequent cross-sea connections with Liao, it gradually stationed in Le'an Harbor. After traveling to Taiwan to recruit naval troops westward, Xu Mao's troops became the most important naval force to stay in the lower reaches of the Yellow River.

Originally, Xu Mao should have returned to reinforce the cleanse, but as the cleanse was lost and the war broke out again, he was ordered by Chen Mu to stay in Le'an and standby without rushing to return west.

After Chen Mu officially determined the overall strategic idea of ​​this battle, Xu Mao's naval army became the most important force to cross the river to attack many defense strongholds along the Leling coast.

Although the navy forces nominally had more than 20,000 troops, most of them were ship workers, soldiers, or soldiers escorted by sea ships in Le'an. The troops that were truly clearly under the command of Xu Mao were even less than the number of the three armies, and had almost reached more than 8,000.

However, in the Jie Kingdom, the defense and garrison forces along Leling were even weaker. The Jie Kingdom did not even have a established naval force to garrison here. It mainly relies on some local powerful townsmen to organize fishing boats to resist the approach of the Jin army or landing in the country along the river and sea.

The reason why defense is so relaxed is naturally because the Jie Kingdom does not have enough power and is reluctant to invest heavily in building rivers and sea defense lines. On the other hand, it is secretly constrained and obstructed by these local tyrants.

The local tyrants in Leling are unwilling to insert too much into the village center. This is naturally due to the nature of the tyrants. Another reason is that they are reluctant to give up the high profits of trading with Qingzhou in the south.

The officials stationed in Qingzhou in Taiwan did not prohibit this type of smuggling, but instead encouraged them privately. Therefore, Leling can be said to be the largest window for the large-scale influx of goods from southern countries into Hebei. All industries in Hebei have withered, and all kinds of demands must be relied on the outside.

Leling is located on the coast of the river. The local tyrants themselves have the benefits of fishing and salt. They are rich in wealth. Now they can get huge profits of trade with the south. They can be said to be the most comfortable group of people in the Hebei territory.

Shi Hu naturally would not turn a blind eye to this point, but the reason why he could still hold back was that the various goods poured into Hebei through Leling did solve the urgent needs of Jie in all aspects. If he controlled this situation in his hands, the Jin people might not have traded, which would be equivalent to breaking a channel for external replenishment.

Moreover, Leling was controlled by Shao Xu, a native of Jin in his early years, and it was not until very late that it was ruled by Jie Kingdom. Yanci, who was controlled by Shao Xu in the past year, even became the last stronghold of Jin Kingdom in Hebei.

The years of war and attack have already made Leling Township extremely weak, because it is the current powerful people who are entrenched in the territory and profitable trade. Some of them are the military leaders stationed by the Jie Kingdom in the past year, and some are the Donghu people from the Duan clan of the Xianbei. There are not many Jin people in Leling.

Therefore, even if they want to defeat Zhao and join Jin, they may not accept them with their always arrogant temperament. Of course, Shi Hu would not allow these people to help the southern country to plunder Hebei's wealth and fat and ignore them. Every year, they have to blackmail huge amounts of wealth from these powerful people, so that they will indulge them a little and leave a sized out-of-law land.

And this part of the wealth and goods obtained have become one of the few inputs in the Jie Kingdom except for the scattered countryside.

Xingtai was previously focused on the Western Front and did not have any large-scale development plans on the Eastern Front, so it has been peaceful in the past few years. But now, not to mention Xingtai’s Western Front has gradually been slightly settled, and you can take the lead and look east. Just Jie Guo Shixuan started the war easily and rashly attacked the Scarlet, Xingtai would never stop.

The so-called harmonious and wealthy appearance in the past was suddenly torn apart, and the king's hideous claws immediately poked out without mercy. After Xu Mao led the navy to cross the estuary, he swept along the line, and within one day he removed dozens of defense strongholds along the Leling Bianshui.

These strongholds are called the location of the defense and garrison. In fact, there are not many military operations, and more are like the warehouses where goods are distributed. When the King's naval army came, some of the Jiezhu Township braved the land of the countryside were still rummaging and drying the goods, and even fishing along the water, and there was no concept or consciousness that the war had begun.

Following the navy was the three thousand elite cavalry of the former Taishan County led by Mo Zhong. With the early removal of the navy's strongholds, these cavalry were sent to the land of Leling County by ships without any obstacles. After a little rest, they rushed into the inland area with great momentum. Anyone who dared to resist along the way surrounded and annihilated them.

The current Leling County is extremely empty, both inside and outside. The soldiers and powerful troops who were originally stationed in the local area, generally of a small scale, have been recruited to Pingyuan County to gather for war, and then Shi Xuan was rushed to the clean cloth.

Even if there were still some left behind in the county, the number was not too large. Moreover, they were caught off guard by the Jin army and did not dare to make a head start. Therefore, after Mo Zhong's navy entered the country, he killed the county several hundred miles away within one day and arrived directly outside the county Yanci City.

Yanci City is still the old city left by Shao Xu when he was in the territory in the past year. In recent years, the territory of Leling County has been abundant. After repairing it, the city looks deep, vast and tall, and there are still thousands of soldiers guarding it.

However, these guards naturally could not be called elite. Seeing the Jin army coming so aggressively, they did not dare to stick their heads out. They just wanted to rely on the strong city to defend themselves.

The cavalry of Mo Zhong's troops did not barely attack the city, but passed around the city, focusing on attacking the Jie army that dared to reveal their heads and reinforce the Yanci in the surrounding counties, as if they were entering an unmanned land and were invincible.

Not to mention whether the local guards in Leling were conscripted, even if they were still on standby in the plains, Mo Zhong would not dare to be so unscrupulous with three thousand cavalry.

But he knew that most of the Jie army in the plains had advanced westward. In this territory of Jie Kingdom, it would take at least five or six days to emerge in this territory.

Mo Zhong naturally did not dare to waste the situation that the Lord Shen Mu had tried his best to create. He changed his cavalry and ran all the way, killing for two days and one night. After nearly 10,000 soldiers of the Qingzhou Army led by Xu Ning arrived outside Yanci City, Mo Zhong led the exhausted cavalry back to the barracks outside Yanci City for rest.

Yanci City is deep, vast and tall, and there are more than 5,000 guards in the city. It is logical that they will not be conquered in a short period of time. Moreover, the royal army can not invest much troops on this battlefield.

After all, the north and south have been confronting each other for many years, and the two sides have made some understanding of each other's military strength, so the gap is not big. Shi Xuan was able to gather nearly 60,000 troops to defend the scrub. If Chen Mu wanted to have enough force to encircle or even break through, he would definitely raise no less troops, so there were not many troops that could be sent to the side battlefield.

If there is a little difference in the strength comparison between the two sides, it is that the remaining forces of Jie Kingdom in southern Hebei are basically scattered among the powerful people in various villages or the military leaders of Hu Chiefs, and it is relatively difficult to coordinate and collect in a short period of time.

The Jin army was a strict military unit, especially the surrounding area of ​​Guanggu, Qingzhou, and Guanggu, which could still recruit nearly 10,000 troops in a very short time. This became an additional force that Chen Mu could flexibly apply in the overall layout, and also the most important force for him to crack the current situation.

After Xu Ning arrived at Yanci, Xu Mao, who had completed the task of removing the outer strongholds, also pulled out and increased troops to Yanci City three times in a row with two thousand people. In this way, nearly 20,000 Jin troops gathered outside Yanci City.

The five thousand defenders in the city were alone without help, but they saw that the Jin army outside the city increased their troops again and again. Soon the enemies outside the city exceeded several times the number in the city, and they didn't know if there were any reinforcements in the rear.

Especially when Xu Ning's general artillery began to bombard the city, it burst out a small gap in the originally unbreakable city in a very short time. In addition, there were still constant calls from the powerful families captured by Mo Zhong when he had swept the county before. So after another difficult night, the defenders in the city raised white flags and went out of the city to surrender.

After taking down Yanci City, Xu Ning and others had completed half of the battle mission. Xu Mao followed into the city. Seeing the familiar city style and gray-haired veterans could not help but burst into tears, and they just sighed: "What a pity, what a pity..."

Xu Mao was once a general of Liu Xia in Xuzhou in the past year. Because he was excluded by his colleagues, he had to seek assistance from Jiangdong. He met Chen Chong and therefore embarked on a completely different path from his old colleagues.

Liu Xia was Shao Xu's son-in-law. After Yanci, the last stronghold of Jin State in Hebei was attacked by Jie State, he led Shao Xu's old subordinates to the south, and soon he was wrapped in an internal strife in Jiangdong.

It can also be said that Xu Mao had fought bloody battles here in the old year. Now he is revisiting his old place, but he is no longer the isolated and frightened defender of the city in the old year, but is a conqueror and reaper. His mood has been twisted and turned, and at this time he can't tell whether he is regretting the two generals who had followed him in the old year, or feeling glad for himself.

After staying in Yanci City for a night, Xu Mao said goodbye to Xu Ning, who was about to stay in this city: "I am old and sad. When I heard the news of my second year of high school, I was already crying. Now I don't want to stay in my hometown anymore, so I led my troops to continue north."

Xu Ning did not try to keep Xu Mao and Mo Zhong, who also wanted to leave the country and continue to go north to Bohai, sent him away from Yanci City, and returned to Yanci City and seized the time to repair the city defense.
Chapter completed!