Chapter 373 Fire
To be honest, Wen Dunsizhong definitely wronged someone.
Of the four people that Wen Dunsizhong thought had abandoned him, Han Shizhong and Li Yanxian, needless to say, really treated him like nothing. And Wanyan Bendu, his brother of many years and the golden young man who had spent more than a decade with him in Aguda's tent, also ignored him.
However, Wanyan Balisu, the Jin Dynasty's Taiyuan garrison commander, Taiyuan Military Commander-in-Chief, and actual commander-in-chief of the Western Army, cannot be said to have given up Wen Dunsizhong.
Balisu probably just felt that there was no need to notify Wen Dunsizhong specifically, especially since the Taiyuan garrison commander had already dispatched the main force to move south at a rapid speed.
If the army arrived directly, they would naturally rescue Wen Dunsizhong. If it is not possible to arrive as expected, and the people in Hezhong Prefecture can defend the city, and finally get 500 righteous men from Hezhong Prefecture, and some old people under Taizu Aguda died heroically for their country, and delay some troops and time, wouldn't that also be a loyal subject of the Jin Dynasty?
What do you want me to tell you specifically?
It can only be said that Wen Dunsizhong is still emotionally unstable and cannot appreciate the good intentions of his superior Wanyan Balisudutong.
In fact, on the third day after Wen Dunsizhong's emotional breakdown, that is, on October 5th, Balisu's Taiyuan reinforcements encountered the Song army at the junction of the Linfen Basin and the Hezhong (Yuncheng) Basin.
And if the battlefield is expanded to a hundred miles around the point where the two sides encounter each other, the actual number of troops involved in this battle will be somewhat scary.
In the Jin direction, at least three veteran commanders of the Jin Western Route Army, including Wanyan Balisu's commander, Wanyan Tuhesu's commander, and Wanyan Zhehe's commander, joined the battle, with cavalry arriving first and infantry following. The Song army included Li Yanxian's commander, and his subordinates Shao Long, Lü Heshang, Song Yan, Jia He, Yan Ping, Zhao Cheng, Zhai Jin, Zhai Cong, Zhai Chong, Niu Gao, and Dong Xian, totaling 35,000 people, plus Ma Kuoyi's army, whose organization and number could not be counted at all, all pressing in together.
In other words, Balisu hastily assembled the main forces he could summon around Taiyuan at the first opportunity and came directly here, while Li Yanxian almost left only the most stable Shao Yun to sit firmly in Pinglu, and added his own brother Li Kui to provide support from the rear, and the rest of the army also rushed over at the first opportunity.
Considering that both sides had generals-level figures on the battlefield, it can be said that this was the first large-scale battle after the Song army's Northern Expedition.
But World War I itself was extremely chaotic.
First of all, both sides dispatched their troops hastily and had to travel long distances to attack. For the Jin army, the distance from Taiyuan to Tieling Pass was a full 550 miles, and there were also small-scale harassments by the Taihang rebels along the way that had been prepared. On the other hand, even if Li Yanxian acted decisively and went directly out of Jiezhou from Zhongtiao Mountain, and it was only 140 to 50 miles away from Tieling Pass, don’t forget that before the war, although the Jiezhou area north of Zhongtiao Mountain had been infiltrated to a certain extent, it still belonged to the Jin army, so it was inevitable to temporarily establish a logistics channel and divide troops to besiege a few stubborn towns.
Therefore, no matter which side it was, it was inevitable that they would fight in a state of exhaustion, and the marching routes would be chaotic and the arrival times would be different.
Secondly, the combat strength of both sides is uneven.
For example, on the Jin army side, Balisu's direct subordinate Wanhu not only had the best equipment and the most experienced veterans, but also had a large number of Moukes in a Meng'an, often with seven or eight Moukes for one Meng'an... There was even a personal guard Meng'an modeled after Hezha Meng'an, which consisted of ten elite Moukes.
Relatively speaking, the Wanyan Zhehe and Wanyan Tuhesu tribes, which suffered the heaviest losses in the Battle of Yaoshan, inevitably had many new soldiers recruited after the war. The relationships between Meng'an and Meng'an, and between Mouke and Mouke were as different as heaven and earth.
A similar situation occurred even more severely among the Song army.
Because Li Yanxian's army was active on both sides of the Yellow River all year round, they never checked the number of people. They just sent him military pay, weapons and supplies according to the organization, and then Li Yanxian distributed them from the commanding officer. Therefore, his troops had a strong personal faction color.
Among them, not to mention Li Yanxian’s own core troops in Shanzhou City and Pinglu City, the combat effectiveness of most of the troops depends entirely on the level and integrity of the commander himself, so that the gap in combat effectiveness of the troops is often incredible.
What's more, there are also troops led by Ma Kuo, and their equipment is basically just auxiliary troops.
Finally, the terrain is complex.
The area around Tieling Pass is the junction of Linfen Basin and Hezhong Basin (Yuncheng Basin), with plains, mountains and hills mixed together. Moreover, Tieling Pass, the focus of the battle, is not a strong pass itself... and its surroundings are not exaggerated to the point where one man can block ten thousand men.
There is also the Fenshui Pass next to the Yellow River in the west, and the route to Jiangxian in the east. Tieling Pass is by no means the only route available. Even the surrounding mountains are not a dead end. There is a small pass in Luotuoling, a few dozen miles west of Tieling Pass. No one can clearly describe the small paths that the mountain people use.
Of course, this does not prevent Tieling Pass itself from being the most important hub between the Linfen Basin and the Hezhong (Yuncheng) Basin. It is still a typical battleground for military strategists, especially since it is the end of the Chenguan Pass leading to Hezhong Prefecture from the neighboring Shangdang Basin.
In short, it was under the influence of these complex factors that the battle process was both intense and chaotic, bloody and dramatic.
In just one day, Tieling Pass changed hands three times.
Early in the morning of that day, a local rebel army sent by Ma Kuo, which was the closest to the area, came to seize the pass. The rebel leader, who had followed Ma Kuo from Wumashan, followed the military orders of his general and dressed in plain clothes and tried to sneak into the pass from the rear. However, he was discovered by the garrisoned Jin army and failed.
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