On the fifth day of the second month of the fifteenth year of Xiantong, Gongsun Lan came to meet Li Jing again and brought the latest situation in Liaohai.

On the third day of the second month, the town of Duli and the city of Beisha secretly joined forces to advance by land and water. On the evening of the 3rd, the troops of Duli Town and Beisha City launched a surprise attack on Qingnipu at the same time, and this time the two armies dispatched a total of 30,000 horses, not including the logistics auxiliary soldiers and civilians, which can be described as the largest battle in southern Liaoning in a hundred years. A powerful combined fleet of 20,000 people in Duli Town, with nearly 200 warships of all sizes, raided the islands on the outskirts of Qingni Bay by night.

At the beginning, it was like a bamboo, and the other party was caught off guard, all the way to the high road, advancing step by step. By the time dawn came, it had already broken through the nine outer islands of Qingnipu. However, the successive victories blinded the officers below, although Pei You, who was in command in the rear, felt that the battle was a little strange, and the reports of the nine islands that were breached showed that it seemed that before each island was conquered, the people on the islands fled by boat.

It's normal for one or two islands to have such a situation, but if nine islands in a row don't put up frontal resistance and flee at the first touch, things are a little not good.

Pei You reported this situation to Wang Pu, the city lord who came to escort the battle in person, which aroused Wang Pu's vigilance. Wang Pu is not a literati city lord, he is a veteran with more than 20 years of military experience and more than a dozen tough battles, and he is very sophisticated in judging that the situation ahead may be a trap. Pei You immediately ordered all ships to slow down the pace of attack, and began to maintain a formation and training formation, first firmly occupying the nine islands as the forward base.

However, it was already a little late when the order came out, and the officers of the ships in Duli Town, who had just won a series of battles, were willing to let go of such a great opportunity, not to mention that the soldiers of the warships who were the first to break through those islands had grabbed a large amount of money. I'm desperately loading it onto the ship. Under such stimulation. did not wait for the military order from the rear to arrive. The warships of the Combined Fleet had already passed through the first layer of the island chain in Qingni Bay in the nine island passages that had been opened in advance, and went directly to the harbor.

The progress of the matter was as Pei You and Wang Pu expected, and the scouts on Qingnipu's side had already found out about the movement of the combined fleet. The abandonment of the previous nine outlying islands was nothing more than a deception, in order to lure the enemy into a light advance. When about twenty or thirty fleets stormed the harbor. The fleet of only 3,000 men hidden in the shadows of the outer islands suddenly struck out and cut into the chaotic formation of the combined fleet from both wings.

Rockets, oil oil, bows and arrows. Slap the pole, and even the catapult to storm in all directions. However, the nine islands that had just been attacked before suddenly appeared from nowhere, and they directly pulled up ballistas and catapults, and attacked the warships that were docked on the docks on the islands to load the trophies. There are also a large number of sword and card players and archers who came out to hunt down those soldiers of Duli Town who were robbed and their bodies were wrapped in silk and their hands were full of money.

In the fierce scuffle, one battleship after another was ignited, although Wang Pu and Pei You in the back had the heart to save it, but the nine islands that had just been captured were quickly recaptured by the defenders. The defenders re-blockaded the entire outer perimeter of the harbor. The shore defense catapults and ballistas of dozens of islands and the fleet of 3,000 men of Qingnipu cruised in all directions, completely locking the fleet that had invaded the harbor.

When he was critical, Wang Puzhuang broke his wrist. Sure enough, Pei You was ordered to withdraw the fleet back and reorganize. In front of the blockade line of more than forty well-defended islands and a fleet of 3,000 sailors, a chaotic assault would not be beneficial at all. As soon as the count was taken after the retreat, the combined fleet lost twenty-seven warships at once, of which nine were the main ones. Twenty-seven warships with more than 3,000 men were lost on the battlefield. Although more than half of the lost warships were still locked in the harbor and were not annihilated, in fact they were no different from being annihilated, and it was only a matter of time before they could not be rushed out, and they were annihilated.

In the first battle, the fleet of Duli Town suffered heavy losses and completely fell into the strategy of the defenders. First there was a deception, then an ambush. After suffering a big loss, Wang Pu did not dare to attack easily, but began to assemble warships from the outermost outermost, concentrating on preparing for the advance of one island after another.

At the same time, 3,000 cavalry, 5,000 infantry, plus more than 10,000 logistics auxiliaries and civilians, and the claimed 30,000 horses and horses also began to attack by land. However, the horse thieves of Beisha were very cunning, and although they did not march with great fanfare on the surface, they did not actually have the disguised march of Sihao. deliberately leaked the news of the march to the spies of Qingnipu, but secretly, he secretly sent the 3,000 cavalry out of Lu in secret, and sneaked all the way to Qingnipu City.

When the fleet of Duli Town was ambushed, the 3,000 cavalry of Beisha City repaired the plank road, secretly crossed Chencang, and smoothly entered the range of Qingnipu. And bypassed several forts in a row, directly Qingnipu City.

Seeing that it was only thirty miles away from Qingnipu City, the commander of the cavalry was excited, looking forward to a night attack on Qingnipu City. Li Lingfu, the city lord of Qingnipu City, personally led three thousand elite cavalry under his command to control the crane cavalry, and the crane cavalry had already set up an ambush here, and when the cavalry of Beisha City arrived, countless bows and crossbows suddenly flew out everywhere, covering them like rain. Then Li Lingfu led the crane cavalry army he formed after the name of the elite forbidden army of the Tang Dynasty to kill in all directions, and the cavalry of Beisha City was taken by surprise, and the array was scattered and divided and surrounded. Subsequently, the cavalry of Beisha City, which was not as elite as the Crane Control Army, was defeated without any suspense, and most of them turned back and fled, and the rest were killed and captured.

After daybreak, the news of the defeat of both the land and water armies reached the troops, and Wang Pu and the commanders of Beisha City were furious. However, the battle then began to fall into a regular confrontation from the surprise attack. The fleet of Duli Town was cautious and did not dare to enter lightly. And the side of Beisha City also began to reassemble on foot, and then slowly advanced, first step by step with Qingnipu around the outer village fort to fight an offensive and defensive stronghold. In a short period of time, there will be no results.

Hearing this result, Li Jing couldn't help but be amazed. This Qingnipu was one against two, and the situation was originally critical, but after these two battles, Li Lingfu easily reversed the situation on the entire battlefield with two ambush battles.

"Who is this Li Lingfu and does you have any information about him?"

Gongsun Lan smiled slightly, "Li Lingfu is not simple, everyone calls Qingnipu a nest of horse thieves." In fact, when Qingnipu was first captured by the Han people, although there were horse thieves, they were only a small part. When the Tang Dynasty withdrew from Liaodong, there were a large number of Han people in the entire Liaodong and Liaoxi. Among them, many of them were the children of the Pinglu Army who guarded Liaoxi and Liaodong, and did not follow south. Li Lingfu's father was the son of the original Pinglu Army, and it is said that his ancestors were originally Han Chinese, and later joined the Pinglu Army to serve, and later, some children and grandchildren married the daughter of the dead royal family of Goguryeo, and since then, his family has been a mixture of Han and Goguryeo. Speaking of which, it is said that Li Lingfu's family is still related to Li Zheng, a Goguryeo who came to Shandong from Yingzhou and later seized the position of the marshal of Ziqing Town, creating a pattern of the Li family's three generations and four generations separating Ziqing for 60 years. ”

Li Lingfu's ancestors stayed in Yingzhou, and then gradually developed south. After Li Zheng had become the commander of Ziqing, they received Li Zhengji's secret support, and began to gather many Han people who had not been evacuated, and some bandits, horse thieves, and pirates used their strength to finally occupy Qingnipu and operate steadily. The 60 years that Li Zheng's family controlled Ziqing Town were also decades of steady growth and development of Qingnipu. Until the Li family was defeated by the imperial court and divided Ziqing Town, Qingnipu was also greatly affected, and the strength of the Li family was greatly reduced. Then the town of Duli dared to start changing the previous secret plot into an open attack. ”

"This Li Lingfu is not simple, he was originally only his father's fifth son, and there are four older brothers who have inherited the throne above him. When he was fifteen years old, he took the initiative to leave Qingnipu with a few generals and go away to the grassland. Twenty years later, Li Lingfu was already the most famous horse thief in the western Liaoning corridor, with a full thousand elite horse thieves under his command, which he called the Crane Control Army. It was at that time that Duli Town attacked Qingnipu again, and that time they even bought many Qingnipu generals and lured one of Li Lingfu's elder brothers to secretly join forces. On that occasion, Qingnipu was almost lost, and the old lord and his three sons were all killed in the sudden rebellion of the other son, and almost all the outer islands were lost. But just when Qingnipu City was about to fall, Li Lingfu, who had been away from home for twenty years, appeared, and led his 1,000 horse thieves to turn the tide, kill the rebellious brother, and stabilize the situation. Subsequently, he was ordered to become the new city lord of Qingnipu, and then he actually took those people to defend Qingnipu. ”

"Legendary, legendary, Li Lingfu's experience is really legendary." Li Jing had to sigh.

Gongsun Lan also chuckled: "Yes, now that ten years have passed, Li Lingfu is only forty-five years old, which is the most ambitious and vigorous time." In the past ten years, he has been vigorously fighting and reinforcing Qingnipu, and the crane army under his command has grown from 1,000 people ten years ago to 3,000 people today. This is Qingnipu's most powerful reliance now, all of them are the most brave and fierce knights, who are not afraid of death. Although Li Lingfu has not fought with Duli Town in these years, he has not stopped small actions at all in the past ten years, and his 3,000 crane control army took turns to attack, specializing in robbing the land merchant groups and forts in Duli Town. Through these actions, his crane control cavalry not only became more and more brave and fierce, but also plundered a large amount of money, and dealt a big blow to the town of Duli. ”

"The icing on the cake is better than sending charcoal in the snow!" Li Jing groaned, "Li Lingfu is a hero, do you think he will accept if I take the initiative to contact him and am willing to secretly form an alliance with him and help him deal with Duli Town?" ”

The smile on Gongsun Lan's face disappeared all of a sudden, only the shock on her face remained, she didn't understand why a small force in Shamen Town took the risk to participate in the battle between the two fierce tigers in Duli Town and Qingnipu, not to mention that she had to join Li Lingpu, who had the weakest force, now. And now in addition to the strong enemy of Duli Town, Qingnipu also has the evil wolf of Beisha City. (To be continued.) )