The Northern Wei army surprised, and the Liu Song army was caught off guard by 853

At this time, Tuoba Tao had personally led the Northern Wei army to Xiaocheng, and it was only a distance of more than ten miles from Pengcheng, which was guarded by the commander-in-chief of Liu Song's army in the Northern Expedition, Liu Yigong, the King of Jiangxia, and was worthy of face-to-face.

At this time, Liu Yigong, of course, was ready to run away immediately.

The Northern Wei army was too sharp, it was dangerous to live without running, the beautiful life had not been enjoyed enough, and it was not so easy to put itself in danger, and it was necessary to go quickly.

Unfortunately, it was not so easy to escape, the Northern Wei army had already killed in front of them, and they were all cavalry, leaving the city, if they could not quickly run to a safe place, they might die faster. Therefore, after repeated weighing and discussion, coupled with the bitter persuasion of Liu Jun, the king of Wuling, Zhang Chang, the Taishou of Pei County, and others, in the end, Liu Yigong had to order Pengcheng to die.

In fact, Pengcheng's strategic position is important, after years of repairs by Liu Song, the city defense is very strong, as long as the defenders and defenders are carefully defended, it is not so easy to be breached.

Sure enough, Tuoba Tao commanded a fierce attack by the Northern Wei army, and Pengcheng was safe and sound.

After that, Tuoba Tao's move was very bold, he did not see the good and accepted, turned around and slowly eliminated the scattered soldiers and horses of the Liu Song army trapped behind him, but left a small number of soldiers and horses to continue to besiege Pengcheng, leading a large army to bypass Pengcheng and continue to the south.

Tuoba Tao sent Zhongshu Lang Luxiu to lead an army to march toward Guangling, sent Tuoba Na, the king of Gaoliang, to lead an army to march in the direction of Shanyang, and sent Tuoba Ren, the king of Yongchang, to abandon the attack on Shouyang and march towards Hengjiang, while Tuoba Tao himself personally led a large army to kill Ben Xuyi.

Tuoba Tao adopted a completely different offensive strategy from before this time, that is, the fortified cities occupied by Liu Song's army during the attack, such as Shouyang and Pengcheng, did not insist on conquering, conquered difficulties, besieged them, and then detoured to march, making full use of the mobility and speed of the cavalry, and quickly entering the hinterland of Liu Song.

Of course, Tuoba Tao's move is also quite risky, and the subsequent preparation of grain and grass materials is not sufficient, not to mention, transportation is also very difficult. At the same time, if the morale and morale of the Liu Song army were still there, those scattered by the Northern Wei army, the cities occupied by the Liu Song army, if at the same time sent troops to attack and harass the northern Wei army's rear road, not to mention that the attacking Northern Wei army would be surrounded and destroyed in a large area, at least it would be very likely that the Northern Wei army would be chaotic and suffer a big loss.

However, Tuoba Tao had fought most of his life and had extremely rich combat experience, so he dared to use troops in this way, and he was also certain. If nothing else, take the Liu Song army, which was trapped in the cities north of the Huai River at this time, basically all of them were shocked by the northern Wei army's military might, and the city was stubbornly held, and took the initiative to send troops to launch an attack, basically without the courage. Moreover, even if there are a few places that dare to send troops, the problem is not big. This season is winter, the most suitable time for the Northern Wei cavalry to gallop across, the vast great plains, hundreds of thousands of cavalry, will be afraid of the number of Liu Song infantry far less than their own? impossible.

The Northern Wei army quickly reached the bank of the Huai River.

Upon hearing the news that Pengcheng was besieged, Emperor Wen of Song hurriedly sent the auxiliary general Zang Qian (臧質) to lead 10,000 soldiers to reinforcements. However, as soon as the army reached the vicinity of Xuyi, it found that the Northern Wei army had crossed the Huai River and was facing each other.

Zang Qian hurriedly dispatched his generals, Hu Chongzhi (胡崇之) and Zang Chengzhi (臧澄之), the general of Ji crossbow, to lead an army to garrison the Eastern Mountains outside Xuyi City and occupy the commanding heights, and then sent the Jianwei general Mao Xizuo to guard Qianpu, while he himself led an army to camp south of Xuyi City.

Xuyi City was too small to accommodate so many troops, so Zang Qian could only disperse the army and garrison it outside Xuyi City.

The Northern Wei army quickly launched an attack. Tuoba Tao's son, Tuoba Tan the King of Northern Wei, led an army to attack Dongshan and launch an attack on Hu Chongzhi and Zang Cheng's forces. Liu Songjun fought desperately to defeat the enemy, and the whole army was exhausted. The Northern Wei army then turned around and attacked Mao Xizuo's forces. Mao Xizuo's troops were more powerful in combat, killing and wounding a large number of Northern Wei troops, but unfortunately, at the critical moment, the main general Mao Xizuo was killed, and Liu Song's army was confused and was also killed.

When the Northern Wei army attacked all parts of Liu Song's army on a large scale and Liu Song's army fought hard, the commander of this army, Zang Qian, was shocked by the rapid offensive of the Northern Wei army and did not dare to send reinforcements to rescue, resulting in the failure and destruction of three armies.

Subsequently, the Northern Wei army launched an attack on Zang Zhi's troops. By the night of the battle, Zang's troops were also destroyed and scattered and fled. Zang Tian led the remaining 700 remnants of his army to flee to Xuyi City.

Liu Song lost another ten thousand elites.

The wind knew the grass, and the board knew the sincere subjects, just when Liu Song Junchen was in chaos and lost ground, the little Xuyi Taishou Shen Pu was prepared and calmly coped.

When Shen Pu had just taken up the post of Xuyi Taishou, Wang Xuanmo was besieging Shuitai, and the situation in the Northern Expedition of liu Song's army was a good time, but Shen Pu was keenly aware that although Xuyi City was small, it belonged to a strategic place, and once the situation in the front changed, Xuyi City, which was now in the rear, was likely to become the front line and be besieged by the Northern Wei army, so after taking office, Shen Pu had been preparing, repairing the city, strengthening the city wall, dredging and digging the moat, accumulating grain and grass, and storing bows and arrows, stones and other items for defending the city. Make comprehensive preparations for the possible siege battles.

Shen Pu's staff did not understand his superiors and thought that it was unnecessary, and the officials in the imperial court also thought that Shen Pu was making a big fuss, wasting state manpower and material resources, and doing useless work. Fortunately, Shen Pu did not pay attention to the sneers of these people, and still went all out to prepare.

Just when Liu Song was up and down, optimistic that the Northern Expedition would inevitably succeed, the situation deteriorated suddenly, and the Northern Wei army was killing everywhere. Before, they were triumphant and talked about how good the situation of the Northern Expedition was, and how they were prepared to serve the country, and the county guards and generals of the cities and fortresses on the front line retreated without a fight, abandoned the city and fled.

Shen Pu gathered two thousand soldiers in the city and went up to the city to defend.

When Zang Qian's army was defeated and fled to Xuyi City, it was Shen Pu who opened the city gate and accepted Zang Qian's remnants of the defeated generals and let them escape the disaster.

Zang Zhi saw that Xuyi City was fully prepared, the grain and grass, and the equipment for defending the city were very sufficient, so he took a long breath, relaxed his heart, and guarded Xuyi City with Shen Pu.