Chapter 919: Battle of Yique Pass
Chapter 919 The Battle of Yique Pass
Chapter 917: Battle of Yique Pass
After the Battle of Hulaoyu, the Kwantung Allied Forces were divided into three.
Qin Hao, the leader of the east route, attacked Hulao Pass, Yuan Shao, the leader of the southeast route, attacked Xuanyuan Pass, and Sun Jian, the leader of the south route, attacked Guangcheng Pass. The three counties formed two sides and surrounded Luoyang.
Among the three armies, Sun Jian's army on the south route was the first to achieve success.
Soon after Sun Jian led his army to Guangcheng Pass, Bai Qi easily captured this pass and captured 10,000 Liang troops, while the 100,000 troops on the southern route only suffered 10,000 casualties;
Seeing that Sun Jian had conquered Guangcheng Pass, Yuan Shao was unwilling to lag behind and launched an army to forcefully attack the pass. He suffered more than 40,000 casualties before he managed to break through Xuanyuan Pass and also captured 5,000 Liang troops.
At this point, plus the 43,000 prisoners of the Eastern Route Army, the coalition forces have captured a total of 58,000 Liangjun.
In addition, after the southeastern and southern armies join forces, they will also face the situation of one army and two commanders, so of course a new general must be elected.
Yuan Shao's prestige among the princes was second only to Qin Hao. Originally, Sun Jian couldn't compete with Yuan Shao, but the battle of Guangcheng Pass was really fought beautifully, which also gave Sun Jian the qualification to compete with Yuan Shao.
And to everyone's surprise, Sun Jian deliberately refused to fight or grab, so that the position of the South Road general easily fell into the hands of Yuan Shao.
After the Liang army joined forces, they still had nearly 160,000 troops. Since Yuan Shao was in charge of such a huge force, he was naturally eager to make achievements, so he set his sights on Sizhou's last southern gate, Yique Pass.
Yique Pass originally had only 25,000 defenders, and guard Yang Su could barely contend with this small force. However, with the arrival of reinforcements from Luoyang and Hulao, the battle situation at Yique Pass, which had 45,000 troops, changed. It also became something else.
Because when Yuan Shao broke through Xuanyuan Pass, he killed Yu Wenji, the father of the Liang army general Yuwen Chengdu. After Yuwen Chengdu arrived in Yique, he went to challenge him on the grounds of "boosting morale", but in fact he wanted to be his father. revenge.
After thinking deeply, Yang Su also felt that it was necessary to improve morale, so the envoys and the coalition forces made an appointment, and each led an army of 10,000 to fight ten miles outside the pass.
When the coalition forces saw that the Liang army, which had been shrinking, dared to take the initiative to ask for a battle this time, they naturally agreed with joy.
Before the war started, it was natural that the two sides would fight each other, and Yang Su naturally sent out the strongest Yuwen Chengdu. Yuwen Chengdu took action with hatred, and his combat power was 30% more than usual, and he easily killed three coalition generals.
Facing the aggressive Yuwen Chengdu, the coalition forces successively sent five generals including Yan Liang, Wen Chou, Qin Wu, Wei Wentong, and Gai Yan to join forces, but they could only compete with them but failed to defeat them. As a result, Yuwen Chengdu's achievements once again shocked the world.
Yuan Shao saw that Yuwen Chengdu was so brave. Because he had the hatred of killing his father, Yuan Shao was extremely afraid of Yuwen Chengdu and wanted to kill him immediately to avoid future troubles.
So, just as the battle between the generals was inexhaustible, Yuan Shao once again sent several generals to sneak attack.
When Yang Su saw this, he immediately sent Yu Juluo, Shi Wansui and other generals to support him.
Another smaller-scale melee started.
The lineup of generals in the Southeast and Southern Allied armies was far inferior to Qin Hao's East Route Army.
With the strongest generals being restrained by Yuwen Chengdu, even Sun Jian and Sun Ce's father and son went to battle in person, but they could only barely compete with the generals of the Liang army.
Yuan Shao saw that the war situation was getting worse, so he could only take the initiative to start a decisive battle, but naturally his momentum was not as good as that of the Liang army, and this was what Yang Su wanted to see.
After the decisive battle began, Yuan Shao did not listen to Bai Qi's advice, so he was ambushed and easily defeated by Yang Su. If Bai Qi and Qin Jian had not led the army to come to the rescue, Yuan Shao might even be in danger of being annihilated.
Yuan Shao was defeated because he didn't listen to Bai Qi's advice, so he learned his lesson later and listened to Bai Qi's dissuasion not to go into battle easily.
After a great victory, Yang Su naturally wanted to expand the results. It was obvious that Yuan Shao was not going to fight, so he had no choice but to send people to spread rumors, saying that Bai Qi did not want Yuan Shao to make meritorious deeds, so he persuaded him not to fight.
Yang Su wanted to use this heart-breaking tactic to force Yuan Shao to fight. Yuan Shao understood this under the advice of his counselor Tian Feng, but he also had his own considerations.
Yuan Shao is in a different position now and has no merit. For him, that is the biggest fault.
Yuan Shao insisted on fighting Yang Su, and after losing two battles, he completely lost his memory.
Because of Yuan Shao's arrogance and stupidity, the coalition forces paid nearly 20,000 casualties. The Liang Army's morale greatly increased after the Liang Army's consecutive victories, allowing Yang Su to eliminate the weaknesses of the Liang Army, and it was no longer as weak as before.
Coupled with Yang Su's proper command of the city defense, the current Yique Pass is almost a seamless egg. The only way to capture Yique Pass is to attack by force, but the Liang Army's strength is enough to defend it.
Yuan Shao could be said to have exhausted all means. No matter how hard he attacked, Yique Pass was still as stable as Mount Tai. With no other choice, he finally thought of Bai Qi again.
But even Bai Qi, facing the flawless Yiqueguan, didn't have any good strategies for a while.
Although Bai Qi had no plan to break the city, he still came up with several strategies. After Yuan Shao adopted them, they also caused great trouble to the Liang army.
In the subsequent siege, the coalition forces suffered another 20,000 casualties, but only caused 5,000 casualties to the defenders.
Even though Yuan Shao was distressed about the casualties and wanted to give up, Yang Su actually took the initiative to burn the pass and retreat.
What followed naturally was the news that the Eastern Route Army had broken through Hulao Pass.
Hulao Pass and Dagu Pass are the east gates of Luoyang, but Dagu Pass has not yet been rebuilt. Once Hulao Pass is broken, the coalition forces can march straight in and reach Luoyang City directly.
Therefore, as the Yique Pass guarding the south gate of Luoyang, there is naturally no need to continue to defend it.
Before the fire at Dagu Pass was ignited, Li Shimin ordered Yang Su to retreat, and Yang Su was decisive enough to burn down Yique Pass.
When the fire started, even if Yuan Shao tried to chase him, he couldn't get over the wall of fire. After the fire was extinguished, Yang Su could only reach Luoyang.
Because of Yang Su's active retreat, although Yuan Shao successfully passed Yique Pass, he suffered 40,000 casualties, while Yang Su's army was less than 10,000.
The contest between Yuan Shao and Yang Su almost ended with Yuan Shao's complete defeat.
Before going to Luoyang, Bai Qi left ten thousand troops to garrison Guangcheng. Since Xuanyuan Pass was in Yuan Shu's hands, it was difficult for Bai Qi to send troops to seize it before the coalition forces were disbanded.
In the Battle of Yiqueguan, the coalition suffered 40,000 casualties, and because Bai Qi left behind an army of 10,000, the Southern Route Army that arrived in Luoyang only had a little over 100,000 left.
The 340,000 troops led by Qin Hao on the east route suffered 110,000 casualties, while the southeast and south routes also suffered 100,000 casualties.
Unconsciously, the Kwantung Allied Forces, which had nearly 55 troops, had lost 210,000 troops, and its total strength was reduced to 330,000.
(End of this chapter)