Chapter 1976: Li Shimin is scared
Chapter 1976 Li Shimin is scared
Chapter 1974: Li Shimin is scared
To the Liu family, it was naturally not a crime for the Sima family to raise the emperor's son privately. After all, this saved Liu Ping.
But for Qin, this is a serious crime.
Sima Fang, as a veteran of the Jin Dynasty, has always regarded yourself as loyal, but you have a prince in your family and you have been hiding it. What do you want to do?
So, even if Sima Yi did not rebel against Qin, just concealing the fact that he raised a prince privately and not avenging it would be enough to make the Sima family extinct.
In fact, as long as Sima Fang informed Liu Ping's existence in advance, nothing would happen to the Sima family. But I don't know what Sima Fang was thinking, and he actually did the same irrational and stupid thing as Sima Yi.
Sima Fang had obviously surrendered to Qin and Wen, but he still thought about the Han Dynasty. His political stance was not firm and he wavered between Qin and Han. However, he still thought about his decades-long friendship with Yang Jun and committed the crime of raising the emperor's son privately. Such a big thing.
This is simply gambling with the lives of nearly a hundred people, young and old.
Sima Fang obviously had a good hand, but he was beaten to pieces by himself. Now the truth can no longer be concealed, and the end of the Sima family is coming.
Although no one can prove Liu Ping's identity as the emperor's son, it is obviously impossible to completely hide it from Hei Bingtai and Jia Xu.
Jia Xu doesn't even need evidence. As long as he knows this, the Sima family will be in disaster.
Sima Fang, who has reached this stage, can no longer gamble that Jia Xu may not find out. He can only take all the blame on himself and use his own death to buy life for the rest of the Sima family.
I have to say that no matter how selfish and timid a person is, they still have a selfless and brave side.
Although Sima Fang was a timid person who was afraid of death, he really fought hard to save his family. Not only did he commit suicide, but he also completely abandoned his beloved second son Sima Yi.
Sima Fang not only denounced Sima Yi in his suicide note for being unfaithful and unfilial, but also directly severed the father-son relationship with him. He also crossed out Sima Yi's name from the genealogy and completely expelled him from the Sima family.
In addition, Sima Fang also wrote clearly in his suicide note: From now on, Sima Yi will be the mortal enemy of the Sima family, and whoever kills Sima Yi will be the next head of the Sima family.
Sima Fang did not mention Liu Ping in his suicide note. Liu Ping was a taboo and he did not dare to write it out explicitly. Jia Xu knew it and he knew it too. If he actually wrote it out, it would break the tacit understanding.
Sima Fang's extreme behavior indeed gave the unreasonable Sima family a glimmer of hope, but before he died, he did another stupid thing.
Although Sima Yi is in Tangying, his wife and children are at home.
Sima Fang wanted to keep the Sima family, but he couldn't bear to leave his young grandson.
This young grandson is naturally not Sima Shi. After all, Sima Shi was only born in 208.
Sima Fang secretly sent away his daughter-in-law Zhang Chunhua and his young grandson. He thought he had done it without anyone noticing, but he didn't know that he couldn't hide this from Jia Xu at all, and his unnecessary action also made it more difficult for him to get away with it. The discount has once again made the future of the Sima family full of uncertainty.
After Jia Xu captured Sima Yi's wife and children, he was naturally thrown into death row, and there was only death waiting for the mother and son.
Whether Qin Gao Qin Lu committed suicide or Sima Fang committed suicide, it does not matter to the overall situation.
After suppressing the imperialist rebellion, the Qin army was completely free of internal troubles, and the situation should have been better than ever. However, due to excessive casualties, it became less optimistic.
Excluding the strong men who participated in the defense of the city, the total strength of the Qin army in Luoyang was only 40,000, of which 3,000 family soldiers also participated in the rebellion, which means that the Qin army only had 37,000 troops.
Suppressed the imperialist rebellion and lost 1,000 troops. Hu Hai opened the north gate and lost another 8,000 troops, for a total of 9,000 troops.
After this turmoil, there were only 28,000 Qin troops left in Luoyang City.
With only 28,000 regular troops and tens of thousands of strong men, it would be extremely difficult to withstand the attack of the Tang army and defend the huge city of Luoyang. The serious shortage of troops made all the generals of the Qin army worried, but Jia Xu didn't seem to be worried at all.
Seeing that most people had little confidence in defending Luoyang, Jia Xu knew that if he did not motivate them, the morale of the defenders would probably drop again and again, so he made public the news that Qin Hao had sent 200,000 reinforcements to Sizhou.
The reason why Jia Xu didn't say it before was that, firstly, water from afar could not quench the thirst for nearness, and it would be of no use if he said it. Secondly, the situation in Luoyang City at that time was not such that it could not be defended and needed to stimulate morale.
Now the time for Jia Xu to announce the news is just right. It can both strengthen his belief and boost his morale. It can be said to be the best of both worlds.
Although all the generals of the Qin army knew that the lord would not abandon Luoyang and would send reinforcements sooner or later, there was no definite news after all.
When the news of the arrival of 200,000 reinforcements was announced from Jia Xu, everyone breathed a sigh of relief.
After all, that was an army of 200,000, more than the total number of Tang troops who entered Sizhou.
Even if Luoyang does fall, let alone Luoyang, it can still be recaptured with these 200,000 troops.
The news of the arrival of reinforcements greatly boosted the morale of the Qin army's defenders. Coupled with the strict defense of Mu Guiying, Qin Jian, Qin Ji, Di Qing, Sima Cuo and other generals, the Tang army could not find any loopholes. They can only attack head-on, and in this case it is almost impossible to break through Luoyang in a short time.
The reason why Li Shimin dared to go deep alone was mainly because there were imperialists in the city. This was essentially a risky and speculative act.
Now that the imperial party has been destroyed, there is no internal support, and the Qin army has not shown any flaws, can he really attack Luoyang with an army of more than 60,000?
Even if he really did it and captured Luoyang before the Qin army's reinforcements arrived, with the remaining troops, could he hold Luoyang against the counterattack of 200,000 Hebei Qin troops?
All of this is unknown, but if he makes one wrong move, not only will Li Shimin die, but Li Tang may also be destroyed, so he cannot afford to be careless.
"My lord, something bad has happened. The 100,000 Liangzhou coalition forces of the Yang, Ma, and Han families were almost completely wiped out under the attack from both sides by Meng Tian and Wang Meng."
"What?"
Li and Tang generals were shocked. They did not expect that the 100,000 Liangzhou coalition troops would be defeated by the Qin army so quickly.
Is this because the Qin army is too strong? Or is Liangzhou too weak?
Different from those weak princes, the Tang army and the Qin army fought many times, with each winning and losing, and they did not feel that the Qin army was invincible.
As for the three Liangzhou families, the Han and Ma families have never fought against the Tang army, but Sui and Yang are old rivals of Li and Tang.
Is Sui Yang a soft persimmon? Obviously not, otherwise Li Tang would have unified Liangzhou long ago, and since the Ma and Han families can compete with Sui and Yang, it shows that their strength is not weak.
Since the three Liangzhou families are not weak, they should be stronger together. How could they be defeated by the Qin army so easily?
The generals of Li and Tang were puzzled by this, and could only explain why the Liangzhou army was defeated so quickly by saying that the coalition forces were at odds with each other.
The three coalition forces in Liangzhou were the first to retreat, and the impact was undoubtedly huge.
Without the restraint of the Liangzhou coalition forces, the Qin army in Hetao was liberated. They could not only go south to support Luoyang, but also send troops to Hanoi to cut off the Tang army's retreat.
With this thought, Li Shimin suddenly had a bad premonition, which soon came true.
“Report...Important information came from Guanzhong. Meng Tian ordered Zhao Yun and Huang Zhong to lead 30,000 cavalry southward with the intention of cutting off our army’s retreat."
There are 200,000 Hebei Qin troops approaching in front, and 30,000 Hetao cavalry behind.
Li Shimin suddenly felt a little scared.
Today’s guarantee.
(End of this chapter)