Chapter 1240: Attacking Guangzong

Chapter 1240: Attacking Guangzong

"Although I know that the Lord will gain something when he goes to war, it is still surprising that he can enter Yecheng just by relying on his reputation!"

Wei Xiaokuan led his army all the way, left a part of his troops in Shangdang to guard it, and then rushed to Yecheng without stopping. When he saw the King of Tang, he couldn't help but say with emotion: "The Lord's words last year were to rebuild the country and revive the Han Dynasty. Thinking about it seems like yesterday, I can only sigh that the road is difficult and hard, and suddenly half of the journey is gone!"

Hearing Wei Xiaokuan's words, Li Tai couldn't help but feel emotional. No matter what the East and the West inherited, they all inherited part of the foundation of the Northern Wei Dynasty, and their internal ethnic issues were relatively complicated. Therefore, Li Tai rarely carried out any united front propaganda from the perspective of ethnic narrative. The few times he did so were with Han tyrants like Wei Xiaokuan, except for his family.

Wei Xiaokuan was talking about a conversation that Li Tai had with him when he was trying to win the title of king for Yuwen Tai. At that time, he was still a confidant of the Bafu, but he had reached a tacit understanding with Wei Xiaokuan and others in private. In the battle of Jiangling not long after, the Bafu was excluded in one fell swoop, and the entire Shannan area was in his pocket, thus laying the foundation for his entry into Guanzhong in the future.

"Although Yecheng has been conquered, Jinyang is still occupied by the thieves. The great event is about to be accomplished, so we must not relax!"

After a moment, Li Tai put away his feelings and said to Wei Xiaokuan and others with a smile.

Under his interference and influence, the world today is very different from the direction in his memory, and his so-called prophetic ability is becoming less and less sufficient as a reference.

But putting aside specific examples, his foresight of the general trend and summary of the rules still make his vision much broader than that of most people in the world. He will not be easily proud and complacent because of some achievements that have been achieved, and he will always maintain a calm wisdom and desire for greater achievements.

Conquering Yecheng is certainly a milestone achievement, but after that, there is still the unification of the north, the unification of the world, and the resolution of a series of border problems such as the Turks, Goguryeo, Tuyuhun, and Tubo. Even if he cannot eliminate all threats, he hopes to create a new and powerful empire in his lifetime and make it the undisputed overlord in the region!

Compared with this series of subsequent goals, conquering Yecheng does not seem to be a big deal.

After hearing this, Wei Xiaokuan and others also nodded in agreement. In addition to admiring the Tang King's civil and military achievements, they also admired the Tang King's state of mind.

No matter how amazing the achievements are, although the Tang King also enjoys it with others, he rarely sees any signs of complacency and slackness in him. After a short rest, he will set off again and move towards a greater goal. This also makes their subordinates dare not slack off, for fear that if they give up their requirements for themselves for a while, they will soon fall behind and find it difficult to catch up with the Tang King's high-spirited pace!

The arrival of Wei Xiaokuan's rear troops brought the number of Wei troops in Yecheng to nearly 70,000, and there were thousands of soldiers left in Shangdang, Fukou and other places.

In addition, Li Mu led 20,000 troops from Wuxiang to the north, preparing to cross the Bafu Ridge to enter the Jinyang area, but the latest battle report came that this group of troops was blocked in Pingdu City and had not yet opened the road to Jinyang.

Li Tai had expected that Li Mu's advancement would not be smooth, and he was not surprised by this. This route was originally located between the mountains of Taihang Mountain, winding and rugged, easy to defend and difficult to attack.

Moreover, in the original plan, Li Tai's troops should leave a part of the troops to confront the Qi army in Fukou after capturing Shangdang, maintain pressure on Yecheng and Hebei, and thus limit the input of human resources from Hebei to Jinyang. As for the main force, they all went north to cooperate with Yang Zhong's troops to attack Jinyang from the north and south.

However, when Li Tai formulated this set of tactics, he did not know that Gao Zhan was so weak that he directly abandoned Yecheng and fled. As a result, the main force of his army had arrived in Yecheng, and only 20,000 troops were sent to advance northward, so it was inevitable that the progress would be slow.

However, the major breakthrough in Yecheng was enough to make up for the unsuccessful advance of Li Mu. Although the importance of Yecheng in Northern Qi has declined in recent years, it is still the nominal capital of Northern Qi and the center of Hebei. The loss of Yecheng has dealt a huge blow to the people and the actual situation of Northern Qi.

Previously, Li Tai was going to use the confrontation and oppression of Fukou to make it difficult for Hebei to reinforce Jinyang, thereby isolating Jinyang. However, now he can directly sweep Hebei and make Jinyang completely lose control of Hebei. The effects of the two situations are naturally incomparable!

The Wei army has been in Yecheng for many days, and the surrounding areas have also responded one after another. A few days ago, a Northern Qi cavalry team arrived at Hanling Mountain in the south of the city in Baigou, probably wanting to rush to Yecheng for support. However, when Li Tai sent a team out of the city to challenge them, this team withdrew to the south again, including the Northern Qi garrison troops in Hanling Mountain. They must have no confidence in fighting the Wei army.

The number of Northern Qi garrisons in Baigou was still considerable. If this team had taken the initiative to withdraw when the Wei army first entered Yecheng, it would have caused considerable trouble to the Wei army.

But now that the situation in Yecheng has further stabilized, especially with the arrival of the troops from behind, the threat posed by this group of troops has been reduced, and it is even possible that they will be eliminated by the two groups of Western Wei Dynasty. Apart from ordering the Heluo troops to advance north, Li Tai has no plans to divide his forces to fight against it. There is no need to waste too much energy and time on this dead move. Turning your efforts elsewhere will yield greater rewards.

When Yecheng fell, the Northern Qi Dynasty did not organize an effective counterattack immediately. The soldiers and people who had fled Yecheng before saw that the situation in Yecheng was becoming increasingly stable, and they also returned one after another. Moreover, some county chiefs and local powerful people took the initiative to send people to Yecheng to request the king of Tang to surrender. For a time, the situation in Hebei was likely to be decided.

However, Li Tai was not overly optimistic because of this. He pointed to the memorials from the counties and counties asking for surrender and said with a smile: "Although Qi's power is poor, Jinyang still has the power to fight. Although these people who have risen up are asking for surrender, But if Jinyang is not peaceful one day, everyone will have their own thoughts and should not confide in them."

The defeat of Yecheng caused great shock to the people of Hebei, but if the force of Jinyang was not destroyed, the situation would remain repetitive. Therefore, those who ask for surrender may not necessarily be sincere. Most of them should express a respectful and submissive attitude first, so as not to be listed as a priority target by the Wei army.

Therefore, Li Tai did not take these petitions for surrender too seriously. He just sent a letter of comfort to the staff, asking them to keep their territory and keep things as normal, especially not to transfer a large number of people and objects out of the country. .

Now that the troops in his hands were sufficient again, he could move more boldly, but Li Tai did not dispatch his troops to attack everywhere. He just ordered Gao Le to lead 5,000 elite troops to Xindu in Jizhou. As for the other wider Hebei area, we will wait for the Northern Qi armed forces to deal with Jinyang before occupying it.

Judging by the time, Jinyang must have already known the news of the fall of Yecheng. Li Tai is also looking forward to what kind of response strategy Qi Zhu Gaoyan will adopt.

The situation he most wanted to see was for Qi Lord Gao Yan to immediately send Ma Nan from Jinyang to fight after hearing the news. Although the divisions and brigade coming from Jinyang south suppressed Yedu to a certain extent in terms of geography and momentum, there was no need for the Wei army to rush out of the city to engage in field battles to determine the outcome. They could just turn around and defend Yedu. Chengcheng and the Nanlai Division engaged in a confrontation.

Even so, the Qi army would regain control of the situation in Hebei and call for siege from all sides. However, the Western Wei Dynasty still had a rear army led by Yang Zhong and others. Once Jinyang's troops moved, when Yang Zhong's troops entered the Great Wall, the Qi army would be at a loss to advance and retreat, making it difficult to take care of both ends. In the disadvantaged situation, the power is divided into two places, and failure will be inevitable!

But winning Yecheng was already a complete surprise. Li Tai didn't expect Jinyang to act in such an impetuous and blind manner, so he still followed his own pace. He would temporarily station troops in Yecheng to eliminate some hostile forces that were eager to take the lead. He would wait for Han Xiong and other armies in Heluo to advance north and Yang Zhong's troops to move south, and then approach Jinyang from Hebei.

Not long after Gao Le led his army to the north, he encountered an organized force from the Northern Qi Dynasty near Guangzong. They were thousands of troops led by Gao Xiaoyu, the king of Henan in the Northern Qi Dynasty.

Gao Xiaoyu was the eldest son of Gao Cheng, Emperor Wenxiang of the Northern Qi Dynasty. He originally had a close relationship with his ninth uncle Gao Zhan, but a few years ago he had some disagreements with Gao Zhan due to the negotiation of peace with the Western Wei Dynasty and the dispatch of a proton. In the end, his younger brother Gao Xiaowan was chosen as the emperor. Proton was sent as an envoy to the Western Wei Dynasty.

Later, Gao Zhan and Emperor Gao Yan had conflicts over a series of issues such as the establishment of heirs, and the opposition between the two capitals of Yecheng and Jinyang became increasingly obvious. In order to drive away Gao Guiyan, the king of Pingqin who had been operating in Yecheng for a long time and was deeply entrenched, and to take sole control of the power in Ji Nei, Gao Zhan attracted Gao Xiaoyu and recommended him to serve as the Yin of the Qing capital.

All the capitals of emperors were called Yin. During the Eastern Wei Dynasty, Wei County was called Wei Yin. In the Northern Qi Dynasty, it was renamed Qingdu Yin. The position was similar to Jingzhao Yin, which was the chief executive of the capital.

Although Gao Xiaoyu served as the Yin of the Qing Dynasty, a rift had developed between Gao Zhan and Gao Zhan, and they were no longer as close as before. He was just a tool used by Gao Zhan to suppress Gao Guiyan's forces. So when Gao Zhan decided to flee, he didn't notify and take Gao Xiaoyu with him. So when the capital was in chaos, Gao Xiaoyu was shocked to realize that Gao Zhan, the bastard, had abandoned them.

When he learned of this situation, there was already chaos in the capital. In a hurry, Gao Xiaoyu was unable to turn the tide, so he could only take his wife, children and family members and flee north of the city. His original intention was to escape all the way to Jinyang, but when he arrived at the border of Xiangguo, he met his father-in-law Lu Zhengshan and his party. After some discussion, they both felt that it was a bad idea to escape to Jinyang now.

After all, the guilt of the fall of Yedu was too great. Although the root cause was Gao Zhan, the king of Changguang, who left without a fight, Gao Xiaoyu, as the governor of the capital, Qingdu Yin, could not absolve himself of the blame. Moreover, Shiliu has always regarded him as a member of King Changguang. Now King Changguang has disappeared after committing a heinous crime. If he runs to Jinyang, he will most likely be severely punished as a scapegoat for the emperor. Vent anger.

Therefore, after weighing the situation, the group diverted to Jizhou and went to Gao Mi, the king of Rencheng, who served as the governor of Jizhou. Gao Min is the tenth son of Emperor Shenwu Gao Huan, but among his brothers alive today, he is second only to King Gao Yun of Pengcheng, Gao Yan, the Lord of Qi, and Gao Zhan, King of Changguang, so he was appointed as the governor of Jizhou.

When Gao Wei learned that Gao Zhan had abandoned the city and fled, and Ye City had been captured by the Wei army, he was naturally shocked. He immediately planned to send his nephew Gao Xiaoyu to Jinyang, and asked Jinyang to send reinforcements to Hebei.

Fortunately, Gao Wei's queen was also from the Lu family of Fanyang. After Lu Zhengshan and others pleaded and persuaded, Gao Wei reluctantly accepted Gao Xiaoyu. Then Gao Xiaoyu was worried that Gao Wei would regret and send him to Jinyang to confess his crime. At the same time, he also wanted to make meritorious contributions, so he begged Gao Wei to send some troops to let him lead the south to observe the latest developments of the Wei army.

At this time, the troops of Jizhou were not many, because not long ago, Pingyuan King Duan Shao had just entered the country to recruit some troops, and there were only more than 10,000 troops left in Xindu City.

Gao Xi was prepared to hold out for help with the troops he had, but he could not bear Gao Xiaoyu's pleading and the princess's pillow talk, so he put together 3,000 troops and handed them over to Gao Xiaoyu, who went south to Guangzong.

Gao Xi also thought that if the Wei army continued to advance northward, Gao Xiaoyu would be able to stop the enemy's advance a little by blocking the front, so that Xindu could be more fully prepared.

As the oldest person in the third generation of the Gao family, Gao Xiaoyu himself was quite heroic and military. The reason why he fled in a hurry in Yedu before was mainly because he was stabbed too badly by his ninth uncle Gao Zhan. When he noticed it, the situation in Yedu was already in chaos. In addition, the Fukou Fortress could not stop the advance of the Wei army, so he could only flee quickly.

On the way of fleeing, he was also reflecting on himself and thinking about countermeasures. Now he finally got another chance, which he cherished very much. So he led his father-in-law Lu Zhengshan and others, plus the 3,000 troops funded by his tenth uncle Gao Xi, to fight back to the south again. Along the way, he also recovered local tyrants and the troops who escaped from Yedu. When he arrived in Guangzong, his power had increased again, and his troops had reached more than 7,000.

However, when Gao Xiaoyu led his army to continue southward from Guangzong, he encountered 5,000 elite cavalry led by Gao Le of the Western Wei Dynasty.

Although the strength of the two sides was not much different, Gao Le led the main elite of the Western Wei Dynasty, while Gao Xiaoyu's troops were just soldiers temporarily assembled from Jizhou. After the two sides fought in the south of Guangzong, Gao Xiaoyu's troops were defeated and could only lead the remnants to retreat to Guangzong City.

Guangzong City is not particularly large, but fortunately, the Wei army's divisions and brigades are mainly light cavalry troops, which lack the ability to attack. Therefore, Gao Xiaoyu temporarily stabilized the situation after retreating to the city, but he could only barely protect himself by relying on the city. Soon, Guangzong City was blocked by the Wei army that followed.

"My king, there are less than 2,000 people retreating into the city. Even if all the Ding soldiers in the city are gathered, there are only 3,000 followers. The Wei army has advanced to this point, and the follow-up troops will surely continue to come north. If there is no reinforcement, this city may not be able to defend for long!"

Hearing the report from his generals, Gao Xiaoyu's face became quite ugly. He thought that the chaos in the personnel of Yedu could delay the pace of the Wei army's advance to some extent, but he did not expect the speed of the Wei army's advance to be so rapid.

Now trapped in this city, there is no hope for Gao Xi of Jizhou. He had repeatedly pleaded before, and Gao Xi agreed to support him with 3,000 troops, but he also made it clear that there would be no more funding. Moreover, even these 3,000 troops performed very poorly when fighting the enemy in the south of Guangzong. When the situation on the battlefield was slightly unfavorable, they were the first to flee and fled directly to Xindu. Very few followed them to retreat to Guangzong.

"Don't panic. The enemy's formation is mostly light cavalry, and it is difficult to attack. We just need to hold the city for a short time, and reinforcements will surely arrive!"

Although he was not very optimistic, Gao Xiaoyu still forced himself to comfort the soldiers and said: "Now the King of Pingyuan has ordered 100,000 troops to garrison Jingxing, and they will rush to rescue Hebei immediately when the Supreme Lord gives the order. My brother Changgong is also under his command. We have a deep brotherly love. If he knew that I was in danger here, he would definitely rush to rescue me!"

As for the whereabouts of King Duan Shao of Pingyuan, he heard Gao Xi in Jizhou. Duan Shao had previously gathered 60,000 troops from Jizhou, Dingzhou, Yingzhou, etc., and was originally heading for Jinyang. Halfway through the journey, he was ordered to go to Shangdang. As a result, he just turned around and learned that Shangdang had fallen, so he was ordered to defend Jingxing again.

Now that Yecheng has fallen and Hebei is in chaos, if nothing unexpected happens, it should be Duan Shao's troops who will come south to fight the enemy and recapture Yecheng. Gao Xiaoyu made this claim, and it was not self-deception.

The defeated army in Guangzong City had just taken a breath, and the voices of Wei Army persuading surrender were heard outside the city, and many arrows tied with letters of persuasion were shot into the city. Gao Xiaoyu naturally did not respond to this, and ordered the soldiers in the city to take the time to rest, and ordered all the letters of persuasion shot into the city to be handed over and not to be kept privately.

In the evening, Gao Xiaoyu arranged the city defense with the help of his father-in-law Lu Zhengshan and others. Seeing that the enemy had no siege equipment to attack the city, he returned to the city to rest.

Lu Zhengshan was exhausted after a busy military affairs. When he returned to the city lord's mansion, he saw his brother Lu Zhengsi waving at him, so he walked up and asked: "Brother, what's the matter?"

"Come with me first!"

Lu Zhengsi waved to Lu Zhengshan to follow him into a remote room. After closing the doors and windows, he took out a crumpled paper ball from his arms and placed it on the table illuminated by candlelight, and said in a deep voice: "This is the letter of persuasion to surrender shot into the city by the Wei army today..."

"The king has ordered it to be handed over, how dare you keep it privately?"

When Lu Zhengshan saw this, he frowned and said, but Lu Zhengsi waved his hand to signal him to calm down, and just continued to whisper: "Take a look first."

After hearing this, Lu Zhengshan lowered his head, smoothed the paper, and began to read carefully. After a moment, his brows suddenly furrowed deeper. This letter of persuasion to surrender first introduced that the Wei army was now fully occupied to the south of Yecheng, and that they had divided their forces to march north from Shangdang, and rushed to Jinyang from Bafu Ridge. In addition, there was an advance from Lishi, and a large army from the Beishan Great Wall also moved south. A total of three armies attacked Jinyang, and Jinyang had no spare power to rescue Hebei and so on.

"Now that the Wei army wants to intimidate us into surrendering, it must be an exaggeration. The situation may not be as bad as they say!"

Lu Zhengshan was busy arranging the city's defense before, and did not have time to read the surrender letter he had collected. Now that he understood the content of the letter, his heart was heavy, but he still managed to cheer up and speak.

After hearing this, Lu Zhengsi just shook his head slowly, then stretched out his finger to touch the paper, and continued in a deep voice: "Take a closer look at this letter. Do you notice anything unusual?"

Lu Zhengshan was a little puzzled when he saw this. He lowered his head and looked at it carefully for a while, making sure that he had understood the content thoroughly. When he looked up at his brother, he saw that his brother was still nodding at the paper. He lowered his head again and looked at it carefully. , finally saw a clue: "This handwriting, this handwriting is a bit familiar, but I can't remember it for a while..."

"It's a slave release. He went west with his uncle Hutang and others, but this time he returned to Hebei with the army. This handwriting and writing style are all his handiwork!"

When Lu Zhengsi said this, he couldn't help but sigh: "If I had known that this day would happen, it wouldn't have been a bad idea if I had gone with him!"

Lu Sidao's nickname was Shi Nu, and his father's name was Lu Daoliang. The father of Lu Zhengshan and others was named Lu Daoyue. They were all sons of Lu Yuan, the Lu family of Fanyang. In his early years, Lu Sidao followed his cousin Lu Shuhu and his family to Kansai, but Lu Zhengshan's family did not follow.

This time Gao Le led his army to march north, Lu Sidao joined the army as an accompanying soldier, and he wrote all the letters to persuade him to surrender. Lu Zhengsi recognized Lu Sidao's handwriting and hid the letter.

"Brother, what do you mean..."

Lu Zhengshan looked at his brother and asked in a low voice.

"What can I mean? I just hope that my family will be safe and well. You have also seen the content in the book. Even if it is exaggerated elsewhere, it is always true that Yedu fell and the king of Tang moved north. The king of Tang was famous all over the world and was invincible. How could the king of Henan If you can stop me, my brother will be able to show his sincerity and welcome you. If you hesitate again, you will be captured like a dog after the city is broken. Even if we are old, we may not be able to show mercy!"

Lu Zhengsi also whispered. He saw that Lu Zhengshan was still a little intolerable, so he advised again: "The young king of Henan is inevitably strong-willed, but how can one person save the country from its decline? Kuang Gao's ethics are despicable, and before the king of Henan, Abandoned by King Changguang, and now abandoned by King Rencheng, you are finally his elder, how can you bear to see him going his own way and seeking his own death?"

"I, I listen to brother!"

After Lu Zhengshan pondered for a while, he said in a solemn voice: "I just hope that General Wang Shi outside the city will not harm the King of Henan. This situation must be conveyed to the slaves and begged to turn him around!"

The defense of Guangzong City was originally arranged by Lu Zhengshan, and Gao Xiaoyu also trusted his father-in-law. Now that Lu Zhengshan wants to contact the Wei army from the outside, it can't be easier.

As Lu Zhengshan sent his slaves to sneak out of the city and met Lu Sidao in the Wei army camp, the two sides quickly reached a tacit understanding and agreement. At dawn on the third day, the Lu brothers quietly opened the city gate and put the Wei army into the city. Gao Xiaoyu was awakened from his sleep, and soon he saw Wei army soldiers pouring into his dormitory with swords in hand.

Two chapters in one, long awaited. . .