Chapter 328 Changes in Situation
Chapter 328 Changes in Situation
On the empty plains on the north bank of the Wei River, the noise reached the sky.
Thousands of bandit troops were defeated and fled back.
At first, the defeated army was divided into only a few groups.
But as the Silver Spear Army pursued bravely, the enemy army became more and more scattered, from a group of more than a thousand people to a group of several hundred people, and then to a group of more than a hundred people. In the end, groups of three or five defeated soldiers appeared, and the collapse was really severe.
No one tried to gather the fleeing troops, and now was not the time.
Wang Sang rode his horse at full speed, surrounded by his personal soldiers, and there were several empty horses following behind him.
Chang Can led the palace soldiers to chase after him, shouting loudly, "Don't let Wang Sang run away."
Wang Sang became anxious and turned back to shoot an arrow, but missed. However, he did scare Chang Can.
A group of fleeing soldiers appeared in front.
Wang Sang turned his horse and rushed towards a place where there were relatively fewer people.
"Bang!" The person blocking the road was knocked away.
Wang Sang squeezed the horse's belly tightly and fled for his life.
After rushing forward for more than a hundred steps, they finally got rid of the large group of fleeing soldiers.
Wang Sang looked forward and suddenly felt enlightened, and he breathed a sigh of relief.
At this moment, dozens of riders rushed over from the left front. The first one was tall with amazing arm strength. He wielded a particularly thick and long lance and knocked down two people in one encounter.
"Liu Ling!" Wang Sang's eyes widened in disbelief.
"Haha, Wang Sang, come with me to see the prince." Liu Ling spurred his horse forward, stabbed with his lance, and then seized the opportunity when Wang Sang dodged sideways. He grabbed Wang Sang in his hand like a chicken, threw him horizontally on the horse's back, and disappeared in a flash.
Wang Sang's personal soldiers shouted angrily and rode their horses to chase after him.
Liu Ling was too lazy to fight with them, so he just made a circle, led the pursuers to the vicinity of the palace soldiers, and disappeared behind the crowd.
"Bang!" When Wang Sang was thrown to the ground and fell unconscious, Shao Xun looked at Liu Ling in surprise and asked, "Is this Wang Sang?"
"Reporting to my lord, this is Wang Mi's cousin Wang Sang, the General Pingbei and Palace Attendant of the Pseudo-Han Dynasty." Seeing that Wang Sang wanted to get up, Liu Ling stepped on his back and replied respectfully.
"You were General Pingbei before, right?"
"Exactly."
Shao Xun nodded.
Official titles in the Liu Han Dynasty were worthless, but they were given to people who went there. Each title was more intimidating than the other. Titles like King of Pingjin, General who Destroyed Jin, General of Andong, General of Pingbei, etc. were given out wholesale as if they were free.
Wang Sang had limited abilities, and at first he was only given a relatively empty official title, such as Palace Attendant, because of his cousin Wang Mi.
If Liu Ling had not been captured and the position of General Pingbei had not been vacant, Wang Sang might not have gotten his turn.
Wang Sang is really a loser as he can't even become a general who doesn't ask for money. This makes Shao Xun look down on him.
You're not even as good as Zhao Gu.
"Take him away and interrogate him thoroughly." Shao Xun said, "After the interrogation, wait for an opportunity to send him to Luoyang."
"Yes, sir." Several personal soldiers rushed up, stuffed a ball of rag into Wang Sang's mouth to prevent him from swearing, and then dragged him away like a dead dog.
"Clean up the battlefield quickly." Looking at Wang Sang struggling away, Shao Xun said, "The entire army will head to Xinzheng Old City and rest for three days."
"Also, ask Chen Liangfu from Yingchuan to send another batch of food and fodder over."
After defeating Wang Sang's troops, the bandits who went south to Yu and Yan to plunder should be deterred.
In the middle of winter, their food and grass supplies were not sufficient. They had already taken what they could, and if they kept wasting time, it would be difficult to get more. In the stalemate, they might retreat.
This achieves the purpose.
******
Liu Yao, who was stationed in Luoyang, waited for several days before receiving the news.
There was no other choice; their messengers had to first cross the Yellow River to the north, detour through Jijun and Henei, and then head south to Luoyang.
Perhaps they could also try to cross the Songshan Mountains, but there were many bandits in the mountains, and many refugees lived in settlements. If a few messengers passed through, it would be too dangerous and they would disappear if they were not careful.
When the messenger arrived outside Ximing Gate, Wang Mi and Zhao Gulian sent envoys to request retreat.
Liu Yao thought about it for a long time and finally agreed to let them rest in the Luoshui River Valley, but did not allow them to retreat.
He understood their situation.
They first attacked Yunzhongwu but failed repeatedly. Zhao Gu's troops suffered more than 2,000 casualties, while Wang Mi's troops also suffered no less than 1,000 casualties.
At this point, it’s not that we can’t fight on, it’s that there’s really no need to.
The terrain is so dangerous that one of the opponents can replace several of your people, which is a big loss.
Overall, in the Luoshui Valley for more than half a month, only more than 3,000 people and a small amount of food were rescued, and overall the income was not enough to cover the expenditure.
In fact, they could have retreated along this route, but Liu Yao did not dare to give the order and had to report to Pingyang and listen to the emperor's opinion.
As for the news he had just received that most of Wang Sang's troops had been killed and only a thousand or so people had escaped, he didn't care much about it.
It was bad luck for them to encounter Shao Xun when they went south to plunder.
What really made Liu Yao think of withdrawing his troops was the news of defeat from Daibei.
In order to seek revenge, Liu Kun used humble words and generous gifts to persuade Xianbei Tuoba Yilu to ask for troops. Yilu agreed and sent his nephew Tuoba Yulu to lead 20,000 cavalry to help. The Xianbei were fierce and defeated the Xiongnu Tiefu clan and Bai tribe Xianbei, invaded their camps and slaughtered them. The two tribes could not resist and asked Pingyang for help while leading their people to flee westward, crossed the Yellow River and ran to the border of Shangjun. Tiefu clan Xiongnu and Bai tribe Xianbei had submitted to Liu Kun last year, but switched to Liu Han after being conquered by Liu Cong.
Liu Kun was overjoyed at the great achievements of Tuoba Xianbei and recommended Yilu as the Great Chanyu and Duke of Dai County. However, due to the blockade of Luoyang, the memorial could not be sent in and has not yet received a response from the court.
But Tuoba Yilu took it seriously, and because his fiefdom was far away from the tribal grassland, he led more than 10,000 people into Yanmen.
Obviously, no matter how bad the land in the Central Plains is, it is better than the grassland. Ten thousand tribes are not all that Tuoba Yilu has, they are just the people he sent to occupy the pit.
Wang Jun was very dissatisfied with Liu Kun's generosity towards others - Dai County belonged to Youzhou - and he firmly disagreed, so he fought a fierce battle with Tuoba Xianbei and was defeated.
At this point, the Tuoba Xianbei's center of gravity had shifted to the Yunzhong, Yanmen, and Daijun areas.
This is a pretty good piece of land, suitable for grazing and farming. In the Tang Dynasty, the Datong Army Jiedushi was established, stationed in Yunzhong, to control the grassland tribes. Tuoba Yilu even had one more Daizhou than the Datong Army - the Dai County of the Western Jin Dynasty was Weizhou in the Tang Dynasty, and the Yanmen County was Daizhou in the Tang Dynasty.
Liu Kun may have also realized that it was not appropriate to keep Tuoba Xianbei too rich.
But he is not a fool. Tuoba Yilu and Liu Kun are sworn brothers. What's wrong with me taking some of my brother's land? I fought so many battles for you and shed so much blood, and you want to distance yourself from it?
Liu Kun had no choice but to relocate the people from the northern counties of Yanmen, which had just been recovered from the Xiongnu. After all, he would need to borrow troops from Tuoba Xianbei in the future.
Liu Yao was not interested in Liu Kun's troubles. He only knew that Yanmen County was lost, and the Bai tribe Xianbei and Tiele Xiongnu fled to Hexi. Although they still paid tribute to Pingyang, their strength was greatly weakened, and they could not send many troops to fight for the court in the short term.
He was now more worried that the Tuoba Xianbei would not be satisfied and would invade Xinxing County and even the northern part of Taiyuan, which would threaten the Xiongnu's pastureland.
He had a strong desire to withdraw his troops.
On the 21st, King Liu Can of Henei arrived at the camp outside Ximing Gate.
"Shi Guang, I have decided to withdraw my troops." After thinking for a few days, he had made up his mind.
Liu Can was not surprised at all and only asked, "Is it because of insufficient food and grass?"
"With drought and locusts, we have never had enough food and grass." Liu Yao said with a wry smile, "There is only enough food in the camp for more than ten days. How about you?"
"That's about right." Liu Can replied, "Shi Le doesn't have any food or fodder?"
"He is not as good as me. He can only hold out for ten days at most, and then he has to go back to Yecheng to get food." Liu Yao said, "We didn't get much from the robbery, and our expenses are not enough to cover our income. I can't continue this war."
Liu Can had nothing to say.
We attacked Luoyang last year, but finally retreated because we ran out of food.
The past two years have been really difficult, and the commanders in the fortresses have been extremely tough. It's not that they have suddenly become brave, but they really can't provide much food.
On both sides of the road, there were corpses of starving people lying on the ground.
As long as you are willing to provide porridge to relieve the disaster, you can have as many soldiers as you want, but unfortunately everyone cannot produce food.
This battle is indeed like this.
"Will you come next year?" Liu Can felt a little regretful.
Luoyang, the center of the world.
Not to mention that Aweng (Liu Yuan) was obsessed with it before he died, he also longed for it and had a strong urge to conquer it.
"Let's talk about it later." Liu Yao said uncertainly.
He felt in his heart that it was unnecessary.
As long as Luoyang is not short of food, it will be difficult to take it, just like this expedition.
Or the Jin army could go out of the city and fight in the field, but this also seems impossible.
It's difficult anyway.
"South of Yique, I heard there are counties such as Guangchengze, Liangxian, and Xiangcheng. They have been stable for many years and are quite prosperous." Liu Can said, "If we can rush over and plunder them, we will gain a lot."
Liu Yao shook his head. He didn't quite believe it.
Drought and locust plagues are large-scale and cannot fail to affect local areas.
Even though it was better than other places, it was still limited. Shao Xun's food reserves were probably running out.
Both sides were exhausted from the battle and needed to rest.
"I intend to attack the pass next year. What do you think, King Henei?" Liu Yao asked.
"If King Shi'an becomes the commander-in-chief, I would like to lead the troops as the vanguard," said Liu Can.
Liu Yao smiled gently.
Although the King of Hanoi was a prince, he was not the crown prince. The Han Dynasty also had no crown prince, only the crown prince (Liu Yi).
Since the emperor promised in person in front of everyone that day that he would return the throne to the King of Beihai when he grew up, this matter cannot be just talk.
The King of Beihai is now the Crown Prince and the Heir to the Han Dynasty.
Perhaps the King of Hanoi was also disappointed?
Or maybe he had a little ambition and wanted to make more contributions so that he could replace the crown prince and become the crown prince in the future? This possibility could not be ruled out, and it was even very likely.
But what does that have to do with him?
After the emperor ascended the throne, it was unlikely that he would personally lead an army. In the future, apart from the nobles of the Huyan clan, only the relatives of the Liu clan would lead the army to war. The King of Henei had many opportunities, and it depended on whether he could seize them.
Liu Yao took a last look at Luoyang.
It seemed that there were also people on Ximing Tower climbing up to the city wall to look out.
"Let you be proud for a while." Liu Yao thought to himself, "Maybe one day you will have internal strife, and then it will be effortless to take Luoyang."
(End of this chapter)