Chapter 368 It’s Too Late

Chapter 368 It’s Too Late

Chapter 368 It’s Too Late
After late August, the fighting in Luoyang became increasingly fierce.

The Huns had completely occupied the three counties of Hu, Hongnong and Shan on the south bank of the Yellow River, stationed their troops in Xin'an East, and controlled the eastern gate of Hangu Pass.

The location of Hangu Pass has been different throughout the dynasties.

Qin Hangu Pass is located in the southwest of Hongnong County (now in Lingbao), and was called Taolinsai in ancient times.

During the Spring and Autumn Period, the Duke of Jin sent Zhan Jiachu Xia to guard the Taolin Pass.

This path is not always possible.

The Records of Three Qins states: "Taolin Pass is 400 miles east of Chang'an. If troops and horses pass by, they will rest under the forest on Mount Hua if they are doing well. If they are doing badly, the river will burst and flood, and the troops and horses will not be able to pass."

It can be seen that the geographical conditions in different periods were different. After the Yellow River course changed, people opened up new roads, and the road guarded by Hangu Pass gradually became deserted and no one passed through it. Tongguan came into being - Tongguan could block the old road of Taolinsai and the new road, and replaced the status of Hangu Pass again.

More than 60 miles east of Xin'an County (in today's Xin'an), there is the former site of Hangu Pass.

Han Hangu Pass was actually useless because it could only guard the Xin'an Road but not the Yiyang Road. The army from Guandong could enter Guanzhong from the west via the Luoshui River Valley and bypass Han Hangu Pass, but could not bypass Qin Hangu Pass.

The place where the Huns stationed their troops at this time was Hangu Pass.

Historically, the Northern Zhou Dynasty built a city here, called "Tongluo City", in order to pressure Qi.

The Luoyang Central Army had just fought a battle with the Xiongnu here and was badly defeated, losing 3,000 soldiers. The remaining troops fled into the mountains to avoid being hunted down by the Xiongnu cavalry. Especially those young men who were recruited from Xin'an County ran back home and hid, no longer wanting to work for the court.

The Huns spent the entire month of August building a city here and it seemed they didn't want to leave.

"You leave such a remote place like Hongnong to me, alas." Wang Mi climbed up the slope east of the stream and looked down from above.

There were four people following him, namely Zhang Song, the chief secretary of the shogunate, Xu Miao, the governor of the tent, Gao Liang, the external governor, and Wang Yan, the guard general - this person with the same name as the emperor's uncle was a member of the Wang family of Donglai.

Hearing his master's sigh, Zhang Song stepped forward and advised: "Although Hongnong has experienced wars for a long time, it is still a foundation. Now that Xin'an has been acquired, we have four counties. The Minister should encourage farming and sericulture here, train soldiers and horses, and wait for an opportunity to cross the Xiaoshan Mountain to the south and take Minchi. With this county in hand, the army will have a place to rest when it moves south, and may be able to delay the plan to attack Yiyang in Luochuan."

"Although Yiyang is only a county, its territory is vast, equivalent to the size of two or three counties. The thief Shao has been operating here for many years, and has a large population, so it is relatively wealthy, and it is profitable to take advantage of it."

"After taking Yiyang, the Minister should not advance to Luoyang lightly, but should go up the Luo River and take Shangluo in Jin as the rear base."

"After working hard for several years, we have established a firm foothold."

Zhang Song talked eloquently, which made Wang Mi feel better. He smiled and said, "Is this your Longzhong Dialogue?"

Zhang Song smiled awkwardly.

How could he dare to compare himself to Zhuge Kongming? Wang Feibao doesn't have Liu Xuande's ability...

However, Liu Xuande had wasted half his life, and most of the time he might not have had as much capital as Wang Feibao.

The number of Shizhong's troops recovered to more than 30,000, many of whom were surrendered soldiers from Guanzhong.

In this matter, the emperor (Liu Cong) was very kind. Perhaps he also wanted to check and balance.

People like Zhao Ran, Zhao Gu, Shi Chao, Shi Le and others are all tough guys.

Oh, yes, there is also Cao Yi. He is currently expanding his territory in Qingzhou and consolidating his rule.

Both he and Wang Mi had complicated feelings towards this person.

When he heard that Cao Yi encountered scholars living in seclusion during his expedition, he strictly ordered his soldiers not to harass them and sent people to offer gifts as a gesture of goodwill.

After the news spread, it received praise from some people.

Cao Yi is a smart man, but Minister Wang would rather he was stupid, alas.

But then again, Wang Shizhong was not so jealous of Cao Yi now. After all, he was assigned to Hongnong, which was far away from Qingzhou, and it was unlikely that he would return to the east.

In this case, it is better to make a good relationship. After all, Cao Yi was once a former subordinate of the Shizhong, and they still have the friendship.

"I heard that Shao Xun has set up a government office?" Wang Mi asked, looking at the desolate plain in the distance.

"Open a government office as General Pingdong."

"Who is in charge of the Min Pond?"

"Henan Yin Liu Mo."

"It's good that it's not under the control of the thief Shao." Wang Mi breathed a sigh of relief and said, "Let's clean up Hangu Pass first, otherwise we won't be able to explain to the court."

When this was said, a large group of cavalrymen were heading eastward on the slope towards Luoyang.

These are the imperial court's forbidden troops. Their fighting power is not comparable to theirs, nor is it comparable to that of the Huns and other miscellaneous Huns who were temporarily recruited.

Although Wang Mi was not very loyal to the Han court, he sometimes had to bow his head.

As for Minchi, it is both a place name and a county name.

To the north of Luoshui is Xiong'er Mountain, with two peaks standing out in a row, shaped like bear ears (Xiao Xiong'er Mountain, not the Big Xiong'er Mountain to the south). There is a pond on the edge of the mountain, the water flows southeast, and there is a pond beside the water, which is called Minchi in the world.

This pond is named after a kind of insect called "黾" in the water. It is located in the mountains north of Jinmen and Tanshan. There are not many people in the mountains. Since the Cao Wei period, the Minchi County has been located in Licheng in the Luoshui River Valley Plain.

Licheng has been eroded by wind and rain and is in a state of collapse and ruin.

At this time, there were neither common people nor county magistrates in Minchi and Licheng, and they were just place names.

If Wang Mi just wanted to occupy the Minchi County in the mountains, it would not be difficult because there was no one defending it.

If you want to go south and occupy the county seat of Minchi (Licheng) in Yiyang County, you can only take the mountain path.

But he had no choice. The expansion routes were already limited. Apart from Luoyang in the east, there was only Yiyang in the south.

"How is the battle in Luoyang going?" Wang Mi asked as he came down the slope.

"The Jin army suffered a defeat in Xin'an and retreated again." Xu Miao said, "I don't know what has gone wrong with them. The last time they came to Luoyang, they hid in the city and refused to come out. This time they are fighting in Xin'an again. I don't know who is in charge now."

"Not only Xin'an, they also fought a battle in Mangshan. Henan Yin Liu Mo personally commanded the army, but was defeated by General Anxi (Liu Ya) and lost 4,000 soldiers." Gao Liang said again.

"Liu Anxi won two games in Chang'an and Luoyang. He is on a good track."

"That is, there may be more growth in the future."

While they were talking, they had already returned to the camp.

The captured Henan people trembled with fear as they cut wood and took stones to repair the city walls.

Wang Mi didn't even look and went straight into the camp.

He now has to think about the future, and Yi Yang is the biggest obstacle on his way forward.

******
Emperor Sima Chi came to the Daxia Gate Tower in the north of the city again.

In the first half of the year, he personally commanded the Ximing Tower, with 5,000 Liangzhou troops as the vanguard and tens of thousands of troops following, and defeated Huyan Yan.

Only half a year had passed, and without the Liangzhou Army, the Imperial Army had lost two battles, which made him wake up all of a sudden.

So, the imperial guards were so rotten? They had marched in with a clamor, shouting for a fierce battle, and were extremely brave.

"Your Majesty, the Imperial Army can only fight favorable battles, but cannot win against adverse forces." Wang Yan seemed to see through his thoughts and said, "If we lose one or two more battles, Luoyang will not be safe."

"Your Majesty, please do not fight in vain." Xun Fan had some complaints about Wang Yan's constant threatening of the emperor, but now he felt that he should scare him, lest the emperor feel good about himself and act recklessly. He only heard him say, "I heard that some soldiers complained that their fields could not be harvested, and they wanted to go out of the city to fight to the death, and there was no reward, so they wanted to make a fuss and disperse."

"What?" The emperor was shocked and asked, "Has he been sentenced to death?"

"Xu Lang, the commander of the Third Division, has suppressed the disturbance." Xun Fan said, "But we can't fight any more. We can only hold our ground now. The morale of the soldiers is low. We have to hold out for as long as we can."

The emperor was stunned when he heard this, and his face became even more anxious.

"We need elite soldiers and generals to come to our aid." Wang Yan said expressionlessly, "It's like a person needs three souls and seven spirits. Without them, he is just a walking corpse."

"This..." No one knew what he was thinking about, but the emperor's pale face slowly turned red, to an abnormal level, as if he was embarrassed and angry about something.

After a long time, he leaned his hands on the wall with a gloomy look on his face.

"Send envoys to the various garrisons to ask them to send troops to help Luoyang." After a long while, the emperor said, "Tell the barons that Luoyang is in danger. If it is today, it can still be saved, but it will be too late in the future."

Xun Fan sighed secretly after hearing this.

Although the emperor was incompetent, he felt uncomfortable seeing him begging in such a servile manner.

Within a year or two, the situation took a sharp turn for the worse, and the royal family's prestige was completely gone.

As they depend on the imperial power, they don't know how long they can sit in the court.

The sound of horse hooves like thunder could be heard in the north of the city.

It is truly lamentable that such a large Luoyang Valley turned into a horse racing track for the Huns.

The fertile farmland and gardens have become horse grazing land for the Huns, which is truly sad.

According to the news sent back by the imperial guards, Liu Han's army realized that they could not take Luoyang by force, so they changed their tactics and began to nibble away at the area surrounding Luoyang, gradually tightening the noose around Luoyang's neck.

First, Wang Mi built a city in Xin'an, and later, Liu Ya attacked and captured forts in Yanshi, Gaoshi and other places. It seemed that they were planning to stay there.

In fact, it’s quite normal.

After taking Chang'an, Liu Cong's attention turned back to Luoyang. He must have wanted to take this city now, and use this symbolic event to announce to the whole world the transfer of destiny.

No one knows how long the Huns will stay here.

No one knows how long Luoyang can hold out.

Perhaps, calling in troops from other garrisons to provide assistance was inevitable, and Wang Yifu's suggestion was not wrong.

(End of this chapter)