Chapter 591: Strengthening

Chapter 591: Strengthening

Chapter 591: Strengthening

What happened in Luoyang City was still spreading and fermenting. At present, it seemed to have caused a certain degree of turmoil, and people were talking about it. But in the end, the discussion was just "discussion". From this perspective, it was of no help to the emperor Sima Chi, and his situation became worse.

On the day of Qixi Festival, Pei Kuo personally arrived at the front line outside Xin'an City and inspected the camps.

After arriving at the city, the Huns had been refusing to leave. Perhaps they wanted to repeat the process of their victory three years ago, that is, to defend first, wear down the attackers' spirit, strength, and military resources, and when they were exhausted, they would suddenly attack with their fresh troops who had been waiting for a long time, and finally win.

The last time the commander-in-chief was the Central Guard General Xun Song, and this time it was the Northern Army Lieutenant Pei Kuo. The former had almost no war experience, while the latter was very experienced, so their fighting styles were very different.

Pei Kuo knew that his troops were not strong enough, so the first thing he did was to dig trenches and build earth walls to surround Xin'an City. In this way, even if his troops were defeated, it would not be easy for the defenders to leave the city and pursue them.

The Luoyang Central Army cannot withstand the devastating defeat like that of three years ago. If it happens again, this army will inevitably disintegrate.

When Pei Kuo arrived outside the city of Xin'an, the imperial guards were sweating profusely, digging trenches and building earth walls.

General Chen Jing of the Left Guard was surrounded by people and pointed at a place in the west of the city with a horsewhip. When he saw Pei Kuo, he immediately came over to salute.

"How's the battle going?" Pei Kuo asked, looking towards the smoke and dust.

"Xu Lang was quite courageous. The Sima Huang Biao of the vanguard camp personally led the soldiers to charge and drove the bandits to Baichao City." Chen Jing replied.

"The government soldiers didn't participate in the battle?" Pei Kuo asked in surprise.

Chen Jing felt a little embarrassed when he heard this, and said, "We relied on them to win the previous battles. If we rely on others this time, it will be unacceptable no matter what."

Because the fighting power of the central army in Luoyang was limited, after arriving at the city of Xin'an, the first few battles were fought by Chang Can and the imperial soldiers. The scale was not large, but the battles were decisive and boosted morale. Later, as long as the horse hooves of the imperial soldiers were heard from afar, the enemy began to panic, and when they saw them dismount and put on armor, their morale dropped rapidly.

This battle on the banks of the valley west of the city was fought by the imperial guards.

General Chen Jing of the Left Guard personally led the troops to the battle and sent out the capable Vanguard Battalion, the Strong Crossbow Battalion, and the Youji Battalion. He personally enforced military discipline and killed hundreds of fleeing soldiers in succession. After a fierce battle, he finally drove out Wang Mi's reinforcements.

However, although he won the battle, he was still ashamed because the reinforcements sent by Wang Mi were not necessarily elite troops, but the ones he sent were the core force of the Zuowei, and in the end, he had to work very hard to win the battle.

What does this mean? It means that the overall strength of the Imperial Guards is about the same as Wang Mi, or even slightly inferior.

The Baichaolei he mentioned was located fifteen miles northwest of Xin'an City.

During the Yellow Turban Rebellion at the end of the Han Dynasty, the local tyrant Bai Chao built a fortress here to defend himself. The location of the fortress was very clever, with high mountains on both sides, more than a hundred steps apart, and a road leading out of the middle.

Today, Baichao Fort is Wang Mi's logistics distribution center, mainly used to support Xin'an City. Therefore, a year ago he built this fort and named it "Baichao City", also known as "Baichao Fort", which is a large fortress for garrisoning soldiers and civilians.

The families of soldiers and ordinary people farmed and grazed behind Baichao City.

In addition, there is also a large-scale iron smelting industry here.

In the Han Dynasty, there was an iron official. In the Wei and Jin Dynasties, water from the valley was used for water smelting for state use. Later, it was destroyed in war. Wang Mi recruited craftsmen in various ways and managed to restore some production capacity. The equipment he made was mainly supplied to Xin'an City.

Therefore, if you want to encircle Xin'an, you must cut off the support from the direction of Baichao City.

Wang Mi was well aware of this, so he repeatedly led his troops through Baichao to fight the imperial guards. The General of Light Chariots Jiao Qiu was defeated in the field between Xin'an and Baichao, and after escaping, he was captured by Pei Kuo and sentenced to death.

As for Diwu Yi, he led the inexperienced soldiers of Henan County - almost all of them were temporarily conscripted peasants - and was defeated by the defenders in a field battle outside the city of Xin'an, and he himself died in the chaos.

The smoke in the west gradually dissipated, and another battle ended.

Pei Kuo climbed to a high place and looked into the distance, remaining silent for a long time as he looked at the road that was dug and widened under the leadership of Cao Cao.

"Retribution." After a long while, he sighed, "At the beginning, the soldiers had no will to fight, and the people were in panic. When the Xiongnu arrows came, they all fled. The 30,000 soldiers and horses only dared to hide in Luoyang City and trembled, and easily lost Hongnong. Now that the initial rectification has been completed, Wang Mi has been managing this place for several years, and the city fortifications are complete. If you want to restore Hongnong, I don’t know how much it will cost."

Chen Jing was speechless and had no answer.

Sometimes wars are like this. When the battle line is not stable, there are big advances or big retreats. Many cities and passes change hands repeatedly, as if the great passes built in dangerous areas are useless, just like a small village on the plain. The defenders retreat easily and can be occupied by armed marches.

But once the battle line is stabilized, you will understand how cruel and bloody these passes are.

The territory that was easily lost now needs to be recovered at the cost of blood, because Hongnong is also very important to the Xiongnu, and they will not give it up easily.

Now it is mainly Wang Mi who is holding the line. The Xiongnu court has garrisons, but most of them are grazing and farming in the mountains and hills in the rear, and have not been sent to the front line at all. But once Wang Mi can no longer hold the line, he may be deployed to the battle, and even dispatch troops from Pingyang and Chang'an.

"I don't know what the court did!" Pei Kuo became angrier the more he thought about it.

Chen Jing felt the same way. He looked at Pei Kuo and understood what he was thinking: This crappy court is full of evil!

Both of them were born into aristocratic families, but they had experienced long military service and had spent most of their lives among warriors. Over time, their ideas gradually changed and they no longer looked like traditional scholars.

Moreover, after the war among the kings, the Huns invaded and the imperial guards were defeated repeatedly and suffered heavy losses. Many of their good friends and old acquaintances died on the battlefield, and they were very dissatisfied with the court. If there was any department in the Jin court that they were most dissatisfied with in the past ten years, it would definitely be the imperial guards.

"Have you heard about what happened in Luoyang recently, Governor?" Chen Jing asked.

Pei Kuo's expression remained unchanged. He just nodded slightly and said, "I have heard something about it."

"Mr. Chen has great ambitions and can win battles. Without him, Luoyang would have been lost long ago." Chen Jing said, "If it were an ordinary peaceful year, I would not support Mr. Chen's actions, but what time is it now? In extraordinary times, extraordinary things should be done. The Pei family lives in Hedong, the heartland of the Xiongnu, and can do nothing about the war in Henan. The governor leads the imperial army to attack Xin'an, which is a rare opportunity to make meritorious deeds..."

Pei Kuo said nothing. Chen Jing pointed out a fact: Pei's strength was mostly in Hedong, and they failed to join Chen Gong in time. Once Chen Gong defeated the Xiongnu and abdicated the throne, Pei's contribution would not be very impressive. When the benefits were shared in the future, they might not get much, and they might even be suppressed by others. This is often an important reason for the decline of a family.

"Since the governor has captured Jiao Qiu, don't keep him alive, just kill him." Chen Jing said, "Don't be shy in the battle of Xin'an City. Now is the time to go all out. There are always casualties in a war. The governor might as well visit General Chang today and ask him to help hold the line. If there are signs of mutiny in the army, suppress them vigorously. When the soldiers see this, they can only turn around and fight to the death, not daring to turn their backs on the enemy. The governor can also go to Mr. Chen to ask for a batch of money and goods to reward the meritorious soldiers. In this way, the morale of the army will be greatly stabilized, and there is no need to worry about Xin'an not being conquered."

Pei Kuo nodded slowly.

Next, he needs to borrow other people's heads to fight for the future of the Pei family.

In addition to the Luoyang central army and the young men recruited from elsewhere, the total number of soldiers exceeded 40,000. The number of defenders in Xin'an City was probably between 5,000 and 7,000. As long as they could block the Huns' reinforcements, they would be able to defeat them.

In fact, he had already had this idea before Chen Jing reminded him.

I recently had a heart-to-heart talk with the officers in the army and got to know a little bit about their thoughts. Even those officers who were once wooed by the emperor acknowledged Mr. Chen's great military achievements and were extremely disappointed with the court.

Some of these people can be won back.

As for those who were disappointed with the court but still loyal to the emperor, Pei Kuo had already figured it out and secretly wrote down their names.

In the next battle, he could calmly "deploy his troops" and completely eliminate the emperor's last bit of influence in the imperial guards, just like he received a secret letter from Chen Gong's brother Shao Fan, sent Diwu Yi and Jiao Qiu to die, and then found a fault to dismiss Li Shu from office.

At this time, his confidence in Mr. Chen was also growing.

He believed that before entering Luoyang, Chen Gong was not sure what consequences his actions would lead to. After trying it, it seemed that there was no fierce opposition, which already explained a lot.

After some probing, Mr. Chen finally understood.

He watched for a long time and finally understood.

So he decided to act as the knife in Chen Gong's hand and eliminate those who had bad intentions for him. Chen Gong was always wise and must have seen his efforts - being someone else's knife was not a shameful thing. Chen Gong also acted as the sharpest knife in Sima Yue's hand at the beginning, which enabled him to advance.

After making up his mind, Pei Kuo stuck to the line.

From the Chinese Valentine's Day until late July, a full half month, he resisted the harassment of the Huns while surrounding the east and west sides of Xin'an City, and built several pontoon bridges over the Gu River to force a crossing to the north of the Gu River - there are mountains to the north of Xin'an City, and the Gu River is two miles south of the city.

More than a dozen battles of varying sizes were fought.

By July 25, the Xin'an defenders had not dared to leave the city for a field battle for seven consecutive days. In the direction of Baichao City, the government troops led by Chang Can defeated the reinforcements sent by Wang Mi several times and forced them back.

In the area of ​​the East and West Xiao Mountains, Shao Shen led the Zhongwu Army and the men from Yiyang, Luhun and Xincheng counties to the north and fought several fierce battles with Wang Mi, with both sides winning and losing.

At this point, the war had officially begun for a month. More than half of Wang Mi's troops were tied up in Xin'an and Baichao, and another seven or eight thousand troops were deployed in the east and west Xiaoshan directions. The mobile forces that Wang Mi could mobilize were only a few thousand.

But he could hardly protect even these thousands of people.

On July 26, Wang Que'er, who had stockpiled food and military supplies, led more than 35,000 soldiers to the city of Yewang.

Liu Ya, the Xiongnu Anxi general, ordered Shi Hu to return for assistance and also requested more troops from Pingyang to reinforce Henei.

A few days later, an envoy arrived in Shaanxi City, intending to transfer 10,000 infantry and cavalry from Hongnong to reinforce Hanoi.

Wang Mi suddenly felt overwhelmed.

Just as the battles on all fronts began to accelerate and the Huns began to feel the pressure, Shao Xun spent a peaceful month in Luoyang.

His "drastic actions" did not cause any backlash for the time being, and he tested the bottom line of the ministers and officials, and his salami-slicing tactics were successful.

At the end of July, he humbly declined the title of "Recorder of the Secretariat" and let Wang Yan take over.

Zheng Shida arrived in the capital and took over the position of Rong Cong Pushe, taking charge of the warriors with spears in the palace.

Pei Chun, the prefect of Xingyang, was transferred to be the captain of the city gates, in charge of the seven gates of Luoyang.

Shangshu Lang Yu Bing was appointed as the magistrate of Luoyang.

Lu Yan, the Shangshu Zuocheng, served as the governor of Henan.

Pei Yi, the Prime Minister of the State of Chen, was promoted to the position of Huangmen Shilang, attending the emperor's side, entering and leaving the palace, and conveying orders from top to bottom.

Cui Gong, the prime minister of the State of Chen, was promoted to the position of Minister of Agriculture and was in charge of the Taicang of Dongyang Gate.

The Yuzhou governor Yang Jiongzhi came to the capital and was appointed Weiwei, in charge of the Luoyang armory and various smelters, and rebuilt the official vehicle and guard system. Chen State's senior farmer Chu Huo succeeded the Yuzhou governor.

Without the previous tests, there would not be this series of appointments and dismissals.

After completing all this, he prepared to tour north to Heyang.

The war in Hebei has also entered the most critical moment.

(End of this chapter)