A thousand-year-old family that began with the Battle of Makino

Chapter 272 The Battle of Nanluan, "King Xiao"

In the next few days, Zhang Shen launched several counterattacks against Liu Xiujun with his fresh troops, but Liu Xiu blocked them all.

However, Liu Xiujun also reached the point of exhaustion. He gradually became exhausted and even found it increasingly difficult to maintain his formation. His remaining troops were less than 30,000.

Liu Xiu made a decisive decision and ordered to retreat. There was almost no chaos in this process. Although Liu Xiu had not trained his troops for a long time, military discipline had been formed.

Seeing that Liu Xiu's army was retreating, Zhang decisively ordered the pursuit and quickly captured Liu Xiu's supply camp.

The baggage camp Liu Xiu left behind was very wealthy. It was all the gains made in Julu and Xindu counties in the past few months. The baggage carts containing military instruments alone were captured several times. The gold, silver, jewelry, food, soldiers and armor were all captured. Just more.

But at this time, the difference in military discipline became apparent. Faced with a huge amount of baggage, Zhang Canjun, who lacked the training of a famous commander, would have difficulty controlling discipline. All the soldiers gave up chasing Liu Xiu and began to snatch the baggage.

At this time, Liu Xiu immediately blew the horn, and the 20,000 cavalrymen who had been prepared rushed out from the woods on the side.

Because of the robbery of baggage, Zhang Cann's army was in chaos, and was completely unequipped to defend against the cavalry. In the chaos, it was trampled, ravaged, and shot by the cavalry. It was like a sudden tsunami, and the order of Zhang Cann's army collapsed.

When Liu Xiu saw that Zhang Can's army's formation was broken up by his own cavalry, he immediately reorganized his infantry formation and advanced to cover up the attack.

A huge defeat, an unprecedented defeat. The army without formation could only be reduced to lambs to be slaughtered on the battlefield. The soldiers of Zhang Shenjun ran towards the direction of Julu.

At this time, Zhang Canjun's superior strength turned into a liability. He was attacked by infantry and cavalry and squeezed into a small space to kill each other.

Liu Xiu commanded the army to pursue him for more than ten miles before giving up.

The cavalry chased the defeated soldiers to Julu and wanted to follow the defeated soldiers and seize the gate of Julu City. However, Wang Rao, the guard of Julu, ordered not to control the life and death of the defeated soldiers and refused to open the door.

Liu Xiujun's cavalry gave up and returned to camp.

March 24
Liu Xiu led the army to Julu, and the result of the battle in Nanluan had been spread. He defeated the many with less, and survived the desperate situation. This is a heavenly general.

However, Julu guard Wang Rao resolutely suppressed the city and refused to surrender. Liu Xiu was impatient and had to attack the city.

But it was the giant deer guarded by thousands of people, under the command of Wang Rao, that blocked Liu Xiu for many days.

At this time, the troops Liu Xiu sent to attack Xindu came back. Together with the troops who surrendered in the Battle of Nanluan, Liu Xiu's troops had reached 100,000.

Su Jin suggested: "Wang Rao is good at guarding. If he wastes time in Julu for a long time, the soldiers will definitely be exhausted. It is better to mobilize the elite soldiers, bypass Julu and attack Handan. Only a small number of people are left to monitor Wang Rao. If Liu Ziyu was executed, but Wang Rao surrendered without fighting."

Liu Xiu thought this plan was very clever, so he ordered General Deng Man to lead 20,000 troops to guard Julu, and he led the rest of the troops to Handan.

Even if Wang Rao saw Liu Xiu's army withdrawing and headed for Handan, he only had a few thousand people. He might not have any hair left after leaving the city, so he could only watch Liu Xiu leave.

March 30

Liu Xiu commanded the army all the way south. Relying on the reputation of the Battle of Nanluan, the journey was extremely smooth. When the counties and villages along the way heard that Liu Xiu's troops were coming, they were all scared, and it rained like rain all the way.

When Liu Xiu arrived at Handan North City, he already had 150,000 soldiers under his command, and Feng Yi commanded tens of thousands of people and was attacking the Bohai Sea.

Liu Xiu's 150,000 troops are at the north gate, Quan Lian's 50,000 Bai troops are at the west gate, Xie Gong's 50,000 Han troops are at the south gate, and the east gate is surrounded by Baiqushui. Handan has become an isolated city.

In addition, Li Yu of Bai was led by tens of thousands of troops from Deng Yu and Wu Han to attack Ren County from the north and south. Feng Yi continued to capture the remaining counties of Zhao State. Within a month, only Zhao State had We landed in an isolated city in Handan.

May 6
Feng Yi seized all the remaining territory east of Zhao and north of the Yellow River. Xie Gong also sent 10,000 people to capture Qinghe County, and Handan became an isolated city.

Even though there are still 100,000 people in Handan City, people's mentality has changed and their morale is low.

May 8
Li Li, the young master under Liu Ziyu, was instigated by Liu Xiu to rebel and opened the north gate to introduce Liu Xiujun into the city. Liu Ziyu escaped in the middle of the night, but was killed by Liu Xiu's soldiers.

As a result, Handan, which had been besieged for nearly five months, was finally captured by Liu Xiu. With the death of Zhao Han monarch Liu Ziyu, the disappearance of Zhao Han's territory represented the complete destruction of Zhao Han.

Since Liu Xiu entered the city first and Xie Gong followed, Handan was actually occupied by Liu Xiu, and Xie Gong had to return to Liangqi County to garrison.

After accepting Liu Xiu's reward, the reinforcements from the Bai Kingdom also hurriedly left and returned to the Bai Kingdom, because news came from the Bai Kingdom that the Wang family, a powerful family in Shangdang County, united with the powerful men of the three subordinate counties to take action against the Bai family's harsh rule.

Tens of thousands of elite troops stationed in Chaoge were mobilized to quell the rebellion. At this time, Chaoge's troops were empty. Quan Lian must return to Chaoge and garrison as soon as possible to prevent Xiaoxiao's ambitions.

However, when the Bai Kingdom retreated too hastily, Xie Gong took the opportunity to occupy the vast area between the Zhao Kingdom and the Bai Kingdom, the original Bai County.

Xie Gong immediately led the army to occupy Yecheng, and fought with the Yulai tribe of peasant troops who were wandering in the mountains and forests of Bai County. He wanted to completely occupy Bai County, so he had Bai County and Qinghe County in his hands.

After defeating Liu Ziyu and taking over most of Zhao and Han's territory, Liu Xiu had become a major force in Hebei and Bai Kingdom. In addition to Bai and Liu, there are still Liu Jie, the king of Guangyang who is causing trouble in western Liaoning, and Xie Gong, who is at odds with the two counties.

As for Heishan, Zhending, Zhongshan, Yuyang, and Shanggu, they all expressed their surrender to Liu Xiu after he occupied Handan. In order to appease them, Liu Xiu still allowed them to lead the local army, but he wanted to take back administrative power. Fan Xianjie and others agreed, so Liu Xiu appointed Fan Xianjie as the general of Heishan, and still appointed Geng Kuang and Peng Chong as the prefects of Yuyang and Shanggu. King Zhending and King Zhongshan retained their thrones and became vassal kings with the surname Liu recognized by Liu Xiu.

The war in Hebei has come to an end, but it does not mean that there will be no major wars in the world. When Liu Xiu and Liu Ziyu were fighting in dire straits, the vast area between Guanzhong and Guandong, including Nanyang, Yingchuan, Runan, and Hongnong, A large number of wars occurred in counties such as Henan and Henan.

The Qi Han Dynasty, led by the Red Eyebrow Army, and the Xuan Han Dynasty, led by the Green Forest Army, launched a war to compete for Chang'an in Guanzhong.

Originally, the Qi and Han Dynasties wanted to enter Guanzhong along the Yellow River from Henan County and Hongnong County. It was also because of this that they established Liu Penzi as emperor in Huayin.

However, due to the long and narrow terrain here, the large army cannot move. Even if the Qi and Han armies are hundreds of thousands, they will be blocked by tens of thousands of Xuan Han troops and cannot move.

As a last resort, Qi and Han had no choice but to seek a change of direction, break through Wuguan in a surprise attack, and enter Guanzhong.

Since it only took tens of thousands of people to keep Qi and Han out of the pass, let alone hundreds of thousands of people in the pass, Liu Xuan felt swollen for a while. He believed that as long as the pass was not lost, Qi and Han would be able to survive in this life. Don't even think about entering.

So he started dividing the cake, that is, fighting for power with the elders of the Green Forest Army in the imperial court. He first made Wang Chang, Wang Kuang and other elders kings, and assigned them to Nanyang, Jiangxia and other Jingchu lands, letting them leave the central government, and then transferred all rights to them. Take it into your own hands.

After the distribution of rights, Liu Xuan began to indulge in extravagant play.

However, Liu Xiu defeated Zhao Han and occupied Hebei. His strength was growing day by day and he was extremely uneasy. So he sent envoys to Hebei and named Liu Xiu King of Xiao. He ordered him to hand over his troops and horses and return to Chang'an to receive the reward. At the same time, he ordered the minister to order Xie to bow down. He carefully monitored Liu Xiu's movements, and arranged for Xie Gong to be the shepherd of Youzhou and take over the troops of Youzhou.

Liu Jie also surrendered to Liu Xuan, and was named King of Guangyang by Liu Xuan, who ordered Liu Xiu to hand over the Guangyang Kingdom so that Liu Jie could seize the title.

In this way, Xie Gong had the authority to mobilize all the troops and horses in Yuyang, Shanggu and Liaoxi areas of Youzhou, plus Baijun and Qinghe counties. However, Yuyang and Shanggu did not obey his orders, so he only had 100,000 troops under his command. .

In order to improve his strength, Xie Gong removed Geng Kuang and Peng Chong from their status as prefects as Han Dynasty Youzhou Mu and Shangshu Ling, and instead sent Wei Shun and Cai Yun to lead 30,000 soldiers and horses in Liaoxi to take over Yuyang County and Shanggu. county.

But Liu Xiu did not break his face and refused to accept the order on the grounds that Hebei was not peaceful.

As a result, there were two prefects in one county in Yuyang and Shanggu counties.

July
Xie Gong commanded the army to encircle and suppress Youlai's army, but was defeated miserably. Wu Han and Cen Peng, the generals of Liu Xiujun stationed in Handan, took advantage of Xie Gong's defeat at Youlai's army, led 30,000 troops, attacked Yecheng, and captured it. After being beheaded, his soldiers and horses were also recruited by Liu Xiu.

In order to better control the newly acquired territory in the south, Liu Xiu moved his seat to Gaoyi in Changshan County.

Only Wu Han and Cen Peng were left with 50,000 troops stationed in Handan to monitor Xie Gong's movements at any time. Unexpectedly, they found an opportunity.

end of july

When he learned that Xie Gong had been killed, Liu Xuan was furious. He wrote a letter scolding Liu Xiu and sent Miao Zeng as the new shepherd of Youzhou.

August
Liu Xiu's generals Wu Han, Geng Yan and others led troops to attack western Liaoning and killed Mu Miaozeng of Youzhou appointed by Liu Xuan, as well as Wei Shun and Cai Yun, the governors of Shanggu, Yuyang and other places.

Liu Xuan's power in Hebei was wiped out.

And this also means that Liu Xiu and Liu Xuan openly broke apart.

After breaking with Liu Xuan, Liu Xiu could no longer bear it and sent Deng Yuxi into Guanzhong and Feng Yi to attack Luoyang where Zhu Tuna and others were guarding.

Because the Qi and Han armies were unfavorable in attacking Hangu Pass, they withdrew from Henan County and attacked Wuguan instead. Liu Xuan then sent Zhu Jun to recover Luoyang and garrisoned it.

September
Feng Yi led an army of 100,000 to attack Luoyang. Outside Luoyang City, General Kou Xun led his troops and defeated the main force of Zhu Tuna's army. They won a great victory. The remnants of Zhu Tuna's army had to retreat into the city and refused to send troops.

When the news came back to Gaoyi, the generals took the opportunity to propose a title for Liu Xiu, but Liu Xiu refused. Liu Xiu believed that he only occupied half of the land in Hebei, which was pitiful for the world, so he tried to gain a title. , I might not be able to bear it.

After that, the ministers tried to persuade him to come in many times, but they were all rejected until Geng Chun met Liu Xiudao:
"If the lord does not proclaim himself emperor, the scholar-bureaucrats who follow him will think that Liu Xiu has no ambition and is disappointed and disengaged. The Bai Kingdom has long been interested in surrendering to the lord, but because the lord is not enough, he did not mention the matter. Bai Lin came to me many times. , kept asking the lord how long it would take for him to proclaim himself emperor. The Bai Kingdom, a small and wealthy country, was about to be unable to suppress the rebellion in the underground counties.

I hope that my lord will proclaim himself emperor as soon as possible and take over Hedong, Hanoi, Shangdang, Taiyuan and other counties, as well as hundreds of thousands of border guards. Only when the lord becomes emperor can the Bai Kingdom legitimately submit to the lord. "

After hearing what Geng Chun said, Liu Xiucai decided to follow his advice.

When they arrived in Handan, Liu Xiu summoned Feng Yi back and wanted to hear his opinion, and Feng Yi also strongly persuaded him to join.

It happened that Liu Sheng, a Confucian scholar from the Bai Kingdom, came to present "Chi Fu Fu".

"Chifu Fu" is a famous prophecy book in the world. Wang Mang used this talisman as a basis to claim that it was God's arrangement and used it to proclaim himself emperor.

And the prophecy of "Chi Fu Fu" reads: "Liu Xiu sent troops to capture but failed, all barbarians gathered in Long Dou Ye, and fire was the dominant force on April 7th."

Therefore, the officials used this as a basis to persuade him to enter again, and Liu Xiu finally agreed.

(End of this chapter)