Late Tang

On August 36th of the first year of Zhenlong, the central army of the imperial court to crusade against Luoyang, that is, the ten towns in Guanzhong led by Yang Fugong, plus the gold merchants in Guandong and the second town of Shanguo in Tongguan, completed their rendezvous in Tongguan and formally set out. .This is still a joint force, including the 30 capitals of the New Shence Army established by the Yang Fugong brothers, as well as the towns of Jingnan, Dingnan, Baoda, Zhenwu, Jingyuan, Fengxiang, Zhenguo, etc. A total of 36 soldiers and horses came, and the number of elite fighters reached [-].If this number of troops were placed in the prosperous Tang Dynasty, the scale would not be worth mentioning. At the time of Kaiyuan, all the major feudal towns, any feudal town, could pull out [-] to [-] elite soldiers.However, since the Yizong Dynasty, the Shence Army has been able to pull out soldiers from [-] capitals at a time, which is already a grand expedition for the Central Forbidden Army.Especially after the Huangchao Rebellion, when the original Shence Army system existed in name only.

The emperor Li Ye personally rushed from Chang'an to Tongguan Yang=, landed on the upper gate of Tongguan city gate, and had a farewell party for the army.Yang Fugong, the commander of the Central Route Army, was even more ambitious. He asked Li Ye to retreat from the eunuchs on the left and right, and then said to Li Ye in the exaggerated tone of his habit: "I will go to war today, and I will first clear up the foreign troubles for your majesty, and wait for the day of triumph, and then serve your majesty." Get rid of internal worries."

Yang Fugong's words are very interesting, Li Jing is an external trouble, who is an internal trouble?To put it bluntly, the Li family has been controlled by eunuchs for many years, and the biggest internal worry is the monopoly of eunuchs.However, Yang Fugong would definitely not regard himself as an internal concern. The internal concern he spoke of was indeed the eunuch, but he was specifically referring to Tian Lingzi from Chengdu.Although he spent a lot of money this time, he was forced to join forces with Tian Lingzi, Zhu Wen and others due to the offensive of Qin Fan.But in fact.For Tian Lingzi, who is also an eunuch.He has always been unhappy.Today, under the pressure of Li Jing, he made peace with Tian Lingzi for the time being, but in front of the emperor, he had already made it clear that when Li Jing was settled, he would be the first to take the old thief Tian to the knife.

Li Ye didn't have much hope for this official expedition, and even came to Tongguan.It was Yang Fugong's request.Although he is young, he is not a playful monarch like his elder brother, but is indeed a monarch who blindly wants to rejuvenate the Tang Dynasty. Unfortunately, the Tang Dynasty is already seriously ill and unable to recover.He saw all this clearly, and had already started thinking about the way out.

Since the Yizong dynasty, the court's largest conquest battle has begun, and the scale of this dispatch is even higher than that of the original crusade against Huang Chao.Even Tian Lingzi, who was far away in Xichuan, was able to temporarily give up his personal grievances with Yang Fugong.Send troops to help.

However, although there are many soldiers and horses dispatched by the imperial court this time, the scale is large.But up to this time, they have not played the banner of crusade against Li Jing, and the reason for sending troops is still to crusade against Wang Chucun and Yang Shouliang who rebelled in Luoyang.This kind of situation where the soldiers and horses have already drawn apart, but they still dare not declare war, has fully explained the hesitation of the commanding level in this conquest.

Yang Fugong and the others were hesitating, but Li Jing didn't hesitate at all.

The imperial court's five-way soldiers and horses were still gathering, and Li Jing had already taken the lead, without any ambiguity.Li Jing was the first to deal with Zhaoyi Town. Among the four planned troops, Hebei was the first to attack Xing Mingci. In just three days, he captured the two prefectures of Mingci. Wai Xingzhou.

On the fifth day, Xi Zhongxin, the general guarding Tianjing Pass, an important pass in Zhaoyi, was instigated to rebel and surrendered with his troops.The surrender of the gatekeeper at Tianjing Gate made the most important Taihang Mountain barrier between Heyang and Zezhou a smooth road.Li Cunxiao, Gao Siji, and Wang Yanzhang, under the orders of Commander Li Jing, led [-] soldiers, under the guidance of Xi Zhongxin and Guo Wei, crossed the Taihang Mountains, crossed the Tianjing Pass, and raided Zezhou.Zezhou, which was returned by Heyang not long ago, fell into the hands of Qin Jun in a blink of an eye.

Once in Zezhou, Luzhou cannot support itself.

The five prefectures in Zhaoyi Town lost three prefectures at once, leaving one Lu prefecture and one Xing prefecture. Across the Taihang Mountains, one east and one west faced each other, but each was besieged by the Qin army.

Wang Chongrong of Hezhong, who was closest to Zhaoyi, received the request for help. He felt cold and worried that if Zhaoyi was lost, Hezhong would be completely alone. He ordered people to continue guarding Hezhong, and at the same time sent people to ask for help from Yang Fugong in Tongguan, and sent his brother Wang Chongying Lead troops to rescue Luzhou in order to keep the flanks safe.

Gao Siji and other soldiers entered the fortress of Luzhou, Huguan, and were not allowed to enter for a while.Zhaoyi's general, Xi Zhongxin, invited him to come forward: "Lieutenant Colonel Guo surrendered to the King of Qin, but he did not make any merit. Today, he is willing to lead a thousand brothers to bypass Huguan Pass secretly and enter the heart of Luzhou. Our army is powerful."

In the camp, the three Taibaos were mainly the Second Taibao Wang Yanzhang. He heard that Xi Zhongxin knew the secret path and was willing to lead the army there. He nodded inwardly, then turned to look at the other two brothers.The elite Qin army is neither afraid of large-scale battles nor small-scale battles. They have fought too many battles where such small troops sneak into the heart of the enemy.They all nodded at the moment, at this time Guo Wei asked himself to join Xi Zhongxin in the battle.

"If that's the case, please General Xi and General Guo choose a thousand Yuan Zhaoyi soldiers to go to battle, bypass Huguan, and harass Luzhou."

That day, Xi Zhongxin and Guo Wei selected a thousand elite veterans from Tianjingguan and Zezhou, and after dark, they took a small path to bypass Huguan.The next day, Xi Zhongxin and Guo Wei suddenly led their troops to appear outside Luzhou City.

They bluffed their banners and spread suspicions, causing the guards in the city to panic.

The defenders in the city saw the Qin army's banners like a sea, the cavalry looming in the forest, and the camps stretching down the mountain. Everyone was panicked, thinking that Huguan was lost.

Huguan is an important pass in Zhaoyi, just as dangerous as Tianjing Pass.And the more important thing about Huguan is that Huguan is the connection channel between Luzhou and Xingzhou. Once Huguan is lost, the passage to Yecheng, Hebei through Taihang through Huguan will be broken, and Xingzhou will become an isolated city. And Luzhou has also become an isolated city.At this time, the Qin army dispatched from the direction of Taiyuan continued to approach. Under such circumstances, the morale of the defenders in Luzhou City was low and their hearts were disturbed.

Xi Zhongxin sent his subordinates to sneak into the city to find out the news. He was originally General Zhaoyi, and he was also from Luzhou Yajiang.At the time of internal and external troubles, Xi Zhongxin immediately sensed an opportunity, and he said to Guo Wei: "The morale of the Luzhou defenders is low, and they are all desperate for the war. I think that if someone comes forward to persuade them to surrender at this time, they may be able to persuade them to open the city. Come and surrender." His tone towards Guo Wei was very respectful, and he did not regard him as a subordinate at all, not to mention that Guo Wei was indeed no longer his subordinate.This time Guo Wei came out with him, obviously he was his deputy, but he knew that it was more of a supervisor.

"How sure is the general?" Guo Wei asked.

"At least [-]% certainty, if someone enters the city in person, at least [-]% certainty, XX intends to go there in person, if it fails, then the soldiers and horses here will be handed over to Brother Guo."

It is very risky to enter the city to persuade them to surrender, and it is hard to guarantee that those Luzhou dental soldiers will not come to die and die together.But looking at Xi Zhongxin's request, Guo Wei did not refuse. Firstly, this is an opportunity for Xi Zhongxin to make contributions. Secondly, if he can really persuade the Luzhou defenders to surrender, this is the most important thing.

That night, Xi Zhongxin pretended to be a messenger and went to the city to ask to enter the city, but was dragged into the city by the defenders.

One night later, when Guo Wei was already waiting anxiously, thinking that something had happened to Xi Zhongxin, there was a loud report from outside that the gate of Luzhou city was opened and a white flag was raised in the city.

The Luzhou defenders were surprised when they saw that it was Xi Zhongxin who delivered the letter last night.After he explained his purpose, they discussed for a long time, and finally chose to surrender the city.However, after Wang Yanzhang and others accepted the surrender and took over the city gate, the Luzhou garrison found out that what Xi Zhongxin said yesterday was that [-] Qin Fan troops had come from outside the city, and that Huguan and Xingzhou had been breached, and the news that Meng Fang was fighting When they were all just fooling around, their expressions were very exciting.But the matter has come to this point, and there are no extra problems for everyone.Luzhou has fallen into the garrison of the Qin army, how can they have room for repentance.Besides, Qin Jun didn't take Huguan Xingzhou right now, so it doesn't mean that he can really hold it.

As soon as the city of Luzhou fell, the defenders at the pass outside Luzhou also heard the order to surrender to the Qin army. The Qin army from the North Road poured into Luzhou, and the meat of Luzhou was completely swallowed by the Qin army.At this time, the reinforcements led by Hezhong Wang Chongying had just arrived at Wuling Mountain at the junction of Hezhong Jinzhou and Luzhou.When he arrived at the border of Luzhou, there was already news that the Qin army's northern and southern armies had joined forces in Luzhou City. In Luzhou, [-] Qin troops had gathered.

Wang Chongying had to stop advancing, temporarily stationed in Wuling Mountain, while sending people flying horses to report back to Wang Chongrong, waiting for the next instruction.

When Wang Chongrong heard that Luzhou had been lost, he was terrified, and quickly asked Wang Chongying to station on the Wuling Mountain line to defend against the Qin army.At the same time, messengers were urgently sent to ask Yang Fugong for help, asking them to cross the river to help.After waiting for two days, Yang Fugong had just arrived in Shanzhou, and the Qin army had already broken through Xingzhou.

The five prefectures in Zhaoyi Town all fell into the hands of the Qin army.

After taking Zhaoyi, the Qin army did not stop the offensive, but strengthened the offensive, attacking Jinzhou from Fen, Qin, Lu, and Ze simultaneously.

Wang Chongying led his troops to fight, and the two sides fought at Linfen by the Fenshui River in Jinzhou.

After a day and night of fierce fighting, Linfen fell, Wang Chongying was defeated, and almost his entire army was wiped out.

The Qin army took advantage of the victory and marched forward triumphantly all the way, capturing Jinzhou and Quanzhou.Wang Chongrong assembled troops and horses to defend Jiangzhou. He was defeated three times in one day and was forced to retreat southward.Of the prefectures in Hezhong Town, only Hezhong Mansion was left at this time. At this time, Yang Fugong's reinforcement vanguard finally crossed Fengling Pass and arrived in Hezhong.

Later, Yang Fugong led the Shence Army of the 36th Capital, as well as Zhen Guo, Jing Yuan, Jing Nan, Ding Nan and other large troops, finally arrived in Hezhong.At that time, more than [-] officers and soldiers crossed the Yellow River, and the momentum was great.At this time, the Qin army finally stopped its rapid offensive. After occupying Cizhou, Leizhou, Jinzhou, and Jiangzhou, the soldiers and horses stopped on the northern border of Hezhong Prefecture. Looking forward, but no one made the first move.

But everyone knows that a big battle is imminent, and if there is no fight, it will be a shocking battle. . )