Chapter 217: Surrender to Li or to Yan?

Considering the battlefield situation, the withdrawal was the right decision.

Although the Yan army had fewer soldiers, they had already shown their momentum. Although the Turks had more people, the impact of the continuous defeats on the morale of the army was gradually spreading among the army.

Plus the unfavorable terrain factors.

Therefore, from a military perspective, we should indeed withdraw our troops.

On the other hand, if he returns empty-handed this time, it will have some impact on his prestige.

But thinking of this, Shibi Khan almost laughed out loud, because his brother, Ashina Elifu, who might have the greatest influence on his status, had just been defeated.

Moreover, Elifer's army suffered heavy losses.

Thinking of this, it seems that retreating is not unacceptable. After all, there is still a scapegoat.
It would be even better if we could take this opportunity to weaken the strength of another brother, Chuexin.

But even though I think this way, it is hard to say whether the scope will expand if we continue to fight.

As a result, the Turks began to plan to withdraw their troops.

On the Guanzhong battlefield, Li Yuan wanted to retreat immediately after hearing that 200,000 Turkic cavalry were heading south.

He also discussed with a few confidants and decided to first bring Erlang and Sanlang across the Jing River, and then retreat to Longyou and Hanzhong.

But his confidants, including Liu Wenhui, Liu Sixing, and several nephews and nephew Wang Yi, all advised him to leave the affairs in the north to Erlang and Sanlang. If they felt they could not hold on, they would definitely send the news first.

As a result, Li Yuan was watching the situation when he heard that Erlang led his troops north, while Sanlang was still confronting Yuwen She on the north bank of the Wei River.

Now Li Yuan couldn't retreat even if he wanted to. Two of his four legitimate sons were holding him back. He could only ask people to collect ferries, collect all the ferries in the Wei River and Jing River areas, and be ready to build a floating bridge at any time to take his two sons across the river, and then burn it.

On the other side, craftsmen built dozens of catapults and began to fire at the opposite camp.

Yuwen Chengye, on the other hand, was guarding the large camp of tens of thousands of people and the fortified city of Huaili and refused to leave.

The most amazing one was the third brother Li Xuanqing. When he saw the prisoners escorted by his second brother, he immediately came up with a plan. He ordered Mu Changling and Da Xi Changru to take some of their own cavalry and bring thousands of Turkic prisoners to the north of the camp to raise clouds of dust. He also let the Turkic prisoners set up their own camp outside the Yan army camp.

Then he completely withdrew his own troops and adopted a defensive posture.

They pretended to be Turks and had already gone south, but the Eastern Yan army could only defend the camp. They also found a few Sogdians who could speak Turkic in the Liangzhou cavalry and sent them to the south bank. They told them to inform the Western Yan army on the other side that the Turkish general Zhishishili had led the vanguard south and asked them to send troops.

As a result, the Western Yan army actually believed it, and a number of generals requested to fight and crossed the river to attack Eastern Yan.

When Yuwen She saw this situation, he couldn't help but sigh, thinking that the Li family was unreliable, and then he agreed to the request to fight.

He ordered General Murong Jian, General Zhenbei Yuwen Zhao, General Commander Yuwen Jue and other generals to lead their troops across the river and cooperate with the Turks to attack the Eastern Yan camp.

Who knew that as soon as the Western Yan army landed, Li Sanlang immediately dispatched the Ba County's magical soldiers Bandun Man and his own 4,000 troops, the invincible flying army composed of the Nanzhong barbarians, and at the same time ordered the Di cavalry to participate in the encirclement and plunder.

The two armies had a total of more than 10,000 people, and they were extremely brave. The Wuqian Flying Army took the lead in attacking, each of them holding a powerful crossbow. When they were within a few dozen steps, they fired thousands of arrows at once, and the Western Yan army, which had not yet had time to form a battle formation, was directly covered by the rain of arrows, causing large-scale casualties.

Then, the Bandunman held a wooden shield in one hand and a wooden stick or a long-handled iron bone sword in the other, howling in strange noises, and rushed towards the Xiyan formation like a wild beast.

The reason why they used blunt weapons such as wooden sticks and bone balls was also specially arranged by Li Sanlang before he left Sichuan. After all, the Western Yan army had a lot of armor, and if they used traditional weapons such as bamboo bows and bamboo arrows, it would be difficult to cause damage to the Western Yan army.

If a knife was used, even if it broke through the armor, it would easily get stuck and could not be pulled out, so he discussed with several leaders of the Bandun Barbarians and asked them to vigorously promote the use of blunt weapons.

The effect was very good. The Bantun barbarians were naturally brave and strong. They used their big sticks and bone sticks to hit the heads, arms and legs of the Western Yan soldiers, breaking bones and tendons. Some even had their brains shattered. The Western Yan soldiers were caught off guard and ran towards the floating bridge, many of them trampling on each other.

Li Sanlang rode his horse into the battle array, throwing seven short spears in succession, killing seven generals above the rank of captain. Then he charged into the battle array alone, holding a long spear in his hand, killing dozens of people in succession, and finally stabbed the panicked Murong Jian to death with a single spear.

Yuwen She, who was watching the battle on the south bank, realized that he had fallen into a trap and hurriedly disconnected the floating bridge over the Wei River.

To prevent the other side from taking advantage of the situation to attack.

This also left thousands of Western Yan soldiers stranded on the other side of the river. Some surrendered, some fled. Of the 15,000 soldiers, less than 5,000 managed to escape back to the other side.

After this defeat, the Western Yan army also suffered a heavy blow. Even Yuwen Jue, a famous general in the army and once the tenth general of the Xiaoguo Army with Li Silang, was trapped on the north bank.

Only Yuwen Zhao was lucky enough to cross the river and return to the south bank.

"Could it be that the Turks have broken the alliance? And helped the Li family to deceive us?" Yuwen Zhao looked at the situation on the north bank with a dejected look. A group of Eastern Yan soldiers were cheering.

Yuwen Xiao, who came to support him, said: "It shouldn't be. Look, only the infantry of Yan army attacked just now. The cavalry did not participate in the battle."

Yu Wenzhao was stunned when he heard this, "What do you mean?"

Yuwen Xiao shook his head and said, "The Turks who are setting up camp over there, the cavalry outside are all monitoring them, and those parts are running back and forth. This can only mean that these cavalry are carrying surrendered soldiers and cannot participate in the battle. The so-called Turkic vanguards are all captured. The Turks in the north have been defeated."

Yuwen Zhao's face immediately turned ugly when he heard this. The Turks were defeated? Two hundred thousand Turkic cavalry were defeated?

How is that possible? But if the Turks were defeated, wouldn’t they have no reinforcements?

Yuwen Jue, who was trapped on the north bank, was not in as bad a situation as his colleagues on the south bank thought. On the contrary, Li Sanlang personally came to him to drink with wine and meat.

"Brother, I haven't seen you for a long time. I hope you are well." Li San walked into the tent carrying a glass of wine.

When Yuwen Jue saw the person coming, he immediately laughed and said, "Good job, Li Sanlang, you deceived the heaven and the sea and lured the snake out of its hole, but you even fooled General Yuwen, hahahaha."

He did not show any timid expression after being captured. Instead, he praised Li Sanlang for his clever plan.

Because Yuwen Jue's father and Li Yuan were close friends, Yuwen Jue treated Li Yuan's eldest son as an elder brother, and the other children of the Li family also treated Yuwen Jue as an elder brother.

So when Yuwen Jue saw that he had lost the battle, he was not panicked at all. He directly surrendered with his men because they had good relations.

Li Sanlang also treated him with courtesy. The two drank and reviewed today's battle.

Yuwen Jue praised Li Sanlang for his meticulous thinking and ingenious strategies.

After reviewing the situation, the two naturally talked about the situation in the world.

Finally, Li Sanlang opened his mouth and sincerely invited: "Brother, our two families are old friends, I won't say more, I want you to go back and persuade General Yuwen that there is no need to fight this war, what do you think?"

Upon hearing this, Yuwen Jue did not nod immediately, but asked in return: "Sanlang, I understand what you said, but I only want to ask you, if the war is over, should I, the Yuwen family, surrender to your Li family, or to Emperor Guangping?"

Li Sanlang smiled when he heard this but said nothing.

But sometimes silence is an attitude.

As a loyal minister, it is time to show your loyalty.

(End of this chapter)