Chapter 275: Battle of Yingchuan
The Jianghuai Army advanced northward with great momentum. Zheng Guo's troops, who were originally stationed in the Wuyang area of ​​Ye County and confronting the Jingzhou Army, had to retreat.

If they still stay in Ye County, they will most likely be surrounded by the Eastern Yan army.

Zheng Guo led his 30,000 troops to retreat to Yingyang and Xiangcheng, while the 20,000 troops under Lou Jushi were stationed in Yingyin and Xuchang respectively. Lou Jushi also ordered his son Lou Jun to garrison in Linying. They were prepared to divide the troops and garrison in front of Yangdi, the seat of Yingchuan, to ensure the safety of the hinterland of Yingchuan.

Li Yuanhui ordered Zhu to lead an army of more than 10,000 people as the front to attack Linying and confront Yingyin and Yingyang. The two sides fought several battles under Linying City. Zhu was unable to break through Linying and could only lead his army to retreat to Yinqiang on the south bank of Yingshui River.

Chang Yanheng led the cavalry and even advanced to Changsha and Xuchang areas, causing quite a shock to the Eastern Yan army.

Fortunately, Lou Jushi, a veteran Xianbei noble, was a cavalry general who had spent most of his life on horseback, and his cavalry also had more than 10,000 cavalrymen. He immediately sent cavalrymen to attack and counterattack. Upon seeing this, Chang Yanheng immediately retreated to the Dingling and Yancheng areas.

Seeing that the other party retreated decisively, Mr. Lou was worried that it was a trap and did not pursue them further.

After taking care of various affairs in Pingyu, Li Yuanhui led his army to Yancheng, which was the Yancheng where Yue Fei later defeated Jin Wushu.

They also surveyed and set up camp around Yancheng.

For this reason, many generals suggested that Li Yuanhui lead his troops north as soon as possible, because it was only a few hundred miles away from Luoyang, a journey of two or three days for cavalry.

At present, there are only more than 20,000 troops of Lou Jushi in the Xuchang and Yingyin areas, and Zheng Guo's 30,000 troops are suppressed by the Jingzhou army and cannot provide support.

After defeating Lou Jushi, Zheng Guo's troops naturally could not pose any obstacle.

However, Li Qinglian and Zhang Zhen'e successively pointed out that Mr. Lou was guarding Yingyin with a large number of troops, and it would be difficult to break the city in a short period of time.

The Luoyang court would never sit idly by and watch the southern gate of Yingchuan fall. The elite of the central army must be on the way, and the cavalry could arrive in Yingchuan at any time. If they failed to capture Yingyin at this time, and reinforcements from the Eastern Yan army arrived, they would be in a dilemma.

Li Qinglian also proposed to establish a defense line in the areas of Yancheng, Zhaoling and Dingling in preparation for a battle with the elite central army in Luoyang.

"In the battle of Yingchuan, Luoyang will surely seek a quick victory, because if the war in Yuzhou drags on for too long, Guanzhong on the western front will be able to send troops to the Yaohan Road at any time, so Luoyang will surely be eager to fight in the battle of Yingchuan. And the more eager they are to fight, the more our army will have to dig deep trenches and high ravines to hold back the main force of the Eastern Army. We must not engage in battle with them rashly, but should hold our ground and wait for them to run out of energy, and then send troops, and we will surely win."

Li Yuanhui deeply agreed with Li Qinglian's words.

Now that the battle has reached Yingchuan, Luoyang will definitely counterattack.

The only card left for Luoyang was the elite central army led by Duan Yihong, which had been stationed in Hongnong County on the Qiao-Han Pass, threatening Guanzhong.

Now Luoyang will definitely dispatch Duan Yihong to lead the army south to Yingchuan to counterattack the offensive launched by Western Yan in Yuzhou.

Therefore, after the unstoppable Western Yan army reached Yingyin, it stopped its offensive and instead began to repair the city defenses in the occupied areas, set up camps in important locations, and required the construction of defensive fortifications outside the city defenses.

This scene is magical.

Since the Jianghuai Army was going to march north, they should have been an offensive force. Why did they build a camp?

Shouldn't we be building siege engines?
In this regard, the main generals of the Eastern Yan Army, Zheng Guo and Lou Jushi, as well as the third brother Li Xuanqing, had completely opposite reactions after hearing that the Jianghuai Army had set up camp and built a city.

After Li Yuanhui arrived in Yancheng and made the next defensive decision, he sent a messenger to meet with his third brother.

He then led hundreds of cavalry to Dingling.

After receiving Silang's letter, Li Sanlang arranged the defense of Kunyang and Wuyang, and headed for Dingling with a small entourage.

When they arrived outside Dingling City, they saw that a sheep and horse wall had been built outside the city, and beacons had been built along the Li River, a tributary of the Ru River. After seeing this, Li Sanlang smiled and said to his followers, "I was worried about Silang's youthful vigor, but now it seems unnecessary. In this Yingchuan battle, our army is already invincible."

Li Yuanhui personally went out of the city for dozens of miles and was almost in Kunyang to meet him. After seeing his third brother from a distance, he rode his horse forward.

"Third brother."

"Hahahaha, Shiro."

Li Xuanqing also drove his horse forward, and the two brothers laughed when they met and recognized each other.

"Ha ha ha ha."

Li Xuanqing also started to grow a beard. His height was nearly nine feet, but he was still tall and handsome.

After the reunion, the two brothers rode side by side along the Li River towards Dingling.

"Silang, I thought that at most you could only fight as far as Xiangcheng, confront the Eastern Army for a few months, and then withdraw to Huainan after the autumn harvest. I didn't expect that you would go all the way north, forcing General Zheng Guo to retreat to Xiangcheng. In this way, our two feint attacks will become the main attack."

It is hard to tell whether Li Sanlang's words were praise or complaint.

Li Silang knew his third brother's speaking habits, and laughed as he explained, "I didn't expect this. I thought Xiang County was a tough nut to crack. My general Zhu Deyu issued a military order, saying that the city would be broken in half a month. Who knew that he really broke the city in half a month? I just wrote a letter to Murong Deyu with the idea of ​​trying it out, who knew that he would actually surrender? After he surrendered, Mr. Lou refused to even defend Pingyu, and retreated all the way to Yingchuan. He didn't have to fight many battles on the way north. I didn't expect that Yuzhou would be so empty."

Li Sanlang said, "Not to mention you and me, even Luoyang, and even Yuzhou's Lou Jushi and Murong Deyu probably didn't expect this. But this is a good thing after all. But you have to be careful about the upcoming Yingchuan battle. Luoyang will definitely mobilize Duan Yihong's 100,000 elite troops to the south. Yingchuan is the gateway to Luoyang. If we lose it, Luoyang will be in danger. We accidentally stirred up a hornet's nest."

Li Silang also smiled and said, "Then please, Third Brother, go through fire and water with me."

Li Sanlang laughed loudly, "Hahahaha, you and I are brothers, why bother? As the saying goes, brothers fight together to fight a tiger, and fathers and sons fight together in battle. If we brothers join forces, even if we can't march directly to Luoyang, as long as we hold the main force of the Eastern Yan army in Yingchuan, it will be enough to decide the outcome."

When Li San saw the beacon tower built on the river bank, he knew what Lao Si was planning. It was the same as what he thought.

The 100,000-man central army led by Duan Yihong was the last elite force of the Eastern Yan court. They were the iron cavalry of the Great Yan that had conquered Goguryeo twice, driven out Tuyuhun in the west, and conquered the Turks in the north.

Their combat effectiveness may not be much inferior to that of the cavalry that entered the Central Plains back then.

In a plain area like Yuzhou, if they were to engage in a field battle with such cavalry, given the current military strength of the two legions of Jingzhou and Yangzhou, the possibility of winning would be very small.

Therefore, it was necessary to build defensive fortifications before Duan Yihong arrived, fight a war of attrition with Eastern Yan, and make it impossible for the Yan cavalry to use their power.

This is the only solution. If you can’t win head-on, you have to rely on operations.

Fortunately, the two brothers of the Li family are not the kind of hot-tempered young men. In fact, they are both the kind of people with deep scheming, and their ideas on how to deal with the situation coincide with each other.

Just stay alive.

In everything we do, we must know ourselves.

Reaching Yingchuan was already overachieving the mission. Should we take the initiative to attack and defeat Duan Yihong and his 100,000 elite central troops?

For Li Si, this difficulty is probably only slightly less difficult than it was for Zhao Kuo to win the Battle of Changping.

(End of this chapter)