Chapter 285 Two Tigers Fighting
Bingzhou, under the city of Jinyang.

An emergency document was rushed from Yecheng and delivered to the Jizhou Army camp. After reading it, Zhao Yi, who had been besieging the city for more than a month, was shocked, but his expression did not change. He then put his hands behind his back, so that no one could see the slight tremor in his hands.

"Hahahaha, Zhai Rang's 100,000-strong Wagang army was defeated at Hulao Pass. We have nothing to worry about now, hahahaha."

Upon hearing this, all the generals laughed and agreed.

After the meeting, only the Chief Secretary Zhou Pu was left in the tent.

Zhao Da then confessed, "Something is not going well. Erlang sent someone to deliver an urgent report that the Youzhou army is heading south."

After that, he took out the letter and placed it on the table. After hearing what he said and reading it, Zhou Pu was speechless for a while.

Before sending troops to Bingzhou, Zhao Dahe and his generals and staff had discussed it, and they were still worried about the dispatch of troops from Wagang.

But no one expected that the Youzhou army would move south.

First of all, Xue Shixiong, the governor of Youzhou and the general of the Northern Expedition, is old and has not been in good health in recent years. Being sick at this age, he will not have the energy to plot against Jizhou.

Even Zhao Da and others had estimated that even if Xue Shixiong died of illness, if his subordinates fought for power, it would definitely cause trouble for some time.

This also left the Jizhou army with the opportunity to integrate resources and take over Bingzhou.

But I never thought that Liu Xuanji’s prestige in the Youzhou Army was so high.

As soon as Xue Shixiong died, the Youzhou army and local aristocratic families, powerful clans and wealthy people all supported Liu Xuanji to take charge of Youzhou.

Youzhou Governor Wang Xing was directly marginalized.

Not only did Liu Xuanji take over the Youzhou army and gain the support of the gentry in a very short period of time, he also decisively led his troops south while the Jizhou army entered the Hedong area.

In just over twenty days, they successively captured the four counties of Zhongshan, Hejian, Bohai and Anping.

This progress is alarming.

Even if they could return in time, at least half of Jizhou would fall into the hands of the Youzhou army.

The current situation is extremely urgent for Zhao Yi, and he must rush back to rescue. At present, only Weijun Yecheng still has several thousand defenders, and Qinghe, Pingyuan, Julu, and Zhaojun are also defenseless.

The biggest problem is that Zhao Yi has an army of 100,000, but only 30,000 of his troops have their families around Yecheng. The rest are county soldiers and powerful troops, and their families may be in the counties controlled by the Youzhou Army.

This is very similar to the situation Guan Yu faced under the city of Xiangfan. Your soldiers' families are under control. How can you fight this war?
It will definitely collapse.

So we can’t fight in Jinyang and we have to leave.

Zhou Pu immediately suggested: "General, you need to lead your troops back to Yecheng quickly. The other troops will receive the news in the next few days. If you wait until the other troops disperse, the morale of your troops will also be affected."

Zhao Yi agreed with this statement and immediately summoned his trusted generals to prepare for the withdrawal.

But there is no wall that is impenetrable, and the nobles in Jizhou naturally used other channels to deliver news of the war to their relatives and friends in the army.

As a result, the local noble leaders of the Jizhou army also knew the news of Youzhou's military deployment.

Coincidentally, they had the same idea as Zhao Da and were preparing to run away quietly.

After all, many people's homes were occupied by Youzhou people, so who would have the heart to fight? However, if you tell the commander that you quit and your home has been robbed, you may face military trial.

Therefore, these people did not intend to gamble on Zhao Da's magnanimity. Their choice was the same as Zhao Da's and they left without saying goodbye.

As a result, the situation outside Jinyang city became that, except for a few county troops that were cut off from information, all the wealthy families fled with their troops.

And they went straight to Jingxing, not even planning to take the Fukouxing route they took on the way here. Zhao Da led his core group and quickly headed back to Weijun.

When Tuoba Jun in Jinyang City saw this, he initially thought that it was a delaying tactic by Ambassador Zhao. When all the people under Jinyang City ran away, he realized that it was the Youzhou army that had invaded Jizhou.

Tuoba Jun was overjoyed and immediately wanted to lead his troops in pursuit, but was persuaded by his uncle Tuoba Guang.

"Look at two tigers fighting. If you help one tiger to kill the other, the remaining tiger will have enough energy to devour people."

After hearing this, Tuoba Jun also understood his uncle's concerns.

Indeed, Zhao Da is now at war with the Bingzhou army. If Zhao Da is really dragged to death in Bingzhou at this time, it will definitely not be good news for the Tuoba family.

Because in this case, the Bingzhou army will have to face Liu Xuanji, who controls You and Ji states, and the situation may be even worse than it is now.

If Zhao Da were to go back, he would definitely fight to the death with Liu Xuanji of Youzhou in order to defend Jizhou.

When two tigers fight, one of them will be injured. For the Bingzhou army, it would be best if both sides could fight to an evenly matched defeat.

The Bingzhou army can then recover its strength, and then take advantage of the situation to leave Taihang and take over Hebei.

If we can take control of Hedong and Hebei, we will be able to move south to compete for the world.

It was obviously a good thing for Zhao Da that the Tuoba clan did not send troops to pursue, but the situation in Jizhou was completely out of control.

Liu Xuanji led the Youzhou cavalry southward in early July. By the end of July, the army had surrounded Xindu.

Xindu was once the seat of Jizhou and the capital of Anping County, with high city walls and thick walls.

After Liu Xuanji laid siege to the city, he did not attack it immediately, but kept shooting letters of surrender into the city. Xing Luan, the prefect of Anping in the city, saw that the Youzhou army was in good formation and had good military discipline along the way, and no one was harmed, so he opened the city and surrendered.

Liu Xuanji helped Xing Luan, who was about to bow, up at the city gate, and said, "When I was in Youzhou, I heard that Xing Taishou was an honest official with outstanding moral character and both civil and military talents. When the Turks invaded Hebei, he organized an army and defeated the enemy many times. Now, can you please teach me how to win the hearts of Jizhou?"

Xing Luan asked in return: "Why does General Liu want Jizhou to return to his loyalty?"

Liu Xuanji said: "I am not talented, but I want to spread justice to the world and establish an unprecedented achievement."

Xing Luan's face was somewhat serious when he heard this. He said, "In this case, please enforce strict military discipline, do not let the army disturb the people, and reduce this year's taxes. This will win the hearts of the people. You can also send people to meet with the Zhaojun Li family, Bohai Gao family, Qinghe Cui family and other prominent families. If you can get their help, you can achieve twice the result with half the effort."

Liu Xuanji nodded and said, "I deeply agree with what the governor said. I hope the governor can help me to appease the people."

Upon hearing this, Xing Luan couldn't help but feel a bit favorable towards General Liu, who was nominated as the governor by his colleagues in Youzhou.

Liu Xuanji won the battle almost without bloodshed along the way, and he did his best to save face by showing courtesy to the wise and humble, and showing kindness to everyone, so much so that any Youzhou soldier who entered a civilian residence without permission was directly brought to justice by military law.

Soldiers were even asked to help repair the broken walls of ordinary people's homes.
This series of combined efforts achieved remarkable results, and the people and gentry of Jizhou had no resistance to General Liu of Youzhou.

The two states of Hebei and Hebei have similar customs and languages, and have always been collectively referred to as the "Land of Yan and Zhao".

On the contrary, the Zhao brothers, although their ancestors were powerful people in Youzhou, these brothers were born in Luoyang, spoke Heluo Mandarin, and the main generals under their command were all from the Central Plains. This led to the fact that although the local gentry established a cooperative relationship with the Zhao family, the two sides never really formed an interest group.

So after Liu Xuanji went south, apart from leaving the defense gap, the people of Jizhou, not only the gentry, powerful people, but also the common people, did not have much desire to resist.

Moreover, Liu Xuanji's military discipline was good, so most people chose to just let it go and not resist.

Sit back and watch two tigers fight.

Whoever wins will be the master of Hebei.

(End of this chapter)