Chapter 296 Good face

After the war, Lingzhi King Duan Yihong gathered more than 10,000 defeated soldiers. Together with the 10,000 reserve troops he had left in Yangdi, he still had 20,000 soldiers. Zheng Guo had less than 10,000 soldiers left and was trapped in Xiangcheng, and there was no way to rescue him.

Mr. Lou still has nearly 30,000 soldiers and horses, and Xuchang and Changsha each have several thousand soldiers.

After Li Er led his army to approach Yangdi, Duan Yihong led the panicked defeated troops across the Yingshui River without any hesitation and joined Lou Jushi.

Together with the troops from Xuchang and Changsha, the two of them had more than 60,000 troops. In addition, there was Li Yaoshi's detachment of 20,000 troops in Chenliu, for a total of 80,000 troops.

It seems that they have a large number of people. Although they are not as many as the Western Army, they should still be able to fight.

But those who know military affairs know that fighting now is no different from giving away lives.

First, there was a huge difference in morale between the two sides. The Western Army had won battle after battle and its morale was high, while the Eastern Army had already lost its morale due to a series of defeats. The soldiers were now very tired of fighting, which was why Duan Yihong did not defend the Yingchuan County city of Yangdi and retreated directly to Yingyin.

Second, after the battle, the most elite central army units of the Eastern Army had been defeated, with 50,000 to 60,000 soldiers killed or captured. In addition, a large number of defeated soldiers fled to unknown destinations.

The rest are second-line troops. A head-on battle with the Western Army at this time would undoubtedly be a dead end.

Therefore, after the edict from Luoyang was issued, Mr. Lou immediately followed the arrangements in the edict and ordered Li Yaoshi to come to Chenliu to provide support, and the army abandoned Yingchuan and withdrew to the heart of Luoyang via Hulao.

Duan Yihong seemed extremely hesitant, and Mr. Lou understood his thoughts. It would be embarrassing to return to Luoyang after losing the battle.

After some persuasion from Mr. Lou, Duan Yihong finally had no choice but to agree and withdraw his troops.

However, even if they want to withdraw their troops, they can't just leave.

The morale of the Western Army has been boosted, and the Li brothers are good at using cavalry. If they just retreat like this, it will definitely not work. If they are caught up by the Western Army, they will probably be defeated again.

Therefore, Mr. Lou appointed his brave general Yuchi Gong and his son Lou Jun to lead 10,000 soldiers as the rear guard. Duan Yihong also asked his son Duan Wuda to lead 2,000 soldiers as the rear guard to cover the retreat of the main army.

Yuchi Gong, Lou Jun and Duan Wuda faced the pursuers of the Western Army along the way, fighting and retreating, and finally retreated into the city of Xinzheng, with only 8,000 people left.

Soon, the Western Army Brigade also caught up and surrounded Xinzheng.

Duan Yihong and Lou Jushi also successfully led their troops to escape the pursuit of the Western Army, entered the Pass from Hulao Pass, and returned to the heart of Luoyang.

The person in charge of the pursuit was Li Er, who led the troops including 10,000 Wagang troops, 30,000 Jianghuai troops, 20,000 Jingzhou troops, and 10,000 Liangzhou cavalry.

Li San led 20,000 troops from Jingzhou, 10,000 troops from Guanzhong, and 10,000 troops from Jianghuai, and marched from Huanyuan Pass south of Luoyang.

Huanyuan Pass is one of the eight passes in Luoyang. It is located on Huanyuan Mountain at the junction of Yanshi, Dengfeng and Gongyi. It is a shortcut from Luoyang to Xu and Chen.

The pass is located at Elingban, between Mount Taishi and Mount Shaoshi. The road is dangerous and narrow, with twelve bends that wind around and around, almost going out and returning, so it is called Huanyuan Pass.

Zuo Zhuan: In the 21st year of Duke Xiang, Luan Ying of Jin fled to Chu, passed through the state, and went out of Huanyuan. In the second month of the third year of the reign of Qin II, Liu Bang attacked Chenliu, and also took Huanyuan and Goushi, cut off Hejin, and attacked Zhao Ben's army to the north of Shixiang. The attack on Luoyang was unsuccessful, so he went out of Huanyuan Pass to Yangcheng.

This place is an important channel connecting Luoyang to Yuzhou in the south.

Although Huanyuan Pass is steep and protected by high mountains, it is a pity that Li San has two barbarian soldiers from Bashu under his command.

Whether it is the Bandun Barbarians or the Wuqian Flying Army, they are all barbarians from Shuzhong. They can cross mountains and ridges as if they were walking on flat ground, and climbing mountains and rocks is even more of a piece of cake.

As a result, the famous and dangerous pass of Huanyuan Pass was broken by the Western Army without any decent resistance. The army entered the Luoyang Basin along the passage between Xiong'er Mountain and Songshan Mountain, and then approached Yique.

Li Yuanhui, on the other hand, remained in Xiangcheng.

On the one hand, it was to arrange the transportation of food and grass for the army, and on the other hand, it was to take over the cities in Yingchuan. The most important thing was that Zheng Guo had not surrendered yet.

The second elder brother, who had always been able to foresee the future, also failed this time. He estimated that Zheng Guo would be surrounded for a few days and would surrender after sending a letter of surrender.

After all, Zheng Guo was born in the Zheng family of Xingyang, and his son Zheng Shandao had once served as the prefect of Huainan and had worked with Li Yuanhui.

Zheng Guo's brother was Li Yuan's relative, and Li's eldest son married the daughter of Zheng from Xingyang, who was Zheng Guo's niece.

After the death of his mother, Madam Dou, the eldest sister-in-law began to help his eldest brother with household chores. She was also older, so she had some grace in raising Li Yuanhui. It is not an exaggeration to say that the eldest sister-in-law is like a mother.

Therefore, even for the sake of his elder brother and sister-in-law, Li Yuanhui would not do anything too extreme. Besides, the Zheng family of Xingyang and the Li family of Longxi were originally relatives by marriage.

But the Li brothers still underestimated Zheng Guo's stubbornness. Half a month had passed and the second brother had rushed to the Yellow River and stationed troops at Hulao Pass.

The third brother captured Huanyuan Pass and besieged Yique Pass. After taking Yique, he could attack Luoyang.

Li Yuanhui was still worried outside Xiangcheng City.

"General, Zheng Guo is so ignorant, why don't we just attack the city directly!"

My brother-in-law Chai Rong was a big brother among the Chang'an rangers. He looked gentle at ordinary times, but in fact, he could be quite irritable when his temper got angry.

After besieging so many cities, there are only two strongholds left outside Luoyang, Xinzheng and Xiangcheng. There must be no reinforcements. At this time, why don’t you surrender? Are you planning to remain loyal and chaste?

After Chai Rong finished speaking, Zhu Deyu, Yuwen Jue, Dou Cong and others also suggested that they should prepare to attack the city since the siege equipment had already been built.

Li Yuanhui looked at the people who were getting impatient and could only say, "Today I will write a final letter of persuasion for surrender. If he does not respond, the army will attack the city tomorrow morning."

So, Li Yuanhui wrote the letter himself, with sincere feelings, calling him uncle and brother all the time, and finally hoped that the other party would not make mistakes, because the soldiers on my side all remembered to attack Luoyang and make contributions.
The letter was sent to the city and finally received a response.

Zheng Guo's son and military officer Zheng Shandao went out of the city and came to the army outside the city, then put forward a very annoying condition.

Zheng Guo would only open the gates and surrender the city if Li Yuanhui himself entered the city.

The first thing Li Yuanhui wanted to talk about was the national quintessence, Liangxipi.

You do these.

All the generals, whether from Jianghuai, Jingzhou, Yizhou, Guanzhong, Liangzhou, or Longyou, all spoke in unison.

In layman's terms, you can't go. You can't go, these people are shameless, General, let's just do it.
However, after thinking it over carefully, Li Yuanhui suppressed everyone's strong desire to attack the city.

First, Zheng Guo was a famous general.

When Yang Xun rebelled, Zheng Guo, who was then the left general, led his troops to cover the rear and retreated in one piece.

When Qi County Governor Murong Ju rebelled, it was Zheng Guo who first broke through the Taishan defense line and rescued Gao Huang who was trapped in Dongping Mausoleum.

If we attack a city guarded by such a famous general, with sufficient troops and no shortage of food or water, he can defend it till the end of time.

If we want to knock it down, I don’t know how much manpower and resources it will take.

Secondly, the Li family should not be at odds with the Zheng family at least for now, because the Zheng family of Xingyang is a Shandong gentry family, and one of the most influential.

Currently, the Li family has not yet unified the country, and my father is still waiting to make further progress. It is not appropriate to make enemies with the Zheng family at this time.

Moreover, even if Zheng Guo wanted to commit suicide, it would not bring trouble to the family. If Zheng Guo really tricked Li Yuanhui into killing him or imprisoned him as a hostage, then the entire Xingyang Zheng family would have to pay a huge price for Zheng Guo's choice.

Because the gentry have their own rules of the game, everyone serves their own master, and on the battlefield everyone accepts their fate. There is nothing they can do if they die, and no one can hold back in the chaos of the army.

After leaving the battlefield, we have to give each other some leeway and leave others a way to survive, because we are all in the same circle.

Li Yuanhui did not fight during the half-month siege, which was his best effort. If Zheng Guo did not follow the rules, then the Zheng family of Xingyang would not survive in the future. If Li Yuanhui died in the city, the Zheng Guo lineage would be buried with him.

Li Yuanhui also roughly understood why Zheng Guo wanted to do this, it was simply for face.

If they surrendered just like that, it would be embarrassing. But if they held out for so many days and Li Yuanhui personally went into the city to persuade them to surrender, then this would be recorded in history books and they would save face.

Later generations saw that it was Li Yuanhui, Li Yuan's son and one of the commanders, who personally entered the city to persuade them to surrender, so the surrender was justified.
After thinking it through, Li Yuanhui decided to enter the city against all odds.

He only brought Wang Fobao and ten guards.

Zheng Shandao took the initiative to ask to stay in the Western Army camp, because he knew that if he did not take the initiative, he would be passive.

(End of this chapter)