Chapter 327 Humanity and Sophistication
The capital of Hedong County was Anyi City.

Tens of thousands of Tang troops surrounded Anyi on three sides. Faced with such a dilemma, the Su family father and son who were defending the city knew that under this situation, they could not expect reinforcements.

Su Yong, who was tall and strong, looked at the coalition camp outside and sighed: "The way the Tang army set up camp is very tight, and Anyi has no external aid. It must be a famous general leading the troops and making equipment. It can't be defended."

Su Yong was a local tyrant in Xiangguo. He had also read military books. Because of the war, he gathered villagers into an army and surrounded his hometown. He also fought in many battles in the south and the north, so he had a wide range of experience and was now considered a veteran general.

As soon as I saw the Tang army's deployment, I knew that the opponent's commander must be a seasoned general.

Su Dingbian said: "Aye, why don't we break out? Since Anyi can't bear it anymore, we might as well break out and go to Shangdang before the Tang army starts attacking the city."

Su Yong shook his head, "It's too late. Now Wenxi and Jiang County have been taken by the Tang army. It's not easy to leave."

Su Dingbian said: "If we don't leave, can we stay in Anyi and defend it? Hedong is close to Guanzhong. Even if General Liu wants to support us, he can't have an advantage over the Tang army in terms of manpower. It's better to break out as soon as possible. It's difficult to go east, so we might as well go north first, and then turn back to Shangdang when we reach Taiyue Mountain."

Su Yong said, "Let's go first. It's not that difficult. The Tang army wants Anyi now, but they don't want Hebei in the future? We have no grudges against the Tang army, so why do we have to fight? We can use Hedong County to exchange for a way out for more than 10,000 of us. Do you think the Tang army commander will agree?"

Su Dingbian was a little surprised after hearing this. How could this be possible?
Seeing his son in a daze, Su Yong felt helpless. After all, he was still young. Although he was brave in battle and had some talent in commanding troops, his knowledge was still a little immature.

Su Yong said, "Why did my father and I gather the villagers to form an army? Is it to establish meritorious service? At the beginning, it was nothing more than to protect our hometown from the suffering of war. Later, General Zhao took control of Jizhou, and my father and I just followed the trend. It is better to say that we serve the court than to serve General Zhao. Now General Liu has taken control of Jizhou, and General Zhao has declined. We have changed our allegiance because our hometown is under the control of General Liu. In this chaotic world, who knows who will have the last laugh between General Zhao and General Liu? Now that the Li family has replaced Yan and established Tang, although General Liu dominates Hebei, he may not be Li's opponent. But now my family is in Xiangguo, and the soldiers are naturally unwilling to submit to the Tang Dynasty, but who can predict the future?"

"The Tang army is determined to take Anyi, but if I give up Anyi, it will save the two sides from fighting. How can the Tang army not respond?"

Su Dingbian asked, "What if the Tang army turns against us after taking Anyi and suddenly attacks our army?"

Su Yong said: "It is not impossible, but if the Tang army wants to unify the world, they must go north to Hebei. If they want to take Hebei, they will not do things too drastically. Compared with the great cause of the Tang Dynasty, what can our 10,000 people count for?"

Su Dingbian was persuaded.

What he didn't expect was that after discussion, the main generals of the Tang army, Li Cang and Li Sixing, and others believed that they had no right to publish autobiographies on such matters, so they did not respond immediately.

Instead, he sent a special express horse to Chang'an to submit a memorial, asking for advice from the highest decision-maker, the Tang Emperor Li Yuan.

When Li Yuan heard this, he agreed immediately without any hesitation.

First of all, being able to capture Anyi without a fight means taking over all of Hedong. In addition to its strategic location, Hedong is also a salt-producing area. The salt ponds in Hedong have always been a major supplier of salt to Guanzhong and Luoyang.

These days, salt is a very important strategic material, on the same level as iron.

That’s why there are salt and iron monopolies.

If a war breaks out, Anyi, as the county seat, has high walls and is difficult to break through in a short period of time. However, once the war starts, anything is possible. So, if we defeat the enemy without fighting, what good will it do even if we let more than 10,000 of them go?
The most important thing is that the Su father and son are not Liu Xuanji’s direct troops.

This is the most important point.

As a militia composed of local powerful people in Jizhou, their team was previously assigned by Zhao Yi to fight in Hedong. Now Zhao Yi is in trouble himself, and they obeyed Liu Xuanji's orders only because their hometown was occupied and they had no choice.

This kind of component is obviously worth fighting for.

As Li Yuan came from a prominent family, he had a very high level of understanding of such things.

Being in different camps doesn't necessarily mean you can't fight for your rights, and it doesn't necessarily mean you have to fight to the death.

Li Tang must have wanted to seize the two states of Hebei. In other words, you founded a country, but don't want to unify the world? Then are you qualified to establish a country?
Therefore, if you can win over the local forces in Hebei, you must win them over. Instead of trapping them to death in Anyi, if Li Tang wants to conquer Hebei in the future, the local tyrants and local forces in Hebei will fight you to the death.

So Li Yuan directly issued an imperial edict to Li Cang and Li Sixing, asking them to let them go.

After receiving the news, Li Cang and Li Sixing immediately replied to the Su father and son, saying yes.

He also sent Li Yuan's letters to the Su father and son.

Li Yuan's letter said that his grandfather had been stationed in Xiangguo, and he had a close relationship with Xiangguo, so he and you two could be considered half fellow villagers.
Finally, he said, we in Li Tang welcome you, the local people from Hebei, to join us at any time.
After Su Yong read the letter, he couldn't help but sigh, "As expected of an emperor, he has taken care of everything and nothing is wrong."

Su Dingbian asked, "Father, does the letter from the Emperor of the Tang Dynasty really want us father and son to submit to him?"

Su Yongtan said, "Whether he really wants us to surrender or not, if we leave Anyi, we will no longer have the trust of General Liu. He probably won't use us in the future."

Su Dingbian asked, "Is the Emperor Tang trying to sow discord?"

Su Yong said: "Not only is he trying to sow discord, he is also attacking the hearts and minds of the people. He is openly sending a signal to the great families in Hebei that the Tang Dynasty has no intention of being enemies with the great families in the two states. He hopes that General Liu will become alienated from the great families in Hebei. At the same time, he also demonstrates that the benevolence of the Tang Dynasty is indeed very shrewd and calculating."

Su Dingbian asked again: "So, shall we go or not?"

"Let's go, why not? The Emperor of the Tang Dynasty has such a mind and such a skill, do we still have to resist stubbornly? Even if General Liu no longer uses my father and me as generals in the future, we can just live in the countryside. What can we say? Maybe it can keep our family safe."

Su Yong and his son sealed up all the treasuries in Anyi, then fled eastward with ten days' worth of food and fodder.

The Tang army kept its promise and did not pursue or ambush. After taking over Anyi, it also gained control of the entire Hedong County.

Almost at the same time, Lou Daiwen, sent by Liu Xuanji, arrived at Shangdang with 5,000 people. At the same time, Zhang Shiwu led his army to raid and captured Mengmenai Zixiaguan.

Mengmen Pass, also called Mengmen Pass and Baixing Pass, is one of the three southern passes leading out of Taihang Mountain in Bingzhou.

This means that the Yan army can enter Bingzhou from Fukou, and then send troops from here to directly threaten the rear of the Li Tang army in Chaoge and Liyang.

You can attack the Tang army’s food supply routes, and if you are brave enough, you can even try to attack Luoyang.

Of course, this is just theory.

Mengmenxing could indeed threaten the Tang army's food supply route, but the prerequisite was that the Tang army had to transport food and grass by land. In fact, the Tang army transported food and grass by water, through the Yellow River to Liyang.

This is also why Liyang was chosen as the military base, as water transportation is quite convenient.

But even so, the Tang army still felt threatened.

Although the number of Yan troops at Mengmen Pass would not be large, Henei behind Chaoge and Liyang was completely exposed to the Yan army's attack.

Even if the Yan army continued to increase its troops, it could form a pincer attack on the Tang army. So Li Yuanhui immediately ordered Murong Sanzang and Huang Junhan to lead 20,000 troops to recapture Zixia Pass.

But it turned out that he had overreacted this time.

(End of this chapter)