Chapter 330 Battle of Yecheng
In the Battle of Yecheng in the first year of Wude, at the end of August, the situation on the battlefield finally changed.

After months of confrontation, the Tang army first launched a surprise attack to capture Hedong, a strategic location in Bingzhou, and then marched to Shangdang.

Li Sixing was the main general, leading Zhu Deyu, Chang Yanheng, Murong Sanzang, Huang Junhan, Li Yaoshi and others, with a total of more than 40,000 troops, to attack Tunliu and Changzi in Shangdang. At the same time, Li Yuanhui also sent an order to Tuoba Jun in Jinyang to send troops to support the battle of Shangdang.

At the same time, a large group of Tang troops finally set out from Liyang and headed for the front line where the two sides were confronting each other.

After Liu Wenhui led an army of 20,000 to Dangyin, he fought against the Yan army several times and won every time.

This situation also greatly boosted the confidence of Liu Wenhui and the Tang army. They immediately asked Li Yuanhui to transfer the remaining 30,000 troops of the Left and Right Guards to the Dangyin area.

Li Yuanhui did not transfer troops to him, but ordered Liu Wenhui to temporarily serve as the commander-in-chief. He himself returned to Luoyang on the grounds of being unwell and needing to recuperate.

However, before returning to Luoyang, Li Yuanhui transferred all of his nearly 40,000 infantry and cavalry troops to Chaoge, and instructed Zhang Jian, Zhang Zhen'e, Luo Shixiang and others not to pay attention to Liu Wenhui's military orders and just defend the current city.

He then returned to Luoyang with hundreds of cavalry.

Liu Wenhui was very surprised when he received Li Yuanhui's military order, and after reading it, he looked full of mockery.

He went back to Luoyang to recuperate because he was not feeling well? He was just afraid that he would be dragged down if the war went badly, right? He was even unwilling to send soldiers to the front line, and threw away the command power? That was fine.

After General Liu Wenhui circulated the order, he said, "Since His Royal Highness the Prince of Qi is unwell, the credit for defeating the Yan army will be shared by us."

All the generals became excited upon hearing this, and really did not take the Yan army seriously.

He then immediately gave an order to transfer all the remaining left and right guard troops of Liyang to the front line.

The Left and Right Guards had a total of more than 50,000 soldiers, including about 10,000 cavalry and 40,000 infantry. Its predecessor was mainly composed of the elite soldiers of the Longyou Army and the Central Army of Dayan who surrendered during the battle of Guanzhong, and some surrendered soldiers from Luoyang.

The Weifu Army of the Tang Dynasty was composed of elite soldiers, and the combat effectiveness of these two guards was among the best in the Weifu Army of the Tang Dynasty.

The General of the Left Guard was concurrently held by the King of Qin himself, and the General of the Right Guard was Liu Wenhui, a general close to the Emperor.

Therefore, the combat effectiveness of this army is considered to be very outstanding among the Tang armies.

As for the troops of the left and right guards of the Qi prince stationed in Chaoge, as well as the guards of the Qi prince's palace, the personal troops under the tent, the Beiwei army, etc. These troops added up to nearly 40,000 people, and their combat power was tyrannical, but Liu Wenhui did not even think of mobilizing this army to fight with their left and right guards.

The reasons are very simple. The first is that there is a big gap between the two factions, and it is difficult to avoid problems when fighting together.

Second, he also knew that he couldn't move it.

Even though he was temporarily appointed as the commander-in-chief of the army, he knew everything in his mind. Li Yuanhui's meaning was very clear: if you want to fight me, I will give you the chance. If you lose, you will take the blame. If you win, I will not be here and will not share your credit.

But you want to mobilize my own troops? Go away.

Liu Wenhui was naturally a little conceited. If we don't use you Jianghuai soldiers, won't our elite troops in Guanzhong fight?
You southerners, just follow and see how our Guanzhong warriors achieve great things!
In fact, there were more than 20,000 defenders in Yecheng. They were elite troops led by Zhao Yi and had very strong combat effectiveness.

Liu Wenhui felt that he and Zhao Yi, with their combined support, had about 80,000 elite troops. The Yan army on the front line had only about 110,000 or 120,000 troops, because the Yan army also needed to guard the direction of Qinghe Plain and Shangdang in Bingzhou, as well as the passes along the Taihang Mountains.

The difference in military strength between the two sides was not too great. Liu Wenhui felt that he had a chance to attack from both inside and outside, defeat the Yan army in one fell swoop, and escape outside Yecheng.

As for the Yan army, Liu Xuanji did not expect that the Tang army on the opposite side was actually preparing to send troops to launch a large-scale attack.

This is the rhythm of a strategic decisive battle.

But what Liu Xuanji couldn't understand was the Tang army's deployment. If they wanted to fight a strategic decisive battle, shouldn't the Tang army mobilize all its main forces?
Currently, the number of Tang troops in Dangyin is about 50,000, with about 10,000 in Puyang and about 30,000 in Chaoge.

These are the approximate numbers Liu Xuanji obtained through scouts' observations of the situation on the front line, which are actually very close to the enemy's actual troop strength.

Because there are many things that cannot be hidden, such as the number of tents, the number of smoke from cooking fires, and the size of the camp.

Although these can be disguised through some means, it is impossible to be perfect.

If you are more careful and put more effort into investigation, you will always find some clues.

"No, there is something wrong with the current situation. There is something wrong with the Tang army's deployment." Liu Xuanji looked at the distribution of Tang army's forces on the sand table in the big tent, and then looked at the report from the scouts in his hand, and always felt that something was wrong.

After careful consideration, the generals and staff also felt that something was wrong with the current situation. If they wanted to fight a decisive battle, they should not leave tens of thousands of troops in Chaoge.

But if they didn't want a decisive battle, why was such a large army mobilized to the front line?

This arrangement is very strange.

However, a piece of intelligence from Luoyang helped Liu Xuanji understand the key points. "Hahahaha, I see, it turns out to be an internal struggle. God is really helping me."

This piece of information was obtained by Li Yuanzhong, a military officer. Li Yuanzhong was from the Zhaojun Li family, a prominent family. He had some connections even on the opposite side, and some information was naturally shared between them.

After seeing the information, Liu Xuanji immediately made up his mind to eliminate the Tang army first.

After all, this is a rare opportunity, we can divide and conquer. Immediately make deployments and prepare to fight the Tang army.

The Tang army was also gearing up for battle.

On the first day of September, the two sides fought a great battle in the south of Yecheng.

Liu Xuanji dispatched an army of 80,000 and left about 40,000 to guard against the defenders in Yecheng.

Liu Wenhui only left a thousand men to guard the camp, and the rest of the army went out.

The area around Yecheng is almost completely plain, and the battle between the two sides was almost a battle of arrays facing each other, leaving little room for any tricks or stratagems.

This was a large-scale battle involving more than 100,000 people from both sides, so the requirements for the head coach were naturally extremely high.

Liu Xuanji had been in charge of the army for a long time and was able to control his soldiers at will. His command skills were much better than Liu Wenhui's.

In all the campaigns before the founding of the Tang Dynasty, Li Yuan and his sons were the main commanders. Although Liu Wenhui made many contributions after following Li Yuan in the uprising, he did not have much experience as a main commander.

Before this, he was not aware of this problem.

But when he faced Liu Xuanji, whose military capabilities could even rival Li Erfeng at that time, the result was naturally self-evident.

When the front armies of both sides had been fighting for a whole morning and were still tied, Liu Xuanji personally led thousands of cavalrymen, made a big circle and attacked Liu Wenhui's main camp.

His generals Liu Guisheng, Wu Bao, Dongfang Di and others fought bravely and broke through the Tang army's central camp. They almost captured the main general Liu Wenhui alive.

Although Liu Wenhui escaped, the Tang army of nearly 50,000 people was completely defeated, with as many as 20,000 killed or captured.

More than ten generals, governors-general and lieutenants were captured alive, and eight were killed in the battle.

If Zhao Da had not taken the opportunity to break out, defeated the Yan army's siege forces, and took the opportunity to raid the Yan army's main camp, the Tang army would have lost this battle even more miserably.

However, Zhao Da's breakout also meant that the Tang Dynasty lost Yecheng, a strategic fulcrum.

Upon seeing this, Li Xiaocha, the Prince of Guanghan who was stationed in Dangyin City, knew that the city could not be defended, so he led his troops to abandon the city and joined forces with Zhao Da, fighting and retreating, collecting the defeated troops along the way and retreating to Liyang.

Of the 50,000 Tang troops, less than 20,000 returned to Liyang. However, with more than 20,000 elite troops under Zhao Da, Liyang did not have to worry about being captured by the Yan army.

Li Yuanhui knew that Liu Wenhui would probably lose this battle, but he didn't expect him to lose so badly.

Therefore, after the battle report reached Luoyang, the first military order was to order Xie Shufang, the guard of the Prince of Qi's palace, to lead the guards to capture Liu Wenhui and send him to Chang'an.

He then submitted a report, explaining the entire process of the war and stating his attitude, expressing his willingness to take responsibility for the defeat and requesting punishment.

He also said that Liu Wenhui was guilty of losing his army, but he was the emperor's minister, so I, as a minister, did not dare to act on my own.

At the same time, he dragged his "sick body" to Liyang to supervise the battle, and re-established a defense line in Chaoge and Liyang in an attempt to reverse the declining situation.

Li Yuan in Chang'an learned about the battle of Yecheng ten days later. He was furious and wanted to execute Liu Wenhui and dismiss Li Yuanhui as the commander-in-chief.

Several prime ministers tried to persuade him to stop.

However, Liu Wenhui was still demoted to the lowest position and stripped of his title.

Li Yuanhui also issued an edict to reprimand him.

Because he understood as soon as he saw the battle report that this guy definitely watched Liu Wenhui be defeated without stopping him.

At the same time, he also knew that Liu Wenhui and the soldiers in Guanzhong must have been doing something behind the scenes. But even so, as the commander, it was not right to sit back and watch the front army be defeated.

Now that Yecheng, an important city in Jizhou, has been lost, although it did not originally belong to the Tang Dynasty, the situation in Hebei has become even worse.

But the good thing is that after this defeat, the remaining people on the front line dare not do anything tricky in front of Li Si.

(End of this chapter)