Chapter 344: Seven Strongholds Destroyed in One Day
Twenty days after setting out from Chang'an, the King of Qin led the Black Armor Army of the Qin Palace Guard to the battlefield.

From then on, the three brothers King of Qin, King of Jin and King of Qi, who were called "Three Kings" by people at that time, all arrived.

The Black Armor Cavalry he brought with him, totaling 3,500 people, were the elite among the elite who had followed him in all the battles. They were much stronger than the Beiwei Army that Li Yuanhui had specially pieced together. Most of them were his direct descendants who had followed him in his campaigns since the Battle of Fuhan.

The three major royal palaces of Qin, Jin and Qi all had their own guards. The Qin Palace had the smallest number, with 3,500 people, but they were all heavily armed cavalry.

The largest number of troops was the Jin King's guards, numbering 10,000 people, including 3,000 Bantun Barbarians, 3,000 Nanzhong Flying Troops, and 4,000 Di cavalry.

The guards of the Prince of Qi's Palace had about 6,000 people, consisting of the original elite Wuwei Army and the core troops of Xue Wanche, Yuchi Jingde and others.

Directly letting the surrendered generals and their troops serve as Li Yuanhui's personal troops, this arrangement which was obviously intended to win over the hearts of the people was quite effective. Both the Wagang Army and the central army of the Former Yan obviously worked very hard after joining Li Yuanhui's army.

After Qin King Li Mingqi arrived in Jiexiu, he did not make a big announcement, but followed his third son Li Xuanqing to the outskirts of Yangyi, the key area of ​​the current confrontation between the two sides.

After the Yan army sent out 20,000 troops to try to relieve the siege but failed, Liu Xuanji realized that the Tang army was planning to trap the Yan army in Yangyi City and attack the reinforcements, so that the Yan army would give up the defensive advantage of Dongshui and cross the river to the south to fight the Tang army.

Although Guodongshui is not a big river, the Yan army has already formed a defense line along the north of Guodongshui. Crossing the river to fight now is tantamount to abandoning the defensive fortifications that had been arranged previously.

However, the thousands of Yan troops in Yangyi City had to be rescued. After all, the war was still in a stalemate. If the friendly forces were not rescued, the blow to the morale of the army would be significant.

This can also be saved for the sake of human hearts.

So what needs to be considered now is whether to continue dealing with the Tang army on the south bank of Guodongshui and Wenhe River.

While the Yan army was hesitating, the Tang army built several more camps to the north of Yangyi.

After Li Er arrived at the front and saw Li Yuanhui's arrangements, he couldn't help but shake his head and laughed, and then said to Sanlang: "Silang still likes to build everywhere."

Li Xuanqing also smiled when he heard this, and recalled that during the Battle of Yingchuan, Li Yuanhui built a large number of fortifications between the Ru River and the Ying River, relying on the city, and connected them with corridors. He also arranged a large number of beacons on the south bank of the Ru River. All these made the two veteran generals Lou Jushi and Duan Yihong sigh with despair.

This time they used the same old tricks again. They had to build a few camps in some time to make things difficult for the Yan army.

The two men drove their horses and brought their personal guards to the Tang army camp ten miles west of Yangyi, where Li Yuanhui himself was.

Before entering the camp, he saw Li Yuanhui pointing at the barricades and antlers set up outside the camp. After being reminded, he turned around and saw his two brothers. He immediately strode over, smiled and asked, "Is the second brother recovered?"

Li Er said, "I've recovered a long time ago, but your second sister-in-law asked me to stay in the mansion to recuperate. She didn't even let me touch the bow, let alone go out hunting. If it weren't for the imperial edict from Father Ye, I would still be playing dominoes at home all day long."

Li Yuanhui said with a smile: "Second brother, you just don't know how to appreciate your blessings. Seeing you come here, I am relieved. Now I want to go back to Luoyang to live in peace."

"Hahaha, you can't be lazy this time. The three of us brothers have to work together."

Li Er laughed and said.

Then several people entered the camp together and talked in Li Yuanhui's central military tent.

Sitting in the tent, Li Er looked at the map and said, "With the two of you making such an arrangement, Liu Xuanji will have to come to Henan sooner or later. Otherwise, the several thousand Yan troops in Yangyi City will be defeated by me sooner or later. Now keeping them and surrounding them without attacking them will put Liu Xuanji in a dilemma."

Li Xuanqing said: "Liu Xuanji is extremely brave and has always led the troops in battles and overcome difficulties, so he has a very high prestige in the army. This time, the battle was fought in a place that he must save. He can't give up Yangyi easily. Once this place is lost, our army can directly send troops to Leping." Li Er said: "Now it depends on what Liu Xuanji will do. He can send people to feint and delay time, or he can directly lead his troops to the south to make a decisive battle with our army, fiercely attack the northern part of Yangyi, and pull out the Yan army in the city. I just don't know how he will deal with it. What do you think, Silang?"

Li Silang looked at the map and said, "Liu Xuanji dared to charge against a thousand men alone. His courage and bravery are no less than yours, second brother. He will definitely lead the elite troops to cross the river and fight."

Li Erwang nodded and said, "Let's wait and see. If their army is strong and difficult to resist, then we can let them lift the siege of Yangyi. This battle is crucial. If one move affects the whole body, we must be careful."

As for the Yan army, everything happened as expected.

After much deliberation, Liu Xuanji decided to lead 30,000 elite Youzhou soldiers to cross the Dongshui River to the south. At the same time, he ordered people to build cities and camps in the north and south of the confluence of Dongshui River and Fenshui River.

Liu Xuanji ordered Han Gui and Tuoba Tianbao, who were on the south bank of Guodongshui, to serve as the left and right wings respectively, and led 30,000 infantry and cavalry to attack the Tang army directly.

Under his personal supervision, the Yan army also became ruthless. Within one day, they successively broke through seven castles of the Tang army. Both sides suffered huge casualties, with the total number of deaths reaching thousands.

The fighting power displayed by the Yan army made the Li brothers look at them in awe. Li Si finally decided that he could not fight them head-on this time, so he led his army to retreat and gave up the camp in the north of Yangyi City.

Kang Yanxiao, who was stationed in Yangyi, also found the right opportunity to abandon the city and join Liu Xuanji.

Although he successfully broke out of the besieged Yan army, Liu Xuanji retreated instead of advancing.

Because he knew that today's military momentum could not last long, and fighting with the Tang army on the south bank of Guodong River would be very disadvantageous to the Yan army. So he decided to stop while he was ahead, gathered his troops and retreated to the north bank of Guodong River, and set up new defenses.

On the positive side, Liu Xuanji's choice was very correct, because Li Er and Li San had already personally led their elite troops to start the encirclement.

As long as Liu Xuanji dared to stop on the south bank of Guodongshui, the next step would be to cut off his way back and then mobilize a large army to encircle him.

To put it bluntly, if Liu Xuanji wants to save people, he has to fight to the death. But after saving people, you have to leave, because you can't keep fighting to the death.

It's useless if it's just there forever, who wouldn't dare to fight for it?
After Liu Xuanji returned north, the situation on the battlefield completely changed into one where the two sides confronted each other across the two rivers, with Guodongshui as the dividing line in the east of Fenhe River and Yiwen River as the dividing line in the west of Fenhe River.

The two sides seemed to be in a stalemate, but in fact the Yan army had already fallen into a disadvantage.

Because of the existence of Jinyang City, the 200,000 troops of the Yan Army had to be divided into two parts of the city, respectively responsible for resisting the Tang Army and besieging Jinyang.

The Tang army could concentrate all its forces to deploy against the enemy in front of them.

However, because of the existence of these two rivers, the Yan army still had two natural lines of defense to rely on.

The Tang army was concerned about the powerful Yan army, so they did not think of launching a forced crossing. Because there was a river between them, whether they attacked the Yan army halfway across the river or waited for the Yan army to cross the river and launched a surprise attack when the Yan army was not yet stable, both were very troublesome tactics.

The Yan army built a large number of camps and beacons on the north bank to guard the place where it was easy to cross the river.

So the Tang army was waiting, waiting for a good season to cross the river.

In a few months, it will freeze.

(End of this chapter)