Chapter 345 Attack in groups

Luoyang, the palace city.

Li Yuan looked at the huge sand table in the hall and listened to the Minister of War Yuwen Chengye's summary of the recent war situation.

"The King of Qin has already arrived at the Jinyang battlefield. Some time ago, the King of Qi sent troops to besiege Yangyi. Liu Xuanji personally crossed the river and captured seven camps in one day, thus lifting the siege of Yangyi. However, Liu Xuanji immediately crossed the river and returned north. Currently, our army and the Yan army are facing each other on the two fronts of Guodongshui and Wenhe. Jinyang City is still holding on. The Yan army in Shangdang wanted to attack Pingyang and attack our rear, but was defeated by Xu Maogong's troops, and took advantage of the situation to seize Tunliu."

"The autumn grain in Guanzhong has been collected, and Minister Wen is organizing its transportation. Bandits appeared in Shan County and Hedong, but they have been eliminated by Prince Linhuai. However, Prince Linhuai sent an official document saying that there may be spies from the Yan army who instigated this, and the local wealthy families also have complaints about our Tang Dynasty. He hopes to send more than a thousand guards to ensure the smooth flow of Hedong and Hongnong."

Yuwen Chengye explained the situation one by one, but Li Yuan frowned after listening to it.

The Tang Dynasty is now under great pressure, because the 200,000 troops on the front line consume a large amount of food and grass every day. The food transported from Luoyang and Guanzhong areas must eventually pass through Hedong County. The person guarding Hedong and responsible for the transportation of food and grass is Li Cang, the General of the Right Guard and Prince of Linhuai County, Li Yuan's cousin.

Now Li Cang faces many problems in Hedong. First of all, Hedong was only taken back last year, so he has no sense of identity with the newly established Tang Dynasty, but he has to face heavy corvee and exploitation.

After all, in order to transport grain to 200,000 people, all the laborers who could be conscripted in the Hedong area had been conscripted, and all the grain that could be collected had also been taken away.

Even the local nobles began to complain and were very dissatisfied with the Tang Dynasty.

In this situation, it will naturally be easy for people with ulterior motives to take advantage of you.

Wei Xiaoju, who was stationed in Huguan, was from the Jingzhao Wei clan, a prominent family in Guanzhong. He had connections with famous people in Hedong, such as Xue, Liu, and Pei.

It was precisely because of these relationships that Wei Xiaoju sent a large number of secret agents through the Hedong gentry to Hedong, Luoyang, Guanzhong and other places to gather intelligence and cause division and disintegration.

These big families were actually in a dilemma. While helping Wei Xiaoju with some small favors, they were also betting on both sides.

After learning that there might be problems in Hedong, Wei Xiaoju began to have secret agents incite rebellion, because Hedong was an important springboard and a must-pass place from Guanzhong to Jinyang. Once problems occurred in Hedong, the morale of the Tang army would inevitably plummet.

Wei Xiaoju also put a lot of effort into this aspect and achieved some results.

However, Li Cang was once a colleague of Wei Xiaoju, and both of them were among the ten most powerful generals of the Xiaoguo Army at that time, so they knew each other's ways very well.

So when Li Cang saw a small disturbance in Hedong, he immediately concluded that someone was causing trouble, and then thought of Wei Xiaoju in Huguan.

After quelling the riots and temporarily intimidating the powerful people in Hedong, Li Cang sent documents to both the front-line Jinyang and the rear-line Luoyang, hoping to get some support from the troops. It doesn't need to be many, just a thousand will do, because the huge Hedong County only had two thousand people left behind. As a large rear area, these manpower were indeed a little dwarfed.

Li Yuanhui responded by ordering Xie Shufang to lead a thousand guards from the Prince of Qi's palace to Hedong. Li Yuan also selected a thousand men from his own imperial guards to support Hedong.

At this time, Luoyang and Guanzhong were both defense-weak.

In order to seize Jinyang, the most important strategic hub in the north, Li Yuan mobilized almost all the Weifu troops that could take action.

Except for the necessary military forces stationed in Longyou, Hexi, Bashu, Jingzhou and other places, the mobile forces were almost withdrawn.

He only had 30,000 troops from the Imperial Guards, which was considered a mobile force. Currently, there were 10,000 people in Luoyang, and 20,000 people stayed in Chang'an to guard against the Turks.

After dispatching one thousand men to support Hedong, the huge city of Luoyang was left with only nine thousand troops.

In addition, Liyang and Chaoge each had more than 10,000 people, led by Zhao Yi, the governor of Jizhou and Duke of Tianshui County, and his son-in-law Chai Rong, who led more than 10,000 people and lived in Puyang. On the one hand, they monitored the newly surrendered Zhao Da, and on the other hand, they were on guard against the Yang family in Qingzhou.

Further south, there are still tens of thousands of troops in Xuzhou, but the journey is long, and the troops in Xuzhou cannot be moved lightly. First, they have to defend Qingzhou, and secondly, they have to guard against Jiangdong attacking Jianghuai.

But unfortunately, what you fear will come true.

In Jianye, the Eastern Wei Emperor Cao Yuanjing finally completed the united front work, causing the Jiangdong nobles to once again provide resources and manpower to help him fight to the death at Ruxukou.

Cao Yuanjing mobilized a naval and land force of 100,000 men and marched to Ruxukou.

Before this expedition, he was full of confidence because Li Yuanhui was not in Jianghuai, and even most of his direct subordinates and main forces were not in Jianghuai.

There were only 5,000 soldiers stationed in the important city of Hefei, and only 4,000 soldiers at Ruxukou and the East and West Passes. The rest were all from the Jianghuai noble families.

The battle of Jinyang is currently at its most intense. If we don't take advantage of this opportunity to send troops, do we have to wait until Li Tang conquers Bingzhou?
Cao Yuanjing even intuitively felt that this should be his last Northern Expedition. If he failed, he would really have no choice but to settle down in Jiangdong.

There are two reasons. The first is his spirit and body. Although he can fight again and again after being defeated, his energy and spirit are almost exhausted.

The second group were those who supported him in the Northern Expedition. They were all old brothers who had started the uprising with him. After several major battles, they had suffered heavy losses. Since they failed to capture Ruxukou this time, their elite troops were almost all consumed. As for these old brothers, they have been in high positions for so many years, enjoying wealth and glory. Could they still fight hard?

It's basically a one-and-done gamble.

At the same time, Cao Xuan of the Western Wei Dynasty, who had been preparing for war in Xiangyang and looking north to Wanluo, once again launched an attack on the Nanyang area.

The first to be affected is Xinye.

These two local forces in a remote corner finally stabbed the Tang Dynasty in the back at the most critical moment, when the Tang Dynasty and Northern Yan were engaged in a strategic competition for the northern hub.

However, the Tang Dynasty was not unprepared for this.

Li Xuanqing personally arranged the defense of Xinye and Wancheng, and the Tang Dynasty left behind an entire guard house with tens of thousands of troops. The Nanyang governor Li Daliang, who was stationed in Wancheng, was also a capable person.

They might not be able to leave the city and fight against the Western Wei army of up to 100,000, but with sufficient soldiers and food, they could still defend the city.

As for the eastern front of Jianghuai, before Li Yuanhui left, he left 5,000 elite soldiers to guard Hefei, and left Zhang Yan's uncle Zhang Gonglie in Guangling. Qiao Xiaojie and Xiahou Yuanhong were guarding the Ruxukou area. This does not include the tens of thousands of naval forces in Chaohu and Poyang Lake, as well as the private soldiers of the powerful tribes in Lujiang and Guangling.

Therefore, even though Jianghuai is at its most empty at the moment, it is actually not short of military strength.

Moreover, these powerful tribes that are weak in foreign wars can usually burst out with impressive combat effectiveness when fighting to defend their homeland.

The only people that the Tang Dynasty's rulers and ministers were afraid of were undoubtedly the Yang family in Qingzhou.

After separating from Wagang, Yang Sui, Yang Kan and others held Qingzhou. The wise and resourceful Yang Sui actually advocated surrendering to the Tang Dynasty, but Yang Kan disagreed. After all, the Yang family and the Li family had a grudge against each other.

Yang Kan was the youngest son of Yang Su. He lost his father when he was less than ten years old and was raised by his elder brother Yang Xun. Therefore, Li Yuanhui, who shot and killed Yang Xi and captured and killed Yang Xun, was his mortal enemy.

Because of this grudge, he was destined to not be able to join the Li family or Liu Xuanji.

At the critical moment of the decisive battle between the two enemies, Yang Kan finally made a decision: since the Li family was powerful, he should attack Li.

(End of this chapter)