Chapter 417 A Steady Person
There was some chaos on the battlefield along the Wei River.

After seeing the King of Qi's banner, Xiao Shizhi immediately led his infantry to counterattack.

Although Wei Xiaoju hurriedly ordered his troops to withdraw, it was still a little late. In order to cover the infantry brigade, he could only let the cavalry intercept the Tang cavalry that was rushing towards him.

Wei Xiaoju did not want to fight this battle this way. This was very different from his usual style of using troops.

But there was no other way. Liu Xuanji sent four generals to lead 24,000 elite soldiers to him, so he had to achieve something.

Everyone in the military is qualified to raise questions, except him.

The people currently in charge of the Northern Yan army include Han people, Xianbei people, and even Xiongnu and Khitan people.

But most of the generals were born in humble families, and few were from wealthy families. As a general from a top wealthy family like the Jingzhao Wei family, Wei Xiaoju's origin was not even a bonus in the Northern Yan army. This made him incompatible with the border warriors and the generals from the middle and lower Xianbei and Xiongnu.

He was also the cousin of the late Emperor Murong Yang.

This made it even more difficult for him to be reused. However, Liu Xuanji was bold in using him and let him guard the important place of Shangdang, which was the western gate of Yecheng and had an important location.

His previous false surrender and capture of Jinyang was his token of surrender. Thus, he gave up the idea of ​​returning to Guanzhong and joining the Tang Dynasty.

Therefore, the opportunity given to him by Liu Xuanji to lead the troops was extremely precious to Wei Xiaoju.

It is naturally one of the few opportunities to gain a foothold in the court of Northern Yan.

The previous attack on Zixia Pass was an opportunity he had planned for a long time. However, he failed to completely defeat Li Sixing in the field battle, allowing him to escape to Huai County and hold on. In fact, continuing to waste time in Huai County was no longer in line with the essence of military operations.

But Liu Xuanji gave him reinforcements at this time, forcing him to take action and attack Huai County.

He also understood Liu Xuanji's intention, which might be to lure Li Yuanhui to come in person.

Liu Xuanji indeed thought so.

Liu Xuanji, who was in Yongyu City, commanded 40,000 elite Northern Army troops. On the one hand, he was monitoring Chaoge and Liyang, and on the other hand, he was ready to rush to Huai County at any time.

With the capture of Zixia Pass, the authenticity of Wei Xiaoju's intelligence was also verified, so Wang Sizheng suggested using Huai County to lure the Tang army to rescue it. If the Tang army did not rescue Huai County, Chaoge and Liyang would be cut off from the land connection with Luoyang and would be within easy reach.

Liu Xuanji followed his plan and sent more troops to Wei Xiaoju. But he stayed in Yongyu City and did not move. He planned to wait, because he knew Li Yuanhui's style of using troops. It was always steady first and then ruthless.

If Liu Xuanji led his army directly to Huai County, he could guarantee that Li Yuanhui would definitely send a message to the Huai County defenders asking them to abandon the city.

So he chose to wait in Yongyu City, let Wei Xiaoju consume his energy for a while, and then lead the elite cavalry to rush over. Maybe he could take advantage of this time to defeat Li Yuanhui's army in one fell swoop and seize Luoyang.

Isn't it very bold? The generals of the Yan army were very excited when they heard it.
But when it came to implementation, something went wrong. The original plan was for Liu Xuanji to personally lead 20,000 cavalry to Huai County for support, leaving 20,000 to watch Chaoge and Liyang. The 20,000 troops were all elite troops of the reformed Northern Army, and Liu Xuanji felt that they were enough to keep an eye on the 18,000 troops in Liyang and Chaoge.

But if nothing unexpected happened, then something must have happened.

Li Yuan's son-in-law, Duke of Qiao Chai Rong, led 15,000 Weifu troops stationed in Yanzhou across the Yellow River on white horses, and joined forces with 6,000 elite troops led by Zhao Da in Liyang, and directly launched an attack on Yongyu City.

At the same time, Xu Qiande, who was stationed in Chaoge, an unknown general who was unknown in the eyes of the generals of Northern Yan, led 5,000 troops out of the city to attack Yongyu City from the north and south, and ordered Hu Kuohai to lead 500 cavalry to make a feint attack on Dangyin.

This forced Liu Xuanji, who had already marched halfway, to retreat and return to Yongyu City for support.

Because neither Yongyu City nor Dangyin could be lost. If Yongyu City was lost, the retreat of the 80,000 Yan army would be cut off. Dangyin was the distribution center of the Yan army's grain and grass and the gateway to Yecheng, and was also the retreat of the Yan army.

Liu Xuanji actually knew that if he rushed to the Huai County battlefield, he would most likely run into Li Yuanhui head-on. But when his soldiers heard that Yongyu City was attacked, they were all a little panicked. This made Liu Xuanji very angry with the messenger who delivered the message, and he wanted to chop him with a knife, because he had been yelling all the way, making people panic. How could he go to attack Huai County?

But he couldn't ignore this matter. In fact, he was clear about the situation in Yongyu City. He left nearly 20,000 soldiers and horses to garrison there. Unless the opponent was as strong as Xiang Yu, it would be absolutely impossible for the Tang army to break through the Yan army camp in a short time with the current strength of the Tang army in Luoyang and the Central Plains battlefield.

In other words, you just have to keep watching.

But who was the garrison commander? Liu Changmin. His cousin. He was the most obedient and always liked to follow orders. If you told him to go east, he wouldn't go west. If you told him to walk the dog, he wouldn't chase the chicken.

This kind of person will definitely have no problem following orders, but it is impossible for this person to be without flaws.

His shortcoming is that he has no opinion and is not very courageous. When he saw the Tang army coming aggressively and attacking from both sides, Liu Changmin panicked.

So he hurriedly sent his brother Liu Changyi on horseback to ask Liu Xuanji for help.

Liu Changyi was even less courageous than Liu Changmin. He ran all the way here in a hurry to ask Liu Xuanji for help, letting everyone know that Yongyu City was under siege.

The retreat was cut off by the Tang army? How could the Yan army not panic? In fact, Liu Changmin's position was quite stable, with no signs of being breached.

But Liu Xuanji knew that this battle could not be fought, but he could not ignore Huai County. So he sent Xue Guyan, Dongfang Di, and Hulu Mingyue to lead more than 10,000 cavalry to support the Huai County battlefield, and he led the team back to Yongyu City.

By the time Liu Xuanji led his team back, the Tang army in Yongyu City had already withdrawn, retreating to Liyang and Chaoge respectively.

The Tang army’s purpose is very clear, which is to prevent you from going to support the Huai County battlefield.

On the battlefield of Huai County, Li Yuanhui led the elite guards and was invincible, defeating the Yan cavalry that blocked his way. Yuchi Jingde also captured alive the leader of the Northern Yan cavalry, General Jianwei Ge Zhang, who was famous for his bravery.

In another direction, the Beiwei Army's cavalry broke through the resistance of another cavalry unit of the Yan Army. Then Zhang Zhen'e led six hundred-man heavy cavalry units to capture a rear guard of 3,000 Yan Army infantrymen. Then Xiao Shizhi led his troops to encircle and annihilate them.

Eight hundred were beheaded, and the rest all surrendered.

The reason why the Yan army's reinforcements failed to arrive quickly was that they were blocked on the pontoon bridge by the 2,000 crossbowmen led by Zhu Deyu and the 2,800 personal soldiers under his command and could not cross the river.

During the entire Huaixian battlefield, the Tang army achieved the results of beheading 1,700 enemies, capturing 2,200 enemies, and seizing hundreds of war horses.

By the time the Yan cavalry found another way and arrived at the Huai County battlefield, the war was already over.

Xue Guyan immediately accused Wei Xiaoju of retreating his troops. Wei Xiaoju then asked in return, "Why didn't you tell me that you were coming to help us?"

Dongfang Di and Hulu Mingyue had no choice but to mediate and stop the quarrel.

But what to do next has become a difficult problem.

None of them had any idea. According to his position, Wei Xiaoju was the General of Cavalry, with the same power as the Three Officials, and was in charge of the military.

But his position was still a bit awkward, and he knew that in the current situation he had almost no say, so he simply kept silent.

The generals argued for a long time, and finally decided to ask their superiors for instructions.

Liu Xuanji's military order arrived in time to retreat.

(End of this chapter)