Chapter 449 Shock
Luokou Warehouse is located in Gong County, in a hilly area with a dangerous terrain, hard and dry soil, and convenient water transportation. Going upstream from the Luo River, you can reach the then capital Luoyang, the Eastern Capital, going upstream from the Yellow River, you can reach Tongguan in Shaanxi and Chang'an in the Western Capital, and going downstream, you can reach Shandong to Haikou. It was an important granary built since the Cao Wei period. As a national-level strategic grain reserve, it had tens of millions of shi of grain at its peak.

Such an important place was well guarded, with a complete warehouse city and a large number of military equipment.

All the reinforcements were gathered between Gongxian County and Luokou Granary, with a big reason for this being the convenience of getting food.

The earliest batch of reinforcements had actually arrived a long time ago. Yanzhou Governor Li Xuandao led 3,000 soldiers and horses to the Luoyang area more than ten days ago, but Li Yuanhui ordered all the reinforcements to gather in Gong County and wait for the arrival of subsequent reinforcements before taking unified action.

Later, Lu Xiang, the governor of Northern Yuzhou, led his troops to the city. However, the reinforcements led by Liu Yuanqing, who were closer, moved very slowly. It was not until the troops led by Murong Sanzang in Qingzhou and Chen Zhen, who was stationed in Xuzhou, arrived in Xingyang overnight that Liu Yuanqing accelerated his march and joined forces with the two to pass through Hulao Pass and reach Gong County.

Guo Fenghe, who was the farthest away and had almost come all the way from the Huai River, took the road from Yingchuan to Luoyang in the north, and came to support from Luonan via Yique. The marching speed of all the infantry was even faster than that of Liu Yuanqing's unit in the Baima Zuowei Guard.

Many problems can be revealed through this marching speed. But Li Yuanhui also knew that this was not the time to pursue this.

But he still smiled and said when the generals went to Jinyong City to pay their respects: "Yuanqing is here recently, why are you so late?"

At this time, in the lobby of Jinyong County Government Office, Li Yuanhui, wearing armor stained with blood and with messy hair and beard, sat in the main seat and asked Liu Yuanqing with a smile.

Liu Yuanqing was more than eight feet tall, with a strong physique, extraordinary strength, and was brave and good at fighting. He was always the first to attack the enemy in battle. He was a famous fierce general, but at this moment, facing Li Yuanhui, who was much thinner than him and still had a smile on his face, he was very frightened.

He knelt down and kowtowed, saying, "Your Majesty, I am your humble servant."

For a moment, Liu Yuanqing, who showed no fear in the face of thousands of enemy troops, was frightened by Li Yuanhui's smiling face and became speechless.

Seeing this, Li Yuanhui stood up from his seat, helped Liu Yuanqing up, and then patted his shoulder and said, "Why is Yuanqing so desperate? I know that Yuanqing has always been loyal and brave. He is just worried that the northern barbarians will enter Yanzhou from Baima Crossing the River. What he said just now was just a joke. Don't worry about this battle. I still rely on Yuanqing's bravery."

Liu Yuanqing immediately clasped his fists and bowed, saying: "Thank you for your understanding, Your Majesty. I will definitely fight bravely and take the lead in this battle."

"Hahaha, okay, I'll wait to drink with Yuanqing at the celebration banquet, and then I'll take a seat."

Everyone in the hall looked at Liu Yuanqing, a muscular man, and sweat broke out on his forehead. Looking at Li Yuanhui, who was smiling all the time, they couldn't help but feel lucky that they didn't get delayed on the road. Was the King of Qi's words really a joke?

Liu Yuanqing, who had returned to his seat, was sweating profusely, and even dared not to look up. Before the battle, the nearest reinforcements were the troops of General Liu Yuanqing of the Left Guard in Bai Ma, which had ten Zhechongfu and about 10,000 people. In addition, there were 6,000 old troops of Zhao Da under his command in Bai Ma.

But Liu Yuanqing had some thoughts in mind at the beginning before the war. He thought that Luoyang was in a fragile state and even His Royal Highness the Prince of Qi might not be able to defend it, so he had some ideas of preserving his strength and waiting for the right price.

As the war began, Li Yuanhui first led his army to defeat the Yan army, and the Tang army also killed Lou Daiwen, the commander-in-chief of the 12 armies of Northern Yan and the right general of the Imperial Court.

Afterwards, they blocked the enemy in Jinyong City for 20 days. The Yan army suffered more than 10,000 casualties, but was still unable to advance a single step. Instead, the Tang cavalry on the periphery launched repeated raids and even broke into the Yan army's camp, burning hundreds of tents and a lot of military supplies.

Under such circumstances, Liu Yuanqing did not dare to delay and could only leave thousands of people to guard Bai Ma. Then he brought the former subordinates of Jizhou Governor Zhao Da who were under his command and his own troops, together with Chen Zhen and Murong Sanzang, to Gong County.

Liu Yuanqing's little thoughts were naturally revealed. Seeing Chen Zhen and Murong Sanzang's team coming so quickly, he felt even more panicked.

Li Yuanhui was indeed a generous person, and treated his old subordinates and those who surrendered to him very kindly, rewarding those who had made contributions, but also punishing those who had made mistakes.

You can't expect a general who dares to fight the enemy in close combat and draw his sword to be a kind-hearted guy, even if he has a smile on his face.

The six guards standing on the left and right sides of the main seat are just like the Dharma protectors beside the Buddha in the temple.

His eyes were wide open and his face was solemn and dignified.

Li Yuanhui returned to the main seat and put away his smile. He looked at everyone and said loudly: "You have come from afar and have worked hard on the march, but now is not the time to relax."

"Although the Yan army has retreated, they are still stationed between Mangshan River and Bridge, and they still have an advantage over our army."

After reprimanding Liu Yuanqing, they immediately began to discuss the battlefield situation and the next deployment.

Although Tang reinforcements arrived and the Yan army retreated to the river bridge, the Yan army still had the advantage in terms of current troop strength.

As for reinforcements, the troops led by Yanzhou Governor Li Xuandao, Southern Yuzhou Governor Guo Fenghe, and Northern Yuzhou Governor Lu Xiang were all soldiers from prefectures and counties, with a total of no more than 10,000 people, and their combat effectiveness was worrying. Li Yuanhui planned to let these people strengthen the defense of various checkpoints in the Luoyang area.

Murong Sanzang's troops had more than 6,000 people, Chen Zhen's troops had more than 9,000 people, Liu Yuanqing's troops had more than 6,000 people, and Zhao Dajiu's troops had more than 6,000 people.

These troops total nearly 30,000 people, plus the troops originally from the Luoyang war zone, there are about 10,000 mobile troops that can be mobilized.

That is to say, the number of troops that can be mobilized is 40,000.

After the great battle, the Yan army now has only about 60,000 soldiers.

The losses in the siege were huge, and with Lou Daiwen's death and the army's defeat, the morale of the Yan army had actually dropped, and they were far less tenacious than the Tang army led by Li Yuanhui himself.

In fact, according to the battlefield situation at this time, the Yan army could have retreated, but now it seemed like they were stuck in this situation. During the military meeting in the central army tent, no one, including the left and right commanders, was arguing for a retreat.

Dongfang Di and Yang Kan were the left and right generals in charge of all the armies. As the commander-in-chief, Dongfang Di naturally did not have the face to be the first to propose retreat.

As a late comer, Yang Kan would not be in trouble. During the entire Battle of Mangshan, Yang Kan's performance was quite standard. Apart from personally leading troops to intercept and block the Tang cavalry, he did almost nothing. Dongfang Di was also in charge of commanding the siege.

As for the other generals, no one mentioned retreating. This resulted in the soldiers not wanting to fight anymore, but the generals felt it would be embarrassing to withdraw. We came here with the power of a great victory, how could we end up like this?
Are you leaving now? How can you go back to see the King of Han, Liu Taiwei?

In this case, a large-scale battle seems inevitable.

On the Tang army side, Li Yuanhui was even more determined to send troops after estimating the military strength of both sides.

Liu Xuanji is not here, so I can't beat you?
(End of this chapter)