Chapter 459 One goes down and the other goes up
In the middle of March of the sixth year of Wude, which was the second year of Daming in the Eastern Wei Dynasty, the Wei army launched a northern expedition.

Miao Xianyun, the General of the Eastern Wei Dynasty, the Grand General of the Three Departments, the Minister of Rites, and the Duke of Jin, was appointed as the Commander-in-Chief of the Left Army and led an army of 100,000 to attack Liyang.

Cao Cheng, the General of Chariots and Cavalry, the Grand Commander of the Imperial Court, the Grand Marshal, and the King of Chu, was appointed as the Commander-in-Chief of the Right Army and led an army of 100,000 to attack Ruxukou.

Almost at the same time, Li Yuanhui, the King of Qi of the Tang Dynasty, sent the Governor of Southern Yuzhou, Guo Fenghe, to lead 3,000 soldiers from his own army and 2,000 Zuowei Guards. He also selected 1,000 cavalry from his own army, the Xiaoguo Army, and the Shenwu Army, with Fu Weixue as the vanguard commander, to rush south to provide assistance.

But because of the spring thaw, the land route was muddy and difficult to travel, so all the cavalrymen headed south by boat.

Prepare to disembark after arriving at Jianghuai.

Compared with the enemy's 200,000 troops, Li Yuanhui only sent 6,000 reinforcements. Except for the 1,000 cavalry drawn from the Tiance Palace, the remaining 5,000 people were originally going to return south, so providing support was just a matter of convenience.

As for the defenders of Ruxuwu and Liyang, Xiahou Yuanhong and Zhou Ben each had thousands of soldiers and sufficient food, fodder and military equipment.

Miao Xianyun was nearly sixty years old and wore a full set of armor. Although his hair and beard were gray, he looked very dignified. He sat on a high platform and commanded the entire army to attack the city.

The location of Liyang is very important, especially for the Jiangdong regime.

Cao Yuanjing was defeated five times at Ruxukou, and Miao Xianyun was defeated three times at Liyang City.

This place seemed to be the place of his obsession. When he followed Cao Yuanjing to start an uprising in his early years, he led an army alone and conquered half of Jiangdong!

At that time, Miao Xianyun only felt that Cao Yuanjing was a figure like Liu Bang, and even if he could not compare with Zhang Liang and Han Xin, he could at least compare with Cao Shen and Zhou Bo, right?

In the future, when we lead the Northern Expedition to recover the Wei Empire, we will also be recorded in history. How will the history books describe our glory?

But since Cao Yuanjing proclaimed himself emperor, he also became a duke. The next step should be to march north of the Yangtze River, first to seize Lianghuai, and then to march north to the Central Plains.
But the Great Yan was in such a mess, and a teenager with the strength of the three Jianghuai counties was able to defeat all the heroes of Jiangdong.

Although they were reluctant to admit it, the fact was that after the southern elite troops landed, they found it difficult to do anything facing the thousands of cavalry from the north.

In the first Battle of Ruxu, the generals of the Eastern Wei experienced the charge of the Yan Army's cavalry.

The force is like thunder, rolling in.

Now, the Yan army has become the Tang army, but the Liyang City is much taller than before, and there seem to be more arrows on the city.
"General, we should fire rockets now. I saw many thatched houses in the city the other day. If we use rockets to set them on fire, the city will surely catch fire, and our army can take advantage of the situation to break through."

The person who made the suggestion was the Left General Lu Gongren, who was from the Wujun Lu family and was a great general in the army who was highly regarded by the late Emperor Cao Yuanjing.

Miao Xianyun thought about it carefully and was about to agree, but General Liu Changgong said, "No, these houses in the city will all belong to us after the city is conquered. How can we burn down our own houses?"

Liu Changgong was an old brother who started the uprising with Miao Xianyun, Cao Yuanjing and others. Miao Xianyun felt that what his old brother said made sense, and that all of them, who had started out by selling contraband salt and fought their way up, were from humble backgrounds and had one thing in common: greed for money.

Liu Changgong was worried that what was burned was not the houses, but the spoils they did not get.

Miao Xianyun also thought of this, so he directly rejected Lu Gongren's proposal.

"We have 100,000 soldiers besieging Liyang. There are only a few thousand Tang soldiers in the city. The army is heading north again. The roads are muddy and the northern army won't be able to provide support for a month. Can't we take this city?"

When Lu Gongren heard this, he sighed and said, "If they are worried about not being able to obtain wealth and property and give up the way to win, can such an army win?"

After saying that, he simply bowed, turned around and left.

When Miao Xianyun saw him leaving, his expression became much uglier and he snorted coldly.

The two had many disagreements due to their backgrounds, and now they were acting like this in front of all the generals. It would be strange if Miao Xianyun felt happy about it.

Just wait! I will settle accounts with you after this battle! The Eastern Wei army lined up outside the city, with all kinds of siege equipment complete and well-equipped, soldiers lined up in neat rows, and the sound of gongs and drums resounded through the sky and the earth.

With the heavy reward, the Eastern Wei army's infantry set up long ladders and attacked the city one after another with high morale.

Liyang Governor Zhou Ben, who was recently promoted to General of Conquering the Enemy, was standing on the main tower at this time, shouting to boost morale: "The Wei army has repeatedly attacked our city, but they always returned in disgrace. This time is no exception. We only need to guard strictly, and there is no need to wait for the king's reinforcements. The bandits will retreat on their own."

The remaining Tang troops also responded, and then began to rain arrows and boulders from the top of the city wall, causing heavy casualties to the Wei army.

The Wei army attacked the city day and night for five or six days, but was unable to shake the Tang army's defense.

At this time, Miao Xianyun finally remembered Lu Gongren's suggestion and shot rockets into the city, setting fire to the houses in the city.

But unfortunately, when he invited Lu Gongren to the central military tent to discuss, the other party told him that it was too late. The thatched houses in the city had been demolished by them.
Miao Xianyun was annoyed and asked what to do now. Lu Gongren thought about it and proposed to dig a tunnel. But Lu Gongren also said that digging a tunnel is not easy to do, because Liyang City is not far from the river. If you don't do it well, you will dig out water, which is difficult to achieve the desired effect.

But for now, the chances of breaking through the city by frontal assault are very slim, and the Tang army will definitely send reinforcements. No matter what method, as long as there is a chance, Miao Xianyun will not care.

In order to avoid digging into water veins, the north of the city was deliberately chosen.

But the movements of the Wei army could not be hidden from the eyes of the Tang army. They had made preparations early on and turned many large vats upside down at the foot of the city wall to collect sound, so that they could determine the location of the Wei army's tunnels.

Wet firewood was prepared at the entrance of the tunnel and ignited with thatch, and blown with a blacksmith's bellows. As a result, the Wei army's tunnel was filled with thick smoke, and many people were choked to death in the tunnel.

At this time, the frontal ant siege suffered heavy losses, and the morale of the soldiers began to decline.

At the same time, the siege of Ruxukou by another 100,000 troops led by Cao Cheng was also not going well.

Cao Cheng first tried to persuade them to surrender, explaining the reasons and appealing to their emotions, saying that the Xiahou clan was a fellow royal family in the Wei Dynasty and shared weal and woe, and that they should now turn to the Wei Dynasty and continue their good story.

Xiahou Yuanhong said loudly: "My grandfather and uncle both died in Luoyang, and they had long established the loyalty between the Xiahou family and the Wei Dynasty. I, Xiahou Yuanhong, was originally living in the countryside and mountains. When I was born, the Wei Dynasty had already fallen. I wandered with my parents, and I have never been a minister of Wei for a day. I was blessed by the grace of the King of Qi, who appointed me as a general. He knew that I had a deep connection with the Wei Dynasty, and he still ordered me to guard Ruxukou. This trust is beyond measure. If I betray my master and surrender to Wei, I will be abandoned by both heaven and earth!"

He then ordered his soldiers to shoot arrows to drive away the messenger.

When the Wei army outside the city heard what Xiahou Yuanhong said, they all knew that even if the city was broken, they would never surrender to Wei, so they immediately began to attack the city.

When the soldiers in the city heard their commander's determination, they all defended the city with a single-minded focus.

The Wei army set up long ladders and attacked the city. The Yan army defending the city was equipped with a large number of powerful bows and crossbows, and their arrows rained down like rain, causing heavy casualties to the Wei army.

After more than twenty days of siege, more than ten thousand people were killed or injured, but the city could not be captured.

On the other hand, the Tang army's reinforcements had actually been dispatched long ago and reached the East Gate, but Cao Cheng ordered the right general Zhu Jun to lead his troops to block them at the periphery. The number of reinforcements was limited and they were unable to assist Ruxuwu.

Zhu Jun also ordered his men to set up floating bridges, water forts, and iron chains on both sides of the Ruxu River in order to prevent the Tang army from leaving Chaohu Lake and taking the Ruxu River to support Ruxu Wharf.

In fact, these twenty days were the best time for the Wei army to attack Ruxuwu.

The morale of the Wei army was high before, but after this period of fighting, the Wei army did not achieve any results, but suffered heavy casualties. So the morale of the Wei army naturally increased and decreased.

When General Zhennan and Grand Admiral of the Navy Lu Qin, who had already rushed to Dongguan, saw this situation, he thought the opportunity for battle had arrived.

"Beat the drums and gather the generals"

(End of this chapter)