Chapter 494: Wind and Thunder
Although the weather is getting colder, it will take another ten days or half a month before it freezes.

It was during this time that Li Yuanhui appointed General Zhu Deyu of the Left Wuwei Army as the commander-in-chief of the front line, and led 10,000 troops from his own army and 3,000 troops from the Longjie Army. They boarded ships at the Yiran River, entered the Bian River, turned to the Yellow River, and then turned from the Yellow River to the Qin River in Wude County, Henei County, and entered the river estuary.

The sudden appearance of the Tang army brought a huge shock to the Han army.

Originally, there were no large garrisons in Wude and Huai counties, and the Han army's defense focus in Hanoi was Beizhongcheng, Wen County, and Mengmenjin.

Originally, Wude and Huaixian counties downstream were not the focus of defense.

The Tang army directly deployed more than 10,000 elite troops. Hu Kuohai, the General of the Left Guard, personally led the troops to attack the city of Wude in just over an hour.

At the same time, Zhang Qiong, the left general of the Longjie Army, was ordered to launch a surprise attack on Huai County. It took him half a day to capture the city of Huai County and captured more than 400 enemies.

The news that the Tang army had crossed the Yellow River to the north was quickly transmitted to Su Dingbian in Wen County and Liu Xuanji in Liyang, which was even farther away.

At this time, the main force of the Han army was gathering in Liyang, waiting for the arrival of the cold weather so that they could successfully cross the frozen Yellow River and head south to the Central Plains.

But no one expected that the Tang army would dare to cross the Yellow River to the north and launch an attack at this time.

This was somewhat surprising to the Han army generals.

After reading the military report, Liu Xuanji laughed and said, "Hahaha, you are indeed Li Silang."

After saying that, he stood up and walked to the map, stood with his hands behind his back, his expression gradually becoming serious.

"We originally thought that we would fight the Tang army in Yanzhou, but now it seems that Li Silang doesn't welcome us as his guest and wants to fight us in Hebei. In this case, let's fight them in Hebei."

"Mingyue."

"The end will be here."

"You lead 5,000 cavalry to support Fangtou. I expect the Tang army to strike first. The defenses west of the Qi River are already empty, and it is impossible to resist the Tang army. Keep the Tang army west of the Qi River."

"You will finally understand."

Hulu Mingyue took the order and left.

Liu Xuanji then ordered, "Dongfang Di, you will be the commander-in-chief of the march. Fu Hongzhi, Kuai En, and Xue Andu will all be under your command. You will be the vanguard and go first."

"Wei Cheqi led five armies to stay in Liyang and wait for the ice to freeze before crossing the river."

"The rest of the tribes, follow me to fight Li Yuanhui!"

More than 100,000 Han troops stationed in Liyang began to move according to Liu Xuanji's military order.

The Tang army's advance speed was extremely fast, almost the same as Liu Xuanji's estimate.

After Zhu Deyu took over Huaixian and Wude, follow-up troops arrived one after another the next day.

After crossing the river, the other ten Zhechongfu of the Zuowuwei led by Xiao Shizhi and the ten Zhechongfu of the Youwuwei led by Chang Yanheng were the second batch of troops. They immediately divided their forces and captured Xiuwu, Huojia, and Jixian according to Li Yuanhui's military order.

Among them, Ji County was captured by Chang Yanheng who led the cavalry to attack for hundreds of miles, climbed the city walls with grappling hooks and ropes at night, and took it in a night battle.

In this battle, both Wang Bi and Chang Yanheng entered the city first. Upon hearing this, Li Yuanhui commended them but also criticized them, saying that Chang Yanheng was the commander of the army and should not take risks easily.

After reading the letter, Chang Yanheng said to Wang Bi and others, "The King of Qi values ​​me so much, how dare I not die for him?"

On the other side, Xiao Shizhi also captured Xiuwu and Huojia successively.

It was only five days before Zhu Deyu took over Huai County.

The Tang army acted quickly and was well prepared, and the defenses in these areas were left unguarded, so they were able to achieve such momentum.

In early November, Li Yuanhui led his personal army to Huai County. At this time, Zhu Deyu had already led his army to capture Xicheng and continued to move forward to besiege prefectures and counties.

Su Dingbian, who was stationed in Wen County, also assembled his troops at this time and instructed them to keep an eye on Zhang Jian in Luoyang. He then led 5,000 troops to support the prefectures and counties.

Zhu Deyu ordered Tang He to lead 4,000 men to besiege the city, while he himself led six Zhechoufu to fight against Su Dingbian.

The two sides fought in the south of Qinshui River, with Zhu Deyu commanding the entire army, while Su Dingbian led the troops, braved the arrows and stones, and tried to break through the Tang army formation several times, but failed.

Zhu Deyu also ordered a counterattack at the right time, and the Han army could not resist and had to retreat.

Reorganize the team and fight again.

The warriors of Yan and Zhao and the elite soldiers of Huai fought another fierce battle on the bank of Qinshui River. Although both sides had only 5,000 to 6,000 men, they fought with the momentum of an army of tens of thousands.

Su Dingbian saw that the Tang army was tenacious and brave, and the opponent's commander was very methodical in using his troops. After losing two battles in a row, he had to lead the attack himself. After gaining a slight advantage, he quickly sounded the horn to retreat.

He also sent people to shoot letters into the prefectures and counties, clearly stating that there would be no reinforcements in the short term, and that it was up to the emperor to decide whether to fight or surrender.

The commander of the prefecture and county was Su Dingbian's fellow townsman, Li Shizhen, a Zhonglang Jiang from the Zhaojun Li clan. He was the nephew of Zuo Pushe Li Yuanzhong. After seeing Su Dingbian's letter, he became furious and said, "Since ancient times, men of Yan and Zhao have always put integrity and righteousness first. Can you still leave the city and surrender?"

There were only a few hundred garrison troops in the prefectures and counties, but they were all Li Shizhen's followers, so they were willing to share life and death with him.

The Tang army attacked day and night for three days, and only took the prefecture and county after Li Shizhen died from an attack.

Zhu Deyu was grateful for his loyalty, so he ordered his personal soldiers to take his body back to Hebei.

At this time, in Luoyang, Zhang Jian led his troops across the river to capture Mengjin, and led an army of 8,000 people across the river to respond to Zhu Deyu from a distance.

Su Dingbian had more than 10,000 soldiers at this time, but facing the pincer attack from two elite Tang armies, he had no spare energy to fight outside the city, and could only hesitate between holding on and retreating to Shangdang.

All his subordinates urged him to withdraw his troops, and he mentioned the idea several times.

But in the end he suppressed this thought and said with encouragement: "Although the Tang army is now powerful, that is because your majesty's army is still in Liyang. As long as we hold on to Wen County, the Tang army will have to station heavy troops here to guard against us, and your majesty's army can attack the Tang army from both sides. If we abandon the city and food now, we will have nothing to rely on. If the Tang army pursues us, we will be in danger of being wiped out. Instead of doing that, it is better to stay and hold on."

Su Dingbian had always enjoyed prestige in the army and was kind to his soldiers on weekdays, so after he said this, the generals stopped clamoring to retreat towards Shangdang, and he stabilized the morale of the army.

After conquering the prefectures and counties, Zhu Deyu successively conquered Licheng and Pinggao.

In the entire Henei, only three cities, Heyang, Yewang and Wenxian, were still in the hands of the Han army. The rest were all captured by the Tang army or chose to surrender.

In just half a month, more than ten cities of various sizes were captured on the east and west fronts.

The Tang army gained great momentum.

But Li Yuanhui knew that this did not mean anything. The guards of these cities were very small, with only a few hundred strong men, and some of them did not even have complete weapons.

The Han army did not take the gains and losses of these cities seriously at all. It can be said that this was a defense vacuum.

But whether they continued to go west or east, there were heavy Han troops stationed there. Thinking of breaking through the city in one day was a bit of a pipe dream.

On the eastern front, Chang Yanheng's cavalry encountered Hulu Mingyue's cavalry when they tried to attack Fangtou.

A cavalry battle broke out between the two sides, with each side involving hundreds of people.

Chang Yanheng was wielding a spear, and he was unstoppable. He stabbed several Northern Han cavalrymen to death in succession. Seeing this, Hulu Mingyue, who was dozens of steps away, drew his bow and shot an arrow.

Chang Yanheng had a sudden inspiration and dodged the arrow by leaning sideways. Then, in a flash, he stuck the spear into the ground, drew his bow and shot an arrow back.

Hulu Mingyue was unable to dodge and the iron helmet on his head was shot off.

Seeing this, Chang Yanheng took his spear and rushed forward. Although Hulu Mingyue was an expert in military operations and good at riding and shooting, he was not as brave in close combat as Chang Yanheng, who could defeat thousands of enemies. He could only flee in a panic under the cover of his personal guards.

However, more than ten of his personal guards were killed by Chang Yanheng and his confidants. The result of this cavalry battle was that the Tang army had the upper hand and won a small victory.

But then, Hulu Mingyue, a young talent valued by Liu Xuanji, demonstrated his outstanding command ability.

Chang Yanheng launched several attacks on Fangtou but was repelled. At this time, another scout brought news that a large group of Han army reinforcements would arrive that day.

At the same time, Li Yuanhui's military order also arrived, asking him to return to Ji County to join the army.

Chang Yanheng turned his horse around and had a premonition that the vast plains east of Jixian and west of Fangtou would become the most tragic battlefield in the world in the next few months.

(End of this chapter)