Chapter 508 Every gain must come with a loss

The establishment of the emperor's banner can almost be regarded as the establishment of a new court. There was a lot of opposition in the court, whether it was the old subordinates of Emperor Taizong Wen or the confidants of the Jinwang Mansion.

But Li Xuanqing insisted, and Li Yuanhui did not refuse and accepted it calmly.

Li Si knew there was a trap here, but he didn't care.

The third brother wanted to use this incident to make him a target and unite the various factions in Guanzhong. He thought that according to Li Si's style of doing things, he would not like to be in the limelight and would resign on his own initiative.

But unexpectedly, Li Sizhi accepted it.

Naturally, I have my own considerations for doing this. If I don't accept the emperor's flag, will you, the Guanlong nobles and military leaders, be willing to support me?
Impossible. What are you still worried about? You might as well just take it and raise the banner. I will be the emperor in the future.

There is no need to consider whether the people in Guanzhong are popular or not.

Because one cannot have it all. Jianghuai warriors are his base, Shandong gentry are partners, and Guanlong gentry, even if they want to fight for it, don't have much room for them. Because Li Yuanhui only has so many resources.

After obtaining the emperor's banner, it was undoubtedly a shot in the arm for Luoyang Bafu.

Forces such as the Xianbei military heroes in Luoyang, Shandong and the Central Plains gentry would naturally be more willing to serve the Prince of Qi's Palace.

When Li San was seeing Li Si off from the capital, he joked that he had made a mistake this time. Li Si laughed and said thank you for the generous gift.

At least the two brothers did not have any grudges against each other on the surface, and they could even talk about these plots openly.

But in fact, both of them understood that the imperial power represented the core of the Tang Dynasty, and the King of Qi was a powerful local vassal, and there would be more and more conflicts between the two sides in the future.

The affection between the two brothers cannot make up for the conflict between the two huge interest groups.

However, there is one point on which the two men can reach a consensus: first kill the external enemy, then divide the family property, and the meat will rot in the pot.

Also traveling to Luoyang with Li Yuanhui were King of Shu Li Chengqian and King of Jing Li Chengtai.

This was the request of Emperor Taizong's Empress Gao, who said that the royal family members such as the King of Chu and the King of Zhao had now been tempered in Guandong. Emperor Taizong was no longer around, and the current emperor must be busy with state affairs, so she hoped that her uncle, the King of Qi, would help discipline her two sons.

Li Yuanhui naturally understood that this was most likely what his second brother had told his second sister-in-law before his death, so he did not shirk responsibility.

After hearing this, Li Sanlang was a little annoyed.

What's going on? Are you worried that he might harm his two nephews? Is that the point of your trust gone?

But when he thought about the open and covert struggles between the Eastern Palace and the Prince of Jin's Mansion in the past few years, he didn't want to say anything. It was better to stay away from them. Out of sight, out of mind.

While Li Yuanhui was on his way to Chang'an, the war in Jianghuai finally came to an end.

Lu Qin's navy went down from upstream and fought a fierce battle with the Eastern Wei navy at Ruxukou.

Previously, many wealthy families in Lujiang County had responded to the Eastern Wei.

The Lujiang tyrants could have assembled tens of thousands of troops, but they did not move. Zhou, Li, Qiao, and Wang, who had long since moved their families to Huaibei, firmly stood on the side of the Tang Dynasty. Zhou Qiu and Li Feng each led thousands of troops to support the Ruxu battlefield, while the troops of Qiao and Wang were stationed in Liyang and Wujiang according to military orders.

The Tang navy led by Lü Qin failed to win immediately. The two sides fought many battles, but the Tang army did not gain an advantage. In addition, because the powerful people in Lujiang rebelled against the Tang and defected to Wei, this meant that Lujiang County fell completely into the hands of the Wei army. The Tang army could not land or repair in places like Wankou, so they had to retreat to Yuzhang to repair and prepare for another battle.

The Tang army's good fortune in many battlefields did not continue to the Jianghuai battlefield.

Under the almost reckless attack of the Eastern Wei army, the Tang army suffered from insufficient manpower. The teams of Xiahou Yuanhong, Li Feng, Zhou Qiu, Zhang Gonglie, Yin Gong, Yu Pinghai and others all suffered huge casualties. Of course, the Eastern Wei army suffered even greater losses.

However, the total number of Tang troops on the Ruxu Mountain front was less than 20,000, and less than 10,000 troops finally retreated to Hefei.

The two east and west passes along the Rushu River and Qibao Mountain were abandoned by the Tang army. The new emperor of the Eastern Wei Dynasty, Cao Yan, achieved the greatest result in the Northern Expedition since the establishment of the Eastern Wei Dynasty, which was also the farthest distance the Eastern Wei army had advanced.

This is also thanks to Cao Yan's years of military preparation and hard work.

After abandoning the East and West Passes, the Tang army completely withdrew, and even thousands of families in Juchao County moved north, shrinking directly to the Hefei line. The entire Chaohu Lake was abandoned by the Tang army, which was like a heroic act of cutting off one's arm.

Of course, they did all this not because of the courage of the Tang army generals, but entirely because of Li Yuanhui's pre-war instructions.

"If things don't work out, everything south of Hefei can be abandoned."

In a word, defend it to the death. If you can't hold it, retreat to the important city of Hefei. What it means to abandon everything is that you must ensure that Hefei City has enough troops to defend it.

Chaohu Lake, Ruxukou, and the East and West Passes can all be lost, but Hefei must be stabilized.

Although the Eastern Wei captured Ruxukou and the East and West Passes, and also captured Juchao, the Wei army itself suffered heavy losses, and was unable to continue the Northern Expedition.

After several months of consumption, more than 30,000 soldiers were killed out of the 160,000-man army. Although they had won a great victory and boosted morale, the soldiers were exhausted and needed to rest. Even if Cao Yan wanted to continue using troops, he might have considered the reality.

Therefore, after the Tang army abandoned Chaohu and retreated to Hefei, the Wei army left tens of thousands of elite troops to garrison at Ruxukou and the East and West Passes, and most of them withdrew to Jiangdong for rest and recuperation.

In the sixth Battle of Ruxu, the Eastern Wei achieved an unprecedented victory.

Li Yuanhui learned about these situations after returning to Luoyang from Chang'an. After reading the memorials of apology submitted by the generals, he ordered Zuo Pushe Guo Fenghe to go to Jianghuai to appease the generals.

He had anticipated the defeat in the Jianghuai War.

When he went to Chang'an last year to support the attack on Wei, he knew that he had to make some choices. If he wanted to unify the world, he had to eliminate all the heroes and forces one by one.

Both the Western Wei and the Eastern Wei had been established for more than ten years, earlier than the Tang Dynasty, and their rulers were all considered wise rulers. Needless to say, Liu Xuanji of the Northern Han was a hero of the time.

If you want to unify the world, you have to prioritize.

The powerful enemy Northern Han could not be defeated overnight. Jinyang alone would take the Tang army three years to defeat.

First destroy the weakest Western Wei to strengthen the national strength. After digesting Jingzhou, the Tang Dynasty will have one less direction to guard.

Naturally, external forces will not just sit there and watch you destroy Wei, so they will definitely take action.

With so many battlefields, it is impossible for the Tang Dynasty to take care of all aspects, and some choices must be made.

What we have to give up is the Jianghuai battlefield.

Li Yuanhui of the Northern Han Dynasty was not taken lightly, and he used all the elite troops he could to reach a balance with the enemy. Li Er even shone his last rays of light in the Battle of Gaoping, in exchange for at least ten years of peace in the northwest.

This is why Li San was able to achieve the miracle of war with an unstoppable force and destroy a country in three months.

This is the result of the three brothers being united in mind and giving their energy without reservation, in return they received the favor of God.

If any one of the three brothers were to be cunning and hide something, the Tang Dynasty would probably fall and never get up again.

But the situation after the victory naturally changed greatly.

Therefore, Li Yuanhui felt that he could afford the loss of Ruxukou. Even if you took the entrance from Jiangbei to Chaohu Lake, what would happen?

Your Southern Army has to go ashore for dozens of miles before they can see the walls of Hefei. Can you defeat them?

Not to mention that behind Hefei are important cities on the Huai River such as Shouchun and Zhongli.

More importantly, after Hanoi was taken back and the river bridge was repaired, the strategic initiative was gained over the Northern Han.

How to fight next is up to the Tang Dynasty.

(End of this chapter)