Chapter 528 Picking Peaches

In this great battle at the northern foot of Ruxu Mountain, Li Yaoshi led his troops to march quickly and attack bravely, and finally won a great victory. It was almost a perfect interpretation of what "speed is the essence of war" and "divine troops descending from the sky" meant.

In the end, less than 3,000 Wei soldiers crossed the East Gate, and most of them were annihilated by the Tang army. Among them, more than 30,000 were beheaded, more than 18,000 were captured, and the rest were scattered.

The Tang army was still continuing to wipe out the remnants of the Wei army around Chaohu Lake. The navy that came to support picked up Emperor Cao Yan and General Lu Gongren and took away thousands of defeated soldiers. The rest did not have time to board the ship and were all abandoned.

The Wei navy, led by Miao Che, suffered another defeat. They organized several naval battles in succession but were still no match for the Tang navy. After receiving the order from Cao Yan, Miao Che also became ruthless. He concentrated all the large ships and charged forward with all his might, finally breaking through the interception of the Yan navy. Of course, they also suffered heavy losses in the process.

Of the original 700 ships, only 200 remained on the battlefield, and only 10,000 soldiers were left.

After the Wei navy broke through, Lu Qin continued to follow and pursue them, sailing down the river on his Wuya warship, as if he had found the spirit and enthusiasm he had when he followed Yang Jingwu to participate in the battle to destroy the Southern Wei.

We chased them all the way to the quarry downstream before stopping.

It's not that we can't pursue them anymore, but it's unnecessary. Because if we continue to pursue them, they might be able to attack Jianye in one go, and it's possible that the Eastern Wei regime will be destroyed directly.

But Lu Qin stopped not because he wanted to keep the enemy at bay, but because he could not take the credit for destroying the country. Now Lu Qin, who was over 60 years old, was already the most famous and powerful general in the Tang Dynasty.

Currently, Lu Qin has been granted the title of Duke of Lai and General Zhennan. Not long ago, he participated in the war to destroy the Eastern Wei, and his contributions can be said to be outstanding.

Li Yaoshi behind him led tens of thousands of infantry and cavalry and almost wiped out the main force of the Eastern Wei infantry. At this point in the battle, the contributions of the two were already great enough.

Although his achievements were not so great as to overshadow his master, he still needed the approval and support of the King of Qi to cross the Yangtze River and attack Jiangdong. After all, the Eastern Wei had been established for more than ten years, and the father and son of the Cao family were also quite popular.

But now the quarry has changed hands, Jianye is only a hundred miles away, and the cavalry can rush there in one day. The meat is already on the table, and it is not up to them to decide whether to eat it early or late.

Li Yaoshi had no intention of continuing his advance. Instead, he quickly sent messengers north to report back to Luoyang Bafu with the news of the great victory at Ruxu and the current war situation in Jianghuai.

Also at the end of August, the Emperor of the Tang Dynasty personally led an expedition to Jiexiu. After more than 20 days of siege, he failed and withdrew his troops back to the capital.

The situation on the northern front returned to its pre-war state.

September in the golden autumn, Luoyang City.

Lubu Feijie's messengers kept shouting out the results of the Ruxu victory, so the whole Dongdu knew that Huainan had won a great victory.

As for the subsequent impact of this victory, most people in the market are not clear about it. However, some merchants in Jiangdong dare to sigh that the Eastern Wei in Jiangdong may be a grasshopper in autumn this time.

However, the generals and subordinates of Luoyang Bafu were all very excited, even Li Yuanhui showed his joy.

"Congratulations to the Tang Dynasty, and to the King of Qi!"

"Congratulations to the Tang Dynasty, and to the King of Qi!"

In the Qianyang Hall where meetings were taking place, everyone congratulated in unison. Li Yuanhui stood on the steps with his hands behind his back, looking very high-spirited, like a tiger looking down upon the surroundings.

Everyone knows what this great victory and the current situation mean to Luoyang Bafu.

Li Yuanhui knew that Li Yaoshi and Xu Qiande were very capable, but he was still excited about it. The gates of the Eastern Wei were wide open at this moment. The opportunity to take over Jiangdong was right in front of him.

Who wouldn’t want to take part in destroying a country?

After feeling proud, Li Yuanhui quickly calmed down and began to think about the next arrangements.

Should we march our troops south immediately or wait until next year?

Caishiji has been taken. All that is left is to send a large army across the river and then we can head straight to Jianye.
No more waiting, the longer the night the more troubles you may have.

"Zhu Deyu."

"exist"

"Chang Yanheng"

"exist"

"Zhang Jian"

"exist"

"Xiao Shizhi"

"exist"

"Li Qinglian"

"In" "Zhang Zhen'e"

"exist"

"You are all the heroes who followed me in the Jianghuai uprising. The Eastern Wei is our old rival. Cao Yan, the leader of Wei, has already lost 100,000 soldiers in Huainan. Jiangdong must be terrified at this moment. You all lead your troops first, Zhu Deyu!"

"The end will be here."

"I appoint you as the Grand Commander of the Southern Expedition, and command you to lead the troops southwards."

"I will obey your orders and live up to your trust."

Zhu Deyu clasped his hands together, raised his head and spoke loudly.

Li Yuanhui's first thought was actually to lead his army south immediately and achieve the feat of destroying a country in three months.

But he immediately gave up the idea, at least he couldn't move now.

Because Luoyang is his base now, sitting in the Eastern Capital is not only to compete with Guanzhong Chang'an, but also to guard against the southward advance of the Northern Han.

Now that Zhu Deyu has been appointed as the general commander of the war, is it still a problem to pacify Jiangdong?

As for whether they deserved any credit or not, that was even less of a problem. With the control he had over his team, these heroes under his command wouldn't be able to cause any trouble.

Apart from him, no one was able to integrate the military men of Jianghuai, the Shandong clans, and the nobles of Beijing and Luoyang.

The most critical issue now is not the issue of going south, but the need to increase the number of troops in Guanzhong by tens of thousands to assist Luoyang in guarding against the invasion of Northern Han.

For this purpose, Li Yuanhui personally wrote a memorial, requesting the emperor to send the navy and mobile forces originally coming to Guandong, as well as Jingzhou, Dengzhou, and Xiangzhou to support the war to destroy the Eastern Wei.

Li Sanlang, who had just returned to Chang'an at the end of August, received a handwritten letter from Li Yuanhui and military intelligence reports on the Jianghuai war in mid-September.

Li Sanlang was somewhat surprised by the Jianghuai victory, but he quickly realized what it meant.

The opportunity to destroy Wei is right before our eyes.

However, the Minister of the Central Secretariat Zu Junyan immediately advised Li Sanlang not to send reinforcements to Luoyang to prevent the King of Qi from becoming too powerful to be removed.

"The King of Qi is stationed in the Eastern Capital, raising the banner of the Son of Heaven, commanding 100,000 soldiers and thousands of cavalry. If he is allowed to destroy the country, how will Your Majesty deal with it?"

Li Sanlang felt disgusted after hearing this. In the past, he could understand that Zu Junyan, an old minister of Prince Jin's Palace, was trying to please Prince Qi, and he was happy to do so.

But at this critical moment, he would not allow anyone to interfere with the Tang Dynasty's great cause of unifying the world. The meat must rot in the pot.

"This is not something you can say."

Just one sentence made Zu Junyan shut up.

Wei Zheng, who was appointed as the Imperial Counselor after Li Sanlang returned to Beijing, said, "Your Majesty is famous, but the King of Qi is stationed in Luoyang and needs to resist the Han army's southward advance. He must not move lightly. However, the battle against Eastern Wei is of vital importance. I think that only a prince can be the commander-in-chief. Your Highness the Prince of Jin should be the Grand Marshal of the Southern Expedition and lead all the troops to attack Wei."

After hearing this suggestion, Li Sanlang immediately agreed.

This is to let him send his son to take the credit, which is a good idea. At least it can give his son some qualifications.

Afterwards, he immediately ordered people to draft a recruitment plan, appointing Prince of Jin Li Chenghui as the Grand Marshal of the Southern Expedition, and the Shangshu Ling and Duke of Wen as the Marshal's Chief Clerk, in charge of the affairs of the Marshal's Office.

The Minister of War, Duke of Yue, Yang Sui, was appointed as a military officer in the Marshal's Office. This meant that Sima Xiuye, the chief prime minister, and Yang Sui, who was always good at strategy, were required to escort his son.

He dispatched twenty Zhechoufu of the left and right guards of the Guanzhong army to march south to join forces with the Jingzhou army, and then went down the river to participate in the suppression of Wei.

At the same time, he ordered the Left Guard General Dou Cong and the Right Guard General Duan Xiong to lead thirty elite infantry and cavalry from the Zhechoufu to Luoyang to await the King of Qi's orders.

After some preparation, the guards in Luoyang also set out one after another. When the Grand Commander-in-Chief of the Southern Expedition Zhu Deyu set out, Li Yuanhui personally saw him off.

He also warned: "Among all the generals, only Deyu has the most difficult background, has experienced little, and hates evil the most! He is also the only one who understands the suffering of the people the most. I want a splendid Jiangdong and a charming Jianye. You can share the treasures of the palace, but you must not plunder armor and war equipment, grain from the treasury, clothing and food for the people, and letters from the court."

Upon hearing this, Zhu Deyu immediately clasped his fists and said, "Don't worry, Your Majesty, we will definitely enforce military discipline and help Your Majesty win the hearts of Jiangdong."

Li Yuanhui was delighted and personally poured wine for Zhuge Liang, "I will be waiting for the general's victory report in Luoyang."

Old Zhu took the wine with both hands and drank it all in one gulp. "I will obey your orders."

(End of this chapter)