Liu Xie raised his head and took a deep breath. Although his situation has not changed at all, he is no longer the ignorant self he was a few years ago.
The news that Guo Si secretly ordered the convoy to return was reported privately to Liu Xie. In other words, most people were still kept in the dark and the matter could still be undone!
Liu Xie will never return to Chang'an again. Guo Si seems to have come to his senses along the way. He is gradually being isolated by Liu Xie!
At present, Yang Ding, Yang Feng, Dong Cheng and even Zhang Ji are gradually moving closer to Liu Xie. Although Guo Si is known as the leader of the people, he does not leave any room for action and has begun to be betrayed by more and more people.
In fact, the one who really agrees with Guo Bang is his former colleague Li Jue. Although the two had a falling out at the beginning of the year, and Chang'an was in ruins due to the fight, but after going around, I realized that the others were even more unreliable!
Therefore, Guo Si secretly ordered the convoy to return to the west, and he may not have the intention to join forces with Li Jue again. Liu Xie had just escaped from Chang'an's tiger's den, how could he be willing to go back again?
He must change the current situation dominated by Guo Si and find a way to return to Luoyang!
Liu Xie asked his right and left confidants to go to the reliable ministers separately and bring his oral instructions. Finally, Liu Xie announced to everyone that there would be a banquet for the ministers in the evening.
After the news came out, all civil and military officials knew that something was definitely going to happen.
Many people are happy and worried in their hearts. The good thing is that Liu Xie has shown amazing control over the situation these days. At this age, he has done much better than most of his ancestors.
But some sober ministers are also worried that Liu Xie's personality is too rigid. Although he is not showy on the surface, he is actually very noble in his heart. He is not willing to make compromises at all and will often fight to the death with those who force him.
The banquet went on as scheduled. Guo Si was holding a wine glass during the banquet, half threatening and half persuading that the convoy should not go eastward again.
He faced Liu Xie, raised his head and said: "Tianjia, the road ahead is dangerous, we can't go there anymore."
Liu Xie leaned forward slightly: "General, why did you say this?"
Guo Bang had already prepared his words and said: "The Tianjia, Sili is in front of us. Now we are in a war. If we continue to go west, we will be affected by the war and endanger the lives of the Tianjia."
Liu Xie said in surprise: "Oh? I heard that Jizhou and Yanzhou are constantly fighting. Why is Sili also fighting?"
"what is going on?"
Guo Si didn't expect Liu Xie to pretend to be confused, and his face darkened.
I'm shameless to you, but don't blame me for telling the truth!
He raised his head and said: "Report to the Tianjia, the rebel Lu Bu first rebelled from Yanzhou and occupied a county, and now he has invaded Sili territory to the west, Hanoi to the north, and Luoyang to the west!"
"If the Tian family returns to Luoyang, then Thief Lu will definitely endanger the lives of the Tian family!"
Liu Xie's expression remained unchanged, but his heart gradually turned cold.
That is Marquis Wen, whom I personally sealed, who was forced away by you!
And Situ Wang Yun was also killed by you!
Although Liu Xie has been held hostage and exploited by powerful ministers since he came to the throne, in Liu Xie's view, Li Jue and Guo Si are undoubtedly the worst group, far worse than Wang Yun and Dong Zhuo.
No matter what Dong Zhuo said, he still used Emperor Ling's death as an excuse to depose Liu Bian and support Liu Xie to ascend the throne.
Although Wang Yun and Lu Bu disagreed, they were still willing to delegate power. Just when Liu Xie thought that as he grew up, he would gradually gain power and regain the glory of the Han Dynasty, Li Jue, Guo Si, and Fan Chou led troops to attack Chang'an and put Liu Xie's The sweet dream was shattered again.
They drove away Lu Bu, killed Wang Yun, completely controlled the Han court, and everything returned to the starting point.
Now Liu Xie saw that Guo Si was making trouble with Lu Bu again and threatened him with confidence, but Liu Xie could not publicly express his position on this.
He raised his head and looked around at the civil and military officials in the hall. Most of them lowered their heads and remained silent.
Wang Yun had problems with his governance ability and had offended many people. When he was killed, many officials were watching the excitement. Some of the officials in the hall were also involved in the matter, so naturally they could not speak.
And some others, although they wanted to speak out, were afraid of Guo Bang, so they also shrank.
Guo Bang saw that everyone was speechless. Just when he was feeling proud, someone stood up.
He said loudly: "The former Situ Wang Yun and the former Sili Colonel Huang Wan have made great contributions to the country, and they can be buried respectfully!"
Everyone was shocked and raised their heads one after another, and saw that the person who spoke was surprisingly Sun Rui, a guard and minister!
Sun Rui, a scholar, was born in Pingling County, Youfufeng. He passed down the family business at a young age and was knowledgeable in everything. He was born as a filial and honest man. He started as a captain of Yingyao and moved to Jinwu and Guanglu.
During the Chuping period, the minister Pu She joined forces with Situ Wang Yun and Zhonglang general Lu Bu to kill Dong Zhuo.
Because Wang Yun dedicated himself to punishing Dong Zhi, when Luoyang was captured by Li Jue and Guo Si, Shi Sunrui avoided revenge and was spared.
But he had already become a thorn in Guo Si's side. He was an upright man and never feared death. Now when the whole court was silent, he stood up resolutely.
While all the civil and military officials secretly admired his courage, they were also sweating. Guo Bang had soldiers in hand, and with just one order, Sun Rui, a soldier, would be dead and dismembered!
Sure enough, Guo Bangmu showed a fierce look, threw his hand, and said coldly: "Two rebels, why do they need to reverse the case and want to follow them?"
Scholar Sun Rui also said angrily: "Do you want to do what happened in Luoyang again?"
Guo Bang was furious and held down the hilt of the sword at his waist, and the guards behind him also stepped forward.
Scholar Sun Rui, however, did not retreat but advanced. He took two steps forward and glared at Guo Si.
Guo Si retreated. In the past few years, he had been persuaded by his counselor Jia Xu, and he had become smarter. He was no longer the Liangzhou general who used to behead people.
Killing Sun Rui is easy, but it will definitely arouse the resentment of the civil and military officials and the Han Emperor. More importantly, it will give evidence to Yang Feng, Zhang Ji and others who have been spying on him.
He pressed the hilt of the sword, snorted coldly, turned around and strode away.
Although he wouldn't kill the soldier Sun Rui personally, he had a lot of tricks behind it.
Seeing Guo Si leaving, all the civil and military officials heaved a sigh of relief. They knew that Guo Si had to take revenge. They looked at Shisun Rui with a little pity in their eyes, knowing that he was in trouble.
Shisun Rui slowly looked around at the officials, his eyes calm, as if to say, everyone here is so unbearable!
Liu Xie did not dare to look directly into Shisun Rui's eyes. He turned his face slightly, and his heart was extremely complicated. Is it worth hurting Shisun Rui like this?
Yuan Xi didn't know what was happening in the Han Court thousands of miles away, but in his plan, sooner or later, he would intersect with the Han Court on his way forward.
Of course, this has a prerequisite.
Capture Yijing, occupy Youzhou, then defeat the Black Mountain Army, and open the Taihang Mountain channel from Zhuojun to Hanoi.
Yuan Xi doesn't know if he can do it in one year, so he can only do it step by step now.
The most important thing at the moment is of course to invade Yi Jing and defeat Gongsun Zan.
He looked at the vague outline of Yijing City in the distance. From a few miles outside the city wall to the hills at Yuan Xi's feet, stretching for more than ten miles, were the camps of Yuan's army all over the mountains and plains.
He jumped off the horse sideways, and Sun Li came up and led the horse away.
Yuan Xi led Guo Jia, Zhao Yun and Tai Shi Ci into the camp. The generals inside stood in awe, and sitting at the top was Yuan Shao.
In this battle, Yuan Shao personally led an army to sit outside Yijing City!
Yuan Xi took a quick look and found that except for Yuan Shang and several counselors and generals who were in charge of Yecheng, almost everyone else had arrived.
Yuan Tan, Ju Shou, Tian Feng, Shen Pei, Guo Tu, Chunyu Qiong, Wen Chou, Zhang He
This is an all-out effort, accomplished in one battle!
Yuan Xi strode forward and worshiped: "Yuan Xi, the governor of Zhuo County, led two hundred cavalry and three thousand infantry. He arrived on time as ordered!"
Yuan Shao nodded and pointed to an empty position. Seeing this, Yuan Xi led Guo Jia and the others to stand still.
Yuan Shao said to Yuan Tan: "Please tell Xianyi the current situation."
Yuan Tan spoke up: "After my father and I joined forces the day before yesterday and arrived, the two sides fought. Gongsun Zan's army was defeated and he retreated into the city to hold on."
"Now the craftsmen are assembling siege equipment and preparing to attack the city in the next few days."
"What everyone is arguing about right now is whether to encircle the enemy but not attack, and wait for reinforcements to come and destroy it."
"It's better to attack the city quickly and capture Yi Jing before reinforcements arrive."
Yuan Xi was startled, Gongsun Zan still had reinforcements?
Yuan Tan seemed to understand Yuan Xi's thoughts and said: "We have received news that Zhang Yan of the Black Mountain Army has dispatched a hundred thousand troops to prepare three routes to Yi Jing for rescue."
Yuan Xi was shocked. He walked with the front foot, but the Black Mountain Army moved with the back foot?
And if there are really 100,000 people, even if there are only 30,000 soldiers among them, the pressure on Yi Jing's side will be considerable.
It suddenly occurred to him that if all these 100,000 people were dispersed, the Montenegrin Army would collapse and the Taihang Mountain Passage would be freed up.
He immediately pushed this thought out of his mind. He could not become fat with just one bite, and Zhang Yan was not an ordinary person. He had fought with Yuan Shao's army for several years and was not annihilated, but he was still very capable.
Jushu said: "Calculating the distance from the Black Mountain Army to Yi Jing, if we try our best to capture Yi Jing before Zhang Yan's army arrives, it will only take about a month at most."
"In this case, all the towns along the way will be abandoned."
"If we divide our troops to defend and block the Montenegrin army's passage out of the Taihang Mountains, we must divide our troops and set out to intercept them now."
"In this case, we cannot attack the city with all our strength. If Yi Jing cannot be defeated and the Black Mountain Army cannot defend it, we will return without success."
After hearing this, everyone started discussing and expressing their opinions, but after talking for a full hour, they still couldn't come up with any clues.
Yuan Xi knew that although for him, the Battle of Yijing was almost an open-book exam, there was a big difference between expectations and actual operations. The history of future generations and the direction of this world could not be exactly the same. If there were any subtle mistakes, the results might be very different. Don't.
The focus of everyone's dispute is whether Yi Jing can be captured by attacking the city with all his strength.
Although Yuan Shao claimed to have an army of 100,000, Gongsun Zan also had tens of thousands of people in the city, and they were fully defending the city. With the abundant food and grass, it was indeed difficult to conquer.
Unless something changes.
Yuan Xi doesn't care anymore. He only has one goal now, which is to capture Yi Jing as soon as possible.
He said: "We must find a way to lure their main force out of the city and eliminate them before they can break into the city."
Everyone thinks this makes sense, but the key is, how does the other party come out?
Yuan Xi said in a deep voice: "The early stage will definitely be a war of attrition. The key point is the few days before the Black Mountain Army is about to arrive."
He told his idea, and when everyone heard it, they shook their heads at first. This idea was too risky!
Yuan Xi said: "If we don't divide our forces to resist the Montenegrin army, it will definitely be uncomfortable for our army if the two sides turn around."
Tian Feng said: "Even if the young master's plan succeeds and our army breaks into the city, it will not be easy to capture the hundreds of watchtowers. It may take another month."
Yuan Xi said something again, and everyone's eyes lit up. This method sounded indeed feasible!
Jushou was surprised. He had proposed this method to Yuan Shao in private, but Yuan Xi had also thought of it!
He said aloud: "But a few days are too short. If the Montenegrin Army speeds up its march, it will block us in the city and put us in a dilemma."
Yuan Xi said: "So someone needs to hold them, but it doesn't need to be too far, just a few days' journey away."
After hearing this, the counselors felt more and more that this idea was feasible. Yuan Xi finally said: "Of course, this is only a last resort. Maybe the previous city was conquered first?"
After hearing this, Yuan Shao showed a smile on his face: "Xianyi's words make the most sense. If we don't fight first, who knows what will happen?"
"The attack on the city will begin the day after tomorrow!"
(End of chapter)
