"Urgent report! Urgent report!"
A lieutenant of the Central Military Academy rushed into the tent in a panic, almost staggering and falling to the ground: "Your Majesty, Luzhou has been lost!"
Li Kuang, who was sitting on the commander's seat, suddenly stood up and said in surprise: "What did you say? Where is Cui Zhi? Didn't he join forces with Bao Yuchun to ambush the Xinjiang Army?!"
"Your Majesty, General Cui is dead!" the captain said with a mournful face: "That bastard Bao Yuchun suddenly ran away halfway and left General Cui and the 50,000 brothers to Xu Youchang. The cavalry of the Zhenjiang Army seemed to be crazy. Kill them all!"
Hearing this, Li Kuang plopped down on the chair, his face turned pale: "This is bad, it's bad!"
The commander of the Huaiyang Army, Zhang Qifang, frowned and said in a deep voice: "Your Majesty, the loss of Luzhou is still a small matter. Walking one hundred and seventy miles north from Luzhou is Shouchun City. It is a strategic location for controlling the Huaihe River, and it is also our most important place. An important supply base. Once Shouchun falls into the enemy's hands, the entire army will be blocked on the north bank of the Huaihe River and will be in a dilemma."
Li Kuang was stunned for a moment, and then asked quickly: "Qifang, do you have any good ideas? How about sending troops to protect Shouchun quickly?"
"Your Majesty, it's difficult." Zhang Qifang shook his head: "Now Murong Xue and Chang Tao are so aggressive that they have bitten our troops to death in several battlefields, and they can't mobilize extra manpower anywhere. Besides, the situation we are in Suzhou is more than two hundred miles away from Shouchun. Even if reinforcements are sent immediately, they will not be able to outpace the cavalry of the Xinjiang Army. For this plan..."
Li Kuang was a little panicked and asked hurriedly: "If you have any ideas, please tell me!"
Zhang Qifang looked around, approached Li Kuang, and lowered his voice and said: "Your Majesty, for the present plan, it is best to move to the east as soon as possible."
"Move to the east?" Li Kuang asked curiously: "Where to go?"
"Chuzhou!" Zhang Qifang said: "The area around Huaisi is crisscrossed by water nets, and the terrain is conducive to defense and difficult to attack. By retreating to that place temporarily, we can not only avoid the danger of being attacked from both front and rear, but also block the enemy cavalry by relying on the geographical advantage. Moreover, a few hundred miles further east is the vast sea. If that doesn't work, you can still board a boat and leave."
Li Kuang was dumbfounded when he heard this: "Get on the ship and leave? Where else can I go?"
Zhang Qifang said: "Anywhere is fine. The south and Baiyue are all places to go. Your Majesty, we can keep the green mountains here, so we don't have to worry about running out of firewood."
When Li Kuang thought about his fate of wandering around the world, he couldn't help but feel sad. He was in a daze for a while and murmured: "Qifang, you just said that Murong Xue has bitten all my troops. If you want to go How many people can be taken away by moving east?"
Zhang Qifang thought for a while and said: "Abandoning the city and fully retreating, we can probably save more than one and a half men, about seventy or eighty thousand."
"What if we don't withdraw? I mean, if we hold the defense line of Zhuzhou in the north and the defense line of Huaihe River in the south, is there any chance of winning?" Li Kuang asked: "Our time to manage the two Huaihe Rivers is not short. There must be a way to carry it out, right?"
Zhang Qifang was puzzled: "Your Majesty, I am not saying something depressing. Before we competed with Murong Xue, the outcome was about 50-50. The soldiers are confident that we can compete with him in the Huaihe area. But now that Luzhou has fallen, our opponent is We killed A Shi's army of suppressing Xinjiang. Those Western Xinjiang barbarians are so fierce that they can't even defeat hundreds of thousands of Turkic cavalry. We have no chance of winning. If we hesitate any longer, I'm afraid we won't even have the chance to advance eastward. lost."
Li Kuang knew that what he said was reasonable, so he couldn't help but let out a long sigh and waved his hands helplessly: "You guys should step aside first and let me think about it carefully. Alas, it's been a bad year. Even the Zhenjiang Army came to help that bastard Li Bing. There is nothing in the sky. Eyes!"
-
Huaibei, the headquarters of the Green Dragon Army.
Murong Xue received the military report and jumped up happily.
Three days ago, his good brother Xu Youchang led his troops to conquer Luzhou and surrounding counties, and kicked Li Kuang hard in the butt.
The Zhenjiang Army moved extremely quickly.
The Gale First Army was worthy of the name "Gate". The day after they occupied Luzhou, they marched north and attacked Shouchun on the south bank of the Huaihe River. At this point, the city has probably been taken.
As a result, the Huaiyang Army's retreat was completely cut off, and it was about to face the dilemma of being attacked from both sides.
Murong Xue immediately sent for Chang Tao, the chief general of the Xuanwu Legion, and asked, "Li Kuang's rear was captured by Xu Youchang. What do you think he will do next?"
Chang Tao smiled and said: "In my opinion, he will probably run away."
Murong Xue nodded: "I think so too. If Li Kuang wants to escape, he will most likely go east to Chuzhou."
"Well, he has no choice but to go to Chuzhou." Chang Tao said: "There are us in the north, the Suzaku Army led by Ma Da in the west, and the Suppression Army of You Chang in the south. Where else can Li Kuang escape? "
Murong Xue continued: "This is why I invited you here. Brother Chang, the Xuanwu Legion's old foundation is the Liaodong Governor's Mansion and the Yinshan Governor's Mansion. The number of cavalry is considerable. Can you send a fast force to get ahead of Li In front of the fierce Huaiyang army, take Siyang County first?"
Chang Tao nodded slightly: "I understand what you mean. To the north of Siyang is Luoma Lake, and to the south is Hongze Lake. This place is located between the two lakes, and it happens to be stuck on the only way from Suzhou to Chuzhou. Sealed There, Li Kuang can't fly! Master Murong, please leave it to us, I promise we won't let you down."
"Okay, without further ado." Murong Xue stood up and said, "Go back and arrange your manpower immediately. The more the better, the sooner the better. I will command the Qinglong Army to launch a full-scale attack on the enemy in front and hold them back! "
That night, nearly 100,000 Qinglong Army soldiers launched a full-scale attack on the Huaiyang Army on the vast battlefield from Bozhou to Xuzhou. There were as many as thirty-seven attack points, large and small, and almost all of Li Kuang's troops were involved.
Zhang Qifang, the leader of the Huaiyang Army, was greatly distressed by this style of play. He quickly postponed the eastward retreat plan and ordered all his troops to resist desperately and strictly guard the defense line.
If the defense line collapses and the army is defeated like a mountain, let alone moving eastward to Chuzhou, my life may be lost immediately!
The fierce offensive and defensive battle lasted for a night and a day. When the sun set on the second day, the Azure Dragon Legion finally stopped their offensive and retracted back to the starting position.
The exhausted Huaiyang Army couldn't help but breathe a sigh of relief, but their commander was even more nervous than before.
Zhang Qifang knew in his heart that the reason why Murong Xue did this was neither to capture the city nor to consume the strength of the Huaiyang army. His only purpose is to buy time.
Either to buy time for the Xinjiang Army in the south, or to buy time for the troops to intercept the eastward route.
The most troublesome thing is the latter.
Zhang Qifang looked at Siyang County on the map and sighed softly.
It's over, everything is over.
-
The 20,000 cavalrymen of the Xuanwu Legion attacked Siyang County overnight. They captured the county town in just one hour and killed all the 1,000 defenders in the city.
At this point, Huaiyang King Li Kuang's retreat was completely cut off.
Within three days after the fall of Siyang, Xu Youchang led the First Army and the Ninth Army to cross the Huaihe River from Shouchun and approach Suzhou from the south. At the same time, the Suzaku Corps under Ma Hongjie set out from Nanyang and encircled Suzhou from the east.
The Qinglong Army in the north and the Xuanwu Army in the east each consolidated their defense lines and resolutely refused to give the Huaiyang Army any opportunity to take advantage of them.
The imperial court's 500,000 troops surrounded Li Kuang from all directions.
By this time, the war was no longer in doubt. Even if Murong Xue did not launch a final general attack, he could starve to death of hundreds of thousands of Huaiyang troops just by cutting off food and grass supplies.
Under such a situation, a dramatic scene suddenly occurred in Suzhou City.
General Zhang Qifang of Huaiyang felt that he had no choice but to doomed, so he secretly launched a mutiny and arrested all Huaiyang officials, including Li Kuang, overnight. Then he opened the city gates and announced his surrender to the court.
After Murong Xue learned the news, he quickly notified all the friendly forces, and at the same time sent troops to Suzhou City to receive Li Kuang and other important prisoners, control the city defense, and monitor the surrendered troops.
Not long after, Xu Youchang, Chang Tao and Sun Cheng, the deputy general of the Suzaku Army, also led their troops to Suzhou one after another, and met with Murong Xue to celebrate the victory against the rebellion.
In the year 821 of the Holy Tang Calendar, the Xuanjia Army's vanguard battalion was wronged and fled to Western Xinjiang because of the assassination of Commander He Jingming. Since then, Xu Youchang and Murong Xue have been separated by thousands of miles and there has been no news from them.
Now, the two good brothers finally meet again.
In the blink of an eye, time flies.
When they parted, the two of them were still high-spirited and handsome young men in the imperial capital who knew nothing about sorrow; when they met again, they had become great generals commanding thousands of troops and fighting against rebellion for the country.
"It would be great if Jiang Yao were here too." Murong Xue said with emotion: "We three brothers have been going round and round, and finally we are looking forward to the day of reunion. We should really get drunk together!"
Xu Youchang laughed loudly and said: "Don't worry, you will have the opportunity soon. Jiang Yao asked me to say hello to you on his behalf. You two are different from me. We have met once before in Luoyi, the eastern capital."
Murong Xue nodded: "Speaking of which, Jiang Yao saved my life. Without him, I'm afraid there would be no Murong Xue in the world."
"Me too." Xu Youchang couldn't help laughing: "Back then, Shen Lie chased me all the way to Western Xinjiang like a dog chasing a rabbit. If Jiang Yao hadn't been kind enough to take him in, I might have died a long time ago. We two. , all owed to him."
Murong Xue pulled Xu Youchang to sit down and said happily: "Not only do I owe him, but the more I owe him, the more I owe him! No, Li Daduhu made a move to attack the east and west, and attacked from a long distance. He immediately killed the Huaiyang army and asked me to give it to the court in advance. Explain. Brother, the Zhenjiang Army must take the lead in this battle!"
Xu Youchang waved his hand modestly: "Don't say that, you don't want to take the credit. My people have always said recently that they feel that they have not been very effective since they came to the Central Plains, and they are quite idle. Because they came all the way from Tongguan , we haven’t fought any tough battles at all.”
Murong Xue shook her head and smiled bitterly: "Have you never fought a tough battle? That's because your Xinjiang Army is too strong, so except for the Turks, you won't feel tough enough to fight anyone!"
