When Huan Xi was still in a stalemate with Qianliang in Longyou and had not yet returned to his troops, Wang Meng learned that the 50,000 Qiang troops were advancing westward and rushed to Chang'an in a hurry.
Quan Yi came out of the city to greet them, and the two met each other. Quan Yi immediately reported the situation:
"Military advisor, I have given orders to gather 20,000 Han and Jie officers and soldiers in Chang'an to assist Tongguan together with the military advisor."
In the previous battle at Chang'an, Shi Bao's 40,000 cavalry disarmed and surrendered. Huan Xi selected 15,000 of them and organized them into combat troops. The rest were all used as state and county soldiers, working on the farm on weekdays and training in their spare time.
Wang Meng nodded. He did not go into the city to rest. Instead, he went straight to the military camp outside the city and asked as he walked:
"How is the morale of the army?"
Quan Yi sighed:
"To be honest with the military advisor, some soldiers in the camp have complaints."
Not everyone is willing to work in agriculture, but the current situation in Guanzhong is that the land is vast and the people are sparse. It is impossible for Huan Xi to keep all of them as soldiers. If he does, who will cultivate the fields in the fields.
They had to select the best among them and eliminate the rest as state and county soldiers.
Wang Meng was already prepared for this, he smiled and said:
"It doesn't matter, I have a plan, which will definitely make the officers and soldiers fight to the death."
After saying that, he told Quan Yi his thoughts. Hearing the words, Quan Yi praised:
"The strategist's brilliant plan!"
Since Wang Meng entered the main camp outside the city and led 20,000 Han and Jie soldiers out east, two rumors spread among the army.
First, Yao Yizhong followed Ran Min's order and entered the pass to kill the Jie people.
Secondly, if the Qiang people gain control of Guanzhong, the Han people will again be enslaved by the Hu people.
It has to be said that these two rumors are surprisingly effective.
In ancient times, transportation was underdeveloped and information exchange was poor. If these low-level soldiers in Kansai were not dispatched by the army, some of them would never be able to leave the county.
How can we know Yao Yizhong's political leanings and his hostile relationship with Ran Min? We can't rely on hearsay and what others say.
Moreover, Ran Min did massacre the Hu people in Guandong. Maybe he is now open to the Qiang people and only targets the Jie people.
The Han people, who had benefited from the equalization of land and finally lived a peaceful life for a while, were also unwilling to return to the past.
Wang Meng's two rumors can be said to be the right medicine. The 20,000 soldiers in the army were all determined to resist desperately and prevent Yao Xiang from entering the pass.
In early April of the sixth year of Yonghe (AD 350), Tongguan was in danger under Yao Xiang's day and night offensive.
The Qiang people even gained a foothold on the city wall for a time, but the Tongguan defenders were unable to drive them away. Just as more and more Qiang people were swarming up the city wall, Wang Meng finally led the reinforcements out of the forbidden ditch and entered Guancheng from the west. .
"Reinforcements are coming!"
I don’t know who was the first to discover the reinforcements behind them and shouted out. The already exhausted Tongguan defenders once again regained their fighting spirit and rallied to fight with the newly joined troops to kill the Qiang people back.
Yao Xiang had seen the Qiang army attack the city wall before and thought that Tongguan was about to be conquered. He was about to accept the congratulations of the generals. Unexpectedly, the situation suddenly changed and the Qiang army in front retreated in embarrassment. The cheers that erupted from the city wall made his face turn pale.
Wang Meng took advantage of the moment when the Qiang people were repelled and found Du Yu among the celebrating crowd:
"General Du, please lead your troops to retreat and rest first. Since Wang has arrived at Tongguan, he will not let the Qiang people cross the border city even one step!"
Du Yu did not try to be brave and fought hard for several days. Even he himself was exhausted and could not hold on, let alone his subordinates. He sighed:
"Du is unable to fight anymore, and the safety of Tongguan depends on the military advisor."
Wang Meng nodded solemnly.
When he took over Tongguan, Yao Xiang also learned from the retreating Qiang soldiers that reinforcements had indeed arrived. Although the specific number was unknown, according to the Qiang soldiers, the city was filled with chaos, probably no less than ten thousand. people.
Yao Xiang is not the eldest son of Yao Yizhong. His elder brothers Yao Yisheng, Yao Ruo and others are still alive. However, among the more than 30 sons of Yao Yizhong, the talent of the fifth son Yao Xiang is the most outstanding. Even the 24th son Yao Chang, compared to this brother, is also much inferior.
After Yao Chang established the foundation of the Later Qin Dynasty, he recalled his elder brother and lamented that he was not as good as him in four ways:
The body is eight feet five inches long, and the arms hang down above the knees. People look at it and fear it.
When a hundred thousand people compete with the world for balance and march forward looking forward, there is no horizontal formation in front of them, two things;
Reviewing the past to understand the present, discussing Taoism and art, controlling heroes, collecting interesting things, these are the three things;
Dong led the masses, walking in danger as if they were on the wrong side of the road, and everyone was willing to give in, and everyone tried their best, four things.
People at that time praised Yao Xiang: "He is a divine weapon, Sun Ce's companion, and his valor surpasses it."
Yao Xiang has the reputation of being the reincarnation of Sun Ce, and his younger brother Yao Chang also thinks that leading a hundred thousand people is not as good as his brother, so he is not paying tribute to the Emperor of Soochow.
Yao Chang was also outside Tongguan City at this time. He was twenty-one years old at the time. Although he looked a little immature in appearance, he had shown wisdom since he was a boy, which astonished his brothers.
"Fifth brother, Tongguan is dangerous and has new reinforcements. It is beyond human power to capture it. Fifth brother needs to make other plans."
Yao Chang said privately that of course such words should not be heard by outsiders, lest they affect the morale of the army.
Yao Xiang didn't understand this truth, but since ancient times, the three main routes from Guandong to Guan have been occupied by Huan Xi.
Now Huan Wen is leading troops to attack Nanyang County in an attempt to open up the connection with Guanzhong. The road to Wuguan is naturally unavailable.
Huan Xi also sent Shen Jin to build Gaowang City at Gaoyuan in Fennan.
Not to mention that the Fennan Gaoyuan is not as dangerous as Tongguan. Even if it can be bypassed, it can be entered through Puban.
Once Shen Jin kills the high wall, cuts off his retreat, or harasses the grain team, Yao Xiang will surely die if he goes deep alone.
Since Wuguan and Puban cannot leave, they can only attack Tongguan.
He sighed:
"What my brother said is very much in my heart, but I am afraid that if I return without success, I will be punished by my father."
Yao Yizhong had high standards and strict requirements for Yao Xiang. Whenever he was not satisfied with anything, he would always use military sticks.
Of course, this is also the deepest love and deepest responsibility.
It can be expected that once Yao Yizhong passed away, the person who would succeed him in leadership of his tribe would be none other than Yao Xiang.
It's just that the name of Sun Ce's reincarnation is somewhat unlucky.
Yao Xiang was ready to try again. Maybe these so-called reinforcements were just civilians summoned to bluff.
However, after witnessing another wave of attacks being heroically repelled by the defenders, Yao Xiang finally no longer took any chances, and the army officers were unwilling to continue to attack Tongguan.
Previously, it was thought that there were only a few thousand defenders in Tongguan and there would be an opportunity to take advantage of it. Now tens of thousands of reinforcements have poured in. Who is willing to continue to attack the fortress.
Yao Xiang tried to pretend to retreat again and lured Wang Meng out of the pass to pursue him. He even left some of the baggage behind, hoping that the Jin army would come to collect it.
But Wang Meng failed to fall into his trap and strictly ordered his soldiers not to leave the border.
Since Wang Meng led the army, he has given orders with authority. On the way to Tongguan, he borrowed the heads of several soldiers who had violated military laws to establish his authority, so the soldiers did not dare to disobey them.
Yao Xiang saw that he could not wait for the Jin army to come, so he had to pretend to be real, collect the baggage and lead his troops to evacuate.
Seeing that the Qiang people had really retreated, the Jin troops on the city wall raised their arms and cheered. Only Wang Meng was calm and calm. The moment he led the reinforcements to arrive, the outcome of this battle was no longer in suspense.
With the addition of 20,000 fresh troops, they defended according to the danger. Not to mention Yao Xiang, even if Bai Qi and Han Xin were resurrected, they could not lure the Jin army out of Tongguan and could only look at the city and sigh.
At the same time, Huan Wen was also fighting fiercely under Nanyang City.
Huan Wen had long wanted to seize Nanyang. He stationed 30,000 troops in Xiangyang, not only to support Huan Xi, but also to wait for the opportunity to send troops northward.
With Fu Hong at his side, Huan Wen did not dare to act rashly for fear of provoking reinforcements from the Di people.
Now that Fu Hong was dead, Fu Jian led his troops north to fight for Bingzhou, and Yao Xiang was attacking Tongguan. Nanyang had no reinforcements, so Huan Wen took the opportunity to send troops north to capture Jingzhou.
For this reason, Huan Wen personally went to the front line to supervise the battle. The three armies under his command worked hard and their morale was like a rainbow. They successively captured fourteen counties in Nanyang and all eight counties in Shunyang to the west. From then on, all twenty-two counties in Jingzhou were owned by Huan Wen, and the route was opened up. The passage from Shang Yu Land to Guanzhong.
Although Huan Xi conquered cities and territories in the north, captured Yong and Qin states, and expanded his territory thousands of miles away, his strength was far from Huan Wen.
There were more than 200,000 households under Huanxi's rule, including 110,000 households in Yongzhou, more than 30,000 households in Qinzhou, and more than 70,000 households in Liangzhou.
The land and population owned by Huan Wen did not include Yizhou and Ningzhou.
In Jingzhou alone, during the Western Jin Dynasty, there were 357,548 households. Afterwards, after experiencing the Yongjia Rebellion and northerners migrating southward, the population was only much larger than it was then, estimated to be no less than 400,000 households. .
It can be seen that Huan Xi is just a younger brother at best in front of Huan Wen.
Although the imperial court intended to separate the Huan family from father to son, Huan Wen obviously did not intend to let Sima Yu, Yin Hao and others get their way.
Now Huan Xi has not yet returned to his army, and Tongguan is in danger. After capturing Nanyang and Shunyang, Huan Wen was planning to send his army northward. When he entered the pass via the ancient Shang Road, he finally learned the news that Yao Xiang had returned to Luoyang, so he gave up.
Soon after, the imperial edict was also sent to Huan Wen's army, ordering him to stop there and not to continue marching into the Central Plains.
It's not that Sima Yu and others don't want to restore the Central Plains, but they don't want the Huan family to take the lead in this matter.
If they were asked to choose whether the Huan clan would take over the Central Plains or allow the Hu people to continue to occupy the north, they would probably still be willing to maintain the status quo.
It is true that the Hu people are rampant, but for a while, it is difficult to threaten Jiangdong.
Once the Huan family is allowed to continue to expand, Huan Wen will have to question the importance of the Jin Dynasty when he turns around, and the Sima family's country and country will not be preserved.
Huan Wen read the edict and was indignant about it.
Although he was not ready to fight Yao Xiang and capture Luoyang at this time, and therefore had the intention of stopping the army, the defensiveness shown by the court still made him angry.
Huan Wen complained to Xi Chao:
"Yin Hao has the ability to govern the country, but he has no military skills. The imperial court ordered him to manage the Central Plains with this person in mind. He is really ill and has to seek medical treatment. I am only worried that he will be another Taifu Chu (Chu Pei)."
It turned out that the imperial court not only prohibited Huan Wen from continuing to send troops to the Northern Expedition, but also appointed Yin Hao as the general of the central army and the governor of the five states of Yang, Yu, Xu, Yan and Qing to replace Chu Pei who died of illness and shoulder the important task of restoring the Central Plains.
