After Lu Wenhuan captured Songzhou, his soldiers and horses moved up the Yishui River and arrived at Luoyang City.
When he raised the lookout tube and saw the fluttering dragon flag, he couldn't help but be surprised.
"How could it be? Why is Li Xia here?"
Not only Lu Wenhuan was shocked and doubtful, but Weng Yinglong and Huang Gongshao also looked at each other.
A doubt arose in their minds - could it be that Li Xia had already conquered Yanjing? After all, Kublai Khan was a Mongolian, and it was possible that he could have retreated directly through Yanshan Mountain and back to the grassland.
Thinking of this, they shook their heads one after another, unwilling to inflate others' ambitions and destroy their own prestige.
"The more likely scenario is that Li Ni learned that we were going to attack Luoyang, and he couldn't spare the troops, so he had to defend it himself."
Having said that, the reason why they excitedly sent troops over was that they thought that the main force of the Tang army had already moved north and they could take advantage of the situation. Now that the dragon flag was erected, it was inevitable that they would feel like they were being waited for, and they felt somewhat uneasy in their hearts.
Of course, they had already marched here and were not scared back by Li Xia's flag. Lu Wenhuan still set up his formation to attack the city.
We just arrived at the city today. We first launched a tentative attack and found out that there were two artillery pieces at the top of Luoyang City. They directly severely damaged Lu Wenhuan's vanguard troops. The thundering roar cast a shadow on the Song Army.
The Song army began to manufacture siege equipment.
As the war slowly unfolded, Lu Wenhuan couldn't help but regret that he had listened to Wang Xun's words and did not send troops earlier.
At this moment, he had not received any news from Zhengzhou and thought that Boyan would occupy Zhengzhou to resist Zhang Jue, who was in a hurry to return to his army.
However, the news that caught him off guard still arrived.
First, the messenger from Nanyang rushed into the camp in panic.
"Commander, it's not good! The Yuan army... The Yuan army has reached Nanyang!"
"What did you say?" Lu Wenhuan heard this but could not react. He first turned to look at Huang Gongshao and said: "I have already sent out troops, why did Boyan attack Song Dynasty? Is he crazy?"
Huang Gongshao also widened his eyes and didn't understand why.
Fortunately, only half a day later, another messenger arrived on Pegasus and hurriedly reported: "Commander, the Yuan army was defeated by the Tang army and wanted to use Nanyang to rest temporarily... This is a letter from the Major General. This Boyan
A letter to the commander-in-chief."
Lu Wenhuan took the letter expressionlessly.
Weng Yinglong stared at this scene blankly and murmured: "Is Tang Jun so strong?"
"It's not that the Tang army is strong, it's that Boyan's fighting spirit is weak. He expects us to fight the Tang army first and both sides will be injured." Lu Wenhuan said lightly, with the intention of blaming Weng Yinglong in his tone.
He wrote to Lu Shikui respectively, and Boyan replied, summoned the messenger, and ordered: "Go and tell Boyan that Li Xia is in Luoyang City, and ask him to send troops to encircle and suppress him; tell Shikui again that you can't let Uncle
Yan enters the city."
After the messenger hurried away, Lu Wenhuan put his hands on his forehead and sat down tiredly. Listening to the shouts of killing coming from the distance during the attack on the city, he also ordered: "It's getting late, so we should withdraw our troops today."
"yes."
At this time, there were still an hour or two before dark. Although it was a bit early to withdraw the troops, the Song generals needed to digest the bad news.
I thought that there would be no more trouble on this day, but before the sound of gold fell, a horse from the east galloped back to the camp and reported even worse news to Lu Wenhuan.
"Commander, we found the Tang army near Wan'an Mountain in the east. The flag is from Zhang Jue's tribe..."
"Zhang Jue?!"
Lu Wenhuan stood up suddenly and said: "Didn't he go after Boyan? How could he appear in Luoyang?!"
No one in the account could give him the answer.
He originally thought that Li Xia, Zhang Jue and others would believe him if he promised Wang Xun not to send troops. Then Zhang Jue should not return to Luoyang to defend Luoyang, but should pursue Boyan.
After all, during the Battle of Zhengzhou, Zhang Jue should not have known that Lu Wenhuan had decided to go to war with the Tang army.
At this moment, Lu Wenhuan felt as if all his thoughts had been seen through.
It was as if his every move was anticipated.
"Li Xia?" He murmured to himself: "How could Li Xia expect this? Are there any details of his in our army?"
On the sand table, a small flag hung outside Luoyang City.
"What a coincidence that you came back. Look, you have formed a pincer attack on Lu Wenhuan."
Zhang Jue, who had just rushed into the city for an audience, responded: "I originally planned to pursue Boyan, but your majesty asked Lin Zi to come to summon him. I didn't expect that Lu Wenhuan actually dared to come."
"The family members are so concerned about the family's private interests. Naturally, they are vacillating, and the wind blows them both ways." Li Xia nodded at the small flag with the word "LV" on the sand table and said, "Whether Lu Wenhuan comes or not, I am here.
It’s for him. If the center of the chessboard is stabilized, the entire situation will be stabilized.”
"Do you want to surrender Lu Wenhuan?"
"It's not yet time." Li Xia thought and said, "These important officials of the Song Dynasty are used to living a good life. They will not surrender easily if they are not allowed to suffer some hardships. Even if they are willing to surrender, the conditions are
It’s too much. You still have to beat him until he gets scared and begs for mercy.”
"Yes, I will go and prepare for the war."
Li Xia patted Zhang Jue on the shoulder and wanted to say a few words of encouragement, such as retaking the Central Plains soon. But when the words came to his lips, he did not say them out.
"Go ahead."
Having known each other for many years, Zhang Jue understood what Li Xia meant, solemnly cupped his hands, turned around and walked out.
Li Xia stood in front of the sand table and continued to look at it for a while.
"Your Majesty, Wang Yinglin would like to see you."
"Call."
Not long after, Wang Yinglin went up to the palace, glanced at the sand table in the palace, and saluted: "Wang Shi's Northern Expedition should have driven out the barbarians and regained the Central Plains in one fell swoop. But he didn't want to, but encountered the constraints of the Song Dynasty, which made the emperor move from Hebei.
Going back to Luoyang is really abominable."
"Yes." Li Xia nodded, "Song Jun seems to be making a small fuss, but if one person is not guarded, it may still affect the overall situation."
"I have the courage to give you something to advise Your Majesty."
"Wang Qing, just say it doesn't matter."
"I thought that the Lu family has become a vassal town. If we recruit them, we will not be able to defeat them. If we fight, we will only increase casualties. Instead of recruiting the Lu family, it is better to recruit Jia Sidao..."
When Wang Yinglin said this, I thought Li Xia would be very surprised.
But when he looked up, he found that Li Xia's face was calm, as if he had expected it.
Wang Yinglin then continued: "In the eyes of ordinary people, Jia Sidaoping Zhang was responsible for the important affairs of the Song Dynasty. One person was less than ten thousand people, and there was absolutely no possibility of rebelling against the Song Dynasty. In fact, he was just exercising power on behalf of the Song emperor.
There is a way to force Jia Sidao to surrender."
Li Xia asked, "Have you met him when you were in Jiangling?"
"Your Majesty, yes." Wang Yinglin said, "I told him about the secret palace case back then."
"He doesn't believe it?"
"He doesn't believe it and scolds me for being an old fool. But what other people say about this matter doesn't count. Only what one person says counts."
Li Xia said: "I'm afraid no one's words count. No matter how much you say that Zhao Jie's position is unfair, Lin'an will not believe it."
"This is not what I want to do. I am bold and ask Your Majesty to accept the daughter of the Zhao family as your concubine. In this way, with a little trick, even if Jia Sidao does not rebel against the Song Dynasty, Lin'an will force him to rebel against the Song Dynasty..."
Late at night.
Li Xia was alone in the hall, playing with the sand table and thinking. When he heard the sound of a watch, he was about to leave when he suddenly saw someone making trouble outside.
But it was Zhao Jin who was arguing with the guards.
"Your Majesty, she insists on breaking in..."
"Let her in."
Zhao Jin then crossed the threshold and entered the hall. In the candlelight, her eyes were red, as if she had cried.
After coming in, she didn't say anything. She just walked to Li Xia and stood next to him for a while and asked, "What are you thinking about?"
Li Xia then looked at the sand table and said, "Lu Wenhuan has many troops. Zhang Jue can repel him, but cannot annihilate him." Li Xia said, "I am thinking about how to suppress him."
Zhao Jin didn't expect that he would actually tell her, and was a little dazed.
She thought for a while and asked: "Then...what can I help you with?"
"Why
Want to help?"
"You treat me well after all."
Li Xia said: "Have you thought about it?"
"Successful king and defeated bandit, if you want to accept me, can I still refuse?"
"Yes. I just let you think about it, I'm not forcing you."
Zhao Jin was stunned, flattened his mouth, and said, "You bully people!" "You, Zhao, bully a lot of people."
"The Zhao family is the Zhao family, but who did I bully?" Zhao Jin said: "Didn't you say so? Let me live for myself without having to bear the responsibility of the Zhao family."
"I told you?"
"That's what you said!"
Li Xia was silent for a while and said, "If you don't agree, forget it. This is just a question."
Zhao Jin also fell silent and stood there with his head lowered and said nothing.
"Really, I won't force you, just go ahead."
Zhao Jin turned around and took two steps before stopping.
She turned back to look at Li Xia, but her face was filled with tears.
Li Xia looked at it and couldn't help but sigh.
"Why are you crying?"
"You bully me." Zhao Jin burst into tears, "You know that I can't refuse, and no princess will lose her family."
You clearly know that there are still other choices in the country... so you didn't even want to coax me, so you just asked me directly. You are obviously very good at coaxing people...
She cried so loudly that it could be heard outside, making the scene a bit embarrassing.
"You are good at coaxing Yan Rong, Qiao'er and the others...but you just don't want to pay attention to me...as long as you speak nicely in the carriage...you clearly know what I am thinking...you bully