As the sky grew dark, rows of soldiers, holding torches, filed out of the west gate.
On the city tower, Lu Wenhuan, who had just taken over Dengzhou City, had ordered people to remove Shi Quan's head hanging on a high pole, put it in a box, and apply it with lime.
This is the first thing after entering the city.
Lu Wenhuan looked at his old rival in the box for a while, and probably understood how Li Xia captured Dengzhou.
Two groups of soldiers and horses, one from Han River and one from Wuguan, jointly attacked Dengzhou City. Shi Quan rushed from Tangzhou to support, but was attacked and killed by Li Xia from the north.
As soon as the general died and his head was handed over, Dengzhou City, which was surrounded on three sides, was broken...
Speaking of which, the three prefectures of Deng, Tang, and Cai, including Zaoyang and Xinyang, had always been like this during the battles between Song, Jin, and Song and Meng. They would return to the south today and return to the north tomorrow.
Lu Wenhuan was thinking about it, and suddenly he thought of Liu Zheng who had captured Xinyang with twelve men in Dengzhou City.
Afterwards, he came to his senses and allowed Yang Ben to step forward.
The two sides clasped their fists, and Lu Wenhuan said: "I want to see Prince Pingling."
He had a lot to say to Li Xia, but not to Yang Ben, so he only had this sentence.
He was quite polite to Yang Ben, but in fact he didn't take Yang Ben seriously. He just regarded Yang Ben as an insignificant person and didn't bother to say anything.
Yang Ben also felt Lu Wenhuan's indifference towards him, and said with a cold face: "If you want to see the prince, you can ask General Lu to come to Zhaoji outside the city to meet him."
"You want me to ignore the situation in the city and go out to see him?" Lu Wenhuan said with a smile, "That would be too cautious."
"If General Lu doesn't want to go, we will withdraw now."
"All right."
Lu Wenhuan actually had a lot to say about this. For example, Li Xia was too cautious and was too timid to see him in the city.
On the other hand, he also understood that if his more than 7,000 troops entered Dengzhou, it was indeed possible for Li Xia to stay.
Instead, he went out of the city to see Li Xia, who really had no reason to keep him.
He led more than 20 personal guards and rode north along the Turbulent River in the dark. After walking for nearly an hour, he found Li Xia's Zhaoji camp in front of him.
Two large flags stood in front of the camp. Lv Wenhuan looked up and vaguely saw in the moonlight that on one side was "Li, the envoy to Sichuan and Shaanxi Province of Pingling of Song Dynasty", and on the other was "Zhang, the deputy envoy to Sichuan and Shaanxi Province of Song Dynasty".
He shook his head and walked all the way into the camp. A rough look at the number of tents revealed that it should be a camp for 20,000 troops.
Entering the big tent, I saw Li Xia wearing armor and sitting upright at the top.
Different from the expected image of a young and reckless person, Li Xia has a graceful temperament. Although his clothes are simple, he has a sense of nobility. He must have been crowned a king for a year, and he already has the majesty of a king.
When he turned around, he saw that there were four or five generals in the tent, but Zhang Jue was not seen.
…
"General Lu, there is no need to be polite. Your eldest brother and I are as close as brothers, so you and I are also brothers. Please sit down."
Lu Wenhuan was stunned for a moment, vaguely feeling that the 22-year-old young man in front of him sounded like an elder brother.
It feels ridiculous.
He thought for a moment and then said: "Now that Li Fen in Shandong is raising his flag to fight against Mongolia, we, the Song Dynasty, can send troops to cooperate. Since Prince Li has captured Dengzhou, why bother to retreat?"
Li Xia asked: "You don't want me to withdraw my troops?"
Lu Wenhuan nodded and said, "How about we work together to capture Nanyang Mansion?"
"No."
After meeting these few conversations, Li Xia already felt that Lu Wenhuan was different from Lu Wende.
Lu Wenhuan was much more elegant and had an air of loyalty and solemnity.
Very standard appearance of a Song Dynasty general.
I think it's because when Lu Wende became famous, Lu Wenhuan was still young. He had studied in the military and official circles and was edified, so he was not as vulgar as Lu Wende.
Being able to say that he captured Nanyang Mansion and had such a desire to recover, Li Xia thought that Lu Wenhuan was quite a good person.
But he still decisively refused...
This area of Nanyang is indeed "among the world" and is very important to Mongolia. If Mongolia wants to attack the Song Dynasty, there must be a place where they can train their navy to sail down the Yangtze River. It is also very important to the Song Dynasty because it is the gateway to the Yangtze River.
But it doesn't mean much to Li Xia.
Whether the Song Dynasty or Mongolia wanted to attack Li Xia, take the Han River to attack Hanzhong, or take the Wuguan Road to attack Zhongzhong, they all had to go through a long mountain road.
Nanyang was the gateway to the Song Dynasty, but not the gateway to Sichuan and Shaanxi.
On the other hand, if Li Xia wants to attack Mongolia, he must attack Yanjing in the north; if he wants to attack Zhao and Song Dynasties, he can just go down the Yangtze River from Kuimen, and there is no need to go to Nanyang.
If he wants land, he has no shortage of land.
If we want population, the population can be moved away. Of course, the Mongolian army has surrounded us and there is no time to move the population.
Of course, it is good to win it. What we are talking about here is whether it is worth using troops and whether it can be won.
In short, at this stage, Li Xia has never thought of attacking the entire city of Nanyang.
Sometimes, knowing what you want is more important than what you have.
…
"To be honest, I don't have enough money, food, or troops to even guard Guanlong."
"Really?" Lu Wenhuan didn't believe it and asked: "If there are no troops to defend it, why send troops to attack Dengzhou?"
"It's just a matter of attacking instead of defending," Li Xia said.
Lu Wenhuan shook his head and said: "With all due respect, I don't agree with the so-called 'attack instead of defense'. It's too risky."
"We all have different fighting styles, so I don't force General Lu to agree."
"I just saw Zhang Shuai's banner outside the camp." Lu Wenhuan said: "If we join forces, we may be able to defeat Shi Tianze..."
"Zhang Jue didn't come." Li Xia responded simply, "It's just a suspicious soldier."
Lu Wenhuan was not too surprised. He turned his eyes and looked at the two generals, one large and one small, in the tent.
The other party then cupped his fists in greeting.
"Liu Yuanzhen."
"The last general, Zan Wanshou."
Zan Wanshou's attitude towards Lu Wenhuan was very respectful. He brought more than 5,000 militiamen from Hanzhong, who were responsible for setting up camp here, setting up many tents and setting up many flags.
Liu Yuanzhen looked cold and was not in a good mood. He led more than 4,000 troops stationed in Lantian, Shangzhou, and Wuguan areas, and pretended to attack Nanyang Fucheng, creating a momentum.
When Lu Wenhuan heard the name "Liu Yuanzhen", his face became serious.
To the northwest of Dengzhou is Wuguan Road, also known as "Shangshan Road", which leads to Chang'an via Neixiang, Wuguan, Shangzhou and Lantian. Who has always guarded Shangzhou and Wuguan?
It was Liu Heima, Liu Yuanzhen and his son. This was Li Xia's advantage in attacking Dengzhou.
"We didn't bring much baggage, and we didn't have 20,000 elite troops." Li Xia said: "These less than 10,000 garrison troops were temporarily mobilized, and they will soon be back to defend various places... I did not lie to General Lu, the number of troops guarding Guanlong
We are still stretched thin and unable to capture Nanyang."
"I see." Lu Wenhuan had already noticed something was wrong with the camp, so he was not too surprised. He sighed helplessly: "It seems that the prince is determined to withdraw? Leave me alone to deal with the Henan Mongolian army?"
"General Lu wants the credit, doesn't he? If you gain something, you will have to pay for it. If you only need to defend for a period of time, Shi Tianze will have to go to Shandong to quell the rebellion. When the time comes, it will be General Lu who will behead Shi Quan and recover Dengzhou."
"The prince underestimates me." Lu Wenhuan said: "Not only for merit, but for sending troops this time, just to defend the country."
Li Xia originally thought that Lu Wenhuan came to Dengzhou to receive credit, but now he could feel the sincerity of his attitude. He was slightly surprised, and finally nodded and smiled.
"I'm glad to meet General Lu today. I hope I have the opportunity to fight the enemy side by side in the future..."
That night, Lu Wenhuan returned to Dengzhou City after meeting Li Xia.
An aide named "Fang Hui" beside him discussed with him for a while and was disappointed when he learned that Zhang Jue did not come with an army.
"We can't capture Nanyang, and it's hard to defend Dengzhou for a long time... It seems that Li Xia just wants to use the general to contain the Mongolian army."
Fang Hui said this, thought for a while, and then slowly said: "In that case, why doesn't General make another contribution to the court?"
Lu Wenhuan said in surprise: "Another achievement?"
A mysterious smile appeared in Fang Hui's eyes.
He had met Li Xia before. As early as the fifth year of Xingchang, when Jia Sidao was still in Ezhou, he sent him to Qingfu to communicate with Li Xia.
At that time, Fang Hui had a bad impression of Li Xia. Later, when he heard that Li Xia was rebellious, he felt that this was indeed the case.
"The general only needs to inform Shi Tianze about the suspected soldiers, and he can sit on the mountain and watch the fight between the foreigners and the thieves. When they are both injured, the general can recover Nanyang..."