When Niu Jinda arrived, Shen Qingnu rebelled and surrendered to Han King Li Ding'an. The news that he had led the Jin army across the river reached Wang Shichong's army, and the army of more than 100,000 people instantly fell apart.
Wang Shichong also wanted to send people back to seize Fengling Ferry and stabilize the war situation.
But seeing that the Tang army in Tongguan was about to move, at the critical moment, no one listened to him as the emperor. Chen Guogong Duan Da took the lead in leading the army to retreat, and then everyone followed suit and retreated in the direction of Hongnong.
This was the last straw that broke the camel's back.
The previous loss of troops and generals, coupled with large-scale internal strife, can only be said to be a very heavy blow, but Li Po's wave of troops across the river was a fatal blow.
The retreat is a link that every leading general must and must pay attention to. Once the army has no retreat, in fact, it is rare for a last stand to happen. The morale of the army is often shaken, and then there is a big rout. This is normal.
The rhythm of war.
In fact, there are not many battles as complete as Wang Shichong's defeat.
The generals in the army almost didn't think about leading their troops to protect the emperor and leaving first, or leading their troops to break out after being surrounded. They only thought about taking advantage of Li Ding'an's opportunity to cross the river and run back to Luoyang first.
Military morale...well, there was no such thing as military morale in Wang Shichong's army at this time. There were many people running away, and Wang Shichong's emperor's flag full of human heads fell crookedly.
The once arrogant Emperor Zheng, with disheveled hair and a distorted face, was surrounded by his own soldiers and guards, mixed in with the crowd, and fled eastward in a hurry.
The complete rout of the entire army is no longer enough to describe the embarrassment of Wang Shichong's army. Chen Guogong Duan Da almost stopped all the way and led his army to Hongnong. He captured Wang Renze without hesitation and beheaded him.
He is not Wang Shichong. Wang Renze deserves death for losing Fengling Ferry. The most damning thing is that he still wants to show off his superiority in front of Duan Da and take the airs of the royal family. He probably wants to accept the army led by Duan Da.
.
It is normal for such a guy who only plays petty tricks and cannot see the big picture clearly to be killed.
General Yang Shuheng, who led the left guard, led Ying Yanglang generals Zhang Tongren, Li Junxian and others to the foot of Tongguan City and surrendered Li Jiancheng.
The most ridiculous thing is that Chu King Wang Shiwei, his subordinates are all Niu Jinda's subordinates. When news of Niu Jinda's rebellion came, the army immediately dispersed. Chu King Wang Shiwei panicked and his subordinates were also dumbfounded.
But no one paid attention to them at this moment. The few leading men only touched each other, then "swarmed" Wang Shiwei, the king of Chu, and ran to the river, picking up Yang Gongqing on the way.
This man was a serious general who was close to Wang Shichong, and was also a member of Wang Shichong's old Jiangdu army. He followed Wang Shichong and did many "big things", and he was regarded as a more capable general among Wang Shichong's generals.
But at this moment, Yang Gongqing only had dozens of close followers left by his side. Not to mention that the emperor couldn't care about him, he couldn't find the emperor's chariot. It's so sad that it's hard to describe.
Seeing Wang Shiwei's figure, this person immediately came over. Well, the guys who had "captured" Wang Shiwei took a look and saw that another big fish had come. So, Yang Gongqing was surrounded by people, crackling, and the followers were all caught.
His nose was bruised and his face was swollen after being beaten, and Yang Gongqing was also "captured alive".
The army was completely defeated at this point. The chaotic crowd was divided into several groups, shouting and getting angry, and dispersed all the way.
The victory of the Tang army... It can be said that this is another great victory after Li Shimin's defeat of Xue Rengao. It may be a few points heavier than the defeat of Xue Rengao.
In the final analysis, the Xue family who emerged in the northwest was just a local bandit who used Bai Yusuo's remaining power to show his prestige for a while. He was not as powerful as Wang Shichong, who had been entrenched in Henan for many years.
But having said that, it is not easy to defeat Qin King Li Shimin. Xue Rengao was defeated, but Li Shimin led his troops to raid the Xue family's lair, completely eradicated the situation in the northwest, and stabilized the situation in the northwest.
From this perspective, just defeating Wang Shichong at Tongguan is not enough, there is still a lot of fire left.
In fact, the Tang army was very upset and some confusion arose.
Wang Shichong's 200,000-strong army first stormed Tongguan for more than ten days. Suddenly, there was a civil strife under the pass, and the defeat was obvious. However, Wang Shichong's army was still in good order. Many inexperienced generals in the Tang army thought that Wang Shichong still had another battle left.
Power.
Of course, everyone knew that the victory was decided at this time, and the only difference in everyone's ideas was how to completely defeat Wang Shichong's Chinese army.
The clamor for a battle out of the pass suddenly became louder, and the generals of the Tang army asked for orders to go out. No one wanted to miss such a good opportunity, and everyone who was qualified would fight for it.
However, there are also many noises. The generals who consider themselves mature and prudent suggest that they first assemble their troops inside the pass and then attack with all their strength after leaving the pass to achieve a complete victory.
Wang Shichong's lingering around the pass also gave people the illusion that he still wanted to fight, and the previous internal strife had not damaged his roots.
Well, Wang Shichong himself indeed thinks so...
Of course, no matter how they fight, the first thing Tang Jun needs to do now is to properly contain and surrender his troops. In this regard, Li Jiancheng's performance is very mature.
They first sent people to recruit Wu Heita, Hao Xiaode and others to enter the pass for a visit, and then allowed the remaining defeated generals under the pass wall to come in one after another. This was a large force, with more than 10,000 people.
These guys can be said to be those who have fought for the rest of their lives. After being integrated, they have become a strong army. Li Jiancheng was very happy, but at this moment he forgot that when Xu Shiji came to invest, he also led an elite army.
, but he sent it to Hedong to Li Shentong without hesitation.
At this time, Li Jiancheng finally regained his composure and had a good chance of winning. After that, he struck out to make sure Wang Shichong had no chance of coming back.
Recruiting rebels, reorganizing the army and getting ready to leave, and maybe... we can also clean up the battlefield below the city. So many corpses piled up into mountains, and blood flowed into rivers. It looked so disgusting and very affecting.
Morale...
The arrangements were carried out in an orderly manner, and before they even got out of the battle, the Tongguan garrison was already filled with the joy of harvest.
But Wang Shichong... was so annoying. He always acted out of common sense and constantly tested the ability of the Tang army generals and even Prince Li Jiancheng to adapt to situations.
The more than 100,000 troops under the pass only made a commotion, and Sula collapsed...
In the rush of people, they didn't even say hello, they turned around and ran away. In a blink of an eye, the team became fluffy. As they scrambled to escape, they didn't forget to kill each other. The chaos was so complete that Wang Shichong's terrifying
The flag soon disappeared.
No one wants to meet such a neurotic opponent, it is too unfulfilling, especially someone like Li Jiancheng.
Li Jiancheng was still comforting Wu Heita and others who had survived the disaster. Seeing this scene, he didn't look very good. He slapped the crenellations at the top of the city hard and wanted to order people to leave the gate and pursue the enemy immediately.
But Li Shenfu came to join in the fun again. At this time, the people he sent happened to arrive and said that Li Ding'an was organizing his army by the river and was about to cross the river.
This news was actually nothing. Li Shenfu only meant to inform Li Jiancheng that his troops were no less than Li Jiancheng's and he was fully confident in guarding the beachhead of the Yellow River.
Li Jiancheng felt mixed emotions when hearing the news.
The good news is that if Li Ding'an attacks Li Shenfu, then after Wang Shichong's defeat, wouldn't he be able to march straight into Luoyang?
What worries me is, what does Li Shenfu mean by sending the news at this time? Or even what the King of Qin wants? If he leads his troops into Henan, who will be in charge of Tongguan? Li Shenfu or Xiao Yu?
Yes, he was not worried about Li Shenfu's situation, but he was thinking about what would happen next. Mixing military and political affairs was actually the last thing a leader wanted to face, but as the prince, Li Jiancheng had no choice but to do so.
Don't take this into consideration.
Of course, this does not affect his order to go out and pursue the remaining enemies.
But things were so helpless. Wang Shichong's generals Yang Shuheng, Zhang Tongren, Li Junxian and others came to surrender. In addition to delaying the Tang army's exit, they also brought Li Jiancheng bad news.
Li Ding'an led his army to cross south, fearing that he had already occupied Fengling Ferry...
Li Jiancheng was really not calm at this time. Is Li Ding'an crazy? He was crossing the river in two places. How many troops did he have and dared to divide his troops into two places? Do you think everyone is dead?
Needless to say, Li Jiancheng's inner struggle at this time required him to make a quick judgment, and he was not even given time to convene everyone for discussion.
Throughout the day, earth-shaking changes came one after another, making Li Jiancheng's head grow a bit bigger.
What did Li Shenfu mean when he sent the news at this time? Is what Yang Shuheng and others said true or false? Will Li Ding'an take advantage of him when he goes out to pursue Wang Shichong?
Thoughts came to him one after another, and the figures of Wang Shichong's defeated army were gradually disappearing into the distance...
The fighting opportunity was fleeting, and Li Jiancheng finally gritted his teeth and ordered Li Gang to arrange for the surrender. He also ordered Chariot and Cavalry General Feng Li and Huben Lang General Lu Cheng to lead 5,000 cavalry to pursue Wang Shichong.
At the same time, reconnaissance cavalry was sent to Fengling Ferry to investigate.
Then he ordered Sang Xianhe, Ren Can, Wei Ting and others to lead an army of 20,000 people to leave the customs immediately and go straight to Fengling Ferry.
At this time, a series of general orders were issued. Li Jiancheng did not hesitate any longer, and he was not allowed to hesitate any longer. The ones sent out were all the elites of the Tang army. He did not even wait for the scouts to report back, and he roughly set the target at Fengling.
ferry.
At this time, his thoughts were very clear. Wang Shichong had been defeated. Look at the appearance of him falling thousands of miles away. Even if he ran back to Luoyang, he would be like a withered bone in a grave, so he didn't need to worry about it.
Li Ding'an, on the other hand, has suffered no defeat since he raised his army. He is actually the Li family's formidable enemy and must be on guard against him.
Li Jiancheng even hoped that what Li Shenfu and the Henan surrenderers said were true. In that case, Li Ding'an might be hit hard by the Yellow River.
Defeating powerful enemies one after another, Li Jiancheng's name spread throughout the world...
Well, such a beautiful fantasy did not last long. He was forced to make strategic arrangements very quickly, which made Li Jiancheng very uncomfortable, and anxiety followed.