Yewang City is located to the east of Hangu Pass. It is the westernmost fortified city in Hanoi County and the true western gate of Sizhou.
Hangu Pass belongs to the boundary of Yongzhou and is not owned by Sizhou. It was not until it was snatched by the Qin army that it replaced the Yewang City and became the west gate of the Luoyang court of Sizhou.
Hangu Pass has been burned down by Gongsun Yan. Now the western gate of Sizhou is wide open, and the land hundreds of miles west of Luoyang is a vast plain. There is almost no danger to defend. Only Yewang City and Yiyang City are guarding it.
The main road can play the role of protecting Luoyang, the imperial capital.
Once the fire at Hangu Pass is extinguished, the Tang army can march straight in, so Gongsun Yan can only retreat to Yewang City and rely on the defense of Yewang City to stop Li Tang's army.
It is impossible to extinguish the fire at Hangu Pass within a day or two, so the Qin army will be absolutely safe for at least two days, and there is no need to worry about being pursued by the Tang army.
If the Qin army wants to withdraw into Yewang City, it only takes one day of marching, and it can be reached even by walking slowly in two days.
Gongsun Yan naturally knew this, but he still ordered the troops to withdraw quickly overnight.
Although they are still on the road, their hearts have already flown back to Yewang City, and they don't want to delay even for a moment.
In Gongsun Yan's view, even if he returns to Yewang City, the situation is still not optimistic. After all, the defense of Yewang City is not as good as that of Hangu Pass.
But Yewang City is different from Hangu Pass. Although Yewang City also has high walls and thick walls, which is conducive to defense, its defensive power is obviously not as strong as Hangu Pass.
As long as there are 20,000 defenders in Hangu Pass, the effect of the Tang army is almost the same whether it is 100,000 or 200,000.
It was precisely because of this that Gongsun Yan wanted to burn Hangu Pass, saying that he would not let the Tang army get it. After all, once Li Tang had Hangu Pass and Tongguan in hand at the same time, it would be troublesome for the Qin army to invade Guanzhong in the future.
Even if Hangu Pass is burned, if the generals and soldiers enter the pass, there will still be only Tongguan as an obstacle.
It has to be said that Gongsun Yan's decisive burning of the pass did solve a big trouble for the Qin army.
The Tang army still has nearly 140,000 troops, but Gongsun Yan only has 15,000 troops in his hands. He only relies on the emergency mobilization of county soldiers and strong men from Yewang City and Hanoi County. Want to defend Yewang under the siege of 140,000 Tang troops? This is
An extremely difficult task.
It is precisely because of this that Gongsun Yan can't wait to fly back to Yewang City. He really doesn't want to waste any more time. Even if he returns to Yewang City, he still needs to arrange city defenses, mobilize all parties, and make all responses.
Preparations for the arrival of the Tang army.
After Gongsun Yan returned to Yewang City, he began to deploy the city defenses and wait for the arrival of Li Tang's army. However, he did not expect that the reinforcements from Tan Daoji would arrive first.
Originally Gongsun Yan was still worried that even if he defended Ye Wang, if the Luoyang reinforcements did not arrive in time, the number of defenders in Yiyang was insufficient, and the Tang army could completely surround Ye Wang, but he divided his troops to capture Yiyang, but he never expected that
Luoyang's reinforcements came so quickly.
Just like what Jia Xu said, the 10,000 reinforcements brought by Tan Daoji can save the world once they are effective.
After successfully reuniting with Tan Daoji, Gongsun Yan no longer had any worries. After all, with the addition of these 10,000 reinforcements, plus the county soldiers from Hongnong and Hanoi Lianjun, as well as the strong mobilization ability of the Qin army, he could defend Yewang and Yiyang.
The two cities are still incomparable.
With Gongsun Yan and Tan Daoji joining forces, as long as they could defend Yewang and Yiyang, the Tang army would not be able to remove these two nails, so naturally they would not dare to enter Luoyang.
After Tan Daoji joined forces with Gongsun Yan, he felt indescribable grief when he learned from Gongsun Yan that Li Cunxiao burned his inner strength to fight out of Hangu Pass alone and failed to return.
Tan Daojihe was not very familiar with Li Cunxiao, but was more familiar with Gao Chong, but he was still impressed by Li Cunxiao's strength, so it was difficult for him to accept the death of the Qin army's most powerful general.
"etc……"
After Tan Daoji thought about it, he frowned and said, "Brother Gongsun, just because General Li Cunxiao didn't come back doesn't mean he died in the battle."
Gongsun Yan was stunned: "I have also considered this possibility, but the possibility is too low."
"well."
Tan Daoji sighed and said: "In short, regardless of whether General Li Cunxiao died in the battle, before the end of this battle, we must announce to the outside world that he is still alive."
Gongsun Yan nodded heavily. After all, Li Cunxiao's prestige in the army was second only to Qin Hao and Bai Qi. Once the news of his death in battle spread, it would definitely have a huge impact on the morale of the entire army, and even those in the rear.
The court will be shaken by this, so the news that he may have died in battle must be suppressed.
After a night of discussions, Tan Daoji believed that Yewang City, as a bridgehead, would bear greater pressure from the Tang army, so he asked Qin Xi to stay with two thousand elite troops to help Gongsun Yan defend Yewang City, while he himself led eight thousand
The elite retreated to Yiyang City, forming a rivalry with Yewang City.
After Tan Daoji led the army to leave, just one day later, the Tang army's cavalry appeared and headed outside the city. Obviously, the Tang army's army was not far away.
The Tang cavalry who appeared outside the city kept shouting at the Qin army and threatened that Li Cunxiao was killed in one blow, hoping to undermine the Qin army's morale.
When Gongsun Yan saw the soldiers under his command and heard the news of Li Cunxiao's death in battle, their morale indeed dropped, so he stood up to promote the greatness of Li Cunxiao. It was absolutely impossible for him to die in battle like this. This was just a ploy by the enemy to shake the morale of our military.
That’s all.
Gongsun Yan's words worked, and the soldiers of the Qin army also believed that this was a trick of the Tang army. After all, who could kill the brave and invincible General Li Cunxiao?
Naturally, Gongsun Yan didn't care about the clamor of the Tang army, and directly hung up his no-war sign. The Tang army's cavalry cursed for several hours, but when they saw that the Qin army didn't make any movement, they had no choice but to leave.
The next day, Li Shimin personally led the fourteenth army and surrounded Yewang City, completely cutting off the connection between Yewang City and Hanoi County.
Li Shimin first went in person to persuade Gongsun Yan to surrender, and by the way, he also personally told Li Cunxiao that Li Cunxiao was dead. He wanted to further damage Li Cunxiao's morale, but was scolded by Gongsun Yan and left in anger.
"My lord, this Gongsun Yan is too ignorant of praise. I will ask for orders to go and capture Yewang City." Hou Junji clasped his fists and asked for orders.
"Not urgent."
Li Shimin became cold and said: "Someone will open the city gate and take the initiative to dedicate Yewang City to us..."
Before Li Shimin finished speaking, hundreds of heads were hung on the top of Yewang City, including bad spies and aristocratic families in the city.
"Li Shimin, do you want to work together inside and outside to take down the Wild King City? Do you really think I don't know that you have a secret agent in the city?"
Now that I have pulled out all your secret weapons, as long as I, Gongsun Yan, am still alive, you will not be able to capture Yewang City." Gongsun Yan shouted to Li Shimin outside the city.
Li Shimin's face turned livid instantly and he shouted angrily: "Attack the city with all your strength."