For the Liu family, it was naturally not a crime for Sima's family to raise the emperor's son privately. After all, this saved Liu Ping.
But for Qin, this is a serious crime.
As a veteran of the Jin Dynasty, you, Sima Fang, have always regarded yourself as loyal and loyal, but you have a prince in your family and you have been hiding it. What do you want?
Therefore, even if Sima Yi did not rebel against Qin, just concealing the fact that he raised a prince privately and not avenging it would be enough to wipe out the Sima family.
In fact, as long as Sima Fang informed Liu Ping's existence in advance, nothing would happen to the Sima family, but I don't know what was going on in Sima Fang's mind to do the same irrational and stupid thing as Sima Yi.
Sima Fang had obviously surrendered to Qin and Wen, but he still thought about the Han Dynasty. His political stance was not firm and he wavered between Qin and Han.
A big deal.
This is simply gambling with the lives of nearly a hundred people, young and old.
Sima Fang obviously had a good hand, but he was beaten to pieces by himself. Now the truth can no longer be concealed, and the end of the Sima family is coming.
Although no one can prove Liu Ping's identity as the emperor's son, it is obviously impossible to completely hide the incident from Hei Bingtai and Jia Xu.
Jia Xu didn't even need evidence. As long as he knew about it, the Sima family would be completely destroyed.
Sima Fang, who had reached this point, could no longer gamble that Jia Xu might not find out. He could only take all the blame on himself and use his own death to gain life for the rest of the Sima family.
It has to be said that even among selfish and timid people, there is also a selfless and brave side.
Although Sima Fang was a timid person who was afraid of death, he really fought hard to save his family. Not only did he commit suicide, but he also completely abandoned his beloved second son Sima Yi.
Sima Fang not only denounced Sima Yi in his suicide note for being unfaithful and unfilial, but also directly severed the father-son relationship with him. He also crossed out Sima Yi's name from the genealogy and completely expelled him from the Sima family.
In addition, Sima Fang also wrote clearly in his suicide note: From now on, Sima Yi will be the mortal enemy of the Sima family, and whoever kills Sima Yi will be the next head of the Sima family.
Sima Fang did not mention Liu Ping in his suicide note. Liu Ping was a taboo and he did not dare to write it out explicitly. Jia Xu knew it and he knew it too. If he actually wrote it out, it would break the tacit understanding.
Sima Fang's extreme behavior indeed gave the unreasonable Sima family a glimmer of hope, but before he died, he did another stupid thing.
Although Sima Yi is in Tangying, his wife and children are at home.
Sima Fang wanted to keep the Sima family, but he couldn't bear to part with his young grandson Sima Shi, so he secretly sent his daughter-in-law Zhang Chunhua and grandson Sima Shi away.
Sima Fang thought that what he did was unnoticed, but he didn't know that this matter could not be hidden from Jia Xu, and his unnecessary action also greatly reduced the effect of committing suicide, making the future of the Sima family full of uncertainty.
Whether Qin Gao Qin Lu committed suicide or Sima Fang committed suicide, it does not matter to the overall situation.
After suppressing the imperialist rebellion, the Qin army was completely free of internal troubles, and the situation should have been better than ever. However, due to excessive casualties, it became less optimistic.
Excluding the strong men who participated in the defense of the city, the total strength of the Qin army in Luoyang was only 40,000, of which 3,000 generations of family soldiers also participated in the rebellion, which means that the Qin army only had 37,000 troops.
Suppression of the imperialist rebellion cost one thousand troops, and when Hu Hai opened the north gate, he lost another eight thousand troops, for a total of nine thousand troops.
After this turmoil, there were only 28,000 Qin troops left in Luoyang City.
With only 28,000 regular troops and tens of thousands of strong men, it would be extremely difficult to withstand the attack of the Tang army and defend the huge city of Luoyang.
The serious shortage of troops made all the generals of the Qin army very happy, but Jia Xu didn't seem to be worried at all.
Seeing that most people had little confidence in defending Luoyang, Jia Xu knew that if he did not motivate them, the morale of the defenders would probably drop again and again, so he made public the news that Qin Hao had sent 200,000 reinforcements to Sizhou.
The reason why Jia Xu didn't say it before was that, firstly, water from afar could not quench the thirst for nearness, and it would be of no use if he said it; secondly, the situation in Luoyang City at that time was not such that it could not be defended and needed to stimulate morale.
Now the time for Jia Xu to announce the news is just right. It can not only strengthen his belief but also stimulate his morale. It can be said to be the best of both worlds.
Although all the generals of the Qin army knew that their lord would not abandon Luoyang and would send reinforcements sooner or later, there was no definite news after all.
When the news of the arrival of 200,000 reinforcements was announced from Jia Xu, everyone breathed a sigh of relief.
After all, that was an army of 200,000, more than the total Tang army that entered Sizhou.
Not to mention that Luoyang has not yet been lost, even if it does fall, it can still be recaptured with these 200,000 troops.
The news of the arrival of reinforcements greatly boosted the morale of the Qin army's defenders. Coupled with the strict defense of Mu Guiying, Qin Jian, Qin Ji, Di Qing, Sima Cuo and other generals, the Tang army could not find any loopholes.
They can only attack head-on, and in this case it will be almost impossible to break through Luoyang in a short time.
The reason why Li Shimin dared to go deep alone was mainly because there were imperialists in the city. This was essentially a risky and speculative act.
Now that the imperial party has been destroyed, there is no internal support, and the Qin army has not shown any flaws, can his army of more than 60,000 people really conquer Luoyang?
Even if he really did it and captured Luoyang before the Qin army's reinforcements arrived, would he be able to defend Luoyang against the counterattack of the 200,000 Hebei Qin army with his remaining troops?
All of this is unknown, but if he makes one wrong move, not only will Li Shimin die, but Li Tang may also be destroyed, so he has no choice but to be careless.
"Lord, something bad has happened. The 100,000 Liangzhou coalition forces of the Yang, Ma, and Han families were almost completely wiped out under the attack from both sides by Meng Tian and Wang Meng."
"What?"
The generals of Li and Tang were shocked. They did not expect that the 100,000 Liangzhou coalition forces would be defeated by the Qin army so quickly.
Is the Qin army too strong? Or is Liangzhou too weak?
Unlike those weak princes, the Tang army and the Qin army fought many times, and they won and lost each other, but they did not feel that the Qin army was invincible.
As for the three Liangzhou families, the Han and Ma families had never fought against the Tang army, but Sui and Yang were Li Tang's old rivals.
Are Sui and Yang weak? Obviously not, otherwise Li and Tang would have unified Liangzhou long ago. Since the Ma and Han families can compete with Sui and Yang, it shows that their strength is not weak.
Since the three Liangzhou families are not weak, they should be stronger together. How could they be defeated by the Qin army so easily?
The generals of Li and Tang were puzzled by this, and could only explain why the Liangzhou army was defeated so quickly by citing the allied forces' discord.
The three coalition forces in Liangzhou were the first to retreat, and their impact was undoubtedly huge.
Without the restraint of the Liangzhou coalition forces, the Qin army in Hetao was liberated. They could not only go south to support Luoyang, but also send troops to Hanoi to cut off the Tang army's retreat.
As soon as he thought about this, Li Shimin suddenly had a bad premonition, which soon came true.
"Report... important information came from Guanzhong. Meng Tian ordered Zhao Yun and Huang Zhong to lead 30,000 cavalry southward with the intention of cutting off our army's retreat."
There are 200,000 Hebei Qin troops approaching in front, and 30,000 Hetao cavalry behind.