Li Jingye gathered all the civil and military personnel under his command to discuss the specific march route.
At this time, I only heard a soldier named Xue Zhongzhang say: "Jinling has a royal aura. I think we should attack Jinling first. After we capture Jinling, we can gather the royal aura and let our army get good luck before attacking."
It won’t be too late in Luoyang.”
But they heard the military advisor Wei Siwen loudly say: "No, the governor, my subordinates heard that the heroes of Shandong all cut their wrists and sighed because of Wu's murder. They felt quite unfair in their hearts. I heard that the governor led his troops to take action.
We all steamed wheat rice as food and used hoes as weapons, waiting for the arrival of the army. Instead of taking advantage of this good situation to make great achievements and protect His Majesty, our army retreated and built nests to protect ourselves. If people near and far were to listen
If you say it, people’s hearts will definitely be separated and great things will not be accomplished.”
After Wei Siwen said this, King Luo Bin, Wang Bo, Zhang Jianzhi and others also nodded and said: "Grand Governor, we are entrusted by your majesty to lead the troops to carry out the incident. The main purpose is to cooperate with the Luoyang operation. If you lead the
If we attack Jinling, people in the world will misunderstand what our plans are, so please think twice, Commander-in-Chief."
In fact, after hearing what Xue Zhongzhang said, Li Jingye was moved in his heart, because the other party's intention was very obvious, that is, to let him take advantage of the opportunity to stand on his own feet. However, he suddenly thought that before leaving, the new emperor Li Xian had already made an explanation. In fact, Li Xian
Careful arrangements have been made, not to mention that many of his troops are Li Xian's old troops. If he wants to go his own way to attack Jinling, he will definitely have nothing to eat and may even be in danger of his life. Even if
He was really able to unite his opinions and lead the army to attack Jinling. When Li Xian suppressed the rebellion and became emperor in the future, what he would have to face was Li Xian's raging anger. Facing Li Xian, he had no chance of winning.
"Even for the sake of my own future, I can't do such stupid things. Hehe, let me fight against Li Xian. Am I tired of living?" Li Jingye thought silently for a moment and made a decision in an instant.
He killed Xue Zhongzhang and immediately led his army to Luoyang.
After Li Jingye made this decision, he immediately aroused heartfelt support, and everyone marched north with high morale.
The army marched all the way north, winning consecutive battles, and all the prefectures and counties along the way surrendered. In just more than ten days, the army had grown to about 150,000. By this time, Li Jingye's army had arrived near Shouchun.
Li Xiaoyi's army also arrived in Shouchun a few days ago and stationed there.
At the beginning, Li Xiaoyi did not pay attention to Li Jingye and others at all, and sent his general Lei Renzhi to fight. As a result, Lei Renzhi was ambushed by the Tang army and lost tens of thousands of people. Li Xiaoyi was afraid and huddled in Shouchun City, just defensive.
, dare not go out of the city to fight.
Later, Wei Yuanzhong, the imperial censor in the palace, persuaded Li Xiaoyi: "The safety of the world depends on this action. The four directions have been peaceful for a long time, but suddenly they heard that the traitors were betraying them, and they all eagerly waited for the king to eliminate the rebellion and behead the traitors. Now the army will not be able to stay for a long time.
I am disappointed far and wide. If the court appoints someone else to replace the general, the Queen Mother will blame him in the future. I wonder how the general will deal with himself?"
Li Xiaoyi suddenly broke out in a cold sweat when he heard this. He was originally from the clan, but now he has not taken refuge with Li Xian. Although he is favored by Empress Wu, he is still suspected in his heart. If the army stops advancing at this time, it will definitely arouse further suspicion of Empress Wu. When the time comes,
At that time, he would definitely not be able to meet Empress Wu, and he would probably be close to death.
Therefore, Li Xiaoyi hurriedly saluted Wei Yuanzhong and said: "I would like to thank Wei Yushi very much. The words of Wei Gong are like clearing the clouds and making people enlightened. I will lead the troops to fight and destroy the stubborn people."
After finishing speaking, Li Xiaoyi immediately ordered his deputy general Ma Jingchen to lead an army of 50,000 people to go out of the city to fight, but he did not see a cold light flash in Wei Yuanzhong's eyes.
Li Xiaoyi saw Ma Jingchen's confident face and thought that this battle would be a great victory. However, he did not expect that Ma Jingchen's army was ambushed by the Tang army and soon fell into a crisis. In just two days,
He had lost more than 10,000 men, and now he could only struggle to support himself. Ma Jingchen sent people to break through the siege, returned to the city to ask for help from Li Xiaoyi, and asked Li Xiaoyi to lead his troops to support immediately, otherwise his army would be wiped out.
Li Xiaoyi was shocked when he heard the news. He originally wanted to ignore it, but Wei Yuanzhong once again urged him. If he directly gave up the 50,000-strong army, it would probably chill the hearts of the soldiers and no one would work for the royal family anymore. Li Xiaoyi knew that this was reasonable, so he had no choice but to
One hundred thousand elites were selected from the city and led by himself to rescue Ma Jingchen.
However, when Li Xiaoyi's army arrived, they were immediately ambushed by the Tang army. Only then did he know that Ma Jingchen had already surrendered to Li Jingye. After learning about it, he understood even more that Ma Jingchen was originally Li Xian's subordinate and had once done
He passed through the personal soldiers in Li Xian's army.
At this time, Li Xiaoyi naturally didn't know all this. The so-called request for help now was actually just a trap.
Li Xiaoyi's army was caught off guard and suffered a fierce attack by the Tang army. As a result, he lost 30,000 to 40,000 people. Of course, not all of these 30,000 to 40,000 people died in battle, but more than half surrendered to the rebels. Li Xiaoyi, who suffered heavy losses, had no choice but to lead his troops back to Shouchun City.
However, when his army came to the city and asked the army to open the door, he suddenly saw Wei Yuanzhong dropping a head on the city top and shouted loudly: "We have surrendered to the rebels. Li Xiaoyi, as a great general
The Tang clan, could you just watch the emperor being manipulated by villains and remain indifferent? If you suddenly wake up, join the rebel army, and provide peace for the emperor, you will definitely be remembered in history in the future. One is a rebellious minister and a traitor, and the other is able to stabilize the country and be famous in history. How should you choose?
, are there any difficulties?"
When Li Xiaoyi saw that the owner of the head was his deputy general Li Zhishi, he was furious. He pointed at Wei Yuanzhong and shouted: "Wei Yuanzhong, you villains dare to confuse right and wrong and call a deer a horse. It's really hateful. It's a shame that I treated him that day."
You trust me so much, but you didn’t expect that you turned out to be a traitor to the imperial court. Stop talking nonsense. What happened today is just a matter of death. I, Li Xiaoyi, would rather die than surrender."
At this moment, he heard the rumble of horse hoofbeats from behind. Li Xiaoyi couldn't help being frightened. He quickly retreated with his troops and finally crossed the Huai River. Nearly 50% of his army had fled again. At this time, he counted the soldiers, and three
There were only more than 20,000 people left in the army of 100,000.
Seeing that he was unable to reverse the decline, Li Xiaoyi had no choice but to sigh deeply, lead his army to retreat, cross the Huai River, and hold on to Xia Cai on the north bank of the Huai River. At the same time, he sent a letter to Empress Wu, requesting reinforcements. (To be continued.) This chapter has been completed!