Eastern Jin Dynasty: My powerful father

Chapter 354 The Yan Kingdom retreats its troops

In this battle, Li Wei was defeated unjustly.

On the one hand, he was under pressure from Jinyang. Empress Dowager Gou was facing a big financial hole and was restless, so she had to urge Li Wei to actively look for opportunities to end the war as soon as possible.

On the other hand, Huan Xi also tried his best to get the big fish to take the bait.

If the leader of the Liang Army in this battle was not Huan Xi, but someone else, Li Wei might not believe that the other party would use precious military rations to relieve the victims when food and grass were insufficient.

But he is Huan Xi, who is known for his kindness and love for the people. In order to win over the people, there is nothing impossible.

During the Spring and Autumn Period, Sun Bin, the military commander of the Qi State, misled Wei general Pang Juan in a plan to reduce the number of soldiers. Pang Juan thought that the Qi army had fled, so he underestimated the enemy and was defeated.

Huan Xi was innovative and gradually reduced the military rations used for disaster relief, until finally closing the porridge factory, making Li Wei mistakenly believe that Liang Jun was about to run out of food and would be unable to provide relief to the victims.

Then, the batch of military rations that Mao Muzhi escorted was equivalent to Huan Xi's life-saving food.

As long as he can successfully ambush the food team, Huan Xi will definitely retreat because of the lack of food.

However, it was not Huan Xi who was the first to learn about the news from the front, but Lu Polou.

The current problem cannot be solved by changing generals. Fu Jian must come in person to boost morale.

The only question now is how much can be gained in the pursuit battle.

Of course, it's only possible.

Soon, this question was answered. The cavalrymen who had been pursuing them from all directions came back one after another. In this battle, 3,000 enemies were killed and tens of thousands were captured. Nearly 7,000 Yu soldiers still escaped.

"Guang'er, please send people to Jinyang quickly and ask the King of Heaven to go south immediately for reinforcements. Now only the King of Heaven comes to the front line in person to stabilize the morale of the army."

Deng Qiang first sent a messenger to report Huan Xi's victory, and then took the prisoners with Mao Muzhi's Chu army.

Lu Guang was also a little panicked. After all, he was still very young, only in his early twenties. He would feel helpless when encountering such an extremely unfavorable situation.

In this ambush battle, the enemy general had been captured and the victory was determined. Only then could Yang An chat with Zhou Qiong and Mao Muzhi in the rear.

With Li Wei attracting Yu Jun's attention, Lu Guang escaped unharmed.

He never expected that Li Wei, as the leader of the Yu army, would be captured.

"Father, what should we do now?"

The general was captured alive by the enemy, which was an almost fatal blow to the morale of the soldiers.

After all, this is a cavalry force of 20,000 people. Even if they can't defeat them, they still can't escape.

How could Li Wei resist such a temptation? After all, he was still under pressure from Jinyang.

When Lu Polou learned that Li Wei had gone to Nanlu to ambush, he had a bad feeling in his heart, but he just thought that he might suffer some losses.

When Lu Po Lou learned that Li Wei was ambushed by Liang Jun and was defeated and captured, he couldn't help but feel cold all over his body.

After all, they are all cavalry. Although the horses are not as good as Liang Jun's cavalry, they can also reduce the load by discarding their helmets and armor.

It is impossible for all the seven thousand defeated soldiers of the Yu army to return to camp, but someone will always report the news to Lu Polou.

Lu Bolou was in a state of confusion. He forced himself to calm down. After pondering for a moment, Lu Bolou said:

If this cavalry had not been made up of refugees from Guanxi and had not had the psychological baggage to surrender when faced with the pursuit of Liang Jun, who was also from Guanxi, I am afraid that Liang Jun would not have captured so many prisoners in this battle.

At this time, the officers and soldiers of the Yu army were in panic, and even the general was captured. One can imagine the state of mind of the people below.

Just when Lu Guang followed his father's instructions and sent his cronies to Jinyang for help, Murong Ke, who was not far from Yu Jun's camp, had also learned the news.

In Commander Yan's tent, there was a lot of noise and noise, as if a pot was exploding.

"How is it possible! How could Li Wei be captured by Liang Ren when he led 20,000 cavalry out of the camp!"

"One general is incompetent and affects the entire army. The Yu State leads the army with a male favorite, so this disaster can happen!"

"King Taiyuan, what should we do?"

Everyone looked at Murong Ke, hoping that he could make up his mind.

Murong Ke also couldn't believe that Li Wei went to ambush the grain team. Not only did he get nothing, but he himself was involved.

Li Wei's capture was also terrible news for the Yan army.

In terms of morale alone, all the friendly generals have been captured by the enemy, and it is difficult for our own side not to be affected by this incident.

The most important thing is that for now, the Yu army has lost its effectiveness. You cannot expect an army that has lost its leader to be useful before its morale is restored.

In other words, at least before Fu Jian went south, the Yan army had to face the Liang army alone.

The ebb and flow of one thing and the capture of the enemy general greatly boosted the morale of Liang Jun. It is conceivable that after Huan Xi reunited with Mao Muzhi, he would turn from passivity to initiative and no longer stick to the camp, but would take the initiative Attack.

The question is when Fu Jian will arrive.

Although the battlefield is located in the east of Hedong, Jinyang is 800 miles away, while Chang'an is only more than 500 miles away from the battlefield.

Huan Xi's other supporting army, the 50,000-horse cavalry from Hetao led by Liu Kuantou and Suo Xia, had already left Chang'an. Although the marching speed along the way was not fast, it would definitely be ahead of Fu Jian. Come. In other words, Murong Ke will be at an absolute disadvantage in terms of military strength for a period of time.

Don't look at the fact that there are still more than 50,000 soldiers in Lu Polou, but they are a miscellaneous army and they have lost their main general. Now they can be ignored and they cannot be counted on.

Although Murong Ke had 50,000 infantry and cavalry under his command, after all Huan Xi's reinforcements arrived, he had 30,000 heavy infantry, Guanlong cavalry, guards Yi Cong, 30,000 Hexi Xianbei, 50,000 Hetao cavalry, and 10,000 Chu The army's elite infantry totaled more than 130,000 troops.

Even if Murong Ke survived that difficult period, no one can guarantee how effective Fu Jian's personal expedition would be in motivating the Yu army soldiers on the front line.

After all, Fu Jian did not have the same prestige as Fu Jian and Fu Xiong in the army.

The general of Yan State was counting on Murong Ke to make his decision, hoping that he could lead everyone to evacuate Hedong. This battle could no longer be fought.

Huan Xi was able to use precious time to transport sand and stones, pretending to be grain and grass, to lure the enemy, which proved that although Liang Jun was short of food, he was not in a predicament of imminent food shortage.

When the morale of the Yu army fell to the bottom and it could no longer be driven, the Yan army was unable to support itself and had to make a decision.

Murong Ke said in a deep voice:

"Immediately break camp, move the entire army northward, and return to Hebei via the original route."

Murong Ke no longer cares about his allies. If he doesn't leave now, when Huan Xi leads the victorious army to approach, it will be difficult for the Yan army to retreat completely.

Upon hearing this, the generals accepted the order happily without any hesitation.

When Lu Polou learned that Murong Ke was leaving, he felt like the world was spinning. Thanks to Lu Guang's quick eyes and hands, he almost fainted to the ground.

"Hurry up and get my horse. I want to see Murong Ke in person!"

Lu Polou just stood firm and urged anxiously.

Once the Yan army withdraws, the remaining 50,000 soldiers of the Yu army alone will not be able to defend Hedong County.

Although Murong Ke was determined to leave and knew Lu Polou's intention, he still came forward to meet him.

"King Taiyuan, if the Yan army retreats, Hedong County will definitely be captured by Huan Xi. His acquisition of the salt pond will be like adding wings to a tiger. Please think twice."

How could Murong Ke not understand this truth? Otherwise, how could he have led troops all the way to reinforce him?

Murong Ke sighed and asked:
"Can the Yu army still fight?"

Lu Polou was speechless when asked.

Everyone knows whether the Yu army, whose leader has been captured, can still fight.

Murong Ke ignored Lu Polou and only said:

"Come, let's see you off."

Lu Polou walked out of the commander's tent and glanced at the Yan army soldiers who were busy packing their things in the camp. Finally, they left the camp lonely.

Back at Yu Jun's camp, Lu Polou also ordered the camp to break out.

After Yan Jun left, Yu Jun no longer had the confidence to camp in the wild and confront Huan Xi.

However, without Fu Jian's order, Lu Po Lou did not dare to abandon Hedong County, so he had to retreat to Anyi City as soon as possible to prevent Huan Xi from leading an army to attack Yu Jun's camp after Murong Ke left.

If we rely on the city wall to defend, we should be able to hold on for a while even if our morale is low.

Of course, Murong Ke would not follow Lu Polou and retreat into Anyi City, lest he be trapped in the city by Huan Xi.

In Liang Jun's camp, good news came one after another. Huan Xi first learned of the great victory on the front line and Yang An captured Li Wei alive.

Then he heard that the Yan army had withdrawn its camp again. If the generals and subordinates were not in the commander's tent, he would have danced with joy.

Zhu Xu was equally excited and said:
"Liang Gong, I think that now that the enemy troops are about to retreat, there will be chaos. As the saying goes, the opportunity cannot be missed. If Liang Gong approaches with his troops, he will surely gain something."

Huan Xi nodded and affirmed:
"What Ci Lun said makes sense."

But the conversation changed and he said:

"It's just that the victory is now determined, and Deng Qiang has not yet taken charge, so we cannot create extraneous problems."

After all, Huan Xi's elite cavalry are not around. For him, if he can drive Murong Ke away in this battle and completely occupy Anyi Salt Pond, he has achieved his set goal, and he really doesn't want to have any more setbacks.

Following Zhu Xu's suggestion, you might be able to gain something by pursuing him, but these gains would not be enough to drive Huan Xi to take risks.

Therefore, although Huan Xi agreed with Zhu Xu's idea, he rejected his proposal and instead entrusted Zhu Xu with the important task of bringing all 30,000 Hexi Xianbei out of the camp.

In order to monitor Murong Ke's movements, Murong Ke would not turn around and catch him off guard under the guise of retreating.

He also wanted Zhu Xu to lead his troops to meet Deng Qiang, lest Deng Qiang be ambushed by Murong Ke or Lu Polou on his way back.

Huan Xi's caution can be seen from this.

Fortunately, Huan Xi's worries were overblown. Murong Ke really wanted to retreat, and Lu Polou also led the remaining 50,000 Yu troops, marched 20 miles eastward, and retreated to Anyi, the county town of Hedong.

Soon, Deng Qiang led the victorious division and escorted the prisoners back to the camp. Huan Xi personally greeted him outside the camp gate. Deng Qiang was accompanied by Chu reinforcements brought by Mao Muzhi.

(End of this chapter)