A Good Landlord in the Tang Dynasty: Starting from the Village Chief

Chapter 379 Ten Days to Conquer Ten States

The war raged on.

Vanguard general Luo Shixin defeated Prince Zheng, Wang Xuanying, at Cijian, knocking him off his horse with a single spear thrust and nearly capturing and beheading him. He then broke through Xiashi Fort and Qianjin Fort, directly approaching Luoyang City.

Huang Junhan, the governor of Huai Prefecture, was no longer confined to Baiya Fort and led his troops to counterattack Heyang City. Liu Dewei's army marched out of Hedong, crossed the Taihang Mountains, passed through Xiji Prefecture, and headed towards Henei City in Huai Prefecture.

Li Shimin personally led 50,000 troops out of Guzhou and headed straight for Cijian City.

Cijian was the western gateway to Luoyang. Wang Shichong had been relentlessly attacking Guzhou for the past two years without success, making Cijian his forward outpost, a place he could not afford to lose. Crown Prince Wang Xuanying's first wave of reinforcements was defeated by Luo Shixin, and Wang Shichong personally led 30,000 troops to reinforce the city.

Cijian is only forty li away from Luoyang.

The two main forces thus faced off at Cijian.

early morning,

As Li Shimin ate his flatbread with mutton soup, the Grand Secretary Feng Deyi smiled and told him some good news: "The Duke of Jin has entered Yizhou. Guo Xiaoke is leading the vanguard with 5,000 men to challenge the city outside Ye County. In the middle of the night, the defending general Zhang Jing launched a full-scale attack on the camp, but Guo Xiaoke was prepared and left the camp empty while his entire army lay in ambush outside."

Li Shimin handed him a flatbread.
"Thank you, Your Majesty. Zhang Jing was ambushed and fled in panic back to the walls of Ye County. However, the county magistrate and local powerful families refused to let him in. Zhang Jing and his son had no choice but to flee to Liang County in Yizhou. His entire army of three thousand was wiped out."

The Jin state reported that 300 people were beheaded and nearly 2,700 were captured. Zhang Jing and his son ultimately failed to escape back to Liang County, being captured en route. Ye County surrendered.

Li Shimin nodded, "Wu Yi's military tactics are becoming more and more impressive."

"And that's not all the good news. After capturing Zhang Jing, the Duke of Jin personally persuaded him to surrender. Then he ordered Zhang Jing to lead his troops to Xiangcheng, falsely claiming that he was ordered by Zhang Yin, the governor of Yizhou, to retreat and defend Xiangcheng. The garrison commander of Xiangcheng was also a former subordinate of Zhang Yin."
However, being cautious, the commander ordered Zhang Jing to camp outside the city. Zhang Jing then requested permission for his concubines and servants to enter the city first, which the commander granted. It turned out that the concubines and servants were actually Lady Huo, the head steward of Pingyuan, leading her female soldiers in disguise, all under the command of the Duke of Jin.
The dozens of women were incredibly fierce. As soon as they entered the city gate, they pulled out knives from under their skirts, cut down the guards, and seized the gate in one fell swoop. Then they sounded the horn, luring Zhang Jing and his troops into the city.

Feng Deyi was getting a little emotional as he spoke, "Xiangcheng was a vital town, and it was captured by a trick."

After Li Yi captured Xiangcheng, Zhang Jing led Li Shiji to Yizhou, where he personally persuaded his uncle, the prefect Zhang Yin, to open the city gates and surrender.

Li Shimin sipped his soup. "When Li Mi had previously defected and fled east, he had ordered his elite soldiers to disguise themselves as concubines and servants outside Taolin County and request to be allowed into the city for resettlement. As a result, once inside the city, they pulled out knives from their skirts and launched a surprise attack, seizing Taolin City."

Unexpectedly, Li Yi managed to capture Xiangcheng this time using a group of real female soldiers. Remarkable!

"And that's not all the good news." Feng Deyi took a big bite of the flatbread.

"Oh, there's more good news?"

"Hmm, there's a lot. I'll have a few bites of the pancake first."

Li Shimin asked him for a bowl of mutton soup, saying, "Drink the soup, don't choke."

Feng Deyi ate half a flatbread and drank several mouthfuls of soup. Seeing Li Shimin staring at him expectantly, he quickly continued his story.

After the Duke of Jin successively captured Ye County, Xiangcheng, and Liang County of Yizhou, Zhang Gongjin, the Prefect of Weizhou, which is separated from Xuzhou to the east, persuaded the Governor Cui Shishu to surrender.

Zhang Gongjin personally went to Xiangcheng to pay respects to the Duke of Jin and presented a letter of surrender. The Duke of Jin then dispatched Huo Yu with an army to rush to Yanling to take over Weizhou.

When Xuzhou to the south and Weizhou to the north saw that Weizhou had submitted to the Tang Dynasty, they were greatly alarmed.

Guo Xiaoke personally went to Weishi to secretly meet with the chief steward Shi Derui. At that time, Derui was also one of the earliest leaders of the anti-Sui rebels in the Central Plains. He was originally a powerful figure in Weishi, Bianzhou, and had a past relationship with Guo Xiaoke, who was from Yangdi.

At Guo Xiaoke's urging, Shi Derui agreed to surrender to the Tang Dynasty. After receiving a promise from the Duke of Jin granting him discretionary power and retaining his position as the governor of Weizhou, he immediately led the seven prefectures of Qi, Xia, Chen, Wei, Xu, Ying, and Wei to surrender to the Tang.

Li Shimin put down the flatbread in his hand, his mouth agape in astonishment.

"It's really gone down?"

"Yes, all seven prefectures have surrendered, but Cui Shu and Zhang Gongjin of Wei Prefecture surrendered before him."

This news is astonishing.

Although Li Shimin knew that Wang Shichong had transferred his elite troops to the Luoyang area, while the southeastern Henan region was mainly inhabited by local warlords who were easily swayed by the winds, and whose generals were not strong and whose soldiers were not skilled, they still had a considerable number of troops.

They knew Li Yi could defeat them, but they didn't expect it to be so easy.

"So, Li Yi has already seized the eight prefectures of Yi, Xu, Wei, Qi, Xia, Ying, and Wei in less than half a month since the start of the war?"

"Not only that, but also Luzhou and Ruzhou, so in reality, we have already taken over ten prefectures."

Moreover, it only took ten days.

Li Shimin breathed a sigh of relief. In ten days, across ten prefectures, he had only fought one night battle, beheading three hundred and capturing two thousand seven thousand. The rest involved deception and persuasion to surrender.

He felt a chill run down his spine.

Unable to resist scratching his head, he asked, "Have we taken all ten states?"

"At this moment, troops are being dispatched to garrison the area. The Duke of Jin has already divided his forces into four routes. Li Shiji is marching towards Yique to attack Dengfeng, with his target being Guanzhou."

Li Yi then headed towards Bianzhou and Kaifeng, intending to conquer Huazhou on the south bank of the Yellow River.

Li Daliang headed south along the Ru River to Yuzhou, while Guo Xiaoke went to Bozhou; their goal was to join forces in Xuzhou.

After speaking, Feng Deyi picked up a flatbread and ate it in big bites, letting the Prince of Qin slowly digest these astonishing news. He was also shocked by these news, but seeing that the letter was written by Li Yi's lean body and had Li Yi's official seal, and that the messenger was a retainer he had seen at the Li residence in Chang'an, he knew there was no mistake.

for a long time,

Li Shimin sighed, "It seems we are moving too slowly here."

After breakfast,

Li Shimin summoned Qiu Xiaogong and Hou Junji, and led 500 light cavalry to conduct a reconnaissance mission to Wang Shichong's camp, hoping to find some weaknesses so that they could break the stalemate as soon as possible.

If this stalemate continues,
Li Yi may have already swept away all the areas outside of Luoyang.

Li Shimin was always highly skilled and daring. Relying on his expertise in horsemanship and archery, he often used light cavalry to conduct close reconnaissance of the enemy, so that he could have a clear understanding of the situation and better formulate battle plans. Sometimes, he would even deliberately use himself as bait to lure the enemy into attacking, then kill enemy generals and crush their morale, a tactic that never failed him.

Today, facing Wang Shichong, who was personally leading the expedition, and his 30,000 main force, he still only brought 500 light cavalry.

After leaving the camp, they headed straight for Zheng's army camp, looking around and ignoring the Zheng army as if they didn't exist, and immediately started pointing and commenting.

Zheng Jun's main camp, central command tent.

Beneath the imperial banner, the red-bearded Emperor Zheng Shichong stroked his beard, his heart filled with worry over the urgent report from southeastern Henan.
Faced with Li Shimin's 50,000 main force, he was simply unable to spare any attention and could only let Li Yi conquer cities and territories behind him, trying to win over and persuade others to surrender.

Unfortunately, Liu Dewei and Huang Junhan also launched an attack from the north side of the Yellow River near Luoyang.

Both of them were former subordinates of Li Mi, stationed on the north bank of the Yellow River. There were many of their former subordinates in Huaizhou.

"His Majesty,"

A general rushed over.

"Li Shimin is leading several hundred light cavalry, spying on our camp from outside."

Wang Shichong, who was already furious, asked, "How many cavalry does Li Shimin have, and how far is he from the camp?"

"At most five hundred cavalry, just a few hundred paces outside our camp."

boom.

Wang Shichong slammed his fist on the table in anger, "How arrogant is this Tang boy Li Er! Does he really think that my Great Zheng has no one to rely on?"

Although he had Western Region Hu (non-Han) ancestry and came from a less than ideal background, he had a very good record of leading troops in battle over many years.

What is particularly remarkable is that Wang Shichong had both won and lost, but he was extremely resilient and always managed to make a quick comeback.

Enraged, Wang Shichong quickly devised a plan: "Since you dare to offend me, then don't blame me for being ruthless."

If he can capture Li Shimin alive, he can win this battle.

"Issue the order to capture and execute Li Er and his companion, and reward them with one million coins and the title of Duke."

Dan Xiongxin, clad in armor and holding a spear, stepped forward. "Your Majesty," he said, "I am willing to lead a light cavalry force ahead to prevent Li Shimin from escaping."

"Hahaha, with the Great General taking the lead, Li Shimin has no chance of escaping this time. If the Great General can capture and kill Li Er, I will appoint you as one of the Three Dukes!"

As one of the Five Tiger Generals of Wagang, Shan Xiong was known as the Flying General. He was once Li Mi's Left Martial General, but he had long been estranged from Li Mi. During the Wei-Zheng War, he took the initiative to surrender to Wang Shichong.

Wang Shichong was naturally overjoyed with him and immediately felt that Luo Shixin was not as appealing. He married his elder brother's daughter to Shan Xiongxin and appointed him as a general.

This general was a high-ranking general, even above other generals such as Longxiang, Huben, Zuofu, and Youfu, and he was further granted the title of Duke of Wei.

Having received this promise, Shan Xiongxin slapped his breastplate loudly, saying, "Your subject will definitely capture Li Shimin alive and hand him over to Your Majesty for judgment."

After saying this, he excitedly picked up his spear, mounted his horse, and without waiting for the troops to gather, led only three hundred light cavalry out of the camp.

Wang Shichong also mobilized his elite troops and followed suit.

General Shan Xiongxin, leading three hundred cavalry, moved with incredible speed. While Li Shimin was still giving instructions to Zheng's camp, Shan Xiongxin suddenly attacked from the flank.
"You brat from the Tang family, stop being so arrogant!"

Li Shimin's childhood friend, Duan Zhixuan, the chief cavalry commander of the Prince of Qin's mansion, recognized the man as the Flying General Shan Xiongxin and quickly shouted, "Your Majesty, retreat quickly! I will cover your retreat!"

Having said that, he spurred his horse forward to meet them.

Shan Xiongxin only had Li Shimin in his eyes and didn't take the young Tang general Duan Zhixuan seriously at all. He swept his golden-lacquered spear horizontally to block Duan Zhixuan's sudden thrust.

The two horses passed each other.

Shan Xiongxin immediately turned around and, with a swift backhand thrust, plunged his spear into the hind leg of Duan Zhixuan's warhorse.

The warhorse was injured in the leg, its speed drastically reduced. The elite cavalry behind Shan Xiongxin drew their bows and fired arrows, which Duan Zhixuan blocked with his left arm and round shield.

The warhorse neighed mournfully.

Shot by several arrows, his horse buckled and crashed to the ground. Duan Zhixuan quickly removed the stirrups, rolled off the saddle, but before he could even get up...

Several ropes were thrown over and lassoed him.
Two cavalrymen knocked off his helmet, grabbed his hair, and dragged him toward Zheng's camp.

Shan Xiongxin ignored Duan Zhixuan, who had fallen from his horse, and continued to charge towards Li Shimin with his eyes fixed on him.
Li Shimin drew his strong bow and shot several people in succession from horseback.

Yan Qi, the Left Jianwei General under Shan Xiongxin, charged extremely fast. However, when he reached Li Shimin, he discovered that most of the left and right knights had been shot down by Li Shimin and his men.

"Li Shimin, prepare to die!" Yan Qi charged forward instead of retreating, roaring as he spurred his horse forward and fiercely thrust his lance at Li Shimin.

Qiu Xiaogong swung a short axe from his horse, saying, "You dog slave, get past me first."

He charged forward fearlessly, blocking Li Shimin's path, wielding his spear with relentless attacks and strikes, leaving no room for retreat, focusing solely on offense and defense.

Yan Qi was surprised by the man's bravery and fought him with her spear.

Unexpectedly, Li Shimin seized the opportunity from behind and fired two arrows, hitting Yan Qi. Yan Qi fell from his horse, and Qiu Xiaogong rushed forward and kicked him hard in the face, making Yan Qi's face look like it had been dyed in various colors.

While he was disoriented, Qiu Xiaogong pulled out a leather rope and tied his hands together, then fastened him to the saddle.

"Your Majesty, retreat immediately!"

Wang Shichong, clad in golden armor, arrived with three thousand infantry and cavalry. "Li family brat, don't run!"

(End of this chapter)