Han Dang is stronger

Chapter 289 Battle against Sanchuan
Xiang Kang's luck is actually not very good. If the news of Shen Yang's army's sudden defection and return to Han can reach Luoyang one day earlier, and the letter written by Shen Yang to Sima Ang can also be sent to Luoyang City in advance, then Sima Ang who is trapped in the isolated city After learning that there is no hope for reinforcements, he will probably surrender the city and honestly hand over his remaining troops and land to the Han army in exchange for his life and the glory and wealth that Xiang Kang gave him, like Wei Like a leopard, he went to the rear of the Han army to be an idle landlord with no worries about food and clothing.

But unfortunately, both the news and the letter were one day late, which gave Xiang Yu the opportunity to send the letter to Luoyang first. He sneaked under the city of Luoyang and successfully presented Xiang Yu's letter to Sima Yang.

The content of Xiang Yu's letter is very simple. It mainly contains two contents. One is that Xiang Yu told Sima Ang that he had sent general Huan Chu to lead an army to reinforce Sima Ang, and promised to personally lead the main force of the Chu army as soon as possible. When they came to the rescue of the Henan army, the second was to ask Sima Ang to keep the crucial Ao Cang at all costs. He also patted his chest and promised that as long as Sima Ang could hold the Ao Cang, so that the main force of the Chu army would not have to worry about the supply of food and grass, Sima Ang would be After losing all the land and cities except Ao Cang, the Chu army will definitely get it back for Sima Ang.

Xiang Yu's credit is actually not bad, and basically what he said can be fulfilled, so of course his letter gave Sima Ang a reassurance, and Shen Yang's persuading letter to Sima Ang lost its effect because of this. He was torn to shreds by Sima Ang in public, and the messenger was expelled from the city by the Henan army. Xiang Kang heard that he had no choice but to organize soldiers and horses to launch a second large-scale attack on Luoyang.

Fortunately, the Han army was only worried that others would make trouble during the fierce battle in Luoyang, and it was not that they were unsure of taking Luoyang by storm. In preparation for the siege, after the Han army moved outside the city of Luoyang, the main force of the Han army prepared more siege weapons and filled up more moats in Luoyang. Many Han warriors successfully rushed up the first large-scale attack The city wall was just a disadvantage because there were too many defenders of the Henan army, so they didn't drive down the city and failed to attack the city. In the second siege battle, the balance of victory was even more on the side of the Han army. tilt.

In this battle, the Han army dispatched hundreds of pull-type trebuchets alone, and used incendiary bombs drenched in kerosene and sulfur at any cost, successfully sparking a fire in Luoyang City, and also burned down the enemy that threatened the siege. On the huge Luoyang city tower, sixteen large ladder carts and eight Lügong carts were dispatched to attack the two northwest gates of Luoyang continuously from morning to night, and also broke through the two northwest gates of Luoyang city in fierce battles, forcing the Henan army to attack the city. It can only be retreated to the inner gate, suppressing the Henan army from beginning to end.

If it weren't for the Henan army's sufficient supplies for defending the city, they used countless torches and rockets to burn down the large siege weapons of the Han army, and Sima Ang fled back to Luoyang city with tens of thousands of defeated soldiers to reinforce the defenders in the city. The city of Luoyang had already been breached that day, but even so, the various units of the Han army that took turns in battle still killed the defenders with heavy casualties, and successfully rushed to the city wall many times. Continue to attack at night, and will not give up until Luoyang is taken.

When it was almost evening, seeing that the situation was not good, Li Zuoche could only speak to Sima Ang, "Your Majesty, the Han bandit army takes turns to go into battle. The physical exertion is not too great, and there are still a few ladder carts and Lügong chariots that have not been used. , tonight will definitely continue to attack the city overnight. We are not sure whether our army can survive this night. Instead of going out of the city and fleeing for our lives when the city is broken, we should take advantage of the army's strength to fight and abandon the city first. Let Xingyang go to guard Aocang, so that we can have the hope of making a comeback."

Sima Ang was extremely hesitant, saying that he was reluctant to give up his capital Luoyang voluntarily. Li Zuoche saw what he was thinking and stomped his feet and said, "Your Majesty, you can no longer look forward and backward. It is a pity to give up Luoyang voluntarily, but in order to keep the last hope of Luoyang , if we send our lives here, we will have no hope of a comeback! Ao Cang is our lifeblood, and only by keeping Ao Cang can the army of the King of Western Chu not have to travel thousands of miles from Pengcheng to the front for supplies. Be sure to take back Luoyang City and all the land for us!"

After hesitating for a long time, Sima Ang reluctantly said: "The king can abandon the city and go east, but the Han bandits are attacking the city tightly now, and our army is fighting fiercely on the front line. There is no way to withdraw the army and regroup. Breaking out of the encirclement in an organized way, if you go out of the city in a mess, it's no different from sending you to death?"

"Your subject can be sure that when the sun goes down, Xiang Kang will definitely take advantage of the afterglow of the sunset to rotate his siege army." Li Zuoche said quickly: "Taking that opportunity, we quickly dispatched a soldier who didn't know the inside story. The envoys of the army attacked the city under the banner of Bai, pretending to demand the terms of surrender, and went to bargain with Xiang Kang'er to buy time for our main force. Let’s break through the east gate, so that we can break out of the encirclement and retreat to Xingyang to defend Aocang!”

Sima Ang was still extremely hesitant, but Li Zuoche was so anxious that he almost yelled, repeatedly urging Sima Ang to act according to the plan. Fortunately, Sima Ang also knew that Li Zuoche was completely loyal, so he tried every means to win the final victory for himself. Recalling the opportunity, Sima Ang finally gritted his teeth, nodded, and said, "Let's do this, quickly arrange uninformed messengers, just wait for Xiang Kang'er to rotate the siege army, and immediately go out of the city to trick Xiang Kang'er into delaying the siege. "

This time it was completely expected by Li Zuoche. When the sun went down, Xiang Kang really issued an order to withdraw the front-line army to rest and eat, and to rotate the new force up to continue the attack. When the army had the opportunity to retreat temporarily, they immediately went down the city with a white flag, and trotted to the front of the Han army to negotiate the terms of surrender.But this time, not only Xiang Kang, but also Chen Ping and Zhang Liang, the two top think tanks in the world, were all deceived by Li Zuoche's strategy of slowing down the army because the Han army was already winning, and temporarily stopped the rotation of the army to attack the city. Call the envoys of the Henan Army to listen to Sima Ang's surrender conditions.

In order to buy as much time as possible for the main force of the self-army to gather and break through, Sima Yang deliberately proposed a surrender condition that Xiang Kang would never agree to, that is, let Xiang Kang continue to recognize him as a vassal king, reserve a county of Handan for him as his land, and return the surrender. One is to let Sima Ang continue to command the remaining Henan army and accept Xiang Kang's orders.Xiang Kang thought about recruiting other princes and kings in the future, and after thinking for a while, he made a counter-offer and said that Sima Ang should be granted the title of Marquis of Guling, and the four counties of Guling, Yangxia, and Tuoku should be granted to Sima Ang as food cities. All the troops surrendered unconditionally and accepted the reorganization of the Han army.

Of course, the envoys of the Henan Army did not dare to act as the master for Sima Ang without authorization, but they only agreed to go back and report to Sima Ang. Before the second quarter, you must give me an answer, if there is still no reply from him at the second quarter of Xu time, I will continue to attack the city immediately!"

Xiang Kang quickly regretted his careless decision, because just at the beginning of the Xu Dynasty, the east gate of Luoyang, which had been closed until now, suddenly opened wide, and the Henan army rushed out after urgently reorganizing. The siege shook the morale of the defending army, and the main force was gathered in the northwest of Luoyang. It was too late to send troops to block it immediately, which gave the main force of the Henan army a chance to leave the city quickly. The charge was extremely resolute, and soon the few Han troops outside the east gate were scattered, and they rushed towards Xingyang. Xiang Kang had no choice but to quickly order Long Qie and Zhongli Meier to lead the army Pursue it with all your strength, and don't give Sima Yang the chance to flee to Aocang with the brigade to regroup.

In the end, after sending troops into the city to take over Luoyang City, which was voluntarily abandoned by Sima Ang, Xiang Kang smiled wryly and said to Zhang Liang and Chen Ping next to him, "We hunt wild geese all day long, and I never thought that the three of us would be pecked at by wild geese together." Back then, I never thought that Sima Ang would be playing a game of delay, but this time I really fell for his tricks."

"Your Majesty, forgive me. The humble ministers are incompetent, and they failed to see through Sima Ang's tricks in advance, which gave him a chance to escape." Chen Ping also sincerely apologized, saying: "The humble ministers have neglected their duties, please be punished by the king."

"It's okay. Victory or defeat is a common matter in military affairs. It's not surprising to miscalculate for a while." Xiang Kang waved his hand generously, and then said with a smile: "Besides, the possibility of Sima Ang being able to escape to Aocang and continue to hold on is very small. Didn't General Zhou send him off today?" The battle report came, saying that he had captured Huai County and was about to launch a rush to cross in Guangwu. If all goes well, when Sima Ang fled to Aocang, our partial division should have crossed the Yellow River to stop him from escaping. Entering the path of Ao Cang's lingering last breath."

Chen Ping quickly nodded in agreement, but Zhang Liang still had a long-term view. After a moment of calculation, he said: "King of Han, Sima Ang voluntarily gave up his capital and fled to the east. I'm afraid it's not just for survival. There is also the option of voluntary surrender, and the terms of surrender you offered him, the King of Han, are quite good, but he still doesn’t think about it, and resolutely abandons the city and flees eastward, I’m afraid there are other reasons for it.”

"Another reason?" Xiang Kang rolled his eyes, and quickly said, "Could it be that my elder brother has already contacted him? Tell him that my elder brother will send troops to counterattack Sanchuan soon, so he wants to escape Ao Cang, give priority to keeping the food and grass necessary for my brother's all-out counterattack?"

"Only with this explanation, the King of Western Chu should have received the news of our exit and reacted accordingly." Zhang Liang replied, and said, "My lord, the only thing we can do now is to not waste time." , we must move eastward as soon as possible, take Aocang and Xingyang and other places with all our strength, seize the control of the chasm, and be invincible first, and then consider how to deal with the full-scale counterattack that the King of Western Chu will definitely launch soon."

Xiang Kang nodded slowly, then suddenly smiled inwardly, and said to himself: "Brother Liu, I'm sorry, it's my turn to take your place and confront my elder brother at the chasm."

…………

Let's take a look at the situation on Sima Ang's side. Relying on Xiang Kang, Zhang Liang and Chen Ping's collective brain twitches of the world's top traitors, after they escaped from the Luoyang encirclement of the Han army by chance, more than 1 main remnants of the Henan army rushed out. Panicked like a frightened bird, he just fled eastward all the way. During this period, Sima Yang adopted Li Zuoche's suggestion and sent a number of fast horses to the east to send an order, ordering the Henan army in Gong County to come out in full force, and go outside the city to cover the main force of the Henan army. Fleeing east, and building a pontoon bridge overnight on the Luoshui River in the west of Gong County, so that the main remnants of the Henan Army can quickly cross the river and escape for their lives.

Not to mention, Sima Ang's control over the troops in the territory still had two brushes. Even though they knew the situation was critical and going out of the city would be tantamount to death for nothing, the Henan Army defenders in Gong County still obeyed Sima Ang's order and came out in full force. Forming formations, preparing to cover Sima Yang's eastward retreat, he used urgently dispatched ships to rush to build two new pontoon bridges at the city west ferry where there was already a pontoon bridge, opening up three roads for Sima Yang to cross the river directly.

Then, at dusk, when Sima Ang led the remnants of his troops and fled eastward to the vicinity of Gong County after being chased by the Han army, the defenders in Gong County mustered up their courage again and took the initiative to launch a countercharge against the Han army's pursuers. Blood and life bought time for Sima Ang to escape.As a result, although the local defenders of the Henan Army were weak in combat effectiveness and their equipment was even more incomparable with the main force of the Han Army, the pursuers of the Han Army were entangled by the defenders of Gong County for nearly half an hour because of the serious decline in physical strength. After killing the enemies blocking the way, nearly [-] remnants of the Henan Army took the opportunity to rush across Luoshui, cut off the pontoon bridge, temporarily cut off the pursuit path of the Han army, and gained the opportunity to throw off the pursuit of the Han army. Long Qie and Zhongli were helpless. It could only be that while roaring and killing all the remnants of Gong County's enemies, they re-built the pontoon bridge, wasting a lot of precious time before re-initiating the pursuit.

The wasted time can no longer be regained. After crossing Luoshui with great difficulty, Long Qie and Zhong Limei chased Cheng Gao all the way but failed to catch up with Sima Ang's remnants. Knowing that the Henan Army still had troops stationed in Xingyang and Aocang, if they chased them down, they would definitely suffer a big loss. Therefore, as a last resort, Long Qie and Zhongli Mo had no choice but to retreat with hatred, while the remnants of the Henan Army led by Sima Ang continued to attack. Rolling and crawling, fleeing all the way east.

The matter is not over yet, after fleeing to the east of Xingyang City, Sima Yang didn't even want to enter Xingyang City, and continued to enter Aocang eastward, but the defenders of Xingyang suddenly sent people out of the city to report, saying that the Han army's side division, Zhou Shu's troops, had died. Yesterday, he successfully crossed Guangwu and moved to the south bank of the Yellow River. The Aocang side was already in danger. Sima Yang was furious when he heard the news, and crazily cursed his generals for being incompetent.Li Zuoche stopped him and said, "Your Majesty, it's useless to lose your temper now. Our army is exhausted to the extreme, and we can't take the risk of going to Aocang to rob and kill Zhou Shupifu. The only thing we can do now is our best plan." It is better to go to the city to rest temporarily, and wait for the army to recover a little bit, and then we will take the army to Ao Cang to join the defenders."

Looking at the countless remnants of the main force of the self-army who were already exhausted, Sima Ang had no choice but to quickly adopt Li Zuoche's suggestion and take his remnants of the main force into the city to rest. At the same time, he went to Ling Aocang and ordered The defenders there stood by with all their strength, and waited for the remnants of their main force to recover some vitality before joining them.

There was an accident, and after only an hour or so of rest in the city, an urgent report came from Aocang, saying that Uncle Zhou had personally led the Han army to march from Guangwu to Aocang. Resting, Sima Ang was worried that Ao Cang might be lost, so he didn't discuss with Li Zuoche, and decisively ordered the Xingyang defender to lead the main force of the defenders to rescue Ao Cang. However, to Sima Ang's surprise again, it didn't take long for his The soldiers shook him awake, and cried out in a crying voice: "My lord, something is wrong. Our army to rescue Aocang was defeated and returned. Zhou Shupifu led his army to chase and kill him with all his strength, so kill him quickly. Arriving at the city of Xingyang!"

"waste!"

After roaring angrily, Sima Ang could only drag his exhausted body to get up in a hurry, and quickly summoned the generals of the Henan army to prepare to defend the city. As a result, after Li Zuoche heard what had happened, he immediately cried out, "Your Majesty, why are you so angry?" General idea? Zhou Shupifu pretended to attack Aocang, making it clear that he was diverting the tiger away from the mountain, luring us to dispatch the Xingyang defenders to rescue Aocang, and then take the opportunity to attack our reinforcements head-on, and then we can easily take Xingyang City. Why don't you discuss it with the humble officials? Impulsively send troops?"

"Isn't it because I'm afraid that Ao Cang might make a mistake!" Sima Yang answered angrily, and said, "The matter has reached this point, and it's useless to regret it. What to do next, hurry up and give me an idea!"

"Your Majesty, I really have nothing to do this time." Li Zuoche said helplessly: "Uncle Zhou will go after him with all his strength, and he will definitely take advantage of our defeated Xingyang soldiers returning to the city to flee for their lives, and rush into the city with all our strength. Letting the army back is extremely dangerous, if we don't open the city to let the army in, our exhausted army will definitely not be able to defend the city, and this time, even if the minister has the power to reach the sky and the earth, there is no other way."

Of course, Sima Yang didn't believe in this evil. Apart from forcing the exhausted soldiers to defend the city, he also personally boarded the north gate of Xingyang and commanded the army to cover the defeated soldiers and return to the city. The remnants of the Henan Army made deployment arrangements. The Xingyang defenders who had left the city before had been chased by the Han army's partial division. They rushed to the north gate of Xingyang like a tide, crying and asking their companions in the city to open the gate immediately.

Considering that he had to rely on the relatively strong Xingyang defenders to defend the city, Sima Ang gritted his teeth and ordered the soldiers on the city to shoot arrows to stop the Han army from approaching, while opening the city gate to let the defeated soldiers enter the city, but Sima Ang forgot. A very important thing was done, that is, his soldiers were so tired that they couldn't even stand upright, and where did they get the strength to draw the strong bow and shoot the feathered arrows?Therefore, no matter how the defenders on the city shoot arrows, the arrows they shoot are soft and weak. Even if it is difficult to penetrate the ordinary leather armor worn by the lower-level soldiers of the Han army, how much can they block?

"Kill! We must take this opportunity to kill and enter the city!"

Contrary to the soldiers of the Henan army who were holding their arrows, the soldiers of the Han army with more physical strength were extremely determined to take advantage of the momentum to attack the city. The defeated soldiers of the army slashed a bloody path, and they were the first to rush into the city gate of Xingyang. The soldiers of the Han army behind followed them with roars, slashing wildly and quickly seized control of the city gate. The soldiers of the Han army behind took advantage of the momentum They entered the city one after another, but the Henan army reserve team in the city was too tired to stop them at all. The soldiers of the Han army kept entering the city, and the fall of Xingyang quickly became a foregone conclusion.

Seeing that the situation is not good, Sima Ang can only take a part of the army that can still be commanded, and rush out of the city through the east gate to flee for his life. He didn't even dare to fight the commander's flag, and he just ran away in the clothes of ordinary soldiers. Enough of the period Li Zuoche didn't want to run away anymore, he would rather be a prisoner of the Han army than live a precarious life again, but Sima Ang didn't forget him, he insisted on letting the soldiers put him on the horse, and took him out of the city to escape. He also forced him to give himself an idea and find the safest way to escape.

"Go to the south, go to Jing County, where we are still under control, and you can rest and replenish temporarily when you get there." Li Zuoche replied very helplessly: "The main target of the Han bandit army is Ao Cang, and it will be returned soon." Regardless of Jing County, as long as you hide your whereabouts and block the news as soon as you arrive in Jing County, it will be very difficult to attract the pursuit of the Han bandit army."

Heeding Li Zuoche's suggestion, Sima Ang and his party stumbled with dozens of people, relying on the Han army and temporarily having no time to look south, they finally fled south to the small town of Jing County, and then immediately blocked the news to prevent outsiders from knowing that Sima Ang himself had arrived in Jing County Sure enough, the news did not immediately attract the pursuit of the Han army.Then he only stayed in Jing County for one night. After regaining some physical strength, Sima Ang led a group of people on fast horses and fled eastward, taking a small path to Qifeng County, which was controlled by the Chu army. , finally escaped from birth, leaving behind his useful body.

Sima Ang himself fled with Li Zuoche, but without his presiding over the overall situation and stabilizing people's hearts, before Xiang Kang led the main force of the Han army to the scene, Aocang's Henan garrison voluntarily put down their weapons, The Han army led by Uncle Zhou surrendered and surrendered. Ao Cang, which is related to the fate and future of the Central Plains battlefield, also fell into Xiang Kang's clutches!

(End of this chapter)