Chapter 352: The troops are divided into two groups

"................................, Zhang Huan, the Minister of War, was appointed as the Grand Marshal of the World. He immediately led the Longyou Army to east to lift the siege of Luoyang to comfort the people of the world. I admire this!"

After hearing the Queen Mother’s decree, Zhang Huan kowtowed respectfully and said, “My minister Zhang Huan obeys the decree!”

The eunuch who came to announce the order was Cui Xiaofu's confidant Lu Taiyi. After he finished reading the order, he hurriedly stepped forward with a smile and handed the order to Zhang Huan and said, "June Zhang just left Chang'an, and our family chased after him. It's not that the Empress Dowager didn't want the Shangshu to rest. It was really Cui Qinggong's offensive that he was aggressive, and even Pei Xiangguo suffered heavy losses. The Empress Dowager had no choice!"

Zhang Huan took the order, glanced at Lu Taiyi and smiled, "Eunuch Lu may not know yet! Cui Qinggong has conquered Luoyang."

"What?" Lu Taiyi's lips shivered, and he couldn't help but take a step back, stunned.

Seeing that his expression was a little exaggerated, Zhang Huan smiled and said, "Does Eunuch Lu find it incredible?"

Lu Taiyi suddenly woke up, and he said in panic: "The Secretary of State has no idea. Cui Qinggong has given the Empress Dowager a condition to ask the court to compensate him for 10 million stones of military rations and 8 million jin of money. He also asked the Empress Dowager to grant him the title of King of Yu and Right Prime Minister, replace Li Mian as the chief minister of the cabinet, and at the same time, he actually enfeoffed Henan Road. Otherwise, he could not guarantee the safety of Luoyang, but he had already captured Luoyang, so how should he increase his conditions?"

"Hmph! King Yu, he can think of it." Zhang Huan sneered and said, "Even if he doesn't increase the price, will the court accept it? Is the Queen Mother's order to conquer the East just a talk?"

"No! No!" Lu Taiyi was so scared that he waved his hand repeatedly, "The Empress Dowager would never accept the conditions he offered, so he begged the Secretary of the Shang Dynasty to conquer Cui Qinggong. Now the Empress Dowager is counting on the Secretary of the Longyou Army."

"I have a good attitude to this matter. You can go back and report to the Queen Mother quickly and ask her to declare Cui Qinggong a traitor immediately. It is not right. Who will I, the Grand Marshal of the Army, go to conquer?"

That night, Zhang Huan personally led an army of 180,000 to march towards the Central Plains, and the army headed eastward. That night, the army arrived in Yijun County in the central area. It was too late, so Zhang Huan ordered to camp on the spot.

It was late in the first lunar month, and the spring was cold and the night wind was filled with a hint of spring. The night was getting deeper. Zhang Huan couldn't sleep, so he put on a piece of clothing and came to the city wall.

The distant view is wide, and the continuous mountains of Luliang Mountain are shrouded under the stars. Four hundred miles ahead is the Yellow River. In another half a month, the Yellow River will begin to thaw.

Zhang Huan stared silently into the distance, but his thoughts flew back to the past. He was thinking about the loneliness of his youth, the first time he met his family leader, and the chance encounter when he traveled thousands of miles to Beijing to take the exam. It has been almost ten years since he was thirty-two years old, but he is still trying hard to climb to the top of the mountain. Years of struggle have left his sweat and blood flowing in vain. He has already vaguely seen the wonderful scenery on the top of the mountain.

At this moment, Zhang Huan felt that his mind had become infinitely broad, as if no matter how beautiful the country is, he could embrace his mind.

"Who?" The personal soldiers shouted softly from behind.

"It's me, He Lou Wuji, is the governor here?"

Zhang Huan turned around and saw He Lou Wuji walking up under the stars.

"What, can't you sleep?" Zhang Huan asked with a smile.

"Yes! I will lead the troops north tomorrow. I feel a little excited. I want to come to the governor to talk, but I learn that the governor is on the city tower."

Zhang Huan looked at the young veteran who followed him when he was rising, and a hint of warmth appeared in his heart. He said to him gently: "This time you go north independently. On the one hand, you must take the camp step by step and fight steadily, and on the other hand, you must make good use of the strange soldiers, especially before the enemy to seize Jingxing Pass and prevent the enemy from entering Hedong. Tuoba Qianli is your defeated general. I am not worried. What I am worried about is that the Hebei army has not fought for decades. Once the Hu people and iron horses move south, they can withstand it, so you have a long way to go in the north this time."

He Lou Wuji nodded silently. He remembered something and asked again: "The Governor told me that you should not cross the Yellow River lightly before you make it clear that Hu Ma goes south. Is the Governor taboo to the mouths of the world?"

"You are right. Hu Ma's move south is just a chance for us to march into Hebei. If you are too hasty, it is easy to give people a handle. But if you are slower, it will inevitably make Hu Ma crazy and ravage our Han family. So the key is to master the timing, and to send troops legitimately and win applause from all over the world. This is why I asked you to follow my instructions. Do you understand?"

"I understand that I will send a small group of troops first and can seize the fortress at any time."

Zhang Huan patted his shoulder and smiled softly, "The idea is right, but it still lacks a bit of weirdness."

‘Strange?’ He Lou Wuji didn’t understand the governor’s meaning.

Zhang Huan did not answer him immediately. He looked out at the distant mountains with his hands behind his back, and after a while, he smiled faintly: "Have you forgotten? I am the Minister of War and have the right to mobilize the world regiment to train troops."

"The governor means......" He Lou Wuji suddenly understood a little.

"Even if you don't come to me tonight, I will explain it to you tomorrow."

Zhang Huan turned around and stared at him and said, "Before leaving Chang'an, I had ordered the eight thousand regiments of Taiyuan Prefecture, Changhua County, Loufan County, and Xihe County to gather westward with the excuse of winter training. After you arrive in Yan'an County, you can change your clothes with them immediately and enter Hedong in advance. Once the war in Hebei begins, you will immediately seize Jingxing and watch the war in Hebei. Remember, just wait and see, don't rashly participate in the war, and help refugees enter Hedong at the same time."

He Lou Wuji nodded solemnly, "Please rest assured by the governor, I will firmly follow the command of the governor."

The next morning, the army of Longyou divided into two groups, one led by He Lou Wuji to advance to Yan'an County, and the other was led by Zhang Huan. He was his most elite 80,000 Anxi Army, heading towards Hejin.

At this time, the dark clouds of the war enveloped the front line from Guanzhong to Luoyang. Pei Jun ordered Tongguan general Li Baozhen to lead 50,000 Niuwei to guard Shaanxi County to prevent Cui Qinggong from attacking Chang'an in a hurry.

The official road west of Mianchi is filled with hundreds of thousands of people fleeing, and more than 10,000 troops are guarding nearly a thousand Luoyang and its surrounding counties and their families are slowly retreating to Chang'an.

It was drizzling in the sky and the road was muddy. Along the way, groups of panic refugees could be seen everywhere. They supported the elderly and the young, fled west in panic and difficult. From time to time, carriages overturned and blocked the road, and cursed and cried. Fortunately, Cui Qinggong did not chase after him. A sense of peace quickly spread among the refugees. The Longyou Army had sent troops to quell the rebellion, and Cui Qinggong did not dare to attack Chang'an.

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The eastern capital Luoyang has been the horn of the Western Capital Chang'an since the Sui and Tang Dynasties. It is the largest city in the Central Plains with a population of one million. It is adjacent to the Yellow River in the north, Guanzhong in the west, Jingchu in the south, and Central Plains in the east. Therefore, it has become a major trend in the Central Plains map in military geography. If you want to win the world, you must first obtain Luoyang as your foundation. The Anshi Rebellion broke out in the 14th year of Tianbao, and An Lushan became emperor after taking Luoyang.

After Cui Qinggong destroyed Wei Deqing and defeated the Hedong Army, his troops expanded rapidly, reaching 300,000 people, almost occupying the entire Henan Road. At the same time, his ambition immediately expanded and he was no longer satisfied with a local warlord. Under the persuasion of his advisers, his troops pointed directly at Luoyang and offered an unacceptable sky-high price to the Tang court in exchange for not occupying Luoyang. However, this was just an excuse. As soon as the conditions were given, he personally led an army of 200,000 to attack Luoyang impatiently.

At this moment, there were less than 20,000 defenders in Luoyang, and there were no soldiers for decades. In order to protect the lives of millions of people in the Dongdu, Yang Yuansi, the left-behind leader of the Dongdu, opened the city gate and surrendered to Cui Qinggong. On the 23rd of the first lunar month, Cui Qinggong's army lined up to enter the Dongdu Luoyang from the Shangdongmen.

Luoyang replaced Chang'an as the political center of the Tang Dynasty for a long time during the Wu Zetian era. For this reason, Luoyang also built a towering palace group, which was divided into two parts, imperial city and palace city according to Chang'an. During the Anshi Rebellion, Luoyang's palace city was severely damaged. Round wall city, Shangyang Palace and most of the imperial city were burned down. Only a palace near Ningbichi was retained. After the Anshi Rebellion, the monarchy fell and the Luoyang Palace City was not rebuilt. It only cleaned up the ruins and reduced the Luoyang Palace City to its original half. Despite this, the magnificent palace group still aroused Cui Qinggong's infinite imagination.

After capturing Xingyang, Cui Qinggong's army received millions of stones of food prepared to help the victims of Henan, and after capturing Yanshi, he received hundreds of thousands of food from the Hedong army, which alleviated his military food crisis. After occupying Luoyang, Cui Qinggong followed the persuasion of the counselors' "take Luoyang as the imperial career" and gave up the original plan to loot the city on a large scale.

Despite this, due to Cui Qinggong's military discipline, another 100,000 troops were stationed in the city, and the military and civilians lived in a mixed manner, which caused small-scale robbery of shops and rape of women to occur, which made Cui Qinggong very troubled. For this reason, he ordered the people of Daozheng, Daoguang, Qinghua, Lide, Chengfu, etc. north of the Luoshui River and close to the palace city to all rushed to the south of the Luoshui River, and divided the five fangs into military forbidden zones, with 100,000 troops stationed there, "those who are close are killed or killed", and appointed Zhu Tao as the Eastern Capital Yin to maintain order in Luoyang City for him.

Cui Qinggong himself lived in the palace. There were originally more than 200 palace maids and eunuchs in the palace. He thought that the number of people was too small, so he ordered people to purchase 800 beautiful girls in Luoyang and surrounding areas into the palace and enthrone dozens of concubines. Except for not being officially called emperor, all the cost and luxury were no different from that of the emperor.

After occupying Luoyang, Cui Qinggong did not dare to continue attacking westward. On the one hand, his front line was too long and he did not prepare in advance, so he urgently needed to turn back and consolidate the results. On the other hand, he also knew the power of the Longyou Army. In this case, Zhang Huan was very likely to send troops to Luoyang. Only by defeating Zhang Huan can the Tang Dynasty really become his possession.
Chapter completed!