Heavy rains have continued in the Jianghuai region this year, and the Huaihe River has surged, seriously threatening the lives of people on both sides of the Taiwan Strait. In mid-June, the Haozhou section of the Huaihe River burst its banks, and floods surged out, sweeping hundreds of villages in Hao County and Zhongli County, and large areas of wheat fields were flooded.
, hundreds of thousands of people were affected by the disaster, especially in Zhongli County, which was rushed into the city by floods, and people in the entire county fled to the city walls to take refuge.
Although the disaster along the Huaihe River was severe and the summer grain harvest was a foregone conclusion, Li Xilie showed no concern for the people and still forcibly collected military taxes, increased the tax by 20%, and sent troops deep into the countryside to grab grain.
The people had no food and fled one after another. For a time, they starved to death all over the land. It was terrible to see. The roads were full of dead people, their bodies were eaten by wild dogs, sewage flowed across the river, epidemics appeared, and there was a serious disaster in Haozhou. Every family either starved to death or died of illness.
Just as disasters occurred in Jianghuai, the dark clouds of war quietly shrouded the Central Plains and Jianghuai.
The assassination of King Lu became the best reason for the court to attack Huaixi Jiedushi Li Xilie. Although Li Xilie repeatedly wrote a letter to defend himself and said that he did not send anyone to assassinate King Lu, it was in vain. The court would never tolerate the tax land of Jiangnan being used like this by Li Xilie.
The arrogant warlord cut him off.
When the two million taels of silver sent by Li Ye arrived in Luoyang, the imperial court immediately allocated 200,000 taels of silver, with General Wang Sili as the chief general and General Li Sheng as the deputy general. They sent 100,000 troops to conquer Huaixi Li Xilie. At the same time, he ordered Zhang Boyi's Bian
The Song Army and Li Xiyan's Huainan Army cooperated with the main force to fight.
When Li Xilie heard that the imperial army was dispatched to attack him, he was frightened and quickly sent envoys to Zizhou and Weizhou to plead with Li Zhengji and Tian Chengsi to send troops to help.
According to the joint defense and mutual defense agreement signed by the three parties, Li Zheng has sent 50,000 troops to capture Qizhou, and also occupied Mizhou, Laizhou and Dengzhou, expanding his rule to six states. This is something he has long wanted to do.
He seized this opportunity to send troops.
At the same time, Li Xilie also assembled an army of 100,000 troops and marched into Yingzhou, preparing for a decisive battle with the Tang army. The situation suddenly became serious.
At this moment, Tian Chengsi sent his confidant Wei Yunzhong to the court and expressed his willingness to act as an intermediary to mediate the conflict between the court and Li Xilie.
In the Luoyang Palace, Emperor Li Heng urgently summoned several ministers to discuss the alliance against Li Zhengji, the military governor of Ziqing, and Li Xilie, the military governor of Huaixi.
Pei Zunqing was the first to speak generously, "Your Majesty, we must not retreat at this critical moment. We must attack resolutely and decisively, otherwise Li Xilie will only become more and more aggressive, and will push forward, occupy more land, and even threaten Jingxiang."
Cui Huan, the Minister of Finance, also said: "Currently our treasury is full. Even if we fight on two fronts, the imperial court can still afford it. Your Majesty, raising troops for a thousand days will only be used for a short time. It is time to take advantage of this opportunity to wipe out the vassal towns south of the Yellow River in one fell swoop."
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Du Hongjian also said: "Since the other side has divided its troops, we will also divide our troops and send a large army to Yanzhou to fight against the Ziqing Army."
Emperor Li Heng nodded repeatedly. At this time, seeing Li Dai thinking silently, he smiled and asked, "What is Li Xiangguo thinking about?"
Li Dai smiled and said: "Your Majesty, Wei Chen is thinking about how to deal with Li Zhengji. Wei Chen thinks that Li Zhengji's purpose is to take advantage of the chaos to seize land, but it is impossible for him to work for Li Xilie. Wei Chen recommends Guo
The old general led 50,000 troops to Yanzhou and kept an eye on Li Zhengyi. He would never take the initiative to attack the imperial army."
"Then what?" Li Heng asked again.
Li Dai continued: "Once we eliminate Li Xilie and then turn around to deal with Li Zhengji, it would be best if we can eliminate him in one fell swoop. Even if we cannot eliminate him, we must let him spit out the land he annexed without authorization."
Emperor Li Heng greatly appreciated it, "Li Xiangguo is still thoughtful."
At this time, Pei Zunqing said again: "As for Tian Chengsi's sending of people to mediate, Wei Chen believes that his real purpose is to claim credit and let the court let go of the fact that he annexed the three states of De, Bei, and Hebei. Even if the court forbears,
It is very likely that Tian Chengsi will continue to annex the imperial court's land, so I suggest you ignore Tian Chengsi, let alone let him get the favor of being a peacemaker."
The unanimous opinion of all the prime ministers finally made Li Heng make up his mind and no longer be influenced by other opinions.
To the south of Ruyin County in Yingzhou, Li Xilie's 80,000-strong army has set up camp on the west bank of the Ru River. They are still fifty miles away from Ruyin County. Li Xilie marched all the way north, hoping to capture Ruyin County in one go. Unexpectedly, just now
, Li Xilie received the news that Chen Shaoyou, the governor of Yingzhou, had assembled six thousand troops in Ruyin County, closed the city gates, and stood ready. This information gave Li Xilie a head-on blow.
Li Xilie did not bring siege weapons. He thought that there were no troops stationed in Ruyin County and he could easily occupy the county seat. Unexpectedly, the intelligence was wrong and there were actually 6,000 troops in Ruyin County.
Li Xilie's 'capital' Shouchun is close to the Huaihe River, with Yingzhou on the other side. Li Xilie has always believed that Yingzhou poses too great a threat to him. The best way is to seize Yingzhou and increase his strategic buffer. Li Xilie was a little worried before.
But this time he gave it all.
Li Xilie looked at the sunset. It was still dusk. He was waiting for it to get completely dark before looking for an opportunity to breach the city.
At this moment, a spy came rushing from the north, and in a moment he rushed to Li Xilie. The spy got off his horse, knelt down on one knee and said: "Your Majesty, thirty miles north of Ruyin County, the main force of the Tang Army was found to be about 30,000.
people!"
This news shocked Li Xilie and asked urgently: "Are they stationed in camp to rest, or are they on the march?"
"The opponent is marching quickly!"
Li Xilie quickly calculated in his mind that he was still fifty miles away from Ruyin County, while the other party was only thirty miles away. It was too late anyway, and the night operation had to be cancelled.
He had no choice but to continue to order the soldiers to rest for the night and continue northward tomorrow morning.
At dawn the next day, Li Xilie received news that 30,000 Tang troops appeared thirty miles away to the north. This information shocked Li Xilie. He thought that the enemy would enter the city, but he did not expect that they would actually attack him.
The other party only has 30,000 troops, but we have 80,000 troops. Could it be that the other party didn't even think of this?
As soon as he thought about it, Li Xilie suddenly understood that the other party did not take him seriously at all. He was extremely angry and ordered the troops to assemble immediately to prepare for the battle.
"Boom! Boom! Boom!" The war drums sounded, and the resting 80,000 Huaixi army quickly gathered.
Li Xilie's army has 20,000 Hebei rebels as its core, most of them are Hu people. They are the most powerful and brutal soldiers in the Huaixi army. They have massacred cities many times and killed many people.
The remaining 60,000 troops were recruited in Huaixi. Although they did not last long, they were well trained and their combat effectiveness was not weak.
In addition, there are still 20,000 troops left behind in Shouchun.
Although the Huaixi Army had strong combat effectiveness, its military discipline was also notoriously corrupt. They burned, killed and raped all the way from Shouchun to the north. More than 20,000 people went to Cai County and were brutally ravaged by them, with only a few thousand left.
Soon, the 80,000-strong army had been assembled. The army was arranged in formation and marched north in a formation. In an open field, the Tang army's formation appeared in front, with flags fluttering, helmets bright and murderous.
The leader of the Tang army was Li Sheng, who stared at the opponent coldly.
"Boom! Boom! Boom!"
The war drums of the Huaixi Army's attack sounded, and the 80,000-strong army began to attack the Tang Army step by step.
Li Sheng ordered: "The army is ready to fight!"
Just twenty miles away to the west, Wang Sili led an army of 50,000 soldiers heading south rapidly. He had quietly deployed behind the Huaixi Army, forming a pincer attack on the Huaixi Army.
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[I'm not feeling well today, so I only have two chapters, sorry!]
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This chapter has been completed!