Qiu He's surrender to the Tang Dynasty caused a shock in the Xia Kingdom far beyond the discussions and speculations of Dou Jiande and his ministers.
The fall of Luoyang means that there is no suspense about the ownership of western Henan. Last year, Henan was empty and looked like a piece of chicken ribs. It was useless to obtain it and it was a pity to abandon it.
Now that the opportunity to march into Luoyang was really lost, the passive feeling caused by the strategy made the Xia monarch and his ministers sleepless.
Under increased pressure, Dou Jiande convened several ministers to discuss the matter, but to no avail. However, Cao Dan's suggestion of connecting with the Turks in the north was mentioned many times, which was obviously more and more tempting to everyone, and Dou Jiande could not help but be upset.
If the Turks were so easy to deal with, the Turkic cavalry would have appeared in Hebei a long time ago. Is there any need to cram in here today?
Pei Ju's proposal was quite pertinent. He advocated sending people to the Turkic royal court and asking the Turkic Khan to send troops to attack Mayi. This was obviously more reassuring than asking the Turks to send troops to Hebei.
But think about it on the other hand, Li Ding'an's relationship with the Turks is much stronger than that of his old man Dou. He even married the daughter of a Turkic Khan. How could a Turkic Khan be willing to send troops to attack his son-in-law?
Over the years, Dou Jiande has been cautious in his interactions with the Turks, adhering to a strategy of not offending them and not receiving official positions from them.
The Turks also showed great restraint, which was in sharp contrast to the former Sui Dynasty's northern rebels who generously rewarded them. This may have something to do with the Turkic Khan Ashina Yang Huan, after all, she was a princess of the former Sui Dynasty.
She was destined not to like those who forced the Hongnong Yang family to lose their country. It is said that Li Ding'an was favored by the Khan because of his great efforts when Yang Huan ascended the throne in Ashina.
The Turks do not want to expose their family scandals, so the news reaching Hebei is specious and always a bit unpredictable.
For the current war, these are of no direct help, but that may not be the case next spring. If the Turks can send troops to assist, the help to Dou Jiande will be obvious.
Fortunately, when the weather turns cold and there is heavy snow, the Tang army's offensive will naturally stop, and there will still be some time for Dou Jiande to carefully consider the pros and cons.
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At the same time, the situation in Jiangnan has deteriorated drastically.
After the Tang army defeated Jiangling, the army rested in Jiangling for many days, recruited surrenders, accepted rebels, and pacified Jiangbei counties.
In early October, Li Po ordered Li Jing to be the governor-general, taking charge of military and political power, and began to carry out the final work of the southern expedition.
Li Jing left Zhang Liang and others to guard Jiangling, and ordered the surrender minister Wen Shihong and others to prepare ships, and then the Tang army began to cross the river.
As soon as they reached the other side, Wang Renshou, Ning Changzhen and others came to surrender one after another. Wang Renshou offered Jiangxia, Ning Changzhen offered Baling, Wuling and other counties.
The army was overwhelmingly powerful, and in mid-October, it entered Changsha.
Not long after, Su Huer led the defenders to surrender.
The army did not stop there. Li Jing ordered his generals to guard Changsha, and with Su Huer and Wang Renshou as pioneers, they went south to Hengyang to prepare to wipe out Lin Shihong.
Lin Shihong and Xiao Mian had been fighting for many years and had long since declined. Several counterattacks failed to recapture Changsha, and they huddled in Lingling, Hengyang, Guiyang and other counties in the south to survive.
In recent years, he had a lot of contacts with the mountain barbarians in the south, and he had many barbarians under his command, and he also married the daughters of several barbarian kings.
His status as a prince has gone far away from him, and the rebel army is no longer associated with him. He is more like a mountain king.
The army defeated Hengyang. Lin Shihong led the defeated army to flee south, broke through Yiling, and captured his two sons and several adopted sons. Li Jing killed them without hesitation and ordered his subordinates to send a message to all barbarians, warning them not to do anything.
If you follow Lin Shihong and cause chaos, you will definitely cut off their heads and turn their wives and children into slaves.
The effect was not great. When the army chased to Guiyang, Su Huer led the troops to defeat the barbarians, and Lin Shihong's coalition forces numbered more than 20,000, but Lin Shihong took advantage of the chaos and escaped.
At this time, the army had penetrated deep into the realm of Manmiao. The weather had become damp and cold, the mountains were filled with miasma snakes and insects, and strange legends became creepy.
Li Jing discussed with everyone several times and knew that it was time to take action slowly. After half a year of fighting, the army was exhausted. Coupled with the acclimatization, more and more soldiers in the army fell ill. If they went deeper, it would be very difficult.
He might be dragged down in the mountains by the rabbit-like Lin Shihong.
So he left five thousand brave men in Guiyang and ordered them to supervise the surrender of the army to search and suppress the mountain barbarians and the remnants of Lin Shihong's troops, while he led the main force of the army back to Jiangling to rest.
Then he wrote a letter to the central government, believing that the roads in the south were rugged and barbaric, which was not conducive to governance. It was better to build more roads and communicate with the mountain people.
He was quite forward-looking, but with the current national power of the Tang Dynasty, it was impossible to build roads. The villages in the mountains and forests in the south had been closed since ancient times. Many of them even thought that they were descendants of Chi You, so it was difficult to deal with them.
The Central Plains Dynasty has always had a very clear attitude towards them. The territory belongs to us. As long as you don't come to cause trouble, everyone will be in peace. If trouble occurs, kill some and the barbarians will be honest for a while.
Such endless reincarnations planted a lot of hatred, so the vast Lingnan area became the best place for the Central Plains Dynasty to exile prisoners.
After offending some officials, many were demoted to Lingnan. Most of them could not stand the local weather and died of illness in these places.
Lin Shihong did not escape this law. In the winter of that year, he was chased by people and fled to the vicinity of Jiuyi Mountain. He was so frightened that he finally fell ill on the way to exile and died soon after.
At the beginning of the third year of Yuanzhen's reign in the Tang Dynasty, someone sent his head to Jiangling. As the last rebel king in Jiangyou, his death also meant that Jiangyou's resistance forces were completely eliminated.
All that's left are some embers still smoking, which has nothing to do with the overall situation.
Li Jing, Wang Renshou, Ning Changzhen, Su Huer, Feng An, Li Guangdu and others had been entrenched in the local area for a long time and it was not suitable to renew their local positions, so he ordered them to go to Chang'an to report on their duties.
Several people were reluctant, especially Feng Ang. His request to be the governor of Guiyang was rejected. Together with his four sons and his in-laws Liu, he instigated his subordinates to rebel again. Li Jing sent Zhang Shigui to send troops to defeat Feng Ang within ten days.
In Lingling, he killed dozens of people below Feng Ang, frightening the surrender of these local officials.
So at his urging, Wang Renshou and others set off one after another to Chang'an to meet with the Emperor of the Tang Dynasty.
After this incident, the wealthy families in the south of the Yangtze River came to Jiangling to pay homage to Li Jing. Li Jing ordered Wei Chigong to garrison in Jiangxia and Zhang Shigui to garrison in Changsha. They began to distribute official positions and calm people's hearts. From then on, Jiangyou gradually became peaceful.
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At the end of September in the second year of Yuanzhen of the Tang Dynasty, the Tang army was still on the offensive.
Zhang Lun led an army of 80,000 troops northward to Yiyang.
They delayed the cavalry of Buqun and others by more than one step.
The tide of cavalry finally entered the plains of eastern Henan and spread rapidly.
Xue Wanche led five thousand cavalry, went east along the Huai River, broke through Xincai, and entered the territory of Ruyin. The Xia army was unprepared. In addition, most of the defenders were Wang Shichong's remnants. When the cavalry swarmed in, the counties and counties looked at the wind and surrendered.
Buqun, Li Nian led the main force of the army northward, passed Ruyang, and defeated Shangcai. They traveled hundreds of miles in one day, surrounded Yingchuan, and defeated it in two days.
At this time, the first large-scale snowfall in eastern Henan came. Ke Buqun, Li Nian did not stop in Yingchuan County and quickly moved north to attack Xuchang.
At this time, nearly 200,000 Xia troops entrenched in Xingyang finally got the news. Cao Dan and others were shocked. In addition to ordering the garrison troops from the counties in eastern Henan to come to help, Cao Dan left 50,000 generals to assist Wu Yuan in the defense.
Hulao, he led the main force of the army south to aid Xuchang.
In early October, the Tang Army's cavalry army launched a life-and-death struggle with the Xia Army on the plains of eastern Henan.
Bu Qun and others heard that the Xia army was coming for reinforcements, so they abandoned Xuchang and marched eastward to Huaiyang. Within a few days, they broke through more than ten Xia army reinforcements and rushed into Qiao County. They joined Xue Wanche's army and stormed Qiao County.
Breaking it is like rushing into Shandong.
The army rested for two days in Qiao County and then divided up again. Xue Wanche led the troops to attack Pengcheng and Xiapi. Bu Qun led the main force of the army to attack Xiangyi in a roundabout way and defeated Jiyin.
In just over half a month, eastern Henan and most of Shandong were turned upside down. Xia Jun was disoriented, and urgent documents flew like snowflakes in front of Cao Dan's Chinese army and Dou Jiande.
At this time, the main force of Buqun's army was galloping at full speed, braved the wind and snow, and advanced all the way. It had already appeared on the border of Dongjun and detoured back to the rear of Cao Dan's army.
The great detour of the light cavalry and its horror were clearly demonstrated in this battle. Cao Dan's army seemed too bulky and could not keep up with the cavalry.
In fact, when he heard about the whereabouts of the Tang Army's cavalry, the wisest strategy would have been to immediately retreat back to Hebei. At a strategic disadvantage, he would not confront the Tang Army head-on, but retreated to preserve his strength and rely on the natural dangers of the Yellow River to support a section of the army.
time.
But as the old saying goes, there are no ifs in war, and it is impossible for Cao Dan to make such a determination and throw Henan to the enemy like this. He will definitely lose his life when he returns.
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After the heavy snowfall, the weather became colder and colder, but the war was in full swing.
At this time, Bu Qun, Li Nian and others still hesitated and led their troops to attack Xingyang. Cao Dan's army was slow to return, and the one who stayed behind in Xingyang was Fan Yuan, the general of Zuo Yiwei.
Buqun didn't care how strong the Xingyang defenders were or who the defenders were. They just ordered Li Nian to surround Xingyang while he led the army to attack Hulao.
On October 24, the second year of Yuanzhen in the Tang Dynasty, Hulao Pass finally fell under attack from both inside and outside. Wu Yuanjin, Dong Kangmai and others were killed in the battle. The Tang army joined forces in Hulao, and the army cheered thunderously.
More than 100,000 troops poured into Xingyang from Hulao like a flood from a broken embankment, completely cutting off the retreat of Cao Dan's army. Wang Cong, the general manager of Xiangzhou, led an army of more than 100,000 troops to face the Tang army across the river, but no one dared to cross the river to rescue them.
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Cao Dan's army of more than 100,000 troops was besieged in Xuchang, with no hope of escape. Due to the weather, the Tang army stopped launching offensives, and the war in eastern Henan gradually subsided.
In December, the Xia army was cut off from food and grass, and Cao Dan sent people to ask for surrender...
