On the third day after Zhao Gang and others captured Yiyang City, Li Tai finally led the rear troops to Yiyang.
Zhao Gang, Hou Zhi and other generals led their troops to welcome Li Tai into the city, while Quan Jingxuan led his troops southward to pursue the defeated Xiahou people. Taking advantage of the victory, he attacked Yang Zhong from the north and south, and recaptured in one fell swoop the territory held by the Xiahou rebels.
The three passes of Yiyang.
Since Yiyang City was not captured through a brutal siege battle, the city's defense facilities were basically still intact. Li Tai did not need to camp outside the city and could directly enter the city to take a rest.
However, after entering the city, he had no time to sit around and quickly understood the current situation.
Although the former city lord Xia Houqiang fled, it does not mean that the situation in Yiyang has stabilized.
Because this guy sent people to collude with Murong Shaozong as Li Tai expected, and just yesterday, Murong Shaozong sent his generals and a thousand elite soldiers to Yiyang for reinforcements together with Xiahou Qiang's envoy.
Zhao Gang pretended to be a supporter and sent men and horses to kill him in the river. However, the enemy cavalry discovered the traces left by the Dongjingzhou men and horses when they were stationed on the north bank of the Huai River.
Seeing that the enemy was outnumbered, the reinforcements sent by Zongzong immediately gave up the rescue and turned back. As for the envoy sent by Xiahou Qiang to communicate with Xuanhu to surrender, they were abandoned on the north bank of the Huai River and captured by Zhao Gang.
When Li Tai heard this, he immediately became interested and immediately ordered the envoy to be brought into the hall and interrogated himself.
The reason why he continued to march eastward and captured Yiyang was essentially because he was afraid of Murong Shaozong. Now he just happened to catch a man who had just returned from Murong Shaozong's army garrison in Xuanhu. Of course, he wanted to inquire about the latest situation of his army.
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The name of this nominal Yang envoy is Xia Houping. He is in his early thirties and is a descendant of Xia Houqiang. When he was led to the hall, he was still trembling with fear and hesitant to speak.
It wasn't until Li Tai said that if what he told him would help the military that he would be spared his life, Xia Houping's speech became fluent. But even so, what Li Tai heard was just a bunch of convoluted words with little information. As for what he said,
There was almost no concern about Murong Shaozong's power situation.
Thinking about it, this is normal. Even if a person without systematic reconnaissance training enters an enemy city, he will only see that there are so many people and the city is so big that it will be difficult to observe and summarize anything of real value.
What's more, Xia Houping was just an envoy sent by an external force. Although he lived in Xuanhu City for a while, he probably didn't have access to any important personnel.
After some interrogation and conversation, Li Tai only concluded two pieces of valuable information.
The first is that the reason why Murong Shaozong's reinforcements arrived late is because after Xiahouping went to Xuanhu to submit the letter of surrender, Murong Shaozong sent his troops to Yedu to ask for instructions until Yedu approved and issued the order.
After Xia Houqiang's letter of conferment, Murong Shaozong arranged for Xia Houping to return to Yiyang with the reinforcements. As a result, he wasted the opportunity to fight and was captured by Zhao Gang and others.
The situation on the battlefield changes rapidly, so as a general of an army, you often need to have a certain degree of autonomy to adapt to changes.
However, after Murong Shaozong received the letter of surrender, he had to send someone to Yedu to ask for instructions. Only after receiving permission could he surrender. It can be seen that although he was left in Henan, his power was greatly reduced.
It can also be extended from this. In Gao Cheng's view, the war in Henan has ended, and there is no need to retain some of Murong Shaozong's wartime powers. Keeping him in Henan is just to use his prestige to frighten Xiaoxiao, rather than appointing him to take advantage of the situation.
There was great chaos in Nanliang and they continued to expand their territory southwards.
Li Tai didn't know the purpose of Murong Shaozong staying in Henan before, but after learning about this incident, he also understood that although Murong Shaozong was ferocious, he was now wearing a halter on his head.
Although counting the time, this halter is almost about to be smashed, but it will still take a certain amount of time for such a secret to reach Murong Shaozong.
The second point is that according to Xia Houping's account, although Murong Shaozong's troops were stationed in Xuanhu, they did not do much repair and maintenance of the city itself. The city was a bit disorganized, and some powerful men from Henan and Huaibei led their troops to join them. As a result, the city was already full.
The soldiers and civilians were overwhelmed and had to set up temporary camps outside the city.
Murong Shaozong was a famous general in the world. Obviously, he would not have such a situation of lax military discipline and lax military management. But because he was stationed in Xuanhu but did not set up a camp, there is only one possibility, that is, he did not intend to stay there for a long time.
There is no need to waste manpower and material resources on this city.
Henan has been depleted by long wars and will not be able to support the army in the short term. Mianbei is well-armed, which makes Murong Shaozong surrender. Now that the army has entered Xuanhu, it turns out that there is still no plan to stay for a long time. So where does Murong Shaozong really want to go?
Naturally, it is ready to come out.
Hou Jing was defeated and fled to the south. After arriving in Shouyang, he rested for several months, and then he raised his troops and crossed the river directly to Jiankang. Although he raised his troops in Huainan, Huainan was not really devastated by the military disaster for a long time.
Hou Jing quickly crossed the Yangtze River, and people from all walks of life in Huainan were also attracted to the area around Jiankang.
During the period when Hou Jing's troops besieged Taicheng, many prefectures and counties in Huainan submitted surrender orders to the Eastern Wei Dynasty. Even if Hou Jing conquered Taicheng, took power, and refocused his control over all parties in Huainan, even the prefectures and counties he appointed would not be able to surrender.
There was also an endless stream of people who surrendered to the Eastern Wei Dynasty.
Zhongli, the important town in Huainan, Shouyang, Hou Jing's hometown, and Hefei not long ago, almost all surrendered to the Eastern Wei Dynasty. Li Tai still needed Yang Zhong, a tiger general, to conquer Handong, but the Eastern Wei Dynasty sent almost no men, and most of Huainan
It's almost in the pocket.
Of course, this kind of rule, just like the Han East conquered by Li Taiqian, is not reliable in itself. Many states and counties only submitted surrender orders to the Eastern Wei Dynasty, but their guardian generals still remained in power. The Eastern Wei Dynasty only accepted this nominal surrender.
Only a few special people and places sent troops to receive them.
But in any case, today's Huainan area is completely undefended against the Eastern Wei Dynasty, but there are no strong generals to consolidate the rule of the Eastern Wei Dynasty. Judging from Murong Shaozong's performance, he is undoubtedly very interested in this, but because there is no
Even though I received official authorization from Gao Cheng, I was still a little hesitant.
Now that Yiyang, the west gate of Huainan, has also been seized by Li Tai, this has further reduced Murong Shaozong's options. Huainan is almost Murong Shaozong's only choice to maintain the current size of his troops and continue to expand his power.
Thinking of this, Li Tai couldn't help but feel lucky that compared to Murong Shaozong, he was more independent. Although the Taiwan government did not give him much assistance, at this stage, all military and political affairs in the southeast were entrusted to the Jingzhou Governor's Office.
, allowing him to formulate and execute plans more flexibly, and seize Yiyang before Murong Shaozong.
This also made him gradually feel that in the process of confronting Murong Shaozong, a veteran general, the initiative had begun to favor him. The choices Murong Shaozong could make in the future were gradually limited, which meant that he would
Passively move forward like fate.
After understanding the opponent's situation, Li Tai did not continue to make the next decision. Instead, he took stock of the manpower and material resources he could mobilize at the moment.
He entered Yiyang this time and led 3,000 cavalry. Before that, Zhao Gang led 1,000 elite soldiers over the mountains. Hou Zhi and Quan Jingxuan combined nearly 5,000 people. Yang Zhongyou
Two thousand fine cavalry attacked the three passes of Yiyang.
This attack on Yiyang and the three passes to the south mobilized a total of more than 10,000 troops from various tribes. However, after Yang Zhong and others conquered the three passes, Li Tai was able to mobilize more than this, as well as those recruited and captured in Yiyang.
There are nearly three thousand people.
Although these troops are not particularly large, they are enough to carry out a large-scale battle in Huainan today.
In addition to the capture of personnel, Zhao Gang also reported to Li Tai other gains after capturing Yiyang City.
Xia Houqiang was appointed as the governor of Sizhou by Liu Zhongli and stayed in Yiyang for more than two months. During this period, there was a lot of exploitation and expropriation, and he also collected a considerable amount of property and supplies, most of which were stored in Jincheng.
Zhao Gang and others rushed to Jincheng to defend the city at the beginning of seizing the city. Except for the two warehouses in Luocheng that were looted by the rebels, all the supplies stored in Jincheng were seized and preserved. Among them, the food alone accounted for more than 50,000 shi.
The amount of supplies is also considerable.
Li Tai couldn't help but be overjoyed after learning about this situation. What really made him happy was not the value of the supplies themselves, but the fact that with this batch of supplies, he no longer needed to worry about it.
After mobilizing supplies from the north, the next step of the plan can be started directly in Yiyang.
"Zhao Cheqi's attack on Yiyang City is very brave! It's even rarer for me to gather such impressive people and put things to use. If Huainan can build something this time, Chai Qi should be the first to do it!"
Li Tai did not hesitate to praise Zhao Gang for creating such a good situation for him, and he was deeply grateful that he got Zhao Gang from Wang Sizheng to come to him at that time, otherwise how could he be so effective now!
Zhao Gang did not respond to the compliment, but asked in a deep voice: "May I ask what the manager is going to build here? Now that the new attachment to Handong has not been decided, the material situation is still weird..."
"Of course I won't ignore the swings in the situation in the east of the Han Dynasty. But the enemy in the east of the Han Dynasty is not in the field, but in the heart. Now the Southern Liang is destroying its own power. Although there are many clans, they are all unfit for heirs. Their energy has suddenly disappeared, and it is difficult to defend them. The two northern states are
The country has been strong in the east and weak in the west for a long time, and those who waver will inevitably have the desire to flatter the strong and achieve great things. If strict orders are imposed, they will definitely disobey me and surrender to the enemy, but if they are a little indulgent, they will breed arrogance and arrogance."
Li Tai also thought about this very clearly. After hearing Zhao Gang's reminder, he said: "Murong Shaozong is famous among thieves. He is still in Runan and has already seduced people to pursue flattery. If he goes to Huainan again, he will
, it will further benefit the thieves in all directions. The only plan now is to kill them quickly before they arrive, so that we can get rid of them once and for all!"