Chapter 55 One Hundred Thousand Heavenly Soldiers Arrive at Luoyang Seven
In the northern Xinjiang military commander's tent, the General Staff Headquarters' former enemy military meeting is underway
Marching Marshal Yun Zheng is sitting in the middle. To his left, the new Deputy Chief of Staff Yun Yi is conducting military analysis before the battle.
"The Marshal has said before that the geographical situation of the Central Plains determines the offensive and defensive situation of the Central Plains. The disadvantage of the Central Plains is that it is a place of four battles. It is most vulnerable to intrusions and challenges from surrounding areas. The disadvantages come from the periphery. When operating the Central Plains, you should also Starting from its periphery, let us now look at the key points of offense and defense in the Central Plains from the perspective of the attack on Luoyang City.
In history, there are many examples of successful battles to capture Luoyang. Among them, the Xiongnu Liu Han's attack on Luoyang in the Western Jin Dynasty and the early Tang Dynasty Li Shimin's attack on Wang Shichong's Luoyang are two of the most typical examples. Their successes are also quite similar.
At the end of the Western Jin Dynasty, Liu Yuan raised an army in Lishi to rebel against the Jin Dynasty and established the Liu Han regime. Then he sent four generals in October of the third year of Yongjia in the Jin Dynasty (309). Liu Yuan sent Liu Cong, Liu Yao, Wang Mi and others with 50,000 elite cavalry. After attacking Luoyang, Hu Yanyi led the infantry and followed the Han army to attack for more than a month, but failed to break the city. Liu Yuan then changed his strategy and summoned Liu Cong to return to Pingyang. Wang Mi invaded and plundered the two states of Yan and Henan, and collected their military valleys in order to attack again. ; Send Shi Le to attack Jizhou in order to sweep the outskirts of Luoyang, destroy the war potential of the Western Jin Dynasty, and isolate Luoyang
The following year, Liu Cong succeeded to the throne of the Han Dynasty. In October, Liu Cong sent Liu Can, Liu Yao, Wang Mi, Shi Le and other generals with 40,000 troops to attack Luoyang. The attack was unsuccessful, so he adopted the previous strategy and ordered Liu Can They went out from Zhiyuan, plundered Liang, Chen, Ru, and Yingjian; Shile went out from Chenggao Pass to attack Chenliu, the prefect in Cangyuan, and later captured Wan and Xiangyang, and marched across the Jianghan area; Wang Mi invaded and plundered the counties in Xiangcheng and passed through the Central Plains to harass and plunder , Luoyang’s hunger and poverty are getting worse
At that time, the main force of the Western Jin army was under Sima Yue, King of the East China Sea. Seeing the disadvantages of Luoyang, Sima Yue wanted to protect his own strength, so he led his troops out of Xuchang and transferred to Xiangcheng. Sima Yue later died of illness, and his troops were annihilated by Shi Le.
In May of the fifth year of Jin Yongjia (311), Liu Cong sent General Hu Yanyan to lead his army to attack Luoyang, and ordered Liu Yao, Wang Mi, and Shi Le to lead their troops to join forces and besiege Luoyang. In June, the Han army defeated Luoyang and captured Luoyang. Emperor Huai of the Jin Dynasty, Liu Han's attack on Luoyang was relatively successful. After the two unsuccessful attacks on Luoyang, Liu Han was able to change his strategy, sweep the periphery of Luoyang, and attack the reinforcements outside Luoyang. This also destroyed the war potential of the Western Jin Dynasty and isolated Luoyang. Sima Yue led The main force of the Western Jin Dynasty also fled due to difficulties and was annihilated. In the end, Luoyang became an isolated city. It was unable to defend it and had no foreign aid. It was like a ripe thing, and it was easy to capture it. This is the first example."
He looked around, and all the generals listened carefully. The position of the General Staff was indeed much more important now. Yun Yi continued: "At the beginning of the Tang Dynasty, there were three main forces in the north: the Tang Dynasty occupied Guanzhong, and the Zheng regime established by Wang Shichong According to the Central Plains, the Xia regime established by Dou Jiande occupied Hebei
In the third year of Tang Wude (620), the Tang Dynasty was preparing to invade the Central Plains and attack Luoyang. When Wang Shichong heard about it, he also began to prepare for the defense of Luoyang. He sent the kings of the clan to various important strongholds outside Luoyang. He sent the king of Wei, Wang Honglie, to suppress Xiangyang, and the king of Jing, Wang Xingben, to suppress Hu. The king of the Song Dynasty, Wang Tai, guarded Huaizhou; the prince and other kings jointly guarded the cities in Luoyang, and selected the brave men from all the states to guard Luoyang. A total of 30,000 people were prepared for the Tang Dynasty
In July of this year, Li Yuan ordered Li Shimin to supervise the armies to attack Wang Shichong. Li Shimin led the army to Xin'an, and immediately deployed the siege of Luoyang. He sent the army commander Shi Wanbao from Yiyang to the south to seize Longmen, general Liu Dewei from Taihang to the east to siege Hanoi, and Shanggu Duke Junkuo. His salary road was cut off from Luokou; Huang Junhan, the general manager of Huaizhou, attacked Luocheng from Heyin; he led his army to station in Beimang and even tried to force Zheng's army in Luoyang to fight, but they were all repulsed, and Luoyang's connection with the outside world was cut off.
In September of this year, Shi Derui, the governor of Zhengwei Province, led his troops from Qi, Xia, Chen, Sui, Xu, Ying, and Wei states to surrender to the Tang Dynasty; in December, eleven states including Xu and Bo all asked to surrender to the Tang Dynasty; in the first month of the following year
, Liangzhou Governor Cheng Jiahui surrendered with his troops; in February, Huaizhou Governor Lu Shanzong surrendered the city to Luoyang, the situation became even more unfavorable, and the Tang army intensified the siege of Luoyang.
The siege of Luoyang took a long time. The officers and soldiers of the Tang army felt exhausted and wanted to return. Liu Hongji and others requested to return the army. The Tang court also had a discussion. Li Shimin said: "We are here in a big way. We should conquer the eastern states once and for all."
Already looking forward to the success, Luoyang City is alone, and the success cannot be achieved for a long time, so why not abandon it! 'Determined to besiege Luoyang
Wang Shichong was trapped in Luoyang, so he asked for help from Dou Jiande. At the beginning of the fourth year of Wude (621), Dou Jiande led an army to the west to help Wang Shichong. All the generals in the Tang Dynasty asked him to avoid his sharpness. Guo Xiaoke suggested that he should take advantage of the danger of Wu (tiger) prison to resist.
It is necessary to wait for the opportunity to move, and it will be destroyed!" Xue Shou also suggested that "it is better to divide the troops to defend Luoyang, with deep ditches and high fortresses, and Shichong sends troops, but be careful not to fight; the king personally leads Xiaorui, seizes Chenggao first, and trains the troops rigorously.
Scholars, wait for them to arrive, wait for work at ease, they will definitely be conquered. Jiande has been destroyed, and Shi Chong has come down. After only twenty days, the two masters will be tied!" Li Shimin then divided his elite soldiers, such as Qu Tutong and other generals, to continue with Qi King Li Yuanji.
Besieging Luoyang, he led 3,500 brave men to march eastward to Wulao to resist Dou Jiande. In April of that year, Dou Jiande was defeated and captured. Shichong had no choice but to surrender.
Li Shimin's attack on Wang Shichong's battle at Luoyang, the two stages of the layout, can be said to hit the key points of the situation in the Central Plains. In the early stage, Luoyang City was besieged, and the troops were divided to attack the dangerous points outside Luoyang, cutting off Luoyang's connection with the outside world. Wang Shichong was unable to fight, and there was no hope of foreign aid.
The prefectures and counties surrendered to the Tang Dynasty one after another, and Luoyang became an isolated city. Later, Dou Jiande came to help, and he divided his troops to guard Hulao, blocking the way for Jiande's troops to enter Luoyang, so that they could not enter danger. Jiande was defeated and captured, and Luoyang was even more isolated. Li Shimin
The battle to attack Luoyang and the deployment of troops were impressive, and it is a rare example of the battles to attack Luoyang in the past."
After Yun Yi finished his analysis, he looked at the generals and asked: "Everyone, who will comment on these two successful battles?" The evaluation of past battles was proposed by Yun Zheng and one of the new measures recently implemented by the General Staff.
The generals looked at each other, and Yun Bing stood up and said: "General, please comment."
All the generals looked at Yun Zheng, who was in the position of the coach. Yun Zheng said calmly: "Accurate review."
"Thank you, Marshal, Chief of the General Staff." Yun Bing bowed and thanked him: "Marshal, generals, Bing believes that the Xiongnu Liu Han's attack on Luoyang and the early Tang Dynasty Li Shimin's attack on Wang Shichong's Luoyang have something in common. Although their goals are
Luoyang, but its start started from the periphery of Luoyang
Luoyang is located in the four directions, but the importance of its situation lies in its periphery. From the understanding of the relationship between Luoyang and its periphery, it is enough to understand the timing and geographical key points of attacking Luoyang. The so-called periphery of Luoyang can be explained from several levels.
One level is the peripheral dangerous points of the Sanchuan River Valley, such as Chenggao, Weihan, Mengjin, Longmen, etc.; the second level is the four borders of Henan, such as the Nanyang Basin in the southwest, the upper reaches of the Huaihe River in the southeast, and the Hanoi area in the northeast plus Luoyang.
The city itself is located in the Shaanxi and Tongguan areas in the northwest of the Sanchuan River Valley. Some of the strategic points in these areas are the connection channels between the Central Plains and its surrounding areas; if you zoom in further, its outer areas can extend to Guanzhong, Hebei, Southeast and Jingxiang, etc.
Luoyang, one of the major strategic locations in the four directions, is surrounded by these layers of peripherals.
The so-called starting from the periphery means progressing from the outside to the inside. The management of the outermost circle actually involves the judgment of the situation in the Central Plains. The main issue arising from this is to manage the Central Plains and capture Luogang.
The timing has been specially discussed in the third section. Generally speaking, during the chaos, we should first occupy the dangerous mountains and rivers in the four corners of the Central Plains to accumulate strength. When the situation is favorable, we can then take the opportunity to enter the Central Plains.
When the time is ripe, when advancing into the Central Plains, the key point to control the situation in the Central Plains lies in the control of the situation in the four borders of Henan. The four borders in Henan are the communication channels between the Central Plains and its surrounding areas. Controlling the four borders can control the connections between the Central Plains and other regions. That is,
Generally control the situation in the Central Plains
The situation in the Central Plains is generally under control, and Luoyang will naturally fall into control. However, as a precautionary measure, the dangerous locations around the Sanchuan River Valley where Luoyang City is located should still be controlled to prevent trapped beasts from fighting. At this time, Luoyang is ready, and its capture is just a matter of time.
a matter of time
The Xiongnu Liu Han's attack on Luoyang and the early Tang Dynasty Li Shimin's attack on Wang Shichong's Luoyang both started from the outskirts of Luoyang. After the two attacks on Luoyang failed, Liu Han changed his strategy and swept the outskirts of Luoyang to attack the reinforcements outside Luoyang, which also destroyed the Western Jin Dynasty.
The war potential of Luoyang isolated and trapped Luoyang. The main force of the Western Jin Dynasty fled because of the disadvantages and was annihilated. In the end, Luoyang became an isolated city. In the battle of Li Shimin's attack on Wang Shichong's Luoyang, when Luoyang was besieged in the early stage, he divided his troops to attack the dangerous points in the Sanchuan Valley outside Luoyang.
Cutting off Luoyang's connection with the outside world, Wang Shichong's prefectures and counties covered most of Henan. Because they lost contact with the central center, they surrendered to the Tang Dynasty one after another. Luoyang became an isolated city. Later, when Dou Jiande came to aid, he divided his troops to guard Hulao and prevent him from entering Luo.
The success of these two battles is that they hit the key points of the situation in the Central Plains. Therefore, although Luoyang was built as the capital of all dynasties,
There is no need to go to great lengths to attack by force, just force the enemy to fortify the city.”
Yunzheng felt satisfied after seeing the thoughtful expressions of the generals. This meeting was actually a play directed by him. Yun Yi first analyzed the two successful battles to capture Luoyang, and then Yun Bing analyzed why this happened.
The method was successful, and finally the conclusion was drawn: Luoyang does not need to be attacked by force, but only needs to control the key passes around Luoyang, and Luoyang will break through sooner or later.
This conclusion is exactly what Yunzheng needs. Of course, he also believes that this method should be used against Luoyang at present, not only to preserve his own strength from being lost due to unnecessary battles, but also to save armaments - Yunzheng
He found that the artillery shells were still too expensive! Even though he had been preparing for so long, after a few battles, he still used up half of his inventory! He now has to consider being frugal.
Moreover, taking advantage of this opportunity, it is also time to highlight the unique force and solve the strategic location of Shandong.
