The silent hall was crowded with people, but almost no sound could be heard. There was only a slight whine of the north wind entering the hall. Qu Silang thought of what Li Shan said a quarter of an hour ago, and good luck finally came.
Li Shan opened his hands and fully enjoyed the warmth emanating from the charcoal basin. After a day of forced march, he was exhausted physically and mentally. He finally came back to life and could finally feel the presence of every part of his body.
Unconsciously moaning softly, Li Shan turned his head slightly and scanned every corner of the hall one by one.
The table was overturned, the wine jar was overturned, the food was no longer hot, Xin Linger was kneeling in front of him covered in blood, Feng Duan's head was held up with both hands, and Liang was kneeling behind him.
Army generals.
"On New Year's Eve, are you guys staying up?" Li Shan asked with a smile, as if meeting old friends again.
Xin Li'er's head bowed lower, and the faces of the generals below were ashen. Just an hour ago, everyone was still mocking the King of Handan, and they were still looking forward to Liang Luoren capturing and killing the King of Handan after defeating the Tang army. Who would have thought that at this moment?
The prince had already led his troops to fight in front of him.
This transformation made everyone stunned and frightened at the same time. A few drunk generals were swaying slightly, with confused looks in their eyes, as if they were trying to judge whether this was a dream.
In fact, the one who was most frightened in his heart was Xin Li'er. When the Tang army entered the city, he killed Feng Duan and surrendered, using his title as King of Handan to frighten the generals. However, when he was welcomed out of the gate, he was more shocked than the others.
He was just pulling a tiger's skin. Who would have thought that the King of Handan would actually lead his troops into Xiaoguan himself.
"You are a smart man." Li Shan said lazily while warming himself by the fire: "The famous wines in the North are not as good as the jade pot of spring, but you use these turbid wines to stay up late on New Year's Eve..."
"Remember, stay up late and drink spring from a jade pot."
Xin Li'er breathed a sigh of relief, clearly recognizing and accepting his surrender, "I will definitely comply with what His Highness said."
"Get up." Li Shan moved his chin downwards, "Are they all here?"
"Nine times out of ten." Xin Li'er put down Feng Duan's head, stood up and responded: "There are still two or three people in the camp. In addition, the nephew of Jihu leader Liu Nucheng led 500 cavalry to Xiaoguan two days ago.
, originally to aid Guyuan, but due to wind and snow blocking the road, we temporarily stayed at Xiaoguan."
"Oh?" Li Shan was a little surprised and asked with great interest: "How many nephews does Liu Nvqian have?"
Xin Li'er was confused, "The three nephews are all the sons of Liu Nv's younger brother. The eldest son Liu Hei'er is in Guyuan, and the second son is stationed in Tongxin County with Liu Nv's nun. This time it is the third son Liu Zhao who is here.
.”
"Hu's surname?"
"Han surname." Xin Li'er explained: "The Jihu clan is descended from the Huns. Their ancestor was Liu Yuan, Emperor Guangwen of the former Zhao Dynasty. They restored the country during the Northern Wei and Eastern Wei years, but were later annihilated by the Northern Qi Dynasty and fled into the grasslands."
Li Shan was not worried about the war. Liang's army was leaderless. How could Zhang Zhongjian and his 500 warriors not be able to capture it? What's more, Liu Hei'er was still there.
Seeing Li Shan deep in thought, Xin Li'er said cautiously: "The Jihu clan is led by Liu Nuni, followed by Liu Hei'er. Now that Xiaoguan has returned to the Tang Dynasty, all he needs to do is comfort him. Liu Hei'er must not dare to defy the power of Heaven.
"
Li Shan smiled and shook his head, and began to think about how to use these five hundred cavalry. Of course, no matter how he used them, it would first depend on whether Liu Heier could subdue those tribesmen.
At this time, Zhenglie was fighting in the Liang Jun camp on the east side of Xiaoguan. Hundreds of Tang soldiers were chasing Liang Jun to kill them. There were corpses everywhere on the ground.
The firelight mixed with the wind and snow, and the hurried figures reflected in the firelight, plunged the entire camp into chaos.
Su Dingfang once commented that in terms of commanding a large army, Zhang Zhongjian was not as good as him, but in commanding a small force, Zhang Zhongjian was slightly better than him. This was the benefit brought about by the fact that the latter had been a military leader in Shuozhou for more than ten years and could not make any progress.
But at this moment, Zhang Zhongjian's face was ashen, and he was holding the riding whip in his hand tightly. From the moment when eight hundred warriors entered Xiao Pass and the flag of the Tang Dynasty was flying, it was certain to win Xiao Pass.
New Year's Eve, late at night, drunkenness, dreams... These factors allowed the Tang army to enter the camp effortlessly and undermined Liang Jun's fighting spirit.
But Zhang Zhongjian did not intend to kill them all, but chose to hold back, especially after knowing that Liang Jun's generals were basically wiped out in one fell swoop. This was forced by the current situation, because the rare snowstorm in the past two or three days made the follow-up of this war very difficult.
It brought quite a bit of risk.
But Duan Decao led the Yanzhou soldiers to kill many people and refused to give up. Even if a large number of Liang soldiers knelt down and begged for mercy, they could not avoid being hacked to death... In this case, the trapped beasts still fighting directly led to this
The battle that should have been over is still going on, which directly caused the casualties of the Tang army to be much greater than Zhang Zhongjian expected.
Zhang Zhongjian resisted orders on the battlefield and was good at killing prisoners. How could Zhang Zhongjian not be angry? If it weren't for the many Yanzhou soldiers under his command, he would have ordered Duan Decao's head to be chopped off.
In the school grounds not too far away from here, hundreds of cavalry are preparing to attack. Dozens of people in the corner are whispering something, and from time to time someone is scolding.
After Liu Heer appeared, he only said two sentences, one was "The King of Handan has entered the pass." Liu Zhao was stunned. Although he already knew that the Tang army had broken through the pass, he did not expect that the Tang army's commander had arrived in person.
Liu Heier's second sentence is "Command His Highness's personal guards."
As soon as these words came out, Liu Zhao knew that the fall of Xiaoguan was unstoppable. The eldest brother in front of him had also made up his mind to surrender to the Tang Dynasty. For people like them, there was no essential difference between the Liang Kingdom and the Tang Dynasty.
of.
Liu Zhao also knew what the gains and losses at Xiaoguan meant, and it was obvious what choice to make.
Next, the five tribesmen selected by Liu Heier were telling others what Liang Luoren and Suo Zhou had done. Some of the cavalrymen could not hold back anymore, their horses were spinning in circles, and the scimitars from their waists had already been pulled out.
.
Liu Zhao asked in a low voice: "I'm all following the instructions from my eldest brother...but does my uncle want to be the first..."
"There's no rush." Liu Heier said quietly.
Liu Zhao was a little anxious, "Since we have surrendered to the Tang Dynasty, we must offer something... My uncle is stationed in Tongxin County. Once I persuade my uncle..."
"No hurry." Liu Heier repeated, "His Royal Highness Xu Jihu is attached. After the war, he will be resettled in Lingzhou, Liangzhou, and Huizhou, and he will be allowed to build houses and trade with each other."
"Then I need to persuade my uncle even more..."
"Take 300 cavalry and calm down the war as soon as possible." Liu Heier directly ordered, "The remaining 200 cavalry will follow me."
"Where to go?"
Liu Heier didn't say anything, and specially assigned a general under Zhang Zhongjian to take Liu Zhao to join the battle, and he quickly rushed to the North City Gate with two hundred cavalry.
Duan Decao went crazy to kill, but generals like Zhang Zhongjian and Liu Heier obviously thought more comprehensively, and their eyes were not just focused on the battle in front of them.
"Ah Hei?" Wang Junhao first watched hundreds of cavalry galloping in vigilantly, and then he discovered Liu Hei'er at the head.
"Are there any omissions?"
"After asking, no one was stationed at the top of the city. When a certain guard arrived, the city gate was opened wide and more than ten people escaped." Wang Junhao didn't take it seriously.
Liu Heier's face turned cold, "Open the city gate."
"What?"
"Open the city gate!" Liu Heier emphasized: "The news must not be leaked!"