May of the third year of Chuping was another dark moment in the history of the Han Dynasty.
The emperor was killed, and the country was on the verge of collapse.
When the Kwantung Army arrived in Chang'an, it launched a fierce attack on Chang'an.
Logically speaking, people like Li Jue and Guo Si had already gathered nearly 200,000 troops, so it would not be difficult to repel the Kwantung Army.
But in order to preserve their strength, each of them was unwilling to go out and fight to the death. Finally, after the Kwantung Army besieged the city for half a month, they agreed to the Kwantung Army's request and sent the imperial ministers who stayed in the city out of the city.
After receiving the news from the Manchu ministers, the Kwantung Army immediately retreated and began to evacuate towards Luoyang without hesitation.
This is also the judgment that Yan Zhong gave to Li Jue, Guo Si and others.
Once the emperor died, the Kwantung Army had no goal to fight for and no reason to stay in Guanzhong.
After all, Liu Bei is still attacking Jizhou, and the Kwantung Army's own food and grass are also under great pressure. It is impossible to stay here for a long time. This has no strategic significance.
As Yan Zhong said before, now that Guanzhong is empty, if there are ambitious people, they should occupy Guanzhong and look at the world.
As for the question of who should be the boss with so many generals in the Xiliang Army now, it all depends on one's own ability.
Maybe some people say that the Kwantung Army is nearby. How stupid can someone be to have internal strife?
But the problem is that after the death of the emperor, there is no target. How stupid can the Kwantung Army be to stay in Guanzhong, a place thousands of kilometers away from the local area, and continue to fight?
The situation in Qingzhou is indeed much better now, but it is not a mountain of gold and silver that cannot support them to fight on both sides. The Kwantung Army can still stay in Guanzhong now because Luoyang can now supply food and grass, but this does not mean that the Qingzhou Group has conquered the world.
Invincible.
Therefore, the Kwantung Army's retreat is inevitable.
In early June, more than 100,000 troops marched through the Qinling Mountains and returned to Luoyang.
Nowadays, farming has begun in Luoyang. After Wang Kuang died in the "Civil Revolt", his subordinates took refuge with Zhao Yun.
One of the generals named Han Hao had considerable experience in farming, so he was appointed by Zhao Yun as the captain of Diannong School. Zhao Yun himself led the army to station in Linli, Dangyin, and Chaoge areas, which was later known as Hebi City.
Later Hebi City was located at the junction of Hanoi County and Jizhou in the Han Dynasty. It was a plain area and was easily attacked by the puppet Han army from Jizhou.
Liu Bei and Wang Fen are now in a state of hostility, and Luoyang's geographical location is very critical, so Zhao Yun naturally has to be careful.
In fact, when Liu Bei was preparing to attack Wang Fen, he once considered attacking Yecheng from Hanoi County.
However, after Wang Fen established the puppet Han regime, he began to recruit troops on a large scale. Among them, Wei County had the largest army, with a total of 70,000 to 80,000 troops.
If we attack by force from Hanoi County, it would be like banging our heads against someone else's steel plate.
Therefore, his plan at that time was to return to Qingzhou to rest and recuperate, and wanted to borrow a road from Jizhou. When the army passed by Yecheng, he would suddenly attack and catch Wang Fen by surprise.
However, Wang Fen was not stupid, so he naturally refused to allow it, and in the name of the pseudo-emperor, he asked him to disband the army and serve as a minister in Yecheng.
This move is a test. If Liu Bei agrees, everyone will be happy. If Liu Bei refuses, it means that he does not recognize the emperor of Jizhou. The two sides will naturally change their positions and turn from friendship to hostility.
Naturally, it was impossible for Liu Bei to disband his army and go to Jizhou to serve as an official, so he rejected the puppet emperor's edict on the spot. The two sides even broke up and officially fell into a state of war.
What Liu Bei didn't expect was that before the war started, Gongsun Zan's hometown of Youzhou was stolen by Xianbei in the central region.
In desperation, Gongsun Zan could only say goodbye to Liu Bei, enter Pingyuan Kingdom from Yanzhou, and then find Yuan Shao from Pingyuan via Bohai County, return all the way north, and return to Youzhou to defend his hometown.
Some people may ask, would Yuan Shao be so kind as to let Gongsun Zan go back?
However, Yuan Shao's strategy was to weaken Liu Bei's power, so how could he not let him go?
Moreover, Yuan Shao's current military strength was not capable of stopping the 30,000 cavalry from returning north, so naturally he could only watch Gongsun Zan leave.
For a time, from the beginning of the war, Liu Bei was already at a disadvantage in terms of military strength. His troops were only 30,000 to 40,000, and they were still tired veterans who had been fighting for many years, while Wang Fen had more than 100,000 troops in Jizhou, and he was still young and strong.
The new army's combat effectiveness is incomparable.
Therefore, the war was very difficult from the beginning. Fortunately, Wang Fen himself did not cultivate military skills. Even if he had more than 100,000 troops, his command and dispatch abilities were extremely poor, and he could only rely on the support of more troops.
In fact, if Liu Bei's army had 60,000 soldiers and horses that came out of Qingzhou, relying on more elite and senior generals, they could almost defeat Wang Fen with overwhelming force.
But it's completely different now than before.
First, of his original 60,000 troops, nearly 10,000 were killed and injured in one year's campaign, leaving only 50,000. Of these 50,000, Chen Mu was given 10,000 troops, and another 10,000 were left in key areas such as Luoyang.
There are only more than 30,000 troops in the army, which is a serious shortage of troops.
Both of his soldiers have been out fighting for three years. Their homesickness and war weariness are relatively serious, resulting in low fighting will. They often collapse when facing enemies several times their size, leaving Liu Bei helpless.
After being able to stop attacking Jizhou, he borrowed the road from Yanzhou and returned to Qingzhou to rest and recuperate.
When Liu Bei's main force returned to Qingzhou, Wang Fen breathed a sigh of relief. At the same time, he deployed a large number of soldiers and horses at the border between Wei County and Hanoi County, as well as at the border between Qinghe Kingdom and Pingyuan Kingdom to guard against the attacks of Luoyang and Qingzhou. As for letting him go out to attack
, he doesn’t have the courage yet.
The main reason is that many counselors under Wang Fen discovered a very serious problem, that is, Guanzhong and Qingzhou are in the hands of Liu Bei, and there is Gongsun Zan in the north. Jizhou's current position is very embarrassing, and it is in a state of being attacked from three sides.
Once Wang Fen attacks Luoyang, and the Kwantung Army in Guanzhong returns, and Qingzhou and Youzhou attack him together, the situation will be reversed instantly. The same goes for whether they attack Qingzhou or Youzhou.
Therefore, Wang Fen could only maintain a defensive position and did not dare to take the initiative to cause trouble for Liu Bei.
The general trend of the world has undergone great changes in the third year of Chuping.
Liu Bian is dead.
Without the co-leader, the thoughts of various princes began to become active one after another.
Jizhou, Bohai County, the prefect's residence.
Yuan Shao summoned many of his subordinates to discuss matters and looked at everyone with enthusiasm.
"Jizhou, we'll get it soon!"
Yanzhou, Dongjun, the prefect's residence.
When Cao Cao heard the news of Liu Bian's death, he shed two tears from the corners of his eyes and cried: "It's my fault."
Yizhou, Shu County, Prefecture Mu's Mansion.
Liu Yan was ecstatic.
As early as last year, he had made carriages and emperor's clothes in preparation for proclaiming himself emperor, but he never dared to do so because he was condemned by the imperial edict.
Now that the real emperor is gone, he, a member of the Han clan and a dignified shepherd of Yizhou, can finally go a step further and be called the emperor.
In addition to these people, Liu Biao from Jingbei, Yuan Shu from Jingnan, and Tao Qian from Xuzhou had different expressions when facing the news. Some were happy, some were sad. The general trend of the world is in this ups and downs.