After Yang Wu deployed all kinds of military affairs, he led 5,000 elite cavalry and 60,000 infantry troops early the next morning to bypass Kaifeng and march to Luoyang.

However, before the army set off, Yang Wu received two more good news, the first good news was that Gao Jichang and Lu Siduo had surrendered to Li Jian in Xuzhou, and now the Wu army had entered Xuzhou City and taken over the city defense.

After receiving this good news, Yang Wu ordered Lu Siduo to be named Jianchangbo, and led the troops to continue the battle for the Wu army as the commander of the righteous army.

As for Gao Jichang, Yang Wu ordered him to be named Shuyang Bo and lead the history of Chizhou Assassination.

Yang Wu named him the assassin of Chizhou, firstly, he was rewarded for his voluntary surrender, but he could appease the hearts of other generals, and secondly, Chizhou was not far from Jinling, and the officials were loyal to Wu, and Gao Jichang could not make any waves even if he had any ambitions here.

As for the other happy event, it was from Zhou Ben on the Ruzhou side, who led his army to capture Ruzhou two days earlier and captured the Ruzhou guard Wang Zan alive.

It turned out that after a long-term siege, Zhou Ben had reached the time when the city was about to be broken, and the defenders in the city were already at the end of their crossbows; At that time, the news of the victory of Xiangling came, and the morale of the Wu army was greatly boosted, and Zhou Ben took the opportunity to send troops to attack, and finally captured the city in one fell swoop, killing more than 3,000 defenders, capturing more than 20,000 people, and seizing countless burdens such as money, food, and ordnance.

At this time, the envoy sent by Yang Wu to prepare to enter the city to persuade him to surrender had just arrived at the Wu army camp.

Being able to take Ruzhou directly, this result is naturally better than persuasion.

Although some soldiers will be lost in the process of direct siege, this can completely eliminate future troubles, and the ability of the soldiers to attack the fortifications can be exercised, and at the same time, it can deter other enemy troops who have not surrendered, and the effect is much better than persuasion.

After receiving the news, Yang Wu ordered Zhou Ben to leave a small number of troops to defend Ruzhou, while the other armies quickly marched to Luoyang from the south and joined up with the army led by Yang Wu under the city of Luoyang.

Before the army set out to fight, it received two good news, and Yang Wu was even more confident that the next battle would be extremely smooth, and the next battle would indeed go very smoothly.

The Wu army marched from Kaifeng to Luoyang, and the enemy troops encountered along the way fled in despair, and the defenders of various counties opened the city gates one after another to surrender, and none of them dared to resist.

……

When the news came that Ruzhou was lost and the Wu army bypassed Kaifeng and attacked Luoyang from the east and south, the city of Luoyang was in chaos.

At this time, in addition to the 4,000 Crane Control Army Guards in Luoyang City, there were only more than 5,000 temporarily recruited new troops, who had no battle formation and were demoralized.

In the face of the pressure of the Wu army, the entire Luoyang City was in chaos, the city was full of chickens and dogs, the faces of the people were full of panic, and the court completely lost their opinions, and they didn't know how to deal with it.

Those officials who had long been secretly colluding with Wu State, such as Zhang Quanyi, did not say a word above the court, but after returning home, their minds became lively and began to think about whether they had offended Wu State before, or whether there was any place to serve Wu State.

Those officials who had not colluded with Wu State before, for example, had realized that the Liang State was gone at this time, and these people still looked like six gods and no masters above the temple, but after returning home at night, their faces changed, and they began to think about how to connect with Wu Jun.

In the palace, Zhu Youzhen was also panicked.

When the news of the Battle of Xiangling came a few days ago, Zhu Youwen gathered the clan members and wept bitterly to them: "The fortunes of the country are exhausted!" ”

At this time, Zhu Youwen hurriedly summoned the ministers to ask for countermeasures, but unfortunately, not to mention that those who had ill intentions were no longer willing to come up with ideas for Liang Guo at this time, even those who were still loyal to them had nothing to do at this time, so they could only remain silent.

Zhu Youwen raised his eyes and looked around, seeing that all the ministers were full of panic on their faces, and couldn't help but be a little disappointed.

He looked at Jing Xiang for the last time and said to him, "I used to ignore what Aiqing said, so much so. Now that the situation is critical, please don't have any resentment in Aiqing's heart. May I ask Aiqing, what will happen now? ”

Jing Xiang Lao said with tears: "The minister has been favored by the first emperor for more than 30 years, and he is called the prime minister, but he is actually a slave of the Zhu family, and he serves His Majesty like a slave serving his son." ”

"The words that the minister gave to His Majesty before and after were all wholeheartedly measured. His Majesty ignored the strategy of retreating to Guanzhong, and went south with elite soldiers to fight a decisive battle with Wu, but His Majesty did not listen, so that now the elite is in dire straits, and Luoyang is in danger. ”

"Your Majesty used Duan Ning as a solicitation envoy, and the minister also strongly opposed it, but Your Majesty still didn't listen, resulting in today's crisis."

Although Jing Xiang is indeed loyal to Zhu Youwen, in the current situation, it is impossible to say that he has no resentment in his heart.

Zhu Youwen listened to his words full of resentment, but he couldn't refute a word.

If it was according to the previous plan, the Central Plains were directly handed over to Wu State, and Luoyang was guarded with elite soldiers, perhaps there would not be the current crisis.

Or if he continued to trust Wang Yanzhang and other veterans, instead of using Duan Ning, an incompetent general, maybe even if he would still lose to Wu Jun, he would never be so badly defeated.

Recalling the past, Zhu Youwen's heart was full of remorse.

Jing Xiang didn't stop, he continued: "If the minister asks His Majesty to give up Luoyang immediately at this time and retreat to Guanzhong, there may be a chance to save his life, but the minister is worried that His Majesty will definitely refuse to do so. ”

"If the minister advised His Majesty to come up with a surprise plan to fight the enemy, His Majesty did not have that decisiveness. Today's situation is that Zhang Liang and Chen Ping have come back to life, but I am afraid that the situation will not be reversed! ”

Zhu Youwen listened to it and muttered silently, asking him to retreat to Guanzhong, he was indeed reluctant to do so.

No matter how he is also the emperor of Liang and the orthodox emperor of the Central Plains, how can he abandon Zongmiao and flee to a border place like Guanzhong to be a nondescript "orthodox emperor"? That would be worse than killing him.

What's more, after so many years of hard work and hard work for state affairs, although the result is not good, Zhu Youwen himself is quite diligent to the government and politics, and his temperament is gentle, neither absurd nor extravagant, but in the end, the country is getting worse, and today he is even more like a dead country, he himself has long been deeply tired, and he does not want to flee to Guanzhong again, but wants to live and die with Sheji.

This is the reason why he has always been reluctant to retreat to Guanzhong, but hopes to fight to the death with the Wu army.

However, although he was reluctant to retreat to Guanzhong, he was interested in what Jing Xiang said, "a surprise plan to retreat from the enemy".

"I don't know what the trick Aiqing said?"

Jing Xiang shook his head and was silent, Zhu Youwen asked again and again, and he spoke: "The strategy that the minister said is nothing more than to take Wujiao Pass in the east and Yique Pass in the south, temporarily block the Wu army with geographical advantages, and at the same time urgently send envoys to King Qi and even King Jin to ask for reinforcements. ”

"However, the king of Qi is weak, and the king of Qi himself is old and has no enterprising heart, and the state of Wu is powerful, so I am afraid that the king of Qi may not dare to send troops to rescue our country; And the Jin Kingdom is my feud, if I ask for help, maybe Your Majesty needs to put down his body and ask him to surrender. I am afraid that Your Majesty will not be willing to suffer this humiliation! ”

Jing Xiang's strategy was actually to ask the old enemy of the Jin State to surrender and lead the Jin army to resist the Wu army.

This strategy was extremely common in the era of melee in the late Tang Dynasty, and it was not a clever plan at all, but it was obvious that Zhu Youwen was used to being the emperor, and it was impossible for him to put down his body and ask Li Cunmiao, the enemy, to surrender.

Seeing that Zhu Youwen was silent, Jing Xiang immediately sighed and said: "Your Majesty, I hope that Your Majesty will give your ministers a death first, and I can't bear to see the death of the National Temple." After speaking, Jing Xiang and Zhu Youwen and others wept at each other, and the court was full of sadness.

In the end, Zhu Youzhen could only adopt another of Jing Xiang's suggestions: ask Li Maozhen, the king of Qi, for help.

Before the Northern Expedition of the Wu Army, the Liang State once had the intention of retreating to Guanzhong, so it sent envoys to make friends with the King of Qi, and the relationship between the two families quickly became close, and even the Liang Army also purchased a lot of war horses from the King of Qi to expand the cavalry.

So at this time, Zhu Youwen decided to send Zhang Hanjie's younger brother Zhang Hanlun to Fengxiang as quickly as possible to seek reinforcements.

However, not to mention whether King Qi will send reinforcements to come, even if King Qi agrees to send troops, it will be necessary for Liang Guo to hold out until that time.

Luoyang has been a big city since ancient times, with a circumference of dozens of miles, which is of course extremely majestic and magnificent in peacetime, and can highlight the prestige of the capital of a large country, but now it exposes the shortcomings of poor defense.

With the thousands of crane control troops in the city, plus thousands of temporarily recruited rabble, it is almost impossible to hold Luoyang with this little force alone, and the only way is to block the Wu army on the periphery of Luoyang.

Therefore, Zhu Youwen ordered Zhu Gui to lead 2,000 crane troops south to Yique to resist Zhou Ben's army; At the same time, he ordered the control of the crane to command the emperor Fu Lin to lead 2,000 control of the crane army to rush to the Wujiao Pass to resist the army personally led by King Wu in the east.

Jing Xiang objected to this arrangement, believing that now the morale of the Liang army is low, if he only divides his troops to resist, it is not enough to stop the Wu army, and he must Zhu Youwen personally drive to boost morale, so there is a trace of possibility.

It's a pity that Zhu Youwen still rejected this suggestion, and it was impossible for him to leave Luoyang at this time.

In order to increase the strength of the defenders of Luoyang, Zhu Youwen ordered to open the treasury, recruit soldiers, and let them climb the city wall and practice the method of defending the city.

However, although the plan to defend the city was decided, the panic in the city still did not diminish in the slightest, but rumors spread everywhere, and unfavorable news came everywhere, saying that the Wu army had occupied the place for a while, and then saying that the place had surrendered to the Wu state.

There are even rumors that there are several clan disciples in Luoyang City who plan to take advantage of the chaos to rebel, which makes Zhu Youwen feel deeply jealous.

It turned out that Zhu Youxue, the king of Shao, was the son of Zhu Quanyu, the elder brother of Zhu Wen, who was extremely smart, and many people in the Liang Kingdom were interested in him.

Therefore, Zhu Youwen recalled him back to Luoyang a few years ago, and was confined in the palace at the same time as his brother Zhu Youliang.

Now that the Wu army is approaching, coupled with the rumors in the city, Zhu Youwen is even more suspicious, worried that several brothers in the clan will take advantage of the danger to plot chaos, so he killed Zhu Youyu, Zhu Youyong, King He, Zhu Youhui, Jianwang, etc.

At this point, the Wu army has not yet approached the city, and most of the Zhu children in the city have been killed by Zhu Youwen.

……

On the Wu army's side, on the evening of the day when Yang Wu led the troops to the west, the army arrived in Zhengzhou, and the defenders of Zhengzhou were no more than 1,000 people, and they had also lost their fighting spirit, and chose to surrender in Kaecheng when the Wu army was forced to the border.

After resting for a night in Zhengzhou, Luoyang, the army continued to march westward, arriving at Xingyang at noon that day, and the defenders of Xingyang led the army to surrender.

Yang Wu did not stop at Xingyang, did not even enter the city, but only sent a thousand men into the city to hold the city gates, while the rest of the army continued westward, and arrived at Wujiao Pass, west of Xingyang, before dark that afternoon.

Wugao Pass is actually the famous Tiger Prison Pass, and in the Tang Dynasty, it was renamed Wugao Pass because it wanted to avoid Li Hu's ridicule.

Here is Songyue in the south, the Yellow River in the north, the mountains are staggered, the terrain is dangerous, there is the trend of "one husband is not open", since ancient times, it is the place where the soldiers of the past dynasties must fight.

In the early years of the Western Han Dynasty, Liu Bang and Xiang Yu fought here for many years, and finally the Han army successfully blocked the offensive of the Chu army, and finally continued to counterattack and achieve the final victory.

In the early years of the Tang Dynasty, Li Shimin, the king of Qin, defeated the 100,000 army of the Xia lord Dou Jiande with 3,000 elite soldiers here, and won the most crucial victory for the Tang Dynasty to unify the world.

However, although the terrain of Wujiao Pass is dangerous, under normal circumstances, there are no defenders stationed here for a long time; Now the pass is only defended by the 2,000 crane control army led by Huang Fulin, who rushed here overnight.

This Huang Fu Lin was a loyal and righteous man, and when facing the Wu army, he not only resolutely refused to surrender, but despite fatigue, he personally organized the defenders to guard the pass overnight.

Although his troops were not much, he had an absolute geographical advantage, and it was dark at that time, which was not conducive to attacking the city, so Yang Wu was not in a hurry to attack the city, and ordered the army to camp for the time being.

The next day, Yang Wu ordered a large army to attack the pass from the front, and on the other hand, he sent a small force to prepare for an attack from the rear of the enemy army by detouring from the path.

However, what Yang Wu didn't expect was that not long after the army that detoured to the rear of the enemy army set off, the army had already broken through the Wujiao Pass from the front.

It turned out that although the Crane Control Army was the forbidden army of the Liang State, it could be regarded as an elite army that had been in battle for a long time, but in recent years, the elite soldiers of the Crane Control Army have basically been transferred to the Yellow River and consumed in the battle with the Jin army.

Today's Crane Control Army is mainly composed of new recruits, with little practical experience, and the morale is low, and many of the soldiers fled on the way to Wugao Pass.

It was okay when it was dark last night, but today the big battle will start, when those panicked defenders stepped on the city wall and looked outside the pass, and found that the outside of the pass was densely packed with Wu troops, these Liang troops suddenly lost their fighting spirit, and as a result, the battle was broken by the Wu army not long after the battle, and Huang Fulin fled in a hurry with a few guards.

Seeing this, Yang Wu had nothing to say, so he ordered the army to rest for a while and continue to march west.

At the same time, Zhou Ben, who was outside the Yique Pass, also launched a large army, and it took half a day to take the pass and march northward smoothly.

Although Yique Pass is known as the pass, it is a dangerous place leading to Luoyang in ancient times, but the geographical advantage here is not as good as Wujiao Pass after all, and the defenders are few, so the Wu army successfully detoured to the rear, flanked back and forth, and quickly lost.

At this point, the two important passes on which Zhu Youwen relied quickly fell into the hands of Wu, and nearly 100,000 Wu troops from the east and south approached Luoyang at the same time, and the day when the troops came to the city was now.