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"What can I do now?"

"King, I'm afraid we've fallen for Hexi's calculations."

"How?"

"There are various indications that Hexi and Xiyan have turned against each other this time, and it is obvious that they have been planning for a long time."

"What kind of nonsense oppresses Han Min, it's just an excuse."

"If you really act in a hurry, how can the Hexi army be so orderly?"

"Abominable, abominable, really abominable."

Tuoba Jue was extremely angry when he heard this, and when he thought that he was being played with by Wei Shuo, he wanted to break the other party's body into pieces.

"King, at present, the tripartite alliance exists in name only, without Xiyan and Hexi to contain it, our army is in danger!"

"With the intention of the minister, without further ado, while Murong Chui's army has not yet returned, I implore the king to order the withdrawal of the army immediately."

Zhang Yan insisted on withdrawing the army, not only because of Murong Chui's might, but also because there were people in the Northern Wei Dynasty who were ready to move.

The reason for this situation has a lot to do with the organizational structure of the Northern Wei army.

Don't look at Tuoba Jue's implementation of the Sinicization reform in the Wei State, but most of the reform measures are aimed at people's livelihood and politics, and rarely involve military aspects.

So much so that the Wei army still maintained the characteristics of the nomadic tribal alliance, and it was said to be the Wei army, but it was actually an alliance army composed of various ethnic groups and tribes.

In the alliance army, in addition to the Tuoba Xianbei lineage, there are some grassland tribes that have just been conquered.

These people responded to Tuoba's call to go south in order to go to the Central Plains to fight the autumn wind and plunder goods, slaves, women, and so on.

However, Tuoba Jue was not an ordinary tribal leader, he was a hero who aspired to enter the Central Plains and compete for hegemony in the world, and he did not allow the Wei army to make such unpopular measures as burning, killing, and plundering.

Therefore, as soon as the Wei army entered the land of Youzhou, Tuoba Jue began to strictly enforce military discipline and took it as his responsibility to compete for the "hearts and minds of the people".

But in this way, it will inevitably disappoint those steppe tribes who followed Tuoba to the south.

Coupled with factors such as the bad weather and the failure of the attack on Jicheng before, the people's hearts in the Wei army began to fluctuate.

Some of the tribal leaders who did not benefit from this war complained frequently and were disgruntled.

In the face of these disobedient but powerful tribal leaders, Tuoba Jue gradually moved to kill.

It can be said that it is not an exaggeration to describe the Wei army with internal and external troubles at the moment.

It is precisely because of this that Zhang Yan took the opportunity of Hexi's betrayal of the alliance to persuade Tuoba to retreat.

There were many internal crises, and the situation in Youzhou was deadlocked, which made Tuoba Jue realize that the Wei army was no longer able to take the opportunity of Youzhou.

Then he listened to Zhang Yan's proposal and made the decision to withdraw the army, but at this time there were already obstacles ahead.

……

Unlike the Northern Wei people who were busy evacuating Youzhou, Murong Bao, who was far away in Zhongshan, immediately realized that an opportunity to inflict a heavy blow on the Northern Wei Dynasty was in front of him when he learned that the Hexi Army had withdrawn to the west of Taihang Mountain and turned against Xiyan.

He immediately ordered the requisition of garrisons in Zhongshan and Yecheng, and used the treasures of the palace as a reward to recruit outlaws in the mountains and fields in various counties to expand the army.

Before and after, he gathered a total of 50,000 infantry and 20,000 cavalry, all of whom marched north to Youzhou, and set up a large camp on the south bank of the Beiyi River to intercept the Northern Wei army that tried to withdraw to Daidi through Puyin.

At the beginning of the war, Murong Bao took advantage of the unstable foothold of the Northern Wei army, and used more than 10,000 recruited bandits to form a dead battalion to cross the river overnight to attack the Wei camp, and he personally led the army to the south of the enemy camp as reinforcements.

Originally, it was just a tentative move, but because the Wei army had already been fluctuating, when the Houyan Dead Battalion broke into the Wei army's main array, the Northern Wei army suddenly became chaotic.

Caught off guard, the frightened Tuoba Jue could only lead the Chinese army to retreat.

If the commander of the army at this time was Murong Chui himself, even if it was Murong Nong, Murong Kai, Murong De, Murong Lin, etc., I am afraid that they would abandon all their worries and take advantage of the situation to attack in a big way.

However, Murong Bao's personality is too indecisive, and he just wants to let the dead battalion further collapse the Northern Wei military camp.

Murong Bao not only underestimated Tuoba, but also overestimated the professionalism of the robbers and bandits.

After a brief riot, Tuoba quickly stabilized his position and ordered the general's goods to be thrown on the road.

As a result, the camp of the dead soldiers, who were still desperately attacking, immediately forgot their original intention of coming here when they saw the jewels all over the ground, and began to loot them on a large scale, and even made cannibalistic acts.

Taking advantage of this gap, Tuoba Jue was frightened and quickly ordered someone to beat the drum.

The various units of the Wei army quickly regrouped into formation and launched a counterattack against the battalion of dead soldiers who were fighting in the midst of internal strife.

The battalion of dead soldiers was originally composed of robbers and bandits, and there may be some combat effectiveness in the chaotic battle, and the whole division may not be able to beat the Wei army in the front, not to mention that it is still in the midst of internal strife?

As a result, under the impact of the Wei cavalry, the dead battalion was defeated and beheaded for more than 3,000 ranks.

The victory of the dead battalion first and then the defeat once again affected Murong Bao's judgment, making him think that the Wei army was strong and did not dare to fight again.

The reorganized Northern Wei army held the Yan army across the river. At this time, the morale of the Yan army was low and he had no intention of fighting again, and many generals persuaded Murong Bao to retreat to Zhongshan.

As a result, Murong Bao, who had no fighting spirit, led the whole army to begin to retreat south in the direction of Zhongshan.

However, Tuoba Jue was much more decisive than Murong Bao, as soon as he saw the Yan army retreating, he immediately crossed the Yishui River and organized a pursuit.

The retreating Yan army had no intention of fighting, and was defeated again and again.

Murong Bao even began to worry that he would not be able to retreat to Zhongshan safely, but he abandoned the infantry and fled south with only 20,000 cavalry.

In order not to be caught up by the Wei army, he also ordered the troops to throw away a large number of armor weapons and heavy grain, so that the Yan army, which was lucky enough to flee back to Zhongshan, did not even bring back a sword or a grain of grain.

After the war, the Northern Wei Dynasty not only captured a large amount of materials, but also captured more than 30,000 Houyan soldiers.

How to deal with the 30,000 or 40,000 Hou Yan soldiers, there was a fierce debate within the Northern Wei Dynasty.

Some people suggested that they should be returned to win the hearts of the people in the Central Plains of Hebei, and some people suggested that they should be killed to prevent future troubles.

Wang Jian, the lord of the central region, said: "This is an army that Murong Bao raised with great difficulty, and it can also be said that except for the southern expeditionary army in Murong Chui's hands, Houyan has no troops to adjust. ”

"Without these thirty or forty thousand people, the country of Houyan will definitely be empty, and it will be very easy to defeat the country of Yan in the future."

"On the contrary, if the king releases the captives, it is like letting the tiger return to the mountain, and increasing the enemy's strength in vain."

Most of the Tuoba nobles and Hu generals agreed to Wang Jian's proposal, and Tuoba Jue also wanted to ease the relationship with the clan, so he listened to Wang Jian's proposal and ordered all the captured 30,000 Yan soldiers to be killed!

Not long after Tuoba committed this atrocity, he himself regretted it a little.

It was precisely because of this atrocity that in the following battle of the Northern Wei Dynasty to destroy Yan, the people of Hebei swore to resist to the death, causing great casualties to the Wei army.

……

In the first battle of Yishui River, the national strength of Houyan was gone.

Since then, the strength of the east and the west has changed strengths, and under the advantages of one another, the Wei State has gradually surpassed the Houyan, which also laid the foundation for the eventual demise of the Houyan in the future.

And when the Northern Wei Dynasty won this battle, they changed their previous minds.

Even Tuoba Jue decided not to withdraw his troops, so the Wei army besieged Jicheng again.

Taking advantage of the great victory, Tuoba Jue took advantage of the situation to kill several tribal leaders who did not obey the order.

After cutting off the internal hidden dangers, he could finally deal with Murong Chui wholeheartedly.

After a great war, there was a significant change in the strength between the Northern Wei Dynasty and the Later Yan.

With the loss of tens of thousands of horses, even if Murong Chui returned from the south, Hou Yan would not be able to launch a counterattack for the time being.

Originally, Tuoba was ready to lose the land he occupied, but this time he not only retracted his previous decision, but also gave birth to the idea of taking all Youzhou.

It's not that Tuoba is blindly arrogant, but that the situation has completely changed.

Henchman Zhang Yan suggested: "King, after this battle, Houyan's strength has been greatly damaged, and he is temporarily unable to launch a counterattack, and this is the time for the army to take Youzhou." ”

"However, it is inevitable that there will be damage when the army is dispatched, so it is better to take the opportunity to propose peace to Houyan."

"Peace?" Tuoba was thoughtful.

"That's right, please ask the king to send a peace envoy to Zhongshan, on the condition that Houyan cede the land of Youzhou."

Unlike the high-spirited Tuoba Jue, Murong Bao, the prince of Houyan, who was embarrassed, endured huge psychological pressure, and his prestige plummeted because of this, laying a hidden danger for the future brothers to compete for the throne.

When the Northern Wei Dynasty asked for the land cession documents to be sent to Zhongshan, Murong Chui, the backbone of the Houyan people, was finally late.

Murong Trai never imagined that after he returned, he would face a country full of holes, and he almost vomited blood and died in anger.