Just when Li Yin took the opportunity of quelling the Jihu rebellion in Lishi County and secretly used means to increase his strength in Taiyuan Dao, the war in the Central Plains was still in full swing.

The places where Li Mi and Wang Shichong fought were the counties of present-day Henan, and the important places were Yanshi City, Yanyue City, Jinyong City, Beibi Mountain, Luoshui and Xiyuan in Luoyang, the eastern capital. Li Mi's combat goal was Luoyang, while Wang Shichong's combat goal was to return to Luocang and Luokoucang, of which Luokoucang was the foundation of Li Mi's army.

Since Wang Shichong rescued the eastern capital from Jiangdu, there have been three battles with Li Mi, dozens of small stations, all of which were more defeated and less victorious, especially the three major battles, where both sides invested more than 100,000 soldiers and horses, but in the end they all ended in Wang Shichong's fiasco.

However, Wang Shichong's will is very firm, and he has been defeated and fought repeatedly, and he has not let Luoyang fall into the hands of Li Mi.

On March 10, after obtaining the soldiers and horses of the Eastern Capital, replenishing the troops, and resting for several months, Wang Shichong planned to conduct a fourth large-scale battle with Li Mi.

On the thirteenth, Wang Shichong suddenly attacked, defeated Li Mi's army of more than 8,000 people in Luobei, won a small victory, and then stationed in the north of Gongxian County, arranged troops in Luoshui, and stole into Yanyue City, facing Li Mi's army across the water.

Li Mi saw that Wang Shichong took the initiative to attack this time, and his morale was very high, so he built the Great Wall and dug more than 70 miles around the trench, intending to hold on for a period of time, and wait for the morale of Wang Shichong's army to drop a little before going to battle.

Li Mi can afford it, Wang Shichong can't afford it, the morale of the army he led is that he spent a lot of money, women, and all kinds of promises, so that he can not be encouraged, if he can't achieve victory, the morale will inevitably fall after a long time.

On the 15th, Wang Shichong ordered each army to build pontoon bridges, cross Luoshui to attack Li Mi, and ordered the army that built the bridge first to attack first, and Wang Shichong himself, together with Hu Benlang general Wang Wei and others, secretly crossed Luoshui to the north of Luokoucang and reached the south bank.

On the 16th, Wang Wei took the lead in attacking Li Mi in the east gate of the cave temple, Wang Wei was a famous general in Hebei, and the soldiers were all elite soldiers, and they smuggled across Luoshui, Li Mi's army could not resist for a while, and began to retreat. Wang Shichong's army also broke through the outer gate of Li Mi's army, and then advanced to force Luokou Cangcang City.

But at this time, Wang Shichong's armies were inconsistent because of the people who crossed Luoshui, and because of the victory of Wang Wei and Wang Shichong, although all the armies crossed Luoshui, the situation was a little chaotic.

Seeing this, Li Mi saw the opportunity to turn the tide of the battle, so he selected hundreds of sharp soldiers, divided into three teams to go out of the city, and attacked those Wang Shichong's troops who were in a chaotic formation, while Li Mi personally led the army to follow.

After Wang Shichong's army was attacked by hundreds of Li Mi's sharp soldiers, the front army, which was already somewhat chaotic, was immediately defeated, and the rear army was also in chaos, resulting in a great defeat of the whole army, and most of them drowned because of the battle for the bridge to cross the river.

When Wang Shichong's army was defeated, Hu Benlang led Wang Wei to break through to the outer camp wall of Li Mi's army, and Li Mi's army camp was frightened and chaotic, and it was about to be defeated, and even Li Mi panicked. But Wang Shichong didn't understand this situation, so he sounded the horn to withdraw the troops.

Li Mi took the opportunity to lead the daredevils to counterattack, and Wang Bian's army was defeated when he was in a hurry, and Wang Bian's own army was also killed in it, and the entire army of Luobei collapsed.

In this battle, the Sui army can be said to have suffered heavy casualties, Hu Benlang generals Wang Wei, Huo Shiju, Liu Changgong, Liang Dezhong, Dong Zhitong and other generals, all died, Wang Shichong only ran to Datong City with hundreds of cavalry (where Datong City has lost the exam, suspected to be in the west of Mengjin County).

After that, Wang Shichong gathered the defeated troops and won more than 10,000 people.

However, the house leak happened to rain overnight, that night, the wind and rain were cold, and the soldiers were wet all over the water, and the night was extremely cold, so tens of thousands of people froze to death, so after the next day, there were only a few thousand people left around Wang Shichong, and they were extremely embarrassed.

Wang Shichong tied himself up and went to a nearby government to go to prison and ask for punishment. Yang Tong, the king of Yue, sent someone to pardon Wang Shichong, summoned him back to the eastern capital, and gave him money and brocade beauties to comfort him. Wang Shichong once again summoned the fleeing old troops, got more than 10,000 people, and stationed in Hanjiacheng (Hanjiacheng is in the north of Luoyang City), and did not dare to fight again.

Li Mi took advantage of the victory to enter the city of Kim Yong City, repaired the city gates and houses, and lived in the city. Kim Yong Cheng was located in the east of Luoyang, at the southern foot of Pishan Mountain, only 80 miles away from Luoyang, and the sound of the war drums of Li Mi's army could be transmitted to the eastern capital, so that the officials and the people often woke up.

Soon, Li Mi had 300,000 troops, lined up in the north, and approached the eastern capital Shangchunmen in the south.

On the 19th, Sui Jin Ziguanglu doctor Duan Da and the Ministry of Civil Affairs Shangshu Weijin led the troops to resist Li Mi, Duan Da saw that Li Mi's army was strong, and he was afraid, so he left the large army and fled to the eastern capital first, Li Mi's column pursued, and the Sui army with a bewildered face was immediately defeated, and the civil department Shangshu Weijin died.

As a result, Sui Yanshi, Bai Gu and Heyang Commanders Dugu Wudu, Hanoi County Cheng Liuxie, and Zhifang Lang Liuxu each led their subordinates to surrender to Li Mi.

After two consecutive defeats of the Sui army, Li Mi's prestige became even more prominent.

In view of Li Mi's huge momentum at this time, all the forces that respected Li Mi as the main force, such as Dou Jiande, Zhu Cang, Meng Haigong, Xu Yuanlang, etc., all sent people to persuade Li Mi to become emperor, and Li Mi's subordinate Pei Renji and others also asked for the correct position.

But Li Mi refused, he replied: "The eastern capital has not been conquered for a day, and the matter of becoming the emperor should not be mentioned again." ”

Li Mi has his pride, he doesn't want to be like those cats and dogs, just find a place to ascend the throne and be the emperor, if he Li Mi is called the emperor, he must be in the capital of the Sui Dynasty, this is the real replacement of Sui.

At this time, there was a shortage of grain in the eastern capital, and Yuan Wendu, the secretary of the Sui Taifu, and others recruited people to defend the city, and the second grade of the officials who did not eat the public grain.

Li Mi knew that the eastern capital was short of food, so he was unwilling to attack and continued to besiege Luoyang, trying to drag down Luoyang's army through food.

Subsequently, Li Mi sent Fang Yanzao, Zheng Ying and others eastward out of Liyang to comfort various states and counties respectively to enhance their own strength. He also took Yang Wang, the Taishou of Liang County, as the governor of Shangzhu State and Songzhou, and wrote a handwritten letter to Yang Wang: "In the past, I was hunted down by you in Yongqiu, and the ancients shot hooks and slashed them regardless of their previous suspicions, and I would like to follow suit!" ”

Yang Wang also sent someone to contact Li Mi, and Li Mi tried his best to envelop him and treat him with restraint.

Fang Yanzao sent a letter to Dou Jiande and asked him to come to see Li Mi, and although Dou Jiande replied that although his words were very humble and his courtesies were very thorough, he pushed Luo Yi to go south and asked to guard the north and not see Li Mi.

However, when Fang Yanzao returned to Weizhou, he was intercepted and killed by the thief Wang Deren. Wang Deren had tens of thousands of people, occupying Lin Shu Mountain and robbing everywhere, which was a scourge in several states and counties, and although Li Mi hated him greatly, he couldn't take care of it for a while.