At night, the dark clouds obscured the bright moon, the stars were dim, hundreds of big ships were still moored on the surface of the Yellow River, the night wind was strong, and the water surface was slightly rippling, making the boats rise and fall on the water surface, and the thick cables slapped against the mast and crackled.

The light in the cabin was soft, the incense burner in the corner rose with green smoke, and the cabin was filled with a faint sandalwood, Li Mi was pacing back and forth in the cabin with his hands behind his back, his heart was extremely irritable, the two sides had been facing each other for a day, he wanted to go ashore from elsewhere, but he found that as long as the ship moved, the other party's cavalry also moved, so that he had nothing to do, and more importantly, he only brought 20,000 troops, while the other party had 10,000 defenses.

But if he goes back like this, he is not reconciled, he will try anyway, at this time he is waiting for the dark to see what news the water ghost can bring to him.

At this time, footsteps sounded outside the cabin, Li Mi was in good spirits, and a personal guard reported at the door: "Your Highness, the head of the house has sent someone to deliver a letter, saying that there is something important to report." ”

Li Mi was stunned, he thought it was a water ghost with news, but unexpectedly, it was Changshi Fang Xuanzao who sent someone to deliver the letter, and he immediately ordered: "Bring the messenger in!" ”

Soon, a military official was brought in, knelt down on one knee and saluted, "See His Royal Highness King Wei!" ”

"Where is Changshi's letter?"

The military officer took out two letters and presented them, Li Mi took two letters, one letter was sent by Fang Xuanzao, and the other letter turned out to be a letter written to him by Lu Chu, the left servant of the Eastern Capital, he blinked his eyes, suspecting that he had read it wrong, it was indeed a letter written by Lu Chu to him.

Li Mi was puzzled and waved his hand. Let everyone go down, then sat down and opened the letter, he first read Lu Chu's letter, the letter actually hoped that he could surrender to Emperor Tai, and he would promote himself as the king of Wei and be in charge of foreign affairs, which made Li Mi very surprised. He took out Fang Xuanzao's letter and read it again, and then he understood the reason, it turned out that there was infighting in the Eastern Capital.

Lu Chu, Huangfu Wuyi, Duan Da and other auxiliary ministers and the upstart Wang Shichong had deep contradictions. has reached the point where water and fire are incompatible, and Lu Chu and the others want to lead them into the Eastern Capital to help them compete with Wang Shichong. He attacked Luoyang City not long ago, and he actually wanted to surrender at this time, but they could figure it out.

But then again, this is also an opportunity, Li Mi paced in the cabin with his hands behind his back, he was thinking about his development in the past few years, although it was once prosperous, but it could not last, although many officials in Henan Province surrendered to themselves, but few were sincere. This can be seen from the fact that they never come to see them, and the report on the population tax is also perfunctory and not trustworthy at all.

On the contrary, Li Yuan's momentum immediately increased when he entered the customs, and his power developed rapidly. But it is very stable, and Yang Yuanqing entered Hedong is the same, in less than two months, the officials in Hedong are happy and convinced, and they have gone to Taiyuan to meet them, which shows the people's desire.

In the final analysis, he did not have the support of the landlords. Li Yuan was supported by the Guanlong nobles, Yang Yuanqing was supported by the Shandong scholars, and Xiao Mo was supported by the southern scholars, and he also grew rapidly.

So he Li Mi can never become orthodox, in the eyes of the world, he is just a bandit leader, thinking about Liu Bei sharpened his head to seek the title of an imperial uncle, that is, to have an orthodox name, Cao Cao coerced the world to order the princes to seek orthodoxy, he Li Mi must also take the road of orthodoxy if he wants to win the world.

Lu Chu's letter undoubtedly touched Li Mi's heart, why couldn't he accept it? Fight Wang Shichong, learn from Cao Mengde, and coerce the Son of Heaven to order the princes, he will have righteousness, with the name of orthodoxy, he will be able to get the support of the landlord forces in the counties of Henan Province, and he will have money and grain, and soldiers and soldiers, and those big landlords have young and strong villagers and slaves in their hands.

He looked at Fang Xuanzao's letter again, Fang Xuanzao also suggested that he declare himself to Luoyang and find a way to control Emperor Tai, which can not only get rid of Wang Shichong, the great enemy, but also occupy Luoyang without blood, and obtain the name of orthodoxy.

Thinking of this, Li Mi resolutely decided to surrender to Emperor Tai, Fang Xuanzao persuaded him to send 10,000 stone rice to Luoyang first, in order to buy people's hearts, now Luoyang rice is extremely expensive, 10,000 yuan of rice, Li Mi immediately wrote a letter to Lu Chu, stamped his seal, and wrote a letter to Fang Xuanzao, ordering someone to find the sergeant who had just sent the letter.

Li Mi handed the letter to him and said, "These two letters will be sent to the head of the house immediately, and he will be asked to do what I arranged in the letter." ”

The sergeant took the letter and put it away, saluted and left, Li Mi breathed a sigh of relief, at this moment he was distracted, and suddenly his desire for Hanoi County was not so eager.

But Hanoi still has to fight, and it is good to get it, and there is no regret if you don't get him.

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Under the cover of night, more than a dozen vehicles and ships began to quietly sort, these were all vehicles and ships full of soldiers, a total of two thousand soldiers, whose task was to land and seize the dock.

The soldiers on the dock have been reduced by eighty percent, the Sui army camp is two hundred steps away, most of the soldiers have returned to the camp to rest, there are only two thousand crossbowmen on the dock, they are dressed and fall on the shore to sleep and rest, wrapped in blankets, dozens of patrolmen vigilantly monitor the movement on the river, but the night is very dark, the large fleet of ships are hundreds of steps away, they can't see, only close to a hundred paces, can be found by the soldiers watching on the shore.

Suddenly, a rocket was fired on the river, which was particularly bright in the night sky, which was the alarm issued by the Sui army patrolling the river, and there were enemy ships approaching the shore, and several patrol soldiers jumped up and went to the camp to report. While! While! The alarm bell sounded, and the crossbowmen sleeping on the bank of the river woke up from their dreams, raised their crossbows, and watched vigilantly for the appearance of enemy troops in the river.

Xu Shiji happened to come out of the camp to patrol, and met the messenger soldier, he immediately urged the horse to run to the shore and look at the situation in the river.

"Fireship Attack!"

Xu Shiji gave an order, and more than 50 fireboats moored on the shore immediately headed for the center of the river, these were small boats, filled with firewood, grass and fireoil, each boat was piloted by two Yellow River water ghosts wearing black shark skins, and they collided head-on with more than a dozen large ships in the strong north wind.

The speed of the boat is extremely fast, a moment approached the big ship of the Wagang army, the soldiers on the big boat shouted and shouted, the soldiers released arrows one after another, the arrows rained down, trying to prevent the boat from approaching, but there was no effect, the water ghost held a shield to operate the boat and continued to move forward, when it was about ten steps away from the big boat, the boat burned to the ground, and the water ghosts jumped into the water one after another, pulling the boat in the water to lean towards the big boat.

The fire burned rapidly, the fire oil poured into the water, forming a sea of fire in the water, several water ghosts could not escape, were burned to death in the water, in an instant, more than a dozen large ships were caught in the fire, the big ship also began to burn, the soldiers on the boat were burned unbearable, they jumped into the river to flee for their lives, but the fire on the water made it difficult for them to escape, and finally died in the water and fire.

The entire water surface has become a sea of fire, the smoke is billowing, the momentum is magnificent, even the Sui army themselves did not realize that the fire oil can burn on the water, tens of thousands of soldiers gathered on the shore, scrambling to look at the beautiful scenery of the sea of fire on the river, from time to time there were bursts of cheers, it must be an enemy ship was ignited, Xu Shiji stared at the water, his lips were biting, although the fire was spectacular, he couldn't laugh, his heart was full of sadness.

Li Mi stood on the building ship, stunned and watched his ship struggle in the sea of fire, the fire was burning to the sky, tragic and abnormal, five of the eighteen large ships escaped with the flames, the remaining thirteen large ships, most of the more than 1,000 soldiers died in the fire, only a small part was rescued by the patrol ship sent by Xu Shiji.

Li Mi stared for a long time, sighed, I had heard that Yang Yuanqing's oil was extremely powerful, it was really desperate, if his ship was burned, I was afraid that he Li Mi would also die on the north shore, he was already disheartened, so he turned back and ordered: "Pass my order, the big ship will turn around and return to Mengjindu." ”

Hundreds of large ships began to turn around one after another, in the vast night, some of the ships sailed to the opposite bank, and a few ships headed for Zhongzhuzhou in the southwest of the Yellow River, which was a sandbar in the Yellow River, built with Heyang Pass, which had been occupied by Li Mi's navy, and could be regarded as a naval base of the Wagang army in the Yellow River.

On the north shore, the news came from the patrol ship that all the Wagang troops had withdrawn, and the soldiers were suddenly jubilant, Xu Shiji's face also showed a smile, Li Mi withdrew, and the threat of the Wagang army was temporarily eliminated, but he also knew that in fact, the ships were not all evacuated, and some of the ships should still be on Zhongyun Island.

At this time, an Eagle Yang Lang general whispered to Xu Shiji: "General Xu, we have to take Ha Duong Pass back, otherwise it will always be a threat to Hanoi County." ”

Xu Shiji nodded, "Don't be in a hurry now, wait until the Yellow River freezes in winter!" ”

He turned back and ordered: "The herald immediately went to report to the governor that Li Mi's army had been forced to retreat south. ”

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The defeat of Dou Jiande's army in the west of Huojia County forced Dou Jiande to withdraw the 30,000 horses besieging Xinxiang, withdraw the army back to Gongcheng County, and after rectifying the army and horses, he still has 40,000 troops, which is on par with the Sui army, Dou Jiande has some contradictions in his heart, he wants to give up the fight for Hanoi County and withdraw the army back to Hebei, but the loss of more than 30,000 elites makes him feel painful, so he can't accept this fact, and he has nothing to gain, so he withdraws his troops?

He also wants to increase his troops and fight again, but he is afraid of suffering greater losses, which is a gambler's psychology, unwilling to lose his capital, and wants to get his capital back, but he is afraid of losing more, this ambivalence makes him in a dilemma.

At this moment, Dou Jiande got the information that a 20,000-strong Sui army entered Hanoi County from Taihang and was coming rapidly in the direction of Xinxiang County, Dou Jiande knew that this was the arrival of reinforcements from the Sui army, so that the Sui army's military strength had reached nearly 60,000 people, and if it continued, I am afraid it would not be as simple as fighting for Hanoi County, and the war would burn to Hebei.

Dou Jiande judged the situation and finally decided to evacuate Hanoi County, he wrote a personal letter to Yang Yuanqing, and the army left Gongcheng County that night and returned to Hebei.

A battle for Hanoi County ended in the defeat of Dou Jiande.