Chapter 729: The Bird Hides the Bow

At the critical time when the Xianbei people were about to regroup south to the Central Plains, no one could have expected Lin Zhan to suddenly lead his troops south to the Yellow River to attack Tongguan, and what was even more unexpected was that Han Jian personally led his troops north across the Yellow River to defend the north. Under the change of troops and commanders before the battle, many of the deployments in front of the Xiwang Mansion were disrupted, and Tongguan, which was regarded as a key pass in the pass, was also in danger.

After the Xiwangfu transferred 30,000 soldiers and horses from Tongguan, the entire Tongguan garrison was less than 20,000, and they were all garrison soldiers and horses with relatively backward combat experience. Lin Zhan used the main force of 20,000 cavalry, plus the soldiers and horses of the Beiwangfu obtained from Beichuan City in the north, plus the newly recruited recruits, the number of soldiers and horses who went south to attack Tongguan was more than 70,000 soldiers and horses.

On the sixth day of the seventh month, Lin Zhan's troops stormed Tongguan, and the battle lasted from noon to midnight that day. There were thousands of dead and wounded on both sides, and although Tongguan was not lost in the end, the defenders in the city were overwhelmed at this time.

On the seventh day of July, the second round of assault also began. The battle began in the morning, and at the same time, in Pusaka City inside Guanzhong, the 10,000 horses and horses of Han Cui's reorganized began to be diagonally inserted in the direction of Tongguan from the back road, and judging from the speed of travel, it would not take two days to reach Tongguan.

Xiwangfu hurriedly sent reinforcements to Tongguan, but halfway was ambushed by Su Tingxia's sudden appearance of a group of people, Su Tingxia's troops were already at the end of the crossbow, but after Lin Zhan personally led his troops to attack Tongguan, Su Tingxia's men and horses seemed to be relieved.

With the loss of Tongguan reinforcements, it is already very difficult to defend, plus there are simultaneous attacks in the front and rear. By the tenth day of the seventh month, Tongguan was finally knocked open, in the chaos of the battle, there was a fierce street battle in the city, but after more than two hours, there were people and horses of the West Wangfu to break through the chaos. Although there were still more than 10,000 horses left, most of them died in the chaotic battle without orderly command, or directly surrendered to the Eastern King Army.

In the past few days, the battle in Tongguan was extremely tragic. The strength of Lin Zhan's men and horses is obvious to all, and with the loss of Tongguan. The entire Guanzhong is already in an undefended state.

On July 12, after a brief rest, Lin Zhan's troops advanced in the direction of Chang'an City with cavalry as the vanguard. On July 13, the main force of Su Tingxia's central army annihilated the remnants of Xiwangfu's soldiers and horses in the north-central part of Guanzhong, and some of the Xiwangfu's soldiers and horses retreated to Chang'an City. By the 15th of July, the vanguard of the three roads of Dongwangfu had arrived in Chang'an City. On the night of July 15, the southern city of Chang'an City was lost, and the rebels in the city opened the city gate to surrender. Then the soldiers and horses of the East Wangfu entered the city.

There was chaos in the city that night, and then a fire was ignited and spread to the south of Chang'an City.

On the morning of July 16, the inner city of Chang'an City was lost, and then the soldiers and horses of the Xiwangfu withdrew from Chang'an City in a big way and went west in the direction of the Western Capital. But there were many routs along the way. On the night of July 16, the Dongwangfu completed the occupation of Chang'an City. Immediately, Lin Zhan's Chinese army arrived in Chang'an.

On July 18, Lin Zhan personally led his troops to pursue the rout of Xiwangfu. On July 20, there was a turmoil in the western capital of the Western Palace. Before Yang Pingju, the king of the west, entered the city, he learned that there was a rebellion in the city. By the time Yang Ping arrived at the western capital, the city gate had been closed and blocked out.

On July 21, Lin Zhan's cavalry arrived outside the western capital, Yang Ping's generals made a rebellion, and Yang Pingju died at the hands of the rebels under the chaos in the camp, followed by the cavalry phalanx led by Lin Zhan himself. Waiting for Lin Zhan to lead his troops and horses to arrive at the camp of Yang Pingju's Xiwang Army outside the Western Capital. There was nothing left in the camp except corpses, and the 20,000 horses that Yang Pingju brought back from Chang'an City had fled within a few hours.

On July 22, when Lin Zhan sent people to the western capital to contact, the rebels in the city opened the city gate to welcome Lin Zhan's troops into the city.

By this time. The Xiwangfu, which has been in operation for more than 40 years, has disappeared, and all that remains of the Xiwangfu is some rebellious troops that originally belonged to the Xiwangfu but have now become remnants of the defeated army.

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After Han Jian led his troops across the Yellow River, he divided his troops into two routes, and Han Jian personally led his troops to defend Beichuan City. The other road goes directly to Beiguan.

The Xianbei people began to assemble in mid-June, but due to the change of power within Xianbei, the assembly of soldiers and horses was not completed within a month. By mid-July, the Dongwangfu had begun to organize hundreds of thousands of local soldiers and civilians to reinforce and build the pass of the Beiguan eyeline to prevent the Xianbei people from going south again.

At the end of July, the Guanzhong issue was basically resolved. Some of the remaining cities were either surrendered to the imperial court, or they were pacified by Lin Zhan and Su Tingxia.

Because the north is sinister, Han Jian sent several urgent orders to Guanzhong, and ordered Su Tingxia to personally lead his troops to Beichuan to defend it. Su Tingxia has been pushing back, and at the same time, Lin Zhan's troops withdrew from the Western Capital, and the two major cities in Guanzhong, the Western Capital and Chang'an City, were guarded by Han Cui's clan.

The people of the West Palace, some of them were incorporated by the East Palace, Han Cui's family was originally brought into the Guanzhong was 6,000 elite soldiers of the East Palace, and by this time the number of soldiers and horses in his department had exceeded 40,000, most of them were the people of the West Palace. With this pass-by to guard the pass, there are still many unstable factors, and it is necessary to leave Lin Zhan's department to pacify the remaining cities in the pass.

But Su Tingxia has not accepted Han Jian's order to personally appoint troops to lead the troops north, after the end of the Bohai War, Su Tingxia has felt that his limit is approaching, and now his last use value seems to have been completed, and the East Wangfu has no intention of tolerating him. Han Jian's order to transfer troops, in the eyes of Su Tingxia's subordinates, seemed to be a signal that the rabbit was dead and the dog was cooking.

At this time, Su Tingxia's troops were stationed in some prefectures and counties around Chang'an City, and Su Tingxia's Chinese army was less than forty miles away from Chang'an City. When Su Tingxia withdrew from Bohai, there were more than 100,000 soldiers and civilians with him, and when he was separated and collapsed by the Xiwangfu, there were only more than 20,000 horses left, although some of the surrendered troops of the Xiwangfu were incorporated later, but now there are only more than 30,000 horses.

If Lin Zhan's troops were not in Guanzhong, Su Tingxia would still be confident enough to defeat the soldiers and horses of the Han Cui clan, who were not good at fighting, complete the occupation of Guanzhong, and become the next prince to divide the party. However, Lin Zhan's troops can be described as brave and good at fighting, and with Lin Zhan personally leading his troops to withdraw from the Western Capital, Su Tingxia had to think about the future. After careful consideration, Su Tingxia did not raise troops to make a rebellion, nor did he immediately lead his troops to the north according to Han Jian's wishes, but personally wrote to the imperial court and asked to return to Luoyang to recuperate. And put down the power of the soldiers and horses and handed them over to Lin Zhan for deployment.

After two years of strong winds and waves, Su Tingxia actually wrote to the imperial court to retire, which many people did not expect.

On August 12, the imperial edict arrived in Lin Zhan's army. Yang Rui personally issued a holy decree and named Su Tingxia as the Marquis of Anding. As a second-class marquis, he ordered Su Tingxia to lead part of his soldiers back to Luoyang to accept the award. At the same time, the imperial court sent envoys from the reward army to Tongguan to also arrive.

After receiving the holy decree, Su Tingxia did not leave for a long time. It was not until August 19 that Su Tingxia arrived at Tongguan with his people, and at this time Su Tingxia's headquarters had been received by the generals sent by Lin Zhan. When Su Tingxia was in Tongguan, the main force of the Chinese army launched a rebellion in the army under the leadership of Su Tingxia's generals Sun Shen and Jiang Ling, but the rebellion in the army lasted only a few hours, and Sun Shen and Jiang Ling and other rebel leaders had died in the rebellion.

By this time. Among Su Tingxia's subordinates, in addition to Su Tingxia's withdrawal, many generals who were pulled out by Su Tingxia have been killed. Su Tingxia was in Tongguan, and he also felt that the imperial court would do something to him.

At the end of August, Su Tingxia returned to Luoyang, and at this time Han Jian had returned from the north, and Lin Zhan personally led his troops north after completing the incorporation of Su Tingxia's subordinates, and guarded Beichuan to resist the Xianbei barbarians. It is still up to Lin Zhan's department.

But at this time, the Xianbei people had no intention of going south, and as Guanzhong tended to stabilize. The north also fell silent, and the original land of the Wei Dynasty was only left in Yuzhou, which was not included in the territory. However, because Yang Luochuan was still imprisoned by the Dongwang Mansion, the actual ruler of the entire Yuzhou became Huang Shilang, the Hou of Zhennan, and Huang Shilang himself ruled Yuzhou.

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On August 26, Han Jian went south to the Yellow River and returned to Luoyang. At this time, more than three months had passed since he set out for the battle in Guanzhong, and half a year had passed since the preparations for the First Battle of Guanzhong began at the beginning of the year. It has been more than 40 years since the West Palace. But it was pacified in a short period of time, in addition to military actions, what was more important was that Han Jian sent some intelligence officers to buy the generals in Guanzhong.

Yang Pingju has many sons, and he is arrogant and domineering, so he is not prestigious in the army. Many generals have long complained about Yang Pingju. Originally, when the people in the Xiwangfu were in unison, even if Han Jian sent a few people and then attacked, he would not make much progress, but it was because of the instability of the people in the Xiwangfu, coupled with the participation of Lin Zhan's troops in the battle, the defense line of the Xiwangfu collapsed again and again. When the soldiers and horses of the East Wangfu arrived in Chang'an City, the West Wangfu had already been separated from Germany, and the rebellion in the army continued, in addition to the generals who opened the city gate to surrender, there was also a rebellion in the Western Capital, and finally Yang Pingju did not return to the base camp and died at the hands of the rebels.

After Yang Pingju's death, his clan was almost slaughtered by the generals who had complained for a long time, and under Yang Pingju, except for his sons, there was no general who could stand alone. Although some generals were famous, they had no military power themselves, and were divided and disintegrated by Han Cui's clan and Lin Zhan and even Su Tingxia. The huge Guanzhong was completely quelled in two months.

On August 29, Su Tingxia, who had just been named Marquis of Anding, was almost escorted to Luoyang City.

Su Tingxia, who entered the city, was no longer a general who commanded the party. Just when he himself felt that the court would not let him go, he was greeted by Han Jian, the king of the East who returned to Luoyang a few days earlier.

Han Jian personally led some of the generals of the Eastern Palace's Mansion out of the city to greet Su Tingxia, as if he was greeting a triumphant general.

But after Su Tingxia entered the city, he did not have the opportunity to enter the palace to worship the Son of Heaven, but was sent to the mansion temporarily prepared for Su Tingxia.

It was not until the third day of the ninth month that a court meeting was held in the palace to reward the meritorious personnel of the Western Expedition, and Su Tingxia attended the court meeting as a representative of the generals.

Su Tingxia personally entered the palace, which was also an incredible thing in the eyes of many people, and others thought that Su Tingxia would be killed after returning to Luoyang, even if he was not killed, he would be imprisoned. Because Su Tingxia has done too many evil things, whether it is the imperial court or the Eastern Prince's Mansion, they should try their best to put aside their relationship with him. However, Su Tingxia's entry into the palace means that the imperial court has accepted the evil things that Su Tingxia did before, which is equivalent to admitting that those evil things are indirectly acquiesced by the imperial court.

After Su Tingxia entered the palace, he received the cold eyes of countless people. At the same time, some Confucian scholars who were invited into the palace regarded him as a butcher and a devil, and they almost sneered at Su Tingxia in the face.

But Su Tingxia seemed to accept the fact that he was a devil and entered the palace with peace of mind.

At the court meeting, Yang Rui did not attend in person, at this time Yang Rui was already pregnant for nine months, and it was very inconvenient to move. The court meeting was presided over by the crown prince Yang Xi and the supervisor Han Jian, and above the court meeting, Su Tingxia still received a high treatment, not only could be listed at the top of the generals, but even received a reward, and received a scepter symbolizing the generalissimo of soldiers and horses.

This has also caused dissatisfaction among many people. But after all, it was a court meeting, and the Son of Heaven did not attend, even if some people were agitated, they still didn't cause any trouble at the court meeting.

When the court meeting was dispersed, a luncheon was held in the palace, and officials and generals, as well as those who were invited to the palace, all moved to the Wenwu Hall to drink and feast. At this time, Yang Rui was late, and when the ministers saw Yang Rui's belly-bellied, they also eliminated their worries about Yang Rui being placed under house arrest by Han Jian.

At the luncheon, Yang Rui personally toasted Su Tingxia, but he replaced the wine with tea. Su Tingxia was also at ease, which caused criticism from many people.

Yang Rui only stayed at the luncheon for a short time before leaving with the help of others. After that, Han Jian also left, and it was Yang Xi who presided over the banquet.

After the expedition to the west, although Yang Xi has not completely come out of the shadows, he is no longer as poor as before. Even if he attends a crowded place like a banquet, he won't be too frightened, but it's more difficult to get him to say a few words.

said that Yang Xi presided over it, and the banquet behind it was basically a one-man show by Lin Ke, the waiter of the Ministry of Rites. After all, Lin Ke was born in the East Pavilion Shangshu and belonged to the scholar school, so he naturally looked at Su Tingxia in his heart, since Han Jian and Yang Rui acquiesced to let him preside over the banquet, and he himself had lost power, he had no scruples, and he seemed to be extremely polite to Su Tingxia, and constantly toasted Su Tingxia, but he always did not make sarcasm when toasting.

Su Tingxia accepted it with a blank face, as if he didn't understand.

Throughout the banquet, Su Tingxia and Lin Ke became the protagonists.

By the time the banquet was over, it was almost dusk. When Su Tingxia left the palace with a look of concern for himself, he met Han Jian at the gate of the palace who had just come out of the inner garden of the palace. Su Tingxia wanted to slow down and wait for Han Jian to go out before leaving the palace, but Han Jian came over and stopped him with a smile. (To be continued......)