Cutting the generals before the battle is to inspire the morale of the army and to make an example of a hundred people, so that the whole army can work together to capture the city in front of them. Xu Liang didn't expect that he would become the person who should be killed in the eyes of his brother, and he just told a fact, and he didn't mention the matter of cowardice, so he did a ghost in vain.

When Xu Liang's head was picked up and circulated to the three armies, people's hearts were not more stable than they had imagined, but some people were jealous, in front of them was the inner city of Luoyang, the inner city wall of the imperial city of the Great Wei Dynasty, even if the Luoyang rebels had been in the outer city for nearly half a year, the result was that the rebels had not yet entered the inner city of Luoyang. Now it is impossible for them to take the inner city of Luoyang and capture the palace in less than an hour before dawn.

However, Xu Yan's military order was issued, and a round of onslaught ensued, and the order to take the inner city of Luoyang before dawn had become a military order, and no one was allowed to give an opinion.

But after the war, the three inner gates in the south of Luoyang City seemed to become a meat grinder, and how many people and horses went up would bury as many people and horses. Xu Yan was quite confident at the beginning, thinking that as long as he established his prestige, he would definitely be able to open the city gate with strong pressure with soldiers and horses. But later, he found a heavy problem, which was also a problem from the beginning of the siege war, that is, the lack of siege baggage. Even if there were sporadic soldiers who relied on the makeshift ladder to reach the tower, in the absence of crossbow arrows and follow-up support, these soldiers who made it to the tower would soon be buried by the defenders. And there are rolling stones falling on the city tower, and the arrows are flying all over the sky, and the soldiers of the Nanwangfu who want to attack the city downstairs almost step on the crowd to get to the city tower, but they can only look up at the city tower at a loss.

There was also something that Xu Yan didn't expect, originally he thought that when the defenders faced such a large-scale siege war, they would inevitably be cowardly and want to retreat, and even the outer city would be breached, and the inner city would be much easier to attack. But the opposite is true. The defenders in the city seem to be very neat, but they don't seem to have many people, but they are guarding the city gate tightly. Even if the door was hit with the rolling logs found later, there was no sign of loosening at all, but the defenders in the city continued to have fresh blood joining, and it seemed that a city gate could already be breached. New garrisons will soon be joining.

After seeing more than half an hour, less than half an hour before Xu Yan captured in the next hour, Xu Yan already felt the strong pressure behind him.

The problem now is that you can't advance, and if you retreat, you will lose the outer city south of Luoyang City, which you have taken at too much cost. However, if he does not retreat before stabilizing his position in the city, regardless of whether he can take Luoyang City or not, even the soldiers and horses of Su Tingxia's troops outside the city who have received sporadic news may pose a threat to his rear. When the time comes, he will only make wedding garments for others.

"Xu Shuai, the six guards and horses have been destroyed, and the Jade Front Gate needs the support of soldiers and horses!"

"Xu Shuai. There is a road behind the people who seem to have the possibility of seizing the city gate, please send troops to support! ”

The front can't be attacked, and the rear is a little chaotic. Originally, I thought that the outer city of Luoyang had been pacified, and I didn't know where to get out of nowhere, although these people were not enough to threaten the main force of the Chinese army under Xu Yan's department, but once the back road was harassed, the first thing was that people's hearts were fluctuating. No one wants to be buried under the imperial city of Luoyang.

Xu Yan naturally wouldn't choose to withdraw his troops, he thought. Just hold on a little longer, and there are three gates in front of you. As long as one is loose, or the defending generals are afraid of battle, and the soldiers and horses enter the city, the overall situation is decided. But this hope was expected for another hour, and by the time the day was completely dawn, he was already a little disheartened.

When it was dawn, he could see the situation on the castle tower more clearly. The soldiers and horses stationed on the city tower, where is a group of rabble, the colors of the battle flags are very bright, and the soldiers' attire can be distinguished at a glance that they are the main force stationed in Luoyang in the Dongwang army, although the number is not much. But these main forces of the Eastern King Army in the past two years to conquer the south and the north can be said to be a great achievement, to say that the combat effectiveness is higher than that of the Southern King Army, plus the natural danger of the city wall as a guard, like a tiger with wings, how can it be shaken lightly?

"Xu Shuai, I just got the news, more than an hour ago, a soldier and horse raided our army's camp, and the grain and grass were burned. The camp has also been pulled out! ”

When Xu Yan got the news, his heart was already half cold, and when he saw a person on the city tower who was sneering and looking at the figure below, Xu Yan felt that this qiē was a trap.

The one standing on the tower of the city is now the helmsman of the military and political power in Luoyang, Han Jian, the king of the East. As the king of the east, Han Jian personally appeared on the front line of defending the city, and Xu Yan finally understood why the defenders in the city were so united, the feeling was that the king of the east came to supervise the battle in person, and the soldiers under his hands were not brave enough to kill the enemy?

Now there is no way forward, and the back road is likely to be cut off, and there are two roads in front of Xu Yan, either continue to march into the army, or simply turn the road and turn the other way. Even if the battalion was pulled out and his men suffered heavy losses, but now there are still 20,000 horses, which is the absolute main force of Yuzhou's soldiers and horses, if it is buried in his hands, not to mention that the Marquis of Zhennan can't spare him, even he can't forgive himself. If Yuzhou is supported by the 30,000 soldiers and horses under his command, I am afraid that Yuzhou will not be able to hold it. Now the 30,000 horses have lost 10,000, and if they continue like this, they will be outflanked by the front and back, and the whole army may be wiped out.

"Withdraw!" Xu Yan made a decision immediately, what he thought was that it didn't matter if he was dealt with by military law because he misjudged the fighter, but the soldiers and horses had to be saved.

When Xu Yan's order has been given, the soldiers of the Nanwang Army on the front line can be regarded as having come from the disaster of crying father and looking for his mother, from the beginning it was a battle with no chance of winning at all, and there was no siege and no internal response, and if they wanted to conquer a solid fortress, there seemed to be no other way to go except to send the corpse to the bottom of the fortress. With the order to withdraw, the soldiers fled in a wolf manner, and some of the wounded could not be carried away, and when the soldiers and horses withdrew from the front line of the tower, there were no pursuers in the city.

Xu Yan originally wanted to turn back and kill back to catch the defenders in the city off guard, but the city gate was not opened, and every word was empty talk. To withdraw troops is to withdraw troops.

When the troops returned to the outer city gate, they counted the number of soldiers and horses in the army a little, and the situation was even worse than Xu Yan imagined. In this morning's siege battle, nearly half of the original 30,000 horses had been lost, and only a few thousand of them died, but deserters accounted for the majority. Under a bloody battle, the entire outer city of Luoyang was filled with the smell of blood.

Retreating to the outer city, Xu Yan had mixed feelings in his heart, the first time he recruited troops and horses to fight in the name of the commander, he suffered heavy losses. This was something he could not have predicted. When he led his troops into the outer city of Luoyang, he was so ambitious that he thought that he would not only be able to make meritorious achievements, but also possibly ascend to the throne of God. This qiē was just a dream in the end, and he was very unwilling, because he didn't know how he lost in the end. He can be angry. Except for the soldiers and horses outside the city who took his back road, it seems that there is no other culprit.

"Xu Shuai, we are still stationed in ......"

Xu Yan sighed and said the second half of the sentence for his subordinates: "Withdraw the troops and return to the camp in the south of the city, how much grain and grass can be saved." Clean up the remnants of the army, put down the order, and the deserters before the war will not be held accountable, and the remnants of the army will be reorganized. Make up your mind again! ”

Xu Yan's order was also to quickly contain the deserters in the army, so that the last fire in the army could be retained. But this also made those soldiers who fought bravely on the front line unwilling, I fought bravely in front of the enemy and ended up with nine deaths, and those deserters fled without a trace from the beginning, and now they come back and don't pursue it?

After all, Xu Yan is a battle-hardened general, and even if he withdraws his troops, he can organize in an orderly manner. Waiting for the soldiers and horses to withdraw from Luoyang City, the city gate was soon received by the Dongwang Army, and Xu Yan finally looked back at the city tower in Luoyang. sighed that this was not something he could control.

Before returning to the Chinese army camp, several waves of soldiers and horses had already encountered interception on the road. These soldiers and horses are very average in terms of combat effectiveness, and they are all defeated in a battle after encountering Xu Yan's main force of soldiers and horses, what makes Xu Yan puzzled is that it is this group of soldiers and horses who seem to be scattered soldiers and horses who attacked the battalion behind him?

When Xu Yan's soldiers and horses finally withdrew to the original camp, the messy scene in front of him made Xu Yan feel a sense of sadness, and there were still more than 20,000 defenders in the original camp. Although the more than 20,000 people were mostly civilians, in his opinion, with the number of defenders in the city and the unguarded posture, he would not have burned the flames of war to his Chinese camp. Who knew that he had suffered heavy casualties in the front attack on Luoyang, and the large battalion behind him was also served by someone, and he didn't believe that it was made by the king army in the east of the city. He jumped off his horse and stood in front of the charred body of a soldier, and gave a military salute, but he drew his sword, and his heart was full of anger, and he shouted angrily: "The surname Su, I am inseparable from you!" ”

Others don't know why their own coach would mention the "surname Su", and now the only one who wants to come to the surname Su is so hated is Su Tingxia, who led troops in the north. But now that the Southern Wangjun is attacking Luoyang, no one can copy the back road, could it be that Su Tingxia sent troops and horses to do it? Even so, what should be hated by the boss of his own family should be the king of the east and the empress in the palace, what does it have to do with Su Tingxia, who was ordered to do it?

But Xu Yan won't explain anything, now that the grain and grass are served, and the soldiers and horses in the city will fight back at any time, the surroundings of Luoyang are already unstable. Xu Yan was about to pack up the remnants of the army and prepare to retreat south to Yuzhou. For Xu Yan, the result of the defeat was that his life would not be saved when he returned to Yuzhou, and perhaps the Marquis of Zhennan would be afraid that he would support the army and let him go, but how to say that Xu Yan's career as a soldier came to an end. What he has to do now is to bring the more than 10,000 men and horses back to Yuzhou.

Xu Yan was unwilling and had no other way, until now, he didn't even know the layout in the city. He only felt that he was not wrong in the choice of attacking Luoyang, but the city dealt with it well, and with Su Tingxia's elite soldiers and good generals, he copied his back road, which made him unable to care about each other. But when the soldiers and horses continued to retreat for a while, after getting some information from the front line, his mind had to change.

Judging from what was learned from the front line, Su Tingxia's soldiers and horses were still on the north bank of the Yellow River, and there was no possibility of going south at all, because Su Tingxia's troops had already moved west to the direction of Guanzhong two days before, and even the soldiers and horses that had been stationed on the north bank of the Yellow River had also embarked on the road to the west. From the north bank of the Yellow River to the Chinese army camp in Yuzhou, there are at least 150 miles on the way, even if Su Tingxia's troops are considered the elite of the Eastern Wang Army and the Imperial Army, it is impossible to kill him overnight and take his back road and go away. The only possibility now is that the soldiers and horses of Duan's battalion are sent from Luoyang City, if this is the case, then the number of defenders in Luoyang City is not even 5,000 soldiers and horses, and they must also garrison many gates in the inner and outer cities of Luoyang City at the same time, and maintain stability in the city.

Xu Yan suddenly felt a chill in his heart, so to speak, in the morning, there were almost 5,000 soldiers and horses guarding the southern city in Luoyang, and the damage to the defenders in the city was also very serious. Could it be that this is already the limit of the defenders in the city? If he persists for another hour, does it mean that he can capture Luoyang?

There is no regret medicine in the world, Xu Yan now knows that the soldiers and horses who came to raid his back have withdrawn to the city from all directions, even if he goes to attack the city now, the defenders in Luoyang City are on guard, and he has no chance. It can be thought that the king of the east personally climbed the tower to supervise the battle before, which has already shown how dangerous the situation of the garrison in the city is, and even a pampered person like the king of the east has to personally supervise the battle, if it is not so, Luoyang may not be guaranteed.

"Xu Shuai, which way should we go back to Yuzhou?" After a day of marching, Xu Yan chose to be stationed after making sure that there were no pursuers. At this time, the whole army was sleepy and lacking horses, and because of the lack of food on the way, hundreds of people became deserters. These deserters will definitely not return to Yuzhou, and may occupy the mountains as kings and fall into the grass, which is also a situation he does not want to see.

Xu Yan looked at the topographic map around Luoyang and pointed to one side of the topographic map, but he was also a little depressed. In less than two days, he already felt like twenty years had passed, from success to fame to falling to the bottom of his life, and this qiē was only because he had an inaccurate grasp of the battle situation. From the beginning of his march, he thought that everything had the first opportunity, but he never thought that the king army in the east of the city was the last to come, and deliberately released water to let him take the outer city of Luoyang when he knew that he was going to attack the city. But I don't know that the outer city of Luoyang is only a very weak link in the entire Luoyang city defense, and taking the outer city of Luoyang does not mean conquering Luoyang. In this way, it gave Dongwang Jun the opportunity to end his back road, so that he lost the drama and ended up in a dismal end.

"Has the news been sent back to General Huang?" Xu Yan felt disheartened, knowing that going back to Yuzhou was likely to die, but he had already calmed down, and if he was wrong, he would have to bear the consequences for his mistake. Now the most important thing is to let Zhennan Hou Huang Shilang know the whole story of the matter and deal with it, in his opinion, this defeat is likely to make Su Tingxia's soldiers and horses turn south and raid Yuzhou. After all, Yuzhou's defense is empty, and it is easier to be broken than the strict battle in Guanzhong.

"Back to Xu Shuai, I have already sent someone back to Yuzhou."

Xu Yan sighed after hearing this, and seemed to let go of the last big stone in his heart. (To be continued......)