The Three Cities of Heyang are not only an important military base for the Eastern Wei Dynasty to control the Heluo region, but also one of the most important links in the overall border defense of the Eastern Wei Dynasty.

Therefore, in the period after Gao Huan's death, when Gao Cheng and the nobles of Jinyang initially reached effective communication, when even sent Hu Lujin, the patriarch of the Jinyang overlordship, to lead Pan Le, Xue Guyan and other generals out of Heyang, in order to prevent the chaos in Henan from spreading to the north, especially to guard against the Western Wei people taking advantage of the chaos to enter the Kou.

Heyang is an important town across the Yellow River, and tens of thousands of people are stationed here all year round, and they will not be used at will unless emergency or special circumstances, and only the Jinyang Bafu can dispatch and command the people stationed here.

Even if Hou Jing was stationed in Heyang for a short period of time last year, he, the great Xingtai of Henan Province, also had no dispatching power over the Heyang garrison, so he could only lead his headquarters to return to Henan.

Hu Lujin and others led the people of the headquarters, plus the elite of the Jinyang soldiers sent by the overlord envoys, arrived in the middle of Heyang Beizhongcheng in mid-May, took over and made a series of adjustments to the defense of Heyang, and gathered the people and horses scattered between Heluo and not affected by Hou Jing's rebellion in the three cities of Heyang one after another, making the defenders of the three cities reach nearly 50,000 people.

Among the nearly 50,000 horses, a considerable part of them are the Heluo Haoqiang private troops recruited in recent years and the soldiers recruited by the Hebei Prefectures, and the loyalty and combat effectiveness are not enough to guarantee, so Hu Lujin sent generals to be stationed in Zhucheng.

Among them, the person responsible for guarding the southern city of Heyang is Xue Guyan, a general known for his bravery.

After the Hanguan City in Xin'an was broken, the soldiers and civilians in the city fled to the vast Heluo Plain to the east in order to avoid pursuit, and some of them also turned north along the valley water, passing through the old city of Luoyang through Qianjinyan, but there were no garrisons along the way to accept them, so they could only continue to flee north until they reached the southern city of Heyang.

The two Wei fought several battles in the Heluo region, and both Luoyang City and its affiliated city were severely damaged, leaving almost nothing but ruins. Although it has been renovated to a certain extent in recent years, it is difficult to accommodate large-scale living and management.

Therefore, the current Luozhou Prefecture and Henan County Government have also moved to the southern city of Heyang, making this originally purely military city the military and political center of the Heluo area.

Many fleeing people appeared around the city, and the first thing they found was naturally the ranger scouts arranged around the city, they intercepted these fleeing people and asked about the origin, when they learned the shocking news that Luoxi's Hanguan City had been lost, they even reported it to the city, and then, there was no more.

Today's Heyang South City, there are more than 20,000 military and civilian masses gathered inside and outside, including the elite Jinyang soldiers led by Xue Guyan from Hebei to the south, and the Heluo troops who were urgently recalled from all over the place in order to avoid chaos in Hou Jing, and there are military and political offices at all levels, which makes the management of the city quite chaotic.

In the face of such a complicated and chaotic status quo of the city, Xue Guyan completely ignored it, and spent all day in the town in addition to dealing with some basic military affairs is drinking and playing.

Therefore, although the scouts have detected relatively important military information, after being conveyed layer by layer, the news has not been circulated, and as for whether it has entered the head of the final decision-maker, the soldiers at the lower levels have no way of knowing.

Although Xue Guyan was a little derelict in his duties, fortunately, not everyone in the city was so irresponsible.

At this time, in addition to Xue Guyan in the city, there was also Yuan Xiaoyou, the king of Linhuai, who served as Yin of Henan, and when he saw this information in his head, Yuan Xiaoyou felt bad in his heart, and he was busy taking this letter and went straight to the military government in Zhencheng to ask to see Xue Guyan.

The wine in the military palace is smoky, and the brave soldiers under Xue Guyan and his command are doing a game of wrestling, and the winner can drink the clear and cold wine, and the loser needs to go down to the court to drink the turbid and bad wine.

At this time, Xue Guyan was bare-chested and exposed, his abdomen had already bulged high due to drinking, coupled with the dense body hair between his chest and abdomen, at first glance, he looked like he was holding a fat black-haired wild boar in his arms.

His people were already drunk, and when he heard that Yuan Xiaoyou, the king of Linhuai, asked to see him, he introduced it into the hall, pointed at Yuan Xiaoyou, and said with a smile: "The king also has a certain military drama?" Entering this hall, according to my orders, although the king is a respected relative, it is not avoidable, here the sages and saints are all present, each from the strength of the drink, the king wants to choose who under my door to compete? ”

When King Gao was there, he still treated the emperor of Yedu and the relatives of the Yuan and Wei clans quite favorably, but Xue Guyan and other Jinyang generals had not entered the court for a long time, and they each had a prominent position by virtue of their courage and merits, so they became more and more ignorant of these clan members.

Yuan Xiaoyou naturally didn't have a good impression of Xue Guyan's vulgar martial arts, but the other party was in charge of the soldiers and horses in the city, and even if he was unhappy, he didn't dare to reveal it, so he stood on tiptoe to avoid the wine stains and vomit spilled in the hall, and walked in front of Xue Guyan and arched his hand: "There is a disturbance to the Qin Gong's play, but the military situation is urgent, and the westerners are coming to the east, and they have already broken through the cities of Yan Han, Han Pass, and Jingu, if you don't take precautions, I'm afraid Heluo will be uneasy!" ”

Xue Guyan was not drunk at this time, and he was also shocked when he heard the words, and hurriedly raised his hand to retreat from the hall to play with the pro-soldiers, and asked Yuan Xiaoyou in a loud voice: "Is there such a thing?" When did it happen? ”

Yuan Xiaoyou told a little about the information he received, there were more than 6,000 soldiers and civilians defending the city in the city of Hanguan, including more than 2,000 elite Jinyang soldiers alone, plus the men and horses arranged in the garrison stronghold near the left, there were nearly 10,000 troops, and they were responsible for blocking the Beikun Road and supporting the nearby Yiyang town, and the force was not small.

According to the confession of the soldiers and civilians of Guancheng who fled here, first of all, a Western Wei Dynasty man and horse bypassed Guanshan and arrived near Luoyang, attacked the Golden Granary City located in the lower reaches of Gushui, and choked the back road of the Guancheng defenders.

Later, the army of the Western Dynasty marched eastward from the direction of Yan Hancheng, completely occupying the entire Gushui River Valley, and the city was arguing endlessly about how to deal with the enemy, and the town would like to arrange men and horses to take the initiative to attack, but the other generals suspected that he took the opportunity to eradicate dissidents and surrender to the enemy because Zhencheng was still Hou Jing's general, so a group of men and horses fled at night, which led to a great escape of the whole city.

"This thief dares to surrender to the enemy, he really deserves to be killed, he should be killed!"

Although Xue Guyan was not drunk at this time, his head was not very bright, and after listening to Yuan Xiaoyou's narration, he didn't extract much really useful information, but he heard that Zhencheng wanted to surrender to the enemy, and he didn't distinguish whether it was true or false, so he scolded angrily first.

But in fact, Yuan Xiaoyou still has some suspicions, the town and city generals mentioned in this intelligence just want to arrange people to take the initiative to attack, how can it be related to eradicating dissidents and surrendering to the enemy according to the city? Could it be that the enemy is innocent when he attacks and closes the city?

Yuan Xiaoyou is not a military commander after all, and the information he received is still copied from elsewhere, not necessarily the whole picture, and he wants to raise his doubts to Xue Guyan, but after Xue Guyan learned about this, he began to shout loudly to summon the staff generals, with a posture of wanting to do a big job, and he had no time to pay attention to him at all.

He didn't want to interfere too much in military affairs, and besides, the smell in this hall was really not too good, so he reminded again: "It is indeed a matter of great importance for Westerners to enter Heluo. Moreover, Han Situ and other armies are rushing to Yingchuan to settle the chaos, and the dynamics of the enemy country need to be paid more attention, and Da Sima is now in charge of the military forces of Heyang, no matter how the Duke of Ping Qin responds, he should ......"

"The king will go by himself, don't leave me to shake my tongue in the hall!"

Xue Guyan waved his hand impatiently, his interest in the play was interrupted and he learned of such a change, and his contempt for Yuan Xiaoyou under the irritability was undisguised.

Just as Xue Guyan was anxious to make up for the military emergency he missed due to neglect of military affairs, the news of Li Tai's people in the city was also quickly transmitted back to the rear.

At this time, the army led by Li Bi and Zhao Gui had also arrived in Hengnong, and when they learned that the Beikun Road had been opened up and the forward team had re-entered the Heluo area, Li Bi and others were quite happy, and praised Li Tai for his courage and bravery.

But Zhao Gui's expression was somewhat unnatural, frowning and muttering: "Although Li Boshangong is gratifying, it is a little out of place. At present, Hou Jing is guarding Yingchuan, and the eastern thief Han Rail and others are also rushing, and Wang Sizheng is alone in danger. If the thief army crosses the Henan, our army is afraid that it will lose its footing, and if it stays in Heluo and fights with the enemy here, it will inevitably be a big mistake in the army......"

When the generals heard Zhao Gui say this, they all fell silent, and the main task of their trip was naturally to cooperate with Wang Sizheng's army in Henan and receive as much Hou Jing's sphere of influence in Henan as possible. Li Tai fought so hard in the Heluo area, and it was indeed a little extraneous.

But some people couldn't help but speak: "The situation in Henan is delicate, and the personnel are undecided, but the Luoxi Cities are obtained, and it is not appropriate to use the undecided personnel to make the merits first......

Zhao Gui naturally knew that it was a bit far-fetched to deny Li Tai's exploits, and after hearing this, he smiled and said: "Of course, Li Boshan has several cities and merits, but the army of Heyang cannot be taken lightly and it is also required by the situation." So at present, we need to be cautious and self-guarding, and avoid greed, Li Boshan only needs to stick to Luoxi Pass, so that thieves dare not go out of Heyang lightly, and our army can enter and exit Luonan without worrying about it, what does Li Taiwei think? ”

As he spoke, Zhao Gui looked at Li Bi again and threw this question to him. Of course, he could not deny Li Tai's previous merits, but he could confine Li Tai to the Luoxi Pass City, let him take care of the flanks of the army, and no longer participate in military operations in the direction of Henan.

After thinking about it, Li Bi nodded and said: "What Nanyang Gong said is indeed a serious plan, ordering Li Boshan to stick to Luoxi Guancheng, in case the thieves from Heyang come south to block the back of the army. ”

Although he and Li Tai did not have any contradictions, Zhao Gui's proposal was indeed beneficial to the follow-up actions of the army. Moreover, Li Bi himself also faintly felt that Li Boshan had been too sharp in recent years, and if it was not restricted, he was afraid that he would make a lot of moves in the Heluo area, thus causing overall strategic chaos.