Chapter 19 18. Death Squad captures He Lianchang alive

In the fourth year of Shiguang in the Northern Wei Dynasty (AD 427), the Wei army sent troops to Pingcheng again.Tuoba Tao led 30,000 cavalry led by Situ Zhang Sun Song and others as the precursor, Changshan King Tuoba Su and others led 30,000 infantry as successors, Nanyang King Tuoba Fuzhen led 30,000 infantry to transport the siege vehicles, and General He Duoluo Leading 3,000 elite cavalry to wait for dispatch, he personally led tens of thousands of the main force, and with a wave of the banner, pointed directly at Tongwan, the capital of Xia Guoguo. After crossing the Yellow River, the army moved slowly.Tuoba Tao decided to take the light cavalry first.The ministers all thought that it would be difficult to unify the city, so it would be better to wait for the infantry and siege engines to come up and then act in unison.Tuoba Tao smiled and said: "The way to use troops is to siege a city. It is only considered as a last resort. If the infantry and siege vehicles are all driving under the city, the Xia army must be afraid and unable to hold on. If they can't attack for a while Come down, the food is exhausted, the soldiers are exhausted, and there is no way to advance or retreat, so it is difficult to do. It is better to directly attack the city with light cavalry. Xia Jun sees that our infantry has not arrived, and the will to defend the city must be relaxed. If our army continues to show weakness, they Maybe they will go to war, then it will be easy to deal with. My light cavalry has a strong city in front and no support behind. . " So, he ordered 30,000 light cavalry to go both ways and rush towards Tongwan.

He Lianchang in Tongwan City originally planned to hold out, and waited for Helian Ding to get rid of Xi Jin before returning to attack the Wei army.Tuoba Tao deliberately showed weakness to Xia Jun, but He Lianchang ignored him.Tuoba Tao had no choice but to station tens of thousands of troops near Tongwan City. Seeing that the backup had not arrived and the food and grass were running out, the situation was not optimistic. At this time, God helped the strong. A soldier in the Wei army camp was afraid of being punished. He escaped secretly and sneaked into Tongwan City to report the situation to He Lianchang. We eat wild vegetables, and the infantry and siege engines have not arrived yet, so we should attack early." (This information helped Wei Jun by accident, so that I very much doubt whether this is a trick by Tuoba Tao.)

He Lianchang was very happy to get reliable information, so he personally led 30,000 infantry and cavalry out of the city to fight.Changsun Song saw that the Xia army's battle formation was rigorous and not easy to attack, so he advised Tuoba Tao to avoid the edge for the time being.Tuobatao said: "I came from afar to attack Tongwan because I was afraid that the enemy would not move. Now that I have come out, if I avoid fighting instead of fighting, it will be to strengthen my ambition and destroy my prestige, absolutely not! Our army should be tempted And annihilate them." As he spoke, he put away his men and horses, pretending to be defeated and fleeing.

Xia Jun is also a strong cavalry force.They separated their wings and pursued Wei Jun all the way.After walking about five or six miles, suddenly a gust of wind and rain came from the southeast, flying sand and rocks, and the sky was dark.The soldiers of the Wei army were unable to march normally. An army eunuch who was quite skilled in alchemy, named Zhao Ni, said to Tuoba Tao: "Nowadays the wind and rain are blowing, we are against the wind, the enemy is against the wind, and the sky will not help me; and the soldiers are hungry and thirsty. Your Majesty, why don't you take a break and wait for another day?" Fight again."

Cui Hao who was standing next to him scolded angrily: "What are you talking about? Our army has traveled thousands of miles to win. How can we change the strategy we have set up. The enemy is greedy and has no backup. Our army should lie in ambush, split into two routes, attack Behind him, he can just take advantage of the favorable wind. The so-called good or bad wind direction depends on people, so how can there be any reason why the weather doesn't change?" Tuoba Tao expressed his deep appreciation, and divided the army into left and right teams, and turned to fight Xia's army.

Tuoba Tao was about to command the army to charge, when suddenly his horse fell to the ground, and he also fell down.The soldiers of Xia State came to capture them one after another. Fortunately, the clan Tuoba Qi defended him, and they killed the enemy.Tuoba Tao got on his horse again and stabbed to death the Xia general Hu Liwen with his own hands.Tuoba Tao held the arrow in his hand, and still fought bloody battles, killing more than a dozen cavalrymen of the Xia Kingdom, which greatly inspired the morale of the Wei army.The Xia army was already defeated, with tens of thousands of casualties.He Lianchang couldn't control the defeat at all, and the counterattacked Wei army chased all the way to the north of Tongwan City, before entering the city in time, and fled to Shanggu (now Tianshui, Gansu) with the defeated soldiers.

Tuoba Tao successfully took over the solid Tongwan City with only tens of thousands of cavalry without attacking the city.He led an army into the city and captured tens of thousands of princes, ministers, concubines and maids of Xia, more than 300,000 horses, tens of millions of cattle and sheep, and countless treasury treasures.Tuobatao couldn't help sighing: "How can such a small country not perish if it is so laborious and costly to the people?" . In addition to the rich and beautiful women, Tuoba Tao also obtained more precious talents, including Zhang Yuan and Xu Bian, the historians of the Xia Kingdom, and Mao Xiuzhi, the former general of the Eastern Jin Dynasty.The most interesting thing is this general Mao Xiuzhi, who was the only one who survived the loss of Chang'an in the Eastern Jin Dynasty. In the Northern Wei Dynasty, he was worshiped as a general again and made great achievements in the battle against Rouran.This can already be called "a blessing in disguise, who knows it is not a blessing", but he still has a unique skill, that is, he is good at cooking, and he has "studied" the food in the south of the Yangtze River, and Tuoba Tao happens to love southern food. He had a special liking for the delicacies he cooked, and later he was often called into the imperial dining room in the palace to cook southern dishes. (This can be regarded as a great contribution to promoting the spread of the traditional cooking culture of the motherland.)

He Lianding was still in Chang'an and suffered repeated defeats. Hearing that Tongwan had fallen, he no longer wanted to fight, and led his troops back to Shangbi.At the same time as Tuoba Tao's class teacher, he also ordered Sikong Xijin of Chang'an to withdraw his troops.Unwilling to be reconciled, Xi Jin wrote a letter in person, vowing to ask for more troops to attack Shangyu and capture Helianchang alive.Tuoba Tao saw that his heart was commendable, so he gave him 10,000 soldiers and 3,000 horses, and sent generals Eqing and Qiudui to fight side by side with Xi Jin. He Lianchang was attacked by General Wei's relatives in Shanggui, and was forced to retreat to Pingliang, while Xi Jin pushed for An Ding.The Anding area is far away from Tongwan, and the supplies of the Wei army cannot keep up.Soon, Xi Jin's tens of thousands of troops were in trouble, the horses died of illness, and the soldiers were short of food.Xi Jin couldn't hold on, so he indulged his soldiers to rob the people of food, but was attacked by He Lianchang again, and the loss was not small.Xi Jin had no choice but to order a fortress to be built to strengthen himself, and let He Lianchang challenge at the door, completely losing the courage to write to the emperor.

Anjie, the censor of the supervising army, was very dissatisfied with Xi Jin's retreat policy, and questioned: "The general was ordered to destroy Xia, but now he is trapped by the enemy. Even if he is not killed by the enemy, he will be punished by military law if he escapes. Dilemma, generals Haven't you thought about your own future?" Xi Jin said in embarrassment: "Now the soldiers have no horses, and there is no reason to fight cavalry with infantry. I think we have to wait for the imperial court to rescue them." An Jie became angry and said: "Now that the enemy is roaming around outside and our army is running out of food, if we don't decide to fight to the death, then death is imminent. Can the rescue soldiers from the court be useful? It is better to fight to the death than to wait for death!" Jin also prevaricates with Ma Shao's excuse.An Jie asked to select 200 war horses and recruit a death squad to attack Xia's army and capture He Lianchang.Even if you can't break the enemy, at least you can dampen his spirit!Xi Jin still looked troubled.

(An Jie’s suggestion was risky, but it was just right to deal with this situation, and it was later proved to be effective. At that time, the censor of the army could only report the battle situation to the emperor, and had no power to intervene in the command. At critical moments, An Jie could It plays such a big role, which shows that the battle is not only about the commander's great strategy, great wisdom, and great courage, but also various accidental factors may become the key to the battle situation. A magic weapon to defeat the enemy.) Unable to speak to the marshal, An Jie came back to discuss privately with the general Wei's family, and secretly selected 200 cavalry to prepare for battle.Sure enough, He Lianchang personally led the attack, and An Jie took his 200 death squads to fight.The soldiers of the Northern Wei Dynasty all recognized He Lianchang, and all of them hated him and rushed to catch him.Coincidentally, the weather changed drastically at this time, and the weather similar to what Tuoba Tao encountered outside Tongwan City appeared again - the wind was strong, and this time it was Helian Chang's turn to fall down on his horse.He was not as lucky as Tuoba Tao. Wei Bing rushed forward, knocked him down to the ground and tied him up firmly. The majestic Emperor Xia was so miserable by the weather, horses and the opponent's good luck.

However, He Lianchang's luck was not bad after that. After he was sent back to Pingcheng, because of his good looks, he aroused Tuoba Tao's favor (I don't know if the emperor has a tendency to like beautiful men), not only placed him in his own Xigong also married his own sister, Princess Shiping, to him.Later, Tuoba Tao often took He Lianchang with him, riding a horse with him to go hunting in the mountains.Although the generals of the Northern Wei Dynasty thought it was inappropriate to do so, Tuoba Tao never took it seriously, saying: "As long as the fate is in my hands, what is there to be afraid of?" A.D. 434) rebelled and fled westward, and was killed by General Wei. He Lianding packed up the remnants of the defeated generals and fled back to Pingliang to proclaim himself emperor.An Jie and Wei Juan in Wei Yingli made great contributions, and were promoted to rank by Tuoba Tao, which is very beautiful.Xi Jin thought he was a marshal, but his credit was taken away by his subordinates, and he was annoyed and ashamed.He did not listen to the dissuasion of his subordinates, so he led tens of thousands of cavalry to pursue Helian Ding.He Lianding received a report from the partial generals in the Northern Wei army who came to surrender, and knew that the Wei army did not have enough food, grass and drinking water, so they could not leave for a few days.He set up an ambush on the way and attacked the Wei army.Xi Jin rode forward lightly, but unexpectedly, the whole army was defeated. Xi Jin, E Qing and others were captured alive, and nearly ten thousand soldiers were killed or injured. He Lianding took advantage of the victory and went east to Chang'an.Wei Jun's luggage stayed in Anding, guarded by general Qiudui.When Qiudui heard that the army in front had been wiped out, he was so frightened that he dropped his luggage and turned around and ran away. When he arrived in Chang'an, he didn't keep guard. At this time, Xia Jun recaptured Chang'an City. Tuoba Tao was furious, and ordered Anjie's defeated general Qiudui to rectify the law on the spot, and then stick to Puban to stop Xia's army. In fact, Helian Ding didn't have any more power to expand eastward, so he sent envoys to the Northern Wei Dynasty to ask for peace.It has been three years since the war between Wei and Xia. Generally speaking, the Northern Wei Dynasty has achieved great results. The territory of Xia Kingdom is less than half of its original size.Tuoba Tao needed time to rest and reorganize his troops, so he sent an edict to Helian Ding to surrender in person. Naturally, Helian Ding would not obediently come to the door, and the two families were in a short-term truce.The flames of war in the west ceased for the time being, and new wars broke out in the north and south soon.It is worth mentioning that this year, someone caught a male deer in the territory of the Northern Wei Dynasty.Tuoba Tao was overjoyed, thinking that it was auspiciousness from heaven, so he changed it to Yuanshen 麚 ("麚" specifically refers to male deer).For the Northern Wei Dynasty, which was surrounded by enemies, whether the future will really be smooth sailing is still confusing.