Chapter 15 Li Mi is in a quagmire

From the early autumn of the twelfth year of Daye to the end of summer in the thirteenth year of Daye, the world has gone through a cycle of four seasons, and Yang Guang also worked as an ostrich for a year in Jiangdu, where the singing and dancing of swallows are dancing. So much has happened this year. Too many earth-shattering events. But they were basically blocked by Yang Guang's "ostrich technique". But what makes Yang Guang depressed is that since the envoy named Yuan Shanda brought bad news about Dongdu in April of the thirteenth year of Daye, the shielding net he had maintained for nearly a year seemed to be torn apart. mouth.Although he quickly got rid of Yuan Shanda, more annoying bad news still buzzed into Yang Guang's ears like flies.

These news are all about Dongdu. Yang Guang heard that Li Mizhen, a run-down nobleman, captured Luokoucang and Huiluocang, and he was biting at it like a vicious lunatic. Swallow it in one gulp. Yang Guang was very angry.He had no choice but to raise his noble head from the gentleness, and paid close attention to reality. In late May of the thirteenth year of Daye, Yang Guang ordered General Pang Yu and Huben Lang to lead the Guanzhong troops to reinforce Dongdu.At the beginning of July of the same year, Yang Guang again ordered Jiangdu Tongshou Wang Shichong to lead the Jianghuai elite, general Wang Long to lead the Qiongdi Huangman (Minority in Xichang, Sichuan), Hebei Ambassador Wei Ji, Henan Ambassador Wang Bian and others to lead their troops to aid the Eastern Capital. Crusade against Li Mi.

Luoyang, the eastern capital, was once the biggest nightmare in Yang Xuangan's life. In order to get it, Yang Xuangan gave everything, including ruining his own life in the end. For Li Mi today, Luoyang, the eastern capital, is becoming the biggest quagmire in his life.The Luoyang city in front of him seemed so close at hand and within easy reach, but Li Mi's hundreds of thousands of troops fought around it for several months, but they still got nothing. Will Li Mi become the second Yang Xuangan because of this Eastern Capital? Someone had doubts about this, and he was Li Mi's staff member Chai Xiaohe.

Just like Li Mi persuaded Yang Xuangan to go west to Guanzhong, Chai Xiaohe also made the same suggestion to Li Mi in May of the thirteenth year of Daye.He said: "The mountains and rivers in the land of Qin are dangerous and solid. Both the Qin and Han dynasties relied on them to achieve imperial dominance. The best plan now is to order Zhai Rang to stay at Luokou and Pei Renji to stay at Luokou. Invade Chang'an. Once Xijing is conquered, the foundation of the great cause is solid, and then the army will go east to sweep Heluo, so that the world can spread the news. Today and Sui have lost their deer, and the four quarters are competing. If you don't start early, I'm afraid someone will Be the first, and it will be too late to regret it!"

But it is regrettable that Yang Xuangan rejected Li Mi back then, and Li Mi today also rejected Chai Xiaohe.People change. Li Mi was just an aide back then, but now Li Mi is a leader. The butt determines the head, and the seat determines the thinking.At this time, Li Mi will certainly have some new ideas.He said: "This strategy is indeed the best strategy. I have thought about it for a long time. But the Hunjun is still there, and his army is still large. My subordinates are all from Shandong. Seeing that Luoyang has not fallen, who will go west with me to Guanzhong? Most of the generals in the army are bandits, if I go west alone and leave them here, I am worried that they will not obey anyone, and if there is internal strife, the great cause will collapse in an instant."

It has to be said that Li Mi's worry is justified. His situation is different from that of Yang Xuangan back then.Yang Xuangan was born in a wealthy political family, and he was a high-ranking and powerful man. He had great influence and appeal in the imperial political arena and the army, so he also had absolute control over his subordinates and army after raising troops.Under such circumstances, he did not follow Li Mi's suggestion to enter the customs in time, which led to the army of the Sui Dynasty besieging him in the place of the Fourth World War, which must have been a mistake.

And what about Li Mi?Before coming to Wagang, he was just a poor and down-and-out aristocrat, an unemployed young man wandering around. It was only his scheming, resourcefulness and luck, coupled with an obscure political rumor, that made him usurp the Wagang's leadership, to put it bluntly, is called "the dove occupies the magpie's nest".Therefore, his control over the Wagang heroes is actually very limited, and his leadership position is not as stable as it seems.Under such circumstances, if Luoyang is abandoned and westward advances to Guanzhong, it is likely to cause the two problems he mentioned: 1. The subordinate Shandong heroes do not listen to orders and go their own way;In fact, there is the third biggest hidden danger Li Mi did not mention, that is - if he goes west alone, he may lose Wagang's leadership, not to mention the status of the leader of the Quartet.

Therefore, he clearly knew that taking Chang'an from the west was the best strategy, and clearly knew that Luoyang was a dangerous place for the Fourth World War, but he had no choice. Before Luoyang was captured, Li Mi and the Wagang Army could not go anywhere. This was Li Mi's helplessness. At the same time that Chai Xiaohe and Li Mi were talking, Li Yuan was recruiting troops in Taiyuan, gearing up, ready to send his troops south and take Guanzhong from the west at any time. Li Mi's helplessness finally fulfilled Li Yuan's glory. In the words of the ancients, this is God's will.

In today's terms, this is called the current situation. Whether it is God's will or the current situation, they all have a common feature, that is-it is difficult to transfer with personal subjective will. In order to win the Eastern Capital, Li Mi can be said to have tried his best. In May of the thirteenth year of Daye, he personally led an army to attack Xiyuan in the Eastern Capital many times, and fought more fiercely with the tenacious Sui defenders, but was repelled by the Sui army every time.In the end, Li Mi was even shot by an arrow, and had to recuperate in the big camp back to Luocang for many days.

On May 28 of this year, the first batch of reinforcements from the Sui Dynasty, including Pang Yu and Huo Shiju, arrived in Dongdu.On the same day, King Yang Tong of Yue ordered Pang Yu, Huo Shiju, Duan Da and other troops to go out of the city at night and launch a surprise attack on Huiluocang.Li Mi and Pei Renji rushed to the battle, but they were defeated. More than half of the soldiers were killed, wounded and captured.Li Mi had no choice but to give up returning to Luo and retreat to Luokou.Pang Yu and Huo Shiju pursued the victory all the way, and finally stationed in Yanshi to confront the Wagang Army.

On June 17, after a rest, Li Mi launched a counterattack against the Sui army and fought against the Sui army in Pingyuan, northeast of Luoyang.In this battle, Li Mi dispatched almost all the elite troops, placing the cavalry on the left flank and the infantry on the right flank, while the central army used all crossbowmen to launch a fierce attack on the Sui army, finally defeated the Sui army, and regained Huiluocang again. . At the beginning of September, Yuan Baozang, the prime minister of Sui Wuyang (now Daming County, Hebei), donated the county city and surrendered to Li Mi.Li Mi immediately appointed him as Shangzhu State and named him Duke Wuyang.In order to express his gratitude, Yuan Baozang ordered a guest with outstanding literary talents to write a letter to Li Mi. At the same time, in the letter, he proposed to change Wuyang to Weizhou, and was willing to lead his troops to attack Weijun (now Anyang, Henan Province) City), and then go south to join Li Mi and capture Liyang Cang.Li Mi was overjoyed, and immediately appointed Yuan Baozang as the governor of Weizhou. The guest who wrote the letter for Yuan Baozang was Wei Zheng, who was later famous in the history of the Tang Dynasty and even in the history of China, "The First Advocate through the Ages". Wei Zheng's father, Wei Changxian, was a minor official in the Northern Qi Dynasty. He once served as the county magistrate of Tunliu (now Tunliu County, Shanxi). of.Wei Zheng's poor family background led to a very low starting point in life.If it is an ordinary person, it is likely to find a career as a peddler, and then live a mediocre life.But Wei Zheng didn't do it, he "didn't make a living", but he became a Taoist priest.There is no record in history books about Wei Zheng's motivation and specific experience of becoming a Taoist priest, but one thing is certain: being a Taoist priest does not need to run around for food and clothing, and he has a lot of leisure time for reading.Therefore, "Old Tang Book·Wei Zheng Chuan" said that he was "good at reading, and learned a lot. Seeing that the world is getting chaotic, he is especially interested in the theory of vertical and horizontal". Through the correspondence between Yuan Baozang and Li Mi, Wei Zheng's literary talents and academic accomplishments were appreciated by Li Mi, and he was immediately transferred to the headquarters to serve as the literary enlistment and office of the Marshal's Mansion, which is equivalent to the current office director.For Wei Zheng, a commoner, this can definitely be called a lucky turn of events.Wei Zheng cherished this opportunity to emerge, and then offered Li Mi the "Ten Strategies" for stabilizing the world. But the result disappointed him greatly, because Li Mi didn't adopt any of them. At this moment, Wei Zheng must be quite at a loss for the future.He never expected that a few years later, he would become a pivotal figure in the political arena of the Tang Empire, and together with Tang Taizong Li Shimin, he would perform an eternal story of "a wise monarch and admonishing his ministers". On September 6th of the thirteenth year of Daye, Li Mi sent Xu Shiji to lead 5,000 people across the Yellow River to the north, joined forces with Yuan Baozang, Hao Xiaode and other ministries, and captured Liyang Cang in one fell swoop. Liyang warehouse is the largest grain storage base of the Sui Empire in Hebei. Its scale and grain storage are no less than the Luokou warehouse and Huiluo warehouse in the eastern capital. Therefore, the strategic significance of capturing this warehouse is very important.In just ten days, more than 200,000 young and middle-aged men from Hebei defected to the Wagang Army.At the same time, Wu'an County (now southeast of Yongnian County, Hebei), Yong'an County (now Xinzhou County, Hubei), Yiyang County (now Xinyang City, Henan), Yiyang County (now Guangshan County, Henan), Qi County (now Jinan County, Shandong The generals and officials of the Sui Dynasty also raised their cities to surrender to Li Mi; even the leaders of the rebel army who had become kings, such as Dou Jiande and Zhu Can, rushed to send envoys to Li Mi to express their intention to submit.Li Mi then appointed Zhu can as the governor of Yangzhou and named him Duke Deng. At the same time that the Wagang Army captured Liyangcang, the second batch of Sui reinforcements headed by Wang Shichong had also completed their assembly in Dongdu.On September 11th, Yue Wang Yang Tong ordered General Liu Changgong to lead the Dongdu troops, together with Pang Yu, Wang Shichong and other troops, a total of 100,000 people, to attack Luokou where Li Mi was defending. The Sui Army and the Wagang Army faced each other across the river in Luoshui. Yang Guang issued an edict from Jiangdu, ordering all troops to attack Li Mi to be controlled by Wang Shichong.In the following days, Li Mi and Wang Shichong launched a protracted tug-of-war and war of attrition near Dongdu... Just when they were fighting in full swing, Li Yuan had already quietly entered the border.