Chapter 173: Successive victories, war smoke everywhere

Li Yang was trembling all over, not because he was afraid of fighting, but because he was excited! Last time, he suffered humiliation and was defeated by Wang Yi because of a moment of negligence. He had been holding back a lot of anger in his heart.

It’s just that he didn’t have the opportunity before. He was just a defeated general. What qualifications did he have to let the court invest so many troops in him?
He originally thought that he would live a silent life and die in depression, but he didn’t expect that the prime minister had not lost hope in him!

He patted his chest and comforted Li Yang, saying that being demoted to the Military Academy was actually a form of protection.

The ministers in the court actually wanted to exile him to Jiaozhou, a typical remote and poor place where no one even existed. If he went there, his official career in this life would be over.

I’m afraid I’ll never have the chance to go to the battlefield again, and my hope is gone.

There were too many people who were jealous and looked down on him, and they were all trying to pull this young general down, but Xu Hua still tried his best to protect him.

It is definitely not possible to reinstate the official. Even a powerful official cannot do such an unreasonable thing on his own, so he can only be kept in Chang’an for the time being and then re-employed after some time has passed.

Finally, after several years of teaching, Wang Mang went against the trend and launched a series of retro reforms in the country, which caused the country’s strength to plummet. As a result, he was deserted by his relatives and friends, betrayed by the powerful, alienated by his ministers, despised by the people, and faced constant peasant uprisings. He lost the foundation for ruling the world.

After some twists and turns, the imperial court announced that it would gather 200,000 troops to launch a massive northern expedition, intending to return to the old capital and revive the Han Dynasty!
And this defeated general was not forgotten. Prime Minister Xu Hua personally recommended him to the Grand Commander Xu Zhong, and he regained his military power. His 8,000 men were all brave and powerful.

He may be a little arrogant, but there is absolutely no problem with his fighting ability and obedience.

Li Yang did not become depressed because of some minor setbacks. He conquered the 8,000 men under his command, killed many people on the battlefield, and won the reputation of “Iron Army”.

Xu Zhong in Dongjun finally really valued him and gave him the title of Left Deputy Army Commander, governor of 50,000 troops, and authorized him to attack Yuzhou.

Once successful, he would personally write a letter to the court, asking for his help in regaining his post as Left General and Governor of Yuzhou.

Although the situation now is almost the same as before, Li Yang now belongs to the Right Army, which is the part that Xu Yuan is in charge of. The commander of the Right Army is the veteran general Zhang Duan.

“Most of you here are brothers who fought with me. We know each other, but there is one exception. He is also the junior whom I admire the most.”

“You haven’t even been in the army for five months, but you’ve already become a vanguard general with 10,000 soldiers under your command. You’re a hero at a young age, much better than I was back then.”

He raised his head and said generously: “I never thought that I would say that heroes emerge from youth. There are always people who are better than you. Your future is much brighter than mine. I just hope you don’t repeat the mistakes I made.”

“War is an extremely serious and cautious matter. You must think twice before taking it seriously. You must not underestimate the enemy. There are many people who are watching you and want to bring you down.”

Then, everyone turned their eyes to Liu Xiu. There was only one “young man” present, so who could the general be referring to if not him?

Of course, most people had expressions of approval. This young man was indeed amazing. There was no doubt about it. He was brave in battle, flawless in marching, and had a solemn military appearance. The fact that he was able to deal with the Northwest Army under his command was enough to make him not be underestimated.

Seeing this, Liu Xiu felt a little panic in his heart. He knew very well that if a tree stands out in the forest, it will be destroyed by the wind.

Wasn’t that what happened to Li Yang back then? His brilliance was too dazzling, and he didn’t know how to restrain himself. Eventually, some people with ulterior motives got jealous of him, and they would hold on to any mistakes he made, especially big ones!
He didn’t want this to happen. Before his wings were fully grown, he had to conceal himself as much as possible, be humble in his dealings with others, and not be too frivolous.

Make more good friends, otherwise you will be left without anyone to talk to when something happens.

Of course, there have been people who were crazy from beginning to end, but nothing happened to them and they had a successful career and even rose to the position of general.

That was Hou Huo Qubing, who was known as the “two pillars of the empire”.

So what was the backing of this Marquis Guanjun? He had the unconditional trust of Emperor Wu and Emperor Kang, and two important officials in the court also had a close relationship with him. How many people in ancient times had such capital?
“I don’t deserve it, I don’t deserve it. I’m just lucky.” Liu Xiu said repeatedly. He didn’t want to be praised too much, so as not to be smashed to pieces.

“Luck? It’s not easy to become the commander of an army by relying on luck.” A burly general said with a smile.

“Yes, we old guys have to admit that we are not as skilled as others. The future belongs to the young.” Another general sighed.

Before they knew it, these fresh bloods had also become old stuff.

Li Yang came over and patted my shoulder. “Do a good job. Everything I have in the future will be yours. The Vanguard Army is very risky, but opportunities and risks are directly proportional.”

After hearing this, others obviously looked at him differently.

Because they understood what the lord meant, and it was obvious that he wanted to train her as his successor! “Everything I have is yours” This is so unclear, don’t you understand?
In this era of feudal separatism, any powerful general or official has his own team and followers. This is the fundamental basis for them to hold their positions firmly. Without sufficient strength, they are ultimately just puppets.

Therefore, the subordinates can call him lord in private. Although Li Yang has lost his power, it does not mean that his foundation is gone. Look, it is back again soon.

He has 50,000 soldiers and horses under his command, and he is a top figure in the whole world. The Yuzhou promised by Xu Zhong is actually no different from that of the princes!
Yuzhou owns Runan, the second largest county in the world, and the others are also large counties. Yingchuan is a gathering place for talents. It is close to the Nanyang court and directly connected to Henan, so it is extremely important!
If there is chaos in the world in the future, Xu Zhonghou of Nanyang will definitely try his best to win him over.

Li Yang’s promise is very important. Although it is a big promise, at least it is possible to fulfill it and can serve as an incentive.

If Liu Xiu really inherits Li Yang’s team and power in the future, he will instantly rise from a minor general to a local lord who controls a state and has tens of thousands of soldiers under his command!
The people present did not even doubt the authenticity of the story, because Li Yang had no son. He was born infertile and had a child in his thirties.

The imperial physician had also diagnosed him that he would probably never have children in this lifetime.

Li Yang was devastated for a long time because of this. After all, in this era, offspring means inheritance! Isn’t it for a man to work hard all his life just to have someone to burn incense for him in the future?

To the point that even life has no meaning.

After working so hard all your life, in the end there is not even a trace left.

Therefore, the credibility of his promise is quite high.

Hearing this, Liu Xiu was stunned for a moment, and after a moment he hurriedly said: “Thank you for your cultivation, my lord. I will definitely live up to your expectations.”

I didn’t refuse him immediately. Although he was a relative of the Han royal family, he had fallen on hard times after all. As the leader of an army, he spoke to me with such admiration. If I refused him again, I would be ungrateful!

Therefore, he had to agree to it. Moreover, he did not have big ambitions at the moment, but that did not mean he did not want to make progress.

Seeing this, Li Yang’s serious praise became even stronger, “Well…you are a teachable kid. It seems that I have not valued you in vain.”

Liu Xiu bowed and repeatedly guaranteed him.

In fact, the role of the Yuzhou Army to Emperor Guangwu of Han cannot be underestimated. It became the basis for his rise, which is the biggest difference between them and ordinary generals.

Some powerful generals also have military power and great influence, but they have a fatal flaw, that is, they have no territory!
Money and grain had to rely on the imperial court or local governors and inspectors. Therefore, in this era of separatism, the criterion for judging the princes was whether they had a sphere of influence and whether they could collect taxes from it.

Otherwise, they would always be working for others and would not be able to stand out on their own. How could they achieve anything? For example, Wang Qing, one of the leaders of the Shandong faction, was the governor of Xiapi, but he actually monopolized the power of Xuzhou. Zhu Chun had the army and taxes in Yangzhou, Xu Zhong’s roots were in Jingzhou, Xu Yuan relied on Liangzhou and the Western Regions, and Xu Min was in Youzhou and part of Jizhou.

That’s right, although Xu Min controlled the four states in Hebei, the only ones he could mobilize without any resistance were Youzhou and part of Jizhou.

Other places were divided up by military leaders of all sizes. They obeyed orders but also had their own interests.

The situation is extremely complicated, even worse than at the end of the Qin Dynasty. The court can mobilize resources in a unified manner, but the internal independence is too high. If their fundamental interests are really affected, they can even unite to rebel against the court.

That’s why Xu Hua said that the Han Dynasty today lacks a Gaodi to fight them all over again.

Of course, the imperial court had to be disrupted. Now Liu Xiang’s throne was as stable as a rock, equivalent to the Zhou emperor during his heyday.

In this situation, the princes formed a community of interests and would unite to resist policies that were unfavorable to them as a whole, leaving the imperial court helpless.

The central court must first be split, and the princes must be divided into two or three factions, each insisting on their own emperor, thus leading to internal division and fighting.

Only in this way can we defeat them one by one. Otherwise, even if we unify them, we will turn into the situation in the middle and late Tang Dynasty, where local vassal states will be divided and obey the orders of the court but not the announcements! They may even rebel or even attack the capital, and the power of the emperor will be greatly weakened.

This is undoubtedly not what Xu Zhen wanted to see. He wanted the Liu family to continue, but he did not want to destroy the great unification and restart the Spring and Autumn Period and the Warring States Period.

In this way, the Xu family might become eternal sinners in disguise.

The only person who could achieve this was Liu Xiu, the invincible Emperor Guangwu of Han who swept through the troubled times!
………

Six days later, the General of the Left Army of the Right Route Army was ready to go, and sent out 50,000 elite soldiers to launch a massive attack on Yuzhou, intending to regain lost territory and eliminate the threat hanging over the capital, Nanyang.

Wang Mang was forced into a corner and concentrated tens of thousands of troops in Runan to harass Xinye, even threatening to fight to the death.

Of course, he was just making some tough talk. There were at least 100,000 imperial guards in Nanyang, and reinforcements from Nanjun, Jiangxia, Huainan and other places would arrive soon. The Xinmang army was simply not enough. If he wanted to attack Wancheng, he would have to abandon Chang’an and most of the land including Guanzhong, Bashu and so on.

It is obviously not worth the loss. Even if we can’t stop them, we can just move the capital and run away, and then gather an army to take it back.

Nanyang is much easier to attack than strong cities like Chang’an and Luoyang.

On June 17th, Liu Xiu led 10,000 vanguards directly to Pei County. Three days later, the magistrate of Feng County opened the city and surrendered. Five days later, Pei County was captured, which also meant that Pei County was captured by the Han army.

After the initial victory, Li Yang immediately submitted a petition for reward. Xu Zhong, the governor of Yanzhou, was overjoyed when he heard the news. He rewarded him with a lot of money and praised Liu Xiu, the vanguard general, highly.

Calling him “the champion marquis of this dynasty” is undoubtedly a very high evaluation.

After that, the Han army continued to advance and began to attack Liang State. In the war against Liang State, they finally encountered setbacks. It was obvious that the Xinmang army reacted.

They were unable to confront them head-on, so they relied on the strong city to defend themselves, stayed indoors, and allowed the other side to provoke them.

Li Yang was helpless about this. If the enemy did not come out, he could only surround the city with ten times the force. It would be basically impossible to take it by force, and it was not what a good general should do.

Even if we capture it, the losses will not be small. How can we continue the march then?

The war situation in Yuzhou was at a stalemate, and the Han army was also waiting for an opportunity, just like Wang Yi did to himself back then.

Lure the enemy out.

Yanzhou.

The Han army’s offensive was extremely fierce, and they quickly annexed most of Yanzhou. The Xinmang army retreated to Chenliu, and Wang Xun was unable to defeat them in order to preserve his strength. He was at a disadvantage in terms of morale, equipment, and numbers, and the opponent was also a well-known general.

This was really difficult for him, and it was already good enough that he could still guarantee Chenliu.

There is sufficient food, fodder and water in the city, so it can be held out for at least five months. This is also what Wang Mang expected. As long as he is given time to mobilize the troops, it will be fine.

But even defending Chenliu was quite difficult. Guanzhong was already filled with smoke of war. Warlords from all over the country followed the trend and took advantage of it, dealing another heavy blow to this already precarious regime!

Wang Mang had already transferred a lot of Chenliu garrison troops back to Guanzhong. This was actually a good thing as it would be more conducive to the defense of the isolated city. As long as Chenliu was still there, the Han army would not dare to cross.

Otherwise, the food supply will be threatened.

The only major threat at the moment is the Red Eyebrow Army, which is eyeing them covetously from the rear.

They attacked the Han army from the front and back, posing a great threat.

“Humph, you cowards, you are all cowards, don’t you dare to come out and fight head-on?”

Inside the tent, Xu Yuan felt quite frustrated. He had encountered the same problem when he attacked Guanzhong before. The enemy was hiding in the city and not moving.

But there is no way around it. The other party is not a fool. Does he still have to come out when he knows he can’t win?

We can only slowly look for opportunities.

“This is only natural. After all, Wang Xun is a well-known general in the Xinmang Dynasty. It is impossible for him to be fooled by such a low-level provocation.”

Xu Min was very calm and did not curse.

The Han army still used the method of shouting and cursing, so it would be strange if they fell into the trap.

“The situation is hopeless. Wang Mang’s defeat is inevitable. As far as I know, there are rebellions everywhere in Guanzhong, unless that guy can bring the Marquis of Huaiyin out of his grave.”

“Otherwise, there is nothing that can be done about it.”

Xu Yuan was not in a hurry. He hadn’t even reached that point yet, but the Xin Dynasty had already changed to the Han Banner. It could only be said that his reforms were too unpopular.

The powerful people and Confucian scholars were all offended! In just a few years, the people who originally supported it enthusiastically changed their minds.

In a sense, it’s amazing.

(End of this chapter)