Northern Dynasties Imperial Industry

Among the nobles of Jinyang, Hu Luguang was considered a more proactive person. He did not become complacent and indulge in pleasure because of the shadow of his predecessors and past achievements.

Although leaving Heyang this time was not what he wanted, and the work handover with Ke Zhu Hunyuan was not smooth, after Hu Luguang entered the country, he encountered the crisis of the rebellion in Northern Yuzhou and the impending invasion of the Wei army. He did not complain, but actively prepared for war.

After learning that the Wei army was about to invade eastward, Zhu Hunyuan no longer stayed in Heyang to continue the entanglement, but returned to the court in Yedu. This also allowed Hu Luguang to adjust the personnel of the Heyang army and replace Zhu Hunyuan's generals with his own cronies to strengthen his control over the Heyang army.

After the reorganization of the army was completed, the latest instructions from Yedu were issued. The Heyang army needed to go south first and oversee the troops between Heluo and Heluo in order to intercept the forward divisions and brigades that attacked the Western Wei army.

After receiving this order, Hu Luguang immediately led his troops across the river, set up his camp in the south city of Heyang, and ordered Dugu Yongye, the governor of Luozhou in Jinyong City, to dispatch scouts to the west to detect traces of the enemy. Movements and reports at any time, while Hu Luguang led another group of troops to the east, hoping to capture the rebel city of Hulao City before the Wei army arrived in Heluo.

However, Hu Luguang's attack on Hulao City did not go smoothly. Hulao City was located near the river and backed by a plateau. The terrain was steeper than Tongguan. In particular, this city is an important channel and material transfer center connecting Henan. There is already a large amount of materials gathered in the city. After the people of Xiangcheng in the Western Wei Dynasty entered the city to garrison, the number of defenders in the city was nearly 10,000, and there were many soldiers and civilians to help defend the city.

Today, Hulao City has a considerable number of defenders and ample supplies. All the city gate passages are blocked from the inside. After Hu Luguang led his troops to arrive at the city, they made several strong attacks but all had little effect.

For this reason, he even transferred the 20,000 Yedu forbidden troops who arrived later to participate in the siege, and tried to cross the Taiwan plateau and set up a trench to the east of Hulao City to intercept, creating an isolated city dilemma, but the defenders in the city still had fighting spirit. Tenacious, never panicking or surrendering.

Because he was too focused on attacking Hulao City, Dugu Yongye from the other direction even complained. It should be noted that the next greatest threat comes from the enemies in the west. Although the Western Wei army has not yet advanced into the Luoxi area, it is beginning to make moves in all directions.

Especially the Xin'an area, which is closer to Luoyang, is located in the middle of Beiqiao Road. In the past year, because the Western Wei Dynasty betrayed the previous Luoshui Alliance and sent troops to Huainan to help the Southern Dynasties, in order to retaliate against the Western Wei Dynasty, the Heluo army once attacked westward to capture the area. Han passed the city and destroyed it. Now Han Xiong, the general of the Western Wei Dynasty, sent his soldiers into the old place of Hanguan and built a barracks in an attempt to restore the city garrison here.

Although Jinyong City has more than 20,000 defenders, they are distributed among the cities between Heluo and Heluo. With the enemy forces in Yiyang and Xin'an both ready to move, it is difficult for Dugu Yongye's own troops to be fully prepared.

Therefore, Dugu Yongye repeatedly appealed to Hu Luguang, who was still busy attacking Hulao City, hoping that he would not be so stubborn and should focus on the overall situation and strengthen the deployment of troops in the Luoxi area. Otherwise, once the Western Wei army pours in in large numbers, it may be difficult to intercept and control them.

"Li Boshan is good at using surprises, and he always uses tricks where no one can think of anything. It seems that Hulao City is now trapped in a deadlock, and there is no serious danger. If the two armies continue to fight for a long time, I am afraid that in the blink of an eye, we will become a trap again. The thorn in the heart!”

However, Hu Luguang did not think that Hulao City was of no importance in the subsequent battle and could be ignored. In other words, he did not believe that Li Boshan's response to Northern Yuzhou's defection was just to repeat the Battle of Mangshan. Simple.

All the generals of the Northern Qi Dynasty who had fought with Li Boshan would more or less have left some shadows in their hearts. Hu Luguang was not only defeated at the hands of others, but even his father was defeated by Li Boshan and committed suicide. He was also unable to do so. Free from vulgarity.

It's just that unlike Zhu Hunyuan's attitude of being withdrawn and conservative, avoiding the enemy without fighting, Hu Luguang hopes to do his best to eliminate all hidden dangers before the two sides officially fight, and then focus on it. to fight with Li Boshan.

Under Hu Luguang's repeated attacks, although Hulao City was still holding on, the situation was already quite critical.

The thick earth plateau under the city had been penetrated by several tunnels, and the outer city wall also collapsed. Zheng Wei led the troops to fight hard, and finally stabilized the city defense, taking advantage of the enemy's temporary retreat. On this occasion, they tried to repair the city defense with earth, stone and wooden fences.

"Mr. Xiangcheng, may I ask if Prime Minister Li Dacheng's reinforcements will arrive in time? Hu Lu Mingyue is a talented general of the thief country. If we continue to besiege the city, I'm afraid it will be difficult to garrison it for a long time..."

Seeing that the city defense situation was becoming more and more unstable, Sima Xiaonan couldn't help but become anxious. Taking advantage of Zheng Wei's retreat into the inner city to recuperate, he came over and said, "The Qi army is attacking the city very fiercely now, probably because they hate me so much." Surrender to Wei and cause chaos. If, if there is a chance, if you can secretly send me out of the city and go to Guanzhong first, maybe the enemy's attack will not be so fierce."

This guy had defected to Wei because he was timid and afraid of death. Now that he saw the Qi army's fierce offensive and the defense of Hulao City was in danger, he naturally became worried and began to think about escaping to a safe place. He did not dare to continue to defend the city. .

But these words are just to coax a fool. Zheng Wei has a violent and violent temperament. After days of fierce fighting in the city, all his troops suffered heavy losses.

When he heard that Sima Xiaonan wanted to abandon the city and flee, he couldn't control his emotions. He drew out his saber, put it on Sima Xiaonan's neck and shouted angrily: "Today my soldiers are spilling their blood in this city, how could it be possible?" Isn’t it because I’m guarding you and I’m still waiting to fight to the death? How dare you escape! There are only heroes who have died in this city and no one has abandoned the city!”

After seeing this, the members of Sima's disaster relief department all rushed forward, and the atmosphere suddenly became tense. There was a strong tendency to fight on the spot if they disagreed. It was after Pei Zao heard the news that he rushed over and apologized repeatedly before leaving Zheng Weidao. General Sima Xiao can't get it back.

After this incident, Sima Xiaonan was very angry. After returning to the house, he even pointed at Pei Zao and cursed: "A dog thief, a mentally retarded dog thief, tempted me to defect to the Qiang people, but the Qiang people did not come to rescue you. You have suffered terribly." I!"

Pei Zao also had trouble saying this, but he just lowered his head and silently accepted Sima Xiaonan's scolding.

Although the conflict did not break out, the harmonious atmosphere between them no longer existed. Sima Xiaonan summoned his troops into the inner city, while the outer city was completely defended by Zheng Wei and other Wei troops and the soldiers and people gathered in the city.

Such a situation is naturally difficult to maintain for a long time. As the enemy's fierce offensive continues, the city defense situation becomes more severe, and the relationship between them will inevitably worsen. Internal strife is only a matter of time.

Therefore, in this kind of city-defending battle, in addition to terrain and supplies, people's hearts are also a key factor that affects the outcome. Even though the materials in the city are still very rich, with the changes in people's hearts, the situation has become precarious.

Hu Luguang supervised the battle and stormed the city for several days, and was keenly aware of the subtle changes in the city's defense. Although he still didn't know exactly what happened in the city, he felt that the defenders' counterattack was not as firm as before, and he was in a good mood, so he planned to continue to strengthen the offensive and strive to capture Hulao City in one go and wait until the main army of the Western Wei Dynasty arrived. to completely resolve this hazard beforehand.

However, at this time, a shocking news came from the west: the Western Wei army would not come to Heluo, because they crossed the river directly to the north and killed in the direction of Jinzhou!

After Hu Luguang, who was supervising the battle at Hulao City, learned about this, he felt as if he had been struck by lightning. He no longer cared about supervising the battle. He left Hulao City and rode quickly to Jinyong City. Waiting for After seeing Dugu Yongye, he quickly asked: "Is the news true?"

Dugu Yongye nodded solemnly, and then said in a solemn voice: "First, the Xin'an thieves sent Han Mulan to announce that there were many ferries brought up along the river in Heyin and other places, and the scouts crossed Xiaoling several times. Seeing an army of Qiang thieves..."

"Li Boshan, Li Boshan, you are really deceitful!"

When Hu Luguang heard this, his hands and feet suddenly felt cold. He had always felt that something was wrong in his heart before, but he couldn't tell what was wrong. He only said that the nail in Hulao City had not been removed. Now after hearing the news, I finally woke up, but it's a bit late.

"Have you sent any news to Heyang? Does King Pingyuan have any orders?"

After a moment of silence, Hu Luguang quickly asked again.

Dugu Yongye nodded first, and then said: "King Duan ordered the lower-ranking officials to guard the city first and not to relax. I also ask the king to return to Heyang quickly to discuss countermeasures."

After hearing this, Hu Luguang didn't say anything more, and immediately left Jinyong City and went straight to Heyang.

At this time, Heyang had many fences along the north and south of the river, as well as criss-crossing ravines to block horses. The walls of the three cities of Heyang were also reinforced and thickened, giving the appearance of a well-defended city. And these scenes are particularly ridiculous at the moment. Hundreds of thousands of soldiers have worked hard here for many days, working day and night. As a result, the defense line they built is completely useless!

Duan Shao, who had just settled in Heyang Beicheng, was very anxious at the moment. When he saw Hu Luguang entering from outside, he quickly stood up and said: "The incident happened suddenly and the enemy's situation is not yet clear. I need to return to Yedu as soon as possible to report. The imperial court will discuss countermeasures, and the moon will shine again in Heyang."

After hearing the words, Hu Luguang nodded, and then said in a deep voice: "If the situation in Fenjiang turns bad, can the Heyang people act expeditiously?"

After Duan Shao heard this, he asked again: "What do you want?"

"If Jinzhou can maintain a stalemate and make it difficult for thieves to enter, then I want to lead the Heluo Division to break through Xiaohan and go straight to Tongguan to shock the west of Guanxi! If the situation is critical and urgent rescue is needed, then go west to Zhiguan and invade Hedong. hinterland to choke off the thieves’ retreat.”

Although the development of things was completely contrary to previous expectations, Hu Luguang was also thinking about countermeasures on the way from Jinyong City to Heyang, and considering different situations, he conceived two different rescue plans.

After hearing this, Duan Shao pondered for a moment, and after a while he spoke again: "The road to Koutong Pass is long and blocked. The current crisis is imminent, and I'm afraid it will be difficult to use troops after such setbacks. The road to Zhi Pass is dangerous, and Kang's division is vulnerable. . If it is not necessary, we can wait for the order from Yedu."