Chapter 398: Luoyang fell and Xiang Yu massacred the city
Chapter 398 Luoyang falls and Xiang Yu massacres the city
Chapter 397: Luoyang fell and Xiang Yu massacred the city
Xi Zhicai pondered for a moment and then said slowly: "Using the excuse of opening up the food road, while moving most of the troops and horses away from Luoyang, we left 30,000 soldiers who were unwilling to evacuate and let them defend Luoyang together with the people."
Everyone present suddenly brightened up, Qin Wen also nodded and said: "What a good idea. With Luoyang's defense, even if there are only 30,000 defenders, they can still break two teeth of the Yellow Turban. In addition, the number of troops is small. Luoyang’s grain reserves can also last longer,”
“The only trouble is choosing the generals who are left behind...”
As Xi Zhicai spoke, he looked around at the princes present, but everyone lowered their heads tacitly and did not look at Xi Zhicai. The place was also silent, and no one spoke.
Everyone naturally knows the meaning of Xi Zhicai's words. Those who stay must be abandoned, so who is willing to stay?
Seeing that no one present was willing to stay in Luoyang, Qin Wen sighed helplessly. This reaction was normal. After all, no one wanted to abandon a son.
As a last resort, Qin Wen was unwilling to hand over this task to his men, but now he had to make a decision.
“If that’s the case, then the defense of Luoyang will be left to…”
“Leave it to me.”
Just when Qin Wen was about to hand over the guard, Yang Gun strode in.
Yang Gun, who is nearly sixty years old, not only put on the armor that he had taken off for more than ten years, but also picked up the golden sword passed down from his ancestors.
Seeing that his father wanted to stay, Yang Ye immediately said: "Dad, you are so old and have been away from the battlefield for so long, so don't get involved in these things. My lord, the last general Yang Ye is willing to lead the army to defend Luoyang."
Seeing Yang Ye's request for war, Qin Wen was very conflicted. He didn't want Yang Ye, a general with both civil and military skills, to stay, but no one wanted to stay without him.
After hearing what Yang Ye said, Yang Gun stared blankly and said angrily: "When I was on the battlefield, you were not there yet. Why do you want to compete with me now to compete for the position of guard general?"
Yang Ye was stunned for a moment, then smiled bitterly and said, "Dad, that's not what I meant, it's just..."
“It’s okay if it’s not, I’m sorry you don’t dare.”
Yang Gun did not give his son a chance to say more, but walked directly to Qin Wen, knelt down on one knee, and asked for his order: "Yang Gun, the former general of Zhenbei, is willing to shed the last drop of his blood for the Han Dynasty, and I hope the governor will agree."
Yang Ye also hurriedly knelt down and said, "Yang Ye is also willing to stay with my father."
"No, you can't stay." Yang Gun scolded sternly: "No one else in my Yang family is allowed to stay. I only have one old man in Luoyang."
Yang Gun knew that staying in Luoyang would mean abandoning his son, so of course it was impossible for his sons to stay with him. He was already a dying old man, and his sons were still in their prime and were the hope of the Yang family's future.
"If the Governor doesn't agree, I won't be able to kneel down for a long time." Yang Gun said firmly.
Seeing this, Qin Wen could only smile bitterly and said: "Old general, why are you doing this?"
Qin Wen didn't know how to persuade him when it came to this matter, and Qin Wen also saw from this that even if the Han was unpopular, there were still many people who were loyal to the Han.
The road to national restoration is long and arduous. Qin Wen thought to himself.
After the problem of the garrison is resolved, what remains is the garrison.
When the soldiers learned that the Han Dynasty did not intend to abandon Luoyang, but to break through to ensure Luoyang's food supply, the number of garrison troops who voluntarily stayed to defend Luoyang was as high as 50,000.
Qin Wen finally selected 30,000 from them and gave them to Yang Gun, and then separated his troops with Qin Hao and left Luoyang.
Because Luoyang left troops, Qin Wen took away 220,000 troops, while Qin Hao still took 100,000 troops. Of course, the Yellow Turbans did not know this specific number.
Yang Gun stood on the wall of Luoyang City, watching the leaving team and felt peaceful in his heart. Next, it was time for him to use his remaining energy for the big man. After receiving the news that the Han army had left Luoyang on a large scale, the entire Yellow Turban army was in a collective uproar. No one knew that the Han army actually abandoned the old capital.
The prosperity of Luoyang is tempting all the commanders all the time, but the "escaping" Han army has become less important.
All the Qu commanders clamored to take over Luoyang and establish the Kingdom of Heaven.
But when the Yellow Turban army marched to the foot of Luoyang City, the veteran general on the tower refused to open the city gate and surrender. The Yellow Turban Army felt that they had been deceived, so naturally they attacked the city with all their strength.
However, what the Yellow Turbans did not expect was that even if the main army had withdrawn, the remaining remnants of the army and the ignorant people in Luoyang were still tenacious, and actually repelled the Yellow Turban Army, which was several times their size.
On the first day, it was because the Yellow Turbans were poorly prepared, but on the second day, facing the well-prepared Yellow Turbans, the Han army still persisted tenaciously.
This persistence lasted for ten days, and both sides suffered extremely heavy losses. There were already corpses everywhere outside Luoyang City.
Outside Luoyang City, there is the Yellow Turban Camp and Zhangjiao Camp.
“What a mistake. I didn’t expect that old man Yang Gun to be so difficult to deal with.”
Zhang Jiao rubbed his temples, looking like he had a headache.
"Yeah, who would have thought that Yang Gun, a sixty-year-old man with only 30,000 abandoned troops, could hold off my 700,000-strong army for ten days. But this is already the limit." Zhang Liang said lightly.
“Why, have you contacted the city?” Zhang Jiao asked.
“That’s right, Ma Yuanyi still has hundreds of people under his command. It shouldn’t be a problem to capture the city gate by cooperating inside and outside.”
Ma Yuanyi was originally one of the thirty-six Fangqu commanders of the Yellow Turbans, who was responsible for raising troops in Luoyang.
Later, due to the failure of Tang and Zhou's informant, Zhang Jiao understood that it was impossible to succeed in raising troops in Luoyang, so he let Ma Yuanyi continue to lurk.
The Luoyang branch has been hunted and hunted by the Han Dynasty several times, and now there are only a few hundred remaining Yellow Turbans, and it is indeed not easy for Ma Yuanyi to persist until now.
Late at night, hundreds of Taiping believers armed with long knives, led by Ma Yuanyi, secretly opened the east gate of Luoyang after killing the soldiers guarding the city gate.
By the time Yang Gun, who was patrolling the night, arrived, it was already too late. Thousands of Yellow Turban troops had already entered. However, due to the stubborn resistance of Yang Gun's inner city defenders and the people, the Yellow Turban troops were still blocked at the east gate.
The battle continued until dawn. Facing the endless Yellow Turban Army, the Han army and the people of Luoyang had lost countless people, but they still held on tenaciously until the west gate was breached by Xiang Yu.
“It’s over, it’s all over, we can’t wait for reinforcements to arrive.”
The fall of Ximen made the morale of Luoyang soldiers and civilians hit rock bottom. Even now, they still thought there would be reinforcements, but little did they know that they were simply abandoned.
Luoyang Ximen.
Since the main force of the Han army was concentrated at the east gate, Xiang Yu could easily attack the west gate.
Looking at the prosperous Luoyang City in front of him, Xiang Yu's mouth flashed with a bloodthirsty smile. He waved his halberd and roared: "Send the order to kill everyone in Luoyang."
I was so tired yesterday that I fell asleep before I finished writing the second chapter. I will make up for it today. Thanks to love your life, drogking390515.qdcn and others for the reward, thank you for your support.
(End of this chapter)
