Chapter 564 Everyone is Happy
Chang'an
Song Mo has been in a good mood recently.
That day, good news came from the East China Sea. The two armies led by Dong Guowei and Wei Kuang had already captured Kuaiji. The speed was so fast that Song Mo felt that the East China Sea rebellion would be put down in no time.
But before he could be happy for long, bad news came from the north.
"Your Majesty, General Yang Yingqin led a vanguard of 30,000 men and was attacked by a large force of Xianbei cavalry in Guangwu County. After a fierce battle, General Yang was defeated and led his troops to retreat to Xinxing."
The entire hall was in complete silence. The army heading north to support had been attacked halfway. It was truly a bad start.
"Since both sides have engaged, how much have each suffered?" Grand Marshal Xiao Qun wouldn't allow anyone to evade this question. Xie Zhan, the Grand Commander-in-Chief, now had full authority over military affairs in Donghai and Bingzhou. Now that something had gone wrong, he naturally wouldn't miss the opportunity to take advantage of the situation.
The other ministers echoed, "Yes, if we start fighting, there will be casualties."
The reporting official replied, "General Yang's troops have lost approximately 20,000 men."
"So how many Xianbei cavalrymen were killed?"
"Three thousand."
The scene suddenly became quiet. The ministers remained silent, but their hearts were boiling with thoughts.
The Sun family army held Yanmen and Daijun for so long, but only lost half of their troops.
As soon as Yang Yingqin headed north, he lost 20,000 soldiers in the first battle against the Xianbei.
In comparison, isn’t Yang Yingqin a bit weak?
Although this comparison is incorrect, after all, the troops led by Yang Yingqin marched north at full speed without stopping, and were already exhausted. They also encountered the Xianbei cavalry, the strongest branch of the Xianbei army. It is not surprising that they lost. Well, it was a bit of an ugly loss.
Moreover, this battle also indirectly confirmed the strength of the Sun family army.
"Wait, why did the Xianbei cavalry appear in Guangwu County? What is the Sun family army doing?" Song Mo finally realized that something was wrong.
"Your Majesty, Yanmen has been lost!" The reporter shrank his neck and replied heavily.
"What?" Song Mo stood up involuntarily, "What about Dai County?"
"Dai County has also fallen," the reporter continued quickly. "Yanmen was lost to the Xianbei, and Dai County was occupied by Pingzhou."
Song Mo clenched his teeth to prevent himself from shouting.
The ministers present, after hearing the bad news, wished there was a hole in front of them so they could bury their heads in it.
They didn't dare to look at the emperor's face, thinking in their hearts, why didn't they check the almanac when they went to court this morning? It's not suitable to go out today. No, it's not suitable for anything. They should ask for leave and stay at home.
"Where's Sun Jiajun?" Song Mo felt his voice was vague. He really wanted to ask if Sun Jiajun was dead.
If the Sun family army could hold out for two more days, just two days! Yanmen and Daijun would not be lost, and the 30,000 troops led by Yang Yingqin would not suffer heavy losses. Sun Ming is guilty!
"General Yang reported that on the evening of the 26th, General Sun Ming led the Sun family army, which was running out of ammunition and food, and decided to fight a desperate battle with the Xianbei. Unexpectedly, on the night of the decisive battle, an earthquake occurred at Yanmen Pass. Neither the Sun family army nor the Xianbei army escaped. Combined, nearly 100,000 people were killed. The city was littered with corpses. The Sun family army was completely annihilated."
"General Yang gathered this information from the people of Yanmen who had escaped. Now Yanmen has been occupied by the Xianbei. General Yang said it's not easy to get news from Yanmen."
Song Mo's face darkened when he heard this. "Did the Yanmen Sun family army really get wiped out?"
"General Yang said that the earthquake at Yanmen Pass was a fact. He doesn't know if any of the Sun family soldiers survived, but he didn't see a single Sun family soldier escape."
If the entire army was not wiped out, at least some remnants would have escaped to Xinxing, Zhongshan and other places.
The situation was too abnormal. No matter what kind of earthquake it was, no one would be unable to escape, right? Song Mo suppressed his emotions and continued to ask, "What about Dai County? How was it lost?"
General Yang sent his men to investigate and found that on the evening of the 26th, the Xianbei launched a final wave of sieges against both Yanmen and Daijun. The Daijun defenders were weaker than those at Yanmen and fell first, with most of the Daijun defenders killed in the battle.
Just as the Xianbei army had cleared out the Daijun garrison, the Pingzhou army arrived. Daijun had just fallen into the hands of the Xianbei, and before they could even warm up to it, it was taken away by Pingzhou.
All the ministers present understood what was said. In other words, the Xianbei fought desperately to defeat the defenders of Dai County, but were finally taken advantage of by Pingzhou.
Civil and military officials: ...How could such a coincidence happen in this world?
Pingzhou must have been watching closely from the sidelines long before this.
Otherwise, how could it be such a coincidence that I became the one who profited the most?
The reason why Yang Yingqin reported this statement as the fact that night was mainly because when the rumor was passed back to the Xianbei, no one on the Xianbei side came out to refute it, as if they had tacitly agreed.
Yang Yingqin had no idea that when the Xianbei soldiers heard this rumor, they couldn't help but suspect that their memories were confused. Did they really capture Dai County?
Everyone unanimously did not correct this rumor. Why correct it?
At least according to rumors, they once captured Dai County, but in fact, they never even touched the edge of Dai County.
Otherwise, do we have to make them admit that they are not even as good as the Sun family army?
It is normal that the Xianbei cannot defeat Pingzhou. This is not the first time they have lost to Pingzhou.
But losing to Sun's army is fine, such a shameful fact should be covered up.
With this mentality, the Xianbei acquiesced to the rumor.
Thus, Pingzhou gained the advantage and successfully made the Sun family army escape, Xianbei gained the face, and Dali found out the "truth", and everyone was happy.
In the afternoon, Song Mo woke up from a nap. Before he had time to think carefully about the news he received today, a minister came to report: the news of the annihilation of the Sun family army spread, and the families of two or three hundred Sun family soldiers, led by the old lady of the Sun family, knelt outside the palace, begging the emperor to send troops to retake Yanmen and bring back the soldiers' bodies.
Song Mo was already feeling annoyed, so he immediately sent someone to send them away.
However, these people refused to listen.
Song Mo was furious when he heard this. Since when did the families of the Sun family army have the right to discuss military and national affairs? How could they decide what to do with military affairs?
At this time, Song Mo took public opinion into consideration and asked someone to invite the queen to persuade him.
However, these people still didn't listen.
Song Mo was so angry that he let them go and told them to kneel if they wanted to!
Outside the palace, Old Lady Sun knelt at the front with her back straight. One hour passed, then two hours passed. Although it was very hard, she still persisted, as if she was kneeling in a Buddhist temple.
Thinking about the truth that the man told her, she told herself that since her son had made his choice, she had to carry out this tactic of turning the tables. Only by doing so could they get away with it.
This is a game!
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