Soil washing with green eluent is an efficient technique to remediate heavy metal contaminated farmland. In addition to eluent, less is known about the roles of accompanying ions on heavy metal removal. We investigated the effects of accompanying ions including Fe 3+ , Mn 2+ , Ca 2+ , Mg 2+ , Al 3+ , Si 4+ and PO 4 3- on the desorption of Pb 2+ and Cd 2+ in paddy and arid soils using ethylenediaminetetraacetic acid and polyepoxysuccinic acid as eluents. The release rates of target and accompanying ions showed significant fast and slow reaction stages based on corresponding analysis and kinetic models. In fast reaction stage, Pb 2+ and Cd 2+ performed geochemical analogy with Ca 2+ , Mg 2+ and PO 4 3- . The release curves of these ions were fitted well with Elovich model, indicating that they released from oxysalt surface into solution via ion exchange, and dissolution of Fe/Mn/Al/Si (hydr)oxides through H + - and ligand-promoted dissolution. In slow reaction stage, Pb 2+ and Cd 2+ were related to Fe 3+ , Mn 2+ , Al 3+ and Si 4+ , which were controlled by intraparticle diffusion process. H + slowly diffused into interlayer of phyllosilicates to displace target and accompanying ions by ion exchange. Therefore, this research filled the gap of accompanying ions driving the release behavior of heavy metal ions during leaching.