The third emperor of the Sui Dynasty

Chapter 643 Containing Li Tang, Wei envoy asks for help

Chongling County is located at the southern end of Nanyang Basin. The northeast and south parts belong to Tongbai Mountain and Dahong Mountain. The hills are undulating, and the terrain slopes from northeast to southwest.Chongling is a place where many rivers converge. Dozens of large and small rivers originate from Tongbai Mountain in the east and flow westward. The Anyang area of ​​Xiangyang in the west and the connected Bishui flow into the Han River.

It is precisely because nearly two rivers pass through the county that Chongling has abundant water sources and fertile land, making it a fertile land in the north of Jingzhou. Can burned, killed and looted all the way, and finally stationed troops in Nanyang County to the west.

The northern quarter of Chongling protruded into the encirclement of Nanyang and Huai'an. As the Sui army approached, in order to avoid being outflanked by the Sui army from Nanyang's Xinye County and Huai'an's Pingshi County, Tang's army was forced to start from Shangma County. Withdrew south to Huyang County, forming a parallel trend with Xiangyang.

Although Chongling is small, its strategic position is very important. In history, Emperor Gaozong of Song Dynasty attached great importance to the status of Chongling as a military gateway. The Jin army attacked Chongling many times in order to capture the important town of Xiangyang.Hu Zaixing and Meng Zongzheng, generals of the Southern Song Dynasty, smashed the attempts of the Jin army many times. If Chongling is safe, Xiangyang will be safe.Especially when Meng Zongzheng was stationed in Zaoyang, it became a nightmare for the Jin army, and the Jin people never dared to attempt to take Chongling and Xiangyang again.Zhao Gou, who was far away in the south of the Yangtze River, knew the strategic position of Chongling, so Li Yuan, who had Xiangyang as his imperial capital, knew that once Chongling fell, Li Tang's east gate would burst open. Let the two strengthen the city defense, even if it surpasses Xiangyang, it doesn't matter.

Generally speaking, the city walls of various places cannot exceed the height of the imperial capital. This has been a practice since ancient times. Before the Sui Dynasty, the height of the Sui Dynasty could not exceed the height of Luoyang. After the establishment of Li Tang, the height of the city walls under the Tang Dynasty could not exceed Daxing. For Xiangyang, the height of Xiangyang is used as the standard, and those exceeding it must be demolished, otherwise it will be regarded as trespassing.Although this is a common practice, many frontier city walls surpassed the imperial capital. For example, the new Great Wall of the Sui Dynasty was much taller than the city walls of Zhuojun, Yecheng, and Luoyang, but this was agreed by Yang Tong; Relatively speaking, Li and Tang's rules are much more complicated than those of the Sui Dynasty. They must pay attention to etiquette everywhere. The emperor's travels are strictly followed. Under the supervision of the Shi Yanguan, the city wall is the most important thing. If local officials and generals raise the height without authorization, it is tantamount to rebellion. Now Li Yuan has loosened the restriction and asked the troops stationed everywhere to increase the height and width of the city wall as much as possible, and even rewarded them. Judging from these details, anyone with a little shrewdness could feel the uneasiness and fear in Li Yuan's heart.

Chongling has been ravaged by Zhu Can for several years, and the once-rich Chongling has become devastated. People's livelihood is desolate, villages are deserted, and various counties are dilapidated.

In contrast, in Huai'an, Handong, Anlu, Nanyang, and Xiyang around Chongling, the prefects appointed by the Sui Dynasty have all taken office, the population and land have been checked, the land equalization system has been implemented to the end, and the local people have also been resettled. The fields of spring wheat are lush and green, which also caused the people of Chongling who were forced to build the city day and night to flee to the Sui territory. Today, Chongling has almost become a purely military garrison with only troops.

In order to respond to the call for self-sufficiency, Li Xiaogong and Chai Shao also used the army to implement military settlements on unowned land at the beginning of spring. When the summer grain is put into storage, it can also meet the needs of the army for a period of time and reduce the imperial court. partial burden.But because Chongling County became the forefront of the Sui and Tang Dynasties' hegemony, the two dared not disperse their troops, so there were not many military settlements.

And not long after the new year, the Sui army aimed at Li Tang's Hanshui defense line, and increased its troops at all nodes. Nanyang, which was attacking the bridgehead of Xiangyang, had already reached 30 troops, except for the [-] main battle division of the Second Army , another [-] retired troops were conscripted, and there were [-] slaves, led by Yang Shanhui, the right servant of the Shangshu of the Sui Dynasty. Looking at the tigers in the Chunling area for a long time, coupled with the Li Jing army in Huai'an, the Tang army in the Chongling area was always under the pressure of more than [-] Sui troops. bigger.

In a wilderness [-] miles north of Huyang County, close to the south bank of Bishui, stands a huge military camp covering an area of ​​more than [-] miles.

This is the main force led by Li Xiaogong himself, and it is the first line of defense against the Sui army, while Chai Shao uses Huyang County as the base to form a second line of defense behind.

Li Xiaogong's barracks battle flags fluttered, banners fluttered, and the three-foot-high Li Tangbai flag fluttered over the gate of the camp.

On both sides of the camp gate, there stood two sentry towers with the same height of three feet. Ten sentries were patrolling the towers, watching the surrounding situation vigilantly.

About seven or eight miles away from this big camp, there is a hill named Luoshan. The highest point of the hill is more than 40 feet, and the radius is about two miles. The spacious official road to Xiangyang starts from here. Pass under a mountain.

There are lush trees, lush vegetation and lush vegetation on the mountain.All kinds of birds were chirping in unison on the tree. At this time, on a large camphor tree with luxuriant branches, several Sui army scouts were looking at the Tang army camp in the distance.

From their seats, they could clearly see the situation of the camp in the distance.White tents are lined up neatly, teams of Tang soldiers are practicing on the school field, and patrolling soldiers can be seen walking back and forth on the wall of the village.

"Can you count them clearly? How many tents are there?" a Sui army scout asked in a low voice.

"There are about [-] medium-sized tents. Generally speaking, this kind of tent can accommodate a group of soldiers. If they are crowded, a brigade of soldiers can also accommodate them."

A soldier of the Sui Army looked around with two bamboo tubes connected together. This is a telescope made by the Ministry of Industry, which has been put into the frontline of the battle and has been equipped with one.With a telescope in hand, the scout troop, which can be called a special force, is even more powerful, and can obtain more accurate information than before.

A soldier thought about it for a while and said in a low voice: "The Hanshui defense line of the Tang army started to be built as early as last year, and it has been three or four months so far. There is quite enough time to set up the barracks. It is a period of high incidence of cough and cold. And Li Xiaogong is a rare general of the Tang army, so the Tang army will never let a brigade of soldiers squeeze into the tent of the first team. In other words, there are [-] Tang troops in this barracks."

The scout chief who was watching shook his head, and said softly: "After removing the ordnance tent and the food tent, there are about [-] Tang troops."

A soldier sitting on a tree branch was holding a small wooden board, and quickly drew the topography and camping map on the paper with a piece of charcoal, and marked the number of camps and troops beside it.

"Have you seen the handsome flag?"

"The wind is too strong, so I can't read the words written on the commander's flag. However, there are many rules in the puppet Tang Dynasty. Even the color and size of the general's flag are strictly divided. It seems that it should be a flag of the county king level. That is to say, the military camp The main general is Li Xiaogong, not Chai Shao."

"Very likely." One person quickly replied: "Chai Shao was in the puppet Tang Dynasty. Although he was also known as a famous general and a general, he never led troops to fight against us in the Sui Dynasty. Jingxiang and Bashu were both defeated by Li Xiaogong. , and has fought with our army many times, and has much more combat experience than Chai Shao. When the puppet Tang is at a time of life and death, it is impossible for a person without much actual combat experience to be the former army commander."

"Makes sense."

Just as I was talking, there was a sound of horses crying, and I saw a group of patrolling cavalry running towards this side from the official road in the distance. Prostrate in the grass.

Not long after the cavalry of the Tang army passed by, the scout quietly left Luoshan.

. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

Li Xiaogong is watching the urgent report sent from Xiangyang in the Chinese army tent of the Tang army camp near the water. This is a secret order issued to him by Li Yuan, the emperor of Li Tang, asking him to closely monitor the generals who came from nobles in Guanlong and let him prepare It is better to replace these people's military talents in time to ensure that after these people leave, there will be no chaos in the army.

Li Xiaogong understood that the emperor was going to attack the nobles of Guanlong. Like the court officials, he was also paying close attention to the changes in Xiangyang's political situation.As the core general of the royal family, Li Xiaogong is deeply anxious about the situation of internal and external troubles.He didn't deceive himself to cover his eyes, and he didn't take chances. He knew that the Sui Dynasty was at its peak, and it was only a matter of time before it attacked the Tang Dynasty in an all-round way.

Li Xiaogong already knew about Fang Xuanling's envoy, but he didn't think about whether the Sui army rebelled against Li Mi first or Li Tang.Just because the army of the Sui Dynasty was powerful, it would not be a problem to attack Tang and Wei at the same time.He sneered at the fluke heart of the important officials of the court, and felt that wasting time analyzing these useless problems, it would be better to spend the extra time and energy on money, food and weapons and equipment, which is a serious thing.

Li Xiaogong felt even more worried when he thought of the civil strife that the Tang court was about to unravel. He was one of the high-level bystanders, and he was more aware of the dangers of the civil strife in Li and Tang than those involved, and he also saw more thoroughly than ordinary bystanders.

Once the civil strife broke out in the Tang Dynasty, it would be the time for the Sui army to attack on a large scale. If Yang Tong sent troops against the opportunity of the civil strife in the Tang Dynasty, then Yang Tong would be too incompetent.

Through several disastrous defeats in the Tang Dynasty, Li Xiaogong also realized that the failure of the Tang Dynasty was due to factional disputes that attacked each other. From the Battle of Bingzhou to the Battle of Guanzhong, it was Li and Tang's internal struggle that helped the Sui Army win. This disastrous defeat also established the situation where the Sui Dynasty was strong and the Tang Dynasty was weak.

And the disastrous defeat of the Eastern Expedition last year also drained Li Tang's vitality. The reason for the failure was still the high-level decision-making mistakes of the Tang Dynasty. This act seriously affected the decision-making of the Tang military and the country. When the emperor, father and son realized this problem, their entire army had already been wiped out. King Jin almost wiped out his entire army in Hongnong County.

On the contrary, the Great Sui Dynasty had one heart and one mind, and hundreds of civil and military officials were united as one. As the emperor, Yang Tong always dared to delegate power, always trusted the former military commander, and always trusted court officials, so that he could get rid of the tedious government affairs. Liberated from the military and focusing on military affairs, the Sui Dynasty won major victories in the most critical battles.Therefore, when faced with the massive invasion of Shibi Khan, not only was he not defeated, but the biggest foreign aggression was relieved, and the enemies outside the territory such as the East/Turks and West Turks were wiped out step by step, and the Sui Dynasty was established. supremacy.Yang Tong, the sage khan, is more genuine than the two emperors Wen and Wu. As long as he gives an order, no one in the foreign countries will dare to disobey.

Li Xiaogong locked the secret order into a small box, and he couldn't help but heaved a long sigh. The defeat of the Tang Dynasty was not at the hands of Yang Tong, but at the faction's struggle for power.

Today, the Holy Majesty finally came to his senses and planned to suppress the Dugu faction of the Guanlong nobles and weaken King Jin's most powerful and powerful backing, but King Jin's wings have already been formed, is it too late?Will Yang Tong give the Tang Dynasty time to rectify the interior?
The answer, obviously, is no.

In fact, Li Xiaogong, who is proficient in military affairs, was more able to talk with Li Shimin at the beginning. He supported Li Shimin in his heart, but for the stability of Datang, he resolutely gave up Li Shimin and supported Li Jiancheng with a clear-cut stand.

It's not that Li Shimin was the source of cholera and traitors in the Tang Dynasty, at least Li Xiaogong never had such an idea. In his opinion, Li Shimin's military talent and ability to command troops are very strong, and he is a person who is more capable of fighting among the kings, but If the society is to stay in order, the crown prince's position must not be provoked by anyone. Only by cutting off King Jin's wings in the court can he dispel his political demands and become a pure general.

Because of this understanding, Li Xiaogong's mentality also changed. He stood on Li Jiancheng's standpoint and hoped that the emperor would get rid of the civil strife as soon as possible, integrate the Tang Dynasty into one, and stabilize the state affairs. Only in this way can the Li Tang Dynasty Get a lifeline.

At this moment, there was a report from the soldiers outside the door: "His Royal Highness, Nanyang's scouts have information! It is said that one hundred thousand Sui troops have left Xinye and approached Xiangyang for ten miles. Set up camp in the south of the water and the water."

Li Xiaogong turned around in shock. He was also waiting for news from Nanyang County for the past two days. Two days ago, he received urgent information, saying that the Sui Army in Xinye County was about to move, but whether the other party attacked Xiangyang or Chongling did not know. As you know, this made his heart shrouded in a haze before the coming of the war, and the invisible murderous pressure made him feel like he couldn't breathe.

"Bring it in!"

The curtain was lifted, and a soldier walked in quickly, and presented a roll of information respectfully. Li Xiaogong opened the information and read it, then quickly walked to the map, and found the place where the Sui Army was stationed according to the information. Sijiangkou of the soldiers, his complexion changed drastically.

The place where the Sui army set up camp is really tricky. It is less than [-] miles from Anyang County in Xiangyang, and it is only [-] to [-] miles from Yincheng County in Xiangyang; Ten miles away, that is to say, the Sui army in this position can deter the four key points of the Hanshui defense line at the same time. If they march towards Anyang, they will be able to approach the city of Xiangyang in the next step, at the speed of the Sui cavalry. , It only takes two or three hours to reach Anyang County, harassing this key point, as for his own army, it can be contained by Li Jing from Huai'an.

But the information also mentioned a key point, that is, the Sui army's barracks were tall board-walled barracks just like his own, which made him feel a little relieved, because this kind of barracks was more defensive.

However, it is also possible that Yang Shanhui's intentionally suspicious strategy made them think that the Sui army only defended but did not attack, and then took advantage of the cavalry to attack Yincheng, Anyang, Chongling Daying, Huyang, and Chongling counties by surprise.Otherwise, why not station in Xinye County?Isn't this more defensive?

The [-] troops stationed at the border, and then not attacking, is in line with the Sui army's strategy of advancing step by step in the civil war. Could it be because...?
In an instant, Li Xiaogong's mind suddenly had a flash of inspiration, and he thought of two other pieces of information he had received recently:

One is that in the name of the collective rebellion of the Jiangnan gentry, Li Mi slaughtered the Jiangnan gentry to his heart's content, took their money and food as military pay, and took their land and distributed them equally to the meritorious soldiers and local people, and ruled the counties and counties in chaos.

Another piece of information is that Yao Junsu commanded the reorganized [-] Xiao Xian army and stationed in Huainan County. The soldiers pointed directly at Zhongli County where Li Mi's army was located. He made a gesture of preparing to attack Jiangdu County.

When Li Xiaogong put the Sui army in various aspects into the overall situation, he suddenly understood that Yang Shanhui's actions were purely to restrain himself and the Tang army in Xiangyang, and not allow the Chongling Tang army headed by him to attack Jianghuai and Chongling from behind. In the land of Jingzhou to the south, as for Li Jing's army stationed in Huai'an, it also deceived Li Mi, Li Tang and Li Mi, making people think that he was going to attack Datang, but in fact he planned to cross Runan and directly attack Li Mi's Huaiyang, Ruyin, Qiao County, thus giving Wei Guolai a knife in half.

Li Mi in the direction of Zhongli was surrounded by Li Jing in the north, Yao Junsu in the west, and Du Fuwei in the south. He was too busy to take care of himself and had no way to support Huaibei.

"It must be like this." Li Xiaogong stared at the direction of Jiangdu, his eyes were bright, and he felt more and more that Yang Tong was not planning to attack Tang Dynasty, but was planning to attack Li Mi.He murmured excitedly: "If this is the case, the Tang Dynasty will have enough time to rectify its internal affairs."

At this moment, another soldier came to report: "Your Highness, Special Envoy Li Mi has just arrived at the barracks, and I request His Highness to meet you."

Li Mi's special envoy actually came to his barracks?This seems to be reasonable, but it somewhat surprised Li Xiaogong.

After pondering for a while, he understood Li Mi's intentions. Li Mi probably guessed that Yang Tong was targeting him, so he hoped that he would attack the Jianghuai area from behind to relieve his pressure. The reason why he didn't go to Xiangyang was because it was too late .

Thinking of this, Li Xiaogong smiled wryly and sighed deeply. It seems that Yang Tong had expected that Li Mi would come to find him, so let Yang Shanhui approach Xiangyang first, and make the court uneasy.In this situation, even if he wanted to support him, Li Tang would not agree.

Yang Tong's strategy of layout in the south of the Yangtze River is really interlocking!
But the special envoy had arrived, and Li Xiaogong couldn't see him, so he nodded immediately, "Please come to the reception hall."

Not long after, a few soldiers brought Li Mi's special envoy to the reception tent. Li Mi's special envoy's name was Zheng Yuanbi, and he was a son of the Zheng family in Xingyang.

When he came to Chongling to pay a visit to Li Xiaogong, he really wanted to join forces with Li Xiaogong to attack the land of Jianghuai, wipe out Yao Junsu and Du Fuwei, and at the same time hope that Li Shimin would send troops to Nanjun from Yiling.This is also the method Li Mi came up with out of desperation. He felt that he could not sit still and should preemptively defeat the Sui Dynasty's step-by-step strategy in exchange for the initiative in the war.

Zheng Yuanbi just waited for a while, Li Xiaogong walked in unhurriedly, Zheng Yuanbi quickly stood up and saluted: "Zheng Yuanbi sees the county king!"

Li Xiaogong returned a salute: "So it's Mr. Zheng, please sit down!"

The two sat down as guest and host, and Li Xiaogong asked: "Mr. Zheng came from Jiangdu, right? Did the journey go smoothly?"

Li Xiaogong had already figured everything out on the way, even Li Mi sent Zheng Yuanbi as an envoy. The reason was that Li Jiancheng's original wife was the daughter of Wang's family in Taiyuan. She lived with Li Yuan's family in Daxing when Li Yuan raised troops in Jinyang. When the news reached Daxing, the whole family had no time to evacuate, and they were killed by Wei Xuan, Yin Shishi, Gu Yi and others. Not only did they kill Li's men and women, they even dug up Li's ancestral grave.

Afterwards, Li Jiancheng promoted his second wife, Zheng Guanyin of the Zheng family of Xingyang, to be his first wife, and this Zheng Yuanbi was the uncle of the Crown Princess.

Li Jiancheng was the son-in-law of the Zheng family, and he himself was a supporter of Li Jiancheng, so Li Mi appointed Zheng Yuanbi as a special envoy, hoping that he could persuade Li Tang's princes and influence Li Yuan's decision.

"Oh! Don't mention it." At this time, Zheng Yuanbi smiled wryly, "I originally transited through Liyang controlled by Du Fuwei, but he was heavily guarded and checked countless times along the way. Later, I had to change the waterway and board your country. Merchant Ship, this has escaped layers of investigation, it is really not easy to come here now!"

"I heard that the situation in the south of the Yangtze River is very tense now. It is estimated that a big battle will break out soon. The Wei army should be ready!"

"We have been preparing for a long time, not only to deal with the Sui army led by Yao Junsu and Du Fuwei in the Jianghuai area, but also to guard against the Sui army in Huaibei. The pressure is really as heavy as Mount Tai. So my family has sent me as an envoy I hope that Wei and Tang can join forces to attack Jianghuai, reduce the pressure on both sides, and thus open up the road for the Tang and Wei dynasties to join forces. Wei Guo does not want a single inch of the land of Jianghuai. I wonder what your highness thinks?"

Of course Li Xiaogong would not wade into this muddy water, not to mention that Huai'an and Xinye are as powerful as Mount Tai, restraining most of the Tang army. Time, work hard to train the army, and work hard to build defense lines.

Li Tang was eager for Yang Tong to attack Li Mi, how dare he bring the fire of war into Li Tang at this time?If he really wanted to attack Jianghuai, the eclectic Yang Tong might destroy Li Tang first.In that case, Li Xiaogong will become a sinner of the Li Tang Dynasty.But he couldn't say no, Li Xiaogong sighed and said: "Of course I am willing to hunt Jianghuai together with King Wei, but I don't have the right to send troops without authorization, I must ask the Holy One for instructions on this matter, as long as the Holy Majesty orders, I will immediately send troops to Jianghuai. "

"Your Highness..." Zheng Yuanbi was anxious.

"Mister, please understand my difficulty. I am definitely not in charge of such a big matter." Li Xiaogong glanced at Zheng Yuanbi, and then said: "This place is not far from Xiangyang, let me let the soldiers escort you to Beijing."

"That's fine." Zheng Yuanbi cupped his hands with a wry smile, "Please arrange it immediately, Your Highness."

(End of this chapter)