The third emperor of the Sui Dynasty

Chapter 780

The Nanyang camp of the Sui army is located at the intersection of Xinye, Nie, Tuan, and Chaoshui. The white water from the east and west of the mausoleum is added, and flows to Xiangyang to flow into the Han River.

In the wilderness to the south of the military camp, there is a place where four rivers connect, the triangular area between the main stream and Bishui, where the Sui Army built a pier. When Du Fuwei arrived, the No.11 Army he led , and became a temporary naval officer, under the order of Yang Shanhui, to make active preparations at this pier for the eastward crossing to Chongling Huyang on the opposite side.

With the continuous arrival of Sui soldiers, the number of Sui troops gathered in Nanyang Xinye has reached 30. Including Du Fuwei's "naval division", the number is as high as 35. A large number of troops gathered in the As a result, Xinye has almost become a huge military town, and the huge camps are connected together, and the scale is extremely large, covering an area of ​​thousands of acres, just like a county town in the upper county.

Although the military camp was very quiet, the river was extremely busy. Small and medium-sized warships and boats came from the south to transport Lin Shihong's food and military supplies hoarded in Jiujiang and Poyang to the military camp. For this reason, the Sui army had no choice but to The warehouse area in the southwest corner is not expanded to accommodate food supplies.

Now the Xinye Sui Army has many soldiers and many generals at all levels. In addition to the coach Yang Shanhui, there are also Du Fuwei, Kan Leng, Gao Yaxian, Jia Wuben, Xie Yingdeng, He Panren, Xin Liaoer and other powerful generals under his command.

It is worth mentioning that Luo Shixin and Gao Yan, who had caused a storm in Xiangyang, also came back.

It turns out that after the Battle of Gucheng, the Beizhen Army, under the command of Su Dingfang, fought several beautiful ambush battles in Fangling. Now, Su Dingfang no longer needed Luo Shixin, a famous and powerful general, to frighten the generals of the Beizhen Army as he did at the beginning.Luo Shixin has little room for development in the Beizhen Army. If he continues to stay there, it will be a waste of talents. Therefore, according to the previous arrangement, Luo Shixin and Gao Yan returned to Nanyang early and took orders under Yang Shanhui's account, leaving Cheng Yaojin alone By Su Dingfang's side.

In the big tent of the Chinese army, the coach Yang Shanhui and several generals are discussing the military situation in front of the sand table.

Although there have been many military push drills against Tang Jun on the sand table beforehand, and he was able to beat Tang Jun every time, but the fake one is fake after all. Once the real one is played, Li Xiaogong may not follow the planned route.And through the infiltration of a large number of scouts, Yang Shanhui found that he still underestimated the defense system that Li Xiaogong and Chai Shao painstakingly built in Chongling.

Chongling is located on the edge of Nanyang Basin, which is characterized by many mountains and many waters. Luoshan, Tangzishan, Tongbaishan, Bashan, Dahongshan, etc. are all famous steep mountains. In this season, the water in the Weishui is also turbulent and rushing endlessly, so besides the Huyang camp, Li Xiaogong also relied on these dangerous terrains to build more than 30 military fortresses, ranging from three hundred troops to as many as three thousand troops. Forts are built on steep terrain, and are mostly made of large stones, tall and strong, easy to defend and difficult to attack, and the fortresses echo each other. If one is attacked, the others can be rescued quickly. If the Sui army's attacking force is insufficient , It is likely to be surrounded and wiped out by Tang army soldiers from several fortresses. There are too many people sent, and there is no terrain to spread out.

It was the powerful defense system of Li Xiaogong and Chai Shao that made Yang Shanhui quite distressed. If he attacked by force, he would definitely be able to take down the whole area of ​​Chongling, but the price would be very high, and Yang Shanhui didn't want to take down this Tang army at a heavy price.

It is Yang Shanhui's consistent combat principle to obtain the greatest results at the lowest cost. In the past when he was fighting the rebellion in Jizhou, his military strength had never exceeded 20, but he used this point to fight against Zhang Jincheng and Gao Shida's coalition forces of more than [-] troops. , won one victory after another, and in the end Zhang Jincheng, who had more than [-] soldiers, was cut off to claim credit.

It is the experience of hundreds of battles in the past that made him very good at fighting more with less, and he also cherishes every soldier under his command. He does not want to kill one thousand and lose eight hundred. The breach of the fortress will inevitably pay a huge price, which is the result he is extremely unwilling to see.But when he glanced towards Xiangyang to the west, he had a very good strategy.

"Marshal, we have the advantage of having more people and more time, so we can fight for a long time easily, while the Tang army is eager to retreat westward to Xiangyang. As long as they move, our chance will come." Du Fuwei sounded from the silent tent With a loud voice, he pointed at the location of the Tang army camp with the wooden pole in his hand, and said: "The Tang army has 12 troops, but they are mainly deployed in Huyang and Zaoyang counties in the north-central part of Chongling. We can adopt the tactics of occupying the periphery first and then attacking the core, first occupy Chongling Shangma and Caiyang counties, and at the same time let the army of Handong County go out from Angui County and attack Qingtan County in an instant to prevent the enemy from fleeing from the south. After entering Jingling, after completing the strategic outflanking, push to Huyang and Zaoyang layer by layer. The Tang army's fighting will is not strong, and it is very likely that they will collapse after we complete the first step. In this way, we don't need to fight one fortress after another. gone."

Yang Shanhui thought for a while and said nothing. Du Fuwei's tactics are certainly good, but they need to deploy the army vigorously. If there is a loophole somewhere, the Tang army can escape from this gap.Even if the Tang army is besieged in Huyang as expected, the desperate Tang army will inevitably fight the Sui army to the end. The 12 Tang army's desperate counterattack will cause huge casualties to both the enemy and us. If you don't fight, you don't fight, and if you can fight a small fight, you can't fight a big fight" is contrary to the civil war thinking.

After all, the soldiers of both the Sui and Tang Dynasties were citizens of the Sui Dynasty. Yang Shanhui, as the right servant, had to consider not only defeating the Tang army, but also ensuring that the casualties of both sides were minimized. After rebuilding.So unless he had to, he would not launch such a bloody battle.

It's not that Du Fuwei's idea is wrong, but that the positions of the two are different, so they look at the problem from different angles.

"Commander." Luo Shixin cupped his hands and smiled, "On the basis of General Du's strategy, there will be some additions at the end."

Yang Shanhui stroked his beard and smiled: "General Luo, please tell me."

Luo Shixin smiled and said: "As General Du said, our biggest characteristic is that we have a large number of people and a large number of soldiers. We might as well send tens of thousands of soldiers and horses to Xiangyang with great fanfare. Li Xiaogong left the mountains, rushed to aid Xiangyang, and left the plains around Zaoyang and Caiyang to the Tang army as a route to retreat westward, as long as he rescues Xiangyang, it will be an opportunity for us to destroy the enemy."

"It's a good 'surround the spot to fight for aid'. General Luo's strategy is indeed a hundred times better than Du's strategy."

After Luo Shixin's tactics were told, the two battle ideas were judged to be superior. Du Fuwei didn't spend so much time, not only didn't feel uncomfortable, but he was full of praise.

"Don't dare to do it, don't dare to do it..." Luo Shixin said modest words, but his face showed a strong look of complacency.

Everyone couldn't help but laugh out loud.

Yang Shanhui also stroked his beard and smiled, looking at Luo Shixin's eyes full of admiration, Luo Shixin's thinking was completely consistent with his own, if he really wanted to divide his troops to besiege Li Jiancheng who was staying in Xiangyang, he would definitely be able to force Li Xiaogong to Xiangyang and make him work hard to build The military fortress that emerged was useless.

But once they attacked Li Xiaogong, it would be an act of blatantly tearing up the truce agreement. Naturally, the Tang army would not abide by the agreement and cede the five counties of Xiangyang, Chongling, Jingling, Yiling, and Qingjiang amicably.

Although it is said that once Li Xiaogong's army is defeated, the five counties will be in a predicament of being empty, but the tall city of Xiangyang still has 5 Tang troops. Annihilating the [-] to [-] Tang troops in Xiangyang is also a practical issue that he has to consider.

At this moment, a soldier's report came from outside the tent: "Commander, the battle report from the Holy Majesty and the Chongling scout information arrived at the same time."

"Bring it in."

"Here."

A soldier walked in outside and presented two red letter boxes to Yang Shanhui. The highest level of information in the Sui Dynasty was the red letter box. Everyone knew something big was going to happen just by looking at it. Everyone stopped communicating and looked at Yang Shanhui together.

Yang Shanhui read the battle report sent by Yang Tong first, and said to everyone: "The Holy Majesty sent a victory report..."

After saying this sentence, Yang Shan will find that everyone is indifferent, not surprised by favor or shame, each face is full of natural colors, and pairs of black and white eyes seem to say, "Isn't this nonsense?"

Well, the Holy Majesty won the battle, and I, Yang Shanhui, are not surprised.But what are your expressions?

Although it is very embarrassing, I have to go on.

Yang Shanhui coughed a few times, concealing the embarrassment in his heart, and continued: "Langri Zanpu of Tubo took the initiative to invite the holy master to fight and fight."

"Chi..." Luo Shixin sneered, and whispered, "If you don't die, you won't die."

Everyone nodded sharply.

This touched everyone's heart, not to mention that Pei Xingyan and Niu Jinda are enemies of ten thousand people, even Sheng Shang himself is also a titan, and Wang Xiongdan is also very good at fighting.
"Tubo is indeed trying to die. It's just that the fighting general lost more than a dozen strong generals. In the subsequent scuffle, not only lost [-] elite soldiers, but also lost dozens of generals. Tubo fell into the dilemma of having no generals to use." Yang Shanhui said again.

"Oh..." All the generals unanimously elongated their voices, "oh" and said a teasing "oh".

Yang Shanhui shook his head helplessly, and said, "The Holy Majesty has approved our request for combat..."

This sentence finally speaks of the fate of the generals.

All of them looked at Yang Shanhui happily and anxiously, as if they had come to life.

"Holy Majesty... oh..."

Yang Shanhui sighed and sighed, making all the generals wilt like eggplants beaten by frost.

"Your Majesty, I agree." Yang Shanhui looked at the generals with a look of wisdom in his hands, and said in his heart: I know you care about this.

"What?"

"Am I dreaming?"

"Really agree?"

"..."

"The commander-in-chief said that the Holy Majesty agreed."

"It's our turn now."

"Long live the Holy One."

In an instant, the entire Chinese army's large tent cheered thunderously, as if it was about to overturn the roof of the tent.

Yang Shanhui ignored these militants, opened the emergency information sent by the Chongling scout, signaled everyone to be quiet, and said: "The intelligence sent by the scout said that the Tang army in the Huyang camp is ready to go, and the people we put in have also received it." The order to evacuate tonight is to march towards Zaoyang County in the south."

Everyone hurriedly looked at the sand table. The distance from Daying in Huyang County to Zaoyang County in the south was marked as more than 230 miles. Several rivers in different directions merged into the exhausted water, and it was not so easy to chase from Nanyang Xinye. If you are not careful, you may be ambushed. After all, the terrain at this distance is easy to hide soldiers.

Jia Wuben couldn't help but praise: "What a Li Xiaogong, this move is really crisp and neat, without delay, the whole game of chess has been completely revitalized, and the unfavorable passive situation has suddenly turned into an active one. If we want to defeat it, You can only follow his rhythm to catch up."

"It may not be that difficult." Xie Yingdeng said clearly: "No matter how Li Xiaogong goes, the destination will always be Xiangyang City. As long as we grasp this fatal point, Li Xiaogong will not be able to escape."

"General Xie is very right." Jia Wuben nodded, agreed with Xie Yingdeng's words, and suggested to Yang Shanhui: "However, Li Xiaogong obviously also has this kind of awareness. In order to prevent him from jumping over the wall and suddenly attacking Handong and Huaian I will suggest that the commander-in-chief give orders to the two counties to prepare them for battle and defense, so as not to be caught off guard by him."

"Marshal, General Jia's concerns are justified, we have to guard against them."

"It will be reconsidered at the end."

"It will be reconsidered at the end."

The generals expressed their opinions one after another.

Yang Shanhui followed the good example and said to the messenger: "Pass down the order and let the defenders in Huai'an, Handong, and Anlu be prepared to guard against death; at the same time, pass on the information of Li Xiaogong's southward movement to Li Jing Shangshu who is in Nanjun, so that he can choose the opportunity to send troops and occupy Jingling. "

"Here." The two messengers saluted and left.

At this time, Du Fuwei pointed a wooden pole on the sand table and said: "The distance from Huyang Daying to Zaoyang County is more than 200 miles. There are mountains and rivers on this road. According to the itinerary of the infantry, the fastest speed It will take two days to complete the journey, but Li Xiaogong must have guessed that our army will chase after him, so in order to make the army have the strength to fight at any time, he can only march at a normal speed, that is to say, Li Xiaogong's army will have to walk at least four It takes five days to reach Zaoyang County, and these few days are our chances."

Gao Yaxian said from the side: "Since Li Jiancheng knows that Li Xiaogong's army is going to enter Xiangyang, I'm afraid he will make preparations to respond."

Yang Shanhui nodded. This was actually within his expectations. Since the Sui army occupied the north, east, and south directions and cut off the retreat of Li Xiaogong's army, he had nowhere to go except to withdraw his troops back to Xiangyang. He watched Xiangyang County said for a while: "If Li Jiancheng sends troops to support him, it may not be a bad thing."

"The commander-in-chief thinks that Li Jiancheng will send troops to Li Xiaogong?" Du Fuwei asked.

"I hope so." After Yang Shanhui finished speaking, he looked at He Panren, who had served in the Tang Army, and asked, "General He, what do you think?"

He Panren said with certainty: "The last general thinks that Li Jiancheng will send troops."

Du Fuwei asked curiously, "Why do you see that?"

He Panren sighed: "Li Jiancheng is a rare gentleman in the Li family. He is generous and magnanimous, emphasizing affection and righteousness. If Li Xiaogong, who grew up with him, is in mortal danger, Li Jiancheng will definitely send troops."

"I hope so too." Yang Shanhui laughed. He didn't care much about Li Jiancheng. Although Li Jiancheng is a gentleman, his temperament of emphasizing love and righteousness is easy for the enemy to take advantage of. As long as you grasp this point, it is not difficult to deal with him.

Li Xiaogong, on the other hand, is a dangerous and formidable person. He has single-handedly conquered all the current territories of the Puppet Tang Dynasty. If you underestimate him, you will suffer a lot.

However, Yang Shanhui did not intend to ambush and attack Li Xiaogong. After all, the opponent had 12 troops, so he had to dispatch at least an equal number of troops to play a decisive role. Such a large-scale mobilization of troops could not be hidden from the opponent's scouts. meaningless.That is to say, with Li Xiaogong's retreat, the two armies will become an upright confrontation, and now he doesn't want to fight this kind of battle.

He pondered for a long time, and asked Luo Shixin: "General Luo, what do you think is the weakness of Li Xiaogong's army?"

"Back to Commander." Luo Shixin saluted, and said in a loud voice: "The general thinks that Li Xiaogong's army has many weaknesses. For example, poor equipment, weak combat power, low morale, low loyalty, etc., these are the Tang army's weaknesses. Shared flaws...but none of them matter..."

"It's not important, so you still say?" Yang Shanhui's face darkened, he shook his head with a headache, and said angrily: "Don't give me these useless things, be specific."

Luo Shixin was interrupted before he finished speaking, and was finally accused. He was also very speechless, "The last general thinks that the biggest weakness of Li Xiaogong's army is food."

"Do you think Li Xiaogong's army is short of food? No food?"

"That's not the case." Luo Shixin shook his head and said, "Our army's scouts have inquired very clearly for a long time, saying that all the military rations available to the Tang army are in the Huyang Camp, and the officials in Zaoyang, Caiyang, Chongling and other counties There is almost no food in the warehouse, that is to say, Li Xiaogong's army can't get much supplies in these places. His army went south to Zaoyang, and then went west from Zaoyang to Xiangyang. It took a month, so they had to take away from Huyang Daying the food needed for 12 troops for a month. But they only had three or four thousand mules and donkeys, but with this amount of animals alone, they could not transport the 12 troops for one month. In the end, the soldiers have to carry it by themselves. And the final general thinks that these animals are not carrying food, but fodder for war horses.”

Jia Wuben laughed and said, "General Luo is right. They have only three or four thousand mules and donkeys in their army, and they don't have carts to transport horse fodder, so they can only rely on the horses and these mules and donkeys."

Luo Shixin continued: "We all know that when a soldier marches, he has to carry weapons, armor and simple luggage. The sum of these alone weighs thirty or forty catties. Excluding these necessary things, an infantry You can only carry dry food for ten and a half months at most, and you can't bear any more. But in order not to be hungry, you have to add half a month of food... Under such a heavy load, it will take two days at most, and the number of people will be exhausted to [-] to [-]%... "

Yang Shanhui said knowingly: "Just like the armies of Yu Wenshu and Yu Zhongwen during the expedition to Goguryeo?"

"That's right." Jia Wuben, who participated in the two Goguryeo battles, nodded and said, "The situation of the Tang army is indeed very similar."

Luo Shixin added: "The meaning of the last general is very obvious: to send a large number of scouts to closely monitor the marching route of the Tang army, and according to their marching speed, we can calculate where they will be in three days. We only need to wait there to defeat the army. Soldiers who can't stand still, it's quite simple."

"It makes sense." Yang Shanhui said with a smile.

(End of this chapter)