The third emperor of the Sui Dynasty

Chapter 784 Dare to ask where is the way
"The humble Li Chuan sees His Royal Highness the Crown Prince." In Xiangyang East Palace, Li Xiaogong's personal guard, who was full of dust and dust, paid a visit to Li Jiancheng.

"Excuse me." Li Jiancheng waved his hand and asked worriedly, "Has Xiaogong withdrawn his troops?"

"Returning to Your Highness, King Jing quickly withdrew from the Huyang camp after receiving your order; he is marching towards Zaoyang." Li Chuan said quickly.

"Zaoyang?" Li Jiancheng and Chen Shuda heard the words, with expressions of disbelief.

"Exactly." Li Chuan hurriedly said:
Li Jiancheng only felt dizzy for a while, and almost fell to the ground. Chen Shuda quickly supported him, and asked anxiously, "Do you want to follow the official path?"

Li Chuan saluted and said: "In order to avoid the cavalry of the Sui army, the army did not take the official route, but crossed the mountainous area..."

Chen Shuda sighed and said: "Before dark, there was a report from the defeated army, and Zaoyang has already fallen."

"This is impossible, absolutely impossible! Zaoyang has [-] elite soldiers, and the King of Jing ordered the Duke of Liang to mobilize the people to defend the city. How could it fall so quickly?" The matter was so important that Li Chuan also forgot that the two in front of him were himself. The big man who couldn't afford to offend, roared in a very rude way.

"It is said that the Sui army used more than 1000 giant crossbows to form a crossbow array and fired huge arrows the size of spears. Our army held on for less than an hour before the Sui army occupied the city. Duke Liang, his life and death are unknown." Li Chuan is not only Li Xiaogong's personal guard is also the general who has served Li Xiaogong's family for generations. Li Jiancheng is very familiar with him and knows that he is worried about Li Xiaogong and the army, so he doesn't mind Li Chuan's gaffe.

"This..." Li Chuan turned pale.

"Xiaogong avoided the cavalry of the Sui army, so you don't have to worry too much. Besides, our army has 12 people. As long as Xiaogong and the others are cautious and scout widely, the Sui army will not be able to sneak attack at all." Hearing that he was not following the official path, Li Jiancheng was relieved instead.

"If the Sui army wanted to annihilate this huge army, at least 7 to [-] people would be dispatched. Such a large-scale army could not be hidden from King Jing's scouts. There is no point in ambush and attack." Chen Shuda also said .

After thinking about it carefully, Li Chuan felt that this was also the case, and his tense heartstrings finally relaxed.

"By the way, Xiaogong asked you to come here at risk, why?" Li Jiancheng asked.

"Reporting to Your Highness, King Jing thinks that if the Sui army sends troops, it will definitely not only target the Chongling army. He asks you to send scouts to pay attention to the movements of the Sui army in Nanyang and Xiyang; if the Sui army invades Xiangyang, you only need to stick to the city. However, if Xiangyang falls, Yiling will not be able to defend either, and in this case, the road to Shu will be cut off, so please put the overall situation first," Li Chuan said.

Li Jiancheng hesitated for a while.

Chen Shuda asked at this time: "How is the situation of the army? What do you think is the biggest difficulty for the army?"

Li Chuan thought for a while, then shook his head and said, "I don't know what the biggest difficulty is. However, I can tell you the situation. Please Your Highness and Xiangguo make a decision, how about it?"

Chen Shuda glanced at Li Chuan appreciatively, and said with a smile, "Yes, please be sure to explain in detail."

"It takes more than 200 miles to go from Huyang to Zaoyang. In the middle is a hilly area with large forests. There are still some dangerous mountains to climb and deep valleys to cross. Therefore, cars cannot pass, but Zaoyang has no food. Before departure, Each soldier carried dry food for a month, but due to the difficult road, heavy rain, and the soldiers marched with heavy loads, all of them were exhausted after a night's hard trek, but the marching distance was less than thirty miles." , Li Chuan worriedly stated Li Xiaogong's final decision, "King Jing also realized that the march was difficult, and he set the distance from Huyang to Zaoyang as four to five days in advance; but Zaoyang has fallen now, I am afraid we can only Turning the road to the west and continuing in the mountains and forests, with the fatigue of the army, it will take at least ten days, right?"

Chen Shuda's face darkened, and he frowned deeply for a long time before he said in a deep voice: "The army is marching between mountains, forests and valleys with heavy loads, and its physical strength is declining every moment. In order to preserve the physical strength to fight at any time, the progress of the march is made every day It will all decline, and within half a month, we will not be able to reach Caiyang at all."

"I understand, Xiaogong's greatest difficulty is the lack of food." Li Jiancheng sighed and said, "Xiaogong has calculated the marching route and the time it takes, but he didn't expect Zaoyang to fall so easily, so he can only Continue to march in the mountains and forests. And when this accident happened, food became extremely important. After all, military food is the foundation of army stability, the premise of invincibility, and the guarantee of victory. If there is no food, the army will be chaotic without fighting. But the problem now is that there is food, but the soldiers can only carry it by themselves. Dry food plus armor, swords, spears, fire curtains, etc., each has to bear the weight of more than one stone. Let alone fighting, walking is tiring. "

Chen Shuda smiled wryly: "King Jing is repeating the mistakes of Zhong Wen and Yu Wenshu."

Li Jiancheng nodded silently.

During the expedition to Goguryeo, Yu Wenshu, who went deep into the land of Liaodong, issued an order to "behead those who discarded food and weapons" in order to ensure that the army had food to eat and weapons to fight.

Soldiers with heavy loads must not lose their weapons and equipment to these life-saving guys, so they dug holes in their tents to bury food, but halfway there, the food was gone.

At this time, the Sui army starved to death when they retreated, and starved to death when they entered.

How to do?
Yu Wenshu broke the boat and fought his last battle.

He won seven battles and seven victories in one day, but this was the strategy of the Goryeo people to fortify the wall and clear the country. The Sui army was so hungry that they could only retreat. In response to the challenge, more than 30 troops crossed the Liaoshui River, only more than 3000 people survived!
Isn't Li Xiaogong like this now?
He turned to the west, which is equivalent to Yu Wenshu who retreated after falling into the strategy of strengthening the wall and clearing the field.

The difference between the two is that Li Xiaogong still has food for the time being, but if the Sui army keeps up, he has no choice but to order the food to be abandoned in order to preserve the strength of the soldiers.But this decision also means that the army is short of food and hungry.The Sui army launched an attack, which was another battle of Sashui.However, the Sui army had the chance to win this time, and the Tang army became the Sui army led by Yu Zhongwen, Yu Wenshu and others.

Of course, Li Xiaogong can also stick to it. The problem is that Li Jiancheng has no support to send. Once the food is exhausted, the hungry and besieged Tang army will suffer a worse defeat than throwing away the food now.

This is the most basic common sense, Li Xiaogong must abandon food and march.That's why Li Jiancheng said that his biggest difficulty is the lack of food.

Li Chuan also heard it at this time, and he said anxiously: "Your Highness, the Sui army has now blocked Zaoyang, and it is difficult for King Jing to go south, and our army cannot carry luggage and large-scale ordnance. King Jing only wants the army to return to Xiangyang safely. He definitely told the soldiers to discard their rations and march lightly, but if the army runs out of rations, our army will surely collapse without fighting, and if the Sui army launches an attack at this time, I am afraid that our entire army will be wiped out."

"Xiaogong is my brother and a minister in the same palace. Now he encounters difficulties, whether private or public, I will not sit idly by." Li Jiancheng thought about the map deeply in his mind, and said: "Xiaogong Gong has a strong army. All he lacks is food, and nothing else is a problem. Go back and tell him that I will first send 2 shi of grain to the junction of Xiangyang Anyang and Chongling Caiyang through Hanshui and Bishui. It is the place where Wazigang and Bishui are connected. But Xiangyang only has more than [-] troops. If the Sui army attacks there, even if I go all out, I can’t last long. So I hope you let him send some troops and deploy there first. Defense to prevent the Sui army from burning food."

"Thank you, Your Highness." Li Chuan was overjoyed.

When they left, Li Jiancheng ordered: "Pass my order to carry [-] shi of grain and [-] bed crossbows on board; in addition, order Wu Chuanwei to sneak into Xinye and Caiyang to inquire about the news of the Sui army and keep in touch with Xiaogong. If there is a change, be sure to report to me as soon as possible.”

. . . . . . . .

In the barren mountains and wild mountains, the Tang army was marching in the direction of Zaoyang. After six days of walking, Li Xiaogong lost more than 3000 soldiers, some of them died, but more of them became deserters.

At this time, a group of scouts came rushing in fear, and the leader of the scouts stepped forward and said in a low voice: "See Your Highness."

"How is the situation in Zaoyang City?" Li Xiaogong asked eagerly. The army marched for more than 200 miles with heavy loads.Zaoyang City, which is close at hand, is too important to Tang Jun.

"Zaoyang fell yesterday, and the camp outside the city can accommodate at least one hundred thousand troops. I saw the main flag above the barracks with my own eyes. The main general should be Yang Shanhui himself." The leader of the scouts whispered anxiously.

"Ah, this..." The news was like five thunderbolts, and Li Xiaogong was stunned and dizzy; but he knew that he couldn't lose his composure, so he quickly pinched himself hard, using the pain to recover his composure, after a little thought, he ordered: " Continue to inquire about the news of the Sui army."

"I obey you." The scout saluted and ran away.

Seeing that it was lunch time, Li Xiaogong ordered the army to rest on the spot, more than [-] troops cheered thunderously, and chose places to rest.

Chai Shao, Lu Zushang, and the samurai Xun came to meet one after another. After hearing the news of Zaoyang's fall, all the generals were equally shocked. The official road is galloping, and the speed is far beyond the reach of our army. To be honest, the fall of Zaoyang was actually within my expectation."

He and Li Xiaogong had a dispute on the marching route. Chai Shao believed that he had more than [-] troops. As long as he spread scouts widely, the Sui army's ambush and sneak attack would become meaningless, so he advocated going south by official route; Luo Shixin was at a loss, thinking that if the army followed the official path, it would be harassed by the Sui army day and night, and the result would be to repeat the same mistakes and end up with the entire army wiped out.

Li Xiaogong was strongly supported by Lu Zushang and the warrior Xun who had suffered a lot, so Chai Shao couldn't support him alone.But things have already happened, and it is meaningless to say anything now. We can only discuss countermeasures with one heart and one mind to deal with the crisis that will occur next.

Chai Shao is also a smart and magnanimous person. He knows that at this time, the authority of the commander-in-chief is the only way to overwhelm the entire army. Once the authority of the commander-in-chief is questioned and provoked, it will be fatal for the Tang army.So after complaining for a while, he silently thought about countermeasures.

"Your Highness, we can only turn west now, but Cai Yang has only [-] troops, and it is estimated that news of his fall will come soon. Once the Sui army completes the strategic outflanking, the war will come. In order to restore the strength of the battle, I think it's best to rest here for two days." Chai Shao quickly thought of a safer solution.

"That's right, Your Highness, our army is really exhausted right now. Using such an army to confront the mighty Sui army is like hitting a stone with an egg." Lu Zushang also said.

Li Xiaogong was noncommittal, but asked an important matter: "How long can the soldiers' food last?"

"It's not been six days, how can the food last for more than 20 days." Lu Zushang gritted his teeth and complained: "In the final analysis, the map provided by the imperial court was wrong, which made us mistakenly think that this place is A flat plain with mountains."

"The imperial court handed over the military and political affairs of Chongling to us, but we only focused on the terrain to the north of Huyang, and focused on defending the Sui Army's Hanshui defense line, thus ignoring the terrain in the south... This is our own dereliction of duty, This matter cannot be blamed on the imperial court." Li Xiaogong sighed, and said: "I didn't expect that it would take six days to cross this mountainous area. The hunter told us that four days would be enough, but who knew that the sky would rain continuously? ? If it hadn’t rained, we would have been able to reach Zaoyang City the day before yesterday, and we can only say that God’s will tricks people!”

"It's just that our soldiers didn't have ten days and a half months of rest, and they couldn't recover to their heyday at all. It wasn't the last general who made others want to destroy his prestige. With such a weak brigade against the elite of the Sui Dynasty, our chances of victory are really not great. "

"I know, but there is no need to say these words that shake the morale of the army. Pass down the order, and the army will rest for an hour and immediately march west. This place is too close to the Sui army, and the army will choose a place to rest at night."

"Here." Chai Shao, Lu Zushang and others saluted before going to issue orders.

However, Li Xiaogong had no intention of eating, so he asked his personal guards to spread out a piece of white cloth, on which was painted a very scribbled pattern of mountains, rivers, rivers, and Luo.The court's map was too inaccurate, so he didn't dare to use it at all. If he followed that map, he might end up bored in the Sui army's barracks.

Although he said he had made a decision, his heart was full of gloom.

The fact is that they are isolated and helpless, and they don't even have a corresponding army. The situation they are facing now is very dangerous. The swarms came, and within a day, the Tang army would be torn to pieces by the aggressive Sui army and defeated in the barren mountains.

And this army is the life-saving army of the Li Tang Dynasty. If it is lost here, it will be a major blow to the Tang Dynasty, so it must be brought back to Xiangyang no matter what.

The only thing Li Xiaogong wanted to be able to rely on was this mountainous area. He used the terrain here to fight with the Sui army for ten days and a half months.In short, as long as there is still food, Li Xiaogong will not give up lightly.

Zaoyang has already fallen, and with a decision in his heart, Li Xiaogong no longer fearful of the first and the last, worrying about gains and losses, and immediately ordered: "Put away the map, rest and eat!"

"No!" The guard carefully put away the map.

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(End of this chapter)