The third emperor of the Sui Dynasty

Chapter 827 Sadly Quit

The interception battle that took place at the turn of Chongling and Xiangyang was sent back to Xiangyang City with the deserters at noon the next day.In the main hall of the East Palace, Li Jiancheng looked very haggard. He had been sitting blankly all afternoon. His originally handsome face had already grown a lot of stubble. To care about these.

He was mourning for Chai Shao's death, but also worried about the Tang Empire. Li Xiaogong was defeated, Chai Shao was already dead, and the number of 10,000+ Chongling troops returning to Xiangyang was actually less than a thousand.

What does this make him do?How to explain to the father who regards this army as a life-saving straw?

At his head, Li Xiaogong and the samurai Yu who had returned from the defeat knelt on the ground silently. Since they fled back to Xiangyang and told the story of the withdrawal, the two of them have not explained anything to themselves.

The defeat of the army and the body of Chai Shao who had been sent to Xiangyang are irreparable facts. Although Li Jiancheng did not blame the two of them, his self-blame bit them like a knife, because Chai Shao was not only a son-in-law, They were still their comrades in arms. If it hadn't been for Chai Shao who led [-] soldiers under his command to charge against the Sui army when he launched an attack in Luo Shixin, and gave them a momentary respite, he himself would not have been surrounded by heavy siege at all. It can be said that Chai Shao exchanged the lives of him and his soldiers in exchange for their lives.

At this time, Chen Shuda walked quickly into the square in front of the hall. He was ordered to go to Jingling to gather troops and food. He had just returned, and now everyone was saying that Li Xiaogong had returned in a disastrous defeat.

He saw a few soldiers standing in front of the steps nervously looking into the hall, the atmosphere was very dignified, he hurriedly asked: "King Jing and the others are really defeated?"

"Exactly." A school lieutenant said softly: "King Jing was defeated, only less than a thousand people left to return, and Prince Chai was also killed."

"boom!"

The captain's words were like a thunderbolt from the blue sky, which made Chen Shuda's mind go blank, as if he couldn't hear anything except his own heartbeat.

Chen Shuda actually has another plan. Liu Wenjing wrote a letter a few days ago, asking him to persuade Li Jiancheng to swallow the Chongling soldiers and retreat safely to Badong. Instead of going to Chengdu, the dirty political quagmire, everyone will use Li Xiaogong and Chai Shao as generals. , led the army to conquer the six tribes of Nanzhao, and won a place to recuperate for Datang and Li Jiancheng.

This was actually the development plan that Liu Wenjing had drawn up for Li Yuan when the Eastern Expedition failed. But at that time, Li Yuan was hijacked by the Guanlong nobles with public opinion and could not move the capital to Chengdu, which made the plan impossible to implement.

I wanted to pick up this development strategy, but now... the 10,000+ army is gone, and Chai Shao is gone.The strategic plan naturally fell through.

Chen Shuda frowned, he pondered for a moment and said: "Report to Your Highness for me, just say I'm begging to see you."

The captain walked up the steps quickly, and stood at the entrance of the main hall to report: "Report to His Royal Highness, Chen Xiangguo asks to see you."

"Please come in!" Li Jiancheng's voice was a little hoarse, and his tone was filled with endless sadness.

Chen Shuda had already entered the main hall without his own soldiers telling him, and only bowed in front of Li Jiancheng, "See Your Highness."

Li Jiancheng raised his hand and said, "Mr. Chen, please sit down."

"Thank you, Your Highness." Chen Shuda saluted again, and then looked at Li Xiaogong. At this glance, he was dumbfounded, only to see that this King Jing, who was only in his thirties, had white hair on his head that was even more white than his own. There are more old men in their 50s.

"King Jing, General Wu, I, a subjugated person, can still enjoy my life, how can you lose confidence because of a temporary defeat?" Chen Shuda took a deep breath, and said angrily: "My Tang Dynasty is not yet dead. , the crown prince also wants you two to lead troops to Yizhou, stand up like a man before you are sad."

Only then did Li Xiaogong stand up slowly, helped the samurai Xun to his feet, and sighed bitterly: "I regret not listening to Sichang's words, so I was defeated and even killed Sichang!"

Chai Shao persuaded him to take the official road to go south to Zaoyang, but Li Xiaogong was worried that the cavalry of the Sui Army would cover up from behind and wipe out the whole army again, so he insisted on taking the mountain path.Thinking of Chai Shao's death at this moment, Li Xiaogong couldn't help feeling a burst of heartache.

Li Jiancheng sighed: "Xiaogong, your decision is not wrong. If you followed the official path, I am afraid that you would have lost more than a month ago."

"This is the gap between countries, and it cannot be changed by manpower." Chen Shuda who said this was like a mirror in his heart. The Tang Dynasty fell from keeping pace with the Great Sui Dynasty to this point, and the culprit was Li Yuan.

Since Li Yuan ascended the throne, he has failed repeatedly and dragged the vigorous Tang Dynasty to this desperate situation step by step. It won't be so bad.But he chose to be an outsider to command an insider, intervening everywhere in the army.

Sometimes Chen Shuda even extremely suspected that Li Yuan was a spy sent by Yang Tong, otherwise why would he always 'cooperate' with Yang Tong at critical moments?
In other words, the father-in-law looks more and more pleasing to his son-in-law, so he simply doesn't want his family and descendants. If this is the case, it is really not unreasonable for Yang Guang to call him "Grandma".

"His Royal Highness, Director Shi Hanzhi of Wu Chuan asked to see him, saying that he has something important to discuss." Just as Chen Shuda was thinking wildly, the school captain reported outside the hall just now:
"welcome."

"Here."

After a while, Han Zhida stepped into the hall, saluted and said: "Han Zhi, a low-ranking official, sees Your Highness."

"What's the matter with Han Changshi?" Li Jiancheng signaled him to excuse him.

Han Zhi said: "Reporting to Your Majesty, bad news about our army is spreading everywhere in the city. In order not to shake the morale of the army, the humble officials have strictly ordered the people in all workshops to silence and not talk about the defeat of the Tang army. And according to His Majesty's order, send a thousand The famous Wu Chuanwei patrolled the whole city and spread the news everywhere, and anyone who dared to discuss privately would be punished as collaborating with the enemy."

Li Jiancheng glanced at everyone, and said casually, "Maybe what I did was to hide my ears and steal the bell in the legend. Now the hearts of the people and the army are in chaos. How can the ban be stopped? It is said that the Sui army was very good at surrendering without fighting." I didn't believe in the soldiers of the people before. However, the Sui army is far north of the Han River, and it has already caused turmoil in our city. In comparison, we are too passive."

Li Jiancheng's words aroused Chen Shuda's worries, "Since ancient times, 'defending the people's mouth is more important than defending Sichuan'. The army and the people dare not talk about it in public, but I'm afraid they talk more in private. Your Highness, our situation is not optimistic now. , should have been prepared long ago."

Li Jiancheng nodded silently: "At present, it seems that Yang Tong is indeed preparing to take Jingbei by force. Let's talk about it, what should we do now?"

Chen Shuda said slowly: "Now the army's morale is shaken and everyone is in danger. What I am most worried about is the natives of Jingzhou. For them, surrendering to the Sui Dynasty is in their best interest. Xiangyang City may be able to stop the Sui army, but I can't stop the people's hearts towards the Sui Dynasty. The hearts of the people in Jingzhou are no longer in my Tang Dynasty, they regard my Tang Dynasty as a scourge, and in my humble opinion, it is better to leave as soon as possible."

Li Jiancheng kept silent and began to calculate secretly.

Although Yang Shanhui defeated the Chongling Army, after more than a month of urgent gathering, Xiangyang has assembled [-] to [-] elite soldiers from various places. From a purely military point of view, it is difficult for the Sui army to attack the tall and deep Xiangyang City .But the point is that the people in the city are panicked, and it won't take long for this fear to spread to the army.As far as he knew, although Xiangyang had been the territory of the Tang Dynasty for several years, the war-weariness and fear of war had never been eliminated from the very beginning because of the court's successive battles and repeated failures.If Yang Shanhui, Xue Wanjun, and Li Jing approached the city at the same time, the frightened army might surrender the city immediately.

Thinking of this, Li Jiancheng looked at Li Xiaogong and asked, "Xiaogong, what do you think?"

Li Xiaogong also knew that this was definitely not the time to be hypocritical, so he quickly replied: "In fact, since the failure of the Eastern Expedition, the morale of our army has become more and more low, and it is getting worse every day. At the same time, more and more people think that my Tang Dynasty is against Jingzhou The general situation of the rule of the Communist Party of China is gone. After the emperor moved the capital, the soldiers from Jingxiang all sought to protect themselves and left their own ways. The sentiment of war weariness and fear of war had already swept through the entire army. I returned in a disastrous defeat. The blow was worse, and now the morale of the army has collapsed, and it is no longer possible to fight. I also think it is appropriate to leave as soon as possible."

Li Jiancheng also had nothing to do with the governor, and immediately said to Han Zhi: "Han Changshi, send an order to order the left-behind officials to clean up urgently, and go to Chengdu with me in three days."

"I obey." Han Zhi responded, saluted and left.

Li Jiancheng said to Li Xiaogong again: "Xiaogong, General Wu, you two are in charge of military affairs, soldiers who don't want to go to Yizhou with us, don't force them."

"Here." Li Xiaogong and Samurai Xun obeyed and left.
"In the truce agreement of the Sui and Tang Dynasties, Yang Tong asked us to hand over a complete Xiangyang. Although he has destroyed the agreement, I don't want the rebels and rogues to harm the people in the city." Li Jiancheng walked out and looked around. The majestic palace complex sighed, and said to Chen Shuda who was silently accompanying him: "Chen Xiangguo, please go to Caiyang and let Luo Shixin or Yang Shanhui come to take over Xiangyang. This can be regarded as a good deed for the people of Xiangyang."

"Wei Chen obeys."

. . . . . .

In the early morning of the third day, Li Jiancheng, who had reached a handover agreement with the Sui Dynasty, officially withdrew from Xiangyang with the remnants of Li and Tang, ending their rule over Jingzhou.

In the afternoon, the samurai who was in charge of cutting off the rear opened the door as agreed, and let the main force of the Sui army enter the city. He himself led [-] soldiers to the west to join Li Jiancheng.

Du Fuwei and Luo Shixin, who were ordered to take over, led [-] troops into the city, and Luo Shixin led [-] elite cavalry to take over the palace.
Du Fuwei was in charge of controlling Xiangyang City. Every household in the city closed doors and windows, hiding in their homes and not daring to go out.

Teams of Sui army cavalry galloped through the streets and alleys of Xiangyang, arresting and beheading the stragglers and hooligans who took the opportunity to rob the shops and cause harm to the people, and shouted loudly to tell the people not to go out for the time being.

In the evening, Yang Shanhui, who was notified, led his generals into the city. He asked Du Fuwei, who came to greet him: "Is there any news about Li Jiancheng?"

Du Fuwei bowed and said: "Commander Qi, they had already left in the early morning, and it was the warrior Xun who delivered the final delivery."

Xie Yingdeng next to him asked, "Marshal, should we go after him?"

Yang Shanhui shook his head: "Li Jiancheng and Li Xiaogong are nothing to worry about, and without Li Jiancheng, how can Chengdu be lively? Let them go."

"Here." Xie Yingdeng replied.

"I will appoint you as the Prime Minister of Xiangyang County for the time being, to appease Xiangyang County, and arrange soldiers to take over the counties under the rule. Unless it is absolutely necessary, you cannot kill recklessly."

Xie Yingdeng responded quickly: "The general understands, please rest assured, Commander."

Yang Shanhui shifted his gaze to Du Fuwei: "Our group, General Du, you are the best at water warfare. You and General Kan led the No. 11 Army soldiers to Yiling to assist Li Jing Shangshu and prepare for the attack on Yizhou. Stand still, everything is subject to Li Shangshu's orders."

Du Fuwei was overjoyed: "The last general obeys the order!"

"Did General Xue Wanjun, who was in charge of capturing Fangling and Xicheng, hear from the eagle?" Yang Shanhui asked the guards around him.

The soldier replied: "Back to the commander, there is no letter from General Xue yet."

"I see." Yang Shanhui didn't care either. In fact, Fangling didn't belong to Jingzhou, but it was as empty of troops as Xicheng County. How could such a territory not be seized?

He also said: "Come with me to the imperial city, and I will personally write the victory report to the Holy Majesty and Zuo Pushe."

"Here."

(End of this chapter)