The third emperor of the Sui Dynasty

Chapter 953 Intercepted the secrets of the Sui Dynasty and spread them out
On the same morning when Yu Chigong divided his troops to attack the counties of Shunzheng, a distraught army with no helmets and armor listlessly marched towards Yizhen County, Wenshan County. On the half-rolled and half-open flag, one could vaguely see a 'Li' character.

This is the remnant of Li Xiaochang who was defeated by Pei Xingyan outside Jiangyuan City yesterday. They managed to get rid of their pursuers and went down the Minjiang River. But first they ran from Tongchang to Jiangyuan City. The army launched a fierce offensive, and fled all the way after the defeat. It had been more than a day without a grain of rice, and everyone was full of hunger, sleepiness, and fatigue.

Li Xiaochang, who was walking in the middle of the team, suddenly stepped on a huge boulder by the side of the road, looked left and right for a long time, but finally felt sad, his [-] army, in just one day, had shrunk to less than a thousand people and collapsed , Weary army.

Originally, there were more than [-] soldiers who fled with him from the battlefield, but under the pursuit of the Sui army, they either became prisoners or deserters on the way to escape, and most of them lost their weapons. With a sluggish posture, let alone the Sui army, even a single bandit can wipe out their entire army.

What makes Li Xiaochang want to cry and feel ashamed even more is that the few soldiers now are the combined army of him and Han Wei, and the Jiangyuan army is the main one.Before the war, the total army strength was only a few thousand, but now there are still more than 600 soldiers left. Looking at my own soldiers, they are only half of them... How can this make Li Xiaochang, who used to have 6 people, feel so embarrassed?

"Governor, the last general is incompetent, and I've let you down." It was only at this time that Han Wei, who was lucky enough to survive, was free to come to the ceremony. Before that, he had been behind to prevent the soldiers from escaping.If it wasn't for his supervision from behind, this defeated army would have shrunk in half at least.

"It has nothing to do with you." Li Xiaochang shook his head, he knew that Han Wei was talking about yesterday's battle, but he knew that this fiasco was actually caused by his misjudgment, and he could not blame anyone.Moreover, when Han Wei was confronting Pei Xingyan, he took the opportunity to attack the Sui army's camp.However, Pei Xingyan ordered the right wing to intercept Han Wei's Jiangyuan army when he did not have an advantage in troops, and on the frontal battlefield, all of them were handed over to the arrow formation.

Although it has long been known that the crossbow arrows of the Sui Dynasty were powerful, when the cellular crossbow showed its glory in the civil war for the first time, it showed terrifying lethality, which completely subverted Li Xiaochang's perception of crossbows.

It was these thousands of large weapons that enabled Pei Xingyan to reverse his inferiority in strength. Before the two armies formally contacted, he used the powerful crossbow with a very long range to maim his army.

So in the final analysis, it was still a fiasco caused by his knowing himself and not knowing his enemy.

The "unknown" here refers not only to the powerful honeycomb crossbow, but also to the enemy commander who uses troops like antelopes hanging on their horns and has no trace. In order to inquire about the reality of the Sui army yesterday, he sent troops outside the Sui camp. He thought that the Sui army was sending troops. , and only sent out one, never expected that Pei Xingyan didn't even have to be tempted, and went out with all his strength. Although he and Han Wei both responded well, in the end, the unknown car crossbow exploded directly.

Facing the brave Sui army with such a big weapon, and in the situation of being caught off guard yesterday, even if they had more than doubled their strength, the end would still be the same.

"Great governor!" Seeing that Li Xiaochang did not blame himself for the failure, Han Wei breathed a sigh of relief. He hesitated for a moment, then cupped his hands and said, "The last general has not deployed troops in the middle of Wenshan Mountain. Currently Beichuan, Wenshan Each had [-]. If counting the counties and the two armies together, there should be about [-]. It's just that the Sui army was good at fighting, and their crossbow arrows were very sharp. I am afraid that few of us will survive in the end. For the present plan, it is best to send people to collect the troops, food, and military resources from all counties to Wenshan County, the county seat, before Pei Xingyan chases after him. Tall and fortified cities; the rest of the counties are worth mentioning."

Li Xiaochang nodded, and said with undiminished worry: "That's what I thought too, but I don't think it's possible."

"Why?" Han Wei was a little puzzled.

"If there is no accident, Pei Xingyan is already on the way to chase us. He has the whole army riding and has an advantage in speed. He will not give us time to gather our troops one by one. Even if we gather our forces, we can only give him Yu Yu The opportunity to gather and annihilate them in a field battle, that is to say, if we delay on the road like this, no one will be able to reach Wenshan City." Speaking of this, Li Xiaochang smiled bitterly: "Even if the above two things do not appear, he will kill them sooner or later. Go to Wenshan City. Under the premise that the imperial court is unable to take back Mianzhu in Shu County, we are already an isolated and helpless army. Does General Han think we can defend Wenshan County?"

"This... I'm afraid, I'm afraid I won't be able to defend it." Han Wei has already heard Li Xiaochang's meaning, which is actually what he thinks, instead of wasting time on gathering soldiers from various counties and counties who don't have much combat power, and guarding Wen, who is bound to lose. For the mountain city, it is better to go straight to Beichuan and Wenshan, and then take advantage of the failure of the Sui army to encircle, and quickly lead these two armies to retreat into Shu County.

It's just that although the two are both county-level governors, the other party is also a county king in addition to his military position, so some decisions can be made by Li Xiaochang, but not by Han Wei. This is also the most basic rule in the officialdom.

In fact, Li Xiaochang also has his own difficulties. He is Li Yuan's confidant, but Han Wei is Li Shimin's man. Now that Li Shimin is ruling the court, he may not be able to send Han Wei, a general with a foreign surname. , immediately felt relieved, and expressed his thoughts: "Yang Tong once said a word to his generals, that is, 'if you save land, you will lose people; if you save people, you will lose land, and everyone will gain land' , These words are not only full of truth, but also in line with our current situation. In my opinion, we should not waste time on the road, but send people to Beichuan first, let the troops there join us in Wenshan County, and then withdraw to Wenchuan County, in this way we jumped out of the encirclement of the Sui army in the north and south, and at the same time sent people to Wenchuan to make Wenchuan officials ready to respond, and mobilized the local people to seize the time to build fortifications in some strategic fortresses; when we arrived, then rely on The steep mountains of Wenchuan are struggling with the Sui army, and the Qingqiang who live in Wenchuan are friendly with our Tang Dynasty. We can get their assistance, even if we can't hold it in the end, we can enter Jiulong County, Shu County along the Minjiang River. What does General Han think?"

"The final general has no objection." Han Wei hastily expressed his position. Li Xiaochang's reversal was actually the only way out for them, and Han Wei naturally had no reason to object.

"Then it's settled!" Saying this, Li Xiaochang asked Han Wei to take out the command arrows, and let a few loyal and reliable soldiers leave the team and go to the counties to issue orders.

"Yo, yo, yo..."

At this moment, the crowing of hawks came from above. Li Xiaochang looked up and saw a few hawks circling in the sky. He said to Han Wei very agitatedly: "I used to travel on the grasslands and found the hawks there. The Hu people like to tame falcons to monitor the enemy's situation, but Yang Tong has also learned this powerful method from the Hu people, if we can't shoot down these falcons, we won't be able to hide it from the eyes of these beasts."

After hearing this, Han Wei finally understood the role of these eagles. Seeing that the flying height of the falcons above their heads was not too high, he hurriedly found a few soldiers who were good at shooting, and asked them to take the crossbow to the middle of the mountain and wait for the opportunity. Shoot the falcon down.

Soon, the archer-skilled soldiers followed the flight path of the falcons and shot down three falcons successfully, and sent them to Li Xiaochang and Han Wei.

Looking at the small copper cylinder tied to an eagle's leg, Li Xiaochang and Han Wei suddenly realized that the falcon not only monitored them, but also delivered intelligence and combat orders for the Sui army. This not only saved a lot of manpower, but also quickly transmitted information. It is countless times faster than eight hundred miles.

"The Sui Army always took the lead in wars. I used to think that all the Sui Army commanders could be ahead of others. Now, it seems that their communication methods are the most powerful. Because these beasts convey military information like lightning, Therefore, people from all walks of life set up ambushes on the roads that our army must pass, and hit each one accurately. Even after our army left the camp, the Sui army had already deployed troops in a targeted manner. It is no wonder that we have been repeatedly defeated. We obviously also have falcons, But what are we used for? To drive prey."

There is a saying that Han Wei did not say: the Sui army’s dispatch of troops was so fast that people were caught off guard. Obviously, after the change of the palace, the secret work of the Sui Dynasty immediately used falcons to send messages to the court, so Yang Yu was in Tang Dynasty. When the court was in chaos, all the troops were ordered to attack violently, killing them unprepared.

"Actually, the Sui Army also used it to drive away prey, but the prey in their eyes was people, us." Li Xiaochang sighed.

Han Wei suddenly said happily: "We can also use falcons to send messages in the future."

"It would be better if we found out a few years earlier, now..." Li Xiaochang shook his head, and continued: "Talk is better than nothing."

Han Wei was taken aback, his smile froze on his face.

First of all, falcons cannot be tamed in a day, and it takes several years to form a huge falcon; secondly, when the Li and Tang dynasties reached this stage, it is actually the same whether or not the falcons were sent.

"Let's not talk about that." Li Xiaochang sighed, and pulled out a note from the small brass tube. When he saw the content on the note, he was dumbfounded. There was not a word on it, only a pile of '0' , 1, 2, 3, 4, 6, 7, 8, 9', since the Sui Dynasty had long used this symbol to replace 'one, two, three, four.../one, two, three, four...', Li Xiaochang also knows their pronunciation and usage, but when these matches make up many 'four-digit groups', he doesn't know them at all except that he can read 'X thousand X hundred X ten X' What words each represent, trying to decipher them into characters one by one is no less than finding a needle in a haystack.

However, although they don't know the specific meaning of these codes, the Sui army also can't receive this military information. The key is to know the Sui army's communication method, and they can tell the troops to send people to shoot down this kind of eagle, so that the Sui army can also return. to inefficient human communication.

"It's a pity that these eagles are all dead. Otherwise, we can write a random number, let the Sui army reveal strange meanings, and disgust them to death." Han Wei said suddenly.

"That's a good idea. Immediately send someone to take a small path to inform His Highness..." Li Xiaochang's eyes lit up, but just as Han Wei was about to answer, there was a "rumbling" sound of horseshoes from the north. The sound was so loud that even the ground trembled. Trembling for it.

Everyone's expressions changed drastically, and they all looked towards Sheng Sheng, only to see a black line appearing in the distance, and as the black line moved forward rapidly, the battle flag with the word "Sui" was clearly exposed.

The soldiers of the Tang army were in an uproar. Although most of them were illiterate, everyone knew that the Sui army had arrived, and their courage had been wiped out by the cellular crossbow as early as yesterday. They have all become deserters, seeing the devil-like Sui cavalry attacking at this time, how can there be any will to resist?

One after another, they ran away with their heads in their arms, and wolves ran like mice, making a mess.

The Sui army that chased here was precisely Qian Jie's troops who were working separately from Pei Xingyan. The main general who led the chase was Qian Jie himself. He learned of the whereabouts of Li Xiaochang and Han Wei from the deserters ahead, so he handed over the army Under the leadership of the deputy general, he brought a Thousand Guards and chased after him.

At this moment, Qian Jie could not help being overjoyed to see so many routs in front of him. He knew that this was his goal. If there were no generals here, how could he gather so many routs?Seeing the enemy army in a mess again, he shouted: "Kill."

Thousands of cavalry rushed forward, raised their weapons and stabbed at the soldiers of the Tang Army. The tired, hungry and frightened Tang Army's rout was no match for the soldiers of the First Army?Soon a large area was stabbed, and the screams were thrown into the tranquility of the morning.There was no suspense in the ensuing battle, and less than a thousand rout soldiers were killed so much that they knelt down and surrendered.

Li Xiaochang and Qian Jie knew that they would not be spared, they roared and rushed towards Qian Jie with a knife, "Let's die together!"

"Xuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuu..." Before the two of them approached, the sound of the crossbow string rebounding was loud, and the dense crossbow arrows shot at Li Xiaochang and Han Wei like a storm. Before the two could even utter a scream, they fell to the ground like hedgehogs. , Died tragically on the spot.

The tragic deaths of Li Xiaochang and Han Wei meant that the Tang Dynasty's remaining forces in Wenshan County had lost their principals.

(End of this chapter)