Tibet.

Chapter 1231 The prologue begins
Xue Song immediately handed over the military power to Lei Wanchun. He took his brother Xue Ji back to the capital that day. Lei Wanchun then took over Xue Song's 15,000 troops and appointed Xue Song's son Xue Ping as the commander and Tiger Guard General.

The next step was to merge and reorganize the two armies, and Xue Song's subordinates reappointed military positions according to the standards of the Guanlong Army.

Not long after Xue Song handed over power, Guo Ziyi led an army of 100,000 into Yanzhou, and the governor of Yanzhou opened the city and surrendered.

Yanzhou was already Li Zhengyi's territory. The entry of Guo Ziyi's army into Yanzhou meant that the court's war to pacify the vassal states had officially begun.

Li Zhengyi's base was in Yidu County, Qingzhou. Initially, he only had two places, Zibo and Qingzhou, so he was called the Zibo-Qingzhou Jiedushi, which was the territory given to him by the imperial court.

But as his ambition continued to grow, his territory began to expand rapidly. He occupied Laizhou, Dengzhou and Mizhou to the east, Jizhou, Qizhou and Yunzhou to the west, and Yanzhou and Yizhou to the south.

Li Zheng has controlled ten states, becoming the largest of the four major vassal states.

Li Zhengyi also knew the danger he was facing, especially after Li Xilie was wiped out and Li Lingyao fled north, he would definitely be the next person the Regent would deal with.

Therefore, Li Zheng has been trying his best to expand his army. He has traded with the Bohai Kingdom by sea and purchased thousands of war horses. He also used his advantage of being a Goguryeo person to obtain 20,000 troops from the remnants of Goguryeo in Silla in the name of restoring the country.

The four major forces formed after the fall of Goguryeo became clear. One part was loyal to the court, like Gao Xianzhi and Wang Sili, one part stayed in Youzhou and was loyal to An Lushan, one part submitted to the Khitan, and one part was annexed by Silla.

Although Li Zhengyi was a Goguryeo person loyal to An Lushan, he did not want to restore his country. He wanted to establish his own dynasty and name it Qi.

Therefore, Li Zhengyi could no longer reach an agreement with the Goguryeo people in Youzhou, but he wanted to obtain Goguryeo's resources, so he turned his attention to Silla, introduced tens of thousands of Goguryeo households from Silla, organized them into military households, and recruited 20,000 soldiers.

Li Zhengyi currently has an army of nearly 100,000 people, so he has the confidence to confront the imperial court.

However, what made Li Zheng extremely angry was that the coalition army established last year actually broke its promise and was reluctant to support him.

"boom!"

Li Zhengyi slammed his fist on the table and gritted his teeth, "I knew that Tian Chengsi was unreliable and would only betray me at the critical moment. I have been deceived by him so many times!"

The second son, Li Na, remained silent. He was fully responsible for participating in the alliance affairs. In the end, he did not expect that Tian Chengsi was unreliable. This was his responsibility.

Military Advisor Jia Shen sighed and took the responsibility on himself, "This is my responsibility. I didn't see through Tian Chengsi's character and thought too highly of him."

At this time, the eldest son Li Jing advised: "Father, Tian Chengsi did not say that the coalition army would not come. It is very likely that the Tang army has tied them down. Didn't they say that Lei Wanchun led 50,000 troops in Huaizhou? Could it be related to this army? In short, urge Tian Chengsi again and ask him to fulfill the alliance agreement immediately!"

Li Jing actually said nothing, but the purpose of these words was not to solve the problem, but to end the topic and get back to business.

Li Zheng had seen Jia Shen take the initiative to take the blame, so he could not get angry any further, and nodded, "Okay! Urge Tian Chengsi again, Erlang will be responsible for keeping a close eye on this matter."

Li Na quickly bowed and said, "My child will keep a close eye on me!"

Li Zhengyi then returned to the main topic and asked his military advisor Jia Shen, "What do you think of Guo Ziyi's dispatch of troops?"

Jia Shen picked up the wooden pole and pointed at the sand table, saying, "I originally thought that Guo Ziyi would attack Yunzhou, but I didn't expect him to feint and lead his army to attack Yanzhou. I thought about it all night and I probably understood Guo Ziyi's intention."

Jia Shen pointed his wooden pole at Qizhou in the north and said, "If I am not mistaken, Guo Ziyi's next goal must be to attack Qizhou!"

"What is Guo Ziyi's intention?" Li Zhengyi asked.

Jia Shen sneered and said, "Once the Tang army captures Qizhou, it will be connected with Yanzhou. Then Yunzhou and Jizhou will be cut off by this line and will not be able to maintain contact with us. In fact, they will be lost. This is Guo Ziyi's strategy of attacking two states and seizing four states." Li Zheng had looked at the map carefully and it was indeed the case!

"What do you think, sir?"

"I suggest that all troops from Jeju and Yunzhou be withdrawn to Qizhou immediately, and reinforcements be sent to Qizhou. Qizhou is of utmost importance, and we must keep it!"

Qizhou was the leader in Li Zhengyi's Qi State in terms of population, taxation and commerce, far surpassing Qingzhou Yidu, so Li Zhengyi was preparing to move the capital to Licheng County of Qizhou. Moreover, the city walls of Licheng County were tall and strong, easy to defend and difficult to attack. There were 400,000 shi of grain in the city, which was particularly suitable for long-term combat.

Thinking of this, Li Zheng decisively said to Li Na: "Erlang and Military Advisor Jia will lead 50,000 troops to support Qizhou. We must protect Licheng County."

Li Na was shocked, "Father, with 50,000 people, there are only about 10,000 people left in Yidu."

Li Zheng waved his hand and said, "I have gathered the troops from other states to Yidu County, and the number of troops has reached 30,000. As long as we can protect Licheng County and Yidu County and prevent the Tang army from taking them for a long time, Li Ye will most likely turn to attack Hebei first."

Of course, this is Li Zhengyi's wishful thinking, and it is also something he dreams of happening.

That night, Li Na and Jia Shen led an army of 50,000 and rushed to Qizhou. At the same time, Li Zheng had ordered the troops from various states to gather in Yidu County.

Li Zhengyi also ordered 6,000 troops from Jeju and Yunzhou to gather in Qizhou.

Guo Ziyi planned to send troops to Yanzhou on January 20th. This was a plan that had been formulated last year. January 20th was the agreed date, so on this day, on the Donghai Island in Haizhou, four hundred large ships loaded with 30,000 soldiers and a large amount of supplies set out to sea.

In fact, Li Ye could have gone directly north from Haizhou, captured Yizhou, which was under-manned, and then attacked Mizhou. There was no need to take the risky sea route.

This is actually also a training exercise, practicing troop transportation at sea, in preparation for the next step of overseas expansion.

Three days later, the four hundred ships arrived at their destination, a huge bay, which was the Jiaozhou Bay in later generations. However, it had no name in the Tang Dynasty. It was just a place for fishermen to fish. The bay was located at the junction of Mizhou and Laizhou and was sparsely populated.

This bay is also a natural harbor. Four hundred large ships sailed into the bay. Under the guidance of local fishermen, the fleet docked one after another. A large number of troops got off the ships and began to rest temporarily on the shore.

It took a full day for all 30,000 troops to reach the shore. After a night's rest, the next morning, the army was fully rested and quickly marched towards Gaomi County, 50 miles away.

The army captured the county town effortlessly. However, the army did not continue to advance but stationed in Gaomi County. Nan Jiyun sent people to Yanzhou to contact the commander Guo Ziyi.

Nan Jiyun sent out another 10,000 troops, divided into three teams, to various places in Mizhou, Laizhou and Dengzhou respectively. They first occupied the three states, and then began to requisition carts to transport food and supplies.

At the same time, four hundred large ships returned to Donghai Island to load food and supplies again.

Before deciding to attack Li Zhengyi, the Privy Council made sufficient intelligence preparations, and Li Zhengyi concentrated all food and supplies in the core city.

There are three core cities in total, one is Yidu County in Qingzhou, one is Zichuan County in Zibozhou, and one is Licheng County in Qizhou. All the food and supplies in Zichuan County were transported to Yidu County half a month ago.

Therefore, the most important thing for the Tang army was logistical supply. The rivers in various places were frozen, making water transportation impractical and land transportation relatively far away, so the Privy Council considered the sea route.

Since Jiaozhou Bay does not freeze in winter, food and supplies can be transported to the coast of Jiaozhou Bay by sea, and then transported to Gaomi County along the Gaomi River using twenty ice sled boats.

With Gaomi County as an important logistics base, it would be much easier to transport food and supplies to Yidu using large carts.

(End of this chapter)