Datang: What's wrong with my fief being a billion points larger?

Chapter 310: Meeting again after many years, Li Yuanji and Li Er's meeting

Li Er did not blame Hou Junji and let him go directly.

What he should worry about now is the combat effectiveness of Li Yuanji's army.

Although he couldn't see it before, in this battle, with the same number of troops, he was actually defeated by Yang Shu, an unknown general promoted by Li Yuanji after he arrived in Lingnan. The fighting effectiveness displayed by the army surprised him.

Li Er originally thought that Li Yuanji was invincible because of his more powerful military equipment and firearms. Now it seems that it is not just these, combat effectiveness is also a factor.

Li Er was very worried. Now he had only 80,000 troops left to defend against Tuyuhun. The number of Li Yuanji's casualties was still unknown, but it was at least tens of thousands.

The pressure of his attack to the south suddenly doubled. Now he just hoped that Li Yuanji's army would not have time to return to defend, leaving him an opportunity.

After marching for a few more days, Li Junxian arrived with detailed information about the battle of Lazi.

After reading it, Li Er felt both regretful and unwilling to argue.

Unfortunately, tens of thousands of troops in the front suffered heavy losses under the intensive artillery fire and the rocket attack that had just appeared in the public eye. The army formation was directly destroyed by the artillery fire, and the key point was that there was nowhere to hide, and they were completely a sitting duck.

The artillery they had prepared was destroyed before it could even fire.

Later, facing the attack of Li Yuanji's army, Wei Qingzhi and Niu Jinda's arrangements were both good, at least Li Er thought it was feasible.

But later on, Li Er became very angry. Since the front army was rotten and the central army could not withstand the pressure, why didn't they retreat?

As long as the people in the central army withdraw, at least half of the remaining troops will be able to escape back, and there will still be tens of thousands of troops who can continue to defend the city and continue to fight with Li Yuanji.

And knowing the firearms that Li Yuanji possessed, the next time we fight, we will be prepared and it will definitely not be the same as this time.

But Wei Qingzhi chose to fight and continued to do so.

It is not impossible to continue fighting, but in Li Er's eyes, Wei Qingzhi is a stubborn person. When the two wings cannot be broken through, why can't he withdraw the troops from the two wings to support the central army?
Later on, it became obvious that Li Yuanji had already sent out all his troops and had no other troops left, while Wei Qingzhi's troops on both wings were sufficient enough to be transferred to the main battlefield.

He could even abandon the two wings and leave ten thousand people behind to block Li Yuanji's troops on the two wings from approaching the central army. As long as the rest of the army arrived at the front battlefield, it would be hard to tell who would win or lose this battle.

Wei Qingzhi missed such a good opportunity. He decided to break through from both wings and did not change his mind. He was not flexible at all.

This made Li Er extremely angry. He cursed and said that Wei Qingzhi deserved to die. He was really angry.

In addition to this point, there is another point: Wei Qingzhi is crazy. Why did he lead the central army to take the initiative to attack Li Yuanji?
Since the decision to break through from both wings had been made and it had not changed from the beginning to the end, and even 10,000 troops were sent to each wing later, then all we had to do on the front battlefield was to hold off the enemy.

As long as we delay them and wait for the two wings to break through Li Yuanji's flank, we can then surround him and achieve our goal.

But Wei Qingzhi chose not to take either path, and instead chose a path that accelerated his own downfall, which almost broke Li Er's teeth.

It would have been better if he didn't know these details, but after knowing them, he was actually thrown into disarray.

Wei Qingzhi was an old man in his Qin Palace, and he believed in Wei Qingzhi's ability, so he let Wei Qingzhi come to Tubo to take charge of important affairs.

But Wei Qingzhi gave him such a big challenge. In Li Er's eyes, Li Yuanji's battle was a desperate one, just to defeat Wei Qingzhi's central army in one battle.

He could guess what Li Yuanji was planning even from such a distance. He must have received the news that Li Yuanji had destroyed Tuyuhun and the army was gathering in Tuyuhun, so he wanted to win the battle and thus quickly returned to defend against him, so as to avoid being attacked from both sides by him and Wei Qingzhi.

It's such an obvious truth, but Wei Qingzhi didn't understand. There were two chances that could change the situation of the battle, but Wei Qingzhi just didn't use them.

They followed the predetermined tactics throughout the entire battle, but failed to achieve anything and were defeated one by one by Li Yuanji.

Li Er was very tired at the moment. What else could he do except get angry?
They had already been defeated, and Wei Qingzhi had died in battle. At least in this respect, Wei Qingzhi had not let him down. He had died on the battlefield and was beheaded by Li Yuanji.

Li Er was full of regret again. If he had not sent Wei Qingzhi to Tubo, but had sent someone else instead, would the situation of the war have been different?

Unfortunately, there is no medicine for regret in the world, and Li Er can only think about it.

In Pibo City, after Li Yuanji defeated the coalition forces of Wei Qingzhi and Niu Jinda, he did not advance westward to recapture the cities. Instead, he led his army back to Pibo City at full speed to prevent Li Er's army from moving south.

When he learned that Hou Junji had led an army of 30,000 Tuyuhun troops and returned in defeat, Li Yuanji finally breathed a sigh of relief. At least this proved that Li Er's army was really resting and did not sneak through Chencang.

"How is the army resting?"

Xie Shufang below immediately stepped forward and said, "Your Majesty, after ten days of rest, we can continue the battle."

Li Yuanji nodded and then looked at Yang Jianhe.

"Where is Li Er's army now?"

Yang Jianhe came to the map and pointed it out.

"The news from three days ago is here."

Li Yuanji looked at the place Yang Jianhe pointed out, Zishan (northwest of Bayankala Mountains), looked for a while, and then slowly spoke.

"After coming out of Zishan, Li Er must have entered the eastern part of Subi, and the route must be from Dengma to Laligang. At that time, Li Er can choose to attack Bowo or go to Chawarong.

This route is indeed the best for Li Er. It is backed by the Eastern Women's Kingdom and the Tanguts, with Subei to the west and Shuzhong to the east, so there are many options. "

He really approved of Li Er's marching route. The designated route, combined with his own advantages in all aspects, was very safe.

Li Yuanji then looked at Xie Shufang and others.

"Now that the army has finished resting, reorganize it immediately and set out tomorrow!"

"Su Dingfang, you lead 20,000 troops to advance first. You must rush to Dengma before Li Er's vanguard, capture Dengma, and hold it!"

Li Er wanted to come and interfere in his affairs, so this time he wanted to block Li Er in the northern part of Zishan.

The northern part of Zishan belongs to Li Er, and the southern part belongs to him.

Whether it can be achieved depends on whether Su Dingfang can arrive early and control Deng Ma.

Deng Ma is in Nongtang area, and there is only one road for Li Er to come here from Zishan. It is such a huge mountain range that it would be difficult to get here if he doesn't take that road. As long as this road is blocked, Li Er will have no chance of getting here.

By doing so, he indirectly gave small countries such as the Dongnu Kingdom and the Dangxiang Kingdom to Li Er. He did not interfere, but Subi belonged to him.

As for those places in Yangtong, it depends on whether Li Er is willing to give them up. If he is not willing to give them up, he can only go through the Hoh Xil Mountains or go northwest from Dunhuang.

Otherwise, just kill the army he has deployed here.

Of course, there is one last way, which is to establish another Anxi Protectorate, go south from Guizi, conquer Tulunqi, Dabolü, Xiaobolü, Maqiang, and then go to Yangtong.

The premise for doing this is that he has not expanded. If he has expanded, that is not certain.

As Li Yuanji's military order was conveyed, Su Dingfang led 20,000 troops to attack first that day, followed by Yang Shu who led 10,000 troops to Chawarong. Li Yuanji led the army to start moving out on the second day.

After two months of marching, Su Dingfang finally arrived at the small town of Dengma.

The city was captured with almost no effort, and Su Dingfang immediately sent out scouts to investigate the movements of Li Er's army.

"General, there is a ferry upstream of this river (Jinsha River). We can cross the river from there without having to go through Dengma!"

Su Dingfang's pupils shrank when he heard this, and he immediately looked at the deputy general.

"Leave three thousand soldiers here, gather the rest of the army immediately, and follow me to this ferry immediately!"

Su Dingfang was really shocked. Fortunately, he sent out scouts to investigate the surrounding area. Otherwise, what was the point of him staying here? After Li Er's army passed through the ferry, he had no influence here at all, and this place was occupied in vain.

When Su Dingfang arrived at the ferry, the scout brought news again.

"General Su, we have found the enemy's vanguard. We still have more than a hundred miles to go before we reach the ferry!"

"How many enemy troops are there? Who is leading them?"

Su Dingfang's face was solemn. The arrival of Li Er's vanguard meant that a battle was about to begin.

"The enemy has at least 10,000 troops, with a banner of Zhang."

张？
Su Dingfang pondered for a while, the only person he could think of was Zhang Liang.

Su Dingfang didn't know much about Zhang Liang, but now he didn't have time to think too much, so he immediately called his deputy general.

"Pass the order down, start setting up camp immediately! The enemy's vanguard is a hundred miles away, be ready to fight at any time!"

This time, Su Dingfang did not bring any cannons because he was walking fast. He only brought two thousand musketeers and one hundred rockets.

After the previous battle, the ammunition was almost exhausted, with only 300 rockets left. On average, the ammunition for the flintlock rifles was enough for each gun to fire eight times. As for the artillery shells, each gun could only fire six times.

It will take at least a month for supplies from the rear to be replenished.

Zhang Liang, who was marching slowly on the other side, did not feel nervous at all. In his eyes, there was no difficulty at all.

It was not until they were thirty miles away from the ferry that the scouts sent by Zhang Liang learned that the ferry ahead was occupied by Li Yuanji's army, which made Zhang Liang suddenly depressed.

Zhang Liang immediately quickened his march, and when he saw the camp in front of the ferry, his face became extremely gloomy.

Now Li Er in the rear has led the army into the mountains. It is impossible to change the route, but the road ahead has been occupied, and they must seize the ferry to cross the river.

In the camp, Su Dingfang looked at Zhang Liang's army with a telescope. Now he was sure that Zhang Liang only had ten thousand soldiers, and he had an absolute advantage.

Su Dingfang then looked at the deputy general.

“You must go to Dengma immediately, lead the army there, and go around to the side.

The enemy's vanguard will surely attack. If I'm right, Zhang Liang will not be able to hold back tomorrow.

After Zhang Liang launches the attack, I will lead the counterattack, and you will attack from the side and destroy this vanguard army first! "

Su Dingfang knew very well that if Li Er's army wanted to come over, they would have to cross the river, and since the vanguard army had arrived, they would definitely not retreat like that.

Otherwise, what's the use of this vanguard army?

As the deputy general went down to begin deployment, Zhang Liang indeed launched an attack the next day.

Su Dingfang looked at the attacking enemy and directly used fifty rockets and two rounds of volleys from flintlock rifles, leading 15,000 troops to charge out.

At the same time, Deng Ma's army also appeared on the side. Zhang Liang's face became gloomy when he saw this, and he knew that he had fallen into a trap.

Zhang Liang did not dare to even think of fighting and immediately led his army to retreat. However, even so, Zhang Liang still lost nearly 4,000 soldiers and had no choice but to send a military report to Li Er.

When Li Er received Zhang Liang's military report, he was immediately angry.

"I asked him to be the vanguard, but he was so unhurried. Now that the ferry has been seized, he has even lost the battle. Is this how he treats me?"

“Send an imperial edict, ordering Yuchi Gong to lead 10,000 troops immediately to stabilize the situation!
As for Zhang Liang, he will be punished according to military law!"

Li Er really didn't expect that, in his imagination, Zhang Liang's vanguard should have crossed the river a few days ago, but now they had just arrived at the ferry and were overtaken by Li Yuanji's army.

Li Yuanji's army was coming, but they were farther away than his.

When Li Er's army arrived in full force, the army led by Li Yuanji also arrived.

Li Yuanji and Li Er looked at each other across the river.

Li Er looked at Li Yuanji with complicated emotions. They hadn't seen each other for so many years. When they met again, he didn't know what to say for a moment. Perhaps he had nothing to say.

Li Yuanji was full of emotion. It had been five years since he left Chang'an. He hadn't seen Li Er for five years. Now, he looked more imposing than before.

After a long time, Li Yuanji withdrew his gaze, returned to the tent, and wrote a letter.

"Yang Jianhe, send someone to deliver this letter to Li Er."

While in Li Er's camp, Li Er also wrote a letter.

"Li Junxian, send someone to deliver this letter to the King of Qi."

Before they met, both of them wanted to kill each other. Now that they meet again, their hearts suddenly become very calm, and neither side shows any signs or thoughts of preparing to start fighting right away.

Li Yuanji was deep in thought in the tent. Now that he saw Li Er, he actually felt quite complicated.

In the beginning, he didn't actually have so many thoughts. He just wanted to protect himself and prevent himself from being liquidated later.

Li Yuanji changed his attitude after the incident with Changsun Wuji. Now that they met again, he couldn't think of what to say for a moment.

At this time, Yang Jianhe walked into the tent.

"My lord, a letter has been sent from the other side."

Li Yuanji was stunned at first, and then he laughed.

When he opened the letter, he found it was almost the same as the one he wrote to Li Er.

"Go down and get ready to meet Li Er."

On the second day, the two armies retreated at the same time. Then Li Yuanji and Li Er each came to the bridge and met each other in the middle of the bridge, ten steps apart.

No one moved forward again, they just stared at each other.

Li Yuanji looked at Li Er for a long time, then slowly spoke.

"Brother, we meet again."

When Li Er heard Li Yuanji's address, he was stunned at first, and then he laughed.

"Sanhu, long time no see."

After greeting each other, there was silence again.

After another moment, Li Yuanji took the initiative to speak again.

"Second brother, why did you rebel in the first place? Even if you rebelled, why did you kill my eldest brother?

I have told you before, the world outside is big enough for you and your brother, so why do you have to do this? "

(End of this chapter)