Chastity Layman

  Chapter 561 Royal Conquest

"The governor of Taozhou has been in charge for a long time and the Luosheng army was defeated and surrendered. Taozhou fell." Zhang Liang knelt in the imperial study room of Luoyang Palace. There were only two monarchs and ministers in the palace. Lowered his voice. "Li Daoyan was rescued by the Rangers of the Zhenxi Army, and was taken to the Five-Star Fortress in Diezhou, where he was imprisoned by Qin Lang. Tuoba Chici led Dangxiang Qiang to besiege the Five-Star Fortress, and Qin Lang and Liang Jianfang were also trapped in the fortress. There were only five hundred Zhenxi soldiers , Anhua County Tucheng has fallen."

   "Is it captured or abandoned?"

"Before the arrival of the Qiang people, the governor of Qin evacuated and retreated the people in Anhua City, and stayed behind some Qiang people near the city for a few days. When the Qiang people attacked, they let the Fan soldiers retreat to Diezhou." Zhang Liang answered truthfully.

   "Oh." These news made Li Shimin's heart heavy. He originally thought that after the Songdie battle last time, the border war had temporarily stopped. Who knew, there would be another bigger border chaos so soon.

Li Daoyan, Li Daoyan, where did he get the guts? Even Qin Qiong and Qin Lang didn't dare to underestimate the enemy and go deep. It also seriously shook Longyou's frontier defense, exposing a huge hole in Datang's western frontier defense.

   "Jiuqie Luosheng shall be punished according to the law." The enraged emperor is no longer willing to give Jiuqie Luosheng any face, and he does not intend to let him go after he dies. He is even more hateful than Jiang Shanhe and the warrior Xun last time. The emperor called his servant and asked him to summon a scholar from the Imperial Academy to accept the edict of Ma Zhoucao.

   "Expelled Jiuqie Luosheng, confiscated his family property, exiled the men to Lingnan, and confiscated the women's family members into Yeting. Rewards are offered, and those who can capture Jiuqie Luosheng will be rewarded!"

  Ma Zhou hesitated for a while, and finally wrote the internal edict. After all, this time, Jiu Qie Luo Sheng committed too much crime and lost too much.

   "Li Daoyan, the governor of Minzhou, should be punished according to the law. He thought that he was my ancestor. He had made great contributions to the founding of the country. He was pardoned for his death crime. He was expelled from his family in name, demoted to common people, confiscated his family property, and exiled his whole family to Jiaozhou."

  As for the generals of Minzhou Dudufu who accompanied Li Daoyanjiu and Luo Sheng to fight without authorization, they were all dismissed.

   "Qin Qiong, the governor of Songzhou, led his troops out of Songzhou, and Xi Jun, the governor of Diezhou Zhechong, led the troops of Diezhou to reinforce Minzhou under the order of Qin Lang..."

  The news was reported one by one. These two news made the emperor a little bit excited, but the emperor was still very worried.

"Where is the five-star fortress? Why are there only five hundred soldiers and horses? Can it be defended?" The emperor asked someone to fetch a map. Zhang Liang was already prepared, and circled the location of the five-star fortress on the map for the emperor, and built this new building. He doesn't know much about the brief introduction of the fortress. He only knows that Qin Lang built the fortress in less than two months, and the castle covers an area of ​​only fifty acres.

  When Li Shimin heard that the city was so small, with only five hundred soldiers, and that there were no soldiers or civilians in the city who could help defend it, he couldn't help becoming more and more worried.

   "Why didn't Qin Lang return to Diezhou? Zhenxi's military city is dangerous and easy to defend. The last time the red resignation of 60,000 horses couldn't help it?"

   "Perhaps the Qiang people came too fast."

   "Impossible, didn't you say that Qin Lang sent troops to rescue Li Daoyan? You also asked the Qiang people in Anhua City to evacuate, how could he not leave?"

   "Perhaps Duke Wei wanted to cover the evacuation of the people in Anhua City! Or maybe he wanted to meet the defeated soldiers and horses of Minzhou." Zhang Liang said.

  Li Shimin was a little annoyed, "This Qin Sanlang, what is he doing? Why is he so dangerous as the governor of the state?"

Zhang Liang persuaded the emperor, thinking that Qin Lang has always been brave and brave to fight. Chi Ci was defeated by him last time, so he should be fine this time. Reinforcement from Minzhou, instead of going to the five-star fortress, shows that Wei Guogong is very confident and not afraid of the Qiang people."

   After hearing this, Li Shimin felt that it made sense.

   It's just that the emperor was thousands of miles away from the front line, and the information at hand was not detailed at the moment, so he couldn't figure out the whole situation of the battle at all. However, judging from the information sent back by the Zhenfu Division, Qin Lang was playing with fire.

  It is not easy for 500 people to defend a small castle with 50 acres of land, and it is not easy to resist Tuoba Chici's army.

   "Where is Tuyuhun?" the emperor asked.

   "Tuyuhun was frequently mobilized. Fuyun sent his son Zun Wang to lead troops to invade Shanzhou, his younger brother Dongning King led troops to attack Kuozhou, and sent an army to He and Tao to join Tuoba Chici's son to invade.

   Li Shimin stared at the map, the more he looked at it, the more annoyed he became.

  Fu Yun is determined to invade in an all-round way. Four groups of soldiers and horses attack Datang Longyou Prefecture along Huangshui, Yellow River, Lishui, and Taoshui respectively.

  Taozhou has fallen, and Minzhou is fortunate to have Qin Lang send Xi Junmai to lead the soldiers from various states in Dietangwu to reinforce and defend it, while Shanzhou and Kuozhou are now in critical condition.

  I thought that the last time Qin Lang wiped out ten thousand people in Tuyuhun and captured Wusu alive and sent him to Luoyang, Fu Yun should be honest.

   "I was careless. After the last war, Qin Qiong and his son all played a concert, saying that Dangxiang and Tuyuhun might retaliate and send troops after the autumn. I expected that they would not dare, and I was wrong."

  It is October now, and counting the time, Dangxiang dispatched troops just after the fall of September.

  After more than two months after the last war, both the Dangxiang people and the Tuyuhun people have recovered a bit.

  Zhang Liang hurriedly said, "If Li Daoyan hadn't been greedy for merit and came up with the bad idea of ​​pretending to surrender to the True Jiemeng, perhaps this chaos would not have happened."

  But Li Shimin shook his head.

"Tuoba Chici, the old thief, is not the kind of person who would easily accept surrender. He was still strong last time, and An Gan sincerely accepted the surrender. I am afraid that Li Daoyan is plotting against him, and this Tuoba Chici is also plotting against Li Daoyan in secret. As a result Li Daoyan was so stupid that he dared to go deep into Dangxiang Qianghe Qu, which led to the annihilation of the entire army."

  If the alliance is held on the border of Minzhou, even if Tuoba Chici has evil intentions, the whole army will not be wiped out.

  The emperor stared at the map.

  Qin Qiong led the army to leave Songzhou, probably to Diezhou for reinforcements, but the Diezhou army went to Minzhou for reinforcements. Qin Lang only had 500 people guarding the five-star fortress hanging outside.

   Dangerous and dangerous.

Li Shimin is an excellent commander. He can see at a glance that if Qin Lang can hold the five-star fortress, then he can indeed lure Tuoba Chi to resign here and hold back many main forces of the Qiang people. He can not only hold the gate of Diezhou, but also share the burden Taomin was under a lot of pressure.

But the problem is that Qin Lang was able to defend Diezhou last time because Diezhou is a dangerous city that has been built for more than 50 years, but the five-star fortress was just built in two months, and it only has 50 acres of land. Liang said that the city walls are made of earth, sloped, and not very high.

   "Where is Qin Qiong? Why has Xi Junmai arrived in Minzhou, but Qin Qiong has never been seen?" Li Shimin asked.

   Zhang Liang couldn't answer. It is supposed that Qin Qiong should have rushed to Diezhou, but in fact, there is no place for Qin Qiong in the Zhenfu Division.

  Tuoba Chici is constantly mobilizing the party and the Qiang people. Every day, there are a steady stream of Qiang people rushing to the Five-Star Fortress and Taozhou.

   "Xi Junmai inspected the governor of Minzhou."

   "Urgently transfer Xue Wanche to serve as governor of Taozhou."

   "Urgently transfer Cheng Yaojin to serve as governor of Kuozhou!"

After thinking for a while, Li Shimin added another sentence to Ma Zhou, "Dismiss the governor's mansion of Minzhou, Tao, Min, Die, Dang, and Wuzhou, set up the governor's mansion of Diezhou, and promote it to the governor's mansion of Zhongdu. The military forces of the five prefectures of Diemin."

  ······

  The emperor convened a court meeting with the prime ministers and ministers.

   "I want to conquer in person!"

  As soon as the emperor opened his mouth, Fang Xuanling and others all changed their colors.

   "Your Majesty, absolutely not."

  Wei Zheng and others all opposed it.

   "The battle in Longyou is urgent, how can I just sit back and watch."

"Your Majesty, if there is a war in Longyou, the imperial court can send troops and generals. Why do you need your Majesty to conquest? Besides, although the frost this autumn is not as severe as the previous two years, the autumn sowing has also been affected, so the harvest this year is still not good. Sustained disasters in the north have severely damaged vitality."

  Changsun Wuji also believed that although the battle in Longyou started, it was not too serious to be out of control.

   "Dangxiang invaded on a large scale, and Tuyuhun also divided his troops into four directions to violate the border. Isn't it serious?"

   "Your Majesty, it's just that Li Daoyan sent troops without authorization and lost 20,000 horses, and Luo Sheng was defeated and surrendered and lost Taozhou after a long time. Of course, this is not serious." Xiao Yu pushed back.

   "In Xiao Gong's opinion, how serious is it? Is it serious when soldiers come to Chang'an?" Li Shimin asked.

"Your Majesty, Tuyuhun doesn't have the ability to go to the city of Chang'an, let alone reach the foot of Chang'an, even the cities of Lanzhou and Weizhou, so there is no need to be so alarmed, and there is no need for the imperial conquest. Your Majesty can govern the country in Luoyang with peace of mind. Restoring people's livelihood is the top priority."

"As for the Tuyuhun people and the party items, just leave them to the frontline generals. If your majesty is no longer worried, you can transfer Li Jing to Liangzhou to sit in town, Chai Shao to guard Weizhou, and Xue Wanche, Cheng Yaojin, Zhang Shigui and other generals to lead the troops to reinforce the frontline , and everything will be safe.”

  A group of prime ministers held on tightly to the emperor's plan to go on an expedition, mainly because they were afraid that the emperor would fight again early at this time, to fight a war to destroy the country.

The imperial court really can't afford it now. If the emperor himself conquers, he will definitely not be satisfied with guarding the border and repelling the invading enemies. He will definitely fight back against Tuyuhun and Dangxiang. In this way, the war will be fully escalated. There is no preparation for this at all.

  Although there is no serious frost disaster this year, the autumn harvest is only a little more than half of the normal year.

   At this time, how many soldiers and horses must be mobilized and how much food will be consumed if you go to Longyou to go to the imperial conquest.

  Even if the frontline generals are allowed to fight, they must strictly control the size of their troops, otherwise the logistics supplies will not be able to keep up.

  Yang Shidao even said that there is no need to send so many generals there. The last time the party invaded, Qin Qiong and his father took care of it. Now that Qin Qiong and his father are here, there should be no worries.

  It is not easy to command if there are too many generals, and it is difficult to supply troops if there are too many horses. Let Qin Qiong be in command, Qin Lang be the deputy general, and let them fight.

   Li Shimin was a little speechless about the views of his brother-in-law Yang Shidao.

  Qin Lang is still too busy to take care of himself now. He has 500 people surrounded in the Diezhou frontline fortress, how to command the battle situation?

  He wanted to conscript himself, but all the prime ministers opposed it.

   In the last discussion, it was decided that Li Jing, the right servant who stayed in Chang'an, would sit in Qinzhou, which is the gateway from Longyou to Guanzhong.

  Chai Shao sits in Liangzhou, and Li Daozong sits in Lanzhou.

  Cheng Yaojin went to Shanzhou, Duan Zhixuan to Kuozhou, Xue Wanche to Taozhou, Zhang Shigui to Hezhou.

   First mobilize the soldiers of Longyou to carry out a defensive counterattack, temporarily not recruiting troops from Guannei, Shuofang, Shannan, Jiannan, etc. The intent of the prime ministers is obvious, that is, to control the scale of the war and never allow him to escalate at will.

  Although the emperor was unhappy in every possible way, he had no choice but to agree in the end.

  The requirement for the generals is to repel the invading enemy army, but without the imperial court's order, it is strictly forbidden to cross the border and enter the enemy's territory.

  (end of this chapter)