Wei Governor Shi Tianhua hurriedly came to find his father. Tian Hua was the third son of Tian Chengsi. He was about 25 or 26 years old and a civil servant. He had a slightly cowardly personality and lacked courage, but he considered the problem very carefully. This was Tian Cheng.
Si is relatively satisfied.
Walking into the lobby, Tian Hua bowed and said, "See you, father!"
Tian Chengsi said slowly: "My father has encountered a problem, please come and help me look into it!"
With that said, he handed the two letters to his son.
Tian Hua also knew that the Tang army entered Hebei to pick up the refugees. He quickly read the letter and said with some surprise: "I didn't understand what Li Ye meant. What does strength mean as the basis for negotiation?"
"I didn't understand this sentence, but I understood what he meant. He was advising me to conserve my strength and not become his enemy, but Shi Siming urged me to send 20,000 troops to assist Cai Xide in encircling and suppressing the Tang army."
"Father, he mentioned Tian Shengong in the letter!"
Tian Chengsi nodded, "That's the problem. Logically speaking, Shi Siming ordered me to send troops, and I should send troops. But once I send troops, the troops in the rear are empty, what should I do if I am attacked by Tian Shengong?"
"Father actually doesn't want to go to war, right?"
"Indeed, Li Ye's persuasion reached my heart. I want to preserve my strength even more."
Tian Hua thought for a while and said: "Father can pretend to send troops, and the thunder will be loud and the rain will be light!"
"How to do it exactly?"
"My father could send out troops with great fanfare, pretending to have an army of 30,000, and vowing to destroy the Tang army that invaded Hebei. This was shown to Shi Siming. Then my father stationed troops at the junction of Beizhou and Jizhou, but did not attack. When the Tang army evacuated from Jizhou, we would
Taking the opportunity to occupy Jizhou, Shi Siming asked about it and said that we fought three fierce battles with the Tang army and both sides suffered heavy casualties."
Tian Hua smiled and added: "We have to observe. If the Tang army is defeated by Cai Xide's army, we will go up to make up for it. On the contrary, if Cai Xide's army is defeated, we will stay in Jizhou. In short, we will preserve our strength and will never work for Shi Siming."
.”
"That makes sense!"
Tian Chengsi stroked his beard and thought for a while and said, "What if Tian Shengong sends troops?"
"Father, if Tian Shengong sends troops, can't we give Shi Siming a good explanation? Shi Siming has no choice."
Tian Chengsi nodded repeatedly. Since Li Ye mentioned Tian Shengong in the letter, he had to guard against it.
Tian Chengsi immediately made a big fanfare, posted notices, met with the squires, and declared everywhere that he would send troops to severely punish the Longyou Army that invaded Hebei.
Although he was making great noises, Tian Chengsi still did not send troops. He received news from spies that there was something strange happening on the other side of the Yellow River.
Just as Tian Si announced the dispatch of troops with great fanfare, an army of tens of thousands was also gathering on the other side of the Yellow River. It was Tian Shengong, the military governor of Qingzi, who began to mobilize his troops.
Large ships were moored on the south bank of the Yellow River, and countless large tents appeared on the originally empty south bank of the Yellow River. This was the mobilization of tens of thousands of troops.
Tian Shengong also received a letter from Li Ye. Li Ye asked him to do a favor. Of course, it was also a transaction. Li Ye hoped that he could gather troops on the south bank of the Yellow River for a month and contain Tian Chengsi's army.
In return, Li Ye promised to deliver 100,000 shi of grain to Tian Shengong's army by sea.
Although he didn't know whether Li Ye would keep his promise, Tian Shengong decided to send troops to help Li Ye.
He immediately mobilized fifty large ships and assembled 30,000 troops on the south bank of the Yellow River, eyeing Tian Chengsi's army on the north bank.
It was Tian Shengong's strong restraint that made it difficult for Tian Chengsi to even pretend to send troops to assist Cai Xide. In desperation, he had no choice but to write a letter and send it to Li Ye secretly.
At the same time, his second son Tian Chao was sent to lead an army of 3,000 men, and he also forcibly recruited more than 10,000 civilians. Each man raised a flag and followed the army, claiming that he had an army of 20,000, and rushed towards Beizhou in a mighty manner.
In a forest in Linqing County, Beizhou, several Tang army scouts were watching the official road three miles away. On the official road, an army was marching north with flags fluttering and a huge momentum. It looked like nearly 20,000 people.
The leading scout held a clairvoyant eye and observed the troops on the official road intently. The approximately three thousand troops in front were a regular army with bright armor, sharp spears, and murderous intent.
But later on, this murderous spirit disappeared and turned into a weak and listless team of civilians, who didn't even bother to change their armor, and wore all kinds of mottled civilian clothes.
The scout captain couldn't help laughing, and everyone was confused. The captain handed the clairvoyance to everyone, "See for yourselves!"
The soldiers looked at each other one after another, laughing so hard that they could not stand upright. They had never seen such an army before.
A soldier laughed and said: "Colonel, you said that since you are pretending, you should at least change into a paper armor!"
The scout captain also smiled and said: "Think about it, guys, a suit of paper armor costs about two thousand guan of money. With more than 10,000 people, it will cost at least 20,000 guan of money. Firstly, it is not necessary, and secondly, there is not enough time."
After saying that, the scout captain got on his horse and said, "Let's go!"
Everyone got on their horses and ran towards the northwest along a path from the other side of the woods.
The most important thing for strategizing and marching is to obtain timely and correct information.
Li Ye led an army of 40,000 troops to appear in Baixiang County, Zhaozhou, which was also a must-pass for the official road from north to south.
A large number of refugees were heading north on the official road, carrying the old and the young, driving carts. These were refugees from Xingzhou, numbering more than 100,000.
Li Ye's plan only went as far as Zhaozhou and did not involve Xingzhou. After all, there were too many refugees and he could not bear it. Unexpectedly, the news spread from Zhaozhou to Xingzhou, and the people of Xingzhou were frightened and began to invade on a large scale.
escape.
At this time, Li Ye had received information about Cai Xide's army. Thirty thousand troops had reached Handan County in Mingzhou and were heading north with murderous intent.
Li Ye also received Tian Chengsi's express letter. The letter was very simple. He hoped that he would love the people of Hebei and be considerate of the elderly and the weak. There was no problem in writing this way. Even if Li Ye handed this letter to Shi Siming, Shi Siming would not be able to catch Tian Chengsi.
The handle of inheritance.
The key is not the content of the letter, but the letter itself. Many things cannot be expressed in words, but rely on perception. For example, on Valentine's Day, you received a greeting card from a female classmate. Although there was not a word written on it,
The meaning behind this can be appreciated by anyone with normal emotional intelligence.
The same goes for Tian Chengsi's letter. Why should I reply? The reply is an attitude, which is to tell you that I will not interfere with your acceptance of refugees.
At this time, there were soldiers outside the big tent reporting, "Your Highness, there are scouts reporting urgently!"
"Send it up!"
After a while, the soldier presented a piece of information. Li Ye opened it and read it again, nodding secretly. No matter how pretentious Tian Chengsi was, he would not use the common people to dress up the soldiers. It should be Tian Shengong who sent troops to contain Tian Chengsi.
Li Ye showed the information to the generals around him, and the generals talked about it. Li Ye said to Ying Yanglang General Yu Changyang: "General Yu, you can lead 5,000 troops to Jizhou to protect the people there and evacuate as soon as possible, but
Also be careful of enemy sneak attacks and don’t be careless!”
"I humbly obey the order!" Yu Changyang accepted the order.
Duan Xiushi asked in confusion: "Your Highness, since Tian Chengsi did not really send troops, why did he need to divide his troops to go to Jizhou?"
Li Ye said lightly: "Tian Sicheng doesn't want to fight with me just to preserve his strength, but it doesn't mean that he won't intercept the people. On the other hand, I'm also afraid that he will cheat. He says he won't fight us, but in fact he secretly
Heavy troops."
"If we resort to deception, wouldn't five thousand troops be too few?"
Li Ye shook his head, "The five thousand troops are just a warning. They will not engage in direct combat with the enemy, but they can discover the truth about the enemy."
Li Ye immediately led the army to continue southward and entered Xingzhou.