When the Tang army's reinforcements arrived in Xiangzhou, Dou Jiande obtained the news immediately through scout reconnaissance.
Therefore, he seemed extremely anxious.
Don't look at the fact that he killed King Yong'an before and shot off one of Li Shentong's ears. But that was not his achievement at all, but the work of the Turks.
Originally, Dou Jiande was very happy to have a powerful Turkic army, because he once used it to capture most of Hanoi's territory.
But after Li Shimin led his army, the situation began to reverse. First, he was beaten by Li Shimin in Hanoi with a strong wall to clear the field, and then he retreated to Hebei and was killed by Li Shimin again.
Now, there are still two or five guys stabbing him in the back.
Erwuzi is none other than Dubi, a Turk.
Du Bi is the younger brother of Chu Luo Khan. In the Turkic Empire, his power is second only to Chu Luo Khan. He has a population of hundreds of thousands and hundreds of thousands of bow and cavalry. This time Du Bi went south, although he only brought two
Thousands of Turkic cavalry were defeated, but they still gave Li Shimin a headache.
After all, the sudden cavalry came and went without a trace. The Tang army's infantry had no advantage against the sudden cavalry, and the Tang cavalry was suppressed by the sudden cavalry.
But Li Shimin was the God of War after all, and he quickly formulated a new round of "strengthening the wall and clearing the field" tactics. As a result, Dou Jiande became the unlucky one.
Because since Du Bi went south, he has paid for everything he eats, drinks, and has done. Now the longer the war goes on, the greater his expenditure on food and grass will be. If he does not defeat Li Shimin for one day, he will have to pay Du Bi one day's overtime pay.
This is still a small matter. After all, he gritted his teeth and took some food and grass from his own army to give to the Turks.
However, the Turks' unscrupulous looting in Hebei made Dou Jiande very angry.
This is his hometown, not the hometown of the Turks. After the Turks finished robbing and killing, they patted their butts and ran back to the grassland to continue herding sheep, but he had to be pointed at and called a bastard by the fellows from Hebei.
How to play this?
But now that Li Shimin has received reinforcements, he will definitely have to fight him to the death again, and he can't continue to fight at all.
Xiangzhou, Linzhang.
"Your Majesty, our army can only last for about a month with food and grass, so we must think of a way out!" Counselor Kong Desao looked very serious and explained a fact to Dou Jiande.
Song Zhengben also reminded: "Your Majesty, Duo Bi sent troops to plunder the villagers. The people are extremely resentful of our army. In the Linzhang area, the people violently resisted our army's harvest of grain."
Because of the shortage of food and grass, Dou Jiande could only order to buy food from the people. But now the people couldn't eat enough, so how could they be willing to sell food. In addition, the Turks were robbing everyone, and the people thought it was Dou Jiande's order, and now they are even more repelled by Dou Jiande.
He did not want to follow Zhu Can and embark on the path of anti-humanity, so he could not rob the people of their food.
Dou Jiande walked back and forth in the tent, sometimes sighing, sometimes frowning in thought, but never said a word.
"Your Majesty, why don't we fight Li Shimin! I still don't believe it. Is Li Shimin really invincible with his three heads and six arms?" General Liu Heitai requested to fight.
Liu Heitai is also a fierce man. When he was young, he was a well-known local hooligan. He was lazy and easy to work, so he relied on Dou Jiande for support. Later, when the world was in chaos, he first attached himself to Li Mi, then to Wang Shichong, and now he follows Dou Jiande.
Although he came from an ordinary background, Liu Heitai was very fierce in fighting, and he was also a little clever and could deceive people. Therefore, he gathered a group of die-hard tough men under his command.
Hearing Liu Heitai's words, Dou Jiande shook his head. He was too young. Liu Heitai was still too young!
During these days of fighting with Li Shimin, Dou Jiande had already seen that the Qin King of Li Tang was indeed worthy of his name, and his strategic planning far surpassed that of Huai'an King Li Shentong. In terms of positional defense alone, Dou Jiande felt that no one in the world could be Li Shimin's opponent.
Why?
First of all, it is natural that Li Shimin can endure it, and he can endure any temptation. Some time ago on the battlefield in Hanoi, Dou Jiande could no longer resist and had no choice but to retreat. However, Li Shimin did not take the opportunity to pursue him, but continued to advance steadily and step by step.
This made Dou Jiande very desperate. Li Shimin didn't have enough food and salt, and he didn't eat hard or soft food. He could only bite the bullet and fight with Li Shimin.
But the problem is, he can't consume Li Shimin!
This is the main reason why Li Shimin is strong. He has a powerful and extremely wealthy Guanzhong that can provide him with a steady stream of food, grass, soldiers and horses to support him.
Who can withstand this?
With every step forward, Li Shimin made the surrounding strategic areas impregnable and defended them to the death. He forced people back step by step, and finally forced them into a dead corner.
Dou Jiande understood clearly that Li Shimin would never attack rashly until he blew up the camp.
The ultimate torture.
Now he is making all-out efforts to attack Li Shimin, with no chance of winning. He will only be exhausted and eventually defeated.
But precisely because of this, he is now in a dilemma.
Fight, you can't beat me.
Withdraw, Li Shimin won't let him go. After all, Li Xiaoji's death also has blood on his hands.
Without fighting or retreating, he could not defeat Li Shimin.
No matter how you go, it's a dead end.
Uncomfortable.
Seemingly sensing Dou Jiande's concerns, Kong Desao suggested: "Your Majesty, we might as well let the Turks contain Li Shimin, while our army retains its main force, retreats to Leshou, and plans for the future."
Song Zhengben added: "In order to avoid the suspicion of the Turks, the king can leave part of the army to help Du Bi fight against Li Shimin. Now our army is about to run out of food and grass, but Li Shimin has plenty of food and grass, and his troops are ready to attack. It is unwise to attack by force!"
Dou Jiande was very moved by this proposal. He was unhappy with the Turks, and even more unhappy with Li Shimin. Watching them dog-eat-dog was the happiest thing.
However, he hesitated and said: "Wouldn't this offend the Turks?"
Kong Desao chuckled and said, "Don't worry, Your Majesty. The Turks have no morality at all. They only have interests in their eyes. If you still want to use the Turks' power next time, you can make another promise."
Dou Jiande thought for a while and nodded in agreement.
"Okay, let's do it!"
"Send the order, let Fan Yuan and Dong Kangmai lead the army to stay, and the others will come back with me!"
"yes."
Liu Heitai quickly interrupted, "Your Majesty, we have strong troops and horses now, and we have Turks helping us, why don't we give it a try!"
Dou Jiande asked him, "Are you confident that you can defeat Li Shimin?"
Liu Heitai stopped talking. After these days of fighting, he knew that he was not 100% sure that he could defeat Li Shimin.
Immediately afterwards, Dou Jiande spoke earnestly: "We did not lose to Li Shimin, but to food and grass. If there is enough food and grass, we can keep fighting Li Shimin. But we have no food and grass. If we don't retreat, once the soldiers mutiny,
The consequences would be disastrous.”
Liu Heitai was only thinking about killing the enemy. He never considered the problem from Dou Jiande's point of view. Of course he didn't know this.
Now that he knew it, he only felt more aggrieved.
He didn't lose to Li Shimin, but he lost to himself.
Before leaving, Dou Jiande told Fan Yuan and Dong Kangmai that if the situation went wrong, they should immediately give up the retreat of the Turks and ignore the messy things.
Fan Yuan and Dong Kangmai immediately understood that the Turks had been abandoned.
However, they did not feel guilty, because those who died were Turks and not their brothers.