Chapter 21 Protect the King of Qin and Prepare to Retreat
Shi Bo Bi's goal was to become the Turkic Khan, which Li Zhiyun knew very well. Therefore, Li Zhiyun was confident that he could persuade Shi Bo Bi to retreat. In fact, if the fight was carried out as normal, it would only be a matter of time before Shi Bo Bi's army was defeated.
However, Li Zhiyun had to solve the problem in Hebei now. Moreover, he had to conserve his strength as much as possible to deal with Jie Li.
Otherwise the situation may get out of control!
The reason is very simple. Li Shimin is in danger now. Once Li Shimin dies under Jie Li, Li Yuanji will definitely not be able to defend Bingzhou or even Hedong Road. And once Jie Li's army goes south, Li Zhiyun can't guarantee that Shi Bo Bi will be defeated. Will he take advantage of the fire to rob him?
More importantly, Li Zhiyun had to correct his position. If King Qin died, he had to keep the peace in the north. Otherwise, although he would gain from King Qin's death, he would definitely lose.
Because the Turks were raging along Hedong Road, and he was the one who suffered the ultimate loss. Since his goal was that location, he had to ensure peace on the border.
If the Turks are allowed to treat Hedong Road as their own backyard, he will not be able to sleep well when he takes the throne in the future.
The most dangerous situation is that Jieli invades like fire and directly enters Guanzhong.
Li Zhiyun did not dare to take a gamble. His top priority now was to secure Hebei and then lead his army to Bingzhou to defeat Jie Li.
Only in this way, the death of King Qin, his interests will be maximized.
Speaking of it, Li Zhiyun felt that only he could think of this kind of overall situation. After all, the prince and King Qi are now focused on killing King Qin, and they don't care whether the Turks will invade the pass and wreak havoc.
In order to kill King Qin, the prince and King Qi colluded with Jie Li.
How could Li Zhiyun trust such people?
Thinking of this, Li Zhiyun couldn't help but smile bitterly. In the past, this kind of issue was usually considered by King Qin, but in the future, I'm afraid it will be his turn to consider it.
But it doesn't matter, he has come this far and he can only keep going.
Back at the camp, Li Zhiyun told Du Ruhui, Xue Shou and Xue Yuanjing the news.
Du Ruhui said in deep thought: "Your Highness, we'd better be more careful. Firstly, the imperial court has not yet issued an imperial edict asking Your Highness to go to Bingzhou for rescue. Secondly, the Turks cannot believe it. Whether Shibo Bi will return to the grassland is still uncertain. His subordinates suggested that His Highness can continue to be stationed in Hebei. First, he could wait for the imperial edict to arrive before heading to Bingzhou. Second, His Highness could also carefully observe the Turkic movements, and wait until Shibobi had indeed left Hebei before sending the news back to Chang'an. "
Li Zhiyun concluded: "You mean, after Shibobi has indeed left Hebei, we will inform Chang'an of the Turkic retreat, and then wait for Chang'an to send people over, and then we will go to support Bingzhou?"
"Not bad." Du Ruhui nodded.
Xue Yuanjing frowned and said: "But how long will it take for this to happen? If the King of Qin has already...by that time, the King of Qi will not be able to defend Bingzhou."
Du Ruhui said: "It doesn't matter. If Jieli goes all the way south, we can just take the Taihang Mountains to enter Bingzhou and catch them by surprise. Jieli doesn't know what's going on here in Shibobi. This is our advantage."
Xue Shou thought: "Actually, Shi Bo Bi may not be so kind. In my opinion, if he is really ambitious to seek the position of Turkic Khan, he will definitely not cooperate with His Highness to attack Jie Li, but will wait for us to defeat Jie Li first. He will take action again."
"That makes sense." Li Zhiyun nodded, and immediately said: "However, we actually have no choice. If Shibobi has no ambitions and focuses on containing us in Hebei, Hedong Road will inevitably fall into the hands of the Turks.
This time, our first goal is to deal with the aftermath."
Aftermath.
The three of them murmured secretly in their hearts.
This aftermath probably refers to the aftermath of King Qin's death.
In fact, this is also Li Zhiyun's true thought. King Qin is going to die, and Jie Li must go back to where he came from.
Only by maintaining the abrupt state before the war can he make a big profit this time.
If this war is compared to an operation, then the King of Qin will crush the stone in his stomach and sew the wound. Only then will the operation be considered successful.
For the Crown Prince and King Qi, they will be successful if King Qin dies this time.
But for Li Zhiyun, the death of King Qin this time was not considered a success. He had to defeat Jie Li and save Bingzhou. Only then could it be considered a success.
There is no way, the prince and the king of Qi have narrow vision, and now they don't think about anything else except killing the king of Qin or killing the king of Qin.
As the king of Chu, Li Zhiyun had to consider the Tang Dynasty.
The Turks must be defeated.
Otherwise, if the Turks really hit Datang hard, Li Zhiyun would have a headache in the future.
Xue Yuanjing asked: "Your Highness, how should we explain Dou Jiande's matter to the court?"
Li Zhiyun thought for a while and asked, "What do you think?"
"It's actually simple." Du Ruhui said: "If Yu Gushe and Dou Jiande want to compete, it's obvious who is more important than the other. Your Highness can tell the truth to the saint, and I believe the saint will understand His Highness."
Li Zhiyun said: "It's feasible."
If the person caught was Jie Li, Li Zhiyun would not exchange Jie Li for Dou Jiande. But a little scoundrel like Yu Gushe could exchange it for Dou Jiande, which would not be a loss.
At this point, Li Zhiyun was convinced that Shi Bobi did not dare to fight him with all his strength because of his own ambition.
And Li Zhiyun himself also had to preserve his strength because of Jieli's move south.
His worst plan is to give up Hebei and keep Bingzhou. In this way, he can regain Hebei in the future.
If Jie Li is allowed to fight smoothly, then it will not make much sense for him to defeat Shibo Bi in Hebei. The main contradiction and the secondary contradiction must be clarified. Only focusing on the secondary contradiction will not solve the problem.
What's more, he also had a small conspiracy against Jie Li in his heart. Thinking of this, he touched the golden knife and smiled.
Later, Tang Army scouts detected that the Turks were indeed retreating on a large scale, and followed them all the way. After five days, they confirmed that Shibobi had withdrawn from Youzhou, and then returned to the camp to report.
After learning the news, Li Zhiyun immediately asked Li Daozong to escort Dou Jiande back to Chang'an and tell Li Yuan the good news.
At the same time, he ordered the three armies to prepare for war and would only wait for the court order to arrive before sending troops to merge with the state.
All this is reasonable and reasonable, without any flaw.
Bias.
As Dou Jiande was sent to Chang'an, Gao Yaxian also surrendered to Li Zhiyun. This was an agreement between him and Li Zhiyun. Since Li Zhiyun did it, he would naturally not break his promise.
The first task Li Zhiyun gave Gao Yaxian was to persuade Su Lie to surrender.
However, Su Lie seemed to still have some complaints.
"Li Zhiyun said he wanted to rescue the lord, but he sent him to Chang'an instead. What should we do if Li Yuan wants to kill the lord?"
Gao Yaxian sighed: "Ding Fang, the Xia King united with the Turks, and the hearts of the people in Hebei have been lost. We have no foundation. If we continue to be loyal to the Xia King, we will all be destroyed. Li Zhiyun thinks highly of me and is willing to save the Xia King. It is not easy. How can I return the favor?
Could you ask for more?
Besides, I heard that Li Yuan didn't kill Xiao Mian, so he probably wouldn't do anything to King Xia either."
Hearing this, Su Lie fell silent.
The winner is the king and the loser is the bandit, whatever you say is in vain.
Gao Yaxian continued: "The Turks are no match for Li Tang, and it is meaningless no matter how hard we struggle. I have decided to fulfill my promise and submit to the King of Chu. Dingfang, what are your plans?"
"Li Zhiyun asked you to persuade me to surrender?" Su Lie asked back.
Gao Yaxian nodded, "I can see that the reason why Li Zhiyun agreed to my request to rescue King Xia was actually because of you. You were unwilling to surrender, and Li Zhiyun wanted to get you, so he planned to use my hand to persuade you to surrender.
I won't force you to make a decision, you can do whatever you want. Since I joined the Xia King in raising troops, I have never left him. If I can rescue the Xia King from the Turks, I am worthy of him.
You are still young, so you don’t have to worry too much, just do what you want.”
Su Lie looked struggling and asked, "What do you think I should do?"
Gao Yaxian mused: "It has become a general trend for Li and Tang to unify the world. You have a great talent and should not sink. Maybe in the future in the Tang Dynasty, you can be reused and show your ambitions."