Wuguan is easy to defend but difficult to attack. Even if there are only 7,000 defenders left, it cannot be captured in a short time.
Therefore, if this surprise attack on Wuguan is to be successful, Li Jing must gather all the elite troops and generals of the entire army to capture Wuguan before the reinforcements of the Tang army arrive.
Although Li Jing took away Gao Chong, Zhang Kui and other generals, he also left Arthur, Xu Huang and other generals with Zhang Liao. After all, if all the fierce generals were taken away, the combat effectiveness of the troops attacking Tongguan would be greatly reduced. Li Shiming
You can definitely tell it at a glance, and it will be easy to reveal the secret later.
The next day, under the banner of Li Jing, Zhang Liao led an army of 50,000 people to leave the Yaohan Camp and headed for Tongguan in a swaggering manner.
After arriving at Tongguan, Zhang Liao neither called for a formation nor sent generals to fight. Instead, he built a formation outside the pass and laid out a large number of catapults and siege crossbows, as if he was about to attack by force.
Zhang Liao was not just showing off. He ordered the catapult to conduct exploratory experiments on number theory on the same day.
Nearly a hundred catapults fired several rounds at the city gate. As a result, only one-third of the stone bullets hit Tongguan, but they failed to cause any damage to Tongguan and only killed a dozen soldiers.
Li Shimin was very satisfied with the defensive power of Tongguan and was full of confidence in the upcoming offensive and defensive battle. However, what he didn't know was that the Qin army attacked Tongguan just to attract his attention. The Li Jing he saw was not him at all, but Zhang Liao looking for him.
The real Li Jing was pretending to be someone else, but the real Li Jing had already led his army to bypass Wuguan.
In order not to reveal his whereabouts, Li Jing could only take a detour to Nanyang and then take Nanxiang County to surprise Wuguan. The marching distance was nearly a thousand miles. Even if he marched at full speed, it would take at least ten days.
Before Li Jing's army reached Wuguan, the war in Jingzhou changed first.
Nanzhong.
Lu Qinghou, the envoy of the Qin army, was sent by Jia Xu to Nanzhong as early as the beginning of the Jingbei War to lobby the Southern Barbarian King Chi You, and finally sent troops to attack Shu's rear area.
After a month of long journey and many twists and turns, Lu Qinghou finally arrived at Nanzhong. Unexpectedly, the Southern Barbarian King Chiyou was in retreat.
Lu Qinghou, who was rejected, did not complete his mission and could only stay in Nanzhong to wait for Chi You to come out of seclusion, but he did not want to wait for a month.
"Brother, in order to invite our army to send troops, the Qin army not only promised a lot of money and grain as reward, but also promised to cede the four counties in southern Sichuan to us afterwards, and named you the King of South Central, eldest brother. It can be said that it is full of sincerity."
Mrs. Zhu Rong, no, she is still Princess Zhu Rong, and asked her brother Chi You with a puzzled look: "We have a personal grudge against Liu Ji, why not agree to it and take this opportunity to avenge the shame."
Chi You gently shook the glass filled with wine in his hand and said calmly: "Little sister, remember, hatred can be the driving force for your growth, but don't let hatred go to your head."
Princess Zhurong suddenly fell silent when she heard this. She had concealed her identity and traveled away from home to travel among the Han people. Because she killed a few scum and accidentally revealed her identity as a barbarian, she was hunted down by many Central Plains masters and almost died several times.
On the way back.
Princess Zhu Rong's escape was extremely difficult, especially after she fled to Yizhou, King Liu Ji of Shu actually sent an army to chase her, hoping to use her to blackmail his brother Chi You.
If Chi You and Chen Bing hadn't threatened Liu Ji at the border, Zhu Rong would have been captured alive.
After this incident, Zhu Rong completely hated Liu Ji, but he also knew that with the help of the poor Nanman, it would be difficult to threaten Liu Ji who had already occupied most of Sichuan and Sichuan, so he could only hide this hatred in his heart.
The Qin State took the initiative to send envoys to seek alliance, which made Princess Zhu Rong see the hope of revenge, so she kept urging Chi You to join forces with the Qin army.
However, Chi You was only interested in uniting with the Qin Dynasty. He directly refused the Qin envoy's request for an audience on the grounds of seclusion. It had been more than half a month, but he still had no intention of meeting the Qin envoy.
After Princess Zhu Rong was silent for a while, she said: "Brother, little sister was not blinded by hatred, but analyzed rationally.
We, the Southern Barbarians, live in a corner, and if we join forces with the Qin State to attack Shu, we can take revenge at once and expand our territory. It can be said that we kill two birds with one stone. It will be a hundred benefits to us, the Southern Barbarians, without any harm."
Chi You shook his head and said: "Although Qin has great success in Hebei, its situation in the south of the Yangtze River is not good. Now the Southern Han Dynasty is the hegemon in the south.
After Jiangxia was occupied by Liu Xiu, Chu and Shu jointly attacked Jingbei. It would be good if Qin could hold Jingbei.
My little sister, as a brother, I naturally want to take revenge on Liu Ji, but now is not the time for revenge.
The Shu, Chu, Tang and other princes formed the Southern Han Dynasty. If they sent troops to attack Liu Ji at this time, it would be equivalent to making the entire Southern Han alliance an enemy.
The losses from the last defeat have not yet been fully recovered, so it is really not appropriate to start a war with Shu. If we send troops now, we will only serve as spearheads for the Qin army."
Zhu Rong didn't expect these two points. She knew that Nanman suffered a lot of losses last time, but she didn't expect that it hasn't fully recovered yet.
The Nanzhong land of the Nanman was far away from the Central Plains, and Liu Ji could block the flow of things from the Central Plains into Nanzhong, so little was known about the situation in the Central Plains.
If Zhu Rong hadn't brought new grain varieties back from the Central Plains, which increased the Nanman's output several times, I'm afraid the Southern Barbarians still wouldn't know about the new grain varieties, and the problem of food shortage would definitely continue to this day.
Now that we are busy and there is no shortage of food, people no longer worry about hunger, and productivity has increased significantly, why have we not recovered from the wounds of the war?
What Zhu Rong didn't know was that Chi You looked calm and relaxed on the surface, but he was under great pressure in his heart.
The national power of the Shu Kingdom has far exceeded that of the Southern Barbarians, and it has been blocking the Southern Barbarians, hoping to keep the Southern Barbarians from falling behind. This shows that Liu Ji is determined to conquer the Southern Barbarians.
It was precisely because of this that Chi You acquiesced to Zhu Rong going to the Central Plains to bring back the advanced things in the Central Plains.
Chi You was very afraid that Liu Ji would not fight for hegemony in the Central Plains, but instead fight with him for the remote and remote areas of Nanzhong. After all, although the Southern Barbarians were poor, mosquitoes, no matter how small, were still meat. If they were really killed, they could enhance a lot of national strength.
Now that Liu Ji has taken the initiative to invade Jingbei, this means that Shu's strategic policy is in the north rather than in the south. It has no intention of coveting the south for the time being, so Chiyou will naturally not take the initiative to provoke Liu Ji.
The most important thing for Chi You now is to seize all the time and strive to recover and strengthen as soon as possible. When he is sure or the time comes, he will send troops to Yizhou again.
After listening to her brother's words, Zhu Rong knew that she couldn't pay him unless she said so.
Chi You was a very independent monarch. Whatever he made up his mind on, it was difficult to be swayed by outside opinions.
At this moment, Gonggong ran in with excitement on his face and said loudly: "Your Majesty, the good news is that the Qin Army's 100,000 reinforcements have arrived in northern Jingzhou. The war in Jingzhou may once again enter a stalemate stage. Liu Ji's army will be in a short period of time."
I will definitely never come back."
Hearing this, a gleam suddenly flashed in Chi You's eyes, and he said in a deep voice: "Let the envoy of Qin come to see me. Forget it. I have neglected him for so long, so I should go see him in person."