The news that the Sui army marched into Shanggu County reached Youzhou City a few days ago. This news scared the officials of Youzhou City. Although we knew that the Sui army would attack Hebei sooner or later, when this day finally arrived, we still let the
Many officials felt anxious and uneasy.
In particular, the Sui army's attack was not what everyone imagined next spring, but was launched in November, which put the Youzhou officialdom in an inexplicable panic, and everyone began to consider their own way of retreat.
Early in the morning, Sima Wen Yanbo of Youzhou General Administration Sima Wen Yanbo came out of his home in a carriage, and drove towards the General Administration. Wen Yanbo was the younger brother of Wen Daya, the Minister of Inner History of the Tang Dynasty. Luo Yi surrendered to the Tang Dynasty, and Wen Yanbo played a key role.
effect.
Like all officials, Wen Yanbo was also worried about the expansion of the Sui army's power. Whether from Youzhou's strategic position or Yang Yuanqing's personal feelings, Youzhou must be the first target of the Sui army's offensive.
What made Wen Yanbo even more sad was that the Tang Dynasty gave up Youzhou. In the settlement agreement reached between the Sui and Tang dynasties, it was clear that Youzhou was not in the inherent territory of the Tang Dynasty, etc. Although Wen Yanbo also knew that Luo Yi did not surrender sincerely.
The Tang Dynasty, but at least Luo Yi did a good job on the surface, called himself a Tang minister, and all his subordinates called Tang officials. However, the Tang Dynasty voluntarily gave up Youzhou in order to make a ceasefire, but morally lost.
Although the Tang Dynasty appointed Luo Yi as Na Yan, transferred him back to the court to serve as a senior official, and appointed Liu Hongji as the new Youzhou general manager to deprive Luo Yi of his military power, the emperor's intention was very obvious, just to anger Luo Yi and let Luo Yi
The breakup between himself and the Tang Dynasty helped the Tang Dynasty get rid of moral embarrassment.
Unexpectedly, Luo Yi realized the intention of the Tang Dynasty. On the one hand, he wanted to return to the court to report his duties in a high-profile manner, but on the other hand, he was reluctant to set out. This made the Tang Dynasty's Ruyi plan fail. Now that the Sui army's large inkstone model attacked Hebei, Luo Yi was even more unlucky.
Maybe when you go back, what should the Tang Dynasty do? Do you just agree with the Sui Dynasty's attack on Youzhou?
Wen Yanbo was not worried about his own destiny. What he was worried about was that the Tang Dynasty would break its trust in the affairs of Youzhou. Who would dare to surrender to the Tang Dynasty in the future?
The carriage drove across the street. Wen Yanbo looked through the car window at the bustling streets with pedestrians. Many people were carrying big bags and small bags. Wen Yanbo then remembered that it was less than a month since the New Year. He was a little surprised in his heart.
The news in Hebei has spread. Do the people in Youzhou still have the heart to celebrate the New Year?
"parking!"
Wen Yanbo gave the order, and the carriage slowly stopped. He pointed at a middle-aged man carrying a big bag and ordered his followers to his left and right: "Call that person up to me."
Several followers urged them to step forward and took the middle-aged man to the carriage. The middle-aged man trembled and shouted repeatedly: "Master, I have not violated any law! Soldiers.
Wen Yanbo laughed softly and said, "You don't have to worry that I just asked you a few words and didn't say you were illegal."
The middle-aged man heard that he just asked a question and put it down, "What are you going to ask?"
Wen Yanbo pondered for a moment and asked, "Don't you know that the Sui army has begun to attack Hebei?"
"I know, everyone knows that this matter has spread long ago."
"Then aren't you afraid? You're still so excited to celebrate the New Year." Wen Yanbo asked as he stared at the man.
The middle-aged man scratched the back of his head and grinned, "This... Wang, does the master want to hear the truth?"
"Of course, I want to listen to the truth. You can tell that I forgive you for not guilty."
The middle-aged man smiled bitterly and said, "Actually, as long as it wasn't Wei Dao'er, no one would be afraid. Everyone said that General Manager Yang was good at leading the entire city to stop the epidemic and save the entire Youzhou City. Many people are now
I am grateful to him, and I heard that the Sui Dynasty was exempt from taxes and was not forced to serve in the army. To be honest, everyone is looking forward to General Manager Yang coming back!”
Wen Yanbo didn't say anything for a long time. He waved his hand and let the middle-aged man go. After a long time, he sighed, and the people's hearts were waiting for the Sui army to come. How could they bear it?
"Let's go! Go to the General Administration."
The carriage started and rushed towards the General Administration.
Youzhou General Administration Office, Luo Yi paced back and forth in the room with his hands behind his back, looking worried. He just got the news that the Sui army captured Shanggu County. Yang Yuanqing personally led a 50,000 army to Yi County. Shanggu County was about to become the Sui army's attack.
Hebei's important support center, or in other words, attacks his important support center, and then uses Youzhou as the foundation and then swept over Hebei.
Luo Yi was very upset. Starting this summer, in order to cope with the upcoming crisis, he expanded his troops desperately, so that his troops reached 50,000. Although he would not be as strong as Wei Daoer, he had already reached two.
The extent of the first army in the household made the people of Zhuo County, Yuyang County and Anle County under his jurisdiction exclaimed.
Fortunately, he still has a lot of old secrets left by Yang Guang when he was conquering Goryeo, which stabilized the public's anger. What he is most worried about now is that the 20,000 newly recruited people are not trained enough and their morale is unstable. Will they be like Wei Daoer?
The army's morale collapsed, which made the Sui army win without fighting. Although this possibility is not great, the strong pressure of the Sui army's eastern expedition still made Luo Yi suffer from insomnia for several consecutive nights, and the insomnia caused him to feel even more irritable.
Just as Luo Yi was thinking about his solution, a guard at the door reported, "Prince Qili, Sima Wen asked for a meeting!"
Luo Yi nodded, "Please come in."
He tried hard to calm his emotions. He did not want his subordinates to see his anxious mood, which was not good for stabilizing the officials' emotions.
Soon, Wen Yanbo walked into the room and bowed, "See the Prince!"
"Sima, please sit down!"
Wen Yanbo sat down and saw Luo Yi's eyes flushed red. This was obviously caused by continuous insomnia, which showed that Luo Yi was under great pressure.
Before Wen Yanbo could speak, Luo Yi asked him first, "I want to know, what is the people's hearts now? Have you fallen into chaos?"
Luo Yi was worried that the chaos in the people would affect the stability of the military. Wen Yanbo did not dare to tell the truth to him, so he could only smile bitterly: "The people in Youzhou are still relatively calm now, and everyone is busy celebrating the New Year. My subordinates probably, the Sui army conquered it.
Shanggu County just wanted to obtain an eastward expansion entrance, and they could not leave the hidden danger of Wei Daoer. Yang Yuanqing would definitely get rid of Wei Daoer first. At least they would not attack Youzhou before spring. The people's hearts were all
It won't be messy."
"Sima Wen, how likely do you think we are to form an alliance with Dou Jiande?" After hesitating for a moment, Luo Yi finally couldn't help asking in a deep voice.
"Associate with Dou Jiande!"
Wen Yanbo was shocked and hurriedly said, "Dou Jiande is the mortal enemy of the Youzhou army. General Xue died at the hands of Dou Jiande. All the soldiers of Youzhou hated Dou Jiande to the core. If the prince and Dou Jiande form an alliance, how can they explain to the soldiers? Xue's family
Brothers will not agree. Besides, Gao Kaidao has made it clear that he is willing to fight the Sui army with Youzhou army to fight the eastward expansion. His subordinates believe that there is no need to get involved with Dou Jiande again. Even if it is a temporary measure, it will arouse the disgust of the soldiers.
, What does the prince think?"
"I'm just a thought, just say it casually."
In fact, Luo Yi has been considering forming an alliance with Dou Jiande in the past two days. Dou Jiande secretly sent an envoy to meet him a month ago and expressed his desire to reconcile with the Youzhou army. This shows that Dou Jiande also had the idea of joining forces with him to deal with Yang Yuanqing.
.
It is precisely this reason that Luo Yi's desire to form an alliance with Dou Jiande in the past two days has become stronger and stronger, but he is worried about being resisted by his subordinates, so he asked Wen Yanbo tentatively. He found that Wen Yanbo was very resistant.
So, I didn't mention this matter immediately
But Wen Yanbo knows Luo Yi very well. Luo Yi will never mention this matter for no reason. He must have had this idea in his mind. Wen Yanbo said earnestly: "Prince, Dou Jiande is a wolfish ambition. His plan to Youzhou is no longer a day.
God, to a certain extent, he, Yang Yuanqing, is still terrible. Of course, we are the common enemy now, and it may be possible to jointly deal with the Sui army's expansion eastward expansion, but what about the future? Have you ever thought about it? Once Dou Jiande's power enters Zhuo County, he may be destroyed in the future.
The one who lost us was not Yang Yuanqing, but Dou Jiande."
Luo Yi was meditating and silent. Of course he knew the risks of joining with Dou Jiande. It was just that he could not bear the pressure of the Sui army's expansion eastward expansion. He thought of joining Dou Jiande. Everything has a price. The key is whether he can bear this price.
Seeing that Luo Yi did not completely dispel the idea of joining Dou Jiande, Wen Yanbo advised him: "Prince, we are actually very well-fed, and there are hundreds of thousands of deputy soldiers. This is our advantage, and we can make full use of this.
We don’t have to rely too much on outsiders for advantages. Moreover, we have vast lands like Zhuo County and Yuyang County. As long as we have proper strategies and can completely resist the Sui army independently, the prince doesn’t have to worry too much."
Wen Yanbo's words hit Luo Yi's thoughts, Luo Yi sighed, "I think my troops are still too few. If I could have 80,000 troops, maybe I could resist the Sui army's eastward expansion, I have to do it.
There are soldiers and armor and food, but there is no source of soldiers. Is there any way sir?"
Wen Yanbo smiled and said, "Now there are two months left before the flowers bloom next spring. The prince can make full use of these two months to send people to various places in Hebei to promote, saying that Youzhou is preparing to release large-scale grain and disaster relief. At that time,
There will inevitably be a large number of people coming from Hebei to collect rice. Isn’t it easy to recruit 30,000 troops from these people?”
Luo Yi was overjoyed. This was a wonderful method. Why didn’t he expect that the entanglement in his heart over the past few days suddenly became clear. He kept saying: “That’s it! I want to provide disaster relief immediately. Soldiers.
Wen Yanbo also said: "While disaster relief, we also need to stabilize Yang Yuanqing, telling him that there are too many hungry people in Hebei and we are appeaseing the victims. I think the Sui Dynasty will not risk the world's worst offense and attack when we provide disaster relief.
Youzhou, this has bought us time for training. What does the prince think?"
Luo Yi nodded, "Sima is right, I will send someone to Shanggu County now."
Wen Yanbo stood up and bowed, "I am willing to share the worries of the prince and go to Shanggu County and Yang Yuanqing to join him."