Li Jing excused himself and left. Only Yang Yuanqing was left in the tent. He walked to the tent door with his hands behind his back and pondered for a long time. Li Yuan marched towards Jingxiang. He could not be indifferent, but he did not want to show his worries in front of Li Jing.
What he considered was not how much strength Xiao Mian could retain, but Li Yuan's change of strategic intention from Hongnong County to Jingxiang. This was obviously his intention to give up the pursuit of the Central Plains and develop towards the south.
It should be said that Li Yuan had a very strategic vision. After years of banditry and war, the population of the Central Plains has been depleted, and the country has been stretched far and wide. The society has suffered heavy losses. It will be difficult to restore vitality in less than ten years.
On the contrary, the south benefited from Yang Guang's special protection and was not affected by the war too much. Moreover, Xiao Xian, Lin Shihong, Shen Faxing, Li Zitong and others were all weak. A slightly stronger one was Jianghuai Du Fu. Although powerful, it is difficult to be the opponent of Tang Jun.
Guanlong has always been the main source of troops for the Sui army. It has strong soldiers. Coupled with the Battle of Goryeo and the Yangzhou Rebellion, a large number of soldiers fled back to Guanlong, giving the Tang army an extremely excellent source of troops.
More importantly, the Guanlong nobles had a large amount of money and food savings, and one fifth of the world's wealth was in Guanlong. It was with their full support that the Tang army had enough money and food, and its soldiers served.
People, wealth, materials, and the will of the people, this is the fundamental reason why the Tang army was able to quickly defeat all forces in history, and it is definitely not Li Shimin's personal heroic talent.
Now, because of their own existence, the development of the Tang Army has been suppressed. They cannot march into the Central Plains and can only turn to the south. Although they cannot be compared with the Tang Dynasty in history, their strength cannot be underestimated. If they want to unify the world, they must have the greatest The enemy was still the Tang Dynasty.
If Li Yuan really gets the south, it will greatly enhance the strength of the Tang Dynasty, which will be very detrimental to himself, which makes Yang Yuanqing feel worried.
Yang Yuanqing thought of himself again. In fact, he knew very well that although he defeated the Tang Dynasty several times, it was because of the foundation laid by Fengzhou.
If the military strength of the six Guanbei counties in Fengzhou is included, his total military strength is less than 200,000. In addition, the Youzhou surrender army is still being reorganized in Taiyuan and has not officially formed an army.
He has always pursued the principle of not having too many soldiers but having the best. Despite this, he still has an army of nearly 200,000. If it weren't for the fact that Fengzhou has accumulated a large amount of food in recent years, he would have relied solely on Hedong and Fengzhou. The land simply cannot bear such a huge military burden.
Unless he also follows the path of Liu Wuzhou and Wei Daoer, and fishes all the water, then he will never hope to defeat the Tang Dynasty, and will only end up on the road to destruction.
Among the 200,000 troops, his real elite army is only about 80,000. The rest are the surrendered troops of Liu Wuzhou and Song Jingang, as well as some newly recruited troops. It only takes half a year to reorganize them. If he wants them to become Fengzhou elites, it is still difficult. It requires training and practical training.
Although he has 80,000 elite soldiers, they are only strong at the moment. His strength is not actually strong. More importantly, Hebei is an easy-to-attack but difficult-to-govern place, which requires a lot of energy from him.
This time to deal with Dou Jiande's 300,000 troops, the Sui army used 140,000 troops. In fact, in terms of war alone, his 80,000 elite troops were enough to defeat Dou Jiande's 300,000 troops.
But 80,000 elite soldiers cannot control Hebei. Dou Jiande's army itself is composed of hundreds of large and small forces. Once Dou Jiande is defeated, countless small separatist forces may appear in various parts of Hebei, which will be completely destroyed. Hebei society was already riddled with holes.
Historically, the Anshi Rebellion was the result of this. The imperial court was unable to control Hebei. As a result, after the deaths of An Lushan and Shi Siming, his subordinates established themselves one after another, forming a situation of separatist vassal towns.
Hebei is a place where the descendants of the border troops of the Six Towns gather. The folk customs are fierce and difficult to control. In addition, there are many Northern Qi officials among the people who are dissatisfied with the Sui Dynasty. It is not as easy to govern as Hedong. Yang Yuanqing had to consider this hidden danger.
Although it was difficult to govern Hebei, he still wanted to conquer Hebei. If he did not take the land of Yan and Zhao, how could he fight for the world with only the Three Jins? Back then, Cao Cao also took Hebei first to avoid trouble from behind.
"Report to the supervisor, the scouts have urgent information!"
The sound of the report interrupted Yang Yuanqing's thoughts, and his thoughts returned to his eyes again, and he nodded: "Order him to come in and report!"
After a moment, a scout quickly walked into the big tent, knelt down on one knee and reported: "Reporting to the general manager, my humble position is Zhang Ju, brigade commander of the Second Regiment of Scouts. I am responsible for collecting intelligence from Zhangnan County. We have discovered an urgent piece of information.
"
"What information?"
"Bi Zhi led the brothers to discover a fleet of ships sailing out from Zhangnan County. There were about more than a hundred boats, loaded with supplies. The ships were escorted by troops and covered with tarpaulins. I don't know what they were, but I didn't know what they were when the ships passed by.
Anomalies were discovered on the river."
The scout glanced behind him, and a soldier stepped forward and placed a clay pot on the table. The scout reported: "This is a bit of river water collected from the river behind the boat by a humble officer, with a layer of black grease floating on it.
It looks like kerosene."
"Kerosene?"
Yang Yuanqing was startled. He glanced into the jar. There seemed to be a layer of oily and shiny stuff floating on the surface. He stretched out his fingers and fished it out in the jar. His fingers were stained with a layer of black greasy stuff. He moved closer.
I looked closely and smelled it, and it turned out to be kerosene.
This made Yang Yuanqing gasp. Where did Dou Jiande get the kerosene? Could it be that the Tang Dynasty supported them? He only knew that the Tang Dynasty once supported Luo Yi, but was intercepted by him.
But regardless of whether it was the support of the Tang Dynasty or not, at least Dou Jiande already had kerosene. He immediately asked: "Where is the fleet now?"
"Bizhong galloped with three horses and rushed to the camp day and night, but the speed of the ship was not very fast. I estimate that the fleet has not reached Dongguang County yet."
The voyage from Zhangnan County to Leshou County is about 350 miles. According to the scout's description, it should be about 250 miles. Yang Yuanqing asked again: "How many troops are there to protect you?"
"Reporting to the manager, there are about twenty people on each ship and more than two thousand guards."
Yang Yuanqing thought for a moment and immediately ordered: "Quickly find General Pei Xingyan to see me!"
After a moment, Pei Xingyan walked quickly into the big tent, knelt down on one knee and saluted, "General Pei Xingyan, please see the steward!"
"General Pei, the scouts discovered that a fleet of ships departed from Zhangnan County and was sailing towards Leshou County. There were more than 2,000 troops on board. I suspect that there was a large amount of kerosene on board. I will give you 3,000 cavalry. You
You must destroy this fleet for me."
"I will obey your orders!"
Yang Yuanqing said to the scout again: "You can lead General Pei to find this fleet. If the matter is successful, I will give you a heavy reward."
The scout brigade commander was overjoyed, saluted, and took Pei Xingyan out of the tent. Yang Yuanqing stood in front of the sand table, staring at the Yongji River, and couldn't help but said to himself, "Where did Dou Jiande get his kerosene?"
…
Dou Jiande's capital is Leshou County, but his hometown Zhangnan County is also an important base for him. He has 30,000 troops stationed in Zhangnan County and a large amount of supplies are stored there.
There was originally no direct waterway connecting Zhangnan County to Leshou County, so it was usually transported by water through the Yongji Canal to Yingao County, and then converted to land transportation, which was time-consuming and laborious.
But at the beginning of last year, Dou Jiande ordered the excavation of a canal from Yingao County to Leshou County. Although it cannot be compared with the Yongji Canal, it can still handle medium-sized ships of 500 stone, making water transportation very convenient.
Before dawn, a cavalry force of three thousand people was galloping on the official road on the west bank of Yongji Canal. The area from Leshou County to Zhangnan County was the center of Dou Jiande's rule. The population situation was better than that of other counties.
point.
From time to time, villages can be seen on the plains in the distance. White smoke curls up over the villages. Large wheat fields are covered with green wheat seedlings. Farmers busy in the fields can often be seen. They raised their heads in surprise.
, watching the Sui army fly past them like lightning.
The three thousand cavalry led by Pei Xingyan set out yesterday afternoon. Each cavalryman was equipped with two horses. After an afternoon and a night of galloping, they had traveled nearly two hundred miles.
Pei Xingyan saw that the men and horses were exhausted. He looked around and found a dense forest inside and outside. He whipped his horse and ordered: "Go to the forest to rest for an hour!"
The cavalry left Andao, ran up a field, and ran towards the woods. In a moment, three thousand cavalry rushed to the woods. The soldiers dismounted one after another. Many soldiers fell to the ground from exhaustion, and the horses snorted from exhaustion.
The soldiers still cheered up and fed their horses with water and fodder. Pei Xingyan drank water and ate dry food slowly. Scout Zhang Ju told him that the fleet should be nearby, so Pei Xingyan decided to wait here for the advance scout.
news.
After only resting for about half an hour, several cavalrymen came rushing from the south. They saw the Sui army resting in the woods, turned their horses and charged towards them.
The leader of the scout was Xiao Yannian. He was transferred to Pei Xingyan half a month ago and served as the scout brigade commander. He was highly regarded by Pei Xingyan. Xiao Yannian got off his horse and trotted to Pei Xingyan's side. He knelt down on one knee and reported, "General Qi, Xia Xingyan."
The military fleet is already twenty miles away."
Pei Xingyan was overjoyed and immediately stood up and ordered: "Order all soldiers to go into the woods to take shelter immediately..."
The soldiers stood up one after another, led their horses and hid in the woods. The woods covered an area of more than a hundred acres, enough to hide their three thousand troops.
…
About ten miles away, a fleet of one hundred and twenty 300-stone flat-bottomed tugboats was slowly heading north. Their current position was ten miles north of Dongguangguang, where the trackers had just been replaced.
Since the fleet is traveling against the current and has no power, it needs to be pulled by trackers. There are hundreds of trackers on both sides of the strait pulling the fleet slowly. This fleet is Dou Jiande's military transport team, which is mainly responsible for transporting goods between Zhangnan County and Lezhou.
Transporting supplies between Shouxian County.
This time they transported a large amount of important military supplies, including two thousand barrels of kerosene. These kerosene were not sent to Dou Jiande by Li Yuan, but supplies sent by Li Mi.
Li Mi also discovered a kerosene well in Puyang County, Dongjun, and obtained a lot of kerosene. In order to support Dou Jiande in fighting the Sui army, he recently sent a ship to deliver 2,000 barrels of kerosene.
At this time, the soldiers on the ship had already seen a dense forest in the distance...