Changsun Wuji was startled and immediately said anxiously: "Your Highness, Yang Yuanqing is spying on us from behind. Whether we can successfully exit Hongnong depends on this. Your Highness leaving the army at this time may be detrimental to the morale of the army."
Changsun Wuji's tone was slightly dissatisfied. During this period, King Qin did not discuss many matters with them. Yesterday, the army evacuated to Shaanxi County. Unexpectedly, just a few dozen miles after setting off, they received news that King Qi had arrived at the reinforcement camp, and the army hurriedly returned to Changsun.
Yuan camp.
Early this morning, without any warning, King Qin ordered an evacuation to Tongguan. Now he actually wanted to lead his army to Tongguan first, which made Changsun Wuji intolerable.
Fang Xuanling next to him understood Li Shimin's thoughts. He wanted to take control of Tongguan before Li Yuanji, which was feasible.
Fang Xuanling smiled and said: "It doesn't matter. Although Yang Yuanqing is peeping from behind, he does not have enough troops. The reinforcements from the western front have not arrived yet, so he will not take the risk of chasing us. If His Highness wants to go to Tongguan first, feel free to go. We will lead the army.
Will arrive shortly."
Only then did Changsun Wuji understand. He felt helpless. He originally thought that the dispute between the prince and the King of Qin would not affect the Tang Dynasty's military operations, but in fact, the impact was quite huge.
Yang Yuanqing only had 50,000 troops, while the King of Qin had 80,000 troops. Plus 30,000 new troops, the Tang army had 110,000 troops. If they could work together, they could concentrate their forces to defeat Yang Yuanqing. However, it was this kind of internal discord that led to
Finally, the troops had no choice but to withdraw.
This kind of depression that was held in his heart made Changsun Wuji helpless. He could only nodded and said, "I wish His Highness a smooth journey and that he will enter Tongguan as soon as possible."
Seeing that both of them agreed, Li Shimin said happily: "I'll leave everything to you in the future!"
Li Shimin immediately took Captain Chi Gong and led five thousand fine cavalry towards Tongguan...
About two hours after Li Shimin's army left the Changyuan County camp, Yang Yuanqing led a large group of troops to arrive at the vacant Tang Army camp.
At this time, Xie Yingdeng led 5,000 Sui army cavalry to occupy the Tang army's camp, which covered hundreds of acres.
When Yang Yuanqing's army arrived at the Tang Army's camp, Xie Yingdeng had been waiting at the door for a long time. He quickly stepped forward and saluted, "For your humble position, please see the general manager!"
Yang Yuanqing stood up and dismounted, and took a closer look at the vast camp. Except for the battle flags that had been taken away, there were almost no changes. Even the sentry towers still stood on both sides of the camp.
"Have you caught any of the guards?" Yang Yuanqing asked.
"Reporting to the general manager, more than a hundred soldiers were captured, as well as a Cang Cao from the Tang Army."
Xie Yingdeng waved his hand. "Bring it up!"
The soldiers of the Sui army brought an official forward. This man was about forty years old, short and fat, wearing a crimson low-level official robe. From the appearance, he did not look like an official, but more like a shopkeeper.
The shopkeeper.
His face was full of fear, and he knelt down as he stepped forward. "The villain Gong Aimin, who works in Cang Cao, begs your highness to spare his life!"
Yang Yuanqing glanced at him and said calmly: "You don't have to be afraid, I won't kill you. As long as you help my people sort out the warehouse records with the account books, I will spare you."
Cang Cao kowtowed repeatedly, "Thank you, Your Highness. I will try my best to help you."
Accompanied by everyone, Yang Yuanqing entered the Tang Army's camp. Even half of the tents were left in the camp. The soldiers' tents were in a mess, and large items that could not be taken away were everywhere. Yang Yuanqing frowned: "These tents
Why didn’t the Tang army take him away?”
The Cao Cao of the Tang Army just now bowed quickly and said: "Your Majesty, the main reason is that the Tang Army is short of animal power. The army recruited from all over the place and only collected more than a thousand ox carts. Together with its own horses, it is impossible to carry so much supplies. Four thousand military tents."
Only 1,800 were taken away, and even the soldiers had to carry armor."
Yang Yuanqing nodded. "Go to the grain depot!"
The group then diverted to a group of large tents where grain was stored. It was located to the north of the camp and consisted of hundreds of tents. This was the Tang Army's money and grain depot. Inside the hundreds of tents, he saw mountains of grain.
They are all packed in sacks and stacked neatly.
Yang Yuanqing was overjoyed. As expected, the Tang army did not move the food away or destroy it, which made him feel relieved.
Xie Sili carefully checked the food in several large tents. He asked the leader with some curiosity: "I don't think any of the food has been taken away. Why is that?"
The manager smiled bitterly and said: "It's really impossible to take them away. All the animal-drawn carts are filled with soldiers, armor, money and tents. Even the tents are half left, not to mention the food. However, all the soldiers, armor and money are still there."
Taken away."
"That's strange!"
Xie Sili said to himself: "We have to take away the soldiers, armor and money, but not the food. Isn't food important to the Tang army?"
Yang Yuanqing smiled and said: "This is normal. As long as you have soldiers and armor money, you can recruit new soldiers. As for food, I think there should be a lot of food in Guanzhong, so it is not too important."
Yang Yuanqing asked again, "Is there any food and grass in the military camp?"
"Reporting to Your Highness, we have about 230,000 dan of grain and 500,000 dan of fodder."
Yang Yuanqing nodded and said to Xie Sili, "I'll leave it to you to count the supplies, keep accounts one by one, and finally give me a general report."
"I humble my duty and obey my orders!" The military forces directly under Prince Li Jiancheng are mainly concentrated in Guandong, that is, east of Guanzhong, mainly including Guangtongcang, Linjin Pass and Tongguan, with about 30,000 troops.
Among them, Tongguan is the top priority of the prince's power. This gate to the east of the pass has a decisive strategic position for the entire Tang Dynasty. It is usually guarded by senior military officials of the third rank.
The commander currently guarding Tongguan is Luo Yi, who returned to the Tang Dynasty from Youzhou. After Luo Yi returned to the Tang Dynasty, he was named General Youwuwei. His title was changed to Duke of Yan. He had a high official position. Li Yuan did not treat him badly, but
This is just to show the ambition of the Tang Dynasty to buy bones for thousands of dollars.
In fact, no matter whether he is an official or a noble, he is just a sinecure. He has nothing to do, and he has no soldiers under his command. He wanders around Chang'an all day long with nothing to do.
But Prince Li Jiancheng took a fancy to Luo Yi's ability to lead troops and military qualifications. For Li Jiancheng, what he lacked most now was such a highly qualified general.
It was under the strong recommendation of the prince that Luo Yi was appointed as the commander-in-chief of Tongguan, in charge of the 10,000 defenders of Tongguan. Luo Yi became Li Jiancheng's confidant, and together with Master Sheng Yan, became the right-hand man of the prince's army.
Above Tongguan City, the golden glow of the setting sun gradually disappeared, the sky dyed red by the sunset had darkened, and the endless mountain forest turned into a dark black. Night began to fall, with the colorful night of the sunset, driving straight into Tongguan City.
.
Luo Yi was wearing armor, with his hand on the hilt of his sword. He stood on the top of the city and stared at the winding mountain path in the distance. The path was gradually blurred in the night, and his eyes were full of worry.
On the side, the eldest son Luo Cheng could feel that his father was worried, so he asked with concern: "My father has been silent for a day, what happened?"
After a while, Luo Yi sighed and said, "If the Central Plains is defeated, the battle between King Qin and the Crown Prince will become more intense, and we will inevitably be involved."
"Father, I don't understand, why did the Central Plains fail and their struggle intensify? I feel that at this time, they should work together to overcome the difficulties."
Luo Yi shook his head, "It's a pity that there is only one throne. What if they don't fight for it? It had nothing to do with King Qin in the first place, but the Holy Emperor's ambiguous attitude gave him hope. Now that the main military power is in his hands, it may not be possible to cut off his hope.
It’s easier.”
After a pause, Luo Yi said again: "This battle in the Central Plains has broken the original balance. It is estimated that King Qin's power will be severely frustrated. How can he give up? He will definitely go to war with the army. The prince also guessed his intention.
, I persuaded the Holy Emperor to let King Qi go to Shaanxi County to take charge of 30,000 new troops, just to prevent him from taking the opportunity to seize military power."
Luo Cheng sighed, "Father, if I had known that we should surrender to the Sui Dynasty, we would not have been involved in the internal strife between their brothers. To be honest, I really don't think highly of the Tang Dynasty."
Luo Cheng was still brooding over his father's return to the Tang Dynasty, but he did not dare to really complain about his father. He could only suppress this dissatisfaction in his heart, and today he finally couldn't help but let it out.
Luo Yi was startled. He glanced at his son in surprise. Was his son still worried about returning to the Tang Dynasty?
He felt apologetic in his heart and patted his son on the shoulder, "Don't worry, there will be many opportunities in the future. First of all, you need to have qualifications and status in the military. You are only a captain now. Even if you surrender, you will still be a captain. But if
You are a general of the Tang Dynasty. If you surrender, you will be taken more seriously. Please settle down and promise to your father that you will be promoted to a general within three years."
Luo Cheng nodded silently. At this moment, the sound of horse hooves was heard on the mountain road, and a scout cavalry was seen running quickly. He quickly ran to the foot of Tongguan and shouted: "General Luo!"
Luo Yi had already seen this scout cavalry. He was startled. He walked to the battlement and leaned forward and asked, "What happened?"
"General Luo, His Highness the King of Qin has arrived with five thousand cavalry, just ten miles away."
Luo Yi was stunned for a moment. King Qin came with five thousand cavalry. Why? Why were there only five thousand? Could it be that he was defeated in the battle of the Central Plains?
Luo Yi's thoughts were spinning very fast. It was impossible for him to be defeated. If he had been defeated, he would have gotten the news long ago. Could it be...
A thought came to his mind, and he suddenly became nervous. He suddenly realized that Li Shimin's arrival would bring him great trouble.
Thinking of this, he immediately said to his son Luo Cheng: "You rush back to the capital immediately and tell the prince that King Qin has come to Tongguan to seize power. I may not be spared. Let the prince report to the emperor quickly."
Luo Cheng was so nervous that his voice trembled, "Will something happen to my father?"
"Don't worry, my father will not let him have the opportunity to kill me. I will cooperate with him to seize power, but I have to tell the prince in advance so that the prince will not blame me for handing over military power. Go quickly!"
Luo Cheng finally felt relieved. He rode out of the west gate and galloped towards Chang'an.
Luo Yi kept watching his son go away. Then he returned to the city gate of Tongguan. He saw a cavalry in the distance galloping toward the city gate.