Chungling County is located at the southern end of Nanyang Basin, the northeast and south parts belong to Tongbai Mountain, Dahong Mountain, the hills are undulating, the terrain is inclined from northeast to southwest, it is a lower county with only six counties in the north and south. Chungling is the convergence of many rivers, originating from the east of Tongbai Mountain, dozens of large and small rivers rush westward, converge near the border of Huyang County into the water, in the border of Chungling County and Baishui, and finally in the west of Xiangyang Anyang area and the adjacent water flow into the Han River.

It is precisely because there are nearly two rivers crossing in the county, so Chungling has abundant water sources, fertile land, and has become a rich land in the north of Jingzhou.

With the large approach of the Sui army, in order to avoid being outflanked by the Sui armies of both sides from Nanyang Xinye County and Huai'an Pingshi County, the Tang army was forced to withdraw from Shangma County to Huyang County in the south, forming a parallel trend with the direction of Xiangyang.

Although Chungling is small, but the strategic position is extremely heavy, the historical Song Gaozong attaches great importance to the military gateway status of Chungling, and the Jin army has attacked Chungling many times, just to capture the important town of Xiangyang. The Southern Song Dynasty generals Hu Zaixing and Meng Zongzheng tried to crush the Jin army many times, and Xiangyang was worry-free if Lingling was unharmed. Especially when Meng Zongzheng was stationed in Zaoyang, it became a nightmare for the Jin army, and the Jin people did not dare to attempt to take Lingling and Xiangyang again. Zhao Gou, who was far away in the south of the Yangtze River, still knew the strategic position of Chungling, and Li Yuan, who took Xiangyang as the imperial capital, naturally did the same, knowing that once Chungling was lost, Li Tang's east gate would be opened, not only sending Li Xiaogong and Chai Shao to sit in the town, but also letting the two strengthen the city defense, even if it exceeded Xiangyang, it didn't matter.

Generally speaking, the city walls can not exceed the imperial capital, this is the practice since ancient times, the Sui Dynasty during the great unification was not able to exceed the height of Luoyang before, after the establishment of Li Tang, the height of the city wall under the rule of the Tang Dynasty can not exceed Daxing, the south retreat to Xiangyang, then the height of Xiangyang as the standard, more than must be demolished, otherwise it will be regarded as trespassing. Although this is a common practice, many frontier walls exceed the imperial capital, such as the New Great Wall of the Great Sui, which is much taller than the walls of Zhuojun, Yecheng, and Luoyang, but this is what Yang Tong agreed; Relatively speaking, Li Tang's rules are much more cumbersome than those of the Sui Dynasty, and etiquette must be paid attention to everywhere, and the emperor's travel or something is strictly implemented in accordance with the standards, and even when the officials go to the court, the size and speed of their walking steps are supervised by the imperial historians, and the city wall is the top priority, if the local officials and generals increase the height without authorization, it is like complicity in rebellion, but now Li Yuan has loosened the ban and asked the garrisons to increase the height and width of the city walls as much as possible, and even reward, judging from these details, Anyone who is a little more shrewd can feel the uneasiness and fear in Li Yuan's heart.

Chungling was plagued by Zhu Cang for several years, and the once rich Chungling also became devastated, the people's livelihood withered, the villages were barren, the county towns were dilapidated, and the population was more than seventy percent lower than the heyday of the great cause.

In contrast, Huai'an, Handong, Anlu, Nanyang, and Xiyang around Chungling, the Taishou appointed by the Sui Dynasty have all taken office, the population and land inventory, the uniform field system has also been implemented to the end, and the local people have also been resettled, and the wheat fields of spring wheat are green, which also caused the people of Chungling who were forced to build cities day and night have fled to the Sui realm, and today, Chungling has almost become a pure military garrison with only troops.

In order to respond to the call for self-sufficiency, Li Xiaogong and Chai Shao also used the army to carry out the military camp on the ownerless land at the beginning of spring, and when the summer grain was put into storage, it could also solve the needs of the army for a period of time and reduce part of the burden on the imperial court. However, because Chungling County became the forefront of the Sui and Tang dynasties, the two did not dare to disperse the army, so there were really not many soldiers.

And not long after the New Year, the Sui army against Li Tang's Hanshui defense line, all nodes have increased their troops, as the attack on Xiangyang bridgehead Nanyang, the strength has been as high as 100,000, in addition to the second army of the 60,000 main battle division, another 40,000 requisitioned retired divisions, in addition to 30,000 slaves, led by the Sui Dynasty Shangshu right servant Yang Shanhui personally led, the thirteen army garrison Xinye, only more than 30 miles away from the Xiangyang border, but also to the Chunling area, plus Huai'an Li Jingjun, The Tang army in the area of Chungling was under the pressure of more than 300,000 Sui troops at all times, and if the 20,000 defenders of Handong east of Chungling were also counted, the pressure would be even greater.

In a wilderness 30 miles north of Huyang County, close to the south bank of Bishui, stands a huge military camp covering an area of more than 20 li, the military camp is built in the form of a board wall, the camp is one zhang five feet high, solid and solid.

This was the main division led by Li Xiaogong himself, and it was the first line of defense against the Sui army, and Chai Shao was based on Huyang County and formed a second line of defense in the back.

Li Xiaogong's barracks battle flag fluttered and unfurled, and the three-zhang tall Li Tang white flag fluttered over the camp gate.

On both sides of the camp gate, there were two sentry towers that were also three feet high, and ten sentries each patrolled the sentry towers, watching the surrounding situation vigilantly.

About seven or eight miles away from this camp, there is a hill called Luoshan, the highest part of the hill is about 40 zhang, the radius is about two miles, and the spacious official road to Xiangyang passes under this mountain.

The mountains are lush with trees, lush vegetation and vegetation. All kinds of birds and finches chirped in unison on the trees, and at this time, on a large camphor tree with lush leaves, several Sui army scouts were looking at the Tang army camp in the distance.

From their seats, they could clearly see the camp in the distance. The white tents were neatly arranged, and groups of Tang Army soldiers practiced on the school ground, and you could also see the patrolling soldiers walking back and forth on the wall.

"Can you count them clearly? How many big tents are there? A Sui Army scout asked in a low voice.

"There are about 2,000 medium-sized tents, and generally this kind of tent can accommodate a group of soldiers, and if you squeeze it, a brigade of soldiers can live."

A soldier of the Sui Army held two bamboo tubes connected together and looked around, this is a clairvoyant mirror created by the Ministry of Industry, which has taken the lead in putting into the front line of the battle scout army, and is equipped with one plane. With a clairvoyant mirror in hand, the scout force, which can be called a special forces, is like a tiger with wings, and can get more accurate information than before.

A soldier thought for a moment and said in a low voice: "The Tang Army's Hanshui defense line began to be built as early as last year, and it has been three or four months now, and the time to establish a military camp is quite sufficient. And Li Xiaogong is a rare general in the Tang Army, so the Tang Army will never let the soldiers of the first brigade squeeze into the tent of the first team. That is, this barracks had 100,000 Don troops. ”

The scout who was watching shook his head and said softly: "After removing the ordnance tent and grain tent, there are about 70,000 Tang troops. ”

A soldier sitting on a tree branch held a small wooden plank and quickly drew a map of the terrain and camp on a piece of paper with a piece of charcoal, and marked the number of tents and troops next to it.

"Do you see the handsome flag clearly?"

"The wind was too strong to read the words written on the flag clearly. However, there are a lot of pseudo-Tang rules, and even the color and size of the main general's banner are strictly divided, and it seems that it should be a banner at the level of the county king. In other words, the barracks owner will be Li Xiaogong, not Chai Shao. ”

"Very likely." One person quickly replied: "Chai Shao is in the pseudo-Tang Dynasty, although he is also known as a famous general and a general, but he has never led troops to fight with my Great Sui. And Jingxiang and Bashu were both defeated by Li Xiaogong, and they have fought with our army many times, and they have too much combat experience than Chai Shao, and the pseudo-Tang Dynasty is at a time of life and death, and it is impossible to let a person who does not have much actual combat experience act as the former army commander. ”

"Makes sense."

As he was talking, there was a sound of horses, and from a distance, I saw a patrol cavalry rushing towards this side from the official road, and the Sui army scouts in the trees hurriedly hid in the dense foliage, and the few underground ones were also crawling in the grass.

Not long after the Tang cavalry passed, this scout quietly left Luoshan.

。。。。。。。。。。。。。。。。。

Li Xiaogong was watching the urgent report sent from Xiangyang, which was a secret order issued to him by Li Yuan, the emperor of the Li Tang Dynasty, asking him to closely monitor the generals from the Guanlong nobility, and let him be ready to replace these people in time to ensure that after these people left, there would be no chaos in the army.

Li Xiaogong understood that the emperor was going to attack the Guanlong nobles, and he, like the important ministers of the imperial court, was also paying close attention to the changes in the political situation in Xiangyang. As the core general of the imperial family, Li Xiaogong is deeply anxious about the situation of internal and external troubles. He did not deceive himself and cover his eyes, let alone have a fluke heart, knowing that the Great Sui Dynasty, which was at its peak, was waiting for the future, and it was only a matter of time before he attacked the Tang Dynasty in an all-out way.

Li Xiaogong had already known about Fang Xuanling's envoy, but he didn't think about the question of whether the Sui army would oppose Li Mi or Li Tang first. Just because the Sui Dynasty army was strong, it was not a problem to attack Tang Wei at the same time. He scoffed at the luck of the court's important officials, and felt that it was better to waste time to analyze these useless problems, and it was better to put extra time and energy on money, food, weapons and equipment, which was the right thing to do.

Li Xiaogong was even more worried about the imminent opening of the civil strife in the Tang Dynasty, he was one of the high-level bystanders, and he knew the dangers of Li Tang's civil strife better than the people involved, and he saw it more thoroughly than ordinary bystanders.

Once there was civil strife in the Tang Dynasty, it was the time for the Sui army to attack, and if Yang Tong was not conducive to the opportunity of the Tang Dynasty's civil strife to send troops, then Yang Dong was really too incompetent.

Through several fiascos in the Tang Dynasty, Li Xiaogong also realized that the defeat of the Tang Dynasty was lost in the factional struggle against each other, from the Battle of Bingzhou to the Battle of Guanzhong, it was Li Tang's internal fighting to help the Sui army win, and these two defeats also laid the situation that the Sui was strong and the Tang was weak.

And last year's fiasco of the Eastern Crusade, also drained Li Tang's vitality, the cause of failure is still the defeat in the Tang Dynasty's high-level decision-making mistakes, the emperor and the prince, the Jin king's father and son's struggle for power, to protect their own faction army without losing the move, seriously affected the Tang Dynasty military decision-making, when the emperor father and son realized this problem, they have already been wiped out, the Jin king almost wiped out the whole army in Hongnong County, so the internal instability is really the source of chaos.

On the contrary, the Great Sui Dynasty was of one heart and one mind, and the civil and military officials were condensed into one, while Yang Tong, as the emperor, always dared to delegate power, always believed in the former army commanders, and always believed in the court officials, so that he could be freed from cumbersome government affairs and focus on the military, so that the Sui Dynasty won major victories in the most critical wars. Therefore, in the face of the large-scale invasion of Shibi Khan, not only was it not defeated, but it was relieved of the biggest external trouble, and the eastern/Turkic, Western Turkic and other extraterritorial enemies were annihilated step by step, and the supremacy of the Great Sui Dynasty outside the territory was established. Yang Tong, the sage khan, deserves to be more genuine than the second emperor of Wenwu, as long as he gives an order, no one in the foreign countries will dare to disobey it.

Li Xiaogong locked the secret order into a small box, and couldn't help but sigh, the defeat of the Tang Dynasty was not in the hands of Yang Dong, but in the factional struggle for power.

Today, the Holy Lord has finally come to his senses and intends to suppress the Dugu faction of the Guanlong nobles and weaken the most powerful and powerful backing of the King of Jin, but the King of Jin has already achieved his wings, is it too late now? Will Yang Tong give the Tang Dynasty time to rectify the interior?

The answer, obviously, is no.

In fact, Li Xiaogong, who is proficient in military affairs, talked with Li Shimin at the beginning, and he supported Li Shimin in his heart, but in order for the Tang Dynasty to be stable, he resolutely gave up Li Shimin and supported Li Jiancheng with a clear banner.

It's not that Li Shimin is the source of the Tang Dynasty's chaotic ministers and thieves and cholera, at least Li Xiaogong has never had this thought, in his opinion, Li Shimin's military talent and ability to command troops are very strong, and he is a person who is more likely to fight among the kings, but if he wants to keep the society in chaos, he can undoubtedly only let the status of the prince not be provoked by any person, as long as the wings of the King of Jin in the court are cut, he can dispel his political aspirations, so as to become a simple general.

It is precisely because of this understanding that Li Xiaogong's mentality has also changed, he stands on Li Jiancheng's position, hoping that the emperor will get rid of the civil strife as soon as possible, condense the Tang Dynasty into one, and stabilize the national government.

At this moment, the voice of the soldiers outside the door came from the report: "Your Highness, there is information from the scouts in Nanyang!" It is said that 100,000 Sui troops went out of Xinye, approached Xiangyang for ten miles, and set up camp in the south of Chaoshui, Turbulent Water, Nirvana, and Shuishui. ”

Li Xiaogong turned around in shock, he was also waiting for news from Nanyang County for the past two days, and he got urgent information two days ago, saying that the Sui army in Xinye County of the Sui Army was about to move, but whether the other party was attacking Xiangyang or Chungling was unknown, which shrouded his heart with a haze before the coming of the war, and the invisible murderous aura made him feel that he couldn't breathe.

"Bring it in!"

The curtain was lifted, a personal soldier walked in quickly, respectfully presented a volume of information, Li Xiaogong opened the information and read it, quickly walked to the map, according to the place said in the intelligence, found the Sijiangkou garrison of the Sui army, and his face changed greatly.

The place where the Sui army set up camp was too tricky, from here it was less than twenty miles from Anyang County in Xiangyang, and it was only twenty or thirty miles from Yincheng County in Xiangyang; To the camp of Chungling, Chungling County, it is only thirty miles away, that is to say, the Sui army in this position, can simultaneously deter the four key points of the Hanshui defense line, if you march in the direction of Anyang, the next step can be under the city of Xiangyang, with the speed of the Great Sui cavalry, it only takes two or three hours to kill Anyang County, harassing this key point, as for their own army, it can be completely contained by Li Jing in the direction of Huai'an.

But the intelligence also mentioned a key point, that is, the Sui army's barracks were the same as his own, which was a tall slab barracks, which made him a little relieved, because this kind of barracks focused on defense.

However, it is also possible that Yang Shanhui deliberately put forward a suspicious plan, making them think that the Sui army only defended and did not attack, and then gave full play to the advantages of the cavalry to attack Yincheng, Anyang, Chungling Daying, Huyang, and Chungling County by surprise. Otherwise, why not stationed in Xinye County? Wouldn't that be more defensive?

The 100,000 army stationed on the border and then did not attack, which was in line with the strategy of the Sui army advancing step by step in the civil war, was it because of the ......?

Suddenly, Li Xiaogong's mind suddenly flashed, and he thought of two other pieces of information he had obtained recently:

First, in the name of the collective rebellion of the Jiangnan scholars, Li Mi slaughtered the Jiangnan scholars to their heart's content, taking their money and grain for military salaries, and seizing their fields to distribute them equally to the meritorious soldiers and local people, and the counties under his rule were in chaos.

Another piece of information is that Yao Junsu commanded the reorganized 40,000 Xiao Milling Army and stationed in Huainan County, and the troops were directed at Zhongli County, where Li Mi's army was located.

When Li Xiaogong put the Sui army in all aspects into the overall situation, he suddenly understood that Yang Shanhui's actions were purely to contain himself and the Tang army on the Xiangyang side, and did not allow the Tang army led by himself to attack Jianghuai and the land of Jingzhou south of Chungling from behind, as for Li Jing's army stationed in Huai'an, it was also to deceive Li Mi Li Tang and Li Mi in a false sense, making people think that he was going to attack the Tang Dynasty, but he was actually planning to cross Runan and directly attack Li Mi's Huaiyang, Ruyin, and Qianjun, so as to give Wei a sword in half.

Li Mi in the direction of Zhongli endured the three copies of Li Jing in the north, Yao Junsu in the west, and Du Fuwei in the south, and he was too busy to take care of himself, and there was no way to support Huaibei at all, which also made Wang Bodang and Xu Shiji in the direction of Huaibei unable to get a single reinforcement from the south.

"It must be so." Li Xiaogong stared at the direction of Jiangdu with a pair of eyes, and his eyes were bright, and he felt more and more that Yang Tong was not going to attack the Tang Dynasty, but planned to attack Li Mi. He muttered excitedly: "If this is the case, the Tang Dynasty will have enough time to rectify the interior." ”

At this moment, another soldier came to report: "Your Highness, Special Envoy Li Mi has just arrived at the barracks and asked His Highness to receive him." ”

Li Mi's envoy actually came to his military camp? This seems reasonable, but it is a bit surprising to Li Xiaogong.

After a little silence, he understood Li Mi's intentions, and Li Mi probably guessed that Yang Tong was targeting him, so he hoped that he would attack the Jianghuai area from behind to relieve his pressure, and the reason why he didn't go to Xiangyang was because it was too late.

As soon as he thought of this, Li Xiaogong smiled bitterly and sighed in his heart, it seems that Yang Tong had long expected that Li Mi would come to find him, so he first let Yang Shanhui approach Xiangyang and make the court uneasy. In this situation, even if he had the heart to support, Li Tang would not agree.

Yang Tong's layout of the Jiangnan strategy is really interlocking!

But the envoy had arrived, and Li Xiaogong was not easy to see, so he nodded immediately, "Invite someone to the reception tent." ”

After a short time, several soldiers brought Li Mi's envoy to the reception tent, and Li Mi's envoy's name was Zheng Yuanbi, who was a disciple of the Zheng family in Xingyang, and if he served as Li Mi's civil minister.

He came to Chungling to visit Li Xiaogong, and he really wanted to join forces with Li Xiaogong to attack the land of Jianghuai and annihilate Yao Junsu and Du Fuwei, and at the same time hoped that Li Shimin would send troops to Nanjun from the direction of Yiling. This is also a method that Li Mi came up with in desperation, he felt that he could not sit idly by, and should preemptively thwart the Sui Dynasty's strategy of advancing step by step, in exchange for the initiative in the war.

Zheng Yuanbi just waited for a while, and Li Xiaogong walked in unhurriedly, Zheng Yuanbi hurriedly got up and saluted: "Zheng Yuanbi see the king of the county!" ”

Li Xiaogong returned the salute: "It turned out to be Mr. Zheng, please take a seat!" ”

The two sat down separately, and Li Xiaogong asked, "Mr. Zheng is from Jiangdu!" Will the journey be smooth? ”

Li Xiaogong has figured out everything on the road, and even Li Mi sent Zheng Yuanbi to make it easier, the reason is that Li Jiancheng's original wife is the daughter of the Taiyuan Wang family, and she lived in Daxing with Li Yuan's family, and when the news of Li Yuan's Jinyang army reached Daxing, the family was wiped out by Wei Xuan, Yin Shishi, Gu Yi and others, not only killed the men and women of the Li family, but also dug up the ancestral grave of the Li family.

After that, Li Jiancheng married Zheng Guanyin of the Zheng family in Xingyang, and this Zheng Yuanbi was the uncle of the crown princess.

Li Jiancheng is the son-in-law of the Zheng family, and he is a supporter of Li Jiancheng, so Li Micai appointed Zheng Yuanbi as a special envoy, hoping that he can persuade the prince Li Tang and his family, and then influence Li Yuan's decision.

"Alas! Don't mention it. At this time, Zheng Yuanbi smiled bitterly, "I originally crossed the border from Liyang controlled by Du Fuwei, but he was heavily guarded and checked countless times along the way, and then he could only change the waterway and take a merchant ship of your country, so he escaped the layers of interrogation, and now it is really not easy to come here!" ”

"I heard that the situation in Jiangnan is very tense now, and it is estimated that a big war is about to break out, and the Wei army should be ready!"

"We have been preparing for a long time, not only to deal with the Sui army led by Yao Junsu and Du Fuwei in the Jianghuai area, but also to guard against the Sui army in Huaibei, and the pressure is really heavy as Mount Tai. Therefore, my family sent me a special envoy, hoping that Wei and Tang could join forces to attack Jianghuai and reduce the pressure on both sides, so as to open up the road of the Tang and Wei dynasties to join forces. I wonder what His Highness thinks? ”

Of course, Li Xiaogong will not wade into this troubled water, not to mention that Huai'an and Xinye are as powerful as Mount Tai and contain most of the Tang army, even if there is no Sui army to contain him, he will not be stupid to join forces with Li Mi, but take advantage of the precious time of the Sui and Wei wars to train the army and build a defensive line.

Li Tang couldn't wait for Yang Tong to attack Li Mi, how could he dare to introduce the fire of war into Li Tang at this time? If he really wanted to attack Jianghuai, Yang Tong, who acted in an eclectic manner, might have killed Li Tang first. In that case, he, Li Xiaogong, will become a sinner of the Li Tang Dynasty. However, he couldn't refuse explicitly, Li Xiaogong sighed and said: "Of course I am willing to hunt Jianghuai with the King of Wei, but I don't have the right to send troops without authorization, I must ask the Holy Lord for this matter, as long as the Holy Lord orders it, I will immediately send troops to Jianghuai." ”

"Your Royal Highness......" Zheng Yuanbi was in a hurry.

"Please understand my difficulties, sir, this kind of major matter is not in my hands." Li Xiaogong glanced at Zheng Yuanbi, and then said: "This place is not far from Xiangyang, I will let the soldiers escort Mr. into Beijing." ”

"That's fine." Zheng Yuanbi smiled bitterly and bowed, "Please also ask Your Highness to arrange it immediately." ”