Chapter 477: Hou Junji's Vision
Outside the camp of the Tang Army in Changyuan County, Hongnong, a team of burly cavalry galloped over, and in the blink of an eye, they had arrived at the camp gate.
"His Royal Highness King Jin!" Seeing the sweaty handsome general at the head, several guards hurriedly stepped forward to salute.
Li Shimin threw the stirrup off his horse, threw the reins of the horse to the retinue behind him, strode inward, and asked casually, "Have all the generals arrived?" ”
"Back to Your Highness! All the generals have arrived, just waiting for Your Highness. The leader of the guards replied respectfully.
"Good!" Li Shimin nodded with satisfaction and strode into the big tent.
During these days of confrontation, Li Shimin did not stay in the barracks behind closed doors, but went out from time to time to inspect the surrounding terrain and the enemy's camp many times, trying to find a good way to break the enemy. The commander of the Sui army who confronted him was Yang Shanhui, for Yang Shanhui, Li Shimin also had an in-depth understanding of this, according to his past experience, this is an adventurous person, this kind of person is actually very easy to deal with, but when things came to this point, he found that Yang Shanhui had no sense of moving troops at all, and he did not give the Tang army a chance.
Gradually, Li Shimin also understood Yang Shanhui's meaning, but this discovery made Li Shimin feel deeply powerless and sad.
The conquest of the great powers, has always been a steady and righteous path, pay attention to the right Keqi, the Sui Dynasty has strong capital, the general trend is in hand, and occupies an absolute advantage, do you still need to use the army to make dangerous moves? In fact, Yang Tong, Yang Shanhui and others worked hard to leave Li Shimin here, so they had the meaning of encircling the point to send reinforcements......
This game of chess laid by the Great Sui can be played or not, and when it is played is decided by the Great Sui, and the initiative is all in the hands of the Great Sui, but the Tang Dynasty did not dare to bet on Yang Tong's withdrawal of chess with national fortune. To put it bluntly, the Great Sui move was nothing more than overwhelming Li Shimin and the Li Tang Dynasty with an overwhelming military advantage and sufficient supplies, forcing Li Tang to mobilize troops and horses to confront the Sui army.
The Sui army stationed in Xiong'er County was originally an elite army with sufficient strength and well-equipped, and there was Luoyang nearby support, as well as the Sui army in the direction of Tongguan and Shangluo echoing from afar, and even the army could be dispatched from the other side of the Yellow River. In this realm, Yang Shanhui is completely attackable and retreating, and he is not afraid of his Li Shimin's 'lone army', with strong support, it will be difficult for Yang Shanhui to defeat even if he wants to.
In this way, the initiative of the war is firmly in the hands of the Great Sui, which means that if there is no accident, for a long time in the future, the Tang Dynasty can only be led by the Great Sui and fight in the way expected by the Great Sui, so as to completely lose the initiative and decide the war, and be in a very passive position...... Unless he agrees to Li Shimin's previous request, he will give up Hongnong County early, retreat to Xiyang County safely, and then adopt the strategy of closing the country to make a living, bury his head in development for two or three years, and then meet the Great Sui.
But it is neither Li Shimin, who is in a dilemma, nor Li Jiancheng, who knows the situation of the Li Tang Dynasty, but their father Li Yuan, of course, from the emperor's point of view, Li Yuan's insistence is not wrong, just because Li Tang is permeated with pessimism, and the government and the opposition think that the Tang army is afraid of Sui like a tiger, and they don't even have the courage to fight, so Li Yuan not only wants to let the world know that Li Tang dares to fight and can fight, but also wants a victory to boost Li Tang's lost spirit, which the Li brothers understand, understandable and understandable, But the gap in strength is there, how do you let everyone fight?
Li Shimin's powerlessness is due to the consideration of Li Tang's national conditions, he not only has to win, but also wins beautifully, otherwise, he will also win the moment and lose the overall situation.
In the big tent, the generals in the army expressed their opinions.
Hou Junji threw out his own opinion, "The strategic meaning of the Holy Lord letting His Royal Highness the Crown Prince sit in Zhuyangguan is nothing more than if our army wins, the two armies of the north and south will work together to expand the results of the battle infinitely; If our army is defeated, it will play the role of receiving our army to the south. However, such a simple strategic intention, the Sui Ting, who has countless talents, will not be unaware, and has even made multiple countermeasures, if we adopt this style of play, the possibility of success is very slim. Therefore, I thought that we could not fight according to the established routine that would be harmless to the Sui Dynasty. ”
Hou Junji's point of view was clearly heard by Li Shimin, who walked inside, he stopped the generals from saluting, sat on the throne, and asked Hou Junji to say his strategic intentions: "Tell me about your strategic intentions." ”
"Whoa." Hou Junji responded, and said in high spirits: "Your Highness, the last general thinks that the prudent strategy is to take the confusion pass first, and then take the Tong Pass, and wave the army to the pass." ”
"Why?" Li Shimin smiled slightly, Hou Junji has a unique vision, a very strong view of the overall situation, and an adventurous spirit, which is very suitable for Li Shimin's spleen and stomach, Li Shimin takes special care of him and treats him as an optimus jade pillar to cultivate.
"Kuiguan...... The peaks on the southeast side are interconnected, and there are many deep valleys and steep cliffs. Here, soldiers must fight! …… However, Tongguan is easy to defend and difficult to attack, after we take the Kun Pass, we are not in a hurry to fight, first adopt the method of encircling but not fighting, mobilize the Sui Dynasty soldiers and horses from all walks of life to help, and then concentrate superior forces to break the Sui army's reinforcements one by one. The important thing is that the mountains in this area are dangerous, which is not conducive to the cavalry charge, and the Sui army, which has lost the advantage of cavalry, is it still the Sui army? ”
And Tongguan is located in Qin, Jin, Henan three places to rush, the north controls the water of Wei and Luo, the water of the Yellow River hugs the pass, the south depends on the Qinling Mountains, and the terrain is dangerous. This level is in hand, and I have it in the middle. If our army enters Guanzhong, it will be supported by the people, and the army will be able to take a short break to threaten Yongbei and Liangzhou, Yang Tong regards the Silk Road as the economic center of gravity, once this economic artery is damaged by our army, the Sui court will inevitably shake up and down, and transfer troops around to support. ”
"If the imperial court can support it at this time and wave the Northern Expedition, we can completely swallow the Sui army of Hanyang, Hanchuan, and Shangluo together! Reconnect Yongliang and Bashu together. ”
The needles in the big tent were suddenly heard, and the generals listened to Hou Junji's battle plan and silently pondered the feasibility of it.
"General Hou's idea is very good."
There was silence in the tent for a moment, and the Yuwen Shi who closed his eyes and thought slowly opened his eyes, as a latecomer in the Jin Dynasty, Yu Wenshi, who was inextricably linked with the Sui Dynasty, and was very good at being a man, he affirmed Hou Junji's strategy.
Hou Junji said modestly: "Thank you Yuwen Yushi for agreeing, please advise on the shortcomings." ”
Li Shimin's family also has a number of small groups, Hou Junji, who is not from a high background, is an outlier under Li Shimin, who has many children in the family, and he is proud and conceited and has a bad temper, relying on the reason why Li Shimin attaches great importance to it, he really offended many people, so that after the Jincheng fiasco, he ended up with no one to speak on his behalf, if it were not for Li Shimin's guarantee, he would have been cut by Li Yuan long ago, which made Hou Junji realize his mistakes, and he learned to be restrained from the beginning, became modest and low-key, and worked hard to make friends with his colleagues. Yuwenshi and his position in the Li Tang Dynasty was not high, but he had a very good relationship with Li Yuan before, Li Yuan was very different from other ministers, and his sister was Yuwen Zhaoyi, who was very loved by Li Yuan, and the stepfamily was the lord of Shouguang County of the Tang Dynasty, so Hou Junji had already had the heart of friendship and put his attitude very humble.
"General Hou, if our army fights according to your ideas, it will completely cut off contact with His Royal Highness the Crown Prince and become a lone army deep into the enemy's territory, but I don't know how you want to attack and how to fight? I'm worried that if I make a bold move, I will end up in the same fate as the Eastern Wei Dynasty in the past. Yu Wenshi and expressed his worries, he was very aware of the danger of Tongguan, and there was also a living example of the halberd sinking under the city of Tongguan, that is-Eastern Wei
In the first year of Tianping of the Eastern Wei Dynasty (534), Gao Huan raised troops from Jinyang to the west, and sent the general Dou Tai to attack Tongguan. Dou Tai really hit the plan, and when he found that Yuwentai's army fell from the sky, he hurriedly formed a formation in the mountains, but before the formation was formed, it was broken by the Western Wei Iron Cavalry, and Dou Tai committed suicide in defeat! It was precisely because Dou Tai's fiasco angered Gao Huan that it indirectly triggered a series of fiascos in the battles of Hongnong, Shayuan, and Yubi in the Eastern Wei Dynasty.
Gao Huan's strength was originally far higher than Yuwentai, and the Eastern Wei army had even crossed the Yellow River, and the Western Wei was in danger at that time, but it was counterattacked by Yuwentai. Gao Huan's series of fiascos also made the Eastern Wei Dynasty lose the opportunity to capture Guanzhong forever...... In the final analysis, the Eastern Wei Dynasty was too aggressive.
Tongguan is notoriously difficult to gnaw, and the Eastern Wei Dynasty, which had an absolute advantage, was still helpless, not to mention the Tang Army, which was at an absolute disadvantage, and Yu Wenshi was not optimistic about Hou Junji's plan.
"Besides, Yang Shanhui is close at hand, and he can detect it as soon as our army moves, and our army has lost the miraculous effect of raiding Tongguan. At that time, let alone capture Tongguan, he was even broken by his tail. ”
"This ......" For a while, Hou Junji had nothing to say.
Seeing that he was speechless, Yu Wenshi couldn't help but sigh, for the time being, he had no better way, in fact, there was one thing he didn't say, and he didn't dare to say: that is, the Sui Dynasty could bear the price of the annihilation of Yang Shanhui and Xue Wanjun's entire army, because the strong national strength made the Sui Dynasty easily make a comeback, and the Tang army not only couldn't afford to lose, but even killed a thousand enemies and lost 800 self-defeating qualifications, this is a gap in national strength, not something that the current Li Tang Dynasty can change.
Yu Wenshi can think of this, why is Li Shimin not like this? In fact, all the generals sitting here knew that the best way to break the situation was to retreat south alternately under the cover of Li Jiancheng, but Li Yuan did not agree to their demands.
In Li Shimin's view, although there are many crises in the country, as long as the army is kept, those dissatisfied voices can only complain in secret. The reason why he asked for reinforcements and proposed to expand the army by 300,000 was just a false shot, his original intention was to make Li Yuan feel the danger of the Tang Dynasty, yes to agree to his demand for withdrawal, and then consolidate the country, bury himself in development, train elite soldiers, and then fight to the death with the Sui Dynasty when the time is ripe, but the result still failed to dispel Li Yuan's luck.
People in the world often say that 'the general is outside, and the king's order is not subject to it', but in fact, the result of the general's daring is death, which has been the case since ancient times.
Outsiders are still like this, and the battle for military power between father and son is an insurmountable gap, and Li Yuan can tolerate his son in any matter, including forming private parties and forming gangs in the court, as long as it does not involve the sensitive nerve of military power, Li Yuan can not be held accountable. Only in terms of military power, Li Yuan will never tolerate it, even the two sons he relies on the most cannot move.
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