The entire river has become a sea of fire, and the Sui soldiers on the north bank of the raging north bank let out bursts of cheers from time to time, and each cheer is one or several large ships sinking to the bottom of the river.

Even though Shen Guang wanted to kill the other side, there were too few troops and the fire was too big, so he could only look at the "foreign" and sigh.

"It seems that the wingmen will not be able to make it. We must retreat, withdraw to Meishan Taihe Village, and rely on the danger of Mount Emei to eliminate the vitality of the Tang army. Shen Guang said to Zhang Sheng beside him: "Prepare to evacuate." ”

At this time, Zhang Sheng, who was also reluctant, suddenly shouted excitedly: "General, look, the Tang army camp is burning, it is really burning." ”

Shen Guang was stunned for a moment, looked at the other side again, and saw that the Tang army camp was really in flames, and the fire was several miles wide, and it began to spread as a spark.

The Tang Army barracks were indeed burned down by someone at this time.

The night wind was strong, and the tents were quickly engulfed by tongues of fire, and many soldiers were swallowed up by billowing smoke and flames before they could reach the fire, and there were fire men screaming and running everywhere, but they didn't run far before they rolled on the ground in pain, and their corpses were curled up by the fire.

Although the Tang soldiers watched the fire for nearly an hour, the fire in the river could not burn the river and could not burn ashore, but the fire in the barracks directly threatened the lives of the Tang soldiers.

The large camp on the south bank was unified by Ma Sanbao, the general of Zuo Xiaowei, who rode back and forth on war horses, commanded the soldiers to dismantle the camp tents, and planned to set up a fire line to isolate the raging fire, and at the same time, to separate soldiers and wingmen to fight.

Ma Sanbao shouted loudly: "Don't mess up, line up for defense!" ”

"Look, General!" A soldier pointed to the sky and shouted:

As soon as Ma Sanbao raised his head, he saw that the roofs of several burning tents were blown to the sky by the strong wind, and floated towards this side, and hurriedly ordered left and right: "Keep an eye on these fires, and don't let them fall into the camp." ”

But there are too many tents floating in the sky, and they are floating in the sky, how can the people below stop them?

Several burning tents fluttered, and finally landed weakly in the dense tent area, and the big tent behind Ma Sanbao burned rapidly, and he was furious, "There is another fire line." ”

At this moment, a cavalryman galloped up and shouted to Ma Sanbao: "General, the Holy Lord orders you to abandon the military camp and retreat to Hejiang County!" ”

"Pass the order down, and the whole army will withdraw to Hejiang County." Ma Sanbao glanced at the rapidly burning camp, and couldn't help but sigh, taking advantage of the fact that the enemy army has not yet attacked on a large scale and the fire has not yet raged the whole battalion, it is indeed the best policy to preserve the vitality of the army, as for how many people arrived safely, only God knows.

......After receiving the order to withdraw, they rushed along the bright river bank to the western county town of Hejiang, and the flames that swept over from time to time made them push each other, and some people who were unfortunately squeezed into the river let out hoarse screams, and what was even more tragic was that the soldiers who tripped and fell directly became the stepping stones of many robes and were trampled into mud.

Bumped and stumbled out of a mile away, the wingmen who had already withdrawn from the fire stabbed out obliquely, wielding knives to kill in the enemy group, where the knife light passed, the Tang soldiers were full of corpses, and they cut off the Tang army's escape route.

Ma Sanbao saw that the road was cut off, and there were wingmen chasing and killing behind him, and the rout army that was running was about to impact his rear army, and immediately calmly shouted: "Soldiers, only by killing the enemy in front can you live, otherwise you will die." ”

In order to survive, the soldiers of the Tang Army fought bravely one by one, desperately breaking through the siege, and the two sides fought fiercely outside the camp. Heads were rolling, dead bodies were piling up, and the air was filled with the pungent smell of blood

At this time, the Wuya fleet in the middle and upper reaches had all sunk to the bottom of the river, which also made Shen Guang's way southward unimpeded, and he and his soldiers used more than 30 warships to cross the Yangtze River, and after landing on the river bank, they outflanked the Tang army from the north.

The soldiers of the two armies fought to the death, and the melee lasted until dawn, and the battle was extremely tragic, and the dead bodies piled up on the flat ground along the entire river, like a forest and a hell.

Although the Tang soldiers were numerous and the soldiers used their lives, after Shen Guang arrived, he unified the command of the Sui army and the wingmen to fight, giving way to the Tang soldiers to escape, and the fierce encounter also turned into a pursuit battle, which greatly reduced the casualties of the Sui army and the wingmen, and less than half of the 50,000 Tang troops on land escaped; Of the soldiers who were lost, more than 10,000 were killed and burned to death, trampling on each other, and the rest became deserters.

More than 10,000 soldiers and sailors, more than 20,000 sailors, and some officials and family members who had no time to escape were either burned to death or drowned in the river, and thousands of officials and their families became prisoners. Among them, there are Li Yuan's favorite concubine Zhang Jieyu, as well as Li Yuan's young children.

。。。。。

Li Yuan fled to Hejiang County, only to know that it was the tribe of wingmen who ambushed him, and their number was not large, so he wanted to return to the division to fight, but he was dissuaded by Liu Wenjing, Pei Lian, Xiao Yu, Dou Lukuan and others.

Although there are still more than 40,000 of their soldiers in total, several Xiangguo agree that the soldiers of the Tang Army are not good at mountain warfare, and even if they send troops, the other party only needs to hide in the mountains, and even if the Tang Army has a million troops, they will not be able to help them, and even if they win in the end, they will suffer heavy losses. The key point is that the barracks and the fleet were completely destroyed by the fire, and the morale of the whole army was fluctuating and turbulent, and if they were forced to go out of the city to fight, I am afraid that many soldiers would become deserters before they arrived at the battlefield. The top priority at the moment is to preserve the strength and stabilize the morale of the military.

Li Yuan did not insist on going his own way, listened to everyone's opinions, and asked Ma Sanbao to build a defensive line outside the city, which was used as horns with the city to prevent the bureaucrats from attacking, and at the same time sent scouts to investigate the situation of the enemy army and relatives.

After the arrangements were made, Li Yuan walked up to the east city tower of Hejiang River, silently looking at the water of the Yangtze River flowing eastward, and his mood was very heavy.

In this sneak attack, he lost not only soldiers, but also more than a million stone of grain, as well as countless treasures of money.

The key is that the more than 200 Wuya ships that were burned down were the only large warships owned by the Li Tang Dynasty, and their destruction also meant that the Li Tang Dynasty lost control of the Yangtze River.

"Holy Lord, there was no warning of last night's events, and no one could have expected them. Since the incident has happened, please also ask the Holy Lord to focus on the dragon body and not worry too much. ”

Shaped like a withered, languishing Liu Wenjing slowly walked up, he had a serious illness on the way, has not yet recovered, last night almost lost his life on the river, he sighed, continued to comfort: "We have been here for a long time under the scorching sun, we are already sleepy and tired, plus Luchuan County is the heart of my Tang Dynasty, the soldiers will inevitably slack." What's more, it was attacked by them again, and it was reasonable to fail. ”

"In my life, I have been brilliant and experienced countless fiascos, but I can still bear this blow. As long as I am alive, I will definitely not let the Tang Dynasty die. Li Yuan, whose voice was hoarse, showed a hint of an ugly smile, but persuaded him: "Zhaoren's body has not recovered yet, so don't think about anything now, just take care of your illness." I still want you to come up with a plan to sweep the world. ”

Liu Wenjing showed a smile of relief, as a minister, he is not afraid of the mediocrity and incompetence of the king, but is afraid of the lack of indomitable warriors and a calm heart. Therefore, when his own forces are facing a predicament, no matter how afraid the monarch is, he must pretend that Mount Tai has collapsed in front of him and his color remains unchanged.

After being silent for a while, Li Yuan asked, "Zhaoren, what do you say we should do now?" ”

"The first is to send envoys and wingmen to negotiate and redeem the princes, princesses, officials, and officials' families who have fallen into the enemy, so as to reassure the people...... If it is too late, Weichen is worried that these people will be killed, and when the time comes, the officials of my Datang will definitely deviate from morality. Liu Wenjing said.

"It seems that he is going to be slaughtered by the bureaucrats," Li Yuan sighed and asked again, "What else?" ”

"There is also a need to find out the reason for the attack on the saint...... Liu Wenjing said: "Yizhou has been in the hands of my Tang Dynasty for several years, although there were bureaucrats in the past, but most of them were caused by civil disputes...... But this time is completely different from the past, they are preparing for the holy order. ”

Awakening the person in the dream with a word, Li Yuan finally understood the key to the problem, stared at Liu Wenjing tightly, and asked, "Zhaoren, what do you think?" Could it be that Yang Tong is playing ghosts? ”

"Unlike the Turks and other northern alien races, they have no ambition to plot the Central Plains, and even worship the Han culture very much; What they want is nothing more than to get out of the treacherous mountains and forests, have fertile land and peaceful days, and then be on an equal footing with us Han people. And what they need, Yang Tong can just give. The speculation of the saint that Wechen thinks is very likely. Liu Wenjing nodded approvingly: "But this is just our guess, not enough evidence." It is better to send an envoy first, firstly to discuss the ransom of the captives, and secondly, to ask the truth by the way, only when there are traces to follow, can we make a correct judgment. ”

Thinking of the terrifying Yang Tong and his own situation, Li Yuan couldn't calm down a little, nodded and said, "Since that's the case, let Xiao Xiangguo run." ”