In the dead of night, except for the soldiers in charge of vigilance, most of the soldiers of the Beizhen Army fell asleep; Before dawn, waiting for them may be another high-intensity war, and it is simply impossible to not cultivate enough mental and physical strength. Before the Tang army besieged the city, the military attachés at all levels told them even more frankly: After losing Gucheng, the Beizhen Army may fall into the ambush of the Tang army on all sides.

Su Dingfang, Luo Shixin, Dugu Yanyun, Dugu Yanyun, Kan Leng, Da Xi'an and other main generals have not slept yet.

A number of torches inserted in the wall illuminate the entire county hall as bright as day, and a wooden frame in the middle hangs a huge white cloth, which is full of many patterns, including mountains, rivers, cities, and official roads, which is the topographic map of the world.

"After tomorrow, Li Yuan will definitely take revenge on us at all costs, and we will definitely enter an extremely difficult time." Su Dingfang said: "Next, our task is not to kill how many enemies and occupy how many cities, but to protect ourselves. ”

"General." When Dugu Yanyun heard this, he smiled and said: "Li Yuan's army in Jingzhou, in addition to the Xiangyang garrison, is mainly distributed in three places: one is the Hanshui defense line, the second is Yiling County, and the third is outside the city. And after Liu Hongji's fiasco, there is not much left of the defenders of Yincheng, we can take it down, and then notify the imperial army on the other side of the river to cross to the west, even if the other side cannot be contacted for a while, but Li Yuan can only dispatch Zhang Shigui from Junyang County, Xiyang County, we are not afraid of him at all, how can this be hard? ”

"The general doesn't know." Su Dingfang waved his hand and said in a deep voice, "The battle between Sui and Tang will not be fought for the time being. ”

"But why?" When everyone heard this, their faces changed greatly.

They hoped that the Sui army would enter and besiege Xiangyang, forcing Li Yuanji to return to the rescue and save the Yizhou people. But Su Dingfang actually said that the Sui and Tang wars could not be fought, which made everyone a little unacceptable, and they all looked at Su Dingfang and listened to his explanation.

"Calm down, generals, and listen to me." Su Dingfang knew that this was the biggest trouble since he entered Xiang, if it was not handled properly, this group of people would immediately pull the flag and do it alone, even if they continued to obey orders, I am afraid that they would be at odds with each other, "You don't know, the reason why the Holy Lord did not launch the Sui and Tang Dynasty War is because the Great Sui is fighting against the three major forces, and any battlefield is quite critical. ”

"Please make it clear, General." Dugu Yanyun and the others' expressions eased slightly.

"The first place is the Jiangnan battlefield, where Zhang Zhenzhou and General Qin Qiong led an army of 100,000 to confront the combined forces of Meng Haigong and Feng Ang in the area of Dongyang County, and the number of enemy troops was as high as about 300,000."

"Isn't there only two counties in Meng Haigong? Where did they get so many troops? Dugu Yanyun is also usually paying attention to the world's major events, and he also knows more about the major forces.

"Meng Haigong does only have two counties, but Feng Ang has 19 counties in Jiaozhou, these places have not had a major upheaval since the confrontation between the north and the south, after nearly 100 years of governance by the Feng family, it is not an exaggeration to say that the country is peaceful and peaceful, and the people of Jiaozhou only recognize the fact that Feng does not recognize the imperial court, which has a long history. It is not an exaggeration to be able to pull out hundreds of thousands of troops. By the way, the food and armament of the coalition soldiers were all supplied by Feng An. ”

Speaking of this, Su Dingfang picked up the wooden stick and pointed at the four counties of Yuanling, Lingling, Guiyang, and Nankang in turn, and then said: "The imperial court does not have many troops in these four counties, and the south is Shi'an, Xiping, Nanhai, Longchuan and Yi'an controlled by Feng An, these five counties are all heavily armed, if the combined army of Meng Haigong and Feng Ang wins, they will definitely win a great victory, wave their troops to the north, and the south of Jingzhou and Yangzhou, which are empty of troops, will fall." The war of the imperial court for nearly a year will be in vain, so the Jingzhou army in charge of Li Jing, the secretary of the military department, is ready to fight south at any time, and once he leaves, then Yang Shanhui, the right servant in the direction of Nanyang, will divide his troops and send a force to Nanjun to defend against the Yiling Tang army. The Tang army in Chungling was as high as 120,000, and the remaining troops in Nanyang could only be in a state of self-preservation. ”

"The second place is that the Great Sui Navy fought against the Wa State in the sea, and you also know that when Emperor Wen conquered Goguryeo, General Wang Shiji encountered wind and waves and ended up annihilating the whole army, so the biggest enemy is the changeable sea wind and waves, which requires a force to prevent accidents. The third place is the northwest direction, Li Yuan has now formed an alliance with the southwestern power Tubo, and the Tubo army is about to open the two counties of Xihai and Heyuan. ”

"In order to prevent the war from poisoning the existing territory of the Great Sui again, and to prevent all the troops from falling into the battlefield, resulting in no available soldiers, the imperial court will not launch a war between the Sui and Tang dynasties for the time being, but with Li Yuanxu and the snake."

Seeing that Dugu Yanyun had signs of speaking, Su Dingfang continued without a trace: "I understand the revenge of the generals very well, but the state is like this, please also understand the hardships and difficulties of the imperial court, but you can rest assured, my Great Sui Dynasty will definitely destroy the puppet Tang Dynasty this year and next year." ”

Ninety percent of Su Dingfang's words are true, and the false one percent is that after others listen to his words, they will subconsciously think that Meng Haigong, Feng An, and Wa Guo are very strong, and subconsciously think that the court is right to seek stability. If he didn't know what the 'three major forces' were, Luo Shixin would have almost believed Su Dingfang's nonsense.

Dugu Yanyun also put out the fire, and he couldn't say anything anymore, because the war was changing rapidly, and no one dared to guarantee that he would win every battle, and he had to think about the bad side of everything, so the decision of the imperial court to temporarily make a truce with Li Yuan was not only correct, but the wisest decision.

The others also understood this truth, and they were silent one by one, and the slightest complaints disappeared at once, and the rest were all worries about the Yizhou people.

"Generals, if you don't understand something, it's okay to say it." Su Dingfang said with a pleasant face.

"General......" Dugu Yanyun sighed, and said bitterly: "The decision of the imperial court is naturally right, and the last general has nothing to say, but we still have one of these clansmen in Yizhou, and I am afraid that it will be difficult to escape Li Yuanji's poisonous hands." ”

"In this way, the generals are worried about the people, and it is understandable......" Su Dingfang suddenly realized, thought about it, and said: "But you don't have to worry too much. ”

"Oh?" When everyone heard this, they all looked at Su Dingfang in surprise, and when they heard what he meant, it seemed that there was still a turning point.

"Although the meticulous work of the imperial court in Yizhou cannot be said to be pervasive, there seem to be a lot of people. You can write out the names and addresses of the clansmen one by one, and I will try to hand them over to the imperial court, and then ask the army to try to rescue them, but it's just ......" Su Dingfang smiled bitterly: "It's just that if you come and go, it will definitely delay a lot of time." I'm afraid I won't be able to save many people......"

Dugu Yanyun arched his hand and said: "The so-called life and death are fate, and wealth is in the sky." If the court is willing to help, we are already grateful, and as for how many people have been saved, we can only resign ourselves to fate. ”

Everyone echoed one after another, in fact, they also knew that the Yizhou people were fish and meat on the board, even if the Great Sui soldiers Xiangyang successfully transferred Li Yuanji back, the Tang army in Yizhou could attack their clansmen at the same time. It's just that when things haven't happened yet, after all, they have a certain illusion, and if the court does not hesitate to expose Yizhou to save people, it will be a great kindness.

Su Dingfang finally breathed a sigh of relief and turned the topic to the beginning, "Li Yuan exchanged the five counties of Jingbei for the truce agreement of the Sui and Tang Dynasties, that is to say, my Great Sui can recover the five counties of Jingbei without spending a single soldier, of course, our own place cannot be harmed, our next task is to protect ourselves, and then enter Badong from Fangling, and cut off Li Yuan's way to move the capital into Shu in the name of the Beizhen Army." ”

Dugu Qingyun hesitated: "Does the general know Xu Shao?" ”

"The son of the late Baling County Shou Xu Faguang?" Su Dingfang asked uncertainly.

"Xu Shao is the son of the late Baling County Shou Xu Faguang." Dugu Qingyun nodded and said: "Xu Shao was canonized by the first emperor as the commander of Yiling County, when Li Xiaogong was ordered to attack Yiling, he was blocked by Xu Shao in Yiling, and he was not allowed to enter the army for a long time, Li Yuan secretly bought Zhang Junyi of Yiling County, and ordered him to kill Xu Shao, Xu Zhiren only Xu Shao's second son Xu Zhiren escaped, Xu Zhiren is now the commander of Yun'an County, Badong, and the last general has had several fates, maybe he can surrender him." ”

Su Dingfang nodded and said: "It's too early to say this, if you really get to Badong, the general must remind you." ”

"The last will understand." Dugu Qingyun said.

Dugu Yanyun asked, "General, will General Cheng and General Gao be recognized?" ”

"The two of them will definitely not make a mistake!" For Cheng Yanjin and Gao Yan's ability, Su Dingfang still trusts him very much.

"If it is discovered, Li Shimin is very likely to give up the tactic of encircling three ques and one, and instead encircle on all sides, and it will be very difficult for our army to break through again." Hearing that the Sui and Tang Dynasty wars could not be fought for the time being, Dugu Yanyun knew that the Beizhen Army was still isolated and helpless, so he was inevitably a little worried.

"They will never let me down. If Li Shimin had seen through the flood plan and caused the flood to be delayed, it would not be too late for us to break through from the West Gate, and the sky would not have been clear at that time, and Li Shimin would not dare to let go of his hands and feet to pursue. Having said that, Su Dingfang didn't think that Li Shimin had discovered Cheng Yanjin and Gao Yan. Maybe he would be wary, but Li Shimin couldn't have thought that they would release water twenty miles away!

But what Su Dingfang didn't know was that Cheng Yanjin and Gao Yan were in trouble, and it was a huge trouble!

Damming a cofferdam and digging an embankment may sound easy, but in practice, it's not at all easy.

First of all, Zhushui and Beihe are not like the Yellow River that flows eastward, they have no real meaning of the embankment, the whole river channel is formed by natural erosion, if you want to set up a dam to store water, you have to find a river valley surrounded by two mountains, otherwise, the river will flow to both sides, and the water will not be enough to form a flood peak, and it will not threaten the valley city twenty miles away at all.

Secondly, digging the embankment is equivalent to digging the mountain on the side of the embankment, there is no explosives to open the mountain in this era, it is all excavated by manpower, and there is a time limit, so when it comes to the excavation, the second general and the soldiers under his command are all dumbfounded, but they can't help it, what should I do?

Naturally, it is to find the weakest point.

Fortunately, during the daytime battle, more than 2,000 war horses were captured, so that the two generals each had more than 2,000 men.

Compared with Gao Yan, a young man, Cheng Yanjin is not only thick and fine, flexible in mind, but also good at opportunism, when he chose the place to build the dam, he has already realized that he wants to dig the mountain, and the selected dam site is the weakest place in the mountain, and after he built the embankment, he took more than 2,000 soldiers to start work collectively, and it took most of the night to finally open a small opening on the south bank of the water. They were stuck on both sides of the gap, and no matter how the flood washed away, the big rock remained unmoved. If these two big stones are not broken, with only such a small amount of water, even if it is poured back for two years, it will not be able to threaten Gucheng, which is twenty miles away. It's too late to dig again, and the only way is to knock out a boulder.

But the problem is that the small stone, which is bigger than the house, may not be able to break it even in a month if it is smashed with an iron hammer and a hammer in his hand, but now it is less than midnight before the appointed time.

At a critical juncture, his hobby of reading miscellaneous books and biographies helped Cheng bite the gold, and he remembered that when Li Bing and his son repaired Dujiangyan, in order to speed up the progress and reduce the waste of people's and material resources, the father and son calcined the rock, and then quenched it with cold water to burst and fall off, and then peeled it off.

So he copied the method of Li Bing and his son, first emptied the soil on a stone to the end, and then set up dry firewood behind the stone root to burn, and then poured cold water on the stone when it burned red, so that the stone was as brittle as mud, and then used an iron drill and hammer to knock down a thick layer soon. After repeating this many times, the foundation of the stone was cut off in half, and the stone became smaller and smaller, and gradually it could not bear the force of the flood, and when it rumbled down the hillside, the surging flood rushed down like a wild horse!

Losing the confinement of the stone, the surging flood completely lost its limit, and the gap soon expanded from less than two zhang to more than 40 zhang, and the turbid water formed a huge flood peak, roaring down to the low place, and this area soon became a vast ocean.

Gao Yan was miserable, after all, he was a young man, and he didn't have as many bends as Cheng Biting Jin, and after building the embankment, he let the soldiers sleep in batches. It wasn't until the excavation that I realized the problem. But he didn't know the deeds of Li Bing's father and son, and second, he didn't dig before with a hoe, and only when he started did he realize how difficult it was to dig a mountain? At the critical moment, his ancestor Gao Changgong, the king of Lanling, helped him.

Gao Yan grew up listening to the story of Gao Changgong, the king of Lanling, and admired it very much, and when he grew up, he not only learned about Gao Changgong's deeds, but also loved the house and the house to familiarize himself with the war information of the Northern Qi Dynasty. At that time, Wei Xiaokuan was ordered to stick to the jade wall, and Gao Huan's army was outnumbered, piling up earth mountains step by step outside the jade city, trying to attack the jade wall condescendingly, but Wei Xiaokuan replaced the soil with wood and set up a height in the city beyond the enemy's earth mountain, so that Gao Huan's earth mountain plan failed. From this battle, Gao Yan was inspired to find a place downstream where the mountains in the north were towering and the south was low and earthy, and then to build a stronger embankment, and then dig a ravine on the south bank, and then break the first embankment, and the rolling flood met the second embankment, and of course flooded to the low side, and the mighty flood washed the earth gully bigger and bigger, and flooded the lower part of the country as he wished.