Although Li Xiaogong was nailed to death by Qin Qiong in Yangzhai County and couldn't move, he had an army of 40,000, plus the young and strong people in the city, if Qin Qiong came to attack, he thought that only 20,000 elites could hold out for a few months.

He originally planned to send 20,000 soldiers to Li Daozong in Yique Pass, so that he could cooperate with Li Shimin to contain Yang Tong in Yanshi, so that Li Shimin could attack Luoyang with his hands and feet, if the war went well, the two could annihilate Yang Dong's department, and then Li Shimin could attack Qin Qiong from Yangcheng County and rescue himself, if everything was victorious, he could take the whole county of Xingyang, even if Yang Tong fled back to Hebei, it didn't matter, but as long as he occupied Henan County and Xingyang, the eastern Central Plains would be Li Tang's, and Li Tang's pattern would suddenly open up.

It's just that he hasn't acted yet, and the news that Li Daozong and Wang Junkuo were defeated and captured, 40,000 troops, just gone, and even more fatal is the loss of Yique Pass, which made Li Xiaogong fall into a very unfavorable situation, which is not only a dangerous pass to defend the Tang army in Xiangcheng, but also the forward position of the Sui army to march into Xiangcheng, as long as Luo Shixin takes Luyang Pass again, he will immediately become a turtle in the urn.

While annoyed by Wang Junkuo's incompetence, he was also amazed at the strength of the imperial army.

If Wang Junkuo talks about bravery, he is naturally not as good as Li Yuanji, who is known as the first general of Li Tang, but if he talks about commanding the army, under Li Shimin, he can also be ranked first.

But just such a general and 10,000 elite horsemen, he didn't even see the corner of Yique Pass, and he was wiped out by the Sui army, and there was not even a scum left, not only that, but he also pulled Li Daozong into the water, and then put himself in a dilemma, which had to make Li Xiaogong shocked and annoyed.

Before the battle of the Sui and Tang dynasties officially began, the 40,000-strong army was wiped out, and if the battle continued like this, no matter how many soldiers and horses Li Tang had, it would not be enough for people to cut down.

On Yangzhai City, Li Xiaogong looked at the Yingshui River with complicated eyes, affected by the war, the river was empty, there were no fishing boats, only a few Sui Dynasty sentinel boats monitoring the Tang army, he knew that his every move was under the monitoring of the Sui army.

Behind Li Xiaogong stood more than a dozen generals, and they could all feel the heavy mood of the coach.

The situation is indeed not optimistic, there is Qin Qiong in front, and Luo Shixin in the back is ready to go out of Yique Pass at any time to cut off their retreat, if the two send troops at the same time, they will definitely fall into the encirclement of the Sui army and be completely annihilated, it can be said that there are tigers in front and wolves in the back, so that they are in a dilemma.

At this time, the marching Sima Wushi Tong stepped forward and persuaded: "Your Highness, Yique Pass has been lost, Yang Zhai is already in the salient part, if Luo Shixin cooperates with Qin Qiong and attacks from behind, our army will have no way to advance or retreat, for today's plan, we can only take advantage of the Sui army to move, abandon Yang Zhai, retreat to Runan, and jump out of the encirclement of the enemy." ”

Li Xiaogong sighed, nodded, and instructed the dozen or so generals around him: "Without further ado, prepare to evacuate!" ”

In less than half an hour, the assembled Tang Army quickly advanced westward.

The army marched at a rapid pace, and the warrior Tong slowed down his horse and walked side by side with Li Xiaogong, and he asked, "Does Your Highness know the intention of the King of Huai'an?" ”

Li Xiaogong smiled bitterly: "This should be that the Holy Lord wants to strengthen our strength and intends to attack the Eastern Central Plains. If all the 80,000 troops had been handed over to me earlier, or to the people of the world, the result would not have been so passive. Do you want to leave now and collect our bodies? ”

Wu Shi Tong was startled, and said in a low voice: "Actually, the saint is also very helpless, the Sui army is too strong now, bordering my Tang Dynasty everywhere, and the political hall seriously underestimated the Sui Dynasty's heart to go south before." ”

"Political Affairs?" Li Xiaogong scoffed, shook his head, and said nothing more.

The political hall is composed of six phases of Li Tang, and Li Tang's major decisions are all made by Li Yuanhe and the political hall before promulgating the world, if it is just government affairs, but the political hall will also intervene in the military.

As a result, all the front-line generals, including Li Shimin, only have the right to deploy military forces, but not the right to make strategic decisions. However, all major strategic decisions must be reported to Li Yuan, and after Li Yuan and several ministers who stayed in Xiangyang discussed the results, they would then give back to the front line and be carried out by the front-line generals. Li Xiaogong and other generals hated this kind of old and rigid nature, but even Li Shimin couldn't help it, just because all this stemmed from Li Yuan's desire to control military power, and whoever opposed it would touch Li Yuan's sensitive nerves, so everyone only looked at it in their eyes and was anxious in their hearts.

At this point, the Great Sui is quite flexible, Yang Tong gave the former army generals a very wide authority, he only needs one result, as for how the front-line generals fight, when to fight without interference, the generals of all parties can quickly make some decisions that are beneficial to the entire war situation according to the changes in the situation. Yang Tong will keenly make adjustments from himself according to the changes in the front line, rather than asking the front-line generals to follow his train of thought, and under this line of thinking, the generals of all parties will automatically adjust and cooperate.

Wu Shi Tong understood what Li Xiaogong meant, and he was also extremely helpless. With their current situation, Li Xiaogong gave up half of the county in order to preserve his strength, which was actually the wisest decision, but if he really wanted to investigate it, Li Tang acted without authorization, and after the war, regardless of victory or defeat, he was interrogated by Li Yuan and several Xiangguo.

At this time, Li Xiaogong suddenly said: "I feel that we have fallen into Yang Dong's big trap. ”

"What big trap?" Samurai Tong was surprised.

Li Xiaogong thought about it for a while, and from Li Shentong's reinforcements, his thinking became clearer and clearer, and he said with a wry smile: "Yang Tong's southward movement this time can be described as interlocking, he not only wants to destroy Wang Shichong, but we are also his target, but unfortunately we didn't understand it before, so we became his vanguard to eliminate Wang Shichong." If we lose Wang Shichong's buffer, it means that we will become Yang Tong's next target..."

"The reason why Yang Tong has trucened for more than a year is not only to consolidate the foundation, but also to be too strong, so that the major forces in the south form an alliance against him. In addition, he didn't want to fight us in the difficult mountains and rivers of Bashu, so he induced my Tang Dynasty to attack Luoyang, devour Li Tang's elite forces with Wang Shichong's strength, and then use strong cavalry to drain our army in the open Central Plains. In the end, he ended up in the end of the country. ”

The samurai was shocked and said, "Then what should we do now?" ”

Li Xiaogong resolutely said: "We will not do anything, we will withdraw directly from Xiangcheng and deploy defenses outside Luyang Pass." At the same time, I asked him to quickly let the people of the world withdraw their troops, as long as there are still hundreds of thousands of troops, we still have hope. ”

After speaking, Li Xiaogong dismounted and wrote down his analysis, in duplicate, and sent them to Xiangyang and Luoyang respectively.

In the afternoon, the whole army had already rushed to the area of Daliu Mountain, which was less than 100 miles away from Runan County, and should be able to arrive before sunset.

On horseback, Li Xiaogong thought about how to go to Li Tang in the future, he thought that today's Great Sui Dynasty is not the Great Sui Dynasty, and it is definitely not a Li Tang that can be opposed, and it must unite all the princes, let everyone put aside their prejudices, and condense the strength of the south to fight with it, otherwise, everyone will be killed by the Great Sui one by one.

"Your Highness, look!" Just as Li Xiaogong was wandering outside the world, a lieutenant general suddenly pointed ahead.

"Huh?"

Li Xiaogong looked up and saw that the wilderness in front of him was full of dust, and countless black dots converged into a black line, which gradually became clear in his field of vision.

Enemy troops?

Li Xiaogong raised the horse lance in his hand and signaled the army to stop advancing, and the scout in front of him returned quickly, with a panicked look on his face.

"Your Highness, it's a rout, it's our rout, and the county has lost Chengxiu County!" The scout didn't bother to dismount, and roared on horseback from a distance.

"What?" Li Xiaogong's body shook, the horse lance in his hand was almost unable to hold it, and he repeated sharply: "Chengxiu is lost? ”

"Yes." The scout said bitterly: "The pursuers are behind, it seems to be the cavalry led by Luo Shixin!" ”

"Rubbish!" Li Xiaogong roared angrily: "Three arms war! ”

"Whoa!" Several generals responded to the order, quickly commanded the soldiers and horses to set up the formation, Li Xiaogong's department is an elite division that fights all year round, plus Li Xiaogong, the first general of the clan, is in charge, whether it is morale or military appearance, it is quite outstanding, but a moment of effort, the army is in formation, and the battle is ready for the attacking enemy.

"General, it's Li Xiaogong's troops!" On the other side, Luo Shixin unhurriedly led his troops and horses behind the Tang army, driving like sheep, from time to time a round of whips, or rushing up to climb a wave, after he got the order, he entered Xiangcheng County from Yique Pass.

"Lee Hyo-gong? It's not slow! When Luo Shixin heard this, he couldn't help but snort coldly, he looked at the Tang army in front of him who was running wildly, a flash of light suddenly flashed in his eyes, and he turned his head and said: "Gather forces and drive these routs to the opponent's army formation!" ”

He wants to use these routs to attack Li Xiaogong's army formation, if it can work, it will naturally be the best, if not, he can only attack.

"Whoa!" The general went to give the order.

Soon, Luo Shixin's army formation gradually opened, it was originally a cone-shaped formation, but now the Chinese army is gradually slowing down, but the two wings are beginning to rush forward, how can the Tang army, which is running wildly, experience these changes, but like a fly without a head, with the drive of the Sui army, it began to move closer to the middle.

On the opposite side, Li Xiaogong looked at the robe Ze who was driven by the enemy, gradually converging into a single force, and rushing towards this side, secretly scolded Luo Shixin for being shameless and treacherous, and turned his head to the deputy general and said: "Beat the flag and let the defeated army retreat from both sides." ”

"Whoa!"

Several flag officers kept waving the flag, but the commander of the rout army had already been hacked to death, who would pay attention to any flag language, just run wildly.

A flash of anger flashed in Li Xiaogong's eyes, and he shouted: "Bow and arrow ready!" ”

"Crunch~"

In a series of muffled sounds, under the protection of spearmen and sword and shield bearers, rows of archers drew their bows and arrows to a full circle, and under the command of Li Xiaogong, they locked on the target about fifty paces in front of the formation.

"General, that's our people!" One lieutenant couldn't bear to say.

Li Xiaogong just glanced at him coldly: "Beat the flag again!" ”

Several flag officers quickly waved the flag in their hands, but with little effect, some people began to subconsciously run to both sides, but more people did not believe that Li Xiaogong, who loved soldiers like a son, would do something to them, and still turned a deaf ear and ran wildly.

A cold glint flashed in Li Xiaogong's eyes, and he said fiercely: "Release the arrow!" ”

"Hum~"

The bowstring sounded, and a rain of arrows rose into the air, falling in front of the overwhelming Korean army.

"Puff puff~"

Blood flowers splashed on the battlefield, and the terrible screams turned into a human purgatory in front of the battle, these routs did not expect that they did not die under the enemy's horses' hooves, but died under the arrows of their own people, and this rain of arrows also made these routs who were running wildly wake up, and they were under the threat of death, and the people who did not die rushed towards both sides of the army formation.

"Stop!" Seeing that he was approaching the place where Li Xiaogong's army was an arrow away, Luo Shixin raised the Hundred Refining Cold Spear, and the cavalry began to slow down, stopping the charge before they were about to reach the land of one arrow.

"Something bold!" Luo Shixin circled back and forth in front of the battle, looking at the Tang army who was waiting for the battle, a trace of regret flashed in his eyes, Li Xiaogong's decisiveness saved their fate of defeat, otherwise even if it was an elite, once the formation was crushed by the rout, there was no way but to flee, and when the time came, they could continue to pursue it with all their might, until this elite was completely defeated.

The only way for infantry to face cavalry in the wilderness is to form a dense formation and use the military formation to resist the onslaught of cavalry, once the army is in chaos, no matter how elite the infantry is, it is only the prey of the cavalry.

Luo Shixin also knew that if his army attacked strongly, there would be great casualties, but it was absolutely impossible for him to give up like this.

After thinking about it, he stepped forward and laughed loudly: "Li Xiaogong, dare to fight with me?" ”

"General Luo, forgive me!" Li Xiaogong said loudly: "When two armies are fighting, how can they win or lose based on their personal bravery? This will not be acceptable. If General Luo wanted to fight, he could lead his army to attack, and he would definitely accompany him to the end. ”

Luo Shixin was not angry, and said with a smile: "The attack must be attacked, but not now." ”

Li Xiaogong was puzzled, but Luo Shixin's bad behavior made him angry.

Seeing that Luo Shixin's rear army had withdrawn a mile away, he dismounted and rested, while he himself led 5,000 knights to confront him, and sent two cavalry teams of 2,000 men to circle around his army, pumping cold and firing arrows.

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