Soon, Li Yuan held a military and political meeting in the side hall of Wude Palace, which was attended by the crown prince Li Jiancheng, Li Shimin, the king of Jin, Li Yuanji, the king of Qi, Xiangguo, the generals, the ministers of Shangshu, and the internal history of the servant Feng Deyi and others.

In the hall, there is a faint sandalwood, everyone sits on both sides, each has a couch, everyone straightens their waists, and their expressions are solemn.

"Ladies and gentlemen, so far, I don't hide it, I really settle accounts with you, what accounts? The number of Sui troops. I will count them one by one from west to east now, so that everyone can have a mental preparation, and at the same time, let everyone know the heart of the Tang Dynasty. ”

Li Yuan, who was sitting high on the jade step dragon couch, said slowly to everyone: "The Violent Sui has hundreds of thousands of soldiers on the border of my Tang Dynasty, and there are three legions in the northwest direction, first of all, the tenth army of the Sui army in Lintao County, with 40,000 people, and the commander is Xue Wanche; followed by the Ninth Army of Hanyang, with 40,000 people, and the commander was Wang Fubao; Third, it is the Seventh Army of Hanchuan, with 60,000 people, and the commander is Wei Chigong. Guanzhong Jingzhao and Shangluo in the north are mainly county soldiers, and they are all sixty or seventy thousand. In Xiyang and Nanyang are Xue Wanjun's Seventh Army, Yang Shanhui's Fifth Army, and Qin Qiong's Second Army, which are the main battle armies of the Tyrannical Sui, with a full complement of 60,000 troops, not counting slave soldiers, at least 380,000 people. Not to mention other estimates, in the direction of Jingxiang alone, there are three major legions, with a number of up to 200,000, and the pressure here is undoubtedly the greatest. ”

Everyone knew in advance what they were going to discuss, and in fact they all knew that the next step was to attack Jingxiang, but when Li Yuan said the sensational numbers, they couldn't help but feel afraid.

"The enemy in front is huge, I can't find a good chance to win, so I quickly retreated to Xiangyang, if the confrontation in Nanyang for a long time, then the Sui army will attack the heart of the Tang Dynasty with empty troops from other places, so I must bring this army back to Xiangyang in its entirety, to deal with the possible enemy army, only to ensure their own safety, can we say anything else, otherwise, the enemy army will drive straight into and destroy my Tang Guozuo."

Some people listened and nodded silently! In order to preserve the strength of life, Li Yuan decisively withdrew his troops, which is understandable.

Li Yuan, who sat at the top, couldn't help but smile with satisfaction when he saw that everyone showed understanding, he counted the numbers of the Sui army, although there was a suspicion of increasing the enemy's might, but this was an ironclad fact, and he would say it when he talked about military deployment, so he simply took the lead in taking advantage of the vastness of the Sui army to whitewash his move to retreat without a fight, "Now at the juncture of national crisis, everyone can speak freely!" Whatever I say, I don't care about anything. ”

Li Yuan learned wisely this time, and he didn't rush to say the three strategies set by Li Shimin, nor did he tell any of the courtiers in advance, but was ready to see what everyone meant.

Seeing that no one spoke for a long time, Xiangguo Xiao Yu walked towards and said: "Holy Lord, let the ministers throw bricks and lead the jade." ”

"Xiao Xiangguo, please speak." Li Yuan's eyes were full of encouragement.

"Thank you!" Xiao Yu bowed, and then said: "Li Mi also sent an envoy to the Tang Dynasty not long ago, Chen said that the lips are dead and the teeth are cold, and he hopes that the two families will join hands to fight against the Tyrannical Sui, Weichen thinks that the Tyrannical Sui is powerful, and it is not an enemy, so he can unite with Li Mi." If the Sui army comes to attack, let him contain a certain number of troops for my Datang, and in the same way, if it is a violent Sui attack on Wei, my Datang will also raise troops to respond. ”

"Minister, seconded"

"Admiral, second."

Everyone supported it.

Li Yuan nodded and said, "Li Mi is a smart man, and he knows that the next step in watching the defeat of the Tang Dynasty is him." The Ministry of Rites immediately sent someone to contact Li Mi! ”

"Whoa."

"Wait!" I saw another prime minister, Liu Wenjing, standing up.

"Liu Xiangguo, what's wrong?" Li Yuan asked curiously.

"Shengshang, after the violent Sui went south, the momentum of development is shocking. Weichen felt that just one Li Mi was not enough. Liu Wenjing said solemnly.

Li Yuan asked: "Xiao Mo and Du Fuwei are both serving the Tyrannical Sui, in this world, apart from Li Mi, who else can fight against the Sui with me?" ”

"Xiao Milling!" Liu Wenjing said two words lightly.

"Xiao Milling?"

"Xiao Mo has already returned to the Sui Dynasty, how is this possible?"

“……”

Everyone was surprised, the saints all said that Xiao Mo was Yang Tong's person, and Liu Wenjing now actually said that he wanted to unite Xiao Miao? Isn't that a joke?

"Is it true that Liu Xiangguo is not joking?" Li Yuan looked at Liu Wenjing, who was known for his scheming, with great anticipation.

"Of course not!" Liu Wenjing said solemnly: "Xiao Mo is ruthless, his suspicion is extremely heavy, and Yang Tong will kill the Jiangnan Shi clan, we can take advantage of his shortcomings and send a good debater to lobby in the light, and promise heavy profits, even if he can't win it over, but he can also say with great fanfare that he has joined forces with my Tang Dynasty to fight against Sui!" ”

"Counter-plotting?" Li Yuan's eyes lit up.

Liu Wenjing nodded and said: "Yang Tong has seen through our counter-plot, but the suspicious Xiao Mo is afraid of being purged, so he can only follow us to resist!" Even if it doesn't work out, we have nothing to lose anyway. This also applies to Duvoy. ”

"Haha! Good! Li Yuan laughed and looked at Wen Yanbo, the secretary of the Ministry of Rites, and said, "In my opinion, Xiao Mo must be Wen Shangshu there, so Du Fuwei sent a good debater over." ”

"Wechen obeys." Wen Yanbo said angrily

"Lin Shihong also needs to be contacted." Liu Wenjing continued.

"Yes, the Tyrannical Sui at this time, just like the Great Qin back then, no, it is even more terrifying than the Great Qin, and it requires the concerted efforts of all the princes." Xiao Yu agreed.

"Good! Together. ”

"Whoa."

"The Ministry of Rites is responsible for contacting our allies, and it's time for us to do it ourselves." After Li Yuan finished speaking, he glanced at Li Shimin.

"The sons have three strategies to present their father's ......" Li Shimin got up knowingly and explained the three countermeasures in detail one by one.

Li Yuan pretended to be thoughtful, and the meaning of the expression was also obvious, that is, let everyone choose one of the three.

Everyone also knew that it was impossible to choose to give up Jing Xiang's next strategy; If Li Yuan has the courage, he will choose the best strategy, but the risk is too great, if he falls into Guanzhong, the 100,000 Tang army will become a turtle in the urn, and it will not be eaten clean by the Sui army. If you want to be stable, you have chosen the strategy.

At this time, Chen Shuda said: "Shengshang, the minister first clarified his attitude, Jingxiang can't be lost, if Jingxiang is lost, only Bashu will be left, I'm afraid we can't support 300,000 troops, so the minister supports Zhongce, and the court needs to send troops to support Chungling, but the ministers have different opinions on the details." ”

Li Yuan said, "If you have different opinions, just say it." I listened to all the different opinions. ”

"The key is the 100,000 army used by Zhongce, His Royal Highness the King of Jin means to support 70,000 in Chungling and 30,000 in Jingling, but the problem is that in addition to the 40,000 troops of King Jin in Xiyang, there are only about 130,000 troops left in the direction of Xiangyang. First of all, Anyang County can't be less than 50,000, and the capital must leave at least 50,000, so how can the only 30,000 troops barely squeeze out? ”

Chen Shuda meant that the clever woman was stumped to cook without rice, which immediately attracted a whisper.

Li Yuan also realized this problem, although the 130,000 troops were indeed a lot, but he had neglected the defense of Xiangyang itself before, if he took away 100,000, what would people still fight? It's good to go directly to Xiangyang to kill.

Li Shimin also admitted: "Chen Xiangguo's analysis is very reasonable, but the transfer of 100,000 troops is the bottom line, because now Jingling and Yiling are empty, the garrison is only about 15,000 county soldiers, and they must be concentrated in Jingling, if there are no 30,000 troops to defend, once the Sui army and Xiao Milling join forces, from Yiling into Badong, Bashu and Jingxiang will be cut in two, in addition, the Sui army's strength in Xiyang and Nanyang is less than 200,000, as the active offensive side, they are in the side of random mobilization, and we can only passively defend; At that time, it is very likely that there will be more than 100,000 people attacking Chungling, and the Sui army still has slave soldiers, Chen Xiangguo, and 100,000 troops, which is actually a very conservative number. ”

Li Shimin's words gave everyone a feeling of being overstretched, Datang obviously still had an army of 300,000, but in the end there were no soldiers available.

Chen Shuda said in a deep voice: "If this is the case, we can only recruit soldiers again." ”

As soon as his words fell, Dou Jin and Dugu Huaien Dugu sneered at the same time, Li Yuan thought of the fact that the two factions were threatening themselves with a letter of request, and suddenly his stomach was angry, but just now he had already said what he wanted, and he couldn't believe it, so he had to endure and say: "Dou Jiangzuo, do you have any suggestions?" ”

Dou Cong got up and said: "Holy Lord, Weichen thinks that Chen Xiangguo's recruitment is taken for granted? ”

Everyone was silent when they heard this, and the recruitment of troops in the past few years has been too ruthless, and the army that has been forcibly conscripted before and after is no less than 500,000 or 600,000 people, almost to the extent of sweeping the floor for soldiers, if the troops are forcibly recruited again, I am afraid that the people will rebel.

Dugu Huaien also said: "General Dou is right, there are not many young people under the age of forty now, and I am also worried that forced recruitment will cause a large number of people to flee into the Sui realm, which will cause a greater crisis." ”

Li Shimin said: "Dugu Shangshu and Dou Jiangzuo do make sense, but the reality is like this. If you don't recruit troops, then you can only sit and wait for death, rather than just watching the Sui army encroach on the land of Jingxiang step by step, it is better to retreat into Bashu neatly. So we have to make a decision between recruiting and not recruiting, and recruiting will implement the middle policy. If you don't recruit troops, you will implement the next policy. ”

Dugu Huaien and Dou Jin stopped speaking with cold faces, Li Shimin's attitude was obvious, if you don't recruit troops, then move the capital, lead the war to Bashu, and everyone will die in Bashu together.

At this time, Li Jiancheng, who had been silent, said: "If you recruit troops, you can only recruit them in Bashu, because even if there are not many on Jingxiang's side, this is also just in case, so that you can replenish the army in time and nearby." I think that in Bashu, which has never been through war, it is not difficult to recruit 70,000 or 80,000 troops. ”

Li Xiaogong, who was allowed to participate, said: "Shengshang, ninety percent of the army I lost in Xiangcheng before was Jingxiang people, that is to say, the Bashu side has not actually raised many troops, and it is too exaggerated to say that sweeping the ground for soldiers. ”

At this time, Dugu Huaien and Dou Jin had nothing to say.

Seeing that neither of them spoke, Li Yuan nodded and said: "Since everyone does not object, then it is so decided, first transfer 70,000 troops to urgently assist Chungling, and recruit 100,000 troops in Bashu, and distribute the number of troops to each county and county, everyone must complete the number of recruits, otherwise don't be too obedient to the county order." ”

But another question arises, who can be the handsome?

At this time, almost everyone's eyes looked at Li Shimin, but Li Jiancheng thought that Li Xiaogong was more suitable, first, Li Xiaogong was in Jingxiang all the year round and was more familiar with the terrain here than anyone else, and second, Li Shimin was too strong and too radical, and he might not be able to listen to Chai Shao's opinion, so if Li Shimin went, there would definitely be a situation where the generals were not compatible, and this would fail faster.

"Father, the son recommended Xiaogong to lead the army to rescue Chungling, Xiaogong is very strategic, and has been fighting in Jingxiang, familiar with the landform, is undoubtedly the most suitable candidate."

Xiao Yu also supported: "Holy Lord, the minister agrees with the prince's proposal. ”

"Father, son, also think that filial piety is the most suitable candidate." Li Shimin's broken army was still in Xiyang, and he didn't want to go to Chungling to defend passively, and once again suffered the wanton bombardment of the Sui army. He now urgently needs a victory to save his reputation, it is difficult to take advantage of the Sui army, so he can only fight Xiao Miao's idea, if Xiao Mi does not join the anti-Sui Alliance, then he will be the main general in the direction of Jingling, as long as he exterminates Xiao Miao, and opens up territory, he can recover the prestige he lost after the failure of the Eastern Crusade.

Li Yuan nodded and said to Li Xiaogong: "Xiaogong, I will restore all your previous positions today, and appoint you as the marshal of the march, leading an army of 70,000 to aid Chungling, and the president will take charge of the battle situation in Chungling." ”

"The last will obey! We will live up to the trust of God. Li Xiaogong got up and saluted respectfully.

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