The interception battle that took place at the turn of Chungling and Xiangyang was transmitted back to Xiangyang City with the deserters at noon the next day. In the main hall of the East Palace, Li Jiancheng's expression was very haggard, he had been sitting in a daze for an afternoon, his originally handsome face had grown a lot of stubble, and he looked not only decadent, but also very sloppy, but Li Jiancheng, who paid attention to his appearance, didn't care about these at the moment.

He was not only mourning for Chai Shao's death, but also worried about the Tang Empire, Li Xiaogong's army was defeated, Chai Shao had been killed, and the number of hundreds of thousands of Lingling troops returning to Xiangyang was less than 1,000.

What does this make him do? How to explain to my father, who saw this army as a lifesaver?

Under him, Li Xiaogong and Wu Shitong, who had returned from defeat, knelt silently on the ground, and since they fled back to Xiangyang and told the story of the withdrawal, the two of them had not explained anything for themselves.

The defeat and the corpse of Chai Shao, who had been sent to Xiangyang, were irretrievable facts, although Li Jiancheng did not blame the two of them, but his self-blame was like a knife to bite the two of them, just because Chai Shao was not only a horse, but also their comrades-in-arms, if it were not for Chai Shao when Luo Shixin launched an attack, Chai Shao took 3,000 soldiers under his command to kill the Sui army and charge, giving them a moment of respite, he himself would not have fallen into a heavy encirclement at all, it can be said that Chai Shao used the lives of him and his soldiers in exchange for the lives of the two of them.

At this time, Chen Shuda walked quickly into the square in front of the palace, he was ordered to go to Jingling to collect troops and food, he had just come back at this time, and now it is said everywhere that Li Xiaogong returned in a fiasco, Chen Shuda did not know the truth, and he hurried to come before he had time to rest.

He saw several personal soldiers standing in front of the steps looking nervously into the hall, the atmosphere was very solemn, and hurriedly asked, "King Jing, are they really defeated?" ”

"Exactly." A lieutenant said softly: "King Jing was defeated, and less than a thousand people were left to return, and the firewood and horses were also killed. ”

"Boom!"

The captain's words were like a thunderbolt from the sky, which shocked Chen Shuda's mind blank, as if he couldn't hear anything except his own heartbeat.

Chen Shuda actually has another plan, a few days ago Liu Wenjing sent a letter, asking him to persuade Li Jiancheng to swallow the soldiers and horses of Chungling, and after retreating to Badong safely, everyone does not need to go to the dirty political quagmire of Chengdu, but to take Li Xiaogong and Chai Shao as generals to lead the army to conquer the six departments of Nanzhao, and win a place of recuperation for the Tang Dynasty and Li Jiancheng.

This is actually the development plan that Liu Wenjing planned for Li Yuan after the failure of the Eastern Crusade, but at that time, Li Yuan was held hostage by the Guanlong nobles with public opinion and could not move the capital to Chengdu, which made the plan impossible to implement.

I wanted to pick up this development strategy, but now... The army of more than 100,000 is gone, and Chai Shao is gone. Naturally, the strategic plan also failed.

Chen Shuda's brows furrowed, and he muttered: "Report to His Highness for me, just say that I want to see you." ”

The captain walked up the steps quickly and stood at the door of the main hall to report: "Report to His Royal Highness the Prince, Chen Xiangguo asks to see you." ”

"Please come in!" Li Jiancheng's voice was a little hoarse, and his tone was full of endless melancholy.

Without telling the soldiers in person, Chen Shuda had already walked into the main hall, and only in front of Li Jiancheng did he salute, "See Your Highness." ”

Li Jiancheng raised his hand and said, "Chen Xiang, please take a seat." ”

"Your Highness." Chen Shuda saluted again, and then looked at Li Xiaogong, at this glance, the whole person was stupid, only to see that this King Jing, who was only in his thirties, had more white hair on his head than himself, an old man in his fifties.

"King Jing, General Wu, I am still living a good life as a person who has lost my country, how can you lose confidence because of a temporary defeat?" Chen Shuda took a deep breath and said angrily: "My Datang is not dead yet, and the prince also wants the two of you to lead troops to Yizhou, and it is not the time to grieve, so you will stand up like a man." ”

Li Xiaogong slowly stood up, helped the warrior Tong up, and sighed bitterly: "I regret not listening to Sichang's words, so I have this defeat, and I have killed Sichang!" ”

Chai Shao persuaded him to take the official road south to Zaoyang, but Li Xiaogong was worried that the Sui cavalry would cover up from behind and annihilate the whole army again, so he insisted on walking the mountain trail. Thinking of Chai Shao's death at this time, Li Xiaogong couldn't help but feel heartache again.

Li Jiancheng sighed: "Xiaogong, your decision is not wrong. If you had taken the official path, I am afraid that you would have been defeated more than a month ago. ”

"It's a gap between countries, and it's not human." Chen Shuda, who said this, was like a mirror in his heart, the Tang Dynasty fell to this point from being on a par with the Great Sui Dynasty, and the culprit was Li Yuan.

Since Li Yuan ascended the throne, he has failed one after another, and dragged the vigorous Tang Dynasty to this desperate situation step by step, how much he has and how much Chen Shuda knows clearly, if he hands over the army to the command of the generals under his command like Liu Bang, even if the Tang Dynasty can't do it, it won't be so miserable. But he was a layman and an insider, and he interfered everywhere in the army.

Sometimes Chen Shuda even extremely suspected that Li Yuan was a spy sent by Yang Tong, otherwise why did he always 'cooperate' with Yang Dong at critical moments?

Or is it that the father-in-law looks at his son-in-law more and more pleasing to the eye, and he simply doesn't want the country and his descendants, if that's the case, Yang Guang jokingly calls him "grandma", it's really not unreasonable.

"His Royal Highness the Prince, Director Shi Hanzhi of Wuchuan asked to see him, saying that he had important matters to discuss." Just when Chen Shuda was thinking wildly, the captain just now reported outside the hall:

"Yes, please."

"Whoa."

After a while, Han Zhi walked into the hall and saluted: "Humble Han Zhi see His Highness." ”

"What is the important matter of Han Changshi?" Li Jiancheng motioned for him to be excused.

Han Zhi said: "Back to Your Highness, the city is full of unfavorable news about our army, in order not to shake the morale of the army, the people of all sides have been strictly ordered to stop talking, and they are not allowed to talk about the defeat of the Tang army. And in accordance with the orders of His Royal Highness, he sent a thousand Wuchuan guards to inspect the whole city, and spread the word to all places, and anyone who dared to consult privately was punished as collaborating with the enemy. ”

Li Jiancheng glanced at everyone, and pretended to be relaxed: "I may be covering my ears and stealing the bell in the legend." Now the people's hearts and the army's hearts are in chaos. Can the ban be stopped? It is said that the Sui army is very good at surrendering without a fight, but I didn't believe it before. However, the Sui army was far north of the Han River, and it had already caused turmoil in our whole city, and we were too passive in comparison. ”

Li Jiancheng's words aroused Chen Shuda's concern, "Since ancient times, 'the mouth of the people is more important than the defense of Sichuan'. The military and civilians do not dare to talk about it in public, but they may talk more in private. Your Highness, our situation is not optimistic right now, and we should have been prepared. ”

Li Jiancheng nodded silently: "At present, it seems that Yang Tong is indeed preparing to seize Jingbei by force, let's talk about it, what should we do now?" ”

Chen Shuda said slowly: "Now the army's heart is shaken, everyone is in danger, Weichen is most worried about the locals of Jingzhou, for them, surrendering to the Sui Dynasty is in their best interests, Xiangyang City may be able to stop the Sui army, but it can't stop the public opinion of the Sui Dynasty." The hearts of the people of Jingzhou are no longer in my Datang, they regard my Datang as a flood beast, according to Weichen's opinion, it is better to leave as soon as possible. ”

Li Jiancheng was silent and secretly calculated.

Although Yang Shanhui defeated the Chungling army, but after more than a month of emergency retraction, Xiangyang has gathered 20,000 or 30,000 elite soldiers from all over the country. But the point is that the people in the city are panicking, and it won't be long before this fear spreads to the army. As far as he knew, although Xiangyang had been the territory of the Tang Dynasty for several years, because the imperial court had fought and failed for many years, the feelings of war weariness and fear of war had not been eliminated from the beginning. If Yang Shanhui, Xue Wanjun, and Li Jing were to come to the city at the same time, the frightened army might immediately surrender the city.

Thinking of this, Li Jiancheng looked at Li Xiaogong and asked, "Xiaogong, what do you think?" ”

Li Xiaogong also knew that this was by no means the time to be hypocritical, so he hurriedly replied: "In fact, since the failure of the Eastern Crusade, the morale of our army has become more and more sluggish, and it is not as good as day by day. At the same time, there are more and more people who think that the general trend of our Tang Dynasty's rule over Jingzhou has gone, and when the Shengshang moved the capital, the Jingxiang soldiers are seeking self-protection and leaving their own way out, and the mood of war weariness and fear of war has already swept the whole army. I returned with another crushing defeat, which was an even worse blow to our army, and now the morale of the army has collapsed, and it is no longer possible to fight. I also think it's better to leave early. ”

Li Jiancheng also knew that he could not do anything, and immediately said to Han Zhi: "Han Changshi, pass the order, let the left-behind officials pack up urgently, and go to Chengdu with me in three days." ”

"Obedience." Han Zhi answered, saluted and left.

Li Jiancheng said to Li Xiaogong again: "Xiaogong and General Wu, you two are in charge of military affairs, and the soldiers who don't want to go to Yizhou with us don't have to be reluctant." ”

"Whoa." Li Xiaogong and Wu Shitong left as ordered

"In the truce of the Sui and Tang dynasties, Yang Tong asked us to hand over a complete Xiangyang. Although he said that he had destroyed the agreement, I did not want the rebels and ruffians to plague the people of the city. Li Jiancheng paced out the door, looked at the majestic palace complex, sighed, and said to Chen Shuda, who was silently accompanying him: "Chen Xiangguo, I bother you to go to Caiyang, and let Luo Shixin or Yang Shan come to take over Xiangyang." This can be regarded as a good thing for the people of Xiangyang. ”

"Wechen obeys."

。。。。。。

In the early morning of the third day, Li Jiancheng, who had already reached a handover agreement with the Sui Dynasty, officially withdrew from Xiangyang with the remnants of Li Tang's forces, ending their rule over Jingzhou.

In the afternoon, the warrior Tong who was in charge of the broken war opened the door as agreed, let the main force of the Sui army enter the city, and he himself took 4,000 soldiers to the west to join Li Jiancheng.

Du Fuwei and Luo Shixin, who were ordered to take over, led 40,000 troops into the city, and Luo Shixin led 10,000 elite cavalry to take over the palace.

Du Fuwei was responsible for controlling Xiangyang City, and the people in the city closed their doors and windows and hid in their homes and did not dare to go outside.

Groups of Sui cavalry galloped through the streets and alleys of Xiangyang, arresting and beheading stragglers and hooligans who took advantage of the opportunity to rob shops and bring disaster to the people, and shouted loudly for the people not to go out for the time being.

In the evening, Yang Shanhui, who had been notified, led his generals into the city in a big way, and he asked Du Fuwei, who came to greet him: "Is there any news about Li Jiancheng?" ”

Du Fuwei bowed down and said: "Commander Qiyu, they have already left in the early morning, and it is the warrior Tong who will be handed over to the last general. ”

Xie Yingdeng next to him asked, "Dashuai, should we chase it?" ”

Yang Shanhui shook his head: "Li Jiancheng and Li Xiaogong are not worried, and without Li Jiancheng, how can Chengdu be lively?" Let them be. ”

"Whoa." Xie Yingdeng responded.

"I will now temporarily appoint you as the commander of Xiangyang County, appease Xiangyang County, and arrange for soldiers to take over the counties under their rule.

Xie Yingdeng hurriedly responded: "The last general understands, please rest assured." ”

Yang Shanhui moved his gaze to Du Fuwei: "Our group, General Du, you are the best at water warfare, you and General Kan led the officers and soldiers of the Eleventh Army to Yiling to assist Li Jingshangshu and prepare for the attack on Yizhou." Remember, everything is under Li Shangshu. ”

Du Fuwei was overjoyed: "The last general will obey the order!" ”

"General Xue Wanjun, who is in charge of capturing Fangling and Xicheng, has there been a letter from the eagle?" Yang Shan will ask the guards around him.

The soldier replied: "Back to the commander, there is no letter from General Xue." ”

"I see." Yang Shanhui didn't care, in fact, Fangling didn't belong to Jingzhou, but it was as empty as Xicheng County, how could he not take such a territory?

He said, "Go to the Imperial City with me, and I will personally write good news to the Holy Lord and the Left Servant." ”

"Whoa."