In the early morning, the sound of horses' hooves broke the dullness of Xiangyang City, and as soon as the soldiers at the city gate opened the city gate, they saw that at the end, there was an embarrassed cavalry team galloping towards this side, and the word 'Li' could be vaguely recognized on the broken banner.

The school captain's expression was stunned, the surname Li is a big surname in Li Tang, and the Li clan is even more powerful, among which Li Shimin, Li Yuanji, Li Xiaogong, Li Daozong, Li Shentong, Li Deliang, Li Xiaoji, Li Xianzhi and several others are all generals in the army, at present, in addition to Li Yuanji, Li Shimin fought with Wang Shichong in Luoyang, Li Xizhi Tun soldiers Zhu Yangguan, Li Xiaogong and Li Daozong Tun army in Xiangcheng, the rest also have important business outside, this army should be the heirs of the clan, right?

While the lieutenant was thinking about these things, the other party had arrived at the city gate, and there were about three hundred people, each with an indescribable look of exhaustion.

"King Zhao Jun!" When the captain saw the appearance of the leader clearly, his face changed suddenly, and he almost blurted out.

Li Xiaogong just glanced at the captain tiredly, didn't say much, and went straight into the city with the men and horses, and went straight to the palace.

"Your Highness, ...... are you" The guards couldn't help but be stunned when they saw Li Xiaogong, who was covered in dried blood.

"As soon as I report it, I ask to see the Holy One."

"I'm going to pass it on, and I invite His Royal Highness to enter the palace and wait, but these soldiers ......" The commander of the Praetorian Guard looked at the people brought by Li Xiaogong in embarrassment, Li Xiaogong didn't even need to report if he wanted to see him, but these soldiers couldn't.

"Wait when you get home." Li Xiaogong turned his head to look at the entourage, and his voice was a little hoarse.

"Whoa!" The soldiers left straight away.

At this time, Li Yuan had just woken up, and when he heard the news of Li Xiaogong's return, his heart couldn't help but sink, since he received Li Xiaogong's urgent recital to evacuate Yangzhai, Li Yuan was worried that he was not the opponent of Luo Shixin and Qin Qiong, but Li Yuan still had a trace of hope in his heart, after all, Li Xiaogong had made great achievements and was the first general of the clan, no matter how he said it, Jingxiang's 40,000 army could not be said to be gone, right?

It's just that when he heard Li Xiaogong appear here, Li Yuan only felt a pain in his head, his body shook, and he stabilized with the support of Concubine Yin De.

"Holy Lord, what's wrong?" Concubine Yin Defei looked at Li Yuan worriedly.

"I'm fine." Li Yuan took a deep breath, waved his hand, signaled that Concubine Yin De didn't care, waved back to report to the eunuch, and hurriedly walked towards the Ganlu Palace.

Outside the hall, Li Xiaogong stood outside the door like a door panel, when he saw Li Yuan, Li Xiaogong knelt on the ground with a pop, and the boss was not small, but at this time he cried like a child: "The minister has the trust of the saint, the army is gone, Xiangcheng and Shuyang are lost!" ”

Although he had been mentally prepared, when he heard Li Xiaogong's confirmation, Li Yuan still felt that his brain was blank, and Li Yuan didn't listen to a word of what he said.

"Someone." After a long time, Li Yuan came back to his senses, stretched out his hand to help Li Xiaogong, and said to the guards who came in: "Cancel the early dynasty, and invite the prince and a few Xiangguo to the imperial study to discuss matters." ”

"If you lose it, you lose it."

After the confession, Li Yuan looked at Li Xiaogong, only to see that his hair was scattered, and his armor was full of dried purple and black blood scale, exuding a strong smell of blood, knowing that he must have survived countless bloody battles to get here, in an instant, Li Yuan seemed to have aged a lot, shook his head and said, "Follow me in first." ”

Soon, Li Jiancheng, Pei Lian, Xiao Yu, Chen Shuda, Dugu Quan, and Dou Wei came to the imperial study from the previous dynasty, and when they saw Li Xiaogong, the hearts of the six people sank, and they had already guessed what had happened.

After each of them sat down, Li Yuan asked Li Xiaogong to tell the matter again, and took out the repeater crossbow used by the Sui army.

"This crossbow can fire ten arrows in a row, the power is amazing, the range is about two hundred steps, nearly a hundred steps beyond us, Luo Shixin's soldiers and horses are all equipped with this crossbow, two hands, and foreign slaves use bows and arrows. Although the officers and men of our army helped me break through Luo Shixin's defenses and snatch some crossbows, I was defeated after all, and only this one was brought back. The Sui army is not only very proficient in the use of crossbow arrows, but also amazing riding skills, our cavalry is always behind our bow and crossbow range, can not get close at all, and then they will shoot cleanly, and the last general can only lead a few hundred people to break out of the siege. ”

The defeat outside Runan County, although there were still thousands of cavalry surviving, but under the overwhelming crushing of Luo Shixin's army, Li Xiaogong had no time to reorganize the defense, plus Qin Qiong followed closely behind to occupy the county, and a large area of the city changed hands, Li Xiaogong became a street rat overnight, and under the pursuit of Luo Shixin's army, he hid in Tibet, and swam over at night in the place where the water flow was not turbulent.

Li Yuan sat on the main seat, playing with the repeating crossbow handed over by Li Xiaogong, silently, and under the hall, Dugu frowned and looked at Li Yuan and said: "The Sui army's tactics are very similar to those of the pre-Qin, when attacking the city and breaking the army, first suppress the opponent with bows and arrows to suppress the opponent's morale. ”

Li Jiancheng glanced at the delicate repeater in Li Yuan's hand and said: "Since Yang Tong entrenched himself in Jizhou, he has organized craftsmen to continuously innovate equipment, and even set up a Kaitian Academy dedicated to the development of advanced equipment, stimulating craftsmen to innovate with titles and wealth. As far as the minister knows, this crossbow could only be equipped by the Xuanjia army around Yang Tong four years ago, and now even Luo Shixin's soldiers are two of them, and the five armies of the Xiaoguo Army that defend Yecheng are probably even more terrifying. ”

Li Xiaogong nodded and said: "The Sui army's crossbow has a long range and a fast loading speed, so if you want to have a cavalry duel with the Sui army in the future, I'm afraid it will be even more difficult." In addition, the Sui army also had a large bed crossbow that could radiate spears and a lot of powerful siege equipment, Yang Tong conquered Pingyao City in one day that year, and it is said that it was the benefit of siege equipment. ”

When Li Yuan heard this, his heart was even more disturbed, and he turned his head to look at Xiao Yu, who had been silent beside him: "Xiao Qing, what do you think?" ”

Xiao Yu looked at Li Xiaogong: "According to His Highness, Luo Shixin actually has enough ability to end the battle in a short period of time?" ”

Li Xiaogong's face turned red, and finally nodded bitterly and said: "Xiangguo is not false at all, Luo Shixin is like a joke, if he really wants to annihilate our army, I'm afraid none of us will be able to leave." ”

"But Roshixin didn't." Xiao Yu's face became solemn, and he turned his head to look at Li Yuan and said: "The Holy Lord still remembers that on the day when Yique Pass was broken, it was the day when King Huai'an led an army of 80,000 to leave Xiangyang, and at that time, everyone's eyes were attracted to the Luoyang area. ”

"Not bad." Li Yuan seemed to have thought of something, and his face became even more ugly.

A thought suddenly popped into Li Jiancheng's mind, looked at Xiao Yu and said, "Annihilate our army one by one?" ”

"I'm afraid that as King Zhao expected, Yang Tong's real intention is not Luoyang, but my Tang Dynasty, as long as all the elites of our army are annihilated in a wide area, then it is equivalent to opening the door to the west." Xiao Yu nodded and said in a deep voice.

As for Luoyang, it can't be said to be incidental, but Yang Tong strategically annihilated the elite forces of the Tang Army before attacking Luoyang, after all, Li Mi had already gone south, so Luoyang was not a burden to Yang Tong. And if Li Tang defeats Li Shimin and Li Shentong's army again, it will be like a tiger with its teeth extracted, and it will not have much deterrent effect on the Great Sui, and then it will be the day of Li Tang's demise.

"If our army is defeated, the Sui army can go south from Guanzhong and Hanchuan, attack and plunder Jingzhou and Bashu, and there will be no happy land in the entire Tang Dynasty! At the same time, Pei Xingyan and Shen Guang cooperated with the Sui Dynasty navy to attack Qingxu and Jianghuai. ”

Li Yuan's face also became ugly, Yang Tong wanted to swallow the world in one breath and end the rhythm of the troubled times.

"That's not necessarily the case, the Shu Road is very difficult, Yang Dong's strong bow and crossbow are quite restricted in Bashu, and the Bashu family will not let Yang Dong enter Bashu, so if Yang Tong wants to occupy Bashu, it will take at least five years."

Xiao Yu shook his head, the Shu Road is very difficult, where the crossbow arrows are will be greatly limited, after all, the mountain road there is not straight, no matter how large the attack range of your crossbow arrows is, if you set up an ambush or garrison at the turning point of the mountain road, Yang Dong's bow and arrow advantage will not be able to play at all, but even so, Yang Dong already has all the conditions to capture Bashu.

Li Yuan looked at the repeater crossbow in his hand, and only after a long time did he raise his head, look at Li Jiancheng and said, "Emperor, our army is using this crossbow as a blueprint and making every effort to build it, how much can it be made in the near future?" ”

"Father, I don't have many craftsmen in Datang. Erchen can only say that he urged with all his strength and tried to recruit craftsmen, as for how many repeaters can be built, it is really difficult to say. Li Jiancheng bowed and said.

War brought disaster at the same time, but also brought many changes in consciousness, such as these years, stimulated by Yang Tong, all the princes began to realize the importance of craftsmen, although not like Yang Tong to raise craftsmen to be able to have a formal status, but no matter which princes, have consciously absorbed craftsmen, and the improvement of the status of craftsmen, indirectly brought many technological innovations, although there are many things that have sprouted before this, but if there is no turmoil in this era, it is just a sprout.

If someone carefully observes and thinks about it, they will find that with the rise and growth of Yang Tong, some of the original inherent unbreakable hierarchical concepts are loosening a little bit, but if you really want to realize these things, at least at the moment Li Tang, who rules the world with the family, can't at present.

"Do your best." Li Yuan also understood this truth, and couldn't help sighing, he wanted to improve the status of pragmatic talents, but he couldn't, he couldn't bear the price of the family's collective resistance, for these children of the family, it was a humiliating thing to be in the company of craftsmen and merchants, but in fact, who didn't do business? The Dugu family is Li Tang's biggest grain merchant, and Li Tang's biggest iron merchant is the Dou family.

After a while, Li Yuan asked again, "How many crossbows are in the inner library?" ”

"There are about 40,000 hand crossbows and 10,000 bed crossbows." Li Jiancheng responded.

Li Yuan nodded, narrowed his eyes slightly, looked at Li Xiaogong and said, "Xiaogong, I appointed you as the head of the march of Nanyang Dao, and took over the 80,000 troops in the hands of the King of Huai'an, and was responsible for the defense of Nanyang and Xiyang. You have seen the crossbow cavalry tactics under Yang Dong's command, so you will select the strong and good cavalry soldiers in the army from the army, form a crossbow cavalry army of 20,000 people in Nanyang, and train them. At the same time, you compiled the tactics of Yang Dong's army into a book and passed it on to the border garrisons of the Sui and Tang dynasties, so that they could find suitable places to fortify according to Yang Dong's tactics. ”

The best place to defend against crossbow cavalry is the terrain that is not conducive to the use of crossbow cavalry, such as curved and narrow mountain roads.

"The last general commands!" Li Xiaogong was indignant when he heard this.

Li Jiancheng and the others glanced at each other, bowed down and asked, "Father, is the emperor ready to defend against Yang Dong's attack?" ”

"Not bad!" Li Yuan nodded, if there is a field battle, even if there are millions of troops, it will not be enough for the Sui army to play. The Sui army took advantage of the equipment, and before thinking of the method of restraint, it was a wise choice to stick to it.

"Where is Tuyuhun's army?" Li Yuan squinted and asked.

Tuyuhun's life is quite difficult to mix, last year was a full year in Su Dingfang's peacekeeping army, and Duan Decao's blows, was killed and defeated again and again, the forces have already withdrawn from the territory of the Great Sui, this time even back to Lanqiang did not dare to take in, Murong Fuyun had no way to go, so he asked Li Yuan to save the annex, in view of the existence of the slave soldiers of the Great Sui, Li Yuan put forward a request to Tuyuhun, the attachment can be, but Tuyuhun's young and strong must join the army, accept Li Tang's rule, and all the horses must be handed over, Murong Fuyun is unwilling, But under the suppression of the peacekeeping army, if you don't surrender, you will die, so you agreed to all the conditions of Li Tang, unify the whole clan, and there are about 40,000 young people, although the number is far inferior to the slave soldiers of the Great Sui, but Li Yuan also intends to use it to fight poison with poison, and it is naturally good to win the Great Sui, if this army is wiped out by Yang Tong, at least it can consume some of the troops of the Sui Dynasty, and Tuyuhun will also be assimilated because of the death of the young man, but it is a pity that Tuyuhun's young and strong are a little less.

"Yesterday I said it was in Brazil County." Li Jiancheng replied.

"Urge."

"Whoa!"

"Holy!" Xiao Yu stood up, bowed and said, "Since you plan to adopt a defensive policy, then you should let the King of Jin withdraw from Luoyang in time, so as not to have too many dreams at night." ”

"Good." Li Yuan nodded, the crossbow cavalry of the Sui army was so powerful that his only ambition for Luoyang was extinguished, and he was still focusing on preserving the army.

Book Keju Reading Website: