"Your Majesty, Changwu City was raided by Li Shimin and lost."

Late at night.

An urgent message woke up Xue Rengao, who was enjoying the fruits of the battle in Gyeongju.

Changwu City, in the northwest corner of Pizhou, although this city is small, but the location is extremely important. It is the key point of the Sichuan Road leading from Jingzhou to Chang'an that is controlled.

More than 20 miles to the south, you will arrive at the famous Huang Boyuan, which is also the main passage to Yilu and Chang'an.

Changwu City controls two main roads leading to Chang'an, in addition, Changwu City can also form a horn with Pizhou, Ningzhou, Gyeongju, although its city is small, but it is very strong, it can not only store grain and grass, but also garrison the army, retreat can defend, advance can attack.

And now the capital of Great Qin, Zheqi City, is in Jingzhou, not far west of Changwu City, which is only a few dozen miles away.

After the last Battle of Qianshuiwon, Xue Rengao took advantage of the situation to capture Changwu and other cities after the victory, and transported and stored grain and grass here, preparing to be the grain and grass base for this Eastern Crusade.

"Are the pigs left behind?"

Chengwu City, the city is based on the original head, Linjing water, overlooking the passage.

This city can be built on the platform on the south bank of the Jing River, back to the mountain and facing the water, sitting in the south and facing the north, there is also a natural formation of a deep ditch in the east and west of the city, which is a natural barrier.

It is bordered by the Jing River in the north, and the hillside and hill in the south, which is connected with the Feiyun Plateau.

When repairing the city, use the natural terrain to cut the mountain and build the city, hold the throat of the Xiaoguan ancient road, and reach Yilu in the east, and go directly to Chang'an. Entering Jingzhou in the west, through Qinzhou and Jincheng, the strategic location is very important, and it is easy to defend and difficult to attack.

The east, west and north are three facing ditches, cut the mountain for the moat, ram the city wall on the side of the hill, cut off the connection of the mountain, open four gates in the city, easy to defend and difficult to attack.

Such a city, even if Li Shimin raided it, he should not have captured it.

Let Li Shimin occupy this place that can be attacked and retreated, and Xue Rengao will be in some trouble.

"Immediately gather troops and horses, and follow me south to recapture Changwu City!"

Xue Rengao led the army south.

In Changwu City, Li Shimin personally sat in the town, garrisoning 20,000 troops.

He also sent a general with 20,000 men to garrison Yilu in the south, and at the same time stationed 20,000 men in the city of Pizhou further south. He did not concentrate all the soldiers and horses in Changwu City, but made three echelon arrangements.

When Xue Rengao led the army to arrive, Li Shimin hung up the exemption card and did not come out of the city.

Ren Xue Rengao didn't care how he challenged, he made it clear that he wanted to stick to the city to exhaust the Qin army.

After all, Xue Rengao's soldiers are strong and strong, especially the cavalry, and his subordinates are many Longyouqiang, all of whom can ride and shoot well. In contrast, the Tang army had just experienced a defeat in the shallow water plain, losing more than 10,000 soldiers and horses, and two major generals were killed, and eight generals were captured, and now these eight generals have not returned.

In terms of cavalry, although Li Shimin organized 60,000 horses to counterattack, there were less than 20,000 cavalry, compared with Xue Rengao's 60,000 or 70,000 cavalry.

Promoting strengths and avoiding weaknesses is a useful thing that Li Shimin has learned from Luo Cheng for several years.

Xue Rengao had an army of 200,000 and Li Shimin 60,000.

Although the strength is superior, but now that Li Shimin does not fight him, then his superiority in strength will turn into a logistical disadvantage.

Especially the cavalry is more, and this horse eats more.

Xue Rengao also wanted to storm Changwu City, but Changwu City was so dangerous that it was very difficult to attack hard.

In particular, Li Shimin was very smart, and only brought 20,000 people to garrison Changwu City, which greatly reduced the pressure on logistics and could defend for a longer time.

But he stationed 40,000 horses in Yilu and Pizhou, making it impossible for the Qin army to get around.

"Guys, what's the plan?"

"Chu Xiang?"

Chu Liang, who was named, proposed that suspicious soldiers could be arranged, and then retreated quietly. Since Changwu City could not be captured, and the other passages were occupied by Li Shimin's troops and could not be bypassed, then withdraw the troops and wait for the news from the Liang division and the Turks.

However, this strategy obviously could not satisfy Xue Rengao.

This was his first battle after he ascended the throne, and the result was to withdraw without fighting?

Besides, Li Shimin is a defeated general under him, and he was able to defeat the Tang Army last time, so he didn't take the Tang Army very seriously in his heart.

'You can leave a part of the troops to watch Li Shimin, and then the main force of the army will go straight to Chang'an. ”

It was proposed.

"Changwu, Yilu, and Pizhou are all heavily guarded, and it is quite dangerous to attack Chang'an with the main force without breaking the city."

Chu Liang immediately retorted.

Anyone who knows a little about military affairs knows why you always have to attack the city and break the pond when you fight, why can't you just bypass those cities, some passes say that there is no way to bypass, but many cities can be bypassed, and you can even go directly under the city, why not go around?

It's nothing more than two points, if you don't pull out this city, then if you get stuck behind you, it will threaten the supply of grain and grass equipment in the rear, and the ancient army is most afraid of running out of food. If you want to rely on the war zone to collect, this is a laborious and difficult to effective means, the more soldiers and horses, the more you can only rely on your own food and grass supply.

And there was a strong city in the rear, and there was an army in it, and as soon as the army passed, the grain and grass behind it would be cut off. After all, it is impossible to send too many soldiers and horses to escort grain and grass.

There is another one, that is, the soldiers and horses of the city that surrounds them, which may cut off their way back at any time, and may attack their backs, flank them with the enemy in front of them, or even kill them directly to their rear.

For example, now, Changwu City is only a few dozen miles away from the capital of Great Qin, if they dare to bypass the cities of Pizhou and kill Chang'an, then they will not be able to get food and grass supplies later, and these 200,000 horses will collapse without a fight.

Or Li Shimin killed Longyou and took away his Western Qin foundation.

The best result is also a change of home.

And the poor result is naturally that their Western Qin army will either run out of food under Chang'an City, or the rear will be stolen, so it will be a loss.

60,000 soldiers and horses, this is not to be underestimated.

But you said that you want to fight hard, such as Changwu, a dangerous and fortified city, plus the 20,000 Tang army led by Li Shimin himself, even if 200,000 people attack fiercely, it is estimated that it will be difficult to capture it in a year and a half.

At that time, Wei Xiaokuan guarded Yubi City, a small Taicheng, similar to the situation of Changwu, Gao Huan led 200,000 people to besiege, but in the end he lost 70,000 people, and finally he could only withdraw from the army.

"Your Majesty, the minister thinks that you can't bypass it, but you can lead the enemy out of the hole. We can bluff, pretend to bypass Changwu, attack Chang'an on a large scale, and then lead Li Shimin out of the city to fight. Hao Ying spoke up at this time.

"But what if Li Shimin just doesn't fall for it and refuses to go out of the city?" Xue Rengao asked, you lead the snake out of the hole, and the snake must be willing to come out.

"If it doesn't work, then retreat the main force back to Longzhou, attack Qizhou from there, and attack Chang'an along the Wei River." He Yu said again.

Yu Liang objected loudly, thinking that it would take too much time to withdraw from Jingzhou to Longzhou and then fight Qizhou, and besides, if the main force went to Qizhou, who would defend Jingzhou and Gyeongju? In case Li Shimin comes out, who will stop it?

Therefore, Chu Liang believes that we still have to find a way to break through Changwu and go straight to Chang'an, instead of trying to turn around whenever there is a difficulty.