Chapter 414: Gather in Youzhou

Zhang Yunwen now holds the title of General of the Right Dragon Martial Army, however, when he was about to go to Li Daoxuan, he was told by the latter that His Majesty has informed him that your task has been arranged separately. When Zhang Yunwen heard this, he couldn't help but be stunned on the spot.

Later, when I went to Li Shimin's place to inquire, I learned that Li Shimin wanted to transfer the establishment of the departments under Zhang Yunwen's current jurisdiction to him. Mainly artillery, gendarmerie and reconnaissance battalion recruits. As for the students of the military academy, they were assigned to various units, in Zhang Yunwen's words, called "internships".

When Zhang Yunwen heard the news, he couldn't help but feel slightly stunned. However, he is a soldier's heart, and his obedience to orders is deeply rooted in his bones. Take the command now.

There are now more than 1,300 recruits in the reconnaissance battalion boot camp. When it comes to recruits, it actually means that they have not completed two years of recruit training, and if they talk about strength, they are not worse than those recruits. They themselves are the elite selected from the conscription.

This is a recruit training camp under Beiya, and it adopts a closed training method. Recruit a group of people every two years. After two years of training, they fully met the passing standards, and were assigned to various guards in the north and south yaya, before they began to recruit the next batch of recruits.

In this way, a steady stream of excellent special scouts was sent to the armies of the northern and southern yas, and the generals were also very satisfied.

Originally, in September this year, these scouts could get out of the training camp and join the guards of the northern and southern ya, who expected that they would conquer Goryeo this year, so they went with them. It is also a good way to test the results of peacetime training with war.

Zhang Yunwen even planned to establish their own reconnaissance brigades in the north and south of the Yawei, just like the army in later generations. However, this idea is only in the mind, and has not yet been put into practice.

On the day of departure, Zhang Yunwen gathered the three soldiers and horses and followed Li Shimin's army all the way to Luoyang.

Among the three troops, the gendarmes had the largest number, with more than 5,000 people, which was still left after Zhang Liang's navy and Li Ji's Liaodong army. The second is artillery. The artillery that set off this time accounted for two-thirds of the total number of artillery in the Tang Dynasty, and the rest were either distributed in the border areas or stayed in Chang'an. But there are more than 400 mortars and more than 150 artillery pieces. Among them, there are two mortars and one mortar, and there are two kinds of large artillery, one is the originally manufactured Tianwei General Cannon, which is four people responsible for one, and there are one hundred and three. The other is the newly cast large-caliber artillery, which has a caliber of 180 millimeters according to the millimeter calculation of later generations, which is a lot more than the caliber of less than 100 millimeters of the original Tianwei General Cannon. This requires six people to be in charge of one course, and there are fifty-one doors. The least number of people is the scouts of the reconnaissance battalion.

Li Shimin was wearing a bright golden bright light armor, which was so bright that it could almost be used as a mirror, reflecting the sun's rays, which looked extremely dazzling.

Zhang Yunwen and those generals had advised Li Shimin not to wear such dazzling armor, so as not to be shot by enemy archers. Li Shimin waved his hand again and again and said: "This is my Tang Dynasty territory, as the king of a country, of course I have to set an example, let these thousands of soldiers know that I am in the army at the moment, and I am with them!" Well, as for getting to the front, it's not too late to change your armor at that time! ”

After hearing Li Shimin's words, everyone had no choice but to stop persuading Li Shimin.

The army marched along the official road. Li Shimin ordered that the people should not be disturbed, so whenever night fell, the army set up camp in the field and settled down.

When the army marched, everywhere they went, they saw local officials and gentry and celebrities eating pot pulp in the field, quietly waiting for Li Shimin's arrival. At the beginning, Li Shimin was still willing to meet these people, but later, more and more people were waiting for Li Shimin's arrival on the side of the road, which made Li Shimin so annoyed that he directly asked the eldest grandson Wuji and others to come out to receive them.

For those officials and local gentry, it is okay not to see Li Shimin, and it is okay to meet the eldest grandson Wuji and others.

When the army marched to the border of Cangzhou, Hebei Province, I saw two rows of white-haired old men and old women kneeling on both sides of the official road. Seeing this, the marching soldier couldn't help but stop. Among these old men, two old men who were trembling slightly came out, stopped the army, and asked to see Li Shimin.

When Li Shimin heard about this situation, he immediately appeared to meet these old people.

These old people are carrying clay pots and baskets containing food such as steamed buns, flatbread, fruits and vegetables.

When the leading old man saw Li Shimin, he immediately leaned down and bowed down. Seeing this, Li Shimin didn't dare to accept the worship of these old people, so he immediately helped them up and asked what was the matter. The old man asked respectfully, "Dare to ask Your Majesty that this is to raise an army to fight against Goryeo?" ”

Li Shimin nodded vigorously: "That's right!" I have been preparing for a long time, and now I am leading an army of 200,000 to crusade against Goryeo, and I will definitely destroy the country in a war! ”

The old man raised his cloudy eyes, looked at the neat army behind Li Shimin, and muttered: "These sons are much more fierce than the sons and daughters of the Great Cause Year when they conquered Goryeo!" It's a pity, the old man's son has already buried his bones in Liaodong! As he spoke, the old man turned around and pointed to the old men on the side of the road, "Your Majesty, the old man and these old guys sent their sons to Liaodong during the Great Cause Year. All the men who could go to the battlefield in Cangzhou went up, and even the women and the elderly took on the task of transporting military rations. But it didn't take long for news to come that Liaodong was defeated and hundreds of thousands of people were buried in their bones! Poor man, my son, who is less than twenty years old, died in Liaodong like this! Now that His Majesty wants to conquer Goryeo again, the old man sees that this soldier and horse can be much more purged than at that time of the Great Cause! I also hope that Your Majesty will look at us old men with half a foot in the ground, and if you encounter corpses, I hope to bring them back to Handi! ”

After speaking, the old man's voice gradually choked.

When Li Shimin heard this, his heart was also stirred. Pressed down on the excitement in his heart, he climbed into a carriage and shouted to the soldiers and old people around him: "The former Sui was unjust, started with a million teachers, and conquered Goryeo three times, causing all the men of my Han family to turn into white bones and die in a foreign land. The land of Shandong is empty. How dare you forget this hatred? Today, I, Li Shimin, am an elite division, and I want to move the country of Goryeo again, thinking that I will avenge the millions of Han family children! Soldiers, have you ever been willing to fight with me? ”

"Yes—" The sergeant let out an earth-shattering cry.

So, this crusade against Goryeo has one more reason.

The army marches, this food is not like the all-day wine and food in the palace, and when the meal is eaten, there are songs and dances to cheer up. Ordinary soldiers usually ate food such as wheat rice flatbread, vegetable soup, and one or two pieces of dried meat. Every few days, you can also eat a meal of fresh meat. The food of the generals was much better, at least meat every day, and occasionally the dishes cooked by the cooks, which was good. And Li Shimin has the best treatment, and he can eat the dishes cooked by the kitchen almost every day. Even so, there is a clear rule in the military that alcohol is not allowed.

From the beginning of April to May, after nearly a month, the army finally arrived in Youzhou.

At this time, outside Youzhou City, Li Ji's 80,000 troops were already stationed here, waiting for Li Shimin's arrival.

When Li Shimin led the army to appear in Youzhou, Li Ji also led a light cavalry to greet him, and also sent a battle report about Zhang Jian.

The battle report gave a detailed account of Zhang Jian's tentative attack.

Zhang Jian led 20,000 elite soldiers and 30,000 servant armies of Khitan and Turkic tribes, leaving Yingzhou and approaching Liaoshui. It was early summer, and the rain was unstoppable upstream, and the river was overflowing, so there was no way to cross the river. Across the Liaoshui, the Goguryeo soldiers on the opposite side saw that the Tang army could not cross the river, and they all laughed together.

Faced with this situation, Zhang Jian had no choice but to set up camp on the edge of Liaoshui.

After three days of waiting, the surging river finally receded.

Zhang Jian was about to order his soldiers to cross the river, but he saw that on the opposite side of Liaoshui, the Goryeo cavalry was constantly patrolling along the upper and lower reaches of Liaoshui, and a large number of crossbowmen appeared on the opposite bank. A rough estimate is that at least 20,000 people were gathered on the opposite side. Of course, this is only the number of Goryeo troops exposed to Zhang Jian's sight.

Zhang Jian did not dare to take risks and pretended to retreat, but left nearly 100 scouts to wait here, observing the situation at all times to prevent the Goryeo army from attacking. At the same time, the elite cavalry was sent to search along the upper and lower reaches of the Liaoshui River to see if they could find a good location to cross the river.

However, what he didn't expect was that none of the scouts who stayed on the bank of the river to monitor the Goryeo army on the opposite side were honest guys, and a few of them were even the first batch of scouts taught by Zhang Yunwen at the beginning.

It is said that the two guys who stayed behind lost in the fight with everyone, so they were unwilling to stay here.

Those scouts who had dived to the other side of the Liaoshui River went out day and night, and they would expand the reconnaissance range eastward along the Liaoshui River, record the terrain and landforms along the way, and spend seven days to reconnoiter the enemy's situation in the area east of Liaoshui, Liaocheng in the north, and Anshi Prefecture in the south.

However, when they were about to return to the west of Liaoshui, they sadly found that the river had risen again. Even if a scout has great ability, it is impossible for him to swim through this turbulent and swirling water.

So, they had no choice but to lurk, observing the situation in Liaoshui and the movement of the Goryeo army at the same time. This observation really made them see something.