"How could a general give such an order? Are you sure that this order was given to you by the hand of the general, and not that someone else told you in the name of the general? The stakes are high, and you must not hide anything. Tell me the truth about how you got this order. After Liu Wenjing received Li Shimin's order, he looked at the herald in front of him with some suspicion and said.

"Lord Changshi, this news was indeed handed over to me by the general himself after he finished writing it in front of me. And before giving it to you, this command did not pass through anyone's hands, not even I opened it on the way. After all, I can't afford the sin of opening the military order without permission. After hearing Liu Wenjing's words, the herald nodded and said solemnly.

That's strange, Liu Wenjing frowned after listening to the words of the herald in front of him, and thought to himself: The general of the last western expedition was not such a character, at that time, when the army was weaker than now, the general still dared to take the initiative to attack with those weak troops, so as to defeat the Qin army on the opposite side, why did the general order me to avoid the battle after bringing a stronger army than before? What's going on? Could it be that the order on the Chang'an side has changed? Or is there an accident in Chang'an, and the general is in a wait-and-see state for the time being? That's why you didn't dare to use all your strength to attack the Xue Ju army on the opposite side? After all, the army under Xue Ju is a rabble, even if there is enough time to prepare, it will definitely not be able to resist the Tang army that is advancing westward.

Is Liu Wenjing secretly thinking to himself? , the herald next to him seemed to think of something again, so he said to Liu Wenjing: "By the way, Lord Changshi." The general doesn't seem to be in good health lately. I've heard from the general that he has had a series of vertigo attacks in recent days, and it seems to have gotten worse in recent days. ”

After Liu Wenjing listened to the words of the herald, it suddenly dawned on herald. What he had thought before was indeed a little troublesome, the reason why the general wanted to give such an order was entirely because he was in poor health, so he didn't want to risk possible defeat so he took a defensive position, and when the general recovered, he would inevitably give the order to attack. After figuring this out, Liu Wenjing ordered the whole army to set up a large camp on the spot after arriving at the front line, and strictly prevent it from defending and avoiding the battle.

In this way, when the Tang army marching west stopped all the way to Anding County, Xue Ju's army had been waiting here for a long time. After receiving the news that the Tang army had arrived in Anding County, Xue Ju's army did not rush to attack, but sent a large number of sentries to inquire about the intelligence of the Tang army on the opposite side. Naturally, the Tang army also sent its own sentinels accordingly. So before the two armies were strangled together, the sentinels sent by each took the lead in breaking out a local war.

The sentinels of the Tang Army, who had come all the way from afar, were naturally no better than the sentries of Xue Jujun, who had been recuperating in Anding County for a long time, and at the same time were familiar with the nearby terrain and landforms. So in the first round of battles between the sentinels, it was a crushing defeat. At this time, Liu Wenjing finally realized how powerful Xue Ju's army was in the order sent by Li Shimin, although Liu Wenjing's Tang army was defeated in the first round of battles between sentinels. But in his opinion, the reason why his army failed was entirely because of the exhaustion of his men and horses caused by his march for several days, so he was defeated by the sudden attack of Xue Ju's army at this time. If you give yourself a period of time to recuperate, Xue Jujun is definitely not the opponent of the army under his command. However, although Liu Wenjing looked down on Xue Ju's army on the other side, he still carried out Li Shimin's orders truthfully. From the location of the camp to the patrols and sentry posts in the camp, the arrangements were all arranged according to the highest level of defense. Xue Ju's sentinels also heard this information, so they transmitted the news about the camp set up by the Tang army on the opposite side back to the rear. At the same time, almost all the sentinels who were released sent back the same message: the Tang army camp was well defended, and the night attack was likely to fail. A strong attack can lead to heavy losses, and at worst a failed attack.

Xue Ju couldn't help but have a headache with this information, although he had a large number of subordinates, his combat effectiveness was indeed quite worrying. His army consisted of about four parts: one was the peasant rebel army led by Zong Luohu, the other was the Minshan Qiang people led by Zhong Lishu who came to submit to him, the other was the soldiers of his own government provided by the forces that supported him, and the last was the soldiers recruited from his own rule after his own rebellion. The most powerful of these four sections were the government soldiers provided by the forces that supported them, and most of these government soldiers were strong men of the right age, and they were well trained and much better than the other parts in terms of organization and discipline, followed by the peasant rebel army led by Zong Luohu. Although this army is not as strong in organization and discipline as the government soldiers, it is brave in battle, and it is extremely righteous, and can hold each other together when they rush to kill on the battlefield. And they are often able to fight to the death, and no one surrenders. The next in line is the Minshan Qiang people. Although these Qianghu are also fierce and fearless of death when they fight, they often fight separately when they arrive on the battlefield, and it is difficult for them to take care of each other, and they are often surrounded and annihilated by the enemy. At the end of the list is an army of peasants recruited from his rule, and all this army can do is to suppress the local area or face the bandits in the territory in normal times, and produce some deterrent effect. There is a shortage of generals under his command now, and it is extremely difficult to train this peasant army into an elite army, so it can only achieve the purpose of deterring the bandit forces in the territory. Once a war really breaks out, it may not even be able to defeat the bandit forces in the territory. How could Xue Ju dare to use such an army with two army formations, so the army brought by Xue Ju on this trip was still dominated by the peasant rebel army of Zong Luohu and the Qiang people of Minshan. As for the government soldiers, Xue Ju arranged them for the defense of his own capital. After all, his family is in the capital, and if the enemy bypasses his army on the front line to attack his capital, then he will inevitably transfer troops back to defense, and then he will be in an embarrassing situation of being attacked by the enemy. If, on the contrary, the elite troops are placed in the capital to be responsible for defense, then at least they can use the materials in the capital to defend for two or three months, and then they can calmly return to the capital after solving the enemy in front of them.

(End of chapter)