After learning that Li Shimin's army on the opposite side began to retreat gradually, Xue Ju knew that the news of the retreat of Liu Wenjing's army on the northern front had reached Li Shimin's hands. Therefore, Li Shimin led the army to retreat in order to seek a safe retreat, which also shows in disguise that Li Shimin agreed with the failure of this western expedition, and began to prepare to shrink his forces and recuperate his vitality before carrying out the western expedition again. Now that the troops on the frontal battlefield have begun to retreat, Tang Junbian, who has not shown up on the flank, will definitely not attack him again. So Xue Ju was so open-minded that the army he led was covering all the way from behind. Thanks to the soldiers under Li Shimin, who used their lives, the troops of the palace who stayed as the rear army fought desperately, and they reluctantly stopped the pursuit of Xue Ju's army in the case of heavy losses.

Although Li Shimin's army on the opposite side has begun to retreat, the main force still exists. Li Shimin is now just worried that he is outnumbered, so he chooses to retreat temporarily in order to be safe. Xue Ju also knew that if he was in a hurry, the Tang army on the opposite side would fight to the death with him under the leadership of Li Shimin. Then the light army that he led to chase and kill the Tang army was very likely to be eaten by the Tang army, so he also chased and killed for dozens of miles, then Mingjin collected his troops and returned to Anding County.

Xue Ju successfully repelled the Tang army's attack this time, and was naturally very happy. As for rewarding the three armed forces for meritorious deeds, there is no need to elaborate. On the other hand, because of the defeat of Liu Wenjing's army on the northern front, Li Shimin was forced to shrink the front and start retreating. Although Li Yuan was also very annoyed by the failure of the Western Expedition, for the sake of preserving the combat strength of his army and the safety of his own son's life, he still approved Li Shimin's request to withdraw to Chang'an City.

After Li Shimin's side withdrew from Anding County, he continued to gather remnants on both sides of the Jing River, and it took a lot of time to successfully merge with Liu Wenjing's army. As the losses of Liu Wenjingjun and Li Shimin's army were counted, Li Shimin's vertigo became more and more serious. In fact, Li Shimin gave up the plan of temporarily retreating and waiting for an opportunity to counterattack Xue Jujun, and instead issued an order for the entire army to withdraw to Chang'an City before he fell unconscious.

In the morning of the next few days, the ministers felt that the court felt depressed. Li Yuan's face was always gloomy, and some people who were sensitive to information naturally knew what Li Yuan was angry about. After all, Anding County is located in the upper reaches of the Jing River, if Xue Jujun really has the heart to capture Chang'an City, then as long as the Jing River flows downstream, it only takes two days to push the troops to the outskirts of Chang'an City. The speed of this march can be said to be faster than the speed of mobilizing troops from other parts of his own territory to rush to the aid of Chang'an City. As the so-called side of the couch does not allow others to sleep soundly, Xue Jujun's stationing in Anding County undoubtedly hung a sharp blade on Li Yuan's head that could fall at any time. The primary goal of Li Shimin's army's westward expedition this time was to choose Anding County to solve this worry, but unfortunately Li Shimin's army was defeated and is now on the way back. organized such a huge westward expeditionary force, but because of the granary outside the city and Liu Wenjing's light enemy, it was in vain. Regardless of the large amount of manpower, material and financial resources spent on organizing this expedition, the loss of prestige alone made Li Yuan a little unbearable. So in the morning of the next few days, Li Yuan had a black face and listened to the ministers' reports, and then directly withdrew from the court.

On this day, Li Yuan was admiring the flowers in the garden of his mansion, trying to relieve his worries. Li Yuanji came to ask his father, and at this time, Li Yuan's mood improved slightly, so he ordered the subordinates next to him to go to the concierge to call his youngest son to come close to talk.

Li Yuanji came to Li Yuan and bowed, and then said to Li Yuan: "Son, I heard that the ministers of the court and the central government are talking in private in the past few days, father, you don't seem to be in a good mood, did something happen?" Or is my father still angry about the burning of the granary outside the city a few days ago? ”

After Li Yuan heard this, he sighed and said, "Hey." It's not because of those trivial things, the reason why I'm worried these days is because the army of the Western Expedition led by your second brother was repelled by Xue Ju's army, and Anding County was in the hands of Xue Ju, which always made my father feel like a fish in his throat and not vomit unpleasantly, and I originally expected your second brother to be able to repel Xue Ju's army on this Western Expedition. At the very least, we must take Anding County into our own hands and expel Xue Ju's army back to Pingliang County. But that Liu Wenjing! That Liu Wenjing didn't listen to your second brother's orders, and led the army out of the camp to meet Xue Ju's army without permission, so he was copied by Xue Ju's people. The entire camp burned to ruins, and countless soldiers were killed and wounded. Therefore, the troops of your second brother who stayed on the southern road were worried about being outnumbered, and they could only be forced to start retreating in the direction of Chang'an City. In the process, he was chased by Xue Ju's army for dozens of miles, and more than half of the troops who stayed behind the palace were killed or wounded. When do you say that since we started the incident until now, when have we suffered such a violent loss? After that Liu Wenjing came back, I had to ask him all over the place. ”

After Li Yuanji listened to Li Yuan's words, he secretly smiled in his heart: These things were expected by himself and Mr. Jiang in advance, and they could even be said in another way to achieve these things step by step in accordance with Mr. Jiang's formulation. So Li Yuanji said to Li Yuan: "Father, the child thinks that what his father and second brother think is a bit extreme. ”

After Li Yuan heard this, he raised his eyebrows curiously, he was not in a very good mood now, and he was a little at a loss for the current situation, after hearing Li Yuanji's words at this time, Li Yuan signaled Li Yuanji to continue with his eyes shining.

After Li Yuanji received encouragement from his father, he mustered up the courage to say everything he thought in his heart: "Father, we are now guarding the land in Guanzhong. Don't you think we have a lot of similarities with the ancient Qin dynasty? It is true that we have enough food and ammunition now, but this is only the end of it, and once we decide to expand the size of our army, we will not have enough food under our control. So father, why don't we follow the example of the pre-Qin and go south to occupy the land of Bashu first? The land of Bashu is the land of abundance, and it has been a major grain-producing county in the western part of the Central Plains since ancient times. If we can pocket the land of Bashu, then we will have enough military rations as a backing, and even if the granary is burned down again, there will be no embarrassment of such military rations. ”

(End of chapter)