The offensive of the Hexi army was like a frenzy, the Tang army was caught off guard, and could not effectively defend at all, Guo Xiaoke could only command the Tang army to defend with his life, but Liu Heimin was brave and invincible, and fought hard until dawn, the Tang army finally collapsed, Guo Xiaoke could not escape, and was killed by the chaotic army.

Gao Yaxian's rear army arrived the next day, and was still discovered by the Tang army when he finally left, Gao Yaxian had to adopt the tactics of surviving with a broken arm, constantly arranging the broken army, and lost 5,000 before escaping. Liu Heimin sent people to dig up the embankment of the Lishui River to block the speed of the Tang army, replenished grain and grass materials, and the whole army retreated to Henan. Xu Shiji's army took the opportunity to cross the river, attacked the city and plundered the land all the way, recovered Huaxian, rendezvoused with Liu Heimin, and approached Liyang and other places.

Li Shimin recovered Weizhou and most of the cities captured by Liu Heimin, so he ordered Li Xiaoji to deal with the military situation behind Hebei, and he once again mobilized 70,000 troops to deploy defenses on the front line of Liyang, preparing to fight with the Hexi army; On the contrary, on the battlefield of Shandong, Luo Shixin, Wang Bo, and Wang Yaohan have occupied the whole county of Beihai step by step, captured the six counties of Qi County, and approached the county to govern the city.

The battle report reached Chang'an, and there was a burst of cheers in the main hall, it seemed that the battle line in Hebei was going back and forth, but in this pull, the Hexi army almost captured the entire Shandong. As long as Xu Shiji and Liu Heimin continue to hold on, and wait for Luo Shixin to defeat Qi County, then even if the Hexi Army is defeated in Liyang again, it will still have an advantage in the overall strategy, and it is a big deal to recruit men and horses to fight again. Yang Chong took Xu Shiji as the marshal of the Hebei march, worshiped Liu Heimin as the general of the right military guard, and Gao Yaxian as the general of the right military guard, and appointed Fan Yuan as the envoy of the Hebei Jiedu.

Yang Chong made it clear in the main hall that he would never negotiate with Li Tang, even if Li Yuan canceled the emperor's title this time, if he wanted to gain understanding, he must give up his territory and army and come to live in Chang'an. Li Yuan's father and son now control Hebei, Jiangnan, and Bashu, with hundreds of thousands of troops, how can they do this, Yang Chong's actual meaning is to close the door to negotiations, what do you want, and decide the winner with real swords and guns.

The magnates of Chang'an were disappointed, and after more than three months of fierce fighting, Li Shimin still retreated to Liyang; According to the past examples of the Hexi Army, as long as there is such a repetition of defeat and then victory, it will be difficult for the Hexi Army to be defeated. At this time, Cui Mingan received a letter from his family, Li Shimin wanted to negotiate peace and divide Hebei equally with the Hexi Army.

Cui Mingan only felt that he had caught a hot fireball, and after thinking about it, he could only discuss it with his cousin Cui Minshou. Cui Minshou coped with a few words without being salty, and learned that Li Shimin did not write a personal letter, Cui Minshou said disdainfully: "Li Shimin has not made a clear statement, what you say, there is a chance that you are testing Chang'an's attitude." ”

Cui Min read the scriptures to the fullest, and he was a lot worse in this kind of deception, and asked: "Could it be that Li Shimin is deceiving our Cui family?" ”

Cui Minshou sighed in his heart, retreated left and right, and said: "Family master, in the eyes of the heroes who are competing for the world, the gate valve is just the power to use, and you will not be afraid because of your century-old cornerstone, if you still think that the family can control the world, you are very wrong." Later, I will go to the prime minister to explain the matter, and you will forget about it as if nothing happened. ”

Yang Chong was not surprised to hear the news of Cui Minshou, and the Zheng family also received the same information, Li Shimin was really as black-bellied as recorded in history, regardless of face and means in front of fame; Considering that the Cui family is still under the control of Li Shimin and needs face, Yang Chong gave Cui Minshou a reply answer, that is, he wants the entire territory of Jizhou, so that Li Shimin can be the king of Yan under the name of Yang Zhengdao and control Youzhou.

Cui Minshou understands that this answer will not satisfy Li Shimin, but it is likely to be Yang Chong's final bottom line, and Yang Chong will not really worry that Li Shimin will be unfavorable to the Cui family; If this really happens, Yang Chong is afraid that he will hold a banquet to celebrate again. What Cui Minshou didn't know was that the war in Hebei would not end before the end of the year, and the drama had just begun.

The peaks at the north end of Taihang Mountain are majestic, the strange rocks are craggy, the red sand canyons are one after another, the mountain body has been cut by tens of millions of years of flowing water, eroded and naturally folded, and the 20,000 soldiers of the right Xiaowei of the Hexi Army marched on the wall road in the canyon, feeling how much of their own senses are constantly changing. The waterfall on the opposite side is tumbling out from the deep pool at the top of the cliff, rushing into the stone urn, whirling out, splashing down from the cliff of tens of meters high, the valley bottom is narrow and deep, the gorge bank wall stands, the clouds are steaming under the sun, it is quite spectacular.

The silver dragon flies at the height of the mountain peak, the ice hanging on the cliff of Baizhang emits a pearl-like luster, the waterfalls fly snow, the vegetation is abundant, some trees are yellow, and some trees are still green. Hu Lu Tianyou and Meng Shu were the pioneers of this northward journey, and when they learned that there were still twenty miles to go out of the canyon, the scouts did not find the Tang Army, and saw the signal of the Hexi Army; The two looked at each other and smiled, while sending someone to the back to report Song Jingang, while urging the army to advance, and sure enough, when they got out of the canyon, they saw the unknown mark.

The army marched another seven miles, and when it approached the three-way intersection in front, Hou Mo Chen Biao and other more than 200 horsemen ran towards him, and Hou Mo Chen Biao introduced the generals Cao Zhan and Dong Kangmai as the leaders. After Cao Zhan and the others received Zhang Junli's message, they knew that it was not easy to go south, so they retreated to Xingzhou with a half-believing mentality, and met Hou Mo Chen Bi, who came first; Hou Mo Chen Biao had already chosen a hidden camp site and sent people to inquire about the situation in the nearby counties.

Hou Mo Chen Biao said with a smile: "In the past five days, my hair has turned white. General Cao took in nearly 6,000 people, and although the counties along the way were all branded with the banner of the Tang army, Li Shimin's army was in Liyang, Li Xiaoji's army was in Cangzhou, and there were only 30,000 horses and horses of Li Daozong to prevent General Han Shige. What I mean by this is to go north first to capture the town of Yehe, seize weapons, armor, and expand the army from the laborers. ”

Obviously, Hou Mo Chen Bi and Cao Zhan discussed this plan, and after Song Jingang arrived, he immediately agreed: "The army has not been intercepted by the Tang army all the way, because the Tang army is still not familiar with large-scale cavalry battles, and Han Shige has put great pressure on the direction of Daizhou." However, the Tang army still has a large number of troops everywhere, and only by constantly attacking them and consuming their strength in one battle after another can we accumulate small victories and turn them into big victories and deal a heavy blow to Li Shimin. ”

Cao Zhan asked, "What is the ultimate goal?" ”

Song Jingang smiled: "I don't know. According to the pre-plan, I will first go north and then south, destroy the important towns and grain routes of the Tang army, and if Li Shimin ignores them, we will go to participate in the decisive battle of Liyang; If Li Shimin takes the initiative to retreat before we join the siege, we will take advantage of the speed and go back to Henan like Liu Heimin, and cooperate with the army in Shandong to take Licheng. ”

(End of chapter)