Cao Zhan and Dong Kangmai understood, it was the Turkic way of fighting, but Song Jingang had three retreats in Shanxi, Hebei, and Shandong, and it was more terrible to fight than the Turks. The army rested for one night, and Meng Jian and Dong Kang bought 3,000 right Xiao cavalry, changed into the armor of the Tang army, and went first; Hou Mo, Chen Di, and Cao Zhan led 5,000 headquarters troops to deploy a part of the weapons. The army marched in the middle of the night, rested for two hours, and entered Yehe Town before dawn.

The 1,000 defenders were not in a hurry at first, thinking that it was the troops of the Tang Army, and they opened the city gate normally, and drove the prisoners out to work. In less than an hour, Meng Shu occupied Yehe Town, captured more than 400 Tang troops, more than 300 craftsmen, more than 1,000 laborers and prisoners, and obtained 6,000 sets of armor and tens of thousands of weapons.

After Song Jingang arrived, he immediately decided that 10,000 cavalry would change into Tang army armor, attack Shenzhou, and then capture Yingzhou, killing Yingzhou assassin Shi Ma Kuangwu; Ma Junde, a scholar of East Yanzhou, drove away the Tang army again, and attached East Yanzhou to Song Jingang. Gao Kaidao, Zhang Jinshu, and Xie Ling once again echoed the mutiny in Yuyang; With the help of the suddenness of the cavalry, Song Jingang went south to attack Juan County, killing Li Tangbeizhou Assassin Xu Shanhu who had been assassinated for less than ten days, and Liu Jun, the assassin of Guanzhou, would rebel against the Tang Dynasty and take refuge in Song Jingang.

"The situation is very serious." As soon as Tang Jian received the battle report, he rushed into the big tent of the Chinese army, and in the face of Li Shimin, he still did not hide it, and his words were full of panic: "Our scouts can't go deep into Shenzhou at all, the other party plans to have more than 10,000 horsemen, and the momentum is not under the Turks, Shenzhou, or even more cities may have fallen, the other party is to cut off the grain route on the front line, so that King Qin's 70,000 army retreats without food." ”

Li Daozong was not surprised that the Hexi Army still had means, but what was unexpected was the tactics of the Hexi Army; When Gao Kaidao mutinied, Li Daozong's first feeling was that Song Jingang would meet with Gao Kaidao, but he didn't expect Song Jingang to make a false shot in Cangzhou, turn around and go south to kill into the hinterland of Hebei, making Licheng and Liyang become possible targets. Li Daozong shook his head with a wry smile, and said worriedly: "If Song Jingang's goal is in Licheng, he can make Licheng a lonely city in less than ten days. ”

Li Daozong knew very well that once Licheng was conquered in this situation, when Song Jingang went north to Cangzhou again, there would be an army of fifty or sixty thousand, which would have an advantage in strength when facing him, and the number of war horses would be several times with him, turning the battle into a massacre; The only way is to fight a decisive battle with Song Jingang and defeat Song Jingang before the loss of Licheng, and if he fails, he can also ask Li Shimin for help early without any luck.

Shi Wanbao's rare brows furrowed, he was very dissatisfied with the fact that the scouts had not found out the enemy's situation until now, and after a little thought, he said, "The top priority is to quickly reverse the passive situation, but it is obvious that in addition to King Qin's army, we are now the last mobile force in Hebei. If we don't move, we can only watch Song Jingang take all the cities. Sending troops is inevitable, and the key is that we must not let the other side take us by surprise. ”

Speaking of this, Shi Wanbao pointed directly to the map and said: "We will only go to Shenzhou, so that we can not only lock the northward route of Song Jingang, but also compress the activity area of the Hexi Army." ”

As soon as these words came out, Tang Jian's eyes became even more worried. The best way at this moment is to ask Li Shimin to withdraw from the front line, but Li Daozong and Shi Wanbao are holding on to luck, that is, the opponent is not strong enough; But what if the battle is lost? It will be an irreparable pain, if not a loss, the difference is not big; Only then did Tang Jian realize what helplessness is, what courage is, and what it means to be broken.

"Without further ado." Li Daozong made up his mind, anyway, he wanted to fight, so there was no need to look ahead and backward, and with a wave of his hand, he said: "Order all the departments, and send troops to Shenzhou tomorrow." ”

On the 25th day of the 11th month of the Great Sui lunar calendar, the Song Jingang army and the Tang army Li Daozong encountered in Xiabo in the southeast of Shenzhou, everything was a mistake, the Tang army was unprepared to attack the enemy unprepared, and the Hexi army was caught off guard, and did not take the nearest road to the north, but went around in a big circle, wanting to surprise the south gate. It's a pity that the times are not good, Song Jingang's lone army has been on high alert, and he has already sent scouts in every direction.

The Hexi army moved in a hurry, and only 10,000 cavalry were dispatched at the beginning, which made Li Daozong no longer in a dilemma, and commanded the crossbowmen of the horse infantry army to block step by step, wanting to drag the Hexi army down and drag it to death; It's just that there are not enough elite soldiers in the Tang army, and the cavalry is only more than 2,000 cavalry, and the casualties paid at the beginning are too great. When more than 10,000 reinforcements from the right Xiaowei arrived, the Tang army found that the other side had heavy infantry and the follow-up 5,000 cavalry, and completely lost their fighting spirit and were harvested by the Hexi army.

30,000 Tang troops were annihilated, Li Daozong was killed, Shi Wanbao fled back on horseback, and when Song Jingang went north to attack Cangzhou, Tang Jian abandoned the city and went west; The Hexi army made persistent efforts to capture Hengzhou and kill the assassin Wang Gongzheng. The gate of Beiping was lost, and the front line was short of food and grass, so Li Shimin had to return north again to help, and Li Shimin and Song Jingang confronted Weizhou.

Xu Shiji's army took the opportunity to recover Xiangzhou, Liyang and other places, and advanced the front to Xingzhou; Liu Heimin attacked all the way to Guantao, occupied Maozhou, lined up in Yongji Canal, and Luo Yi after the Tang army was broken, Yang Yanshi, who rushed to help the battle, led the Hubu battalion to kill the Tang army, including 500 heavy armored cavalry, including 1,700 cavalry, after a fierce sprint, the Tang army was cut down and killed 4,000 people, Luo Yi fled to Weizhou.

Tianqi provided information again, Liu Heimin was in Raoyang, took down Zhuge Dewei, who had surrendered by fraud, passed the book in the name of Zhuge Dewei, broke Luo Yi again, and beheaded the Tang army with 2,000. Although Li Shimin defeated Song Jingang in Shenzhou, the city was not down, Xu Shiji and Liu Heimin's reinforcements had arrived, and Gao Kaidao was attacking Beiping, Li Shimin had no choice but to continue to retreat north; As soon as Xu Shiji's three-way army met, Gao Kaidao's general Zhang Jinshu fled.

It turned out that the Turkic reinforcements had arrived, and Jieli Khan sent Song Zhena to lead 10,000 horsemen to Yuyang and take over the army of Gao Kaidao; The Tudiji clan, the leader of the Yan Dynasty, moved to Changping City in Youzhou, and formed an alliance with Shi Wangxu, the governor of Youzhou in Li Tang. Zhang Jinshu was able to escape because the environment in Yuyang was not good, and most of Gao Kaidao's subordinates were from Shandong, and they did not return home for several years, and they were homesick, so more than 300 horses ran out with him.

Xu Shiji smiled bitterly: "The prime minister has no last resort, the Turks have really sent troops, and it's time to end the battle." ”

(End of chapter)