While the two were talking, Duan Zhixuan strode in and told him that the samurai Tong of Kube Langzhong asked to see him, and Li Yuan immediately invited him; As a salt merchant, the samurai makes it very convenient to enter and exit Hedong now, and every time he buys some good things, the samurai Tong finds a reason to contact Li Yuan.

Seeing Pei Lin seated, Wu Shi Tong smiled knowingly, walked to the seat opposite Pei Lin and sat down, they were all Li Yuan's playmates, and they were also very close on weekdays; Pei Lin jokingly asked, "Shitong, what's the news over there in Hedong?" ”

Wu Shi Tong smiled mysteriously and said: "There is really a rare thing, Yang Chong began to recruit female soldiers and Zahu over the age of thirty-five in Liangzhou, Xiazhou, Shizhou, and Yongzhou to join the Tuntian Army. ”

Li Yuan and Pei Lian's faces changed immediately, and Pei Lin patted the case and said, "Yang Chong is going to war." ”

The samurai was stunned for a moment and asked, "Recruit these people to go to war?" ”

Li Yuan said in a deep voice: "Shitong, you don't know, Yang Chong has recruited 50,000 miscellaneous hutun fields in Xiazhou and other places, specializing in growing grain, cotton, building castles, and grazing. Zahu are actually potential warriors, what is lacking is a sense of identity and discipline, and Yang Chong's letting Zahu Tuntian is a kind of training in disguise. Now arranging for women to be replaced by veterans who can't go to the battlefield, it is obvious that these miscellaneous nonsense will be transferred out and trained into an army. ”

Yang Chong controls Qinghai, Gaochang, Longyou and other horse farms, and the output of steel is already four million catties a year, plus a large number of weapons and armor obtained from Tang Jun and Xue Ju, the ability to equip the army is still there; No, it should be 50,000 cavalry, and Zahu almost all bring their own war horses, and Yang Chong only needs to provide armor. Wu Shi Tong somewhat understood the change in the expressions of Li Yuan and the others, Zhuge Quan relied on 50,000 people to take Fufeng, approached Xianyang, and added 50,000 cavalry, Dou Liang was absolutely unable to resist.

Li Yuan asked the eunuch to call Duan Zhixuan, told him about the situation and asked, "Zhixuan, what is the plan?" ”

Duan Zhixuan has a bear on his back, and he is lofty, but he is a natural scoundrel, even in the face of Li Yuan, he is still laughing as usual; Duan Zhixuan said with a smile: "Your Majesty, Yang Chong is playing a clear plan, that is, to deceive us for fear of causing adverse effects, and he will defend Chang'an." According to my opinion, Yang Chong's goal is Taiyuan, and if 50,000 cavalry sweeps through, he will swallow the two states of Liao and Dai of Qin, and then turn around and go out of Hebei, and go south to echo the army of Qu Tutong and Song Jingang attacking Weizhou, and occupy a territory in the west of Hebei and the north of Henan. ”

Li Yuan's cancellation of the emperor's title was only external, and Duan Zhixuan and others still called Li Yuan the emperor. Li Yuanhu's eyes widened, he thought for a long time, and sighed: "What Zhixuan said is good, it should be so, once an army of 100,000 is gathered north of the Yellow River, you can join forces with Dou Jiande and Wang Shichong to defeat Xu Shiji." This is a copy of the Battle of Chang'an, even though Xu Shiji was a famous general for a while, but the land was wide and there were few soldiers, and in the face of the enemy army dominated by cavalry on three sides, it was only a matter of time before he was defeated; Fortunately, we still have time to adapt. ”

The important ministers of the court and the generals in the army were quickly invited, including Li Changqing, He Luosheng, Liang Li, Liu Deyu, Dou Yan, Li Shuliang, Xu Luoren, Yang Wengan, as well as Wang Changhuan and Lei Yongji, who stayed in the prince's mansion, and the eldest grandson Shunde, Zhang Changgui, and other generals who stayed in the Qin palace.

After listening to the situation, Nayan Dou Kang asked: "Can we concentrate our forces and defeat Zhuge Quan and Li Jing one by one?" ”

Wang Changxiang shook his head and said: "Impossible, Zhuge Quan and Li Jing each have twenty or thirty thousand cavalry, once the battle situation is not good, it is a big deal to open a bloody road and escape, the loss will not be too great, if there is a city to hold on, relying on bows and crossbows, maybe the casualties on both sides can reach three to one." ”

Dou Kang was silent, this kind of loss was something Chang'an could not afford, as long as he lost another 50,000 troops, Chang'an would collapse, and the gate lords and magnates in the city would find a way to ask Li Yuan to leave. The eldest grandson Shunde suggested: "It is better to recruit another 30,000 troops from Juxian and other places, and let Nanyang send another 20,000 troops." ”

Li Shentong vetoed and said: "The Zheng family will not agree, Zhu Can's surrender is a temporary means, once there are 20,000 less troops, Zhu Cang will turn his face, and Zheng Yuanshou will not even have the ability to check and balance." You can recruit 30,000 troops for training first, and when the war is fierce, someone is better than no one; In addition, it is necessary to determine a companion capital in the south, Xingyang or Nanyang, so as not to be caught off guard when you get it. ”

Is the situation so critical? Li Yuan immediately understood what Li Shentong meant, and agreed: "Take precautions, for the time being, Xingyang, Dou Kang, you and Zheng Yuanshou are responsible for this matter, the first step is to settle the families of the officials of the three provinces and six ministries in Xingyang, so that the officials have no worries." As soon as Shentong's injuries were healed, he and Li Gang went to Xingyang to serve as the left-behind guard and the long history respectively, and the military department considered sending an army to defend the palace. ”

Everyone understands that this is the placement of family members, this is the taking of hostages; Once Chang'an is defeated, if these officials surrender to the enemy, their families will suffer a lot, and even their heads will fall to the ground. Li Gang stepped forward to stop him and said: "Your Majesty, this matter should not be rushed, once it is used by the enemy, nothing will happen, and it will have an impact on the emperor's reputation." ”

Li Yuan can only sigh that Li Gang does not eat fireworks in the world, who can believe that even Pei Lian, Dou Cong, and Wu Shi Tong can go to do business with Yang Chong, and the rest of the people don't know what the hell is going on behind their backs. In Chang'an City, I don't know how many people are secretly communicating with Yang Chong, just waiting for the day when they betray the Li family. Since the Sima clan usurped Wei, the king and the horse share the world, the emperor is not worth a penny in the eyes of the scholars, and the gate lord clan often thinks that there is no thousand-year dynasty, only a thousand-year-old scholar.

No matter how strong Yang Jian, Yang Guang and his son are, they still can't eliminate the influence of the gate valve, often one family does not fall, and the other rises again; Li Yuan didn't think that in the current situation, he could do better than Yang Jian and Yang Guang, so he could only be realistic. As for reputation, the history books are made up by the victors, the king is defeated, if he fails, what does he have to do with reputation, and it is already a blessing that the victorious side does not splash dirty water.

Pei Lin said with a straight face: "Master Li is too worried, with the loss of the two counties of Fufeng, Chang'an is already at the forefront, and if there is a slight disturbance, the war will be rekindled; It was for the safety of the people who followed him that the emperor decided to transfer his family in advance, in case the battle was fierce and all kinds of things such as accidental injuries would happen. Yang Chong has already started to recruit soldiers, and the current situation is that he does not know if he will have time to transfer. ”

Pei Lin did not sit in vain in the position of Shangshu's right servant, and supported Li Yuan at a critical time, and the timing was just right; The ministers had no objections, and each went down to make arrangements. However, the transfer of the minister's family is by no means a trivial matter, many ministers at both ends of the head do not dare to resist, there are still small actions in secret, Chang'an suddenly fell into the rumors, the Hexi army saw the first batch of hundreds of carriages leaving Anhuamen, and immediately flew to Hedong.

After Yang Chong discussed with Wang Ji and others, he decided to send someone to spread the news in Luoyang, Li Yuan himself was preparing to evacuate Chang'an, would Wang Shichong still ally with him?

(End of chapter)