Chapter Ninety-Seven: Fellow Believers
"General, the rebellious minister and thief Tang Ao is brave and good at fighting, he is really the enemy of ten thousand people, and the last general failed to stop the loss of the city and land, and he is willing to be punished by military law. Pen, fun, pavilion www. biquge。 info "Ma Jingchen knelt on the ground trembling all over, his face covered with blood stains on his crooked helmet and oblique armor.
The corner of Lei Renzhi's eyes secretly glanced at Li Xiaoyi, knelt down and said: "General, the Yangzhou army is by no means more than 100,000 people as rumored, the last general fought fiercely with the Yangzhou army outside Gucheng for an hour, and the strength of the Yangzhou army reached more than 100,000 people with his own eyes. ”
Cheng Saburo's face was deliberately covered with dirty blood, with a beard burned by fire, he looked like he was exhausted in battle, and said in a hoarse voice: "General, the defeat of Gucheng is not General Lei's sin, General Lei bravely killed the enemy, and took the lead in beheading hundreds of people, all blame the late general's failure to rescue and lead to the defeat of Gucheng, and the general will punish the last general!" ”
Li Xiaoyi's face was gloomy, and the generals of the defeated army naturally had to be punished heavily according to the law, but at the moment when the two armies were fighting, it was unlucky to kill the general.
Moreover, although Wudang and Gucheng were defeated, there were not many soldiers and horses damaged, and the losses were still within the bearable range.
"The thief Li Jingye is now occupying Wudang and Gucheng, and our army is losing ground, I don't know what good strategy you have to break the enemy?" After Li Xiaoyi finished speaking, he ordered someone to help up the miserable three defeated generals, but he did not give the three people seats.
Ma Jingchen hugged his fists and said: "The left army of Yangzhou is elite, our soldiers are difficult to match, and the cavalry is not the opponent of the heavy cavalry led by Tang Ao, and the Yangzhou army must fight to the death in every battle. ”
Lei Renzhi and Cheng Saburo looked at each other when they heard this, and said at the same time: "This strategy is absolutely impossible. ”
Lei Renzhi was afraid that Li Xiaoyi would be aware of the filth of killing good and risking merit, how dare he let the army move to the east: "The Yangzhou army is divided into three routes, and now it seems that the middle route army is the weakest, and our army should face the Yangzhou middle route army led by Li Jingye and cut off the retreat of the Yangzhou army." ”
Wei Yuanzhong, the superintendent of the army, watched coldly at the three generals of the defeated army talking eloquently, and when he heard it, he couldn't help but speak: "A general is incompetent and tired of thousands of troops, how long has it been since Li Jingye raised troops in Yangzhou?" The sergeant under his command was just a money smith and a mine slave before, how much combat power can he have? You and others are all born in the army, blindly exaggerating the strength of the Yangzhou army, but they are afraid of war, cowardice, and their words and deeds will be recorded on the case and presented to the imperial review. ”
Li Xiaoyi coughed and interrupted Wei Yuanzhong's words, very dissatisfied with this prison soldier.
Wei Yuanzhong said that Ma Jingchen and others were afraid of war, which clearly meant that Sang scolded Huai and said that he was cowardly, but Wei Yuanzhong was the palace servant of the imperial history, Wu Zetian's henchman, and it was not good for him to have a stiff quarrel with Wei Yuanzhong.
"I don't know if Lord Wei has any good plans, you might as well talk about it." Li Xiaoyi pushed this problem onto Wei Yuanzhong.
Wei Yuanzhong stood up: "Our army's strategy of stationing in Junzhou to wait for work now seems to be unworkable, but when it comes to the Yangzhou army's strength exceeding our army, it is not credible, Li Jingye's real purpose of dividing the troops is to force our army to divide the troops, if the official's expectations are not bad, Li Jingye will definitely build a dam in the upper reaches of the Han River, if the blade hangs above our heads, this Junzhou can not be defended." ”
Lei Renzhi also knew the allusion of Guan Yunchang flooding the Seventh Army, and his face changed greatly: "If the Yangzhou Army really does this, how will our army deal with it?" The Han River passes through Junzhou, and the passage of the great water through our army is not a repeat of the mistake of banning Pang De during the Three Kingdoms. ”
Wei Yuanzhong glanced at Lei Renzhi: "Even if the Yangzhou army starts to build a dam to block the flow of water now, it will not be possible to do it in ten days and a half months, our army should take this opportunity to move to Luzhou, beware of the king of Luling being robbed by the rebellious ministers and thieves, and coercing the princes of the Son of Heaven to order the princes." ”
As soon as these words came out, there was no one to talk to the army in the tent, and all the soldiers present knew that Li Xiaoyi was a member of the Tang Dynasty clan and led nearly 300,000 troops into Luzhou, what would the people of the world think?
How will the Queen Mother in Chang'an City feel?
Li Xiaoyi was also taken aback by Wei Yuanzhong's suggestion, and wondered if Wei Yuanzhong's words were deliberately tentative.
He chose to garrison Junzhou instead of Luzhou, just to avoid unwarranted suspicion, Wei Yuanzhong is going to roast him on the fire, his heart can be punished, but is this what the Queen Mother means?
In the city of Junzhou, Li Xiaoyi convened the generals to discuss the follow-up battle plan, twenty miles away from Junzhou, the Yangzhou army joined forces on three roads, and they were also discussing the plan.
Li Jingye successively praised Tang Ao's brave champion of the three armies, Xiahou Zhan's outwitting strategy, and finally spread out the map and said: "The Han River system is developed, passing through Junzhou, if you can build a dam to store water in the upper reaches, Li Xiaoyi's 300,000 troops will be buried in the belly of the fish in less than a day, I don't know what you think?" ”
Everyone praised Li Jingye's brilliant plan, but Tang Ao kept silent.
When the generals were talking about supplementing suggestions, they always felt that something was missing, so they thought of Tang Ao, who didn't say a word.
"Lord Tang has a different opinion?" Li Jingye asked.
Tang Ao pointed to the suitable place on the map for building a dam: "It takes 50,000 people to work day and night for more than ten days to build a dam here, how can Li Xiaoyi sit still and wait for death?" If this official is not mistaken, Li Xiaoyi will definitely give up Junzhou and move to Luzhou, choking your life. ”
Li Xian, the king of Luling in Luzhou, was the lifeline of the Yangzhou army, and the banner played by the Yangzhou army was Kuang Fu Li Xian's throne.
If Li Xiaoyi's 300,000 army went south to Luzhou, the situation of King Luling could be imagined.
Wu Zetian deposed Emperor Li Xian and demoted him to Luzhou as the king, because he cared about the family relationship between mother and son, although Li Xian was equivalent to being under house arrest, he had no worries about his life.
However, once the war spreads to Luzhou, who dares to pat his chest to ensure Li Xian's safety? Will Wu Zetian, who is about to claim the emperor ascending the throne, take this opportunity and excuse to harm Li Xian's life?
No one dared to take this responsibility, so after Tang Ao finished speaking, the military tent seemed cold.
Wei Siwen, as a military advisor, has long analyzed this and agrees with Tang Ao's judgment: "Lord Tang is reasonable, at this moment, we have no choice but to throw our heads and spill blood, and take advantage of the aftermath of the two victories to hit Li Xiaoyi head-on." ”
Cheng Wuting interjected: "Facing Li Xiaoyi head-on, Lei Renzhi's department is a breakthrough, Lei Renzhixun is not trained in military affairs, and the hearts of the soldiers and horses under his command are easy to waver, and they can be defeated in a battle." ”
Xiahou Zhan took Gucheng and forced Lei Renzhi away according to Cheng Wuting's strategy, and he thought that he could defeat and even annihilate Lei Renzhi's troops with the men and horses of the Yangzhou Right Army alone.
As Wei Chizhao, Wei Chao and others seconded Tang Ao's analysis, Li Jingye pondered for a long time and finally gave up the flooding strategy and decided to start a decisive battle with Li Xiaoyi.
Seeing that the overall situation had been decided, Tang Ao sighed lightly and left the military tent under the pretext of physical fatigue.
On the top of a deserted and uninhabited hill, Tang Ao ran the Twelve Weeks of Heavenly Dao Sutra Taisu Gong, and a little joy flashed in his open eyes.
The several dangers encountered by the Women's Country, the heavy blows inflicted on him by the Yuan Infant Stage cultivator and Wu Zetian not only completely healed, but also made great progress in his realm.
Now it has steadily entered the late stage of qi refining, and it is only one step away from building the foundation.
The biggest contributor to the smooth entry was the storage bag of the Yuan Infant Stage cultivator, although there were no amazing treasures in it, there were several bottles of precious pills.
Moreover, the storage bag is a thousand times more convenient than the storage charm, and the space inside is enough for a house to hold a lot of things.
Tang Ao carefully took out the cracked Xuantian bead, and tried his best to encourage Li Jingye to face the 300,000 army that shook Li Xiaoyi, the purpose was to make this treasure useful.
Before the fierce battle between the two armies, as long as this treasure is stimulated in Li Xiaoyi's army, the 300,000 troops dare not say that they will all fall to the ground and be ambushed, and at least they will lose more than eighty percent of their combat effectiveness.
The only thing that reassures Tang Ao is whether the cultivators around Wu Zetian will lurk in the dark and wait for an opportunity.
If a thunderous blow is delivered at a critical moment, the victory or defeat of the Yangzhou army will be unpredictable.
Tang Ao put away the Xuantian Dzi of the Maiden, and there was an extra silver Moro knife in his palm, and his eyes turned to Wudang Mountain.
Cultivators' needs for spiritual energy are very strict, and they will not lurk in Li Xiaoyi's army, so the most likely hiding place is Wudang Mountain, which is known as one of the blessed places of Taoist caves.
Before the two armies fought, Tang Ao decided to climb the mountain to find out.
Wudang Mountain is also known as Taihe Mountain, Emperor Taizong of Zhenguan period ordered Wudang Festival to make prayer for rain on the mountain to be fulfilled, the edict to build the Five Dragons Temple, since then the incense is endless.
Tang Ao stood outside the Five Dragons Temple, sensing the faint aura emanating from inside, and couldn't help but feel a sigh in his heart, secretly thinking that there were indeed cultivators here.
"Why are you holding back?" A voice suddenly came from the Five Dragons Temple: "Is this ancestral hall of the poor road or the tiger's den of Longtan not successful?" ”
Tang Ao clenched the Moro knife in his palm, touched the storage bag on his waist again, and secretly climbed the stairs in vigilance.
Walking into the Five Dragons Temple, I couldn't help but be stunned, only to see an old Taoist with yellow hair sitting cross-legged in the middle, the Taoist robe on his body was filthy, if it weren't for the spiritual power fluctuations on the other party's body, Tang Ao would have thought he was a beggar!
Lao Dao's appearance could not tell the specific age, and the fluctuations in the spiritual power on his body indicated that he was only a Qi refining stage cultivator.
This made Tang Ao's tense heartstrings relax slightly, and he bowed his hand and said: "In Xia Tang Ao, I have seen Taoist friends." ”
"Sure enough, it's Tang Daoyou, Poor Dao has been waiting here for a long time." The old Taoist stood up, and saw that Tang Ao had an undisguised look of vigilance on his face, and grinned: "Poor Dao has a poor memory, but I forgot to mention the cause and effect to Tang Daoyou......
Tang Ao climbed the mountain to investigate in order to find the enemy's traces, but he never expected that the cultivator he found was a friend and not an enemy, and this old Dao of the Qi refining period named Du Guang was specially invited by Zhang Guolao to wait for him here.
Zhang Guolao, the registered disciple he accepted, actually invited a real cultivator, which made Tang Ao very happy, but he still didn't forget to ask the doubts in his heart: "Daoyou is waiting for Tang here, aren't you afraid that Tang won't come?" ”