(1st Update)

Although he knew in advance that Shouzhou was well defended, he had never tried Shouzhou's combat power, and he couldn't know that Shouzhou could fight like this, if not, he wouldn't have let the Hundred Battles Army storm for a few days. Pen & Fun & Pavilion www.biquge.info

Now, the Hundred Battles Army is attacking the city with all its might, and there is no inch of success for several days, Li Congjing has a clearer understanding of the strict defense of Shouzhou City and the complete equipment of defending the city.

Yang Wu's reinforcements didn't come too fast, and of course they weren't slow, but in any case, the Tang army was forced to stop here because the Tang army failed to conquer Shouzhou at this time, but it gave Yang Wu the opportunity to dispatch troops.

It can be said that the first major battle after the Tang Army entered Huai was really unfavorable.

"This time, the Huainan Army rescued Shouzhou, with Li Decheng as the commander, and Liu Xin as the deputy. Li Decheng led 30,000 troops and had reached Dingyuan County (southeast of Shouchun), and Liu Xin led 20,000 troops and had reached Haozhou (northeast of Shouchun). Li Congjing summarized the situation in general, the two major towns on the Huaishui West Line, one is Shouzhou (Shouchun), and the other is Haozhou (Zhongli)," Li Decheng and Liu Xin, and ask the military advisor to explain a little for us. ”

Mo Li gave up his hand, and then said without hurry: "Li Decheng is a person, the statement is far away, I think you have heard of it, he followed Yang Xingmi in his early years, and was a brave general who charged into battle. ”

"The most commendable thing in Li Decheng's life happened when he besieged Anrenyi in Runzhou with Yang Xingmi. At that time, An Renyi was also a brave general, and the army attacked the city for a long time and could not be defeated, so that the generals in the army, every time they saw An Renyi coming to the city to supervise the battle, they had to curse endlessly, but Li Decheng never spoke ill of him. When Li Decheng arrived, An Renyi suddenly said to him: Before, you were insulted by a certain general, but you were not rude when you saw a certain official, and you had a strange face, and he would be very noble in the future. Then he lost his bow and arrows, and was captured. ”

When the Chinese officials and military generals heard this, they were all a little surprised, such a character, in the Tang Dynasty, was probably the same weight as Fu Xi and Li Cunxian.

Mo Li continued: "Li Decheng is a person who has both wisdom and courage, strict management of the army, and is very popular, and the soldiers are willing to die for it. ”

Seeing that all the generals were solemn, Mo Li continued: "Liu Xin, who was a thief in his early years, and after defecting to Yang Xingmi, he also often has meritorious deeds. Liu Xin has an uninhibited temperament, a penchant for praise, and a penchant for alcohol. In the early years, Yang Xingmi asked him about military affairs, but he was drunk to the point where he couldn't speak, Yang Xingmi was annoyed by his drunken state and abused him, he was angry and walked away with his sword. Left and right pleaded for it, and asked Yang Xingmi to chase him back, but Yang Xingmi said: Believe in drunk, wake up and come back. The next day, Liu Xin really came back. ”

Liu Xin often compares himself with Han Xin, when Zhuang Zong destroyed the pseudo-Liang, sent an envoy into Fujian, through Liu Xin's jurisdiction, Liu Xin entertained the envoy, and asked him: Does the emperor know if there is a letter? The messenger replied: The Lord is in Xinping Henan, and the name of the public is unknown. Liu Xin didn't care, but patted his chest and said: Han has Han Xin, Wu has Liu Xin, and everyone is one and the same! It is rare for a person to like to boast to this extent, but this person has a heroic nature, is not informal, and has always served as a soldier. ”

After Mo Li finished speaking, everyone in the tent fell silent, and everyone realized that Li Decheng and Liu Xin were not easy to get along, and this time they led an army of 50,000 to rush to Shouzhou, and they also had the help of the state and county, which can be said to be not good, and the situation was not friendly to the Tang army.

Li Congjing couldn't help but smile when he saw everyone like this: "The enemy commander is famous, are you already afraid?" ”

Everyone immediately became noisy, and they all said who was afraid of whom, and Meng Ping even said: "The last general, please be the vanguard, go to Dingyuan County to attack Li Decheng, and you will not win!" ”

Li Congjing motioned for everyone to be quiet, and then said seriously: "Since the Huangchao Rebellion, the Central Plains has been in flames, and the prefectures and counties have been killed by war all the year round. Moreover, Jianghuai is a rich land, and Jiangzuo has always produced a large number of talents, which is a fact, and there is no need to deny it. Huainan has today's trend, it is not accidental, Jinling is full of talents, and it is not a lie. This time, it is not easy for my king to fight against the generals. However, knowing the difficulties and overcoming obstacles, Fang shows the true character of the husband, and my Tang Dynasty is thousands of miles of rivers and mountains, isn't it more powerful and talented than a corner of Huainan? Do you think so? ”

The people in the tent praised the goodness one after another, and the generals had sharp eyes and great ambitions.

Seeing that people's hearts were available, Li Congjing was a little relieved.

What he said is not bad, Huainan is indeed not to be underestimated. At this time, the expedition to Huainan and Zhou Shizong's expedition to Huainan are not the same.

During the period of Li Jing, the lord of the Southern Tang Dynasty, although Huainan had accumulated a lot of national strength, it had suffered great losses because of its conquest of Chu and Fujian, and Li Jing's talent and Xu Zhihe (Li Yu's) talent were also very different, and at that time, the politics of the Southern Tang Dynasty were not clear, the traitorous villain was in charge, and the atmosphere of forming a party for personal gain and excluding dissidents was very serious.

But Rao is like this, don't say that the Southern Tang Dynasty is Dingjiangbei, Zhou Shizong also fought three times, during which the land of Jiangbei was also recovered by the Southern Tang Dynasty. As for the destruction of the Southern Tang Dynasty, it was all Zhao Kuangyin's merits.

Li Congjing looked at Mo Li, "Now that we know the movement of the Huainan reinforcements, our army should have corresponding arrangements, what is the advice of the military advisor?" ”

Mo Li sat behind the small case, straightened up and bowed his hand again, and then resumed his sitting posture, so that he could take a good time, and said without hurry: "Shouzhou to Dingyuan County, about one hundred and sixty miles, to Haozhou, about one hundred and forty miles." Today, Li Decheng led the troops to Dingyuan, Liu Xin led the troops to Haozhou, Shouzhou is in the center, I surround Shouzhou, and Dingyuan and Haozhou surround me, our army is really in the situation of being attacked by the enemy on the back of the abdomen, if we can't crack the offensive of the enemy army in Dingyuan and Haozhou, when they arrive in Shouzhou, our army is in danger! ”

"The enemy army in Dingyuan is a foot cavalry, the enemy army in Haozhou relies on the naval division, and our army is strong in the infantry and weak in the naval division, so we should send elite infantry cavalry to Dingyuan to attack Li Decheng's department, and set up a pontoon bridge in Huaishui to take a defensive position to resist Liu Xin's department."

This kind of strategy is not profound, and it is reasonable, everyone has no objections, Li Congjing also bowed his head and said: "What the military advisor said is very much in line with my wishes, and if this is the case, I will accept the strategy of the military advisor." ”

Li Congjing looked around at the generals, and was about to attack, at this time, Li Congke stood up, bowed his head and hugged his fists to ask for his life, "The guards and the pro-army have not done an inch since the training, this time they went out, and they have not participated in the war, and then after arriving in Shouzhou, they have not participated in the war, and now the enemy and thieves are attacking, and the guards are willing to share the worries for His Highness, and the last general will be brave, please attack Li Decheng for His Highness!" ”

Li Congjing bowed slightly, Li Congke's words were reasonable, seeing that he asked for battle, knowing that he had a fighting spirit and could not be easily killed, Li Congjing said: "General Li has this heart, and his lonely heart is very comforting, so he allows you to lead 30,000 troops and attack Dingyuan County, in order to welcome Li Decheng and sweep away the enemy on the flanks for Wang Shi!" ”

Li Congke was overjoyed when he heard this, "I will not disgrace my life!" ”

Next, it was agreed on the matter of the pontoon bridge, the pontoon bridge of the army, which was previously built in Zhengyang in the west, and now it is necessary to resist the Liu Xin department in Haozhou, of course, it must be moved to the downstream of Shouzhou.

The water is northwest-southeast flow, after passing through the Huaishui into the territory of Shouzhou, there are nearly two hundred miles to the south, Shouchun City is in the south of the water, and is not built on the bank of the Huaishui River.

The big policy was agreed, and the next thing was the march plan, the distribution of soldiers, the allocation of grain and grass, etc., which are details and need not be said.

After the military discussion was dispersed, the generals and civilian officials left, and Li Congjing left all the staff in the tent, and there were important matters to discuss.

"Xu Zhihe sent Li Decheng and Liu Xin to lead 50,000 troops to rescue Shouzhou, which can be said to be a temporary effort in Huainan, let's talk about it, does Xu Zhihe want to fight on two fronts, or does he plan to abandon Chu and concentrate on guarding the land of Jianghuai?" Li Congjing asked the staff. Wu fought on two fronts, which was extremely unfavorable to itself, and the original army attacked Huaidi, but there was no intention of forcing the Wu army to retreat from Chu.

Wang Pu shook his head and said: "Looking at it now, I can't know Xu Zhihe's plan, even if Xu Zhihe wants to withdraw his troops from Chudi, it must be because the war between the two places is unfavorable, he will consider giving up one of them, if he can succeed in the counteroffensive in the two places, Huainan does not need to withdraw his troops from Chu." ”

Everyone agreed with what Wang Pu said, so they didn't say anything more about it.

The next day, Li Congjing inspected the site where the Huaishui pontoon bridge was built.

The river breeze is cool, the four fields are endless, the clouds are flying in the sky, and the soldiers and people by the Huaishui River are busy.

Mo Li looked at the river bridge being built and said: "Shouchun's strength is far beyond what was expected, and now that Huainan reinforcements are coming in a hurry, the battle of Jianghuai will definitely not be good in the short term." With a hundred battles and 50,000 guards and soldiers, it was difficult to smash Yangzhou. ”

Ba Shouchun, Kechuzhou, swept Jiangbei, and smashed Yangzhou, which was the strategy formulated before the expedition. Once the Tang army conquered Yangzhou, no matter what the battle situation in Chu was, the Wu army would have to withdraw its troops from Chu, and the Tang army would be able to take advantage of the situation to occupy Chu.

To achieve these goals, one condition must be met: the speed of the soldiers. Only by fighting a quick battle, going straight to the heart, and tearing through the Jiangbei defense line of the Wu army in a short period of time, can the armies of Wu be caught off guard, and Xu Zhihe will not be able to effectively deploy troops and send generals.

Li Congjing didn't seem anxious, "Huainan is not as strong as Liangchuan and Khitan, and the power is very strong, so he sent troops to Chudi, giving us an opportunity to take advantage of, I can only say that the battle is good to fight a lot, but it is also difficult to succeed easily, the battle situation is naturally good as expected, if the battle situation is unfavorable, we have a second set of plans." ”

Speaking of this, Li Congjing took a deep breath, "I have ordered the Songzhou Xuanwu Army, the Xuzhou Zhongwu Army, the Maozhou Guide Army, the Xuzhou Wuning Army, and the soldiers and horses of Chen, Ying, Su, Cai and other prefectures, a total of 100,000 soldiers and soldiers, rushed to Shouzhou to besiege Shouchun together. ”