In this battle, the army of the Zhou Dynasty killed 6,000 enemies, captured more than 15,000 enemies, and captured Hedong City, the most important strategic city in the south of Bingzhou, and Shi Wanbao, the defender of Hedong City, died in the chaos. Pen? Interesting? Pavilion wWw. ｂiquge。 ｉｎfo

The defeat in Hedong not only wiped out Li Shentong's 25,000 elite troops, but also caused the situation in the entire state to begin to develop in a direction that was extremely unfavorable to the Tang Dynasty.

After the battle of Hedong County, Wencheng County, Longquan County, Lishi County, Jiang County, Linfen County and other five counties that had been on the sidelines immediately changed their flags, and the five county guards declared their allegiance to the Great Zhou Empire one after another, and sent people to the Zhongdu Imperial Court to offer the county land and civil register.

Just ten days later, except for a lonely city in Taiyuan, the entire territory of the Tang Dynasty had belonged to the Zhou Dynasty, and the situation in the state changed so quickly that it only took half a month.

At this time, an unprecedented snowstorm swept through most of the area north of the Yellow River, and the goose feather snow fell one after another, and the entire northern sky turned gray.

In the early winter, Chang'an City also ushered in the first heavy snow since the beginning of winter, the cold wind wrapped in the blizzard raged for three days and three nights, when the blizzard weakened into light snow, Chang'an has become a snow-capped world.

At this time, it is less than a month before the New Year, and the atmosphere of the New Year is starting to get stronger day by day.

Heavy snow fell in the sky, the road to the east was also blocked, the transportation of goods was blocked, the transmission of news was also blocked, and the drastic changes that occurred in the state did not reach the people of Chang'an, under the premise that the imperial court could block the news, the vast majority of the military and civilians in Chang'an did not know that the state had changed hands, on the contrary, Li Shimin conquered Gaonu County in Yan'an County, and the news of capturing Song Jingang alive made the people of Chang'an excited, so that the coming New Year added a little joy.

The battle of Yan'an County lasted for four months, and there were not many battles in the four months, only three in total, but all three battles were huge, the first battle took place in Yincheng County in the south of Yan'an County, and in early August, Li Shimin defeated Song Jingang's 80,000 army with 30,000 troops.

Song Jingang was forced to retreat to Gaonu County, and gathered 100,000 troops in Gaonu County, ready to turn the tables in one fell swoop, but Li Shimin did not give him a chance, he and Qu Tutong each led 30,000 troops to attack Song Jingang's camp left and right, Song Jingang's army was defeated again, and countless people were killed and captured, Song Jingang led 30,000 rear troops to flee back to Gaonu County without a fight.

The third battle is the siege of the city, and it is also the longest battle, which lasted for three months, until ten days ago, the Song Jingang army commander Shi Yang Funian and his son Yang Jiaoxian surrendered to the Tang army at the south gate, Li Shimin led tens of thousands of Tang troops into the city, Gaonu County was breached, and Song Jingang was also tied up by his guards to the Tang army.

At present, Yan'an County has been completely recovered, only Song Jingang's general Lu Chongmao led 8,000 troops to resist stubbornly in the area of Suide County in the south of Diaoyin County, at this time, Li Shimin received an urgent letter from the imperial court, he knew that he sent an envoy to the state, he ordered the general Sheng Yanshi to lead an army of 15,000 people to continue to encircle and suppress the remnants of Song Jingang, and he led the army back to Chang'an.

Song Jingang was finally beheaded by Li Yuan four days ago, and the crowd of people in Xishi four days ago made many Chang'an people unforgettable, when Song Jingang's head was cut off, the West City was jubilant, this is the effect Li Yuan wanted, using the victory of Yan'an County to cover up the defeat of the state.

After all, paper can't contain the fire, although the heavy snow road closure blocked the news, but there are still some big merchants through their carrier pigeons to get the news of the state, and the news of the loss of the state has begun to spread secretly in some small circles.

Li Jiancheng only rushed back to Chang'an from Hanzhong County yesterday, he was not allowed to return to Beijing within two years, but the increasingly serious crisis in Bingzhou urgently needed Li Jiancheng to participate in discussing countermeasures, Li Yuan had to make concessions and allowed Li Jiancheng to visit his mother in Beijing as an excuse to let Li Jiancheng return to Beijing for a month.

"Everyone said that the battle of Bingzhou deployed by Zhang Xuan this time was very sudden, and it was launched without any warning in advance, and it was a quick battle, and it took only fourteen days to occupy the entire Bingzhou except for Taiyuan City, which is very different from the previous battles, in fact, I don't think the situation is like this."

Wei Zheng did not follow Li Jiancheng to leave Beijing, but stayed in Chang'an, constantly sending Li Jiancheng the latest Chang'an news, which was of great help to Li Jiancheng to understand the situation in the capital in a timely manner.

Li Jiancheng asked, "What's the problem?" ”

"In fact, Wei Yunqi sent an envoy to Chang'an, and he already told us that their next goal was to merge with the state, but we didn't really pay attention to it, and sent Pei Lin to lead 20,000 troops to Taiyuan, even if it was a countermeasure, but in fact, we still have a lot to do."

Li Jiancheng was silent for a moment and said: "It's not that my father doesn't pay attention to it, but we don't have the strength to keep the state anymore." ”

Li Jiancheng stood up and walked to the window, looking at the snow outside the window, for a long time, he let out a long sigh, "My father didn't learn the lesson of the Jingzhou fiasco at all, or let the Li clan take charge of the military power, this failure of the state was vividly manifested, Uncle Deliang died in Taiyuan, and the second uncle of Shentong was defeated in Hedong, all of which were based on their misjudgment of the current situation, if Uncle Deliang could reuse Xie Yingdeng, with Xie Yingdeng's character, he would not surrender to the Zhou army, as for the second uncle of Shentong, It was his character flaws that led to the defeat of Hedong. ”

"What does Your Highness say about this?" Wei Zheng asked puzzled.

"Father asked the second uncle of Shentong to be in charge of the defense east of Guanzhong, including Hedong County, in this case, he should push the defense line to the front line of Hedong County, at least 20,000 heavy troops should be deployed in Hedong City, but he hoarded the army in Guanzhong, he was like this when he was young, everything had to be placed by his side, he felt that he belonged to himself, and if things were far away, he would not feel at ease, and always felt that he would be taken away by others, and now he deployed the army the same, the army should stay by his side, and Hedong County refused to let go of the army, As a result, they did not rescue Hedong City in time, and were intercepted outside Hedong City by the Zhou army first, the number of troops was not as good as that of the other party, the combat effectiveness was also weaker than the other party, and the command and response ability was inferior to the other party, so it was strange that he did not fail. ”

Speaking of this, Li Jiancheng said very painfully: "My father reused Shuliang's uncle, and as a result, Shuliang died in the first Eastern Expedition, and reused Xiaoji, and as a result, Xiaoji died in Shangjun, reused Deliang, Deliang died in Taiyuan, and reused runes and supernatural powers, although he was lucky not to die, but one lost Jingzhou, one lost Jinnan, and reused the fourth brother, and as a result, he offended the Guanlong nobles, if he does not change the practice of cronyism, our entire Tang Dynasty will be completely ruined on this." ”

Wei Zheng was silent, this kind of royal housework was not something he could ask about, and after a while, he asked in a deep voice: "Does Your Highness think that there is still room for redemption in Taiyuan now?" ”

Li Jiancheng shook his head decisively, "There is no point in holding Taiyuan to the end, we simply don't have the strength to recapture Bingzhou, Zhang Xuan can at least mobilize 300,000 troops to fight in Bingzhou, we can gather 100,000 troops in Guanzhong to meet the battle, and Li Jing's army in Hetao is moving south, what can we resist?" I'm afraid that if the state is not recaptured by then, Guan Long will be completely lost. ”

"What Your Highness said is extremely true, but what strategy does Your Highness think can be used to withdraw from the army of Ohara?"

Without waiting for Li Jiancheng to speak, there was a guard outside the door who reported: "Your Highness, the Holy Lord sent someone to summon His Highness to go to the Wude Hall to discuss matters quickly!" ”

.......

Li Jiancheng participated in the Wude Hall meeting on the second day after he returned, and the topic of the discussion was still the situation in the annexation of the state, but this was the third time that the important ministers had discussed the situation in the annexation of the state.

In the first two discussions, the important ministers were obviously divided into two factions, one faction was to gather the strength of the country to counterattack and merge the state, led by Li Shentong and Li Yuanji, the king of Chu, insisted on not giving up the annexation, although Li Shentong was defeated in Hedong City, but the son of heaven Li Yuan did not hold him responsible, which made Li Shentong extremely ashamed, so when discussing the situation of merging states, he strongly advocated counterattacking and annexing the state, and his proposition was strongly supported by Li Yuanji, and also received the support of Dou Jin, Tang Jian, Dou Lukuan and other ministers.

The other faction is against attacking and merging the state, mainly led by the Qin king Li Shimin, Chen Shuda, Liu Wenjing and other important ministers, they believe that the general trend of the state has gone, should admit and accept the defeat, the two factions are their own reasoning, do not give in to each other, two consecutive Wude Hall deliberations have not yielded results, today Li Yuan held a third meeting, I hope that this time everyone can reach an agreement.

There was silence in the hall, Li Yuan sat down on the dragon couch, he glanced at everyone, and finally his eyes fell on the crown prince Li Jiancheng, he said to Li Jiancheng gently: "The emperor only participated in the deliberations today, has the emperor understood the situation of the first two deliberations?" ”

Li Jiancheng stood up and saluted: "Back to my father, the first two deliberations, the sons have already listened to Chen Xiangguo and Liu Xiangguo's introduction. ”

Li Yuan nodded, "Since the emperor has understood the situation, then I really want to know what the emperor's attitude is towards the situation in the state?" (To be continued.) )