In the entire counterattack of the Qingzhou Army, Tumen Pass is a key point, in order to lure the enemy deeper, Tumen Pass needs to withdraw the army first, let the Tang Army enter Hebei, but after the total annihilation of the Tang Army into Hebei, the Qingzhou Army must recapture Tumen Pass and completely block this strategic passage to Hebei.

Before, Luo Shixin did not dare to disobey the military order, had to withdraw the army to the south, let out of the Tumen Pass, although the military order is difficult to disobey, but Luo Shixin has already held his breath, of course, after receiving the news that Zhang Xuan recovered the Tumen Pass, Luo Shixin immediately waved his army to the north, leading 6,000 troops to the Tumen Pass.

In the past two days, Qu Tutong has been nervously building a high wall, before the Tumen Pass wall was only one zhang high, it was difficult to block the army's strong attack, it must be increased to two zhang, and the general city wall is similar to barely have a little defensive effect.

It's a pity that Qu Tutong's idea is good, but it is obviously unrealistic to complete it in a short time, imagination is always too simple and idealistic, but the actual operation is another matter, first of all, you need to open the mountain, chisel stones, repair, but also recruit a large number of laborers, to cooperate with the local government, you need to do countless small and cumbersome things, just drag the boulder to the Tumen Pass It takes a lot of manpower and material resources, but where does the manpower come from? Where do the material resources come from?

It was only at this time that Qu Tutong finally realized why the wall of Tumen Pass was only one zhang high, because it would take a lot of effort to build only this one-zhang high wall.

In the end, Qu Tutong adopted a compromise plan, using earth bags to raise the wall, although the effect is far less than that of the stone wall, but it is also a countermeasure.

It's a pity that even with such a simple response, Qu Tutong couldn't even complete half of it, because the Sui army didn't give him time.

Qu Tutong received an urgent report from the spies that Luo Shixin, the general of the Sui army, had led 6,000 to 20 miles to Tumen Pass, and continued to advance towards Tumen Pass.

The reason why Qu Tutong is called a famous general has his own differences, and Qu Tutong attaches great importance to intelligence. And pay attention to the details of intelligence, for example, the general only asks how many troops the other party has, what kind of equipment and so on, while Qu Tutong is more concerned about who the enemy's commander is?

By analyzing the enemy's commander-in-chief, he knew his own countermeasures, if it was Wang Wei, Li Jing, Xu Shiji and others. That Qu Tutong knew that the combat effectiveness of the other party's soldiers would not be too strong, and the opponent's main would be Luo Shixin, a well-known general of the Flying Eagle Army in the past, and a veteran general who followed Zhang Xuan, Qu Tutong knew that the 6,000 people under Luo Shixin must be the most elite soldiers.

At the same time, Luo Shixin was known as the overlord gun, and he was very brave in battle, and Qu Tutong knew that Luo Shixin's attack on Tumen Pass must also be based on a strong attack. You will face a tough battle yourself.

But compared to Luo Shixin, Qu Tutong was more worried about Li Shuliang's army and Sang Xianhe's army as a backup, Luo Shixin was the general of Tumen Pass before, he deliberately retreated so that the Tang army could advance eastward, and now he has killed it again, which shows that Zhang Xuan has begun to fight back.

Although there is still no news from Luo Yi's side, Qu Tutong has already guessed the truth. I'm afraid Luo Yi is finished, and Zhang Xuan's army has already arrived in Youzhou. If this is the case, if Li Shuliang goes deep alone and no one answers, I am afraid that he will be more and less lucky now.

Qu Tutong sighed secretly in his heart, originally this Eastern Expedition plan was a very far-sighted strategic layout, using the opportunity of Zhang Xuan's interception of Yu Wenhua to enter Hebei and join Luo Yi's army. At that time, even if Zhang Xuan hastily withdrew to Hebei, it was too late.

It's a pity that Shizi chose the wrong direction for a breakthrough, and it turned out to be an army from Hanoi County, and Shizi's personal feelings for Hanoi County affected the entire overall situation, if he adopted his own plan from the beginning. Directly from Jingcheng to Hebei, I am afraid that the overall situation has been decided now.

Although the wrong direction of the prince delayed the fighter, what really led Li Shuliang to fall into danger was the final blind decision of the Tang king, who wanted to reduce the political pressure through a military victory, but I am afraid that the final result would backfire, and the military rout and political rout would also be at the same time.

Just when Qu Tutong was pondering, a cavalry galloped in the distance, rolling up the dust, when the cavalry ran to the wall, Qu Tutong was suddenly taken aback, he knew the person, it was a personal soldier of Sang Xianhe, I saw that he was covered in blood, with a crossbow arrow inserted in his back shoulder, and the person could still insist, but the horse was no longer good, the war horse just ran to the wall and fell down, lying on the ground with four hooves twitching, foaming at the mouth, and the cavalry was also thrown out of him more than a foot away.

A soldier had already gone down the wall to carry the cavalry up to the wall, the cavalry had fainted at this time, Qu Tutong urgently ordered the military doctor to diagnose and treat, not long after, the cavalry woke up, Qu Tutong immediately squatted down and asked: "How is the situation in Zhending County?" ”

The cavalry was extremely weak, and his voice was very low, "Report to the general, Li Changshi's entire army has been wiped out, and we retreated out of the city, but we were intercepted by the cavalry, so we had to retreat back to Zhending County." ”

Qu Tutong's scalp was about to explode, and sure enough, he was unfortunately guessed by himself, Li Shuliang had been completely annihilated, and he asked anxiously: "How many enemy troops are there?" ”

Qu Tutong asked twice, the messenger cavalry couldn't answer, and fainted again, in fact, you don't need to ask Qu Tutong to conclude that it must be Zhang Xuan's main force killed, then Luo Shixin is just the forward, and the back is estimated to be the army led by Zhang Xuan himself.

"General, what shall we do?" Several generals asked in a low voice, everyone's face full of worry.

Qu Tutong also felt very embarrassed, the wisest decision in this case was of course to evacuate, but what should he do if he withdrew Sang Xianhe?

Moreover, Li Shuliang's entire army was wiped out, and he retreated with his whole body, will Li Yuan spare himself?

After pondering for a long time, Qu Tutong sighed and said, "Hold the Tumen Pass first, and wait for the order of the prince!" ”

Qu Tutong then turned around and asked, "Is there any news about the Shizi's army?" ”

Several soldiers shook their heads, indicating that there was no news, which made Qu Tutong feel a little strange, according to the plan, the army of the prince should have arrived at Tumen Pass a long time ago, but now it has been delayed, and there is no news coming, is there something happening later?

At this moment, a soldier shouted from behind: "The prince has sent someone to deliver a letter!" ”

Qu Tutong didn't expect it to be a coincidence, all the news was sent at the same time, and he hurriedly said: "Quickly bring the letter!" ”

After a while, the messenger presented a letter, and Qu Tutong took the letter and asked, "Where is the son now?" ”

"General Qiyu, the prince has returned to the West Ancient Pass."

Qu Tutong was stunned, "Why is this?" ”

The soldier who delivered the letter smiled bitterly and said: "I heard that there was a fire in the logistics grain camp, which burned all the food and materials, and the prince had no choice but to withdraw and return." ”

Qu Tutong didn't speak, with Wang Bodang's caution, how could he let the logistics grain camp catch fire, needless to say, he must have been secretly attacked by the Sui army scouts, and he opened Li Jiancheng's letter again.

Li Jiancheng's letter was quite long, the letter first said that Zhang Gongjin had found out the situation in Youzhou, Zhang Xuan's army had captured Youzhou, Luo Yi's whereabouts were unknown, Li Jiancheng was very worried about Li Shuliang's situation in the letter, and he ordered Qu Tutong to immediately send someone to inform Li Shuliang to withdraw the army.

Seeing this, Qu Tutong sighed in his heart, it was too late to inform him now, he shook his head, and continued to read, Li Jiancheng wrote a self-blame in the back, saying that he would never shirk his responsibility, but in the end he asked Qu Tutong to be sure to withdraw Li Shuliang's army and merge the state together.

Qu Tutong showed a wry smile on his face, and sure enough, it was the same as what he thought, Li Jiancheng's meaning was actually very simple, to put it bluntly, it was a sentence, if Li Shuliang did not withdraw, he Qu Tutong would not want to withdraw the army.

He raised his head and glanced at all the generals, and saw that everyone was looking at him expectantly, obviously hoping to order the withdrawal of the army, Qu Tutong shook his head and shouted loudly: "Pass my order, the whole army is ready to fight!" ”

An hour later, the 6,000 army led by Luo Shixin finally appeared in the distance, and the army did not immediately join the attack, although Luo Shixin was known for his bravery, and at the same time held his breath, but after all, he was experienced in a hundred battles, and had very rich combat experience, he knew what to do before attacking.

Luo Shixin looked at the wall in the distance, and he found that in just a few days, great changes had taken place up and down the wall, first of all, three feet high mud bags were piled up in the southern section of the wall, and secondly, three long ditches were dug within 200 steps of the wall, which looked quite wide, but the depth was unknown.

However, none of this could stop Luo Shixin's determination to attack Tumen Pass, and he pointed to the large grass in front of him and ordered: "Send fifty scouts to show me the grassland!" ”

Fifty scouts rushed away, they lined up with shields in their hands, crawling on the ground to check the situation in the grass, mainly to check that there were no iron thorns or thistles and the like, Luo Shixin suffered a big loss when attacking Xu Yuanlang a few years ago, Xu Yuanlang sprinkled countless quenched poisonous iron thorns in the grass, as a result, hundreds of soldiers were recruited, nearly 200 people were unfortunately poisoned and died, that lesson made Luo Shixin remember that before the siege, he would never dare to attack in a hurry.

After a while, fifty soldiers came back one after another and reported to the commander of the brigade: "General Qiyu, there are no iron thorns or thistles a hundred paces away from the ravine. ”

Luo Shixin nodded, generally speaking, scattering thistle terrestris will never be sprinkled only within a hundred steps, if there is no one outside a hundred steps, it means that the other party did not use this trick.

He immediately pointed his gun at it and shouted: "Give me a drum to attack!" ”

(To be continued.) )