Yesterday and today, there were three things that made Li Yuan's heart a little determined, one is that the second son Li Shimin led an army of 50,000 to Longyou, stationed in Honghua County, Huining County and Jincheng County, to defend against the Northern Sui army to attack Longyou and Hexi, and secondly, this morning, the eldest son Li Jiancheng publicly admitted at the court meeting that Duan Decao's surrender and the loss of Diaoyin County were strategic mistakes he put down, and expressed his willingness to take responsibility, which made Li Yuan clear himself of responsibility in this matter. Pen | fun | pavilion www. ｂｉｑｕｇｅ。 ｉｎｆｏ

The third thing is that Li Yuan has just received an urgent report from his nephew Li Xiaogong that the Tang army has officially taken over Xiao Mill's five iron mines and two copper mines in Guiyang County and Hengshan County, with an annual output of 10 million catties, especially in a secret warehouse in the mine, 4 million catties of pig iron and 600,000 catties of blister copper hidden by Xiao Mill's army.

This urgent report made Li Yuan overjoyed, and at the same time, he was even more firm in his previous idea that he would never hand over Changsha, Guiyang, Hengshan and other counties to the Northern Sui.

At this time, Chen Shuda had already returned from your hotel and was reporting to Li Yuan on the process of his meeting with the envoy of the Northern Sui.

Li Yuan squinted his eyes and didn't say a word, he paced in the room with his hands in his hands, even if Chen Shuda finished speaking in the end, he didn't say anything, and after a long time, he said slowly: "There is no need to talk about the matter of the Hetao anymore, Zhang Xuan will never retreat, and it is in vain to talk about it, Xiao Miao's father and daughter changed Lou Fu County, I also agreed last time, and this time it will not change, the key is Diaoyin County, I hope that with the luxury of the water as the boundary, they will not continue to go south, as for the spoils of war, as long as they promise the army not to cross the luxury of the water, I can not do it." ”

"Your Majesty is afraid that Zhang Xuan will enter Yan'an County in the name of suppressing bandits?"

Li Yuan nodded, "When they marched into the Hetao, I thought of this, one is Song Jingang, the other is Liang Shidu, they are all good excuses for them to march south, they really want to fight Liang Shidu, I can't stop it, but Song Jingang will never allow them to interfere again, and the Tang army will exterminate it by itself." ”

For Li Yuan's thoughts, Chen Shuda was a little disapproving, Li Yuan repented in the matter of Xiao Milling, which was equivalent to tearing up the one-year armistice agreement reached before, the Sui army had no restrictions at all, even if there was no Song Jingang, they would still attack Yan'an County, just like attacking Diaoyin County, the saint thought that the Sui army wanted to use Song Jingang as an excuse to attack Yan'an County, which was a misunderstanding, the Sui army's attack was completely based on its own battle plan, and it had nothing to do with any agreement.

Although he thought so, Chen Shuda didn't dare to bring it up, he was afraid of further angering Li Yuan in this matter, so Chen Shuda had to say in a low voice: "Your Majesty, Weichen also said just now, I'm afraid Wen Yanbo can't be the master of the matter of Diaoyin County." ”

Li Yuan snorted, "Then we will send an envoy to Zhongdu, in short, the Sui army must not appear in Yan'an County!" ”

..........

Wen Yanbo and Ling Jing went to Chang'an for a month, and in the end only one agreement was reached, that is, to exchange Lou Fan County for Xiao Miao's father and daughter, as for the negotiation of the division of the spoils, because Li Yuan proposed to give up the spoils of war in exchange for the Sui army not to cross the luxury of Diaoyin County, so it was postponed again.

Two days later, the Tang Dynasty sent Feng Deyi, a Chinese scholar, as an envoy, and followed Wen Yanbo and his party to the central capital with Xiao Miao's father and daughter, who had been escorted to Beijing.

..........

Lingwu County belongs to the west of the Hetao Plain, that is, today's Yinchuan Plain, this is the richest area of the Yellow River three, compared with Wuyuan County and Yulin County, the climate here is more mild, the frost-free period is long, which is conducive to the growth of crops, the wheat of Wuyuan County can only be harvested once a year, while Lingwu County can be harvested three times in two years, coupled with sufficient water sources, convenient irrigation, so that the population of Lingwu County is much more than Wuyuan County and Yulin County, the population of the whole county has been 400,000 in the thirteenth year of the Great Cause.

Although affected by the rebellion of Liang Shidu in recent years, the population of Lingwu County has been sharply reduced by half, but there are still 200,000 people, mainly distributed in the area of Huile County, which is the most developed agriculture, Huile County is the county of Lingwu County, the rivers and canals are vertical and horizontal, the woods are dense, and there are large tracts of fertile arable land distributed, and the annual grain output accounts for sixty percent of the entire Lingwu County, which is simply the cabbage core of Lingwu County, with a population of 150,000.

After the Liang division was repeatedly beaten by Duan Decao, its strength had been extremely decayed, with only 6,000 troops left, morale was low, and people were panicked, but due to the defeat of the Tang army in Yan'an County, Song Jingang's army threatened Guanzhong, and also threatened the iron mines of Diaoyin County.

Liang Shidu took advantage of this time to take the opportunity to recruit troops, strong and strong to expand the army, in just two months, his army quickly increased to 30,000 people, but due to backward equipment, combat effectiveness is extremely weak, and Lingwu County in addition to agricultural resources are relatively rich, other resources are relatively scarce, in order to obtain resources, Liang Shidu began to move again, ready to lead the army to attack Longyou.

And at this moment, unfavorable news came from the direction of Diaoyin County, Duan Decao surrendered to the Northern Sui, and tens of thousands of Northern Sui troops rushed towards Lingwu County.

Attacking Lingwu County is the established strategy of the Sui army, and if it were not for the fact that the Tang Dynasty had placed the Northern Sui mission under house arrest, then the Northern Sui would have marched into Lingwu County from the north half a month ago.

It was precisely because of the impact of the battle in Diaoyin County that the time for the Sui army to attack Lingwu County was delayed by half a month, and not only that, but the strategy of the offensive also underwent a major change, and the Sui army not only attacked Lingwu County from the north, but also launched an offensive against Lingwu County from the east.

However, the hot summer is very unfavorable to the Sui army's march, especially in the north of Shuofang County and Yanchuan County are vast deserts, 35,000 Sui troops will advance westward from the desert area in the south, which belongs to the semi-arid region, a little better than the desert, most of the areas are the Gobi with tribulus terrestris, the day is as hot as a furnace, and the temperature drops sharply at night, becoming cold, but there will occasionally be an oasis and grassland on the Gobi, which gives the Sui army garrison a chance to rest.

The Northern Sui army traveled day and night, it took ten days to walk 600 miles, entered the territory of Lingwu County, and after entering Lingwu County, it was a completely different scene, the Gobi disappeared and became an endless grassland, full of large forests, clear rivers distributed on the grassland, which belonged to the undeveloped land, but the land was very fertile, and a seed could grow crops.

In the afternoon of that day, tens of thousands of Sui soldiers hid in a forest covering an area of thousands of acres to rest, the sun was like fire, and the air on the grassland seemed to solidify and become a transparent fluid.

Although the environment is much better when entering Lingwu County, the heat wave is still there, in order to preserve the physical strength of the soldiers, Zhang Xuan still adopted the strategy of day and night, try to let the soldiers rest during the day, march and fight at night, and at the same time exercise the soldiers' night combat ability.

In this western expedition, the Sui army dispatched a total of 35,000 people, in addition to the 30,000 Sui army, 5,000 people were reorganized from the elite of Duan Decao's Tang army, including 25,000 infantry and 10,000 cavalry, the combat effectiveness was very strong, and Li Jing led 20,000 troops to kill from the north, and the Sui army invested a total of 55,000 people to attack Lingwu County, which was bound to win.

In front of a stream next to the woods, Zhang Xuan looked at the vast grassland from afar, the fertility of the land here surprised him very much, and also made him have a lot of ideas, at this time, Duan Decao slowly stepped forward and said with a smile: "Dashuai, this was originally farmland in the Han Dynasty, and it was occupied by Zhuhu during the Two Jin Dynasty, and gradually restored to the grassland, and now, this area still belongs to the territory of the Qiang people." ”

"There are Qiang people here?"

Zhang Xuan was a little surprised, he didn't see any trace of the Qiang people along the way.

"Of course there is, the Qiang people here are called Dangxiang Qiang, and now they are basically called Dangxiang people, and they are very widely distributed, Hexi and Longyou, and our area is the Dangxiang Tuoba Department, and it is also the largest tribe in the eight departments of the Dangxiang, with a population of more than 100,000."

"But we didn't meet a single party member along the way, where do they live?"

Duan Decao laughed: "They are just south of us, but their living habits are the opposite of ours, they are day and night, and they don't provoke the army, so we didn't meet them." ”

"Do they support Liang Shidu?" Jang Hyun asked one of the most crucial questions.

Duan Decao was silent for a moment and said: "Liang Shidu and the Dangxiang people are controlled by the Turks, and Liang Shidu has exchanged grain for the war horses of the Dangxiang people many times, in addition, they are well water and do not interfere with river water, but now whether the Dangxiang people support Liang Shidu, I don't know." ”

At this moment, a group of scout cavalry rushed forward and shouted: "Great marshal, a cavalry from the southwest has come, about two thousand people. (To be continued.) )