Before dawn the next day, Chen Shuda personally acted as a negotiating envoy and rode to Jiangxia with more than a dozen retinues to negotiate with the Sui army. Pen | fun | pavilion www. ｂｉｑｕｇｅ。 ｉｎｆｏ

At the same time, Li Shimin led an army of 100,000 to leave Chang'an, and their troops were divided into two routes, one was led by 30,000 people to attack Hongnong County, and the other was led by Li Shimin to go south to Shangluo County, which opened the prelude to the conquest of Wang Shichong.

Although the situation in Jingzhou has developed for nearly seven days, it is still in a delicate balance of warfare, Wang Shichong's army has occupied Xiangyang County and Jingling County, 50,000 troops have entered Nanjun and are besieging Jiangling City, and Li Xiaogong led 20,000 troops withdrawn from Jiangxia to defend Jiangling, Wang Shichong's army suffered heavy casualties, but it was always difficult to capture Jiangling.

However, the battle situation in Jiangxia was much calmer, the Sui army only captured two military cities on the periphery of Wuchang County, only a war scale of a few thousand people, and the 100,000-strong army immediately surrounded Wuchang County, but surrounded but did not fight, waiting for the arrival of the Tang army in Xiangyang.

However, the 20,000 Tang troops killed from Xiangyang County were extremely cautious, and when Wu Shitong learned that the Sui army did not attack Wuchang County, he guessed the Sui army's tactics of besieging the city and sending reinforcements, and stationed 20,000 troops in Hankou on the north bank of the Yangtze River, and never refused to cross the river to the south.

At present, Wuchang County, where the main force of the Tang Army is located, is not the Wuchang County of the later generations, but the area of Huanggang today, the Wuchang County of the later generations is called Jiangxia County in the Sui Dynasty, it is the county seat of Jiangxia County, but the main reason for the Tang Dynasty to pass through Jiangxia is to mine iron ore, so the garrison is placed in Wuchang County, which is closest to the iron mine, Qu Tutong built Wuchang County tall and strong, easy to defend and difficult to attack, and at the same time moved most of the population of the county to Jiangxia County, making Wuchang County an out-and-out military city, which is completely in line with Qu Tutong's requirementsBecause there was no civilian life in the city, it was difficult for Sui army scouts to blend into the city.

But his successor Li Shenfu did not like Wuchang County very much, he preferred life, to have commerce, to have the flow of people and bustle on the street, to have a forest of wine shops, green buildings, this kind of only army and no color of the city made Li Shenfu hate.

The first thing Li Shenfu did when he sat in Jiangxia was to move the official office to Jiangxia County, and he specially allocated funds to build a large number of buildings in Jiangxia County, and rebuilt the palace and official office in Jiangxia County, with a construction period of three months, just when Li Shenfu was waiting for the government and the official office to be completed, and he would move to the prosperous Jiangxia County, the war broke out in Jiangxia.

The cruel reality made Li Shenfu suddenly realize the importance of Wuchang County, and he immediately dispelled the idea of moving to Jiangxia County, and organized tens of thousands of troops to defend Wuchang County, fortunately, there was enough food in the county, and there was no problem to defend it for a year, and the city wall was tall and strong, which made Li Shenfu a little more confident.

However, he was very angry that the reinforcements of the samurai Tong had not arrived, and he kept ordering the samurai to immediately lead the army to cross the river to Wuchang County, but the samurai tong refused to cross the river under the pretext that he had no boat to cross the river.

Wushitong's 20,000 troops were stationed in Hankou, which is the mouth of the Yangtze River where the Han River flows, and the strategic location is very important.

At this time, more than 60 cargo ships were moored in a lake near Hankou, and 20,000 Tang troops were stationed on the shore.

On the military city, the warrior Tong looked at the Yangtze River with complicated eyes, affected by the war, the river was empty, and there were no fishing boats, only a few Sui army sentry boats, which were monitoring the ships of the Tang army, and the warrior Tong knew that their every move was under the monitoring of the Sui army.

Behind the samurai tong stood more than a dozen generals, and they could all feel the heavy mood of the samurai tong.

The situation is indeed difficult to be optimistic, they have received the news, Wang Shichong's army raided Xiangyang, has occupied Xiangyang County, cut off their retreat, and if they cross the south to the south, they will definitely fall into the encirclement of the Sui army and be annihilated, it can be said that there are tigers in front of them and wolves in the back, so that they are in a dilemma.

At this time, the general Qin Qiong stepped forward and persuaded: "Duke Wu, I feel that it is a way to turn around and kill back to Xiangyang, at least we have an excuse, even if Li Shenfu impeaches Duke Wu, Duke Wu can completely move out the counterattack Wang Shichong, so that Li Shenfu has nothing to say." ”

Qin Qiong was originally a capable general under Qu Tutong's account, one of the eight hussar generals named by Li Shimin, and belonged to Li Shimin's lineage, but was purged by Li Shenfu and rushed to Handong County as a local lieutenant, with only 500 county soldiers under his command.

Hou Junji also persuaded: "General Qin is right, Wang Shichong's army has been killed in Nanjun, and the troops in Xiangyang County are not much, we can just kill the horse pistol, if we can cut Wang Shichong's army into two sections, it will also be beneficial for the Tang army to open up Nanxiang Road, Wugong, this is our opportunity." ”

Wu Shi Tong is still a little hesitant, in fact, he also wants to kill back to Xiangyang, but he is a little jealous of Li Shenfu, he knows that Li Shenfu is the henchman of the Son of Heaven, once Li Shenfu puts the responsibility for Jiang Xia's loss on his head, and Li Xiaogong can't move, in the end, he Wu Shi Tong is likely to become the scapegoat for the loss of Jiang Xia.

The warrior was silent, and at this moment, a soldier stepped forward to report: "Qi Yu Taishou, there is an urgent pigeon letter sent in Chang'an!" ”

"Bring it to me!"

A soldier stepped forward and handed the mailbox to Wu Shi Tong, who hurriedly opened it, it turned out to be a warrant from His Royal Highness King Qin, he hurriedly looked at it, and couldn't help patting his forehead, "The sky has opened its eyes!" ”

"Wu Gong, what's the news?" The crowd gathered around and asked.

Wu Shi Tong excitedly said to everyone: "It is the order of His Royal Highness the King of Qin, ordering us to immediately return to Xiangyang and cooperate with his army to attack Nanxiang Dao." ”

This sentence caused everyone to cheer, they resolutely refused to obey the order to go south, and finally survived to the result, Wu Shi Tong immediately ordered, "Order the whole army to immediately pull out the camp and kill back to Xiangyang!" ”

.......

Just an hour after the warrior Tong retreated north, the urgent pigeon letter sent from Hankou was sent to Zhang Xuan's face, Zhang Xuan was in the big tent and the generals discussed the siege strategy, Luo Shixin just finished talking about the defense of Wuchang County, a personal guard sent urgent information from Hankou, Zhang Xuan opened the pigeon letter, his heart couldn't help but be slightly stunned, he was not surprised by the retreat of the warrior Tong north, but he immediately realized that the Tang army was about to launch the Nanxiang campaign.

In fact, Zhang Xuan had already received information from Chang'an, and the Tang Dynasty troops attacked Luoyang and Nanxiangdao in two ways, and at the same time sent people to negotiate the withdrawal of troops from Jingzhou, but the Tang Dynasty envoys had not yet arrived, and Li Shimin's battle started first.

There is a question here, once the Tang army opens up the Nanxiang Road and connects Chang'an and Xiangyang into one, will the Tang Dynasty give up Jingzhou?

Zhang Xuan waved his hand to everyone: "The discussion is temporarily suspended, everyone go back first, and listen to my orders at any time." ”

The generals got up and saluted, and then left the big tent one after another, but Fang Xuanling stayed, he saw that Zhang Xuan had something in his heart, especially the pigeon letter, there must have been a major military situation.

"Your Highness, what happened?" Fang Xuanling asked in a low voice.

Zhang Xuan stood in front of the sand table, stared at Hankou, and said for a while: "I just got the news that Wu Shitong's army has turned around and returned to Xiangyang. ”

"Could it be that the Tang Army has begun to attack Xiyang County?"

Zhang Xuan nodded, "I also think so, the Tang army attacked Xiyang County, and if Wang Shichong's army couldn't withstand it, it was likely that they would withdraw from Jiangling to help, so Li Shimin needed Wu Shitong to cut off the retreat of Wang Shichong's army in Jiangling." ”

"Then what is Your Highness going to do?"

"I'm a little embarrassed now, and it's what I'm happy to see while watching Tang Zhenghuo, but I'm a little worried that the Tang army really opens up Nanxiang Road, I'm afraid they won't give up Jingzhou so easily."

Fang Xuanling smiled slightly, "I don't think Your Highness needs to worry too much about this!" (To be continued.) )