With the main force led by Zhang Xuan laid a net on the eastern front, the thousands of Youzhou soldiers who fled back could not escape the encirclement, so they had to surrender to the Sui army, this tragic battle caused more than 3,000 casualties to the Youzhou army, and the Sui cavalry also lost nearly 1,000 people, but because Zhang Xuan had given a strict order before, when the Youzhou army was defeated and fled, it was not allowed to kill wantonly, but to force surrender, which greatly reduced the death rate of the defeat, and finally surrendered more than 15,800 soldiers, and about 1,000 soldiers escaped, mainly to the south.

At noon the next day, when Jin Wenyan, the defender of Jixian County, learned the news of the destruction of the main general's army, he no longer held the city, and surrendered to Zhang Xuan, so that the soldiers of Jixian County were occupied by the Sui army without blood.

Zhang Xuan immediately appointed Cui Hong as the Taishou of Zhuo County, abolished the position of governor of Youzhou, and set up three military envoys to guard the key places in Liaodong and the southward movement of the grassland.

At this time, Li Jing sent someone to send the news that the army had occupied Beiping County and Yuyang County, but it was not able to encircle and annihilate Gao Kaidao, who had heard the news and fled from Youzhou from Miyun Road first, and led his troops to flee to Khitan.

At this point, the Battle of Youzhou came to an end, and it took only ten days.

This time Zhang Xuan dispatched all the elite troops in the northern expedition, which can be said to be inevitable, especially this battle is of great strategic significance to him.

Li Yuan attacked Guanzhong and got Guangtong Cang, and had the two major granaries of Guanlong and Bashu, while Wang Shichong controlled Luokou Cang and Luoyang Cangyu, and the food and materials were also very rich, while Zhang Xuan had Liyang Cang, but there was not much food, and he now had only 100,000 troops, and he controlled more and more land, so he wanted to be at ease. He must have at least 200,000 troops.

In order to recruit and expand the army, there must be enough money and food, so Zhang Xuan not only has to solve the threat of Youzhou, but also has to obtain the Lushui warehouse with millions of stone of grain, which will have a crucial impact on his army expansion plan.

The day after taking Jixian, Zhang Xuan led 10,000 troops to Lushuicang, and Li Jing and Zhao Liang went out of the city to welcome Zhang Xuan's arrival.

"The last general, Li Jing, pays a visit to His Royal Highness the King of Qi!" As Li Jing knelt down. Hundreds of soldiers followed him and knelt down on one knee.

Zhang Xuan hurriedly turned over and dismounted, helped Li Jing up and said with a smile: "The old general doesn't have to be polite, please get up quickly!" ”

Although Li Jing was a veteran in the Sui Dynasty army, it was the first time he saw Zhang Xuan, and he couldn't help but secretly look at Zhang Xuan, seeing that he was tall and tall, with a high nose bridge, deep eyes, and a young and heroic appearance without losing the city. Li Jing admired in his heart, what a gentleman's appearance.

In fact, Li Jing knew all the details of Zhang Xuan from his old friends Yang Yicheng and Lai Hu'er, and he knew how Zhang Xuan started, a person with no background, completely relying on his own unremitting efforts, step by step from Beihai County, such a person understands the difficulty of starting a business. will cherish the great mountains and rivers even more, so Zhang Xuan took the initiative to take on the important task of disaster relief in the Central Plains. Li Jing is not strange at all, a person who cares about the world must first be merciful to the people of the world.

"I heard that His Royal Highness will not kill, and try to accept the army of Youzhou, which is the blessing of the soldiers of Youzhou, and the blessing of the people of Youzhou!"

Jang Hyun smiled slightly. "The old general has won the award, most of the officers and soldiers of the Youzhou army are children of Youzhou counties, many of them don't know that Luo Yi has surrendered to Chang'an, Luo Yi's decision has nothing to do with them, and they have strict military discipline. I can't bear to slaughter this elite army, so I might as well leave them to defend their homeland against the Turks and other invaders. ”

Li Jing secretly praised Zhang Xuan for being able to speak, and the other meaning of these words is that the elite army should be used by me, but the same meaning is much more beautiful when it is said in the words of defending my hometown.

Li Jing smiled, asked Zhang Xuan to get on the horse and entered the city, and the two talked about the Great Sui while walking, at this time, Li Jing suddenly remembered something and said to Zhang Xuan: "Your Highness knows, the general has gone north." ”

He wrote to Laihu'er more than a month ago, asking him to come to Hebei to take up his post, and then there has been no news, but he doesn't know that he has gone north.

Zhang Xuan was overjoyed and hurriedly asked, "How did the old general know?" ”

Li Jing said with a smile: "The general is my dear old friend, I received a letter from him a few days ago, he said that Xiao Mo came to invite him out of the mountain twice, he did not agree, I heard that Tu Zhu Wei was also beating his idea, so he took his family to leave Jingzhou overnight, first went to Liyang Huang's house for temporary refuge, and then went north. ”

Zhang Xuan secretly thought, if Lai Hu'er came to take refuge in himself, it was impossible to only write a letter to Li Jing and not write to himself, it should be that he led the army north, and I believe that Yunqi will handle this matter.

At this time, Duan Xianda stepped forward to meet Zhang Xuan, and said, "Your Royal Highness King Qi, the warehouse has been cleaned up, please go and inspect it!" ”

Zhang Xuan smiled happily: "I have been thinking about Lushuicang for a long time, and I really want to take a good look at it today." ”

After Li Jiancheng failed in Hanoi County, he had to lead the army back to Merge Zhou, and then promoted the northern strategy, trying to directly enter Youzhou from the north, Youzhou was like an extremely tempting bait, when Li Yuan successfully swallowed this bait, he was contained by the Hebei region, and single-mindedly wanted to use Youzhou to annex Hebei, and then exterminate Zhang Xuan, the biggest opponent, as long as Zhang Xuan fell, Li Yuan's army swept the world The trend was formed.

Frankly speaking, Li Yuan's strategic direction is completely correct, Zhang Xuan is indeed the biggest obstacle to Li Yuan's annexation of the Great Sui, but the direction does not mean that the time is ripe, many things have to wait for the right time even if they are right, and even wait for several years, it can only be said that Li Yuan is a little anxious for quick success and quick profit, and he has not set the right mentality, he is too eager to unify Hebei, which leads to his lack of speed.

Li Jiancheng's army was unsuccessful in clearing Liu Wuzhou, and was forced to retreat to Taiyuan County because of the difficulty of grain transportation, Li Jiancheng's military office was located in the temporary official office of Jinyang Palace, and 70,000 troops were stationed in the north of Jinyang Palace, Li Jiancheng stood in front of the map with his hands in his hands, his face was tired, he was tired of his father's strategy to advance into Hebei for nearly a month and a half, Dou Wei also returned to Chang'an because of old age and frailty, but the campaign to enter Hebei was not canceled, Li Jiancheng had to continue to implement this increasingly difficult strategic plan.

Dou Wei returned to Chang'an, and the person who replaced him as the chief historian was Li Jiancheng's uncle Li Shuliang, Li Shuliang was about fifty years old and quite capable of leading the army to fight, and Li Yuan sent him to serve as the chief historian, to some extent, it was also to urge Li Jiancheng to speed up the Hebei strategy.

Li Yuan's anxious state of mind is revealed, but this is also a reason, just twenty days ago, the new court of the Great Sui controlled by Zhang Xuan was established in Beihai County, including Su Wei, Pei Ju and other famous ministers all held important positions in the new court, the establishment of the new court had a huge impact, and the Sui officials in Lingnan and other places who were originally ready to surrender to Chang'an also changed their course and prepared to be loyal to the new court.

Even Xiao Yu, the original prime minister who promised to come to Chang'an to serve as the secretary of the criminal department, suddenly disappeared in Hanzhong and disappeared, giving Li Yuan a heavy blow, Li Yuan felt the huge political pressure, and originally planned to ascend the throne in October to establish the Tang Dynasty, but now it had to be postponed again until early next year.

The huge political pressure forced Li Yuan to seek a breakthrough in the military field, if he could enter Hebei, it would be an extremely heavy blow to the new imperial court that was preparing to build a capital in Wei County, and Chang'an's influence in the world would overwhelm the new imperial court.

"Shizi, I don't think it's realistic to go to the Flying Fox Mountain, maybe we can consider changing to the Jing Mountain." Qu Tutong on the side suggested in a deep voice.

Li Jiancheng nodded silently, he understood what Qu Tutong was referring to, but Li Shuliang, who was standing on the other side, didn't quite understand, and asked suspiciously: "Why is it unrealistic to go to the Flying Fox?" ”

Li Jiancheng smiled bitterly and said: "The third uncle doesn't know, the biggest problem for us to go to the Flying Fox is that we can't establish a logistics foundation, whether it is Yanmen County or Lou Fu Pass, it is too far away from the Flying Fox Pass, and the grain road will be seriously harassed by Liu Wuzhou, so that the army can not supply food, so that the helpless move of having to withdraw the army will occur when the battle is clearly won, and there is no problem in the well, we can take Taiyuan as a logistics center, Lou Fuguan blocked Liu Wuzhou's army from going south, our rear grain road was not harassed, and the food supply was sufficient, We can concentrate on the Eastern Crusade, but in fact, our repeated disadvantageous Eastern Crusades are all due to the food problem, and only by going to the well can we completely solve this problem. ”

Li Shuliang walked to the map and said, "But isn't there Luo Shixin's army stationed at Tumen Pass at the exit of Jingcheng?" (To be continued.) )