Yuntianbao is located in a Liupan Mountain branch between Huining County and Pingliang County on the Yuntian Ridge, close to the official road, condescending, the terrain is dangerous, it is a fort built in the Northern Wei Dynasty, it was first used to defend the grassland Huqi, the Sui Dynasty was once deserted, after the establishment of the Tang Dynasty, in order to defend the eastward advance of the Western Qin Xue Ju, this Yuntianbao was repaired again, and the army was re-stationed.

Yuntian Fort is a military city to be precise, with a circumference of about seven miles, and thousands of troops can be stationed, at this time Chai Shao's 10,000 troops were stationed inside and outside the fort, of which 5,000 troops were stationed in the castle, and the other 5,000 troops were stationed in the foothills on the left side of the castle, and the soldiers were busy building barriers, intercepting mountain springs, and a large amount of grain was transported into the fortress.

On the wall of the castle, Chai Shao watched the soldiers busy carrying stones and cutting down trees, his eyes were deep, and he seemed to be preoccupied, after some consideration, Chai Shao finally did not follow Li Shentong to the south, but stayed in the north-central part of Huining County, although he was appointed as a deputy general, but in fact he and his army were completely independent and could act independently.

Chai Shao did not approve of Li Shentong's delaying tactics, he was not a general, but a high-ranking official with great weight in the Tang Dynasty, whether it was in the imperial court, in the clan, or even in the army, his status was very high.

To some extent, his status is even higher than that of Li Shentong, Li Shentong is the general of the right Yiwei, while Chai Shao is the general of the left Yiwei, and it is only because Guannai Dao is Li Shentong's sphere of influence that Li Yuan made Li Shentong the main general.

Although Chai Shao and Li Shentong had a very good personal relationship, he refused to lose his principles in military affairs, and before leaving, the saint explained very clearly that he would seize Liangchuan County and nearby mines. Drove the Sui forces out of Huining County.

Chai Shao understood Li Yuan's concern, the mineral deposits of Huining County could make the Sui Dynasty rich and powerful, and at the same time, Huining County was a corridor connecting Guannei Province and Hexi, once Huining County was occupied by the Sui army, the Sui army to the west could enter the Hexi Corridor. To the east, it can sweep the five counties of Guannan, and Huining County was of great strategic value to the Tang Dynasty.

It was only because of the signing of the Sui and Tang armistice agreements that the Tang Dynasty was limited by the agreement that the Tang Dynasty stationed a small number of troops in Huining County, but unexpectedly the Sui army tore up the agreement. Sending troops to occupy Huining County, Chai Shao deeply understood the anger in the Shengshang's heart and the Shengshang's anxiety about the loss of Huining County.

Because of this, Chai Shao resolutely opposes Li Shentong's evasion strategy, if it is just a gesture and does not have any substantive action, then what is the point of sending troops this time? It's just that Chai Shao couldn't convince Li Shentong, and the two of them only parted ways. To each his own, go his own way.

Chai Shao knew in his heart that with only 10,000 troops in his hands, he would not be able to recapture the mine, let alone expel the Sui army, he had to wait for reinforcements, and he had already sent someone to Chang'an to deliver the letter. Request for the imperial court's assistance.

On the side, Chai Shao's henchman Duan Decao whispered to Chai Shao: "Li Shentong refuses to attack Sui, but the general tells the saint, will this offend Li Shentong?" caused the prince to be dissatisfied. ”

Chai Shao sneered, "I, Chai Shao, am a horse and stand on my own." Is he still afraid of offending him? If you don't make things clear, if the army is defeated, who is responsible? ”

"But the Prince's side ......"

Don't wait for him to finish. Chai Shao interrupted his worries with a wave of his hand, and said lightly: "If the prince is dissatisfied, I will go to the Qin Palace." ”

When it came to King Qin and the crown prince, Duan Decao didn't dare to say more, but Duan Decao was a little strange in his heart, he knew Chai Shao. Chai Shao adheres to principles on the surface, but he is actually a person with eight faces. will never offend people easily, let alone offend the prince.

But Chai Shao actually complained to the saint that Li Shentong was passively responding to the battle, which was really a bit abnormal, which did not conform to Chai Shao's consistent style of doing things, which made Duan Decao puzzled.

At this moment, a cavalry galloped in the distance, and Chai Shao was in good spirits, and he recognized this cavalry as one of the scouts he had sent out.

After a while, the cavalry rushed up the mountain road until they reached the castle, and said loudly: "General Qiqi, we found that the cavalry of the Sui army, about 10,000 people, was rushing towards the castle. ”

Chai Shao was taken aback, and hurriedly asked, "How far is the Sui army from here?" ”

"About thirty miles!"

Chai Shao quickly estimated in his heart that the thirty-mile road was not far, and it would take at most half an hour for the cavalry to arrive, and he looked at the Tang soldiers who were building the barrier, it would take at least a day to repair the barrier, and it was too late.

"Pass my orders, stop building barracks, prepare archers, defend dangerous places!"

With Chai Shao's order, the Tang army began to assemble rapidly, and teams of Tang troops were deployed in dangerous places at the foot of the mountain, with bows and arrows, waiting for the battle.

At this time, there was a faint muffled sound in the distance, the earth trembled slightly, and then the dust flew, and a cavalry brigade was rushing towards Yuntianling.

Chai Shao stared at this overwhelming cavalry, and suddenly said coldly to the clerk next to him: "Send a letter to the imperial court immediately, just say that I led a lone army to fight the main cavalry of the Sui army, although the strength is small, but I would rather die than retreat!" ”

Duan Decao next to him was stunned, and he suddenly understood Chai Shao's deep meaning......

Pei Xingyan led 10,000 cavalry to gallop over, and he saw the Yuntian Fort on the mountain from a distance, about two hundred feet above the ground, the mountain is steep, and the castle is built even taller and stronger, easy to defend and difficult to attack.

Pei Xingyan's brows furrowed, it was indeed not easy to fight this castle, and the Tang army was defending the mountain, which made the cavalry advantage of the Sui army disappear.

The Tang army is 10,000 troops, and it is also 10,000 troops, and the Tang army has a geographical advantage, but it has an advantage, this battle is not easy to fight!

"General, it's better to besiege the city and send reinforcements!" A Lang general suggested next to him.

Pei Xingyan pondered for a moment, the task given to him by the manager was very simple, to hold the mine, annihilate the invading enemy, from this Yuntian Fort to the mine in Liangchuan County about one hundred and thirty miles, if you march in a hurry, you can reach the mine in one day and one night, it should be said that the castle is still within the range of threat, and you must find a way to pull out this castle.

Thinking of this, he immediately ordered one of the scout captains, "You can take a hundred scout brothers to monitor the Tang army in the south, and if they have any intention to go north, report it to me immediately." ”

"Obey!"

The captain clasped his fists and saluted, and led a hundred scouts to gallop south, gradually disappearing.

Pei Xingyan ordered again: "The army is stationed on the spot and will not attack for the time being." ”

The cavalry of the Sui army immediately set up hundreds of camp tents at the foot of the mountain, and they arrived on light horses, without too many spears, so they could only arrange more patrols near the camp tents to prevent the Tang army from stealing the camp at night......

Night gradually fell, the Tang army's fortress was also built, the top of the mountain was lit with torches, when the night disappeared the dark mountain shape, the camp tent in mid-air was like a palace in the sky, bright and shining.

The Sui army camp two miles below the mountain is also brilliantly lit, and thousands of torches are inserted on the wooden stakes around the camp, so that a huge ring of fire appears on the ground, which is also magnificent.

Chai Shao stood on the city wall and stared at the ring of fire on the ground, with a thought in his eyes, at this time, the general Qiu Xinggong stepped forward and said in a low voice: "General, there is a plan for the humble position, but you can break the Sui army!" ”

"What ploy, you say?"

"The humble duty found that the Sui army was a light soldier, and there were no spears around, so the simple camp was actually easy to break, as long as there was civil strife in the Sui army, we could rush down from a high position and kill the enemy camp to break the formation."

Chai Shao smiled bitterly, "You said it simply, how to make the Sui army civil strife, I can't think of a way." ”

Qiu Xinggong smiled, "I am from Fufeng County, but I have lived in Huining County for ten years, and I can speak the local dialect fluently, and the meaning of lowly position is ........"

Qiu Xing whispered a few words to Chai Shao, Chai Shao hesitated a little, "General Qiu is too risky to do this, and you are known as the tenth fierce general in the world, many Sui soldiers know you, you are easy to be recognized, this is not appropriate." ”

Qiu Xinggong said again: "Then the colonel will come to the door, and he will bring a thousand cavalry and ambush outside, if the Sui army is in civil strife, I will take advantage of the chaos to break through the camp, and I will definitely be able to bring Pei Xingyan's head to see the general." ”

Qiu Xinggong was sincere for his meritorious service, and he was not Chai Shao's person, Chai Shao couldn't refuse the request, so he had to agree, "Okay!" I will give you a thousand cavalry and fifty carts, and if there is any accident, return to the camp at once, and do not do anything brutally! ”

"Rest assured, the general will have good news for his humble duties." ……

Qiu Xinggong is the second son of Qiu He, the general of the late Sui Dynasty, with excellent martial arts, an iron spear makes him elusive, quite like Luo Shixin, but he is inferior to Luo Shixin, ranking tenth among the ten fierce generals in the world.

However, although Qiu Xinggong is brave in martial arts, he is also quite cunning, acting unreasonably, in the last years of the great cause, he also gathered a righteous army in Fufeng, but the strength is not much, only more than 1,000 people.

He took a fancy to another rebel army of tens of thousands of people, and pretended to be a native to deliver food to this rebel army, but when the leader of the rebel army thanked him, he killed the leader and took this rebel army, and acted quite boldly.

This time he went out with Chai Shao to Huining County, his biggest goal was to kill Pei Xingyan, and to kill five fierce with ten fierce kills, which would inevitably make him famous all over the world, but directly fighting, he had little chance of winning, so he decided to kill Pei Xingyan with a strategy.

The night was getting deeper and darker, and several teams of patrols patrolled near the Sui army camp, and the defense was not leaky.

At this time, a guard soldier shouted: "What is it, stop!" ”

More than a dozen Sui soldiers rushed up, stretched out their bows and arrows, and waited for the battle, only to see a large cart coming in the dark, about forty or fifty vehicles, and the first man shouted: "Don't shoot arrows, we were local people at that time, and came to send grain and grass to the Sui army." ”

There were more and more Sui troops patrolling around, torches were lit, and a captain rushed up, looking at the team of people who sent grain, they were all ordinary carriages, about dozens of men driving carriages, dressed in all kinds of clothes, and the captain looked at the carriage again, half of the carriage was grain, and the other was fine forage.

"Where are you from?"

A man in his forties stepped forward and spoke in a strong local dialect, "We are the nearby peasants, and when we heard that the Sui army was coming, we gathered some grain and grass and sent it, and only begged the Sui army not to affect the villages." ”

The captain pondered for a moment and nodded, "Thank you for your kindness, but now during the war, you are not allowed to approach the camp, and the grain and grass are unloaded on the spot, and I will pass on your request to the main general, and you leave quickly." ”