After a moment, Luo Cheng urged the horse forward, clasped his fists on the horse and saluted: "See the big handsome!" ”

Zhang Xuan smiled: "The general has worked hard. Pen %Fun %Pavilion www.biquge.info"

"I dare not speak hard about the things that are within my humble position."

Zhang Xuan nodded and asked, "How is the situation of intercepting the enemy army?" ”

"Returning to the marshal, the humble post encountered the eight thousand Tang Army led by the enemy general Li Shilei, the humble post besieged them on a hill four days ago, ready to draw out the enemy reinforcements, but the other party's reinforcements have never arrived, the humble duty burned the mountain yesterday afternoon, forced the other party to go down the mountain to surrender, has surrendered 6,800 people, but there are still 1,200 people who broke through the siege, including the opponent's main general Li Shilei, is the inferior deployment is wrong, did not expect the enemy to escape from the place where the fire was ignited, the humble duty is responsible, please punish the marshal!"

Zhang Xuan said lightly: "I have always advocated victory at the lowest cost, not only our army to reduce losses, but also the other party's soldiers, as long as this is done, then I think it is a success, General Luo can break the enemy with fire, it is to implement this principle, as for the incomplete deployment, let some of the enemy troops escape, although it is regrettable, but the impact is not great, you can not blame the past, the general does not have to blame himself." ”

Luo Cheng was both happy and ashamed, and bowed deeply, "Thank you Your Highness for your tolerance, you will learn a lesson and will not make the same mistake again." ”

"The general can send a team to escort the prisoners of war to the camp in Yongxing County, and the rest of the army will go north together."

"Obey the order!"

Luo Cheng saluted, turned his horse's head and led his men back to the camp first, while Zhang Xuan led the army to continue north, heading towards Wuchang County, where they were only one hundred and twenty miles away from Wuchang County, and they could be killed in one day.

........

Li Shilei had fled back to Wuchang County, he led 8,000 people to the expedition, and finally fled back with only a dozen people, and the whole army was destroyed, which really made Li Shenfu very angry, and ordered him to beat him with a hundred military sticks to set an example for the whole army.

Li Shenfu had already learned that Li Xiaogong had broken his arm to survive and led the army to retreat westward, this result was expected by him, but it really happened, Li Shenfu began to feel uneasy in his heart again, he really didn't know how to explain to the Son of Heaven?

In the secret room, the staff member Wang Jun gave him advice and said: "Don't worry too much about the prince, the subordinates feel that as long as this matter is handled properly, the Son of Heaven may not blame the prince." ”

"How do you do it properly?" Li Shenfu hurriedly asked.

"My subordinates feel that if the prince can grasp the three principles and two key points, basically there is no big problem, the three principles are self-blame, the second is to distinguish, and the third is to ask for guilt, and the two key points are the timing and the second is the attitude, the prince may wish to listen to me in detail."

"Go on!"

"The so-called self-blame is actually a matter of attitude, the prince must take the responsibility of the Sui army's raid on Jiangxia and the occupation of Yongxing County on himself, so he said that he was negligent, and he did not find out that the Sui army's army was in Qichun County early, and he didn't expect the Sui army to attack Jiangxia so quickly, so he was caught off guard by the Sui army, and his attitude must be sincere, expressing his willingness to take all the responsibility."

"Why?" Li Shenfu was a little puzzled.

Wang Jun smiled yinyin, "Lord Wang, this is actually the responsibility of the Son of Heaven, it was he who made a strategic mistake, thinking that Jianghuai was empty and empty, and he also sent Du Fuwei into Jianghuai, the prince is taking responsibility for the Son of Heaven, how can the Son of Heaven not understand." ”

"Clever!" Li Shenfu suddenly realized, and gave a thumbs up and praised.

Wang Jun smiled proudly, and continued: "Although we have taken responsibility for negligence, we must distinguish for ourselves in terms of rescue, first of all, we are not without rescue, we sent 8,000 troops south to rescue, and sent ships to send food to Li Xiaogong, as a result, the fleet and army were surrounded by the Sui army ambush and the whole army was annihilated, this is a fact, the prince must make it clear, as for the time of dispatch, it can be explained that our army is scattered in various military cities, and it takes time to assemble, which is also the main reason why our army was caught off guard, The prince can secretly shift the responsibility to Qu Tutong. ”

"Good, let's go on!" Li Shenfu was very satisfied with Wang Jun's explanation, and urged him to continue.

"As long as this point is explained clearly, and then the prince will plead guilty, expressing his willingness to take all the responsibility, his subordinates believe that Li Xiaogong will definitely justify his innocence and put the responsibility on the prince, which is in stark contrast to the prince's sincere attitude, and it is self-evident that the Son of Heaven will support anyone in his heart."

"Well said!"

Li Shenfu sighed sincerely: "Mr. is really clever and admirable, but I don't know when I will be better to go to the Son of Heaven?" ”

Wang Jun said with a smile: "This is one of the main points of what his subordinates said, seize the opportunity, to make the Son of Heaven preconceived and approve of the prince's explanation, and then it will be difficult to change his opinion, the prince immediately went to the book, and first secretly wrote to the Son of Heaven, and then wrote a formal report to the Ministry of War, so that it is relatively complete and impeccable." ”

Li Shenfu nodded, "Mr. is right, I will immediately start writing a recital for the Son of Heaven, as for the report of the Ministry of War, it will be troublesome to sir." ”

"The subordinates understand, and they will show it to the prince after they are written."

The two discussed for a while, then went their separate ways, and that night, Li Shenfu wrote a secret report to Li Yuan, the son of heaven, in full accordance with Wang Jun's plan, and sent someone to send it to Chang'an secretly.

Li Shenfu's heart had just fallen, but the next day news came that Zhang Xuan, the king of Qi, personally led an army of 50,000 to kill, less than twenty miles away from Wuchang, and at the same time, hundreds of warships appeared on the river outside Wuchang County, and the main force of the Sui army also blocked the Tang army's water retreat on the river.

This news made Li Shenfu panic, and immediately summoned the generals to discuss the countermeasures, and the generals almost unanimously agreed that even if the 30,000 troops of Jiangxia could hold on for a while, it would not last long, and they must immediately ask the imperial court for help.

Li Shenfu accepted the generals' plan, and the Northern Sui Dynasty came to fight Jiangxia with the strength of the whole country, and he could not support it alone, so he immediately wrote an urgent express report of 800 li to ask the imperial court for help.

At the same time, Li Shenfu issued an order to Wu Shi Tong, ordering him to immediately lead 20,000 Xiangyang troops to support Jiangxia.

.........

Wu Shi Tong had been following the war in Jiangxia, and in fact, when he heard that Li Shenfu had replaced Qu Tutong in charge of the Seven Counties of Jingbei, he felt the slightest bit uncomfortable.

Wu Shi Tong has known Li Shenfu for many years, and knows Li Shenfu very well, on the whole, he is relatively mediocre, far from his brother Li Shentong, but it is not a big problem of mediocrity, the key is that Li Shenfu is very keen on power and position, and he is extremely selfish, he will never do anything that will damage his own interests, such a person will be ruined sooner or later.

Wu Shi Tong did not misunderstand Li Shenfu, the first thing Li Shenfu did when he took office was to clean up Qu Tutong's old department, and many famous generals with outstanding military achievements could not escape the fate of being purged, and even Yin Kaishan, who was extremely senior in the army, was also transferred to the lieutenant of Chuyang County, commanding a thousand county soldiers to maintain law and order.

Although Wu Shi Tong was extremely dissatisfied in his heart, he did not dare to write to the Son of Heaven, maybe this was the secret instruction of the Son of Heaven to let Li Shenfu cleanse the power of King Qin in the army, after all, these Qu Tutong's subordinate generals are actually the people of King Qin, and they were handed over to Qu Tutong for temporary management, and later Wu Shi Tong also heard that Li Shenfu also did the same thing in Taiyuan, and cleaned up the power of the prince Li Jiancheng in the army.

However, Wu Shi Tong still secretly wrote to Li Shimin, the king of Qin, to report the matter, but Li Shimin did not reply, and Wu Shi Tong was completely dead, and watched Li Shenfu destroy the foundation that Qu Tutong had worked so hard to lay in Jiangxia.

But no matter how coldly Wu Shi Tong watched, he still couldn't escape the influence of the Jiangxia battle situation, and he received an order from Li Shenfu to lead the Xiangyang army to the Jiangxia battle within three days.

This made Wu Shi Tong extremely distressed, on the one hand, Li Shenfu was his boss, and he had to obey orders, on the other hand, after his 20,000 troops entered Jiangxia, it was likely to become a stepping stone for Li Shenfu, if he did not obey orders, once Jiangxia was defeated, Li Shenfu would put all the responsibility on his head as Wu Shi Tong.

In the afternoon of the same day, Wu Shi Tong left 3,000 troops to defend Xiangyang City, and he personally led 20,000 troops south to Jiangxia to participate in the Battle of Jiangxia. (To be continued.) )