Huo Yigu is guarded on the official road in the middle of the east of the river, and the mountains on both sides stretch for hundreds of miles. Huoyi County has become the only way to go north to Taiyuan, and it is also the throat of Taiyuan, which has an extremely important strategic position.

In every war for Hedong, Huoyi is a hurdle that cannot be bypassed, for ordinary people, they may be able to find mountain paths to bypass Huoyi County, but for the army carrying baggage, Huoyi County is a fort they have to face.

At this time, Huoyi County was occupied by the Sui army of Fengzhou, with 5,000 garrisons, commanded by Ying Yanglang General Cui Pojun, Cui Pojun was about 20 years old, born in Boling Cui, his grandfather was the former Zhuo County Taishou Cui Hongsheng, Cui Pojun studied and practiced martial arts since childhood, won Yang Yuanqing's weight, and handed him the heavy responsibility of guarding Huoyi County, he did not disappoint Yang Yuanqing, and defended Huoyi like an iron bucket.

Huoyi County itself is not big, the circumference is only more than ten miles, the permanent population is more than 20,000 people, but the business is very developed, there are all kinds of shops on the three streets, and there are thousands of merchants, and the fish and dragons are mixed.

On this morning, in front of an inn in the back street of the county, Cui Pojun personally led hundreds of soldiers to surround the inn.

"The people inside come out and surrender, spare your lives!" Several soldiers were shouting loudly repeatedly.

Early in the morning, Cui Pojun received a report from the county lieutenant that someone found that there were more than 20 people of unknown origin hiding in this inn, carrying knives, and did not go out, Cui Pojun immediately guessed that this was likely to be enemy spies, so he personally brought people to arrest them.

"General Cui, the inside refuses to surrender!" An officer stepped forward to report.

Cui Pojun showed an angry look in his eyes, and immediately ordered: "Light a fire to burn the house, and if you don't come out, you will be burned inside!" ”

The county commander was taken aback, and hurriedly stepped forward and said, "But the general, the innkeeper and several merchants are also inside, and they have taken them hostage." ”

"Set fire!" Cui Poping coldly ordered.

Torches were thrown into the inn, the smoke in the inn was billowing out, the tongue of fire spread rapidly, and after a while, more than 20 people rushed out with knives, shouting and killing the surrounding sergeants, hundreds of sergeants around fired arrows together, screaming for a moment, and shot more than 20 people to the ground.

The soldiers extinguished the fire again, searched the inn for a while, and found more than a dozen people who had written and not yet sent the information, and presented it to Cui Pojun, "Report to the general, this is the information found." ”

Cui Pojun opened the information and read it, and suddenly became furious: "Who guarded the south gate yesterday?" ”

A captain stepped forward tremblingly, "Last night was a lowly duty, and I was on duty at the south gate. ”

Cui Pojun angrily reprimanded him: "Last night, someone was able to climb over the wall from the southwest corner to enter the city, this is your dereliction of duty, push it down, and beat a hundred military sticks!" ”

More than a dozen soldiers dragged the captain down, and Cui Pojun felt that there were still loopholes in the defense of the city, especially at night, if Li Shimin's army was attacking at night, it would be dangerous, and he had to plug all the loopholes.

He ordered in his ears: "Order all officers above the rank of lieutenant to go to the military office to discuss matters!" ”

Three days later, Li Shimin led an army of 70,000 to Huoyi County, and in addition to the 50,000 troops brought from Guanzhong, the rest were all troops from various counties in Hedong.

The large camp of Li Shimin's army was set up three miles south of Huoyi County, and the tents were neat and tidy, stretching for several miles, and in the big tent of the Chinese army, Li Shimin was discussing the plan of going north to Taiyuan with the deputy general Qu Tutong, the military adviser Fang Xuanling, the marching commander Sun Wuji, and the chief of grain and grass baggage, Wu Shizhu.

Li Shimin was a little worried, pacing back and forth in the big tent with his hands behind his back, he had just received a report from the spies that Huoyi County had closed the city gate, and there were more than 20 human heads hanging at the city gate, it was the scout he sent to ambush Huoyi County, unfortunately, he also got another news.

Li Shimin sighed. Qi said: "I just got another news from the spies, the path in Gaobiling has been blocked by the Fengzhou military boulders, and now we have no other way to take Huoyi County except for a hard attack." ”

He glanced at the adjutant general Qu Tutong again, and saw that he had been silent in thought, so he smiled and said, "Old General Qu Tu, I want to hear your opinion." ”

Qu Tutong has been relatively silent since he entered Hedong, the old scenery of Hedong made him sad, only a few months, he felt that he had reached the next life, the past was so far away from him, he also understood that Li Yuan trusted him on the surface, but in fact he was still defensive against him, so he tried to keep a low profile and did not participate in decision-making.

And now it was Li Shimin who took the initiative to ask him, so that he couldn't help but answer, Qu Tutong hesitated and said: "I'll think about Taiyuan again, with my understanding of Yang Yuanqing, he should have taken Taiyuan now, if we go north, can we recapture Taiyuan?" ”

Several people were stunned for a moment, and Li Shimin hurriedly asked him, "Why do you see that Taiyuan has been lost?" ”

"When I was in Hedong County, Qin Gong told me that Yang Yuanqing did not fight Taiyuan but did not fight, and I felt a little uneasy in my heart, because Yang Yuanqing is a person who plans and then moves, and never lets himself be in a passive position, it is impossible for him not to know that we are going north, in this case, he is not in a hurry, and he is not in a hurry to lead Taiyuan City, I feel that he actually has the grasp of capturing the city, but he is just waiting for the opportunity."

The people in the big tent were silent, and everyone had to admit that Qu Tutong was reasonable, and the eldest grandson Wuji said: "General Qu Tu just said that Yang Yuanqing has the certainty of taking Taiyuan, but it doesn't mean that he has taken Taiyuan City now." ”

Qu Tutong smiled bitterly, "If we take Huoyi County in one day, the cavalry will be able to reach Taiyuan City in two days at the earliest, then we may be able to arrive in Taiyuan within three days, Yang Yuanqing also understands this, he also needs to control Taiyuan and prepare for the battle, three days is too urgent for him, he will not let himself be so passive, so I think he has taken Taiyuan at this time and is actively preparing for war." ”

Li Shimin walked to the map and stared at the map, he felt that what Qu Tutong said was right, in fact, Qu Tutong understood everything in his heart, he should communicate more with Qu Tutong, and it was his biggest mistake to snub him along the way.

Thinking of this, Li Shimin turned around and asked Qu Tudao softly: "I want to ask the old general, if we continue to go north to Taiyuan, what does the old general think we have a chance of winning?" ”

This question is indeed difficult to answer, and after pondering for a long time, Qu Tutong said slowly: "Let me say two things!" The first thing is in the ninth year of the Great Cause, Yang Yuanqing's forces expanded south to the six counties of Guanbei, I was ordered by the Holy Lord to lead 50,000 troops to fight back against Yang Yuanqing's southern invasion, at that time the Holy Lord gave me carte blanche to recapture, I could even wait for the opportunity to recapture Fengzhou, but I have been stationed in Yan'an County, and have never had a war with Yang Yuanqing, because I know that my logistics can not keep up, if I start a war I will be defeated, rather than defeat, it is better to reserve 50,000 troops for the Holy Shang, so I endured for two years, and finally proved that I was right, and my 50,000 troops became the main force in Luoyang. ”

Qu Tutong said very implicitly, he actually told Li Shimin that if it was him, he would not fight this battle with Yang Yuanqing, but would keep the army.

Li Shimin understood what Qu Tutong meant, and after a moment of silence, he asked again: "What about the second thing?" ”

"The second thing is that I want to show Qin Gong something."

Qu Tutong walked to the door of the tent and ordered the soldier to say a few words, and the soldier immediately ran towards his tent, and in a moment the soldiers came with something in their hands, like a plate, three feet wide and narrow, covered with a piece of cloth.

The soldiers carefully placed the items on the table, everyone gathered around, Qu Tutong lifted the cloth covering it, and everyone suddenly exclaimed, it turned out to be a terrain plate, the mountains and rivers above and the city are made of clay, vivid, Fang Xuanling looked at it for a long time, and suddenly recognized, "This is Hedong County!" ”

Qu Tutong nodded, "This is my own hand-made, very rough made, but I think this kind of map is more military than ordinary paper maps, he can tell us very clearly how to march and fight, if you use this kind of clay map to fight, the certainty of victory is much greater." ”

Li Shimin's eyes were firmly fixed on the map, and after a long time, he sighed softly and said: "I know that the Eastern Han Dynasty horse aid Lu Pumi is a mountain, but I have never seen the real thing, and today I have opened my eyes." ”

He glanced at Qu Tutong again and asked, "Is this the magic method that General Qu thought of?" ”

Qu Tutong shook his head, "This is the second thing I want to say, this is Yang Yuanqing's army, I once caught a Fengzhou army scout, he told me that in Yang Yuanqing's Chinese army tent, there is a complete clay map of Hedong, Guanzhong, and Hebei, which is three zhang long and two zhang wide, and Yang Yuanqing has always used this map to deploy the battle situation." ”

The big tent was silent again, Qu Tutong still didn't say it explicitly, and still implicitly told everyone that Yang Yuanqing not only had a clever combat map, but more importantly, he had already begun to prepare to take Hedong, and they were facing a premeditated, prepared, and powerful enemy.

To fight or not to fight?

Everyone retreated, and only Li Shimin and Fang Xuanling were left in the big tent of the Chinese army, and Fang Xuanling was stopped by Li Shimin.

Li Shimin let out a long sigh. Qi said: "The person I admired the most since I was a child is Yang Yuanqing, I still vaguely remember the first time I saw him in Renshou for four years, in a wine shop in Xianyang, when I was only six years old, I was very interested in his weapons, when he was only fifteen years old, his sky-breaking lance has more than 100 He said that his most powerful is not weapons, I thought he was talking about bows and arrows, when I grew up, I realized that his most powerful is not weapons, but soldiers, commanding thousands of troops and horses. ”

A ray of sunlight shone into the big tent through the oil tiles on the top of the tent, shining on Li Shimin's face, he seemed to be immersed in the memories of the past, Fang Xuanling did not interrupt the train of thought, sat aside and listened to him quietly.

"A few years ago in Zhuo County, he once told me what is a handsome arrow, a handsome man, plan and then move, everything is under control, I felt a sense of sudden enlightenment, but in fact it is very difficult to do, for example, this time, my father forced me to go on the expedition, did not give me time to deploy calmly, so that I sent troops to march in a hurry, the scout who was just sent to Huoyi County a few days ago was killed, if it could be deployed a month earlier, it would not be as passive as today."

Li Shimin's eyes turned to Fang Xuanling, and there was a deep worry in his eyes, "I was in a hurry to respond to the battle, and Yang Yuanqing calmly deployed, and I didn't hide it from Mr. I, I didn't have any certainty of defeating him in my heart." ”