The 10,000 soldiers of the Sui army acted at the same time, and in just half an hour, they built a two-mile-long, seven-foot-high mud wall at the mouth of the Henggu Valley with mud bags and giant trees, blocking the Tang army's eastward advance. Pen? Interesting? Pavilion wWw. ｂiquge。 ｉｎfo

Zhang Xuan rode a horse and stood on a high place, but from his angle, he could clearly see the Tang Army soldiers several miles away, and even their main general Duan Decao, Zhang Xuan couldn't help but have a faint sneer at the corner of his mouth, this is the effect he wants, Li Yuan forced Duan Decao's army to march east regardless of sacrifice in order to have a little pig iron and blister copper, this is Duan Decao's biggest shortcoming, no matter how clever his strategy is, he must obey the will of the Son of Heaven.

But to defeat Duan Decao's army, it will not be such a big bend, and implement a counter-strategy in Chang'an, as long as he leads the army directly to Shuofang County, he can also defeat Duan Decao in one battle, but Zhang Xuan cherishes talents a little, judging from the performance during this time, Duan Decao is worthy of being a famous general, and he needs such a general to sit in the Hexi Corridor.

At this time, the general Sun Changle rushed to report: "Marshal Qiqi, the Tang army did not retreat, but cut down trees to build fortifications, it seems that they want to confront us, do you need to attack?" ”

Zhang Xuan said coldly: "Duan Decao is just covering the retreat of the rear army, he will never resist us, continue to wait patiently, without my order, the army will not attack!" ”

"Obey!"

Sun Changle rode his horse and galloped away, and Zhang Xuan immediately ordered: "Send a message to Luo Cheng and attack according to the original plan!" ”

.........

The five thousand rear troops rushed all the way, and after more than an hour, they retreated to the valley, but the vicinity of the valley mouth was very quiet, and there was no change from when they passed by before, Cheng Duo looked at it for a while, and did not find anything abnormal, and couldn't help frowning: "Could it be that General Duan made a mistake in judgment." ”

Liang Li had followed Duan Decao for many years, and he had always been convinced of Duan Decao's judgment, he shook his head and said, "If the Sui army does not block the back road, but only the front, then it will be meaningless. ”

"Then where did you say the Sui army was?"

As soon as Cheng Duo's words fell, two arrows suddenly shot from the woods like lightning, taking Cheng Duo's face door, Liang Li was startled and shouted urgently: "Flash!" ”

Cheng Duo was just a scholar, where could he dodge two deadly cold arrows, he screamed miserably, planted from the horse, one arrow hit the forehead, and the other shot the throat, Cheng Duo was killed on the spot.

Liang Li was stunned, but before he could make a response, the sound of bangs sounded on both sides, and arrows were fired in the dense forest, and the Tang army was caught off guard and fell to the ground one after another, and the soldiers were in a mess and retreated one after another.

At this time, the drums in the dense forest were loud, and 10,000 cavalry killed from the left and right, like two torrents, and attacked the Tang soldiers.

Liang Li was shocked, "Retreat!" Fall back! ”

He didn't care about the soldiers, turned his horse's head and fled first, the soldiers of the Tang Army shouted in horror, trampled on each other, and ran desperately, Luo Cheng shouted: "Those who surrender will not die!" ”

The cavalry of the Sui army shouted one after another: "Those who surrender will not die!" ”

The Tang soldiers in the chaos seemed to see a glimmer of life, a large number of soldiers raised their spears and knelt to surrender, the Sui army did not kill, part of the cavalry accepted the surrender, and the other part of the cavalry continued to chase under the leadership of Luo Cheng.

After chasing out seven or eight miles, Luo Chengyi waved his hand, "Stop chasing!" ”

Thousands of Sui cavalry followed him and withdrew towards the valley pass.

Liang Li escaped more than ten miles in one go, and the two pro-soldiers grabbed the reins of his war horse one left and one right, and shouted: "General, the Sui army is no longer chasing!" ”

Liang Li slowly stopped his horse, and at this time, more than a dozen personal soldiers also rode up to follow, Liang Li was frightened for a while, and looked back, only to see sparse soldiers running towards this side, the number of people was only about 100.

This made Liang Li's heart chill for a while, could it be that there were only so few soldiers left in the 5,000 army?

A pro-soldier said: "It should be that the soldiers are running slowly, and there are quite a few behind, let's take a look." ”

Liang Li nodded, "Go and go back quickly!" ”

Several cavalrymen turned their horses and ran back, Liang Li turned over and dismounted, sat on a big rock to rest, he felt a burst of fear in his heart, the army was annihilated is a trivial matter, the key is that Cheng Duo was killed by an arrow, this is a big problem, how do they explain to the Son of Heaven, and more importantly, Cheng Duo is Chen Shuda's son-in-law, Cheng Duo's death means that he has just seen a glimmer of future and is completely finished.

Liang Li was distraught and didn't know what to do.

Half an hour later, a group of Tang Army deserters finally rushed over, Liang Li counted it, there were about a thousand people, at this time, two personal soldiers came back, and said to Liang Li: "General, that's all." ”

"That's ..... More than a thousand! ”

Liang Li's eyes widened in shock, "Are the other brothers all killed?" ”

The pro-soldier shook his head, "We saw very few corpses, and it is estimated that most of them surrendered." ”

Regardless of whether he died in battle or surrendered, it was the same thing for Liang Li, eighty percent of his army was annihilated, Liang Li could only sigh helplessly, and went east with the remnants of the army in panic.

But less than five miles away, and the sky was not completely dark, they met the retreating Duan Decao army head-on.

In front of a big stone, Liang Li said in detail about their encounter with the Sui army ambush with a face full of shame, Duan Decao was so shocked that he couldn't say a word, the supervisor who only took office yesterday, the dignified imperial history of the imperial court was shot to death by an arrow, how could he explain to the saint?

Two days have passed, Duan Decao has always had nothing to do, it's not that he can break through if he wants to, he has lost the opportunity before, and the breakthrough is no longer realistic for them.

The valley mouths at both ends were blocked by giant trees, and tens of thousands of Sui troops blocked the way out from both ends, even if they forcibly broke through, it would mean that a large number of soldiers were surrounded and annihilated by the Sui army, and Duan Decao could not make this choice.

On the evening of the third day, it rained, and the Tang army was miserable, they had no tents, they could not light fires for heating, and the dry food was gradually exhausted, and 10,000 soldiers were crammed into a forest and fell asleep, and under the torture of hunger and cold, many soldiers unfortunately fell ill, and their morale became very low.

At this time, several soldiers rushed from outside, and they were led to Duan Decao, who was sitting on a big matter, and hurriedly leaned over and asked, "How is it, have you found a way out?" ”

The leading soldier sighed, "General, it's not realistic to climb the mountain, you can climb up the bottom, but almost all of the cliffs above are impossible to climb at all, and we couldn't find a way out after two days of searching." ”

At this time, Liang Li next to him sneered: "Even if we climb the mountain, it will take at least five or six days to return to Yanlu County, our food has long been cut off, and everyone will starve to death on the road, General, I said at the beginning that this road will not work, don't hold out hope." ”

Duan Decao was extremely disappointed in his heart, waved his hand, and sent the soldiers down, Duan Decao sighed and lowered his head deeply.

At this time, Liang Li stepped forward and sat beside him and said, "General, I'll just tell you a few words of truth!" ”

Duan Decao glanced up at Liang Li, "What do you want to say?" ”

Liang Li saw that there was no one left and right, so he lowered his voice and said: "Cheng Duo is dead, the warehouse in Rulin County is destined to not be saved, the Son of Heaven will never let us go, general, even if we escape back, it will be a dead end." ”

"So what do you say?"

Liang Li said meaningfully: "The general should understand what I mean, we only have this one way to go." ”

Of course, Duan Decao understood what he meant, he was silent for a moment and said, "I understand what you mean, let me think about it again!" ”

At this moment, a soldier ran to report: "General Qiqi, a young civil official has come from the Sui army, saying that he has come to see the general on the order of His Royal Highness the King of Qi." ”

Without waiting for Duan Decao to speak, Liang Li hurriedly said, "Hurry up and invite him in!" ”

After a short time, a young civilian officer was ushered in, and he bowed and saluted, "Under the account of the King of Qi, he joined the army to engage in Chu Suiliang, and I came to see General Duan and General Liang on the order of His Royal Highness the King of Qi." ”

Chu Suiliang took out a letter and presented it with both hands, "This is a handwritten letter from His Royal Highness King Qi to General Duan, please take a look." ”

Duan Decao heard that it was Zhang Xuan's letter, he didn't dare to slack off, and hurriedly took the letter, Liang Li lit a torch and stepped forward, Duan Decao read the letter carefully, Zhang Xuan carefully described the causes and consequences of the battle in the letter, he pointed out in the letter that it was Li Yuan's treachery, house arrest of the Northern Sui envoy, and tearing up the previous agreement, which caused the Sui army to have to change its plan to go south to Diaoyin County.

The letter also praised Duan Decao for his loyalty to his duties, and expressed the hope that Duan Decao could sit in Hexi and maintain the Central Plains Dynasty's governance of Hexi.

Duan Decao asked again: "What are the captured soldiers going to do?" ”

Chu Suiliang said solemnly: "His Royal Highness the King of Qi will give them preferential treatment, and deal with them according to the way of surrender before the war, according to their willingness, if they are willing to continue to serve in the army, they will be incorporated into the Sui army, and if they do not want to join the army, they will be sent home." ”

Duan Decao sighed in his heart, then got up and said to Liang Li: "It seems that we have no choice, tell the brothers that we are ready to surrender to the Sui army!" ”

.........

After dawn, Duan Decao and Liang Li led 10,000 troops to surrender to the Northern Sui, Zhang Xuan personally appeased him, and named Duan Decao as a general, gave the Duke of Wuwei County, named Liang Li as the general of Hu Benlang, and gave Nanshan County Marquis.

On the second day of accepting Duan Decao's surrender, Luo Cheng led 10,000 cavalry to kill Rulin County, the main general Xi Shiling had fled and disappeared, 3,000 defenders surrendered the city, Zhang Xuan immediately ordered Sun Changle to lead 5,000 troops to garrison Rulin County, and ordered the Sui army fleet on the Yellow River to come to Rulin County to transport copper and iron back to Mayi County.

Zhang Xuan led tens of thousands of troops to continue westward and march towards Lingwu County, while Li Jing also led 20,000 troops south from Wuyuan County and killed Lingwu County along the Yellow River. (To be continued.) )