Wang Yingxuan said worriedly: "Father, the question now is how should we explain to the Tang Dynasty?" ”

"I know about it!"

Wang Shichong interrupted his son's words in annoyance, he paced back and forth in the room with his hands, he didn't know how to explain to Tang Dynasty, he couldn't wait to kick this matter away, it had nothing to do with him, he ignored it, but everyone else could kick it away, who could he Wang Shichong kick to?

After being silent for a long time, Wang Shichong turned back and asked Wang Shiyun: "Has the Tang Dynasty mission been pacified?" ”

"At present, it is pacified, but they want to say the law, and they want us to hand over the head of the murderer and Dugu Huaien. Pen Fun Pavilion www.biquge.info"

Wang Shichong stomped his feet with hatred, "Continue to search the whole city for me, and find out the murderer and the head when you turn it upside down, if you don't find the real murderer, the search will not stop!" ”

After a pause, Wang Shichong shouted again: "Spread my will, assist the army to catch the assassins, reward a thousand taels of gold, and promote the official to three ranks!" ”

Tonight is destined to be a sleepless night, Luoyang City is full of crying and shouting, teams of soldiers search the whole city again and again, and Luoyang City is full of complaints.

With the huge bounty hanging out, the people of Luoyang finally knew the real reason for the trouble, the Tang Dynasty envoy was assassinated, although many officials vaguely guessed the truth, and a very small number of low-level officials thought of the owner of the Nanshi fur shop, but no one dared to receive this kind of reward, and denounced the Northern Sui spies, which would be the consequence of raiding the family and exterminating the clan.

Early the next morning, the Tang Dynasty delegation left Luoyang angrily and returned to Chang'an, Wang Shichong had no choice but to send Zheng Ting, the secretary of the Ministry of Civil Affairs, to accompany the Tang Dynasty delegation back to Chang'an to explain the cause and effect of this incident to the Tang court.

.........

Just when Luoyang was in trouble because of the death of the Tang Dynasty, a 30,000-strong Sui army was marching rapidly between the mountains and mountains, this Sui army was composed of 10,000 cavalry and 20,000 infantry, and the military division Fang Xuanling accompanied the army to the west, and he was responsible for coordinating the battle between the infantry and cavalry armies.

In addition to cavalry and infantry, there are 30,000 livestock carrying food and armor, and more than 1,000 people are responsible for taking care of mules and horses, forming a mighty army to the west.

The Sui army is from Shanggu County Yi County, take the Flying Fox to the west, in Shanggu County, there are two marching roads across the Taihang Mountain, the south is called Puyin, the north is called the Flying Fox, relatively speaking, the strategic value of the Flying Fox is greater, it can walk horses and livestock, it is for this reason, the Flying Fox is also an important passage for the northern nomads to enter Hebei.

After each of the flying fox and Puyin walked more than 150 miles, the Feihu County in the mountains and mountains of the Feihu County rendezvous, the Feihu County is the Laiyuan County of the later generations, here is the traffic throat place, is the south to Hebei and the west into the state must pass through, has a very high strategic value, the Sui army stationed here 3,000 people, to defend Liu Wuzhou from invading Hebei, the city built more than a dozen large warehouses, stored a large amount of grain and forage, for the Sui army to go west to supply.

After five or six days of arduous marching, this afternoon, 30,000 Sui troops arrived in Feihu County, and according to the plan, they would rest in Feihu County for a day before continuing their westward journey.

The task of the Sui army this time is to exterminate Liu Wuzhou, Liu Wuzhou and the Tang army after several years of tug-of-war, has been exhausted, the strength of the loss, especially from the spring, the Tang army by the prince Li Jiancheng sat in Taiyuan, led 50,000 troops and Liu Wuzhou fierce battle, Liu Wuzhou was defeated in successive battles, the army has been less than 10,000 people, morale is low, they can only rely on the stubborn defense of Lou Fu Pass and the Tang army confrontation, at this time, the Sui army sent troops to annihilate Liu Wuzhou's time finally came.

The 30,000 Sui troops of the Western Expedition were temporarily stationed in Feihu County, and in the county hall, Fang Xuanling was discussing the next action plan with Su Dingfang, Pei Xingyan, Luo Cheng and Li Guangchang, the guard general of Feihu County.

Fang Xuanling pointed to the map and said to everyone: "There are two roads to the west from Feihu County, one is called Feihu North Road, which goes north around Hengshan Mountain to Mayi County, and the other is called Feihu South Road, which leads to Lingqiu County of Yanmen County, according to the current information, a Turkic cavalry of 5,000 people is currently stationed in Fuqibo in the north of Mayi County, they are Liu Wuzhou's backers, once the Tang army enters Mayi County, this Turkic cavalry will go south to interfere, we must beware of this cavalry." ”

As soon as Fang Xuanling's words fell, Pei Xingyan smiled and said: "Our 10,000 cavalry are all elite, well-equipped, and well-trained, and these 5,000 Turkic cavalry are of course our feast." ”

Fang Xuanling shook his head, "This battle can't be fought like this, the marshal said before setting off, this time it is a mixed battle of infantry and cavalry, we should implement the marshal's thinking, I will give you five thousand cavalry, then five thousand infantry, and finally give you another bag, you will fight according to the strategy in my bag, and you are not allowed to change my plan without authorization." ”

Fang Xuanling has been in the army for many years, and he also has a lot of prestige among the soldiers, especially in this western expedition, Zhang Xuan gave Fang Xuanling a gold medal to the coach, Fang Xuanling can kill the general with this gold medal, Pei Xingyan didn't dare to say more, bowed down and saluted, "Obey the order!" ”

"That's right!"

Fang Xuanling said with a smile: "This time we will attack Liu Wuzhou, the southern line and the northern line will be taken, the southern line will be in charge of me and General Su, and the northern line will be handed over to General Pei, and we must completely annihilate Liu Wuzhou and the Turkic reinforcements within half a month." ”

At this time, Su Dingfang, who had been silent, asked: "It took half a month, so how can we solve the problem of food?" ”

"Of course, it was solved from Liu Wuzhou, Liu Wu had a total of three granaries on Monday, one in Lou Fu Pass, one in Shanyang County, and one at the foot of Wu Zhou Mountain, and it was difficult to get the grain in Lou Fu Pass, so our goal was the grain and grass in Shanyang County and the cattle and sheep camp under Wu Zhou Mountain, but for the sake of safety, we also need to use Lingqiu County as a logistics center."

Speaking of this, Fang Xuanling instructed the guard general Li Guangchang again: "In the next step, we will move quickly with light troops, and 30,000 livestock will be handed over to General Li, and General Li can use these 30,000 livestock to transport grain to Lingqiu County, if there is a food crisis, these 30,000 livestock will be our last grain." ”

Li Guangchang hurriedly saluted, "Please rest assured that the military adviser will definitely be properly arranged!" ”

.........

Early the next morning, the Sui army divided into two routes, one was led by Pei Xingyan and the deputy general Zhao Liang to ride 5,000 troops each to the north of the Flying Fox Road, and the other was led by Su Dingfang and Luo Cheng and the military division Fang Xuanling to lead 20,000 troops south.

Pei Xingyan This is the first time to lead a mixed infantry and cavalry army, before leaving, Zhang Xuan specifically talked to him about this issue, the Sui army is ready to carry out a military reform, the implementation of a mixed infantry and cavalry system, no longer set up a separate cavalry, this sortie Liu Wuzhou is this kind of infantry and cavalry mixed system experiment.

The implementation of the mixed infantry and cavalry system is also directly related to the enhancement of the national strength of the Northern Sui.

Since June, the Northern Sui has had the first batch of 3,000 war horses slaughtered in the horse farm at the foot of Yiwulu Mountain in Liaodong, and they have also captured nearly 40,000 dwarf war horses in various parts of Goguryeo, and have also arrived in Liaodong one after another, and the Sui army has set up a cavalry training camp in Liaodong, and these 40,000 dwarf war horses are used to train cavalry.

In addition, the Northern Sui formulated the national policy of uniting the Tiele tribes to fight against the Turks at the beginning of the year, and the Northern Sui began to support the three departments of Bayegu, Fugu and Hui in Moxi, mainly to release the previous ban on pig iron, and set up the North City Division in Yanle County, Anle County, Youzhou, which was specifically responsible for the trade with the Tiele three departments, and within eight months, the Northern Sui exchanged 30,000 war horses and one million head of cattle, sheep and sheepskins with three million catties of pig iron and a large number of daily necessities such as tea, pottery, and cloth with the three departments of Tiele.

It was the increase in the number of war horses from various sources that made the total number of war horses of the Sui army reach as many as 100,000, and the number of cavalry also increased to 40,000.

The increase in the number of cavalry is the main reason why Zhang Xuan decided to carry out military reform, in the past, it was because of the scarcity of cavalry that a special cavalry had to be established, but now the total strength of the Northern Sui has expanded to 400,000 people, there is no need to set up a special cavalry, Zhang Xuan decided to disperse the cavalry to each guard, so that every army can have cavalry.

Pei Xingyan will no longer be the chief general of the cavalry, of course, there will be a large number of infantry in his army, although Pei Xingyan was not very able to accept this reform at first, but in the end he still understood the good intentions of the marshal, and was willing to undertake the first mixed infantry and cavalry combat experiment.

"General! That's Wu Zhou Mountain! ”

After two days of rapid marching, the 10,000-foot cavalry led by Pei Xingyan finally arrived in the middle of Mayi County, a towering mountain crossed in front of them, where was Wuzhou Mountain, and there was a sheep and horse city covering an area of thousands of acres in Yunnei County at the foot of Wuzhou, which contained millions of cattle and sheep, which was the concrete embodiment of the Turkic support for Liu Wuzhou, otherwise, with the sparse population of Mayi County, Yanmen County and Loufan County, how could they afford Liu Wuzhou's hundreds of thousands of troops.

In return for the Turks, Liu Wuzhou had ceded Dingxiang County and Yulin County in the north to the Turks, leaving a great deal of negative assets to the Central Plains Dynasty, especially for the Northern Sui Dynasty, and in order to ensure the safety of Hebei, they had to recapture the northern counties of the state as a buffer protection for Hebei.

Pei Xingyan looked at the map in his hand, Yunnei County was still thirty miles away from them, he put away the map and waved his sword, "Continue north!" (To be continued.) )