Since Fang Xuanling has been thinking about it all night, then all aspects should be considered thoroughly, and Zhang Xuan doesn't want to dwell on this issue from the details. Pen? Interesting? Pavilion wWw. ｂiquge。 ｉｎfo

The key to attacking Xiangyang is to consider the overall situation, before Zhang Xuan sent an envoy to Luoyang secretly, hoping to reach an agreement with Wang Shichong to jointly attack Jingzhou, it is said that although Wang Shichong did not explicitly agree to this plan, but also acquiesced.

Judging from the current implementation, Wang Shichong did keep the secret that the Sui army was going to attack Jingzhou, which was a good job, in fact, Wang Shichong increased his troops in Xiyang County to prevent the Tang army from opening up Nanxiang Road, which can be regarded as a response to Zhang Xuan's expectations.

But more importantly, that is, to attack Xiangyang County, Wang Shichong was slow to hold his troops, which made Zhang Xuan slightly dissatisfied, if Wang Shichong attacked Xiangyang, it would bring huge pressure to the Tang army in Jiangxia, and the Sui army would surrender without a fight, forcing the Tang army out of Jiangxia in one fell swoop.

It is precisely because Wang Shichong has not sent troops to Xiangyang for a long time, resulting in the Tang army still having two strategic support points in Jingbei, one is Jiangxia and the other is Xiangyang, the two are cold lips and teeth, each other is horns, if Jiangxia does not fall, Xiangyang will defend to the death, and similarly, if Xiangyang is not destroyed, Jiangxia will not find an excuse to withdraw the army, and will also defend it.

This is the fundamental reason why Fang Xuanling proposed to attack Xiangyang first, Zhang Xuan fully understood the background of Fang Xuanling's proposal, he pondered for a long time and said: "Instead of dividing troops to fight Xiangyang, it is better to besiege the city and send reinforcements and force the Xiangyang army to save Jiangxia." ”

Fang Xuanling nodded, "This is okay, but we must guard against Wang Shichong taking advantage of the empty space in Xiangyang and sending troops to occupy Xiangyang." ”

Zhang Xuan sneered, "Wang Shichong has been holding his troops for a long time, it is very likely that he is waiting for the opportunity to send troops, but I am afraid that he will not send troops, if he is willing to send troops, I will give him Xiangyang." ”

Fang Xuanling realized, "Your Highness means ......."

Zhang Xuan said lightly: "Xiangyang is a huge bait, it can catch big fish that we can't imagine." ”

........

The Tang army besieged in the mountains waited for four days and did not wait for reinforcements from Wuchang County to come, and the main general Li Leishi turned from expectation to disappointment, and finally gradually despaired, at this time the Tang army's food had been cut off, and they had only one way to surrender except to break through.

At this time, Luo Cheng, the commander of the Sui army, had enough patience to wait, and Luo Cheng also wanted to make greater contributions and wait for the arrival of reinforcements from the Tang army.

But after waiting for four days, there was still no arrival of reinforcements from the Tang army, and Luo Cheng gradually lost his patience, and he finally stopped waiting and decided to annihilate the Tang army on the hill with a large number of people.

As soon as night fell, hundreds of cavalry set fire to the woods in the southeast, and the Sui cavalry had already made preparations, piling up a large amount of dry firewood and withered grass in the woods under the southeast corner, and just waiting for the main general to give an order to set fire to the mountain.

At this time, the southeast wind was strong, and the fire took advantage of the wind, and the woods at the foot of the mountain suddenly rolled thick smoke, and the smoke was mixed with the continuous red flames, crackling and burning, and the fire quickly spread to the mountain.

Most of the hills were pine trees, and the burning of pine needles and pine resin brought a lot of smoke, engulfing the entire hill, and the Tang army on the hill began to be chaotic, some of them advocated surrender, some insisted on breaking through, and the generals of the two factions were in dispute, but Li Shilei could not make up his mind for a while.

The Sui army suddenly set fire to the mountain, which really caught the Tang army on the mountain by surprise, and soon the smoke covered the entire mountaintop, and the Tang soldiers could not hide in the woods, in a panic, they began to run down the mountain, Li Shilei shouted: "The brothers who broke through the siege come with me!" ”

More than 4,000 Tang soldiers followed Li Shilei to break through to the east, the fire was burning from the southeast, and breaking through from the east was equivalent to going down the mountain along the edge of the fire, Li Shilei considered that the Sui army here might have fewer cavalry.

At this time, there was a begging sound from the west and north of the hill, that is, thousands of soldiers who wanted to surrender surrendered to the Sui cavalry, and thousands of Tang soldiers rushed down the mountain in one breath under the leadership of Li Shilei, and the mountain was filled with thick smoke, and many soldiers could not stand the smoke and fell directly into the woods.

"Kill it!"

Li Shilei roared, thousands of Tang troops followed and rushed out of the mountains and forests, sure enough, because the fire in this area was too big, most of the Sui cavalry was also forced to retreat, Li Shilei bet in the right direction, he saw that there were only more than 100 Sui cavalry under the mountain who were igniting, and he was overjoyed, and led the soldiers to pounce on more than 100 Sui cavalry.

Seeing the ferocity, the cavalry of the Sui army retreated one after another, retreating to the west and north, Li Shilei did not chase, he turned his horse head and led his soldiers to gallop to the east, he knew better than anyone that the tens of thousands of cavalry of the Sui army could easily crush their own soldiers, and now take advantage of the opportunity of the Sui army to accept surrender in the west and north to flee for their lives, the opportunity is only this short moment, and it will be over if they can't catch them.

But they only ran for a few miles, and the earth-shattering sound of horses' hooves of the Sui cavalry was heard behind them, and I don't know how many cavalry came to chase them.

Li Shilei was so frightened that he shouted: "The enemy is coming, everyone should go up the mountain and flee for their lives!" ”

The Tang soldiers were distracted, so they no longer followed the main general, and each fled to the mountain, and the only way to escape from the pursuit of the Sui army was to go up the mountain and burrow into the woods.

Li Shilei no longer cared about the soldiers, whipped his horse twice, and fled eastward with a dozen cavalrymen, and soon disappeared into the lush woods.

At this time, Luo Cheng led five thousand cavalry to hurry up, he was leading the soldiers to receive the surrendered Tang soldiers, but found that the number was not matched, and the news from the east came in time, Luo Cheng realized that he had made a mistake, and the enemy general rushed out of the place where the fire was burning, which was exactly a gap in his encirclement.

Luo Cheng was furious in his heart, and immediately ordered the deputy general Xiao Jinyong to continue to collect the surrendered troops, he personally led five thousand cavalry to chase, at this time, the night has fallen, the surrounding mountains and forests are dark, Luo Cheng led the army to chase out for several miles, but there is no trace of the Tang army soldiers, and he is puzzled, and suddenly he heard someone shouting: "Spare your life!" Don't kill us. ”

Luo Cheng reined in the war horse and turned back, only to find that a group of Tang soldiers were hiding behind a big rock on the side of the road, and were discovered by the cavalry, and more than 20 Tang soldiers were escorted out. ”

A brigade commander trembled and said, "All the brothers have been disbanded, and they have fled for their lives, and most of them have fled to the mountains. ”

"What about Li Shilei?"

"General Li escaped, he rode fast, we couldn't catch up, so we had to hide behind the boulder."

At this time, the Sui cavalry stopped in pursuit, and a general asked in a low voice, "General, what should we do?" ”

Luo Cheng looked at the night, the dark clouds of the night were closed, and the surroundings were extremely dark, only the billowing smoke and fire were billowing a few miles behind him.

"Go back first!"

Although Luo Cheng was extremely annoyed in his heart, he was not reckless, it was easy to be ambushed if the pursuit went on like this, anyway, these soldiers were cut off from food, and they couldn't run far, so they would be cleaned up tomorrow.

He turned around the dock and led his army back to the temporary camp.......

As the sky gradually brightened, the fire on the mountain was finally extinguished, and the whole mountain was burned black, and there were broken wood burned into charcoal everywhere, although the fire had been extinguished, it was still rising with black smoke, and you could still feel the heat wave near the mountain.

As Luo Cheng judged, as soon as the day dawned, groups of fleeing Tang soldiers came to the temporary camp of the Sui army to surrender, their food has been cut off, and there are at least two days left to return to Wuchang, the soldiers can only face the reality, surrender may have a way out.

Teams of Sui cavalry were sent out to search the vicinity, and in just half a day, more than 3,000 fugitive soldiers came out of the mountains and forests and surrendered to the Sui army one after another.

Despite this, more than 1,000 people escaped, and what made Luo Cheng secretly annoyed was that the enemy's main general, Li Shilei, also escaped, if it wasn't for his misjudgment, none of the Tang soldiers who were surrounded this time would have escaped.

At this moment, a group of Sui troops galloped over on horseback, rushed to Luo Cheng's side and shouted: "General, the marshal has arrived, and it is ten miles to the south." ”

Luo Cheng was taken aback, and hurriedly led the generals to greet the arrival of the boss.

Not long after, an overwhelming army slowly came from a distance, and it was the arrival of an army of 50,000 led by Zhang Xuan.

Zhang Xuan rode on a war horse, looking at the smoking hill from afar, last night they saw the fire here sixty miles away, and later learned that it was the Sui army that set fire to the mountain, forcing the Tang army trapped in the mountain to surrender, which was beyond Zhang Xuan's expectations, Luo Cheng actually confronted the Tang army for several days before he started, with such good patience, there is indeed progress.

"Marshal, General Luo is here."

Seeing a group of cavalry galloping from a distance, the leader of the general was Luo Cheng, Zhang Xuan smiled slightly, "Please ask him to come up to see me!" (To be continued.) )