The Battle of Xiangcheng County had a far-reaching impact, although it was only a small turf contest in the chess game, but it was crucial, it made the Tang army passive in the whole battle, Qu Tutong's capture greatly shook the Tang court and the opposition, and also made the Tang court high-level aware of the unfavorable situation of the Central Plains War.

Just two days after Qu Tutong's capture, the Tang Emperor Li Yuan officially issued a holy decree, ordering the Tang army to fully withdraw from the Central Plains.

But this was at the end of the Sui Dynasty 1,400 years ago, and although some urgent information could be transmitted through the Flying Eagle, the transmission of major decisions still required human means.

did not see the holy decree stamped with the great seal of the Inner History, neither Li Shimin nor Li Xiaogong dared to take the great responsibility of giving up the Central Plains.

It takes three days for the Holy Decree to reach Changyuan County and five days to reach Xuchang County as quickly as possible, but during this five-day intelligence waiting period, everything will change.

A Sui army of 20,000 men marched rapidly on the plains of the Central Plains and advanced southeast along Yingshui.

This Sui army was Xu Shiji's army, which defeated Qu Tutong's 20,000 Tang army in Xiangcheng County, and Yang Yuanqing had ordered him to be incorporated into Li Jing's Eastern Route Army, so far, Qin Qiong's department and Xu Shiji's army were under Li Jing's unified command.

Xu Shiji's 20,000 troops were inserted into the central part of Yingchuan County on Li Jing's order, and went around to the rear of Li Xiaogong's troops to cut off the retreat of the Tang army, which was also an extremely important move.

Yang Yuanqing had given Li Jing a principled order to annihilate as much of Li Xiaogong's troops as possible, weaken the Tang Dynasty's forces in the south, and prevent the Tang Dynasty from expanding further to the southeast.

Yingshui, which is an extremely important river in the central part of Henan Province, is also named after Yingchuan County.

After years of unrest, the once-rich river has become desolate. The sparse and deserted villages seemed to be empty, with few people in sight, and the desolate wheat fields stretched eastward, melting in the heat as if they had disappeared.

It belongs to Fanchang County in the central part of Yingchuan County. It was about eighty miles away from Yingchuan County, where the main force of the Tang army was located, and after two days of rapid marching, the team was a little tired and had slowed down.

At this time, a drizzle began to fall in the gloomy sky, as if a sieve had sifted through it. It fell on the soldiers' faces in a dense and dense manner, and it was extremely cold.

Xu Shiji rode on his horse, took a curtain and looked into the distance, and in the distance, he saw the outline of a city standing in the drizzle, which was the county seat of Fanchang.

This county seat was particularly important to Xu Shiji, and they traveled lightly. I didn't carry heavy grain and grass, only three days' worth of dry food.

The scouts found out that there were nearly 30,000 stone of grain stored in Fanchang County, but the defenders were only 1,000 people, so Xu Shiji immediately ordered: "Speed up the march." Capture Fanchang County! ”

The 20,000 Sui army quickened the pace of the march, and soon, the army arrived at the county seat, the gate of the county town had been opened, and the county commander led more than a dozen officials had stood outside the city gate and waited, and did not see a single defender.

When Xu Shiji's war horse stepped forward. The county commander hurriedly greeted him and knelt down on his knees, "Fanchang County magistrate Chen Yu knocked to welcome the Sui Chaotian Army." I beg the Heavenly Army to be benevolent and treat the people of the county well. ”

Li Xiaogong paid attention to the management of the Central Plains, and the main county officials of Yingchuan County had been replaced by Tang Dynasty officials, so this Chen County Order was actually a Tang official.

However, Xu Shiji didn't care, what he cared about now was food, and he was a whip. Xu Shiji asked, "Where are the defenders in the city?" How much does grain have? ”

"Returning to the general, the defenders of the city have heard that the heavenly army has arrived. All had fled a quarter of an hour ago, and the grain was sealed in the warehouse, about 30,000 stones. ”

Xu Shiji put down his heart, as long as the food is still there, everything is easy to say, he turned over and dismounted, helped up the county order and said with a smile: "The county order, please get up, the Sui army is a benevolent and righteous army, and it will never disturb the people." ”

He then ordered, "Three thousand men enter the city, and the rest of the army is stationed outside the city!" ”

3,000 Sui troops marched into the city, while more than 17,000 Sui troops were stationed outside the city, and tents were erected.

An hour later, several messenger cavalry galloped north......

The Sui army camp had advanced twenty miles away from Yingchuan County, and the Tang army had further reduced its number to 50,000 because of the crushing defeat in Xiangcheng County, while the Sui army had increased to 60,000 because of the arrival of reinforcements from Qin Qiong in Dongcheng County.

In this way, the balance of power between the Sui and Tang armies began to reverse, and the Sui army had the advantage, and the Sui soldiers were stronger than Li Xiaogong's soldiers in terms of morale, physique, and combat experience.

Coupled with Li Jing's good command, the balance of victory in the Eastern Front of the Central Plains had tilted in favor of the Sui army.

In the big tent of the Chinese army of the Sui army, there was a model of the city made of yellow clay, one zhang in length and one zhang in width, placed on a wooden platform, and anyone with a little vision would recognize that this was the reduction of Yingchuan County.

This is a model of the city specially made by Li Jing inspired by the sand table, which is made according to the complete data of Yingchuan County that was obtained by two hundred scouts who spent ten days exploring, which is very intuitive and vivid, which will bring extremely powerful help to the attack on the county seat.

Around the county model, there are more than a dozen generals around, and Li Jing is holding a wooden pole and analyzing the city for everyone.

"At present, Li Xiaogong is stubbornly defending the county seat, but he may also withdraw his troops to the south, and we will analyze the possibility of seizing the county seat when he is stubbornly defending the city."

Li Jing's wooden pole pointed to the city wall, and slowly said to everyone: "Yingchuan County is a large county in the Central Plains, the circumference of the city is thirty miles, the city wall is two feet and five feet high, tall and strong, the depth of the city is wide, enough to accommodate his 50,000 troops, from the city itself, this city is difficult to fight, with our 60,000 troops, it is almost impossible to capture this big city with sufficient grain and grass and 50,000 troops to defend it." ”

At this time, Qin Qiong next to him said in a deep voice: "But Li Xiaogong's army may not be willing to defend the city. ”

Li Jing nodded, "This is the crux of the matter, I just received an urgent report from the governor, Tang Ting is likely to have decided to give up the Central Plains and withdraw the army back to Xiangyang, then within this day or two, Li Xiaogong should withdraw his troops to the south, but if we advance in a hurry, it will make the Tang army dare not withdraw the army, so I think we should still retreat north to Xuchang County to create a condition for Li Xiaogong to withdraw south." ”

Li Jing glanced at everyone, "What about everyone's opinions?" ”

Luo Shixin groaned and said, "I'm worried that they will withdraw too quickly and we won't be able to catch up." ”

Li Jing smiled slightly, "I've already thought of this question. I have ordered Xu Shiji to rush to Fanchang County to cut off the Tang army's retreat from behind, it is estimated that he has arrived, and news will come soon. ”

Qin Qiong was overjoyed, "If Xu Shiji is already waiting in the south." Then we will undoubtedly win this battle, and I support Changshi's plan, first retreat north to Xuchang County, and give the Tang army a chance to retreat south. ”

Li Jing looked at the other people again, "Do you all agree?" ”

The crowd agreed. At this time, there was a soldier outside the tent who reported, "Enlighten the long history, General Xu sent someone to deliver the letter urgently." ”

Li Jing's spirits perked up, "Order them to come in!" ”

The two messengers walked into the big tent and knelt down on one knee to report: "Report to the long history, General Xu has led 20,000 troops to occupy Fanchang County. There is food in the county, and we were sent to tell the long history. ”

Li Jing saw that the conditions were ripe, so he ordered: "Pass my order, the army will pull out the camp and go north and set up camp in Xuchang County." ”

An hour later. The 60,000 Sui troops packed up their camp tents, pulled out the camp, and drove to Xuchang County, 30 miles away......

The day after the Sui army withdrew northward, an envoy from Chang'an arrived in Yingchuan County, bringing a holy decree issued by Li Yuan, officially ordering Li Xiaogong to withdraw south to Xiangyang. Abandon the Central Plains.

Li Xiaogong stood on top of the city with his hands in his hands, staring at the north for a long time, he knew why the Sui army had withdrawn to Xuchang County. The defenders, who fled back from Fanchang County, told him that an army had cut off his retreat.

This must be Xu Shiji's army from Xiangcheng County, and Li Xiaogong's heart was full of bitterness at this time.

More than half a month ago, he was the one who strongly advocated the withdrawal of troops, because he realized the strategic disadvantage, but at that time the Holy Lord refused to withdraw his troops.

And today, half a month later, when he realizes that the withdrawal of troops will lead to serious consequences. The Holy Lord's will to withdraw the army has come again, which makes Li Xiaogong not know what to say. There was only a long sigh.

He thought of an old saying, 'Carving a boat for a sword', isn't that what it is today? Now that the situation has changed, the Sui army has completed the strategic encirclement, and the withdrawal army will have no danger to defend, only by holding on to the city, it will be difficult for the Sui army to attack, and maybe it can buy a little time.

But the holy decree came ruthlessly, so that he had no choice, at this time, Changshi Dugu Huaien stepped forward and said: "Your Highness, we can explain the situation to the Holy Lord, now we are facing the situation surrounded by the Sui army, and it is the wisest thing to wait for reinforcements according to the city." ”

Li Xiaogong sighed, "This is not a holy decree, but an official decision made by the imperial court, and the holy decree has the great seals of the Inner History Province and the Menxia Province, and more importantly, the army of the King of Qin has withdrawn westward, where are our reinforcements?" ”

Li Xiaogong stared at the west, and suddenly a thought occurred in his heart, could it be that Li Shimin didn't want to take the responsibility of rescuing himself, so he retreated so actively?

Li Xiaogong's heart was cold for a while, and he said slowly: "Once the army of King Qin retreats into Guanzhong, Yang Yuanqing's 50,000 main force will come from the west, and then it will be 130,000 troops to surround Yingchuan County, once the city is broken, the whole army will be annihilated, even if you and I can escape back to Guanzhong, how can we explain to the imperial court?" Because of the disobedience to the decree, the whole army was annihilated! ”

"However, it's not right to go, it's not right to fight, it's a dilemma, how can we get into this dead end?" Dugu said with hatred.

Li Xiaogong smiled bitterly, "In fact, this was already expected by Qu Tutong, he told me at the beginning that if I didn't evacuate in time, the Tang army would fall into a dilemma, today's situation was completely said by him, at that time he gave me three strategies, the best strategy is to withdraw the army immediately, at that time it was our only chance, while the Sui army was not deployed, decisively withdraw the army, preserve strength, but now the opportunity has been lost." ”

Speaking of this, Li Xiaogong's heart is full of melancholy, this is actually a problem with the decision-making system, the people who hold the decision-making power do not understand the truth, and the general who is about to fight has no right to make strategic choices, perhaps, this is the reason why Yang Yuanqing must personally go to war.

That night, after thinking about it for a whole day, Li Xiaogong finally made the decision to withdraw after repeatedly weighing the pros and cons.

Withdrawing, it can still save more than fifty percent of the troops, defending, and eventually the whole army will be annihilated, and more importantly, even if the withdrawal fails, it is a mistake in the strategic decision of the imperial court, not that he Li Xiaogong is ineffective.

At the same time that Li Xiaogong's army withdrew from Yingchuan County, the scouts of the Sui army immediately transmitted the information of the Tang army's southward retreat to Xuchang County, and Li Jing immediately led an army of 60,000 to pursue all the way