Yongxing County is located in the southernmost part of Jiangxia County, west of the Yangtze River, about 50 miles away from the Yangtze River, it is close to a small tributary of the Yangtze River: Fushui, located on the north bank of Fushui. Pen, fun, and www.biquge.info

After passing through the Jiugong Mountains from Yuzhang County and entering Jiangxia County, the first county seat encountered was Yongxing County, but leaving Yongxing County and going north, it took more than 300 miles to reach Wuchang City, with hills and mountains in the middle, and a large number of forests were distributed.

Therefore, Yongxing County is particularly important for the Tang army that entered Jiangxia County by land, hundreds of miles of difficult trekking, physical strength has long been exhausted, and a county town is needed to recover physical strength.

However, just six days after Li Xiaogong led the army into Jiugong Mountain, an overwhelming number of ships appeared on the Yangtze River east of Yongxing County, and even five giant transoceanic boats appeared, and nearly 1,000 warships and cargo ships loaded with the main force of 80,000 Sui troops sailed towards Yongxing County........

In the afternoon of the same day, the banner of the Sui army was hung on the head of Yongxing County, and a temporary camp surrounded by a barracket appeared in the open space in the west of the city.

In the big tent of the Chinese army, the huge sand table has just been built, and several people are busy correcting the sand table, the sand table was made by the scouts of the Sui army in three months last year, and it is not very accurate, especially the terrain of Jiangxia is too far from the actual situation, and it needs to be repaired before it can be used.

Zhang Xuan stood in front of a map, silently staring at this Jiangxia map, the south of Yongxing County is a large area of forests and hills, and then to the south is the Jiugong Mountains, from the time, the Tang army should have come out of the mountains in these two days.

Zhang Xuan did not plan to ambush and attack the Tang army, the other party had 90,000 troops, and he led 80,000 troops to arrive, such a large scale could not hide the other party's scouts, and this should be a battle between the two armies, and there was no point in ambushing and attacking.

"Does Your Highness think that Li Shenfu will lead the army south to meet Li Xiaogong?" Fang Xuanling stepped forward and asked with a smile.

Zhang Xuan stared at the map, nodded and said, "It's possible, I hope so!" ”

Zhang Xuan didn't care too much about Li Shenfu, Li Shenfu was far from being his opponent, but Li Xiaogong was a powerful person, he pondered for a long time and asked: "What does the military advisor think is the biggest weakness of Li Xiaogong's army?" ”

"Frankly speaking, Li Xiaogong's army has many weaknesses now, physical exhaustion and low morale, in fact, these are not important, I think the biggest weakness should be food."

"Does the military advisor think that the other party's food will be cut off?"

"It's not a no-brainer, but it's bound to be more nervous, and the scouts say they set out with only a thousand mules to carry food, and a thousand mules to carry food is a drop in the bucket for an army of ninety thousand, and they have to rely on the dry rations that the soldiers carry with them, and I suspect that these mules and horses are not carrying grain, but fodder or horse beans."

"The military advisor is right, they have thousands of war horses in their army, and there are no carts to transport horse materials, only these mules."

Fang Xuanling smiled and continued: "We all have experience, soldiers generally have to carry weapons and armor, the spear scabbard alone weighs ten catties, and there are simple luggage, these burdens are already very heavy, in addition, a soldier can only carry ten days of dry food at most, today is the sixth day, they only have a maximum of five days' dry food left, as long as we drag them for five days, the Tang army will be defeated without a fight." ”

Zhang Xuan smiled: "Just like the Goguryeo army back then." ”

Fang Xuanling nodded, "The current situation is indeed very similar. ”

While the two were talking, Xu Shiji walked into the big tent with two officials, "Dashuai, they are here!" ”

The officials who came in were Huang Kai, the county magistrate of Yongxing County, and Li Zhishou, the county lieutenant, and the two of them stepped forward and knelt down to salute, "Weichen see His Royal Highness King Qi, I wish His Highness a thousand years of life!" ”

Zhang Xuan smiled faintly and said, "You are not my subordinates now, you don't need so many courtesies, please get up!" ”

The two stood up, feeling quite uneasy, they both saw that a big war was about to break out in Yongxing County, and they didn't know how many people would be affected?

Xu Shiji said on the side: "Huang Xianling was born in Jiangxia, and Li Xianwei is a local and knows the terrain of Yongxing County well. ”

Zhang Xuan said with a smile: "I will ask Huang County Ling about the situation in Jiangxia County when I go back, but now I want to know some of the terrain distribution of Yongxing County first." ”

At this time, one of the practitioners stepped forward and saluted, "Your Highness, the sand table has been corrected." ”

Zhang Xuan nodded, and led everyone to the sand table, Zhang Xuan said to Li Zhishou: "I first need to know where the Tang army will come out after passing through the Jiugong Mountains?" ”

Li Zhishou looked at the sand table for a moment, and pointed with a wooden pole: "There are three roads through Jiugong, of course, there are some small roads, but you can't take livestock and war horses, there are only three roads that can take livestock, we call it the east line, the middle line and the west line, generally the west line is unlikely, it is to Baling County, the road is far away, there are only the east line and the middle line from Yuzhang County, the two roads are about eighty miles apart, to be honest, it is possible, and Weichen can't be sure which line they come out from." ”

At this time, Fang Xuanling took the wooden pole and pointed to a long and narrow hill in the north-south direction and said: "This place is called Longji Ridge, we found a Tang army scout in the east of Longxu Ridge, can it be used as a clue?" ”

Huang Kai, the county magistrate next to him, said: "Our hunters in Yongxing County have a saying, called 'cross the dragon's back, life is not long', everyone knows that the top of the dragon's beard ridge is a very steep white boulder, it is easy to have an accident when you climb over it, it is said that it will touch the dragon's reverse scales, if the Tang army is led by the hunter, then the hunter will never take them over the dragon's ridge." ”

County Lieutenant Li Zhishou also nodded and said: "Huang Xianjun is right, since the Tang Army scouts appear to the east of Longji Ridge, then they must take the eastern route, which is also the flattest and best road in Jiugong Mountain. ”

Zhang Xuan pointed to Fushui again and asked, "If there are no boats and no bridges, how can I cross the river?" ”

"You can cut down trees and tie rows, or cut bamboo and tie bamboo rows, you can cross the river, but now it is the spring flood, the upstream and middle reaches of the water are very urgent, the raft is easy to be overturned, if the water is not enough, it is basically difficult to survive after falling into the water, only go downstream, although the riverbed is a little wider, but at least the water is gentle, you can support the raft to cross the river."

"What if you build a pontoon bridge on a raft?" Xu Shiji asked on the side.

"It's not good in the upstream and midstream, or the water is too fast, and the pontoon bridge can be built downstream."

Zhang Xuan asked some more questions, and finally he changed the topic and asked, "How far is the iron mine in Jiangxia County from here?" ”

"Does Your Highness mean the Green Copper Mountain?"

"It's the iron mine of the Tang Dynasty now, and there should be a lot of people mining it."

Huang Kai, the county magistrate, said: "Eighty miles southwest of Wuchang County, about two hundred miles away from us, there are tens of thousands of miners who are mining and smelting around the clock, which is the largest source of pig iron in the Tang Dynasty. ”

"I understand, thank you two county magistrates, you go back to appease the people, tell the fathers and elders in the city, just stay at home and don't come out, the war will not affect the county seat."

The two of them were overjoyed and bowed together, "Thank you Your Highness for protecting the people of Yongxing, Your Highness's kindness, we will remember it in our hearts." ”

Zhang Xuan asked Xu Shiji to send the two county officials away, and at this time, Fang Xuanling asked with a smile: "Does Your Highness want to rely on rich water to intercept the Tang army?" ”

Zhang Xuan nodded, "As long as they can't cross the rich water, we will definitely win this interception battle." ”

After speaking, Zhang Xuan immediately ordered: "Quickly order Sun Changle and General Mai Mengcai to come to see me!" ”

After a while, two cavalry generals walked in quickly, bowed and saluted, "See the commander!" ”

"Two generals are exempt!"

Zhang Xuan pointed to Fushui on the sand table: "Fushui is 270 miles long, General Mai can lead 10,000 cavalry to intercept 100 miles upstream, and General Sun will also lead 10,000 cavalry to intercept 100 miles in the middle reaches. ”

"Obey the order!"

The two bowed, turned and hurried away.

.........

The day before Zhang Xuan deployed cavalry to intercept the Tang army's crossing of the river, two of his own soldiers sent by Li Xiaogong crossed the rich water under the cover of night on a raft thirty miles west of Yongxing County, and continued to gallop northeastward.

Two days later, the two cavalrymen arrived in Wuchang County and met Li Shenfu, the commander of the Tang army in Jiangxia.

Li Shenfu is about fifty years old, is the cousin of Li Yuan, the son of heaven, tall, thin-looking, was a famous beautiful man when he was young, the wisp of clear beard under the chin is neatly trimmed, the eyebrows and eyes are delicate, and he looks quite a bit of fairy wind and bones.

Li Shenfu is the first time to sit in the south, before he was responsible for the security of Hedong County and Pujin Pass, and succeeded the crown prince Li Jiancheng to sit in Taiyuan, this time Li Shenfu was transferred to Jiangxia to replace Qu Tutong, he was not very reluctant, mainly because Jiangxia is too far away from the center of power, and staying here for too long will affect his status in the imperial court.

Therefore, Li Yuan promised him before he came to Jiangxia, and appointed him as the governor of Longyou three years later, and Li Shenfu happily came to Jiangxia to take up his post.

But he couldn't be happy these days, the clouds of war had shrouded over Jiangxia, the entire Yangtze River had been controlled by the Northern Sui Water Division, his army couldn't get out of the river at all, seeing that the big war was imminent, Li Shenfu was really worried in his heart.

At this time, a soldier reported outside the hall: "Your Highness, King Zhao sent someone to ask to see!" ”

Li Shenfu's face immediately became gloomy, and the last thing he wanted to hear now was news from Li Xiaogong. (To be continued.) )