It was the fifth night after the full moon, and a semi-moon hung in the sky, and the moonlight with a strange hint of blood red sprinkled the dim moonlight on the earth, shining on the mountains in the distance, making the mountains a little strange.

Standing at the head of the city of Yunnei County, the Turkic Jieli Khan looked at the blood-red semi-full moon with a somewhat confused gaze, in the Turks, this blood moon is a symbol of great evil, indicating that it is not suitable to send troops, which makes Jieli Khan's heart become extremely heavy.

He had already received news that Yang Yuanqing had led an army of 80,000 to Shanyang County, two hundred miles to the south, and in the area of Zihebao in the east, there were 15,000 Sui troops and remnants of the Utu tribe.

Although the Sui army's strength was less than half of his, the total annihilation of the 20,000 Turkic troops in the Purple River Valley still made his heart heavy, not only his morale was hit, but even his own confidence was shaken a little.

What's more, it's the middle of winter, but the weather doesn't look so cold, there is no sign of snow, in the traditional Turkic saying, winter is bound to snow, he feels that this snow is getting closer and closer, this blood moon is a sign.

Jieli Khan's eyes turned to the south again, and he knew in his heart that no matter how bad the weather was, this battle would still be fought, not only because he was already difficult to ride, but more importantly, because his internal situation was becoming more and more unstable.

The serious damage caused by the fiasco in Fengzhou two years ago is still difficult to heal, and the signs of self-reliance are becoming more and more obvious, but Xue Yantuo is duplicitous, each tribe is thinking about its own interests, and if there is no brilliant battle to establish its own authority, then Turkic division is inevitable.

But how to fight this battle, Yang Yuanqing is obviously using a drag method, he has been stationed in Shanyang County for eight days, and there is no sign of going north, confronting himself. He wanted to use the pressure of the heavy snow to force himself to withdraw. Win without a fight.

In fact, Jieli Khan also knew very well in his heart that as long as he did not attack the city. He was seventy percent sure of winning this battle, after all, his army was more than twice as large as the Sui army, and his equipment and combat effectiveness were not weak.

And he has deeply learned the lessons of the Toyoshu fiasco. That is, you must not give up your cavalry superiority and go to fight some siege war with the Sui army, and the question now is how to lure the Sui army out to fight, and the victory will be decided in a battle.

After pondering for a long time, Jieli Khan suddenly thought of a person, and immediately turned around and ordered: "Call Guo Zihe!" ”

Guo Zihe was a separatist force in Dingxiang County that year, he was originally the general of Zuo Yiwei Ying Yanglang in the capital, but he was implicated in the case of Yang Xuan, the king of Qi, and was exiled to Yulin.

Eleven years of great cause. Due to the influence of Liu Wuzhou's rebellion, Guo Zihe led twelve warriors to kill Yulin Juncheng and also declared a rebellion. Thousands of people were then recruited and went north to occupy Dingxiang County. and surrendered to the Turks, and was named Urishat by Shibi Khan. That is, the meaning of a chieftain.

Yang Yuanqing marched eastward strongly the following year, defeating Liu Wuzhou in Yulin County, Guo Zihe knew that the general trend had gone, so he gave up Dingxiang County Beitou Turks, but Shibi Khan thought that he did not have the bloody nature to resist, and sent him to the east to cut wood, in fact, he was abandoned.

However, Jieli Khan and Guo Zihe had contact several times, and he found that Guo Zihe and this person were quite brainy, and had the Han strategy that the Turks lacked the most, so after Jieli Khan ascended the throne, he added Guo Zihe as a pillar and followed him to the south.

After a short time, several Turkic soldiers brought over a burly Han general, Guo Zihe was about forty years old, and several years of hard logging had made him look very old, his hair was half a hundred, and he looked like a man of more than fifty years old, but his eyes were still as sharp as eagles, and flashed with a kind of essence that seemed to be able to see through people's hearts.

Guo Zihe thought that he would spend the second half of his life in the turbulent land of the Turks, but unexpectedly, the accession of Jieli Khan to the throne brought him back to life, which made him very grateful, and he stepped forward and bowed and said, "See the Khan!" ”

Jieli Khan nodded, and said softly: "I brought General Guo here to ask General Guo for advice, now that the Sui army and the Turks are facing each other, I am afraid that it will not be good for our army if time drags on, General Guo thinks, I don't know how we can break this stalemate?" ”

Jieli Khan's attitude was very modest, which made Guo Zihe a little flattered, and he hurriedly bowed down and said: "I am willing to share the worries of the Khan!" ”

He concentrated on sorting out his thoughts and said: "Actually, I think that Yang Yuanqing is under more pressure to fight, and now that he is leading a large army to fight with the Turks, how can the Tang Dynasty not seize this opportunity?" It is certain that the Tang army will take the opportunity to seize the Guannei Dao and the Central Plains, and Yang Yuanqing should be anxious now, he is more anxious for a decisive battle than the Khan. ”

Guo Zihe's analysis talked about Jieli Khan's heart, in fact, he just wanted to use the dispute between the Sui and Tang dynasties to seek the greatest benefits for the Turks, but the battle of the Purple River Valley seriously hit his confidence, making him hesitate in his heart, his thoughts were chaotic, and he forgot about the Tang Dynasty for a while, at this time Guo Zihe's words woke up the dreamer.

"What does General Guo mean is that I simply hold my troops and force Yang Yuanqing to take the initiative to go north for a decisive battle?"

Guo Zihe sneered and said: "Khan, the Han people pay attention to avoiding reality and avoiding the weakness of the other party, the biggest weakness of the Sui army is that their battle line is too wide, from Liaodong to Dunhuang, it seems to occupy a large area of land, but in fact it also brings a huge burden, the Sui Dynasty itself has a lot of troops, but as soon as they disperse to various places for defense, their forces are insufficient, the key is that they still have the great enemy Tang Dynasty, it is estimated that they have laid heavy troops in Hedong County and Hanoi County, so that the hinterland of Hedong of the Sui army must be empty, It is better for the khan to send a strange army to kill into the hinterland of Hedong, turn the hinterland of the Sui Dynasty upside down, and then go to Hebei to see if Yang Yuanqing can still drag it on? ”

Jieli Khan's eyes flickered, this move was indeed very vicious, why didn't he think of it?

"Then how many troops does General Guo think I should send?"

"Khan, don't have too many strange soldiers, too many soldiers, it will affect the combat effectiveness of the main battalion, and it is recommended to send 30,000 cavalry, the key is not to fight with the Sui army, not to attack the city, just to destroy the main thing, and force Yang Yuanqing to fight a decisive battle."

Jieli Khan squinted and thought for a moment, and resolutely said: "Then I will hand over 30,000 strange soldiers to General Guo, and General Guo will attack the hinterland of the Sui Dynasty!" ”

Guo Zihe hated Yang Yuanqing because of the matter of King Qi back then, he thought that there was no hope of revenge, but he didn't expect that the opportunity for revenge actually came inadvertently, he was overjoyed in his heart, bowed down and said: "I am willing to serve the Khan!" ”……

Eighth day after the full moon. The sky is getting cloudy. At night, dark clouds obscured the starlight, and a faint starlight continued to appear in the gaps in the clouds.

Yang Yuanqing also stood at the head of the city and looked at a half-full moon passing through the dark clouds. The waning moon was like blood, filling his heart with a sense of foreboding.

Since ten days ago, he and Li Jing discussed. In the end, the tactics of delaying were decided, delaying but not fighting, prompting internal chaos among the Turks, and using the pressure of snow to force the Turks to withdraw.

Since two days ago, the sky has gradually increased the number of clouds, which is a sign that the sky is about to change, and a change in the sky at this time means that a blizzard is coming.

But at this time, Yang Yuanqing was also under great pressure, and he had received information that the Tang Dynasty had finally sent troops. They attacked Sui with the whole country's army, and the 300,000 troops were divided into two routes, one was led by Li Jiancheng and Chai Shao to attack the Guannei Road. On the other hand, Li Shimin and Li Xiaogong each led an army of 100,000 to attack Luoyang.

The dispatch of troops by the Tang Dynasty was expected by Yang Yuanqing. Although Yang Yuanqing hoped to use the way of silver concessions to promote the upper hand of the lords and factions within the Tang Dynasty. Focusing on the general righteousness, he gave up attacking the Sui Dynasty.

But Yang Yuanqing also knew that Li Yuan was not a three-year-old child, and if the silver concession made the Tang Dynasty give up this opportunity, it would really be a fluke, and it was more likely that Li Yuan seized the opportunity to take advantage of the opportunity to be held back by the Turks and seek the greatest benefits for the Tang Dynasty.

Although the situation was extremely unfavorable to the Sui army, Yang Yuanqing still calmed down, at this time must not be chaotic, must stabilize the morale of the army, if at this time chaos and defeat by the Turks, if the 200,000 Turkic army is like locusts into Hedong, then the Great Sui will be over.

The Tang army attacked Guannei and Luoyang, but did not attack Hedong, which shows that the Tang army still had some scruples and left a little leeway, and it was this margin that allowed Yang Yuanqing to stabilize the army's morale and wait for the final weather upheaval.

As long as the Turks withdraw their troops, then he will immediately turn around and go south, counterattack the fortification, Wang Shichong is destroyed, he can not care, but the fire oil well in Yan'an County is a strategic place for the Sui army, and he must not lose it.

At this time, in the dark night, several cavalry rushed to the city, and in an instant rushed to the city, these cavalry came from Loufu County, and they shouted loudly under the city: "We want to see Your Highness, there is urgent information to report!" ”

Yang Yuanqing walked quickly to the city wall and asked, "What's wrong?" ”

"Report to Your Highness, 30,000 Turkic cavalry have killed Loufu County and gone south."

"What!"

Yang Yuanqing was taken aback, and hurriedly ordered: "Open the city and let them in." ”

In a moment, the soldier went up to the city with several messengers, and the leading soldier knelt down on one knee, "See Your Highness!" ”

Yang Yuanqing asked anxiously, "When is it?" ”

"It was this morning that a 30,000-strong Turkic cavalry entered Loufu County, they set fire to Jingle County and Lancheng City, killed more than 1,000 old and weak people who did not evacuate, and ran in the direction of Taiyuan."

This unexpected news made Yang Yuanqing's heart flutter, why didn't he find out that the nearby two hundred miles were full of Sui army scout patrol posts, if the Turkic army crossed the border, he would definitely know, where did this Turkic cavalry come from? Do you have long wings to fly over?

At this time, Niu Jinda next to him said: "Your Highness, the Turkic cavalry should be crossing from Yanmen County." ”

One sentence reminded Yang Yuanqing that although 5,000 troops were deployed in Yanmen County, the 5,000 troops were mainly stationed on the side of the military capital in the east, and there was no garrison in the west, and almost all the people in Yanmen County retreated south, so the Turkic army would hardly be discovered when crossing the border.

Yang Yuanqing paced back and forth at the head of the city with his back hand, this unexpected information disrupted his plan, he only had 40,000 garrisons in Taiyuan City and 5,000 garrisons in Huoyi County in the hinterland of Hedong, and the rest of the counties had no troops, if the Turkic army entered the hinterland of Hedong, the consequences would be unimaginable.

On the Hedong side, he made some arrangements, almost all the people withdrew to Taiyuan City, or retreated south to Shangdang County, at most, the property loss was huge, and it was a little better, the key was that on the Hebei side, there was no defense preparation, and there was almost no defense.

If the 30,000 Turkic cavalry killed Hedong and then killed Hebei, the whole Hebei will be ruined, thinking of this, he took out a gold medal, and handed it to a personal soldier anxiously and said: "You go to Youzhou quickly from the military capital, and order Hou Mo Chen Yi to send troops to block Jingcheng and Feihu Cheng, and you must not let the Turkic cavalry enter Hebei." ”

At this time, Niu Jinda said worriedly: "Your Highness, you can't drag it out any longer." ”

Yang Yuanqing glanced up at the dark clouds in the sky, he couldn't help sighing, although he wanted to preserve his strength and didn't want to fight a decisive battle with the Turks, but now it seemed that he couldn't wait for the weather to change drastically