Of the 200,000 new Sui troops, 20,000 were deployed on the Tongguan-line to prevent the Tang army from entering the Central Plains, and the other 80,000 troops were deployed at Pujin Pass in Hedong, under the command of Li Jing and Pei Xingyan, whose mission was to penetrate the central and eastern parts of Guanzhong.

The 100,000 troops on the northern front were deployed to Guannei Province, and at this time there were already 120,000 troops in Guannai Province, including 100,000 troops led by Qin Qiong and 20,000 troops led by Sheng Yanshi on the Western Front.

In addition, another 50,000 troops were added to the Western Front, with Pei Renji, the governor of Hexi, as the commander of the Western Front, and Sheng Yanshi was appointed as the deputy commander, together with the 20,000 garrisons in Huining County and the 20,000 troops in Hexi, a total of 90,000 troops.

In this way, Xu Shiji's department in Hanzhong on the southern line -- Li Jing's department in Hedong on the eastern line -- Pei Renji in Longxi on the western line. In addition, the main force of the 150,000 Sui Army on the northern front besieged Guanzhong from four directions, forming a strategic encirclement.

At this time, there were still 130,000 Tang troops in Guanzhong, and just as Yang Yuanqing expected, the Tang army once again forcibly conscripted soldiers, and men over the age of 14 and under 56 had to sign up for the Tang army.

Li Shimin transferred 20,000 troops to Guandong, led by Li Shentong, the chief general of Tongguan, so that the strength of Guandong reached 30,000, and the Dasanguan - with deployed troops - 10,000, led by Changsun Wuji, resisted the Sui army from the west of the Dasanguan into the Guanzhong.

Li Shimin personally led the main force of 50,000 troops to deploy in Xinping County and the Shallow Water Plain Belt in the central part of Beidi County, which was the strategic route from Guannai Province to Guanzhong.

There are three main roads to enter Guanzhong from the northern Guannai Road, the Luoshui Road in the east, which goes south along the Luoshui River Valley to enter Fenglang County.

― is the Tongguan Road, that is, the later Tongchuan -- line, along the Tongguan Water can also enter Guanzhong, but this road is broken and rugged, it needs to go over mountains and mountains, which is not conducive to large-scale army marching, so the Tang army did not consider a key defense on this road, but only garrisoned 3,000 troops at Jinsuoguan Pass north of Tongguan County.

And the third road is the Jingshui Road, which is the most conducive to the southward road of the army, flat and wide, conducive to the transportation of baggage, if the Sui army goes south from the Jingshui River Valley, it will kill Chang'an, and Li Shimin's 50,000 troops will be stationed on the Jingshui Road.

The large camp of the Tang Army is located in the north of Xinping County, the large camp stretches for more than 10 miles, and is built by a board wall, which is wide and thick, and is as strong as a small city, and thousands of large tents are densely arranged in the large camp, and from time to time you can see that patrols and sentries appear inside and outside the barracks, and the defense is very tight.

Li Shimin's big tent of the Chinese army was located in the middle of the big camp and surrounded by dozens of small tents.

Although he thought it out carefully, he still seemed powerless in the face of more than 300,000 Sui troops surrounded on all sides, the key was that his troops were insufficient, and there were only 90,000 troops in his hands, and he could not do everything at all, for example, in the face of the defense of the Sui army in Hanzhong, there was no deployment.

If it is said that because the battle of Sishu has not ended, the Sui army in Hanzhong does not dare to go north easily, and can temporarily ignore the threat from the south, then the defense of Tongguandao and Dasanguan makes it difficult for him to sleep, and Dasanguan only has a 10,000-strong army led by Changsun Wuji, how can it resist the attack of nearly 100,000 Sui troops?

There is also the Golden Lock Pass, which is only defended by three thousand defenders, thinking of this, Li Shimin let out a long sigh and said to Fang Xuanling next to him: "Sir, how likely do you think it is that the Sui army will enter the customs from Tongguan Road?" ”

"Your Highness, anything is possible.

Fang Xuanling picked up the wooden pole and pointed to the Golden Lock Pass in the north of Tongguan County: "The Golden Lock Pass is not a male pass, I have seen this pass, it can only be said to be a commercial pass, useful for merchants, but it is difficult to defend the army, the maximum number of troops in the pass is 3,000, but if the enemy army sends 20,000 troops, it can break through this pass, and there is a mountain range close to the east of the Golden Lock Pass, called Centipede Ridge, as long as the Sui army occupies this Centipede Ridge, condescendingly, bombarded with boulders, the Golden Lock Pass will face the catastrophe of annihilation. ”

Fang Xuanling pointed the wooden pole to the Tongguan Road in the south, "The so-called Tongguan Road is actually the Tongguan Water River Valley, I rode a donkey through, although this road is bumpy and undulating, and it is indeed difficult for heavy vehicles to pass, but it does not prevent the light soldiers from traveling, I can ride a donkey to pass, the cavalry can also come, the Sui army can send an army of 20,000 or 30,000 people, bring dry food for a few days, and kill into the pass, you can get supplies, Your Highness, this road is a dangerous road, and you must send troops to defend it." ”

Li Shimin sighed, "But I only have 50,000 troops in my hands, and if I divide another 20,000 troops to defend, the forces will be too scattered, and they will be easily broken by the Sui army. ”

"Your Highness, how is the recruitment situation?" Fang Xuanling said again.

Li Shimin shook his head, his eyes were even more worried, "I heard that the situation is very bad, no one in Guanzhong wants to join the army, they all flee in all directions, there are thirty recruiting points, some only raise hundreds, and the most are only two thousand, it is estimated that the total is only two Lanwan, and what is even more troublesome is that it is not like in the past when you can still recruit government soldiers!" Now they are all new recruits, and there is no training, that is, a rabble, let them guard the Tongguan Road, and I am afraid that they will collapse without a fight. ”

Fang Xuanling said: "Your Highness, in fact, what I mean is to let the recruits go to guard Chang'an, and replace the Chang'an army, after all, Chang'an's army has been trained, and 30,000 troops will come out, 10,000 reinforcements will be distributed, and 20,000 will guard Tongguan Road, so that the defense line will be complete." ”

Li Shimin walked a few steps with his hands behind his back, he was really annoyed in his heart, his father gave him military power, but at the last moment, he took Chang'an's military power back, at this critical moment, he still had to play the art of power balance, it was Chang'an's 40,000 troops that were not under his command, which made his deployment extremely passive.

There is also Yuanji, the king of Qi, who fled back to Chang'an, and the Sui army surrendered to the Sui army, so he covered up the responsibility, according to his intelligence, this is not the case at all, it was his father who secretly ordered the king of Qi to seize power, which caused internal strife, and the Sui army occupied Hanzhong without blood, in the final analysis, the responsibility is still the father.

And the king of Qi is extremely stupid to deal with Luo Yi, since he has seized the military power, he should immediately send Luo Yi back to Chang'an, but he didn't do it, I don't know if it was the kindness of the woman, or careless, and finally the Sui army caught the loophole, and the plan was successful, so how should these responsibilities be handled, it was so confused, the rights and responsibilities were not clear, the rewards and punishments were unclear, and so on, how could the Tang army not be defeated?

Although he was resentful in his heart, Li Shimin was helpless, the military power of Chang'an was not in his hands, he could only whisper and discuss with Tai "Spread His Wings Watermark", Li Shimin immediately returned to his seat, wrote a letter quickly, and then ordered: "Let Yu Wenshi come to see me!" ”

After a while, Yu Wenshi hurriedly walked into the big tent and bowed, "See Your Highness!" ”

Yu Wenshi and the current Tiance General Chambers joined the army, and also served as a hussar general, Li Shimin was a more trustworthy person, Li Shimin handed the letter to him, and instructed: "This letter to Tai "spread wings watermark", and tell him the current situation, so that he understands that the situation is serious, and must ask him to follow the strategy in my letter." ”

"I understand, I'll go back to Chang'an!"

Yu Wenshi took the letter, bowed and hurriedly left the big tent, Li Shimin looked at him walking away, and said worriedly: "I don't know if it's still too late." ”

"It should be too late."

Fang Xuanling said with a smile: "It is impossible for the Sui army to come so quickly, they also need to deploy troops and arrange logistics, but now they should strengthen the power of the scouts and collect as much intelligence as possible." ”

Li Shimin nodded, he understood the importance of intelligence.

……

Tongguan County is located in the transition zone from the Loess Plateau to the Guanzhong Plain, where the hills are undulating, the small rivers are vertical and horizontal, and the mountains are continuous and stretching into the distance.

Between the hills, there are long and narrow ditches, most of which are distributed in an east-west direction, the small ditches are only two miles long, while the large ditches are dozens of miles long, and the farmlands, villages, and cities are all located in this narrow basin-like ditch.

Since most of the ditches are distributed in an east-west direction, it is very difficult to get to the south, and it is necessary to cross mountains and mountains, but some rivers have also washed out many north-south valleys, and these valleys have become natural channels in the north-south direction.

Tongguan Road is composed of countless large and small river valleys, and this is because there are no big rivers like Luoshui in the east and Jingshui in the west, and it cannot form a complete river valley, so the scattered dozens of river valleys cannot be penetrated, so they can only go up and downhill, and go from one river valley to another.

The northernmost part of the Tongguan Road is built -- a pass, called the Golden Lock Pass, built in the Han Dynasty, and rebuilt in the Northern and Southern Dynasties, but because the topography of the Tongguan Road is not as high and dangerous as the Qinling Mountains and Longshan, and the time is a low and gentle hill, it is destined that the Golden Lock Pass cannot become a dangerous pass like Tongguan and Dasanguan, and the military role is not large, and it was originally built to prevent merchants from evading taxes.

In the afternoon of that day, a scout of the Sui army appeared in a forest about ten miles north of Jinsuo Pass, composed of about 100 cavalrymen, and the first officer was Xiao Yannian, who was followed by Qin Huaiyu, the son of Qin Qiong.

The two of them stayed in Yan'an County all the winter, and when they heard that the war in the south was fought magnificently, they were extremely envious, and they had already held their breath in their hearts, but now that they had finally waited for the great war of the Sui and Tang dynasties, they were eager to try, and they wanted to make war exploits.

"Brother Xiao, do you think the main force of our Sui army will take the Tongguan Road?"

Qin Huaiyu is already 16 years old this year, tall and burly, and his martial arts are also extremely strong, and he can be called the best among the young generals, while Xiao Yannian is also 18 years old this year, and he has already become an experienced scout leader, according to the merits he has accumulated, as long as he can make more meritorious contributions, he can be promoted to a general.

Xiao Yannian looked at the pass in the distance for a moment, and said with a faint smile: "I heard that His Royal Highness personally instructed to explore the intelligence of the Tongguan Road, I estimate that it is very likely to take the Tongguan Road, but whether it is the main force or not, I don't know." (To be continued)

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