Lingtai Tongtingkou this road is not a post road, just an ordinary folk road, narrow and rugged, and located in the deep mountains, it is difficult for cars and horses to travel, except that there is no need to go around the huge mountainous area, in the snowflakes in the winter to take such a road, it can be directly called a crime.

After receiving Chen Fuliang's order to march eastward, Li Jing immediately led more than 23,000 Sui army divisions on the journey, embarked on this difficult road, and walked through the snow-capped mountains with a cold wind like a knife. Even if the army under Li Jing was already the most elite division under Chen Fuliang, in such a harsh climate and bad road, it could only barely march more than 40 miles a day, and it would take at least three days to reach the destination Tingkou.

The terrain of the road is too narrow, the mountains on both sides are high and dense, and the army can be ambushed everywhere, walking on such a dangerous road, even the god of war Li Jing has to be careful and careful, and is forced to send a large number of foot scouts to step forward, repeatedly probing the enemy situation in front and the ambushes that may exist on both sides of the road, if nothing else, is to prevent the Guanzhong Sui army, which has gradually been trained in the actual combat of the partial division of the gutter, from capsizing in the gutter and annihilating in this difficult mountain road.

Fortunately, this mountain road was difficult for Li Jingjun, who was mainly infantry, and even more painful for Xue Jujun, who was mainly cavalry, so in the first two days of the march, Li Jingjun did not encounter any enemy to stop and ambush him. However, on the evening of the second day of the √, when Li Jingjun set up camp and rested on the mountain road that was only about 40 miles away from Tingkou, and just when the soldiers of the Sui army were glad that they could go to Tingkou to rest for another day, there was a sudden urgent report from the front, saying that the enemy situation had been discovered more than 20 miles ahead, and an unknown number of Xue Jujun had set up camp on the road, blocking Li Jingjun's eastward road, and a large number of fortifications had been built, and it was extremely difficult to break through.

Although he had been mentally prepared for this, Li Jing still frowned a little after hearing the report, knowing that what he was most worried about had finally happened, Xue Ju really didn't want to let him join forces with the main force, but Li Jing was not in a hurry about it, just called Liu Heimin's younger brother Liu Shishan, and asked him to send some elite infantry who were familiar with mountain warfare to come forward, try to catch a few tongues and come back to grab a confession, and at the same time strengthen the camp guard to prevent Xue Jujun from taking the opportunity to launch a night attack.

Liu Shishan, whose own brother is the king of scouts at the end of the Sui Dynasty, is of course very good at fighting scout warfare, and just after dawn, he tied up two Xue Jujun scouts who tried to reconnoiter close to the Sui army's camp and sent them to Li Jing, Li Jing personally interrogated and learned that it was Li Jingjun's old opponent Xue Renguo who was stationed in front of the fortification road, with a strength of about 15,000 people, and also asked about the approximate location of Xue Jujun's station, and the current general situation of the main force of the Sui army, and then Li Jing took a closer look at the map, and suddenly frowned again.

The reason for Li Jing's frown was the terrain, the location where Xue Renguo was stationed, as long as he crossed a low mountain beam, it was an open plain leading directly to the main camp of Xue Ju's army, and it was very convenient for Xue Ju's main force to send troops to reinforce Xue Renguo; However, if Chen Fuliang's main force wanted to attack Xue Renguo's camp in the west, it had to pass through a narrow mountain road of about seven or eight miles, and it was difficult to break through Xue Renguo's camp, which had built a large number of fortifications, if it was impossible to deploy troops; Li Jing's partial division is even more miserable, if you want to send troops to attack Xue Renguo's army, you have to walk at least ten miles of narrower and more tortuous mountain roads, it is more difficult to deploy troops, and it is more difficult to quickly break through Xue Renguo's position, once Xue Jujun's army sends the main force to reinforce Xue Renguo, it is even more difficult for Li Jing's more than 20,000 partial divisions to break through head-on than to ascend to the sky.

Thinking in his heart about how to break through the enemy's position and join forces with his cousin and nephew, who had lost his conscience, Li Jing suddenly moved in his heart, and said secretly: "Why didn't the virtuous nephew think about luring the enemy deeper, and our army used it as a bait, and led the enemy's heavy troops into the depths of the mountain road in the west, and then he took the opportunity to send the main force to join forces with me to flank the thief army, even if he couldn't destroy the main force of the thief army, he could at least severely damage the enemy?" With his ability, it's impossible not to see this, right? ”

Puzzled and calculating further, Li Jing quickly smiled dumbly, and said secretly: "I must be afraid that I will cut off the water, the mountain roads will lack water, and our army can only rely on turning snow to get water, once the thief army besieges our army, our army will be in danger of cutting off water in a few days, so he is unwilling to take such a risk." Little guy, the careful habit of thinking about how to be undefeated before winning really can't be changed. ”

At this time, Ma Sanbao, Qiu Xinggong, Yu Le and He Panren and other generals all came to the big tent of the Chinese army to listen to the order, and asked Li Jing whether to continue to march into the army, Li Jing first introduced the enemy situation in front to the generals under his command, and then said to the generals: "The terrain ahead is very unfavorable to us, to be honest, we are not very sure of the frontal breakthrough, even if we can succeed, we must pay a lot of price, how to break through the thief army to block and join the main army, I don't know what the princes can think?" ”

Li Jing's Ma Sanbao and Qiu Xinggong and other generals have already experienced the ability to be able to take charge of themselves in actual combat, and after discussing in a low voice for a while, Ma Sanbao came forward and said: "Great marshal, the last general and others think that it is best to get in touch with the main force first, so that the main force of our army knows that our army is close to the battlefield, send troops to meet us, and then we will launch an attack, and join forces with the main force to flank the enemy before and after, and we will have a great chance of breaking through the interception of the thief army." ”

"Xue Renguo must have blocked the big and small roads, preventing our messengers from moving east to contact the main force." Qiu Xinggong added: "But it doesn't matter, we can send people to climb the high ground in front of us and light the wolf smoke on the top of the mountain to send a signal, the main force of our army sees the wolf smoke and naturally understands that we have come, and when we send troops to attack again, the main force will definitely send troops to meet us." ”

"I have also considered this method, there is hope for success, but it ......." Li Jing groaned and said: "But the problem is that our main force will send troops to meet us, and Xue Ju will definitely send the main force to reinforce Xue Renguo, and the road conditions on Xue Ju's side are better, and it is more convenient to reinforce Xue Renguo." At that time, Xue Ju's thief army has camp fortifications to defend, and in order to break through their interception, we and our main force can only launch a strong attack on the unfavorable terrain where it is difficult for the troops to deploy. ”

Ma Sanbao and Qiu Xinggong and the others scratched their heads, knowing that this was a problem, but they didn't know how to solve it, and they were helpless together. Li Jing thought about it again and said, "How to break through the interception of the thief army, you can take your time, and let the main force know that we are approaching the battlefield first." According to what you said, send some people to the front to climb to the top of the mountain and send a signal, don't move forward today, Ma Sanbao, Liu Shishan, you will be responsible for staying in the camp for a while, Xinggong, you take some people to follow me to the front to explore the way, I will personally go to survey the terrain and see if there is a way to make some fuss on the terrain road. ”

Li Jing and Qiu Xinggong led hundreds of elite infantry out of the camp and went all the way east to explore the terrain and roads, but Li Jing was very disappointed that there was only one road in front of the army to march eastward, the terrain was high in the south and low in the north, there was no road in the south, and the infantry in the mountains and forests in the north may be barely passable, but it was absolutely impossible to walk the baggage vehicles, and all the dangerous passes had been occupied by Xue Renguo's army first, not to mention the time-consuming and labor-intensive breakthrough, it was also quite convenient for Xue Renguo's army to reinforce Beishan. At the same time, Xue Renguo's army had also firmly occupied the low mountain beam that could lead to Randian, and it was difficult for the Sui army officers and soldiers to cut off the reinforcement road of Xue Ju's main force. Basically, it can be said that there is no opportunity for opportunism to break through.

Exploring the terrain is not nothing, at least about fifteen miles away from the camp of Xue Renguo's army, Li Jing found a rare open land in the mountains, the open land is about six miles wide from east to west, about four miles long from north to south, there are high mountains in the north to protect it, only the south is affected by the enemy, if it is not for an Achilles heel, the Sui army's partial division is stationed here and has no problem in long-term confrontation with Xue Jujun. Then after repeatedly exploring this open land, Li Jing had an idea in his heart, and said to Qiu Xinggong next to him: "Immediately send someone back to the camp to give an order, transfer our camp here, set up camp with the back of the high mountains in the north, and build a fence and earthen barrier, for a long-term plan." ”

Qiu Xinggong first sang the promise reflexively, and then immediately came back to his senses and exclaimed, "Dashuai, you're not joking, right?" Although it is conducive to defending, if the thief army waits outside our camp and surrounds us with deep ditches and high barriers, it will be difficult for us to kill again. Also, there is no water source in this place, not only is it inconvenient to get water, but once it is surrounded, we will not be able to hold out for a few days. ”

"What's the inconvenience of getting water?" Li Yuan picked up a handful of snow-white snow from the ground and said with a smile: "Isn't this just water?" We have very little water on the road to the east, and most of the water is obtained from snow, so isn't it the same to be stationed here? Besides, our main force is confronting the main force of the thief army, and the main force of the thief army can free up their hands to surround us? ”

Considering that the camp stationed last night also had no water source, and it would be more convenient to station troops here, Qiu Xinggong didn't say anything more, and immediately sent someone to inform the army to transfer the camp, and generals such as Ma Sanbao and Liu Shishan ordered the army to move here, and according to Li Jing's order, relying on the high mountains in the north, to establish a moon-shaped camp that focuses on guarding. During this period, the soldiers of the Sui army's partial division also successfully climbed the southern peak, lit the wolf smoke and sent a signal to the main camp of the own army.

At the same time, Xue Renguo, of course, was also closely watching the every move of his old opponent Li Jingjun, and found that after Li Jingjun transferred the camp, Xue Renguo also personally went out to explore the Sui army's camp for a while, and found that after the Sui army's division north was camped in the open land with no way out, Xue Renguo, who hated Li Jing so much that his mouth was almost crooked, and he quickly drew a picture of the Sui army's partial division camp, and sent a fast horse to the main camp of Randian. When the snow in Li Jing's barracks is exhausted, it will be easy to break the Sui army's division!

Xue Renguo's construction is quite reasonable, and there is also a great hope of success, basically as long as Xue Jujun can contain the main force of the Sui army, so that Chen Fuliang can not effectively respond to Li Jing, Xue Jujun is very hopeful that the Sui army's partial division will be broken first. However, although Xue Ju was greatly moved, he still did not immediately adopt the tactics proposed by his precious son, but listened to the advice of his beloved thinker Hao Ying, and decided to continue to wait and see what happened, waiting for the main force of the Sui army and the partial division to make the next move, and then decide whether to concentrate on killing the Sui army's partial division first.

By the way, there is another very important reason why Xue Ju listened to Hao Ming's remarks, that is, Xue Ju wanted to test the true strength of the main force of the Sui army, to see how much ability the legendary little Chen Qingzhi Chen Fuliang had on the battlefield, and was ready to first understand the combat effectiveness and strength of the main force of the Sui army, and then consider whether to concentrate on breaking the Sui army's partial division first.

Xue Ju and Hao Ying soon found that they did not have this opportunity, because they sent to inquire about the news of the main force of the Sui army, saying that it was a rumor in the main camp of the Sui army that Chen Fuliang seemed to have fallen ill due to overwork, and the soldiers of the Sui army were looking for a good doctor to treat Chen Fuliang. Xue Ju and Hao Ying couldn't believe that they had such good luck, and hurriedly asked if the news was reliable, and replied truthfully: "Your Majesty the Emperor, the villain can't be sure, but it should be true, the villain pretended to be a local person to listen to the thief's situation near the camp of the thief army, and a thief military captain named Zhao Peng took a few thieves to stop the villain, and asked the villain about the news that there was a good doctor nearby, and inadvertently said that Chen Yingliang had fallen ill in the conversation. ”

"That's right." Na Xizuo added: "I heard those thief soldiers say that Chen Yingliang has always been in poor health because of the suffering he suffered when he was a teenager, and he used to be so tired that he fell ill during the Battle of Dongdu and the Battle of Yanmen. ”

"Your Majesty, Wechen has also heard about this." Hao Ying said: "Chen Yingliang's family fell in the middle of the road when he was young, and his life was very hard when he was a teenager, and he fell ill, and his health has not been very good. Later, during the Battle of Yanmen, he was tired in front of Yang Guang. ”

Nothing is more convincing than the facts, and while nodding with satisfaction, Xue Ju stroked his beard and smiled: "Okay!" But we can't be careless, Chen Yingliang's thief is notoriously treacherous, and we have to guard against him, let the scout pay attention to this matter, ignore him for the time being, and continue to wait and see what happens. ”

Xue Ju's steady tactics made Li Jing quite uncomfortable, and after moving the camp, he waited for a day and did not see any movement of Xue Jujun's army, and at the same time, the main force of the Sui army had not been in contact with Li Jing, and in desperation, Li Jing could only decide to launch a tentative attack, trying to break through the blockade of Xue Renguo's army by force, and also reconnoiter the attitude of his cousin's side by fire.

Although it was only a tentative attack, Li Jing still invested the elite forces in the army to launch an attack, dispatched tens of thousands of infantry in one go, and slowly advanced with Liu Shishan as the vanguard, trying to attack Xue Renguo's camp defense, and also waiting for the reaction of the main force, but unfortunately the road was narrow and the troops could not be deployed, and the Sui army was able to launch a frontal attack with quite limited troops.

As soon as he received the news of Li Jing's troops, Xue Ju immediately prepared the main army for battle, and at the same time sent a large number of scouts to closely monitor the movements of the main camp of the Sui army. As a result, what made Xue Ju and Hao Ying quite happy was that it was basically confirmed that Chen Fuliang, who had fallen ill, sent an infantry team of about 6,000 people to Xue Renguo's camp to reinforce in order to meet the partial division led by his cousin.

After receiving the report that the main force of the Sui army was using artillery, Xue Ju did not dare to be the slightest bit lazy, and immediately sent reinforcements to the very important nameless low mountain beam to prevent anything, and also sent his most trusted Hao Ying out, asking him to be his eyes, to the scene to understand the specific power of the Sui army's artillery, and to prepare for the next decisive battle of the main force.

When Hao Ying arrived at the nameless mountain beam with cavalry reinforcements, Xue Renguo's army was already at the west end of the camp and the Sui army's partial division, and the Sui army infantry who came forward with a long shield struggled to attack Xue Renguo's interception position, and it was difficult to move an inch in front of the dense antlers and fence and earthen barriers, and they were constantly shot backward by Xue Jujun's bow and arrows, and at the same time, a group of Sui infantry tried to storm the nameless mountain beam to grab the high ground, but they were easily repelled by Xue Jujun's soldiers who had fortifications to protect them, and they could not break through Xue Jujun's interception at a lot of casualties. Due to the narrow terrain constraints, it was difficult for the rear army to even rotate the attacking army, let alone come forward to help the battle, and the fight was very difficult and painful.

There is no need to worry about the western front, Hao Ying focused his attention on the eastern front, and at this time, the main infantry sent by Chen Fuliang to meet his cousin had also rushed to the battlefield on the eastern front, and without hesitation, he set up artillery to bombard Xue Jujun's position, and the artillery roared and shook the mountain, and the infantry of Xue Jujun's army, who was hiding behind the fortifications, was suddenly full of chickens and dogs jumping - but fortunately, the panic of Xue Jujun's soldiers was basically frightened by the loud sound of artillery, and there were not many soldiers who were really killed and injured by the stone and iron horns.

Not to mention, hearing the roar of artillery, Li Jing was really taken aback, and said that his cousin was determined to take over the interception of Xue Renguo's army, so he dispatched the gunpowder cannon, the magic weapon of the Sui army in Guanzhong. For this reason, Li Jing was also forced to change the tentative attack to a strong attack, requiring the soldiers to attack with all their strength to put pressure on the enemy, which added a lot of unnecessary casualties. 、

At the same time, the main infantry of the Sui army also began to attack the eastern section of Xue Renguo's camp under the cover of artillery and bows and arrows.

As the Sui army's artillery continued to roar, Hao Ying finally saw some clues, as in the legend, Chen Fuliang's magic weapon gunpowder weapon was indeed extraordinary in creating chaos for the enemy, just by that thunderous sound can make Xue Jujun's soldiers frightened, but the actual lethality is quite limited, the interval between each cannon is quite short, and the number of Xue Jujun soldiers who are really killed and injured by artillery is not much. In addition, Hao Ming, who was as careful as a hair, also specially asked someone to bring some soldiers of the Self-Army who were injured by the Sui army's artillery, and found that the wounds on their bodies were of different depths, the deep ones could be fatal, and the shallow ones were only scratches and scratches, which could be easily treated.

After Hao Ying had a rough idea of the power of the Sui army's artillery, Xue Renguo's army also reached a stalemate with the two Sui armies, and the two Sui armies that could not carry out an effective attack were quite limited in combat forces each time, and it was difficult to form a mortal threat to Xue Jujun's defense line, so they could only attack in batches in turn, and Xue Renguo's army was the same, the too narrow terrain also limited the counterattack strength of Xue Jujun's counterattack, and it was impossible to launch a strong counterattack during the rotation of the Sui army. In fact, it is tedious. - Fortunately, Xue Jujun, who was protected by fortifications, always took advantage of such a fight, and the casualties were always much smaller than those of the Sui army.

At this time, Li Jing finally realized that something was wrong, and secretly said in his heart: "Isn't it right? If my nephew was determined to take me through the defensive position of the thief army and put into artillery combat, it must have been an offensive like a thunderbolt, and it would have already achieved results? Now that this artillery has been sounding for more than an hour, why is there no chaos on the eastern front of the thief army, isn't this my precious nephew's immoral style? ”

Thinking in his heart, Li Jing gradually woke up, and immediately reserved room for the deployment of troops, gradually retained elite soldiers, pretended to be running out of momentum, gradually weakened the offensive, and quietly began to preserve strength. At the same time, the main force of the Sui army also gradually showed the appearance of being unable to sustain its strength, and it also revealed flaws in the rotation of the army, giving Xue Jujun a chance to counterattack, Xue Renguo immediately sent troops to launch a counterattack, killing the Sui army on the eastern front by surprise, and could only give priority to protecting the precious artillery, and at the same time resisted, and it took a considerable price to finally kill Xue Renguo's counterattack, and then the Sui army on the eastern front, which had exhausted its strength, could no longer launch a strong attack, so it could only ring the golden gong and hurriedly withdrew.

After the defeat of the Sui army on the eastern front, Xue Renguo's military camp was of course cheering and shaking the sky, and the morale was greatly boosted, Li Jing saw that the situation was not good, and immediately ordered a retreat, and deliberately exposed some flaws to give Xue Renguo's army a chance to counterattack.

Finally won a battle against his old opponent Li Jing, Xue Renguo naturally had to shout and insult outside the Sui army's partial division camp, shouting that he wanted to fight with Li Jing for 300 rounds, and Li Jing, who was much stronger than his unscrupulous nephew in both civil and military forces, ignored it, with a smile on the corner of his mouth, and said secretly: "I understand, I really thought about it a little bit." It's also rare, I can't imagine that my careful nephew will also dare to take risks one day. ”

At this time, Hao Ying also took some people to the camp of the Sui army's partial division to personally explore the terrain, and after carefully observing the terrain and roads, Hao Ying made up his mind and said secretly: "The prince's construction is feasible, and His Majesty has a great hope of annihilating all the Chen thieves' partial divisions!" At that time, the main infantry of the Sui army also began to attack the eastern section of Xue Renguo's army camp under the cover of artillery and bows and arrows, and the attitude of the front and rear soldiers was quite resolute, and the tactical proficiency created a lot of pressure on Xue Jujun, and some soldiers armed with Mo knives also rushed to the mountainside of the nameless mountain beam for a time, until they were covered by Xue Jujun's bow and arrows and because the rear army could not keep up, then the wolf bèi fled down the mountain.

As the Sui army's artillery continued to roar, Hao Ying finally saw some clues, as in the legend, Chen Fuliang's magic weapon gunpowder weapon was indeed extraordinary in creating chaos for the enemy, just by that thunderous sound can make Xue Jujun's soldiers frightened, but the actual lethality is quite limited, the interval between each cannon is quite short, and the number of Xue Jujun soldiers who are really killed and injured by artillery is not much. In addition, Hao Ming, who was as careful as a hair, also specially asked someone to bring some soldiers of the Self-Army who were injured by the Sui army's artillery, and found that the wounds on their bodies were of different depths, the deep ones could be fatal, and the shallow ones were only scratches and scratches, which could be easily treated.

After Hao Ying had a rough idea of the power of the Sui army's artillery, Xue Renguo's army also reached a stalemate with the two Sui armies, and the two Sui armies that could not carry out an effective attack were quite limited in combat forces each time, and it was difficult to form a mortal threat to Xue Jujun's defense line, so they could only attack in batches in turn, and Xue Renguo's army was the same, the too narrow terrain also limited the counterattack strength of Xue Jujun's counterattack, and it was impossible to launch a strong counterattack during the rotation of the Sui army. In fact, it is tedious. - Fortunately, Xue Jujun, who was protected by fortifications, always took advantage of such a fight, and the casualties were always much smaller than those of the Sui army.

At this time, Li Jing finally realized that something was wrong, and secretly said in his heart: "Isn't it right? If my nephew was determined to take me through the defensive position of the thief army and put into artillery combat, it must have been an offensive like a thunderbolt, and it would have already achieved results? Now that this artillery has been sounding for more than an hour, why is there no chaos on the eastern front of the thief army, isn't this my precious nephew's immoral style? ”

Thinking in his heart, Li Jing gradually woke up, and immediately reserved room for the deployment of troops, gradually retained elite soldiers, pretended to be running out of momentum, gradually weakened the offensive, and quietly began to preserve strength. At the same time, the main force of the Sui army also gradually showed the appearance of being unable to sustain its strength, and it also revealed flaws in the rotation of the army, giving Xue Jujun a chance to counterattack, Xue Renguo immediately sent troops to launch a counterattack, killing the Sui army on the eastern front by surprise, and could only give priority to protecting the precious artillery, and at the same time resisted, and it took a considerable price to finally kill Xue Renguo's counterattack, and then the Sui army on the eastern front, which had exhausted its strength, could no longer launch a strong attack, so it could only ring the golden gong and hurriedly withdrew.

After the defeat of the Sui army on the eastern front, Xue Renguo's military camp was of course cheering and shaking the sky, and the morale was greatly boosted, Li Jing saw that the situation was not good, and immediately ordered a retreat, and deliberately exposed some flaws to give Xue Renguo's army a chance to counterattack.

Finally won a battle against his old opponent Li Jing, Xue Renguo naturally had to shout and insult outside the Sui army's partial division camp, shouting that he wanted to fight with Li Jing for 300 rounds, and Li Jing, who was much stronger than his unscrupulous nephew in both civil and military forces, ignored it, with a smile on the corner of his mouth, and said secretly: "I understand, I really thought about it a little bit." It's also rare, I can't imagine that my careful nephew will also dare to take risks one day. ”

At this time, Hao Ying also took some people to the camp of the Sui army's partial division to personally explore the terrain, and after carefully observing the terrain and roads, Hao Ying made up his mind and said secretly: "The prince's construction is feasible, and His Majesty has a great hope of annihilating all the Chen thieves' partial divisions!" ”