This year's New Year came a little late, making it feel like the last line of a book...... After turning the pages, new content is ushered in, and people suddenly realize that the cold winter is coming to an end.

When the wind blows, it is still very cold, but sometimes at dusk, there will be an unexpected gentle spring breeze blowing from the south, there is no such cold and spicy weather in the sky, the ice in the river is also thin, like a piece of crystal duckweed floating on the water, after a long silence, the river finally came to the sound of the shepherd boy's bamboo flute.

This is Laishui County of Shanggu County, and it is also the closest county of Shanggu County to Zhuo County, it is only fifteen miles away from the border of Zhuo County, crossing Laishui, and then walking a little way to reach Zhuo County.

It is also the place where the army gathers, the Sui army hoarded 20,000 troops in Laishui County, divided into two large camps in the north and south, ten miles apart, each other is a special angle, the northern battalion is commanded by the general Xie Yingdeng, and the southern battalion is commanded by Wang Junkuo.

Fifty miles away from Zhuo County, there were also 50,000 allied troops from Luo Yi and Gao Kaidao, and the two sides had been facing each other for two months.

After two months of war preparations, the Sui Dynasty has transported 300,000 stone of grain and a large number of armor, oil, tents and other military supplies to Shanggu County, and more than 30 huge warehouses have been built in Yi County, with 3,000 troops stationed.

The hills on both sides of Laishui are undulating, there are large dense forests, in the valleys between the hills, there are large areas of farmland, most of the farmland is barren because of the war, but there are already signs of reclaiming some farmland, with the spring sprouting, the edge of the farmland can occasionally see the busy figure of farmers.

On this morning, a group of more than 100 Sui cavalry patrol cavalry galloped past a farmland, and more than a dozen of them who were plowing the farmland looked at them in surprise, according to the usual experience, these Sui cavalry would inevitably stop to say hello to them, or ask for some water to drink, but today they were in a hurry, as if there was something important.

"Is there going to be a war?" A farmer asked worriedly.

"I don't know, let's go back early!"

A dozen peasants packed up their belongings and left their fields and headed for their villages, miles away.

More than 100 cavalry are still speeding up, they are performing an urgent task, the Sui army has established more than 20 guard towers on the border, each guard tower has five soldiers guarding, mainly observing the movement of the enemy, a guard tower with an eagle slave, every day will release the eagle back to Yi County to report the situation, which also proves that the guard tower is safe, but yesterday there were five guard towers did not release the eagle back, which caused the general Xie Yingdeng's worry, he immediately sent a patrol to investigate the situation.

The cavalry galloped all the way, and soon came to the first guard tower, which was a wooden building on a hill, only a few hundred steps away from the official road, and could clearly monitor the situation on the official road.

"Stop!"

There were still hundreds of paces from the wooden tower, and the cavalry commander noticed the anomaly, he shouted, and the team immediately stopped, they had already seen the wooden tower from a distance, the wooden tower that had been the concubine on the edge of the pine forest had collapsed, half of it was charred, and it fell on the hillside in pieces.

"Zhang Shun'er, you take the brothers to have a look, be careful!"

The brigade commander gave an order, and a fire commander rushed out of the team and waved his hand, "Follow me!" ”

He led nine horsemen to the watchtower, and several horsemen rummaged in the watchtower for a long time, and the fire chief stood up and shouted: "There are no of our brethren, and there are no corpses!" ”

As soon as he finished speaking, a cold arrow suddenly shot out from the pine forest above, and the fire chief was caught off guard, and was shot in the neck by an arrow, and rolled down the hillside with a scream.

The sudden change surprised the Sui patrol, and they aimed their arrows at the pine forest on the hills, while the other nine Sui soldiers next to the watchtower raised their shields and drew their horizontal knives, and two soldiers ran to the rescue of the fire chief.

The pine forest was very quiet, as if nothing had happened, just when the brigade commander felt a little confused, he instinctively turned around, only to find that on the official road behind them, a large group of Youzhou Army soldiers, numbering hundreds, were quietly approaching behind them, about a hundred steps away from them.

"There's an enemy attack!"

The brigade commander roared, turned the horse's head, and the Sui soldiers turned around one after another, and at this time, the arrows were fired in the mountains and forests on both sides, and more than 20 Sui soldiers screamed and turned over and fell off their horses.

The brigade commander almost bit his lip and bleed, there was a blockade in the back, there was an ambush on both sides, only there was no army on the side of Zhuojun, and another round of arrows came, and more than a dozen Sui soldiers were shot down and fell off their horses again, he didn't have time to think about it anymore, and if he hesitated, the whole army would be annihilated.

"Come with me!"

The brigade commander shouted, turned his horse's head again and ran in the direction of Zhuojun, and the remaining nearly sixty Sui cavalry galloped hard, and rushed into the Zhuojun area in a moment.

At this time, a large number of sergeants poured out of the mountains and forests, there were more than 1,000 people, and the first general looked at the Sui cavalry rushing into the Youzhou territory, he sneered, and immediately ordered: "Go and report to the prince quickly, the Sui army patrols and crosses the border!" ”

……

On the tenth day of the first lunar month, Luo Yi condemned the Sui army's cross-border provocation under the pretext of capturing the Sui army's patrol post in Zhuo County, and then ordered 50,000 allied troops to concentrate their forces on Laishui County, Shanggu County, and took the lead in launching an attack, attacking Laishui Beiying.

The Laishui North Battalion is stationed on the west bank of Laishui, with 10,000 Sui troops, led by the general Xie Yingdeng, since the five guard towers on the border were accidentally lost contact two days ago, and a patrol guard he sent to check the situation also disappeared, Xie Yingdeng faintly felt that something was wrong, he ordered the army to be on full alert, and at the same time sent people back to Yi County to report urgently to the chief general Qin Qiong.

"When! While! While! The piercing alarm bell sounded in the northern camp of the Sui soldiers, the heavily armed Sui soldiers rushed out of the camp tents, three thousand crossbowmen have been deployed in the camp gate, three thousand cavalry and three thousand sword and shield troops have been lined up, a thousand heavy soldiers are quickly sorting out all kinds of armor materials, two hundred female guards are also following in the baggage army, female guards are the latest branch of the Sui soldiers, the task is to rescue the wounded, minimize casualties, according to the standard of fifty soldiers with one female escort, their equipment is a horse, wearing thin armor and iron helmets, and wearing horizontal swords at their waists, There is a round shield on the back, and the most important thing is to carry a medicine box.

Most of these female guards were women from the north, Han Chinese and Hu women, generally tall and strong, and a total of 5,000 female soldiers were recruited, who enjoyed the same treatment as ordinary soldiers, but their camps were not with the soldiers, but separated by barracks.

Xie Yingdeng urged his horse to the front of the camp fence and watched the movement in the distance, he should have seen that about ten miles away, a long black line appeared, and there were about 5,000 people by sight, which should be the vanguard of the enemy army.

"General, are you going to fight?" An officer asked in a low voice.

"No!" Xie Yingdeng shook his head, "This is just a lure from the enemy, there must be a main force following not far behind them, don't go out of the camp to fight." ”

"General!"

Someone shouted behind him, Xie Yingdeng turned around, only to see a messenger coming in from the back camp, rushing over, the messenger stepped forward to give a salute, and handed a military order to Xie Yingdeng, "General Qin's order!" ”

Xie Yingdeng opened the order, it was Qin Qiong's warrant, and there were only four words, 'Withdraw to Yi County West!'.

Xie Yingdeng nodded silently, he understood what Qin Qiong meant, evacuated to Yi County, concentrated superior forces, and at the same time lengthened the enemy's logistics supply line, presumably Wang Junkuo of the Laishui South Battalion also received the same letter.

He looked up at the sky, it was still time to get out of the car, and there was still time to prepare.

……

……

Luo Yi's 50,000 coalition army consisted of 30,000 Youzhou troops and 20,000 Gao Kaidao's troops, led by Luo Yi himself, while Gao Kaidao's army was led by his younger brother Gao Wentong.

Due to the gradual warming of the weather, most of the snow in Zhuo County has melted, and the river also has signs of melting, Luo Yi knew that after the beginning of spring, the Sui army was about to launch an offensive against Youzhou, after he thought about it repeatedly, instead of waiting for the enemy to come to the door, it was better to strike first, if Yi County could be occupied, it would be able to destroy the Sui army's combat readiness for a winter, and the Sui army would most likely be forced to evacuate Shanggu County, then the crisis in Youzhou would be solved.

But at this time, the Sui army had not torn its face with Youzhou, and the Sui army did not say that it was going to attack Youzhou, Luo Yi was afraid that his subordinates would have doubts, so he set up a bureau and slandered the Sui army patrol sentry to take the lead in Zhuo County to provoke, so that he found an excuse to send troops to Shanggu County.

The 50,000 army slowly pushed to the east bank of Laishui, about three miles away from the Sui army's northern camp, Luo Yi did not continue to advance, Laishui has thawed signs, can no longer directly cross the river, he ordered people to go to the river to make a pontoon bridge, while looking for a place to cross the river directly, now it is only the first thaw, some sections of the river will thaw a little slower, and you can also walk through the ice.

"Report to the prince, General Gao is here!"

Luo Yi is checking the sand table in the big tent of the Chinese army, Yang Yuanqing's sand table has already spread, all major forces have learned to use the sand table, Luo Yi also made a sand table in northern Hebei, although it is still a little rough, but compared to the map, it is much more convenient.

He nodded, "Please let him in!" ”

General Gao is Gao Kaidao's brother Gao Wentong, is the second person in the Gao Kaidao army, Gao Kaidao is a native of Xinyang, Bohai County, nine years of great cause, Ge Qian rebelled in Douzigang, he also led thousands of troops to echo, and then the two armies merged, Gao Kaidao won the trust of Geqian, appointed him as a deputy general, last year Geqian's army was defeated by Wang Shichong's army, Ge Qian himself was unfortunately killed, Gao Kaidao led the remnants of the army to withdraw to Liaodong, occupied Liaodong, and then went south to occupy Beiping County.

Gao Kaidao's army and Youzhou army were originally hostile forces, but in the process of dealing with Dou Jiande together, the two armies gradually abandoned their previous suspicions and became allies.

Gao Wentong is majestic and is an extremely rude person, but he is strong in martial arts, so that a hundred-pound hinge door knife has the courage of ten thousand people, he walked into the big tent, and said angrily: "Why didn't the prince take a breath and kill the Sui army?" ”