Li Xiaogong's army was caught up by two Sui armies in Taolin Town, about twenty miles southwest of Shaanxi County, the Tang army was forced to fight, and was outnumbered and defeated, annihilated more than 5,000 people, Li Xiaogong led the rest of the troops to continue to evacuate to the south, and at this time Hongnong County has been occupied by Qin Qiong with 10,000 troops, Li Xiaogong had no choice but to bypass Hongnong County, lead the army to retreat to Hongnong County, and at the same time, he urgently sent people to Li Yuanji in Tongguan for help.

Tongguan, Zhao Cijing trotted all the way, anxiously rushed to the head of the city, Li Yuanji stood at the head of the city, staring at the majestic undulating mountains and rivers in the distance and the faintly visible Ruxiang County more than 20 miles away, and then in the distance, the Yellow River is like a jade belt, flowing from the north, just here bends to the east, a winding and long road stretches from afar, all the way to Tongguan, here is the only land pass to enter the Guanzhong.

"Your Highness!"

Zhao Cijing ran over panting, and said urgently: "King Li Junwang urgently asks for help, why don't you go to rescue them?" ”

Li Yuanji turned his head and glanced at Zhao Cijing, his eyes were full of mockery, "Does Zhao Changshi think I will save him?" ”

Zhao Cijing was stunned for a moment, he suddenly remembered the Huang Junhan incident, and suddenly said angrily and anxiously in his heart: "Your Highness, that incident is just a private matter, and now it is a state affair related to the society, you can't ruin the lives of tens of thousands of Tang soldiers because of your own selfishness." ”

"Shut up!"

Li Yuanji was annoyed and angry, and angrily reprimanded him: "I am the commander of Tongguan, and it is my duty to defend Tongguan, and now Yang Yuanqing is in Tunruxiang County, Li Xiaogong's helper was not stopped, this is Yang Yuanqing deliberately let him come and lure us to the rescue, if my army is defeated in Ruxiang and Tongguan is lost, can you afford this responsibility?" ”

"This ......"

Zhao Cijing was speechless for a while, but he knew that Li Yuanji was just using the excuse that the Sui army was stationed in Ruxiang County, but in fact Li Yuanji hated Li Xiaogong. and unwilling to save him.

"But His Highness doesn't save the soldiers, and he doesn't have the slightest intention of rescuing, how can he explain to the Holy Lord?"

Li Yuanji glanced at him gloomily and sneered. "In that case, I will give you 5,000 troops and order you to rescue Li Xiaogong and make a gesture!"

"I'm going to help?" Zhao Cijing's mouth opened wide.

"That's right! In the name of the commander of Tongguan, I ordered you to come to the rescue, do you dare to disobey my military orders? Li Yuanji said coldly.

…………

Half an hour later, the helpless Zhao Cijing led an army of 5,000 to rush in the direction of Ruxiang County. He thought in his heart that once he encountered the Sui army, he would immediately withdraw to Tongguan, although he hoped that Li Yuanji would rescue Li Xiaogong, but the premise was that he himself stayed in Tongguan to guard the city.

Zhao Cijing was cautious all the way, led the army to the east, and after walking for about an hour, the army gradually approached Ruxiang County. Zhao Cijing was more careful, and he sent someone to inquire about the news, for a moment. The soldier came back and reported to him an astonishing piece of information,

"Qi Yu has a long history, the county seat of Ruxiang is an empty city, and there is not a single Sui army."

Zhao Cijing was stunned for a moment, how could it be? Isn't there a report that a large number of Sui troops crossed the river from here?

The soldier reported again: "I heard from the people in the county that the Sui army went to participate in the siege of the army of King Li Jun, so they gave up the county seat of Ruxiang. ”

Zhao Cijing thought about it in his heart, no matter what, he would occupy the county seat first, and he immediately ordered: "Full speed forward, occupy the county seat!" ”

The team sped up and rushed towards the county seat. At this time, a few miles south of the Tang army, Yang Yuanqing led 20,000 troops to ambush in a forest, and Yang Yuanqing also looked at the county seat of Ruxiang, which was an empty county town he put down, just waiting for the army in Tongguan to be lured into the bait.

Then. A scout rode to the city, turned over and dismounted, and reported to Yang Yuanqingyu: "Chief Qiqi, the enemy army of 5,000 people is rushing towards the county seat of Ruxiang, and it is almost there. ”

'Only 5,000!' ’

Yang Yuanqing was slightly disappointed in his heart, he thought that it was at least 10,000 reinforcements, it seems that Li Yuanji is indeed ruthless, no matter whether Li Xiaogong lives or dies, he has obtained the whole incident from Huang Junhan's mouth, Li Xiaogong impeached Li Yuanji, which attracted the supervision of the imperial history. But Li Yuanji refused to admit it, and there was already a deep hatred between Li Xiaogong and Li Yuanji.

In fact, Tongguan is dangerous, one husband is the pass, ten thousand people are not open, only 5,000 troops can be firmly held Tongguan, there is no need for 30,000 people to garrison, it can only show that today is Li Yuanji's revenge on Li Xiaogong, unwilling to send the main force to help, and there is a rift within the Li family.

"Send troops and cut off the enemy's rear route!"

Yang Yuanqing gave an order, and the 20,000 Sui army launched and killed Tongguan Dao, which was several miles away.

…………

Zhao Cijing led 5,000 troops all the way, and when he was still two miles away from the county seat of Ruxiang, a cold river wind blew in his face, and Zhao Cijing suddenly reacted, no! Even if the Sui army went to participate in the encirclement and suppression of Li Xiaogong's army, it was impossible for the county to not have a single soldier, there would definitely be a small number of troops guarding the county seat, such an important county seat, how could the Sui army give up completely, this must be a bait.

"The whole army stops advancing!"

Zhao Cijing was puzzled and nervous, and ordered a soldier to go to investigate, and after a while, the soldier rushed back to report, "Changshi, the county seat of Ruxiang is closed again, and more than 1,000 Sui soldiers have appeared on the head of the city to guard it. ”

"Not good! The whole army quickly retreated to Tongguan. ”

Zhao Cijing realized that he had been fooled, this was the enemy's lure strategy, the enemy army wanted to cut off their retreat, Zhao Cijing was anxious to lead the army to Tongguan to evacuate, but walked less than two miles, there was a bang bang on both sides of the mountain road, suddenly ten thousand arrows were fired together, dense arrows shot out from the mountains and forests on both sides, five thousand Tang troops were caught off guard, and were shot so that people turned over on their backs, and the screams resounded.

Zhao Cijing was so shocked that he drew his sword and shouted, "Rush out of the encirclement, rush out!" ”

The sound of shouting and killing on both sides of the mountain road shook the sky, the front and rear roads were blocked by the Sui army, the arrows in the middle were like rain, the Tang army was forced on the narrow mountain road, in a dilemma, with heavy casualties, countless huge fireballs rolled down from the rocks on both sides, rolled into the crowd, the Tang soldiers had nowhere to hide, they were burned and wailed and screamed, crying and screaming............

The place where Zhao Cijing's army was ambushed was only more than ten miles away from Tongguan, although it could not be seen from Tongguan, but the scouts of Tongguan urgently reported this information to Li Yuanji, the king of Qi.

A scout lieutenant knelt down in front of Li Yuanji and begged mournfully: "Your Highness, Zhao Changshi was besieged by tens of thousands of Sui troops, suffered heavy casualties, and was in danger, I implore Your Highness to go to the rescue urgently!" ”

Li Yuanji's face was expressionless, in fact, he had known that there would be this ending. 5,000 people went to rescue Li Xiaogong, isn't it just a delicious meal sent to the door? But if he didn't go to the rescue, he really couldn't explain to his father, since Zhao Cijing was anxious to save Li Xiaogong. Then let him be a substitute for the dead! If you don't completely block his mouth, it's hard to ensure that he won't tell his father about his black state.

Li Yuanji's face gradually showed a hideous sneer, he quickly glanced at the pleading scout captain, suddenly pulled out his knife, and stabbed the captain in the heart, the captain screamed miserably, and fell to the ground and died. Li Yuanji wiped the blood from the blade on him, and said coldly: "What kind of thing are you, you dare to order me to send troops?" ”

He immediately ordered: "The Sui army is about to attack Tongguan in a big way, and it is not allowed to open the gate again, and those who dare to open and close the door will be killed immediately!" ”

……，

More than half of the Tang troops besieged on the mountain road were already killed and wounded, the corpses of the battle dead filled the ravines, and countless surrendered people. Zhao Cijing himself was also hit by three arrows, all of which were seriously injured, and he was dying.

Zhao Cijing was lying behind a boulder. took out a blood letter and a jade pei from his arms, handed it to the scholar Luo Pei'er beside him, and said intermittently with difficulty: "You have to ......, live, give the letter to ......, my wife, and let her tell the saint that I am a ...... and was killed by the king of Qi......"

Zhao Cijing couldn't catch it in one breath, so he closed his eyes and passed away, several of his own soldiers wept bitterly, and at this moment, 20,000 Sui troops rushed down from the mountain. The remaining more than 2,000 Tang regiments were surrounded, and the Tang army had no way to retreat, so they surrendered on their knees, and an ambush battle ended in less than an hour.

Yang Yuanqing appeared on the battlefield on horseback, inspecting the soldiers and the Sui army to clean up the battlefield, and there were charred corpses everywhere. The corpses piled up in the ravine, and Yang Yuanqing couldn't help but sigh in his heart, and instructed his soldiers to "try to treat the wounded as much as possible, bury the war dead on the spot, bury them deeper, and don't be eaten by mountain jackals." ”

A partial general brought up more than a dozen of Zhao Cijing's personal guards, and Zhao Cijing's body was placed on a stretcher behind him, and more than a dozen personal guards knelt down and cried: "I beg His Royal Highness the King of Chu to spare my life, let us send Zhao Shilang's body back to Chang'an." ”

At this time, a soldier handed a letter and a piece of jade pendant to Yang Yuanqing, "This is from a personal soldier, it seems to be Zhao Cijing's suicide note." ”

The letter was not sealed, Yang Yuanqing took out the letter and read it again, it was Zhao Cijing who accused Li Yuanji, the king of Qi, of forcibly seizing the wife of the general, with a personal grudge, and refused to send troops to rescue Li Xiaogong, Yang Yuanqing pondered for a moment, if this letter fell into Li Yuan's hands, Li Yuanji would be dead, and it would not form a rift within the Li group, and this letter must not be allowed to fall into Li Yuan's hands.

Yang Yuanqing held the letter in his arms and handed the jade pendant back, "Return the jade pendant to the soldiers." ”

He said to more than a dozen Zhao Cijing's personal soldiers: "I will spare your life if you are loyal to your master, and you are allowed to send Zhao Shilang's body back to Chang'an, but you are not allowed to go to Tongguan, you will leak my military aircraft, you detour to Wuguan and go back to Luojun!" ”

More than a dozen pro-soldiers kowtowed to thank him with tears, and then lifted the stretcher containing Zhao Cijing's body and walked down the mountain. ”

……，

In Lushi County, Hongnong County, Li Jing led tens of thousands of coalition troops to chase all the way south, Li Xiaogong's army was defeated in five battles, with heavy casualties, and only the remnants of the army were less than 3,000 people, and they were fleeing south in a panic, only a dozen miles away from them, and then speed up, and tonight they could catch up with Li Xiaogong's remnants, completely annihilate them, and capture Li Xiaogong alive.

Tens of thousands of allied troops rested under the county town of Lushi for half an hour, ready to get up and continue to pursue, when more than a dozen cavalry rushed from behind.

"Li Sima!" The cavalry shouted from behind.

Li Jing looked back, he recognized the person, it was several of Yang Yuanqing's personal soldiers, he immediately restrained the war horse, and after a while, several personal soldiers rushed to it, took out the gold medal of Yang Yuanqing and said: "The chief has an order, don't chase after the poor, let Li Xiaogong return to Chang'an." ”

Li Jing was stunned: "Why is this?" ”

The soldier took out another letter and handed it to him, "This is a handwritten letter from the chief manager to Sima, and Sima will know when he reads it." ”

Li Jing took the letter and opened it, read it hurriedly, and gradually showed a knowing smile on his face, or the manager had a long-term vision, he immediately ordered: "The army will stop chasing and return to Hongnong County." ”

……，

The Sui army's stop pursuit finally made Li Xiaogong escape the catastrophe, he led less than 3,000 remnants of the army all the way south, from Wuguan into Shangluo County, where he met Zhao Cijing's own soldiers, only to know that he was killed by Li Yuanji, the king of Qi, Li Xiaogong was full of grief and indignation, and returned to Chang'an from Shangluo County.

The battle for Hongnong County ended with a great victory for the two Sui coalition forces, and the 30,000 Tang troops led by Li Xiaogong were almost completely annihilated.