A goshawk flew from Yingchuan County, flew over the Yellow River, and flew towards Heyang City, bringing with it the extremely important discovery of the Sui army scouts in Yingchuan County.

The Sui army in Heyang City has gathered 90,000 troops, and the generals Xie Yingdeng and Xue Wanche led another 20,000 troops south, and just arrived in Hanoi County, and these 20,000 troops are the elite of the Youzhou army that has been reorganized.

So far, the deployment of the Sui army on the front line of the Yellow River has reached 140,000 people, in addition to the 90,000 troops in Hanoi County, there are also 20,000 troops led by Pei Xingyan in Hedong County, and 30,000 troops led by Qin Qiong deployed in Liyang City.

In addition, by the Yellow River in Heyang City, the Sui army also gathered more than 2,000 warships, which was an inevitable battle.

On the eagle tower at the highest point in Heyang City, a goshawk circled and slowly landed on the eagle tower, and an eagle slave took off the letterbox, rushed downstairs and shouted: "It's a red letterbox!" ”

This was urgent information, and the herald waiting under the tower received the information and turned on his horse, urging the horse to gallop towards the Sui army camp located outside the city.

In the big tent of the Chinese army, Yang Yuanqing was discussing the military situation with Li Jing, with the opening of the Luoyang Campaign, all kinds of important information came one after another, the Tang Army and the Zheng Army launched a big battle outside Luoyang City, Li Shimin and Wang Ren were against each other, Wang Ren lost two games in a row, and the situation in Luoyang was unfavorable.

In Chenliu County, a fleet of 200 large ships was heading north along the Tongji Canal, which should have been the fleet sent by Li Mi to formally sign the contract.

However, Yang Yuanqing was thinking about the seizure of the Central Plains at this time, and the reason why he continued to increase his troops was to cope with the continuous changes in the war situation

What's more important is that Li Mi has already given up the Central Plains and moved south to Jianghuai, so timely seizing the power gap left by Li Mi's retreat to the south is the top priority in front of Yang Yuanqing.

"I think we should take East County first. To the south, he captured Jiyin County. The second is Xingyang County, so that it can be connected to Luoyang and connect our forces in Henan. ”

Li Jing was persuading Yang Yuanqing. "It is estimated that Li Mi will not give up Liang Jun easily for a while, and I also suggest that the governor do not attack Liang Jun for the time being, leaving him as a third party. In this way, Dongjun was used as a logistical location for attacking Dou Jiande in the east, while Luoyang was built as a backup area for the Tang army in the west. ”

Once Li Mi's plan to go south is frustrated, he will inevitably make a comeback, so he will collude with the Tang army and attack on both sides at the same time. We're going to be left and right, have you thought about it for a long time? ”

Li Jing thought for a while, and then said: "Then simply leave a weak Wang Shichong." Let him be the western barrier. To block Li Tang's eastward advance, we will concentrate on taking the Central Plains. In this way, the dilemma of being attacked by the enemy on the back of the abdomen is resolved. ”

"This is also a way for me to concentrate on attacking the Central Plains."

Yang Yuanqing looked at the sand table with his hands behind his back, pondered for a moment and said: "I heard my grandfather say that there are two counties in Henan that are extremely important, one is Liang County, which is connected to Jianghuai, and the other is Yingchuan County, which is connected to Nanyang Jingxiang, I can not attack Liang County for the time being, but I still consider taking Yingchuan County." ”

Li Jing sighed slightly, "I'm afraid that the battle line will be too long, the rear troops will be empty, and if Dou Jiande sneaks up on Hebei, the gains will outweigh the losses." ”

Yang Yuanqing was silent, this is indeed a problem, Dou Jiande is a wounded wolf, hidden in Qingzhou, although he is injured, he can't be careless.

Once Qin Qiong's army is too far south, this will give Dou Jiande an opportunity to take advantage of, he destroys the ferry, cuts off Qin Qiong's back road, and then attacks Hebei on a large scale, Hebei only has some county soldiers, and they can't resist Dou Jiande's counterattack at all, so, Hebei is in danger!

Yang Yuanqing also sighed, "Then let's go according to the original plan!" Qin Qiong's army only took Dongjun. ”

At this time, a soldier reported at the door of the tent: "Chief Qiqi, there is urgent information from the scouts of Yingchuan County!" ”

Yang Yuanqing was stunned, he just said about Yingchuan County, and the information from Yingchuan County arrived, "Submit it!" ”

The soldier entered the tent and presented a red letterbox, which was engraved with the words 'Yingchuan County', Yang Yuanqing shook out a roll of thin silk paper from the letterbox, and there was only one sentence on it, 'Yingchuan County Ye County found 80,000 Tang troops. ’

This news immediately surprised Yang Yuanqing, and he was very surprised, in addition to the 100,000 main force attacking Luoyang, the Tang army actually sent 80,000 troops to attack Yingchuan County.

"What's wrong, sir?" Li Jing saw that the manager's face was different, and hurriedly asked

"See for yourself!"

Yang Yuanqing handed the information to Li Jing, he walked quickly to the sand table, and soon found Ye County, located at the junction of the five counties, there are 80,000 Tang troops here, this can only be the army led by Jingxiang Li Xiaogong, Li Yuan actually sent the Jingxiang army, what kind of chess is he playing?

At this time, Li Jing stepped forward and said: "Obviously, the Tang army not only wants to seize Luoyang, but he also wants to seize the counties of the Central Plains, and it seems that Li Yuan has also seen Li Mi through." ”

"You mean, Li Yuan also found that Li Mi had signs of retreating to the southeast?"

Li Jing nodded, "It should be like this!" ”

The situation changed suddenly, Yang Yuanqing stared at the sand table with his hands in his hands, and also fell into a long contemplation, if the Jingxiang Tang army moved north, this would obviously appear a loophole in the emptiness of Jingxiang's troops.

So can Xiao Mo seize this opportunity to counterattack and recapture Jingxiang? Yang Yuanqing felt that he needed to remind Xiao Miao......

Because the main force of 80,000 Jingxiang of the Tang army unexpectedly appeared in Yingchuan County, disrupting the plan of the Sui army, Yang Yuanqing immediately divided his troops to the south by four routes, and ordered Qin Qiong to lead 30,000 troops to cross the river from Liyang to occupy Dongjun.

The West Road ordered Xu Shiji to lead 10,000 Hedong Army and 10,000 Hanoi Army, a total of 20,000 troops, to cross the river from Shaanxi County, occupy Hangu Pass, and cut off the connection between Guanzhong and Luoyang.

The middle road was divided into two routes, one was that Li Jing led 30,000 troops to Xingyang, and went south to Yingchuan County to intercept Li Xiaogong's Jingxiang Tang army to the north, and the other road was Yang Yuanqing led 50,000 main forces to cross the river from Mengjin and take the Luoyang Atrium directly to put pressure on Li Shimin, who was attacking Luoyang.

Several armies crossed the river at the same time, but Yang Yuanqing did not send troops immediately, he still had to wait for Li Shimin and Luoyang to fight and attrition before fighting, crossing the river too early was not conducive to weakening Wang Shichong, in addition, he also had to wait for Li Mi's envoy to arrive for the second time......

The battle of Luoyang has lasted more than ten days. There were two battles before and after. All ended in a crushing defeat for Wang Renze, causing the Zheng army to lose 20,000 elites.

Wang Shichong was furious, and he dismissed Wang Renze from his post as head of the march. He was deposed as a citizen, and the crown prince Wang Xuanying was ordered to be in charge of the government, and he drove the expedition in person. The self-proclaimed generalissimo of the world's soldiers and horses took the remaining 50,000 elite soldiers into his own hands.

Although Wang Ren was dismissed from his post as overseer, he was not convinced, and that morning he heard that his uncle was patrolling the ordnance superintendent, and he immediately rushed to the ordnance superintendent.

On the Armory Prison Square, two thousand craftsmen were busy making all kinds of heavy defensive weapons, and the materials were insufficient, so Wang Shichong ordered some palace rooms to be demolished. He was particularly pleased to have obtained a large number of high-quality giant woods, and to see the giant stone cannons and rows of giant crossbows completed.

Wang Shichong walked in front of a giant stone cannon. I patted the cannon made of the main beams of the palace. He smiled and asked, "How far can this stone cannon be thrown?" ”

The 2,500 craftsmen who stayed in Luoyang were all the best craftsmen in the world. Yang Yuanqing aided Wang Shichong several times, just to get the two thousand five hundred craftsmen away.

But Wang Shichong knew in his heart that he only gave Yang Yuanqing 500 people in the end, and the remaining 2,000 craftsmen were still kept by him, and at this moment, it was these 2,000 craftsmen who brought Wang Shichong the last ray of hope.

An old craftsman bowed down and replied: "Repay the saint, this is called 'General Shida', it is the largest stone cannon in the world, it can throw a boulder weighing fifty pounds to 200 steps away, can easily destroy the enemy's nest car, and can also attack the infantry. ”

"Not bad! is worthy of General Shi. ”

Wang Shichong praised it, he thought of the Sui army's oil again, and couldn't help sighing: "It's a pity that there is no oil in Luoyang, otherwise I would use oil to deal with Li Shimin and burn him to charcoal!" ”

"Uncle!"

Someone called him behind him, Wang Shichong turned around, only to see Wang Ren coming in a hurry, Wang Shichong's face sank, and he asked a little unhappy: "Is there something wrong?" ”

Wang Shichong once had high hopes for Wang Renze, but Wang Renze disappointed him, lost two battles and lost 20,000 elite soldiers, which made Wang Shichong's heart ache, and he had no good attitude towards Wang Renze.

Uncle was dissatisfied with himself, Wang Ren knew it, he still bowed down and said: "Uncle, please allow your nephew to say a word, your nephew will die without regrets!" ”

Wang Shichong saw that he was serious, so he nodded, "Say it!" ”

"Uncle, the defeat in the two wars is not because of my nephew's incompetence, but because of another reason."

"What is the reason?"

"Report to my uncle, the reason for the defeat is because of the leadership of the clan, it is caused by their incompetence, the first time is that King Zhao did not listen to the command and attacked without authorization, resulting in the defeat of the army, and the second time is that King Jing abandoned the army at a critical time and fled, causing the army to collapse, in fact, the Tang army is almost unable to support, if the uncle does not change the situation of the clan leading the army, he will still be defeated again in the future, these clans really can't fight."

Wang Shichong fell into deep thought, and after a while, his face gradually softened, and he sighed and said: "What you said is right, and I also understand it in my heart, but now the enemy is strong and I am weak, and people's hearts are uncertain, if I use generals, I am afraid that they will defect to the battle, and the consequences will be more serious, I don't dare to trust outsiders too much!" ”

Wang Ren was silent for a moment and said, "So far, doesn't my uncle want to ask Yang Yuanqing for help?" My nephew heard that Yang Yuanqing deployed more than 100,000 troops on the northern line of the Yellow River, obviously to deal with the battle of Luoyang, if Yang Yuanqing was willing to send troops in advance and disperse Li Shimin's army, then we would have a greater grasp of defending the city, as long as the time dragged on, the Tang army could only return in vain. ”

"Then what about Yang Yuanqing? What can you use to satisfy his appetite? Wang Shichong said coldly.

"Uncle, nephew has been thinking about it, with our existence, in fact, it is beneficial and disadvantageous to Yang Yuanqing, it is impossible for us to attack the Sui Dynasty, stand between the Sui and Tang dynasties, and become his barrier, so that he can concentrate on attacking the Central Plains, if the Tang Dynasty wants to seek the Central Plains, it will first be able to bypass Luoyang, isn't it more beneficial to Yang Yuanqing?"

Wang Shichong walked a few steps with his hands behind his back, and resolutely turned back to Wang Renze and said: "Anyway, it's all dead, just use the dead horse as a live horse doctor, you go to Heyang again and persuade Yang Yuanqing." ”

Wang Ren hurriedly said: "My nephew is willing to share my uncle's worries, but can I let Yun Dingxing go with my nephew, he is very eloquent, and he has an old relationship with Yang Yuanqing, and in addition, my nephew also wants to bring Yuwen Eying with him, and move him with his old feelings." ”