Shuozhou, known as Ma Yi in ancient times, Tang Wude four years (621), changed Ma Yi to Shuozhou, governed Shanyang, Kaiyang, Shenwu three counties, located between the inner and outer Great Wall, and Yunzhou, Daizhou, Qizhou together called the border pass four states, north of Datong, south of Yanmen Pass, is really the important town of the Tang Dynasty border pass, has the reputation of choking three passes and five plains, since the Warring States Period, here is the location of the fierce war between the Central Plains farming civilization and the grassland nomadic civilization, since ancient times, the war has continued, especially the Han Dynasty is the most, When Emperor Wu of the Han Dynasty first sent troops to war with the Xiongnu, the so-called Ma Yi ambush was in this state, if Shuozhou was lost, then there was no danger to defend the Tang border in front of Yanmen Pass, and it was a place where soldiers must fight.

The importance of Shuozhou is needless to say, the Tang Dynasty quickly sent 140,000 troops to rescue this state, but the sky did not fulfill people's wishes, Zhenguan fifteenth year of October 19, Li Zhen led the vanguard army just arrived at Yanmen Pass, the bad news has come - the whole territory of Shuozhou is lost, in addition to Shenwu is still holding on, Shanyang, Kaiyang, Shuozhou fell in turn, more than 5,000 border troops only a few hundred scarred defeated soldiers fled back to Yanmen Pass, Shuozhou assassin Yao Qisheng and the city died, Shenwu County ordered Liu Chen to send a letter for help, It was said that more than 20,000 people from Xue Yantuo's servant army were besieging Shenwu, and the city was about to be broken, so he asked the defenders of Yanmen Pass to send troops to help.

Shuozhou was lost, and the situation suddenly became grim - at this time, there were only more than 5,000 defenders of Yanmen Pass, plus the 3,500 men and horses of Li Zhen's department, the total number was only more than 9,000 people, and it was already a tight force to defend according to the danger, and it was even more powerful to go out of the pass to rescue Shenwu, not to mention that there were 200,000 elite cavalry of Xue Yantuo in the Shuozhou area at this time, and the 20,000 military horses besieging Shenwu were far more than the defenders of Yanmen Pass, and the main force of the Tang Dynasty would take three days to arrive at the earliest. Shenwu, who has long been crumbling, will inevitably fall.

According to the practice of the steppe tribes, once the city is broken, it must be burned, killed, plundered, and done everything, and the same is true of all the cities that have been breached; Moreover, although the Xue Yantuo Department is invading the border of the Tang Dynasty, in fact, there is no idea of colliding with the main force of the Tang Dynasty, the left and right are just thinking of leaving after a handful, and they are still delaying at this time, just waiting for Shenwu City to break, once Shenwu falls, Xue Yantuo will not stay in the Tang Dynasty for a long time, and it is inevitable to slip away after the large-scale looting.

At this time, it is already early winter, if Xue Yantuo's troops are allowed to withdraw their troops, then even if the main force of the Tang Dynasty arrives, it is impossible to chase into the grassland at such a time, and it will have to wait until the spring of the next year to slowly march into the army, and at that time, it is difficult to say whether the main force of Xue Yantuo can be caught on the vast grassland, not to mention that once the war drags on, the food and salary that the Tang Dynasty will spend will be an astronomical amount, which is undoubtedly a huge burden for the imperial finances that are not very rich, and furthermore, once Xue Yantuo cannot be given a profound lesson this time, Then those countries around Datang are afraid that they will also follow the same example and adopt the strategy of taking a handful and leaving, so that the border of Datang will never be peaceful.

The crisis has been revealed, but how to solve it has never been a conclusion, no, the military meeting has been held for more than two hours, together the Tang generals and officials around the sand table argued, the battle and defense are fierce, but neither side can gain the upper hand, in the noisy big tent, only Li Zhen, the prince and the Yanmen Pass guard, Lingzhou Road marching chief Li Daliang have never said a word.

Li Daliang, a native of Jingyang, Shaanxi, the former Sui Dynasty general Pang Yu marched to Cao, and later joined the Tang Dynasty, successively served as the Tumen Order, Jinzhou (now Ankang, Shaanxi) Governor Sima, and later promoted to the Anzhou Assassin History, in the suppression of the Fugong Qi rebellion, and accumulated merit to be promoted to the governor of Yuezhou (now Shaoxing, Zhejiang), Zhenguan made meritorious service again in the battle of Tang Tuyuhun in the eighth year of Tang Dynasty, and was therefore named the Duke of Wuyang County, promoted to the general of the right guard, both civil and military, famous for good governance of the whole Tang Dynasty, he did not like to say much, but every word must be true, and he was deeply favored by Li Shimin.

Seeing that the sun was already in the west, and the generals were still arguing over whether to fight or defend, Li Daliang was as calm as he could, but he couldn't sit still, he bowed down, faked a cough, and calmed down the generals who were making a lot of noise, and then looked sideways at Li Zhen, who was sitting beside him like a clay sculpture, and said: "What does His Royal Highness King Yue mean?" ”

How is it? What else? Damn, this battle has to be fought if it doesn't work. How could Li Zhen not know the severity of the current situation, and also know that the battle in front of him is not easy to fight, and it is even clearer what Li Daliang's intention is to ask this - it is inevitable to fight, but there is no certainty of victory, in fact, there is almost no way to win, but if you don't fight, you can't do it, you have to carry the black pot if you lose, this black pot is not so easy to carry, if you are not careful, you will end up in the end, if you lose miserably, I am afraid that the crime of cutting off your head will be there, Li Daliang can't bear it, so he naturally expects Li Zhen, the prince, to carry it.

No one wants to carry the black pot, Li Zhen is naturally no exception, as soon as he heard Li Daliang's words and asked strangely, Li Zhen really wanted to kick the ball back again, but unfortunately Li Zhen couldn't, not because Li Zhen was the prince and had the highest grade in the account, but because Li Zhen found an opportunity to win, and he didn't want to waste any more time to pull the skin at this time, so Li Zhen didn't shirk it, and smiled indifferently: "Fight!" ”

Li Zhen's voice was not too loud, and the tone was very flat, but the determination inside was fully revealed, and the generals did not expect Li Zhen to make up his mind to fight with such an understatement, and he was stunned for a while, and it took a long time before a general in the costume stood up and said: "Your Highness, Xue Yantuo is powerful, our army should only hold on, if it is easy to fight, once it is lost, Yanmen will not be guaranteed, Shanxi will be rotten, and I hope Your Highness will think twice." ”

This opponent is named Li Hongye, Li Daliang's nephew, is the leader of the main defense faction, as soon as he came out like this, the generals who advocated sticking to the help immediately followed and stood up, and they all asked Li Zhen to think twice before acting, and they all showed that they were not optimistic about Li Zhen's ability.

"Your Highness, let's fight, Shuozhou City is broken, my people have been slaughtered, if you don't come to help, once Shenwu is also broken, the lives will be ruined, Xue Yantuo will flee far away, if so, where is the majesty of my Tang Dynasty?" As soon as he saw the main defender faction stand up, the leader of the main battle faction, Liu Tietao, also stood up not to be outdone, and in an instant, a group of generals of the main battle also spoke out one after another, and there was chaos in the big tent again.

The people who shouted in the big tent were all the generals of the Yanmen Pass family, but the guards and horses brought by Li Zhen never participated in it, which made Li Daliang feel extremely embarrassed, and he was making a fuss again, his face sank suddenly, and he snorted coldly, so frightened that all the generals shrank back, and the big tent finally quieted down again.

"Your Highness, how should this battle be fought?" Li Daliang groaned for a while, stroked the long beard on his chest, and asked in a calm voice.

Hehe, this old guy is very slippery, he knows that this battle must be fought, but he has no chance of winning, so he uses words to squeeze Lao Tzu, interesting! Li Zhen saw through Li Daliang's thoughts at a glance, but he didn't break it, and said with a smile: "Lord Li, Shenwu must be saved, and Yanmen must also be guarded, if it is so good, Xiao Wang will lead his troops and horses to save Shenwu, and Lord Li will stay in Yanmen to ensure that nothing goes wrong?" ”

As soon as Li Zhen's words came out, not only the generals of the Yanmen Pass department were dumbfounded, but also the generals of Li Zhen's side were all dumbfounded - the whole army was afraid that they would not be able to defeat the gods and martial arts, and now it was only 3,005 people and horses under Li Zhen's department to go forward, how could it be the opponent of more than 20,000 servant cavalry, not counting the main force of Xue Yantuo's 200,000 in the Shuozhou region, this is not to fight, it is simply to send to death.

Li Zhen is the prince, if something happens to him, everyone present is afraid that all of them will not be able to get out of the relationship, even if they can hold the Yanmen Pass, it is useless, once the Son of Heaven is angry, all the people present are afraid that they will not end well, the first person to bear the brunt is Li Daliang, the general, at this time, when he saw Li Zhen say this, Li Daliang's face suddenly turned blue - originally according to his thoughts, even if Li Zhen insisted on fighting, it would only be Li Zhen who stayed behind, he Li Daliang led the troops to attack, and it was good to win, but once defeated, there was naturally Li Zhen on top, Even if it is a board, it will not be heavy, but what he never expected is that Li Zhen actually proposed to personally lead the troops to attack, which made Li Daliang how could he afford it, and he gritted his teeth and said: "Your Highness, this discussion is inappropriate, the lower official is a border general, and it is the responsibility to defend the land, so the task of this attack will be handed over to the lower official, His Royal Highness only needs to guard the Yanmen Pass, and the lower official will be grateful." ”

Hehe, this old guy has a bit of a conscience, but well, we're still taking the credit ourselves. Li Zhen smiled and said: "Thank you Lord Li for your love and righteousness, but if this battle wants to achieve the goal of rescuing the people of Shenwu and dragging Xue Yantuo's department, it can only be effective if this king goes in person." Li Zhen's voice fell, got up, strode to the sand table in the middle of the big tent, and said with a smile: "Lord Li, please see, this is Shenwu, less than two hundred miles away from Shuozhou, and Shanyang, Kaiyang are distributed in a triangle less than 100 miles, this is Fosu Mountain, it is the Tongluo Department that occupies Shanyang, and its department is a feud with the Fugu Department, and it is the Baye Ancient Department that occupies Kaiyang has always been friendly with the Fugu Department. It will be able to take it by surprise, not to annihilate its parts, just to hit hard, and then bluff, pretending that the imperial army has surrounded the momentum of Kaiyang, if it is dark at night, the ancient department of Baye will not dare to attack easily in the case of not knowing the truth, so it is bound to send people to the servant department for help, once the servant part of the troops to rescue Kaiyang, the infantry of our army ambushed in Fosu Mountain can take advantage of the situation, or ambush it, or take advantage of the situation into the Shenwu, and our cavalry army from the Kaiyang city outside this path bypassing the goose feather mouth and going straight to kill the tiger's mouth, As long as the sneak attack can be successful, Xue Yantuo's 200,000 army will have to make a detour to Yungang if he wants to withdraw his army, even if Xue Yantuo's troops withdraw immediately, it will take three or five more days, and moreover, he only needs to know that the king has entered the Shenwu, and if there are not many soldiers, he will inevitably raise troops to capture the king as a guarantee of retreat, so that the timing of Xue Yantuo's withdrawal will have to be delayed for a few days, and the main force of our army will arrive in about three days, and this battle will be won! ”

"This ......" Li Daliang thought about it carefully, but he didn't see any flaws in Li Zhen's strategy, but he just asked Li Zhen to take risks, but Li Daliang really didn't have the courage, but he also knew that Li Zhen's strategy was the only feasible strategy at present, and he didn't dare to make up his mind for a while, just frowning and pondering there.

Li Daliang can afford to wait, but Li Zhen can't afford to wait, after all, it is difficult to say whether Shenwu can survive tomorrow, at this time the sun is already in the west, and I am afraid that it will be too late if I don't send troops, Li Zhen turned around suddenly, stared at Li Daliang with both eyes and said: "Lord Li, this king still has two things to ask for." ”

Li Zhen's soldiers are not under the jurisdiction of Li Daliang, moreover, Li Zhen is a prince, he said that he wanted to go, Li Daliang just didn't agree and it was useless, at this time, seeing that Li Zhen had made up his mind, he didn't say anything more, and looked at Li Zhen with a solemn face: "His Royal Highness King Yue has something to order, as long as it can be done by the lower officials, he will definitely not refuse." ”

"Good!" Li Zhen laughed, walked to Li Daliang's side, leaned over, and whispered in Li Daliang's ear......

Although the commander of Xue Yantuo had no intention of attacking Yanmen Pass, according to the usual practice, he still sent a team of more than 200 people to Yanmen Pass, always monitoring the movement of the Tang army in the direction of Yanmen Pass. At the beginning, those rangers who were stranded outside the Yanmen Pass were also very honest, and only dared to wander in the distance, but later saw that the Tang army in Yanmen Pass had no sign of dispatch, and these rangers became bolder, not to mention getting closer and closer to the Yanmen Pass, and from time to time attacked those refugees who fled to Yanmen Pass from outside the pass, * captive, without scruples, and even set up a small camp not far from the Yanmen Pass, and stationed it in a big way, not at all like they came to monitor the Tang army, but as if they came to vacation.

The arrogance of those rangers naturally caused the morale of the Tang generals in the pass to be angry, but they did not get the order, but no one dared to attack privately, and they could only watch a group of grass robbers tossing around outside the pass for more than a month, and the fire in the hearts of the big guys had already been so strong that they could melt gold and iron. Except for the dozen horsemen who escaped quickly, the rest were killed on the spot, and the whole battle was over in the time of only one pillar of incense, and then, in the wide open gate, a group of sturdy soldiers hurried out of the gate and hurried into the distance with a rapid march. On the head of the city of Yanmen Pass, Li Daliang, the general of the right guard, stood in the afterglow of the sunset, silently watching the army go away, and a pair of old eyes faintly appeared tears......