West of Yiyang City, the camp of the Weisheng Army.

Less than half a moment after the pro-soldier order, Liu Jiangsheng, Luo Erhu and other eight generals of the Weisheng Army entered the tent one after another, and Li Yuan led Xu Kuangheng to wait here.

All the generals bowed to Li Yuan one after another: "The last general will meet Li Yuhou!" ”

Li Yuan sat down on the upper seat, and then waved his hand, and the generals sat down on both sides in turn according to the quality of the product, keeping silent and waiting for the military order.

"The prime minister has ordered that the army will encircle Langzhou tomorrow." Li Yuan spoke first, and after seeing the generals' eyes flashing with excitement, he continued: "And the task of our Defending Saint Army in this battle is not to attack the city. ”

Suddenly, all the generals showed some puzzled eyes.

Li Yuan waved his hand lightly, Xu Kuangheng immediately understood, walked to a military map that had been hung up in the tent and said, "Generals, please look!" To the west of Langzhou and to the north of Youshui is Xizhou. Seventy years ago, this place was occupied by the Dongxi barbarians. Since the third year of Baoda, Dongximan has secretly corresponded with Langzhou and plundered Chu many times. In the past seven years, it has occupied the land of Xi, Chen, and Jin, and plundered countless grains and weapons from the people.

According to the previous scout's report, the Dongxi barbarians sent 20,000 troops this time, and they had left Xizhou three days ago, intending to go east to rescue Langzhou. If the barbarians take the opportunity to attack when our army is besieging the city, the consequences will be worrying. Therefore, Chen Envoy has already ordered Li Yuhou to lead his troops to block the enemy who comes to help, and to retreat with the Langzhou soldiers. ”

Before the words fell, Luo Erhu took the lead and said urgently: "Yu Hou, the last general is willing to be the vanguard!" Immediately afterwards, the rest of the generals couldn't hold back and asked for battle.

Li Yuan raised his hand to stop the commotion, and said solemnly: "According to the military order of the prime minister, the army will attack the city with all its strength tomorrow, and it is the time to employ people." Ben Yu Hou needs to leave half of the soldiers and horses to guard the Chinese army, and the rest of the soldiers and horses will follow me to the west! ”

"Wei Shengjun Liu Jiangsheng, Luo Erhu, Chai Kewu, Fan Renyu!" Li Yuan said loudly.

"The last general!" Luo Erhu stood up first with a happy face, and then the other three hurriedly got up.

Li Yuan pretended to groan: "Order the four of you to immediately straighten out the soldiers and horses of the headquarters, prepare military equipment, and wait for the west with Ben Yu tomorrow!" ”

The four of them replied loudly in unison: "The last general is ordered!" ”

Then Li Yuan looked at the remaining four generals and said, "The rest of the people will continue to guard the Chinese army, and temporarily put under the command of the Fifth Army to make Li Zhong controlled." The Chinese army is the center of the army, it must not be lost, you must not be taken lightly, you must protect Chen Envoy! ”

Li Zhong and the four of them also hurriedly got up and hugged their fists and said, "The last general will take orders!" ”

After retiring Li Zhong and the four of them, the remaining people in the camp were nothing more than Li Yuan's brothers and acquaintances.

Seeing this, Li Yuan no longer covered it up, and said directly: "You are all your own people, and Ben Yuhou will have something to say!" On this trip, the minister only promised us seven days of food. If I can't repel the brutes within seven days, I will bind myself to the envoy and apologize!" ”

"Bread for seven days?" The generals' eyes almost widened.

Luo Erhu said angrily: "Big brother, if we leave half of the soldiers and horses, there are only more than 10,000 people left!" This battle is already hard to fight! Why is it that even the rations of the army are only given for seven days? So what does Chen Jue mean? In my opinion, if he loses this battle, he should also ask him Chen Jue! How do you ask about the sins of the eldest brother? ”

Li Yuan glared at the black man fiercely and said, "Nonsense! Didn't you always shout louder than anyone else? How can you say defeat before the war starts? ”

"Big brother, I'm ......" Luo Erhu's face turned red, and he couldn't say a word, so he could only clench his fists angrily.

Li Yuan didn't have time to pay attention, and hurriedly asked Xu Kuangheng, "Sir, what do you think of this battle?" ”

Xu Kuangheng, who was standing in front of the map, arched his hand towards Li Yuan, and said to everyone: "Everyone, please see, from Xizhou to Langzhou, the terrain along the way is complicated, there are many dense forest valleys, tigers and beasts are everywhere, and once the barbarians leave Xizhou, if they want to enter Langzhou, they must pass through Linyuan City!" From Linyuan City to Langzhou City, there are only two roads, one is the main road, which is the official road built by the Chu State in the past, which is wide and flat; The second is the small road, which is a mountain road opened up for transporting wood and stone when Tang Yizong built Jiashan Temple 80 years ago, which is winding and narrow. ”

Li Yuan immediately added: "Not bad! Three days ago, the barbarian soldiers had left Xizhou, and there were only 1,000 Chu troops stationed in Linyuan City, which was absolutely difficult to resist. I'm afraid that the barbarians have already passed Linyuan City at this time! If our army wants to stop the incoming enemy, it must first choose which way to march from. These two paths are far apart, and if we make a mistake in our judgment, the consequences will be unimaginable. ”

Everyone followed Xu Kuangheng's fingers, moving their eyes on the map, and they all fell into thought.

After a moment, Liu Jiangsheng said thoughtfully: "The 20,000 barbarian soldiers are menacing, just to rescue Langzhou quickly, and they will never delay the time, and they will definitely choose a wide and flat road." ”

Luo Erhu's eyes also lit up, and he said: "Big brother, second brother is right!" ”

Fan Renyu, who has always been calm, spoke unhurriedly: "The last general thinks that after all, the barbarians were born in the mountains, and I am afraid that they will choose the mountain road to march instead, and for them, taking the small road may not be slower than the big road." ”

The young general Chai Kewu hesitated for a long time, and then stepped forward and said: "Yu Hou, the last general once heard my father and brother talk about that Dongximan is naturally cunning and uses strange soldiers, so it cannot be inferred by common sense. Our army's westward expedition has already announced to the world that since Dongximan has sent troops, they have come prepared, which shows that they have a strategy to deal with our army. And our army came from afar, and did not know the terrain, and the barbarians must have judged that our army would not dare to march from the path, and they would take the path. ”

Li Yuan pondered the different opinions of everyone, and couldn't help but fall into a tangle, and asked instead, "Sir, what do you think?" ”

Xu Kuangheng brushed his long beard fluttering slightly, and replied with a smile: "In the eighth year of Xiabaoda, he served as the marching Sima under He Jingzhu's account, and once followed the army into Chu, and rescued Ma Xicao together with the Dongxi Barbarian Peng Shichou Department, so he has some understanding of the tactics of the barbarians. War horses in Chu are already scarce, and even the army of the king of Chu rarely has horse troops, let alone the Dongxi barbarians? Even though they plundered for many years, they were almost always foot soldiers.

But this time, Dongximan's opponent is my Tang army, not the Chu army. Cavalry is the only advantage of our army. Although the land of Jianghuai in the Tang Dynasty also does not produce horses, the trade is developed, and it often buys war horses with the Khitan, Goryeo, Central Plains and other places to match the forbidden army, such as Yu Hou's department has 5,000 fine horses. The barbarians have joined hands with our army to attack Tanzhou Mansion, how can they not know that our Tang Dynasty horse army is good at fighting? The road is wide, which is very suitable for cavalry to charge, and even if our army cannot win, the barbarians will definitely suffer a lot of losses. The barbarians were anxious to rescue Langzhou, so in order to reduce casualties, they must have come along the path. ”

After that, everyone seemed to suddenly realize, and nodded yes one after another.

I saw General Li Yuan ask suspiciously: "According to Mr. Will, our army should take a small road?" But isn't this exactly what the brute wants? In this battle, our army only had more than 10,000 men and horses, and only carried seven days' food. Mr. Fang just said that the cavalry is the only advantage of our army, but the path is winding and narrow, our army cannot be laid out horizontally, and the cavalry is even more difficult to walk the horse, but will become a burden, if the barbarian ambush, how to win? ”

Luo Erhu, who had listened to it for a long time, couldn't hold back his heart for a long time, and asked eagerly: "Yes!" Big brother is right! The trail will definitely not be able to be walked! What exactly does the gentleman mean? ”

Xu Kuangheng just smiled and patted Luo Erhu's shoulder, then turned to Li Yuan and said, "Yu Hou, the brute soldiers are coming from the path, and they can't let them pass!" Isn't there still 3,000 state soldiers in Yiyang's Li Jianqi Department? The path can be handed over to Li Jianqi's department! Yu Hou only needs to make them prepare enough military supplies tonight to go quickly, and the march is less than seven or eight miles is the Jiashan, which is steep on all sides and only passes all the way, which is an excellent place that is easy to defend and difficult to attack! And the brute soldiers just left Xizhou three days ago, and it will take at least two days to reach along the trail!

Li Jianqi's troops only need to seize the top of the mountain, hold on to the village with a high knot, and if the barbarians arrive, they can repel under the rain of arrows and stones, and they don't have to go out of the village to fight! If the brutes attack, they have to cut down the wood edge mountain and set up a plank road to attack, and they will definitely suffer heavy casualties! The purpose of the barbarian army's trip is to rescue Langzhou, and they will never hold on for too long. In less than three days, the brute army will definitely retreat! ”

Li Yuan sighed in his heart, if he really didn't mistake Xu Kuangheng, he had a good plan in his mind! But there were still doubts in the nodding: "I see! But sir, why did you let Li Jianqi go? Our Guardian Army is much more elite than his state soldiers! ”

Xu Kuangheng said loudly: "Please Yu Hou personally lead the army and take Linyuan City along the main road!" If the brute encounters obstacles on the path, he will inevitably return to Linyuan City and turn to the main road! And our army had cut off its retreat at that time, and held on to the city, waiting for the labor......"

Li Yuan took a deep breath, couldn't help but feel excited, and got up and shouted: "The barbarians are definitely in a dilemma!" Wonderful! Wonderful! Mr. can be called a national scholar! At this time, except for Luo Erhu, who didn't know what was going on, the other three generals also applauded excitedly, and looked at Xu Kuangheng with great admiration.

Xu Kuangheng, who was the focus of everyone's eyes, was calm as usual at the moment, and after a while, he walked to Li Yuan's side and whispered softly: "Yu Hou, after our army occupies Linyuan City, Peng Du's letter will be of great use......"