Since making the decision to go north to help, Li Yuan quickly judged the current situation.

Now the battle situation in Shouzhou is unknown, and the two soldiers and horses in the city are the 20,000 Weisheng Army in the hands of Li Jinquan and the 30,000 Qinghuai Army in Liu Chongjun. However, judging from the fact that the 15,000 Gwangju army was ambushed in Jieshui and Liu Renzhan's quick rescue of Shouzhou, the situation in Shouzhou must be critical, and the strength of the rebels is enough to divide the troops to attack.

Therefore, the crux of the matter is whether the 30,000 Qinghuai troops were defeated by the rebels, or whether they followed the rebellion......

Li Yuan's heart suddenly trembled, if even the Qinghuai Army belonged to Li Jinquan, not only would Liu Renzhan's troops face danger, but the only 1,000 light cavalry in his hands would be sent to death in vain.

So after thinking for a while, he quickly ordered people to gather all the defeated soldiers outside Ezhou City, counted them slightly, and cut out the seriously and lightly wounded, there were roughly more than 4,000 people, and the combat effectiveness of the state soldiers can be imagined, but at least they still have blades in their hands, and most of them are still wearing complete or incomplete armor.

Li Yuan immediately ordered to gather these defeated soldiers and line them up, and then ordered Lin Sichang to take out most of the money and food he carried on this trip to welcome his relatives and distribute it. Sure enough, regardless of whether these people had fighting spirit at this time or not, they gobbled it up and got a reward, and they shouted that they were willing to follow Li Dashuai.

At this moment, I heard a violent commotion in Ezhou City. Zhou Tinggou, the Wuchang soldier and horse envoy who was concerned about the safety of the commander Liu Renzhan, still led the 3,000 cavalry under his account to support. After all, this person is Liu Renzhan's brother-in-law, and he can be regarded as Liu Chongzhan's elder, after a short stalemate, the soldiers defending the city opened the city gate, but they still didn't dare to stop it after all.

Zhou Tinggou led the troops to come, which undoubtedly made Li Yuan's confidence suddenly doubled, and the army set off immediately after the rapid assembly. And going north to Shouzhou, Li Yuan was first faced with the choice of path.

You must know that now you must pass through Gwangju and Luzhou to take the official road, not to mention whether these places have fallen into the hands of the rebels, it will take at least seven or eight days to spend time and effort. After taking a closer look at the map, Li Yuan was anxious at the same time, and inadvertently saw two familiar place names, "Dabie Mountain" and "Bagong Mountain".

Dabie Mountain, a place that future generations will be familiar with, a place that can produce miracles. And Bagong Mountain, not to mention anything else, is famous enough to be famous all over the world by virtue of the allusions of "throwing whips and breaking the stream" and "grass and trees are soldiers" in the battle of Weishui.

Therefore, Li Yuan immediately ordered to go north for eighty miles along the water, and then avoid the official road and turn to cross the Dabie Mountain. And as Li Yuan expected, the Dabie Mountain in this era is like a barren mountain and a wild ridge, the mountain road is narrow and difficult to walk, the thorns are dense, and it is accompanied by bursts of beasts, this natural environment is much worse than that of later generations, because the mountain is high and the road is deep, it is necessary to light the torch from dusk to move forward.

However, these newly recruited soldiers greatly surprised Li Yuan, almost all of them were from Gwangju, which was the western pass of Dabie Mountain, and most of them were familiar with the path, so when marching in the Dabie Mountain, crossing the mountains and mountains was like a common thing, and they seemed extremely calm and comfortable.

With the Gwangju soldiers as their guides, Li Yuan and Zhou Tinggou led the soldiers and horses to grope in the Dabie Mountains for two days and two nights, and finally followed the remaining veins of the mountains to the northeast, and soon an open plain area appeared in front of them, which also greatly exceeded the previous estimate. Originally, the so-called 800-mile journey was calculated by detouring along the official road, but in fact, it crossed the valley, and if it went well, it could shorten the schedule by at least half.

After arriving in Shaobi, because he was about to enter the ground of Shouzhou, a major battle could break out at any time, and Li Yuan decided to let the whole army take a short rest.

Because Li Yuan had deliberately asked Lin Sichang to select dozens of veterans with big shoulders and round waists among these Gwangju soldiers, they were given temporary military positions, and they were rewarded with silver money to supervise the march. After a high-intensity march, these Gwangju soldiers still maintained strict discipline when they camped and rested, and did not dare to be casual and slack, and the military orders issued by Li Yuan were also carried out in an orderly manner.

The sergeants quickly finished eating the rations and giving the horses water to drink, and immediately sat down to rest, but Li Yuan had no time to rest, and summoned Zhou Tinggou, Lin Sichang and the commanders of each battalion in the simple military tent to discuss military affairs.

Li Yuan ordered someone to spread out the map directly, and said in a deep voice: "Everyone, if we go further north, we will enter the ground of Shouzhou." Since our army left Dabie Mountain, it has not encountered the rebels all the way north, which shows that the main force of the rebels has mostly shrunk in Shouzhou, and Liu Dashuai's troops have previously encountered the rout of Gwangju in Jieshui. The water is in the west of Shouzhou, and to the north is the Huai River, and there is no way to go.

Therefore, Liu Dashuai's troops can only go east, according to Ben Shuai's inference, at this time must have been under the city of Shouzhou, and the place to camp can only be the west of the city, or the south of the city. ”

The seven or eight generals stared at the map for a moment and then nodded. Lin Sichang said eagerly at this time: "Dashuai, in this case, where should we march from?" ”

Li Yuan replied lightly: "Now the battle situation is unknown, we only have 8,000 soldiers and horses on this trip, plus the 20,000 garrisons brought by Liu Dashuai from Haozhou, there are only less than 30,000 people. The strength of the rebels is difficult to deduce. ”

At this time, the generals also began to think about themselves, and Zhou Tinggou then spoke: "Li Dashuai, there are only more than 20,000 Weisheng troops in Li Jinquan's hands, and the war has been going on for several days. The last general estimated that 30,000 soldiers and horses were enough, not to mention that there was still a Qinghuai army of Liu Jie's envoy in Shouzhou City......"

The words stopped abruptly, Zhou Tinggou suddenly thought of something, and then exclaimed: "Could it be that the Qinghuai Army-"

Li Yuan suddenly sighed and said, "If the 30,000 Qinghuai army can attack it as much as possible, Li Jinquan will already be defeated!" It must have been a change in the Qinghuai army, and the city of Shouzhou was lost, so Liu Dashuai had no choice but to lead his troops to go, and ordered people to go to Ezhou for help! ”

After hearing this, Zhou Tinggou still looked incredulous, and kept muttering: "How can this be? Liu Jie's envoy is the handsome nephew! The Liu family has been loyal and good for generations, how can they do rebellious things? Could it be that Liu Jie's envoy has encountered an accident......"

Li Yuan gently patted Zhou Tinggou's slightly trembling shoulder, and said in a deep voice: "General Zhou, don't think about it!" Regardless of the facts, do not forget the purpose of our army's trip. Shouzhou is the gateway to the north of my Tang River, and there is no room for loss, and Liu Dashuai is my Tang Zhongliang, and there is no room for loss! The situation is urgent, and we should determine the path of the march as soon as possible! ”

Zhou Tinggou came back to his senses, and hurriedly nodded in response: "Please show the marshal!" ”

"Everyone, please see, this is the intersection of the Huaishui and Huaishui, Bagong Mountain." Li Yuan waved his hand to stop everyone's whispering, and gently tapped his two fingers together on the map.

"Bagong Mountain is facing the east gate of Shouzhou City, and the mountain is densely forested and grassy, the terrain is flat, and there is a water source, which is very suitable for hiding the army. And marching northeast from Shaobi is exactly Bagong Mountain! As long as our army seizes the hill and quickly builds a camp, it will be able to respond to each other with Liu Dashuai. If the battle is lost, we can also set aside a way to retreat from Bagong Mountain to the east to Haozhou. ”

The generals nodded in disappointment, and at this time, a bearded general asked: "Great marshal, since Bagong Mountain is so dangerous, and it is the only place to go to Haozhou, if the rebels have occupied the mountain, what should we do?" ”

Li Yuan shook his head and replied: "Now that all the divisions of my Tang Northern Expedition have not returned from the battle in the Zhou State, and Liu Dashuai's troops have come from Haozhou, and there are no elite soldiers available in Jiangbei. Then Li Jinquan is cunning, he chose this opportune time to rebel, he definitely didn't want to delay time, if the news reached Jinling, His Majesty would definitely order the Northern Expedition army to drive back, or order the two forbidden armies to come.

Previously, Ben Shuai deduced that Liu Dashuai's troops must be camped in the south or west of the city, and they had already attracted the attention of the rebels, so the rebels only wanted to concentrate their forces at this time to fight quickly, and they definitely did not expect that a large army would appear in the east of Shouzhou in the short term. Even if there are rebels on Bagong Mountain, there will definitely not be many troops! ”

The bearded general suddenly realized, and replied with a respectful face: "The handsome man is thoughtful! Then we'll catch him off guard! ”

So Li Yuan gave orders to Zhou Tinggou and the generals one by one, and then gathered the army and set off overnight.

The 4,000 cavalry all acted as the vanguard, taking advantage of the night to go straight to Bagong Mountain to take the lead in opening the way, and each performed its own duties to find out the enemy situation on the mountain and was responsible for guarding. As expected, the cavalry made a quick search and found no rebels on the hill.

Then Lin Sichang led 4,000 Gwangju infantry to follow, and after arriving at Bagong Mountain, he began to follow Li Yuan's military order to collect local materials, and with the lush vegetation on the mountain to cover the faint firelight, the sergeants began to secretly build a wide village in the dense forest, and deliberately set up several times the number of their own troops, and erected countless Tang army flags all over the mountain.

The next day, as soon as the sun rose, Li Yuan immediately ordered all the sergeants to prepare for battle, and sent several light cavalry to the south and west of Shouzhou to inquire about the movements of Liu Renzhan's troops.

The sun gradually lifted the mist, Li Yuan looked west from Bagong Mountain, the towering and solid city tower of Shouzhou City was faintly visible, and after taking a deep breath of the freshness of the mountains in the morning, he couldn't help but feel worried, whether he was alive or dead today, it would depend on how the good show of "all plants and trees were soldiers" was played......