Li Shimin followed Yin Kaishan into Qinzhou City, which has not stopped since the day the war began.

After Xue Ju's army was defeated and returned to Lanzhou, he still left three or four thousand men and horses to attack from time to time, although there was no substantial progress, but the frequent harassment also made the soldiers and civilians in the city very annoying.

Yuwen Chengdu also went out of the city to chase and kill these fly-like cavalry, but with little success, as long as they saw the Sui army out of the city, they ran into the mountains in a smoke, and won the essence of guerrilla warfare.

After Yin Kaishan took over Qinzhou, he poured the strength of the whole city and spent half a month to build a new outer city wall before they stopped.

But the cost of the new city wall was also very large, except for the wooden buildings in the city, which were not demolished to house the people who did not want to leave, the other brick and stone foundations were lifted out to repair the outer city wall.

So when Li Shimin entered the city with Yin Kaishan, he saw that the entire Qinzhou City was devastated, and a few ragged elderly people were looking for useful things among the rubble, and their numb eyes and slow movements made Li Shimin very uncomfortable.

This can't be blamed on Yin Kaishan, if the city of Qinzhou is broken, Xue Ju may slaughter the city for revenge, when the time comes, no one will want to survive, and what is even more unimaginable is that Chen Cang will also face the crisis of soldiers coming to the city.

The situation did not allow him to pity these people, and the day after he took over Qinzhou, he let all the people who could leave leave, and the young people who stayed behind were also conscripted into the army to jointly defend Qinzhou.

Fortunately, not many of the old and weak women and children remained, and it did not take much trouble to resettle them in a centralized manner, and as for the grain, it was all purchased from the rich families who had withdrawn from the city, and together with the military food and horse material in the original official warehouse, it was enough to last for three months.

Of course, this is not a lot of war horses in the city, but now that it has been almost a month since the start of the war, and now more than 2,000 people and more than 3,000 war horses have been added, and food and grass have become a big problem.

Li Shimin can't wait, he must fight quickly, the complex situation in the country is still changing, although the Li family now occupies the periphery of Chang'an, it will not attract siege for the time being, but who can guarantee that there will be no other problems?

That night, Yin Kaishan held a banquet in the general's mansion to receive Li Shimin, Liu Hongji and Xue Li as accompaniment, and three deputy generals and four lieutenants of Qinzhou attended.

When the Qin Zhou army heard the news that Yin Kaishan was leaving, he was reluctant to come to the general's mansion to say something, but what the holy decree said was also true, this veteran had fought for the country for half his life, and it was time to go back and tease his grandson.

During the banquet, after four or five glasses of wine and two or three coarse dishes, everyone gradually became acquainted, all of them were rough men in the army, not so fancy, and went straight to tell everything they knew about the situation in Qinzhou.

After the banquet dispersed, Li Shimin chatted with Yin Kaishan alone for more than half an hour before coming to Liu Hongji and Xue Li's room to discuss military strategy.

Under the chrysanthemum yellow oil lamp, Li Shimin frowned and said: "Our army is short of food and grass, Xue Ju is also facing this problem, and transporting grain from Chen Cang can't solve the urgent need, what do you two think?" ”

Liu Hongji said: "Grain and grass is a problem, and we also lack understanding of the terrain outside the city, but it is not a blind eye, there are two locals among those captains, and they will bring the topographic map early tomorrow morning, according to the opinions of their subordinates, or after studying the map, we will find a way to go around the city to ambush them." ”

Xue Li said: "We have the map, it should be more detailed than theirs, the most important thing now is how to make Xue Ju retreat, not to mention how to bypass the vast mountains in the north, even if they go around behind them after all the hardships, if they don't retreat, our army will not be able to ambush them on the narrow mountain road." ”

Li Shimin thought for a while and said: "Exactly, but your combat ideas are still fixed in the conventional way, and the gunpowder shells are not taken into account, if our army takes out 2,000 gunpowder shells, maybe all the problems can be solved, Xue Ju knows that he is invincible and has no choice but to retreat, and the ambush war of our army is not empty words." ”

Only then did the two of them remember the power of gunpowder bullets, indeed, this unconventional weapon had not yet been popularized, and it was normal for them not to add it when they were thinking about military strategy.

Since there is already a way to let Xue Ju retreat, the next thing to do is to send out the ambush soldiers, Xue Li took all the maps around Qinzhou drawn by the special combat team, they first had to find a suitable place to ambush the troops, and then find a suitable marching route among the mountains and mountains.

Luo Yu wrote a textbook for one night, at dawn Li Xiuning came over with a bowl of millet porridge and two buckwheat nests, she saw Luo Yu's eyes full of red silk and the thick textbooks on the table, and said distressedly: "Don't be too tired, eat breakfast first, don't be in a hurry, don't be busy today, have a good rest after breakfast." ”

Luo Yu put down the pen, shook his sore arm, picked up the towel in the basin next to him and wiped his hands, and said with a smile: "Listen to Madame, the preliminary textbooks have almost been compiled, and I will not let Madame stay alone in the future." ”

Li Xiuning put breakfast away, walked behind Luo Yu, stretched out her hand and pressed it on Luo Yu's shoulder, the strength of the martial arts practitioner was not to say, she heard Luo Yu ridicule, and deliberately aggravated a few points, it was originally a massage, but it made Luo Yu feel abused.

Don't offend women, Luo Yu gritted his teeth and didn't make a sound, he took a big sip of millet porridge in pain, and didn't pick up the nest head and eat it until Li Xiuning was angry.

Li Xiuning said with a smile: "Look at you in the future, you dare to speak freely, I am not alone in the empty boudoir, I have Man'er with me." Then he whispered in Luo Yu's ear and asked, "You really don't consider marrying her?" ”

Luo Yu sighed and said: "I only need to have you, a person only has one heart, and my heart can only accommodate you." ”

Li Xiuning was moved: "I know your intentions, but Yang Man is also a pitiful person, you ......"

Luo Yu interrupted her and said, "There are too many poor people in this world, can I take care of them?" Don't worry, she's still young, and she won't think about it anymore when she meets the person she likes, the textbook is here, if you have the leisure to copy it, I'm going to find Zhou Gong. ”

After speaking, he didn't wait for Li Xiuning to answer, got up and walked to the wing, and in the afternoon, he had to go to Kunshan to study movable type printing, and he didn't have time to think about the love of his children.

Li Xiuning stopped talking, looked at Luo Yu's back and shook his head, cleaned up the tableware on the table, and picked up the thick stack of textbooks that had been compiled to find Yang Man.

Zhang Yang and they already lived in the dormitory of the academy, and Luo Yu had too many things to do, so he could only live in Daddy Li's house, and Li Xiuning and Yang Man naturally followed.

Xiao Li got up very early, she wanted to help her grandfather make breakfast, and when she came to the kitchen, she met Li Xiuning, who was washing dishes, and said with a smile: "Sister Ning, get up so early to help Brother Yu make breakfast!" ”

Li Xiuning smiled: "He didn't sleep all night, and I can't help, I can only get up early to get him something to eat, by the way, I always have a question I want to ask you......"

Xiao Li said with millet: "I want to ask why I shot you with an arrow at that time." ”

Li Xiuning nodded, and Xiao Li said: "That's a trap, it was originally used to catch small beasts like hares, but I just laid it down and it was triggered not long after, and the beast didn't shoot, just you were standing there......"

It turned out to be a misunderstanding, no wonder she appeared in the tree silently, she should have been hiding there a long time ago.

Xiao Li said again: "That arrow is far away, as long as it doesn't hit the vital part, it won't hurt anyone." ”

Li Xiuning smiled: "My sister didn't blame my sister, but I had doubts in my heart, now that it's solved, your cooking is delicious, can you teach my sister?" ”

Xiao Li Xi said: "Really? At noon, we cooked together for them to eat, and Brother Zhang and they were also very hard. ”

Outside the door, Yang Man stepped over, probably hearing the content of their conversation, and continued: "Count me in, but, Sister Ning, we still have textbooks to copy." ”

The three girls glanced at each other and chuckled, living a fulfilling life like this, doing three meals a day by themselves, the happiest thing.

After reading the map, Li Shimin decided to set up the ambush battlefield in Gangu Cuiyi Mountain, where the terrain is similar to the Qiujia Pass, and there is a not wide official road between the two high mountains, with a total length of 20 miles, which is also the only way for Xue Ju to return to Lanzhou.

This official road was built when Yang Guangxi conquered Qinghai, and now it is convenient for Xue Judong to attack Qinzhou, which has to be said to be a bit ironic.

There is another reason why Li Shimin chose this place, after entering the official road, there is an open land that can accommodate seven or eight thousand people, and the ambush here can attack the middle of Xue Ju's retreating army, cut off a long snake formation, and then guard the exits on both sides with a small number of troops, and use gunpowder bombs to blow up the mountains and rocks, forming a closed door.

If this battle is fought well, it can eliminate Xue Ju's more than 70,000 troops in one fell swoop, and it is also possible to kill Xue Ju's father and son and solve the crisis of the fall of Longyou Dao.

After thinking about it, it was carried out, and a special combat team led the way, and selected 4,000 strong men from the defenders of Qinzhou and 1,500 of them brought by Li Shimin to form 5,500 ambush soldiers, of which 5,000 went to the valley to ambush, and the other 500 people each carried five gunpowder shells to the exit to blow up the rocks.

Xue Li stepped forward, took a deputy general of Qinzhou to pick people early the next morning, and set off after breakfast.

Li Shimin's side also had to arrange a pursuit force, otherwise, with more than 10,000 soldiers and horses to pursue 60,000 or 70,000 people, even with the help of gunpowder, it would be difficult to ensure that there would be no accidents.

Gangu County, located in the northwest of Qinzhou, 80 miles away from Qinzhou City, is the birthplace of the Qin people, there are seven or eight ethnic minorities living in the territory, and the Han people have more exchanges, the great cause is four years, there has been a second class Jinshi and the first, it can be said that it is an outstanding person.

The county is bordered by the Weihe River in the north, Wushan in the west, Qinzhou in the east, and the Qinling Mountains in the south, stretching for five or six hundred miles.

The ambush site chosen by Li Shimin was in the Qinling Mountains, which meant that the more than 5,000 people led by Xue Li needed to march fifty miles in the ravines of the Qinling Mountains and lay in ambush before Xue raised his troops and horses to the ambush place.

Therefore, it is difficult to grasp the time of Li Shimin's attack, and if two thousand gunpowder bullets are dropped, Xue Ju will choose to retreat or resist, or retreat while fighting, it is impossible to predict how he will choose.

Because there was no gate on the west wall, Li Shimin's soldiers and horses either bypassed the east gate, or directly blew up the west wall, and then led the army to pursue from the opening of the explosion.

The north and south sides were not suitable for large armies, and in order to send troops quickly, the only way to blow up the city walls was to blow them up, which also required timing, and the cavalry had to take time to clear a passage before they wanted to pass through a place full of rubble and bricks.

Fortunately, there are hundreds of paces between the moat and the outer wall, and the square formed can accommodate more than 3,000 cavalry, who can line up in the square first and attack first, anyway, a few miles further is a narrow official road, and the cavalry can only be divided into five cavalry in a row.

At the sound of an order, more than 20 newly built trebuchets on the city wall, under the control of the sergeants, threw the igniting gunpowder shells into the enemy camp tent more than 300 steps away from the city wall.

Each catapult was loaded with three shells, and more than 100 gunpowder shells emitting green smoke exploded one after another, and in the sun, the fragments of the tent and the red and black dirt flew like snowflakes.

The few patrolmen outside the tent had deliberately moved closer to the west when the trebuchet was being prepared on the city wall, and when the gunpowder bullets fell, they had ignored the people in the tent and hurried away to the official road to the west.

There was no imaginary screaming and chaos, the camp tent was still there, but it was already empty, and I didn't know how long Xue Ju had withdrawn.

Seeing such a scene, Li Shimin said to Liu Hongji: "It's not good, Xue Li and they are in danger, hurry up and blow up the city wall, and all the cavalry will quickly pursue along the official road." ”

Liu Hongji also understood that he had been fooled this time, so he called the second-generation team member after the order and ordered: "Quickly withdraw the people on the city wall, leave the things on it alone, and quickly clear the passage after blowing up the city wall." ”

The team member turned around and left after agreeing, and Li Shimin said again: "Find a way to contact Xue Li and ask them to terminate this mission and retreat." ”

The team member bowed down and listened to the order, and left quickly, he was a little puzzled, Xue raised tens of thousands of horses and horses to retreat, so big movement, the three generations of team members outside the city were eating dry food, how could they not report?

Now that the matter has come to this, there is no way to blame anyone, now we have to blow up the city walls as soon as possible and pursue them out of the city.

Yin Kaishan came behind Li Shimin, and saw that his hands were shaking slightly, so he explained: "Virtuous nephew, the way of using soldiers, it is true and false, you used gunpowder shells at the east gate yesterday, they are naturally prepared, retreat is a choice, ambush in front of the open is also a choice, you rush down to pursue today, have you ever thought that you will encounter ambushes?" ”

After all, he was only seventeen years old, although he had a military strategy, but his understanding of human nature was far inferior to that of a battle-hardened veteran like Yin Kaishan.

Suddenly, I remembered that Yin Kaishan had gone south to Hanzhong early this morning, why was he still in the city at this time?

Yin Kaishan saw his doubts and said: "The old man has already gone out of the east gate, and he rushed back when he heard the sound, you go, there is an old man here, remember, be careful in everything, you have to be more thief than him when dealing with a veteran like Xue Ju, who has been fighting horses all his life." ”

As soon as Li Shimin wanted to reply, a loud bang shook the ground, and a section of the city wall about three zhang wide collapsed, and the trebuchets on it also fell, smashed to the ground and fell apart, and sawdust flew sideways.

They used directional blasting, flying sand and rocks outside the walls, while only a few stones flew through the square inside the walls.

The horses arrayed in the square retreated in horror, the knights hurriedly patted their necks to appease, and more than two hundred soldiers in gray armor flew from the side of the city wall, and they had to clear the passage quickly.

Li Shimin arched his hand towards Yin Kaishan and said: "Uncle Lao Shi will work hard for another day or two, and the little nephew will go first." ”

Yin Kaishan nodded and said, "Don't do anything, don't force it, go quickly, be careful." ”

Li Shimin saluted again and went down to the city, Liu Hongji was already waiting by the drawbridge with his war horse, he was a deputy general, and he had to follow Li Shimin.

The two of them flew on their horses, whipped their horses, and sprang out like arrows from the string, bypassing the horsemen in line to the breach.

The passage had been cleared, Li Shimin drew his spear, voided a rectangle in the air, and rushed out first.

There are only more than 3,000 war horses in Qinzhou City, and the total number brought by Li Shimin is not more than 7,000, so there are only more than 6,000 horses sent this time, and the infantry can't keep up, so it is better to stay in Qinzhou.

Soon, more than 3,000 horsemen in the square lined up in a rectangle and followed Li Shimin out of the gap and pursued westward, and more than 3,000 horsemen in the city also crossed the suspension bridge, converged and followed.

Out of the gap, it was a large flat land, and Xue Ju camped here, and at this time, no one was gone, only the gunpowder bombs had exploded.

didn't have the heart to look at it, Li Shimin chased directly to the official road in the west, and the two third-generation team members outside the city seemed to be more than lucky, and now they didn't appear, so he had to send three more third-generation team members and five scouts to search and advance together to prevent an ambush.

It's very strange, I'm about to enter the narrow official road, but there is no news of an ambush, what kind of medicine is sold in this Xue Ju's gourd? Did he also want to set up an ambush in that open field?

If they had withdrawn as soon as it was dark last night, they would have been lurking there at this moment, Xue Li and they just happened to crash into their ambush circle in the past, I hope Xue Li can see the opportunity to act, no one can help him now.

Thinking of Yin Kaishan's words, Li Shimin already had a plan in his heart, no matter whether the front was Longtan Tiger's Den or not, he would always have to break through.