Chapter 176: Repeated Battles and Intrigues

The book continues from the above, saying that Liu Heimin won successive battles and frequently conquered Datang Prefecture, which made the situation that had only revealed the rudiments of unification disappear in an instant, and the generals sent by Datang lost one battle after another, which also made Li Yuan have to reconsider Chu Mofeng's original plan.

In view of the tight fighting on the front line, Li Yuan ordered Li Shimin, the king of Qin, Chu Mofeng, the prince of Qi, and Li Yuanji, the king of Qi, to go into battle again. Li Shimin and Chu Mofeng, who received the news, immediately assembled a large army and led their troops to march on the 15th of December.

Not long after Li Shimin and others left Chang'an, in the study of the East Palace, Li Jiancheng pushed all the pen, ink, paper and inkstones on the table to the ground, and the people around him were silent. ”

After scolding a few words, suddenly there was a report from outside the door, saying that it was the prince washing the horse Wei to ask for a meeting, and Li Jiancheng said angrily: "Wei Zheng? What is this waste thing for? Just say that the prince is unwell today and will not be seen for the time being, let him go back." With that, he turned and walked towards the inner room.

At this moment, the subordinate outside the door spoke again: "His Royal Highness the Crown Prince, Lord Wei said that he came here to relieve the troubles in His Highness's heart. ”

One sentence aroused Li Jiancheng's interest, and then Li Jiancheng turned around and shouted outside the door: "Oh, in that case, please invite Lord Wei in, this prince wants to see how he can solve the troubles in my heart?"

After answering outside the door, after a while, Wei Zheng pushed the door in, saluted Li Jiancheng and said, "See His Royal Highness the Prince." ”

Li Jiancheng glanced at Wei Zheng angrily, and said lightly: "What is the so-called matter of Wei Xima coming today?"

Listening to Li Jiancheng's tone, there was a faint dissatisfaction, looking at the mess in front of him, Wei Zheng walked straight over, squatted down and began to slowly clean up, and said slowly while cleaning up: "His Royal Highness the Prince, for the emperor, do not fight, do not be angry, His Royal Highness the Prince, this is really biased." ”

Wei Zheng's words were like an enlightenment, instantly waking Li Jiancheng up, looking at Wei Zheng, who was still cleaning up the mess, Li Jiancheng walked over quickly, squatted down and said to Wei Zheng: "Wei Xima taught me a lesson, Fang is the prince Meng Lang, and please teach me." ”

Then Li Jiancheng called his subordinates to clean up carefully, and then offered tea and pastries to Wei to ask for advice, only to see Wei Zheng pick up the teacup and slowly take a sip and said: "His Royal Highness the Prince's current worries are just because His Majesty has ignored you because His Majesty has enabled King Qin again, and you are worried that once King Qin's credit is too great, it will inevitably overshadow you, and then Your Majesty may set up King Qin as the East Palace, I don't know if what Lao Chen said is correct." ”

Seeing that Wei Zheng told all his worries, Li Jiancheng said with a smile: "Then I don't know what kind of strategy Mr. can deal with this situation?"

"Your Majesty is a little too worried. Listening to Li Jiancheng's words, Wei Zheng hurriedly smiled and said: "First of all, the elders and young are orderly, this Your Majesty knows better than anyone else, in view of the situation that the previous dynasty abolished the elders and established the young, which led to the destruction of the country, Your Majesty will definitely not make a decision casually in this matter, and His Royal Highness the Crown Prince can rest assured." ”

"As for saying that His Royal Highness the King of Qin has made great achievements, His Royal Highness the Crown Prince is also worried about this. Putting down the teacup in his hand, Wei Zheng looked at Li Jiancheng with a little deep meaning and said: "His Royal Highness the Crown Prince is also a person who can fight well, but I heard that most of the Tang Dynasty from the date of Longxing was the King of Qin to fight abroad, and he always had the Duke of Qi by his side, so it created the saying that 'Li Shimin can fight well, Chu Mofeng is full of wisdom, and the two complement each other and the world is bound to be unified'." ”

When it came to Chu Mofeng, Li Jiancheng suddenly became angry, thinking that when he was in Jinyang, this person was just a neighbor of the Li Mansion, a untouchable person with no official position and no position. And Li Jiancheng repeatedly wanted to insert his own people into the military department, but he was blocked back by this person.

Thinking of this, Li Jiancheng said angrily: "I don't know what good strategy Mr. Wei can have to separate these two people? If these two people only see each other and have a dislike in their hearts, then it will be easy to deal with my second brother." ”

"This matter needs to be studied carefully, Your Highness, you also know, these two people can be said to be inseparable from Meng Meng, and it is really a bit troublesome to want him to dislike the two of them. Wei Zheng frowned, and his mind kept thinking about the feasibility of things.

Li Jiancheng sighed when he saw this, and then changed the topic to continue the discussion with Wei Zheng, but what the two didn't expect was that a thin figure outside the door of the study was leaning slightly sideways at this time, and listened to the conversation between the two word for word.

On the other hand, in the process of Li Shimin leading the army, Liu Heimin on the opposite side did not stop the pace of attack, and on the 17th, Liu Heimin led his troops to capture Xingzhou and Zhaozhou, and Xingzhao and Zhaozhou were looted.

On the 18th of Gengwu, Liu Heimin took advantage of the news to quickly capture Weizhou and kill Pan Daoyi, the governor of Weizhou in the Tang Dynasty.

After the news was transmitted back to the Tang Dynasty, Li Yuan was furious and sent people to ride to Li Shimin, ordering him to march quickly and strive to eradicate Liu Yi as soon as possible.

At this time, the army was slowly driving on the road, Li Shimin rode forward a little listlessly, Chu Mofeng on the side saw this and hurriedly urged the horse forward, stretched out his hand and patted Li Shimin's shoulder and said: "Why don't you kid have any energy at all, can't you be scared by Liu Heimin?"

", who can be scared by that kind of local chicken and dog, I'm just wondering what my father thinks of me and my eldest brother?" was suddenly patted by someone, Li Shimin instantly came back to his senses, and was about to get angry but found that it was Chu Mofeng, and then wilted again.

Seeing that Li Shimin had turned into a walking humanoid character 'mourning', Chu Mofeng suddenly became angry, and said sharply: "I thought you were thinking about the war, it turned out that you were thinking about these useless Rausch problems, this matter is not the main thing now, your current task is to quickly pacify Liu Heimin, as for the rest, I will plan it for you." ”

Then Chu Mofeng stretched out his finger and pointed at the generals behind him who went out with the army, and said angrily: "If you want these people who support you behind you to die, then you can go back to the capital for me now, and I will lead the troops to encircle and suppress myself, and after the victory, I will disband these people, at least I can't let them die with you for no reason, you must know that your actions now may be related to the lives of hundreds of thousands of people in the future." ”

Hearing Chu Mofeng's words, Li Shimin turned his head and stared at Chu Mofeng for a while, and then his eyes flashed with the same light as before, and he said in a firm tone: "Fang is my Meng Lang, what Grandpa Guo taught me." ”

After speaking, he turned to the army behind him and shouted: "Everyone, let's work harder, and we will camp and rest after the time is over." ”

Seeing that Li Shimin had regained his former vigor, Chu Mofeng couldn't help but smile, and at this moment, Zhao Xince, who was in the Heavenly Killing Camp, immediately stepped forward, took out a note from his arms and handed it to Chu Mofeng and said, "Grandpa Qiyuguo, the capital is in an emergency." ”

After taking the note, Chu Mofeng motioned for Zhao Xin to step back, unfolded the note in his hand and roughly browsed it, then picked up the note, stuffed it into his mouth and swallowed it vigorously, thinking that this Li Jiancheng really didn't stop, Lao Tzu and Li Lao Er left not long ago, and there were villains here who began to give him tricks, and it was not impossible to use the discord strategy, but you kid don't forget, when it comes to playing tricks, he may not be able to play with me for ten Wei Zheng.

Thinking of this, Chu Mofeng smiled and urged him to step forward, and enjoyed the scenery on both sides of the official road without distraction.

Time came to the fifth year of Wude (622 AD), as the saying goes, the new year and new atmosphere, in the past year, the Tang Dynasty successively pacified Wang Shichong in Luoyang and Dou Jiande in Shandong, and even Xiao Milling in the south, also under the strong offensive of Li Jing and Li Xiaogong, ended in the death of the city. The only variable that appeared was that Liu Heimin and Dou Jiande's old ministry rebelled again.

It was the first month of the year, and the capital was singing and dancing at this moment, and Li Yuan took all the family members of the Guogong Mansion into the palace for the first time and attended the royal banquet together. However, the marching army spent an unforgettable New Year in the heavy snow, and it was the first time that they had spent the New Year outside, and it seemed that all the soldiers who went out with Li Shimin and Chu Mofeng were accustomed to it.

In the camp of the army, Li Shimin had already ordered the gang leader army to kill cattle and sheep regardless of the cost, and each camp tent was divided into two pots of wine according to the routine, and as for the food, it was eaten in an open amount, as long as you could eat, the gang leader army would do it.

In the commander's tent, Li Shimin, Chu Mofeng and Li Yuanji, together with the generals who went out with the army, sat around a table at this moment, and there was a large pot hanging in the center of the tent, in which fresh mutton was stewed.

Looking at the generals present such as Cheng Yanjin, Qin Qiong, Luo Shixin, Wang Junkuo and others, Li Shimin's confidence in pacifying Liu Heimin gradually became firm. In a good mood, he hurriedly beckoned everyone present to drink.

Who knew that at this moment, the sound of scouts sounded outside the tent, Li Shimin saw this and hurriedly called the scouts in, as soon as the scouts entered the door, Li Shimin walked up to him with a bowl of wine and said: "The weather is cold, you still have to find out the news, it's really hard, come and drink this bowl of wine to warm up." This move immediately won the unanimous favor of the generals in the tent.

Seeing this, the scout took it with tears in his eyes and drank it all, and then saluted Li Shimin and the people in the tent and said: "Enlighten His Royal Highness King Qin, there is an urgent report from the front, Liu Heimin has a new move, please take a look at His Royal Highness King Qin." After speaking, he handed the battle report in his hand to Li Shimin, turned around and left the camp.

After opening the battle report and taking a look, Li Shimin immediately sighed, threw the battle report to Chu Mofeng on the side, and said helplessly: "How can this guy celebrate the New Year and not let people stop for a while, let's discuss it at the banquet after you take a look." ”

After receiving the battle report thrown by Li Shimin, Chu Mofeng hurriedly opened it and read it carefully, then reached out to support his forehead, handed the battle report in his hand to Li Yuanji, the king of Qi who was the next leader, and motioned him to circulate it in turn.

Just when the people of the world were celebrating the first month of the New Year, Liu Heimin, whose power had been greatly expanded, was finally not satisfied with being a rebel leader, so he announced that the world would call himself the king of Handong, change the Yuan Tianzao, and set the capital in Zhouzhou.

At the same time, Fan Yuan was appointed as the left servant, Dong Kangmai was appointed as the secretary of the military department, and Gao Yaxian was appointed as the right leader; Wang Cong was recruited as the Zhongshu Ling, and Liu Bin was appointed as the Zhongshu squire; and the civil and military officials of the Dou Jiande period were all restored to their original posts.

Once he became king, he was accompanied by legislation and administrative affairs, and as Dou Jiande's die-hard loyalist, Liu Heimin's legislation and administration completely imitated Dou Jiande's set, but it is widely recognized that his talent in leading troops to fight is indeed more than Dou Jiande.

After reading the battle report, all the generals here scolded one after another, and Li Shimin raised his hands slightly when he saw this, stopped everyone's voices, and then said with a smile: "You guys are dissipating their anger for the time being, thinking that Wang Shichong of Zheng State, Xue Ju father and son of Western Qin, and even Liu Wuzhou, the Khan of Dingyang, which one of them was not full of ambition to change the Yuan and become emperors, but in the end? ”

Hearing these words, everyone present applauded loudly, and Li Yuanji on the side looked coldly at the scene in front of him with a wine glass, and couldn't help but sigh in his heart, Second brother, when it comes to this ability to stir people's hearts, my eldest brother and I are really inferior to you, it seems that you still have to be careful and careful.

When Li Yuanji was secretly slandering himself, he didn't want his every move to be seen by Chu Mofeng, who was holding the wine jar and drinking, and immediately Chu Mofeng coughed lightly and said: "Seeing that His Royal Highness Qi Wang looks preoccupied, doesn't he have a unique opinion on the attack of the army?

Listening to Chu Mofeng's words, Li Yuanji suddenly choked, thinking that you kid had sharp eyes, but he still showed a light smile on his face and said: "Where is Grandpa Guo, Yuanji will go out with the second brother this time, and all decisions will be made by the second brother, and Yuanji will only be a pawn who charges into battle, where is there any high opinion." ”

As soon as these words came out, Li Shimin took the lead in smiling and said: "Fourth brother, sometimes we have to think more, our Li family's sons and daughters can't just be heroes who charge into battle, and we must also read more military books and tactics." ”

Li Yuanji nodded at Li Shimin when he heard this, and then Li Shimin said to everyone present: "Since he Liu Heimin wants to go against the sky, then the army will start early tomorrow morning, and we will go to meet this person for a while." ”

An originally pleasant New Year's banquet ended hastily because of a war report, and in the early morning of the second day, the Tang soldiers who were full of wine and food were ready to go, and with Li Shimin's order, the army continued to move in the direction of Liu's entrenched Zhaozhou.

On the fifth day of Ding Hai (the fifth day of the first month), Liu Botong, the former Tang Dynasty Jeju Commander, designed to capture Dou Wuben, the assassin of Jeju, and then returned to Xu Yuanlang with Jeju.

On the eighth day of Geng Yin (the eighth day of the first month), the former Tang Dynasty East Yanzhou Zhizhong Wang Caiyi killed Yanzhou Assassin Shi Tianhua, and then responded to Liu Heimin with the city. An urgent report was sent to Li Shimin, which also forced Li Shimin to speed up his march.

As the speed of the march of the army accelerated, the Qin king Li Shimin arrived in Huojia on the 13th of Ding You, and Liu Heimin saw that the Tang Dynasty was menacing, so he ordered to abandon Xiangzhou and led the army to retreat to Yuzhou for defense.

On the 14th of Bingshen, Li Shimin recovered Xiangzhou, and after the army entered the city, he did not stop, and then marched to Feixiang at full speed, and set up camp by the water to force Liu Heimin.

And Li Yi, who went out according to Chu Mofeng's plan, led the remaining tens of thousands of troops under his command to fight against Liu Heimin with Li Shimin, the king of Qin, after solving the famine problem in Youzhou.

When Liu Heimin heard the news, he left 10,000 troops and ordered Fan Yuan to defend Zhouzhou, while he personally led the main force of the army to resist Li Yi.

That night, Liu Heimin's army camped in Shahe County, and Cheng Mingzhen, the forward general under Li Yi, led 60 big drums and beat drums on the river embankment two miles west of the city, and the ground in the city was shaken.

Fan Yuan, who heard the drums, thought that the Tang army was attacking the city at night, and immediately panicked, and hurriedly sent flying cavalry to report to Liu Heimin, who learned the news, was afraid that the old nest of the city of Zhaozhou would be lost, and led the troops to quickly return to Zhouzhou, and sent his younger brother Liu Shishan and Xingtai Zhang Junli to lead 10,000 soldiers and horses to attack Li Yi in Gucheng.

On the day of Renzi (30th), the two sides fought in the Xu River, Li Yi led the army to take advantage of the situation to attack, but Liu Heimin's soldiers were not as superb as the Tang Dynasty soldiers in terms of combat power and ordnance, resulting in the defeat of Liu Shishan and Zhang Junli, and the loss of 8,000 people on Liu Heimin's side.

In February, Li Quchao, a native of Zhushui County, occupied the city, and informed Li Shimin by letter that he was preparing to surrender to the Tang Dynasty, and Li Shimin, the king of Qin, who learned the news, was afraid that Liu Heimin would retaliate against Li Quchao, so he sent Peng Gong Wang Junkuo to lead 1,500 cavalry to Lishui and enter the city to defend the city with Li Quchao.

Sure enough, as expected, Liu Heimin was furious when he learned the news, and personally led the army back to the division to attack Lishui, and on the 11th of Guihai (11th) Liu Heimin's army marched to Lieren County, and was cut off by Qin Qiong, who had already been ambushed, and after a rush, Liu Heimin fled under the cover of the remnants.

On the 17th of Jisi, the Tang Army regained Xingzhou under the leadership of Chu Mofeng, the Duke of Qi. On the 19th of Xinwei (19th), in Jingzhou, which was not far from Xingzhou, the local Feng Borang saw that the Tang Dynasty was strong, so he led people to kill all the defenders in the city and surrendered to Jingzhou City.

On the 24th of Bingzi (24th), Li Yi captured the four prefectures of Ding, Luan, Lian and Zhao occupied by Liu Heimin, captured Liu Heimin's Shangshu Liu Xidao, and then led his troops to join forces with Li Shimin, the king of Qin, in Zhaozhou.

Seeing that Li Shimin's side was fighting in an orderly manner, Liu Heimin suddenly had a poisonous plan, and took advantage of the fact that Li Shimin and others had no time to take care of him, and led the army to attack Luoshui County again on the 17th of his own day.

The city is surrounded by water, and the water is more than 50 steps wide, Liu Heimin built two roads in the northeast of the city to attack the city. Seeing that the soldiers under Liu Heimin kept building the Yongdao, Li Shimin, the king of Qin, led the army to rescue twice, but was blocked by Liu Heimin and could not advance. In desperation, Li Shimin had no choice but to sacrifice the magic weapon, and as soon as the dart was thrown, the Tiance Army and everyone under the leadership of Chu Mofeng murderously killed in the direction of Liu Heimin.

Seeing that Datang's second offensive was blocked, Liu Heimin couldn't help but feel a little fluttering, and when he was about to continue commanding, he saw that the Datang side suddenly opened the camp gate, and then killed a group of black-clothed and black-armored soldiers, the leader of whom was covered with armor covering his whole body, holding a dark iron shovel in his hand, and rushing in his direction.

I thought it was just an ordinary cavalry team, Liu Heimin was waiting to order to send a small group of soldiers to block the attack, who knew that there were generals in the army who had surrendered from the Tang Dynasty, and when they saw the black-clothed and black-armored cavalry on the opposite side, they were immediately shocked and said to Liu Heimin: " Your Majesty must not despise these cavalry, these people are Li Shimin, oh no, these people are Li Yuan's son-in-law, the youngest military secretary of the Tang Dynasty, and the Tiance army trained by Chu Mofeng, the Duke of Qi, this Tiance army is specially used to break through the formation, please send a large team of men and horses to block it, and the subordinates will go to supervise the construction of the Yongdao. ”

Seeing this general say this, Liu Heimin immediately ordered 3,000 people to go to block it, and the general hurriedly ran in the direction of the construction of the Yongdao Road.

Looking at the black-pressed soldiers rushing from the opposite side, the corners of Chu Mofeng's mouth couldn't help but rise slightly, and he shouted behind him: "Heaven kill, sky spear charge with me, sky shield and sky bow are all replaced with longbows, indiscriminate covered shooting." ”

Everyone behind him responded one after another when they heard this, and then Chu Mofeng grabbed the horse's belly, brandished the burning sky and rushed forward, while the second battalion of the Heavenly Shield and Heavenly Bow behind him had already changed their longbows and raised them diagonally to the sky, just waiting for Sun Xian to give an order to shoot arrows.

Seeing that the other soldier's soldiers were about to approach, the cold light of the long knife with a bloodthirsty expression all looked extremely hideous, and he only heard Sun Xian's order: "Four hundred and fifty steps ahead, two rounds of projectiles." Then I heard two 'buzzing' sounds, and the sky suddenly became dark, and I noticed that two arrows rained down in quick succession with the sound of 'Xiuxiu'.

As the screams came one after another, the vanguard of the enemy army fell to the ground one after another, and Chu Mofeng shouted when he saw this: "Scatter left and right, harvest randomly." Then the cavalry behind him quickly divided into two teams, and the mace and spear in their hands flashed with a cold light, and stabbed at the enemy.

Seeing that half of the 3,000 people he sent had been lost after a rain of arrows, Liu Heimin was suddenly shocked, and hurriedly sent two consecutive groups of soldiers to intercept it, and suddenly the pressure of the Tiance army increased greatly, and Li Shimin, who was watching the battle in the back, saw this scene, and immediately became anxious, fearing that Wang Junkuo would not be able to hold the city, so he convened all the generals to discuss the rescue.

Seeing this, Li Shiyun said worriedly: "His Royal Highness the King of Qin, at this moment, the attack of the Duke of Qi is also blocked, if the Yongdao is repaired to the city, the city will definitely be lost." ”

Listening to Li Shixian's words, everyone couldn't help but show a worried look on their faces, and Luo Shixin, the head of the marching army who was standing on the side, suddenly stood up and said: "His Royal Highness the King of Qin, the last general is willing to lead a team into the city and defend the city instead of General Wang Junkuo." ”

So Li Shimin climbed the high tomb in the south of the city, and signaled Wang Junkuo with the flag, Wang Junkuo led his subordinates to fight to highlight the encirclement, and Luo Shixin took the opportunity to lead 200 soldiers into the city and hold the city instead of Wang Junkuo.

Seeing this, Liu Heimin stormed the water day and night, coinciding with heavy snowfall, the roads were slippery and muddy, which was not conducive to the cavalry attack, and the Tang army could not quickly reinforce, after eight days, Ding Chou (25th), Shuicheng fell.

And after Liu Heimin captured the water, he caught Luo Shixin, he had long heard that Luo Shixin was brave, Liu Heimin had a heart of love and did not want to kill him, but Luo Shixin's words and attitude were powerful and unyielding, and Liu Heimin killed him in desperation, when Luo Shixin was only twenty-three years old, he became the youngest dead general in the process of unification of the Tang Dynasty.

Knowing that Luo Shixin was killed, Chu Mofeng was angry and took advantage of the lax defense in the city on a snowy night, and single-handedly infiltrated the city of Zhushui City, first sneaked into Liu Heimin's residence, left letters and daggers, and then took Luo Shixin's body away, and then returned to the Tang army camp.

On the second day, Datang hung up the battle card and did not come out, and a simple funeral was held for Luo Shixin in the camp......

As the saying goes, where there is resistance, there is motivation, and watch Li Shimin conquer again, and then watch Chu Mofeng change his combat skills, I want to know what will happen next, and listen to the next decomposition......