The Passionate Guns of Sui and Tang Dynasties

Chapter 722

Soon Liu Jingxuan got a satisfactory reply, took the reply from Li Yuan to him, and happily left Taiyuan and returned to Yueyang. After seeing Xiao Mian, he knelt down and gave a report. After reporting the whole story in detail, Xiao Mian was overjoyed. , "Li Yuan wants to conquer personally, and I also want to conquer personally. This time, Yang Yong must be wiped out. The whole Jiangnan is my territory in Daliang, and then I will rule the Yangtze River with Li Tang. My Xiao family's Qianqiu hegemony will be enough Achieved!"

Xiao Mi was happy, and immediately granted Liu Jingxuan the post of the hereditary Guanglu doctor of the Shangzhu Kingdom. In this way, Liu Jingxuan was promoted from a second-rank official to a first-rank official in the dynasty, and also had the hereditary title of Duke. His status has been raised all of a sudden, and he can be said to be an extremely human minister, more powerful than several princes under him.

Originally, the prince was a thousand-year-old, second only to the emperor, and the emperor was long live, but everything was worthless if there were too many princes, just like the prime ministers of the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom in later generations.A prime minister was originally a high-ranking official with a man under one person and over ten thousand people, assisting the emperor in handling the government affairs and military affairs of a country, one or two is enough for a country, but the heavenly king Hong Xiuquan sealed twenty or thirty prime ministers all at once. status and power.

Therefore, Liu Jingxuan's official position and power made many people jealous, but there is no way to be jealous. Who would let him have a good daughter who is favored by the emperor?

The time came to the second month of the lunar calendar in 619 A.D., the spring was cold and the weather was warm and cold. Li Yuan really kept his promise. After nearly two months of active preparations, the troops, horses, food and grass were all ready, and he picked a good and auspicious day. , Li Yuan raised troops from Taiyuan.

Chai Shen and Zuo Pu shot Liu Wenjing of Julu County were left behind to sit in the capital, and 15 Tang troops left Taiyuan in a mighty force, crossed Luliang Mountain, went to Jiexiu and Huozhou, and crossed Fenshui to fight all the way south.

Li Yuan spent almost all of his family property on this personal conquest, because the Tang Dynasty has been fighting for years, and the country is empty and its troops are insufficient.

It is not an exaggeration to say that Li Tang is a great country. Judging from the territory, the territory currently ruled by the Tang Dynasty is not small. According to the administrative divisions of the 21st century, it occupies a part of Gansu, southern Ningxia, most of Shanxi, southern Mongolia, and Hebei. Most and all of the Beijing area, as well as vast areas such as western Liaoning.The current territory of Datang is incomparable with the area ruled by Yang Yong, but it is much larger than that ruled by Xiao Liang.

But despite this, Datang's current total military strength does not exceed 60, which can be described as an empty country.Not to mention the turmoil at the end of the Sui Dynasty and the decline of the people's livelihood, but in the short few years from the founding of the Tang Dynasty to the present, the successive years of wars have consumed a huge amount of national strength.Not to mention, as early as 617, Qin Wang Li Shimin went on an expedition to Youzhou and took away 20 troops. In 618, Prince Li Jiancheng conquered Liang Shidu and took away another 20 Tang troops. Now Li Yuan has mobilized another 15 troops. , leaving [-] guards to guard the capital, and took away another [-] troops. If there is another war, the only thing to do is to transfer the Imperial Forest Army from the capital. With the local military and political security.

Li Xiuning and Chai Shao led a vanguard battalion of 15 soldiers and horses to open the way across the mountains and build bridges when encountering water. Li Yuan followed closely behind with an army of [-]. The distance between the two sides was less than a hundred miles. In addition to Li Shentong, the general of You Yiwei, the generals Ma Sanbao, Duan Zhixuan, Yin Kaishan, and Liu Hongji, the four generals who opened the Tang Dynasty, also served with the army, and the general Liu Hongji was responsible for supervising the transportation of grain and grass.

Along the way, the villages, towns and shops we pass are sparsely populated, and the countryside is barren. Where there are people, most of them are women, children and children, and there are very old people, and young and middle-aged people have very little labor.

Li Yuan, who was dressed in a military uniform, was sitting on a happy horse. Seeing that the people's livelihood was so miserable, he felt uncomfortable. He couldn't help but sigh: the mountains and rivers are broken, and the people are in dire straits. It's all my fault!After this battle is over, we will join forces with Liang Guo to destroy Yang Yong, and we have to rest and recuperate whatever we say. If things go on like this, we don’t need other people to attack us. Our Tang Dynasty must perish.

Li Xiuning, a strong woman, is the leading vanguard, and her husband Chai Shao is the deputy vanguard. The 5000-strong vanguard camp not only opens up roads in the mountains, but also builds bridges when encountering water. They took their men and horses day and night, non-stop, attacking states and counties, all the way like a broken bamboo, first wiped out the rebels in the south of Shanxi, recaptured several states and counties in the south of Shanxi such as Hedong and Linfen, drove Yang Yong's rebels across the Yellow River, and then escaped. Open Tongguan Fortress, take a detour to the north, take Hejin, and get Heyang. In just one month, the front of the army threatened Puzhou City.

The rebel army's urgent battle report flew to Daxing City like snowflakes, and the main general in Daxing now is Wei Zheng, one of Yang Yong's military advisers.

After Wei Zheng got the report, he didn't dare to be negligent. Now he lacks generals who are used to fighting. Two years ago, when Yang Yong and Li Jing sent troops to conquer the south of the Yangtze River, the generals Gongye Chang and Hou Junji were supposed to sit in Daxing together with Wei Zheng. Wei Zheng was responsible for the government affairs of the entire rebel army, and Gongyechang and Hou Junji were responsible for the military defense of Shaanxi and southern Shanxi. Later, due to the wars between the Tang Dynasty and the Turks, Mohe, Goguryeo, Silla, Baekje and other border small states, they were unable to invade south. , the two sides had a truce to repair the peace treaty, so Yang Yong transferred Gongyechang and Hou Junji to go to the south, so that all the government and military affairs in this area fell to Wei Zheng.

Now that the Tang Dynasty suddenly broke up the peace agreement and sent troops to the south to commit crimes, Wei Zheng felt caught off guard. He ordered someone to ride a fast horse to deliver a letter to Li Jing who was closest to him, and at the same time quickly dispatched troops to condemn the general. Tang Jun.

However, the Tang army moved quickly, and Li Xiuning and Chai Shao were not vegetarians. The two generals were both military geniuses. They took 5000 troops and captured the military town of Puzhou in just one day. At this time, Wei Zheng's troops had just left Daxing City. Not far, more than 100 miles away from Puzhou.

It turned out that Li Xiuning and Chai Shao led the vanguard battalion to the outside of Puzhou City. Chai Shao led [-] soldiers and horses to set up an ambush in the outer city, and Li Xiuning led only [-] soldiers to fight outside the city.

The guard of Puzhou was called Lu Yun. He was in his thirties and was the leader of the rebel army. He led [-] elite troops to garrison Puzhou.

The young and energetic Lu Yun made a mistake of underestimating the enemy. He saw that there were only three thousand Tang soldiers outside the city, and there was a beautiful female general who was shouting outside the city. He learned that this woman was Princess Pingyang of the Tang Dynasty.Lu Yun laughed, and then ordered 5000 men to defend the city, and led 3000 men to fight outside the city to fight Li Xiuning.

After the two fought, Li Xiuning drew his sword and turned his horse and was defeated. Two thousand Tang troops under him fled in embarrassment with Li Xiuning.Lu Yunha knew it well, and Tsuimati led his men in hot pursuit.After chasing for a few miles, Chai Shao led his men to rush out from the slanting stab, cutting off Lu Yun's way back. At this time, Li Xiuning led his troops to fight back. Among the chaos.

Except for more than [-] people who died in battle among the [-] rebels, most of the rest became prisoners of the Tang army.Li Xiuning and Chai Shao then led troops to attack the city, the main general was killed in battle, the army's morale was scattered, and the attack was halfway, the rebels in the city opened the city and surrendered. Li Xiuning and Chai Shao successfully captured Puzhou, and then cleaned the battlefield to welcome Li Yuan's brigade into the city .

Puzhou is less than three hundred miles away from Daxing City, and the next goal is to capture Daxing City.Li Yuan was overjoyed and praised his daughter and son-in-law.The next day, Li Xiuning and Chai Shao's vanguard battalion took the lead and continued to advance.

Wei Zheng was taken aback when he heard the news of Lu Yun's death and the fall of Puzhou. He hurried back for [-] miles, and [-] troops were stationed in Yanliang to build fortifications, planning to fight the Tang army to the death.

(End of this chapter)