The 'Li Shentong Corruption Case' was disseminated by the Great Sui Dynasty, and every day various theories were sent to Chang Xiangyang like snowflakes and presented to Li Yuan's dragon case.

At the time of the national disaster, in order to fight this battle well, the military and the government worked together to transfer people and materials, and even the heir of the empire, Li Jiancheng, came to the front line in person.

The people are soldiers and eat food, purely to tie their heads to the waistband of their trousers, and this situation is even more dangerous, there is a danger of losing their lives at any time, and they all regard weapons and armor as a second life, and the soldiers are not panicking.

At this time, Li Shentong, who is a general at the front and a relative of the Li family, should be like Li Jiancheng and Li Yuanji, and play an exemplary role in boosting morale on the front line...... Why can't this man grow snacks?

At this time, Xiangyang is like a storm and obscurity, the wind is howling, the downpour is pouring down, and the bean raindrops hit the tiles, splashing a piece of white smoke.

The door of the main hall was opened, and the wind ate it, blowing all kinds of documents on the dragon case all over the ground, and they were all over the ground, as if it had snowed.

But no one bent down to pick it up.

Li Yuan stared blankly at the door, watching the rain run down the eaves like an arm, and he felt that the huge current, like a sharp sword about to cut off his dragon's head, pierced his heart.

The hall was terrifyingly quiet, and the courtiers, generals, and eunuchs who were lined up according to their duties stood like sculptures among the majestic pillars, and their expressions were also terrifyingly silent. They were all afraid that they would become the object of Li Yuan's anger, and they stood up straight one by one, even more upright and powerful than the troops under review, and even breathed carefully, so that there was no noise in this world except for the crackling rain outside.

Emperor Li Yuan held a stack of urgent reports in his hands, and he read each of them repeatedly, hoping to pick out some satisfactory news from them, but the ending disappointed him... There are dozens of urgent reports, but none of them are worry-free...

Finally......

"Crackling", a candle flower that exploded nearby Li Yuan woke up from shock and anger, he slowly turned his head and looked at the neat two rows of queues, the civil and military officials only felt that the emperor's eyes were like the light of a sharp sword, piercing the depths of everyone's hearts, more breathtaking than the lightning outside the hall!

However, the atmosphere was still quiet, and many civil and military officers were silently praying that the emperor's anger would not be vented on them, wishing that they would suddenly give birth to an illness and take the opportunity to leave this suffocating place.

Li Yuan took a deep breath and felt dizzy, this is the consequence of excessive wine, after ascending the throne as emperor, Li Yuan's lustful side was vividly exposed, and in just a few years, many concubines have given birth to a bunch of children for him. In peacetime, there is a prince in government affairs and a king of Jin in the army, and only major military affairs are personally handled by him, so when he has nothing to do, drinking, embracing beauty, listening to songs and dancing seems to have become Li Yuan's biggest hobby. Now that the danger is coming, he is shocked and angry, and his almost hollowed out body is a little unable to support it, but at this time, Li Jiancheng, Li Shimin, and even Li Yuanji are not in the court, so Li Yuan knows that he can't fall, otherwise, Xiangyang will be in chaos, holding on to his weak body, and the tired voice sounded in the hall: "Qin Qiong, the general of the Sui Dynasty, made Zuo Tiancheng enter Nanyang from Shuyang to the city, Li Xiaoji, the king of Yong'an County, was defeated, the Nieshui military camp was lost, and Zhenping Town was broken... Zuo Tiancheng camped in the northeast of Zhenping, and Qin Qiong in the east was in a horn trend, slowly advancing, the Nanyang army was already in chaos, and now in the face of the invading enemy, not to mention enterprising, even self-protection is a problem...... Nanyang City is now serving the enemy on both sides, and the situation is worrying. Zhuqing-" Li Yuan waved his sleeves heavily, and his voice suddenly became excited: "Who has the strategy to break the enemy?" Who can defend me against the Tyrannical Sui Army? ”

Li Yuan looked down expectantly, but at this time, no one came out to answer, and no one dared to take on this responsibility, this dead scene made Li Yuan deeply disappointed.

Li Tang's predicament is even valued by Li Yuanxin, who is regarded as an arm of Dugu Quan, Xiao Yu, Pei Lian, Chen Shuda, Dou Rail, Dou Cong, Chai Shao...... This is a series of problems brought about by the gap in national strength and the employment system, and it is by no means something that can be solved in a moment.

Li Yuan attaches great importance to his relatives, relatives, and family, so that talented people succumb to the wine bag and rice bag, even if he makes a great contribution, the reward will also fall on the head of the boss, which will inevitably make people feel cold, you, an inauthentic emperor, have reached a critical moment, and want those talented people to work hard, how is this possible?

Li Yuan's gaze changed from expectation to disappointment, and then, a thought flashed through his mind, "Could it be that the Tang Dynasty is really exhausted?" No! I will not be defeated, and neither will I be defeated! ”

Suddenly, a kind of madness welled up in Li Yuan's heart, and he said with a fierce hatred in his eyes: "You don't dare to go to Nanyang, I will go to ......."

Just as he was about to announce his decision and say that he was going to 'drive the expedition', one of the generals in the queue came out of the ranks, saluted Li Yuan, and shouted loudly: "Holy Lord, the last general has a word to say!" ”

The person who stood up was Huo Guogong Chai Shao, at this time and space, Chai Shao, who had the merit of the dragon, married Princess Li Tang Changsha, and he was named General Zuo Yiwei, which can be called the first general of the Li Tang Emperor Party, and he is deeply respected by Li Yuan. He was also thinking hard about a good strategy, and saw that Li Yuan had the ambition to be pro-conscript, so he came up with an idea.

"General Chai, please speak." Li Yuan breathed a sigh of relief and smiled kindly at Chai Shao, at the critical moment, his own family can help him!

"Back to the Holy One!" In front of everyone's eyes, Chai Shao stood with his head held high, only to hear him say in a deep voice: "The situation in Nanyang is erosive, the army is in chaos, and it is definitely not the opponent of the army of the violent Sui Tiger and Wolf. The rest is not enough! ”

Li Yuan's smile suddenly froze on his face, and his gaze became a little hideous, and that kind of gaze made people feel suffocated. Over the years, the inexhaustible prosperity and wealth have long smoothed out Li Yuan's ambition and courage to fight the war, and it was not Li Yuan's original intention to fight against the strong enemy.

Chai Shao withstood the pressure brought by Li Yuan, stood motionless, and calmly accepted Li Yuan's severe scrutiny.

After a while, Li Yuan, who seriously considered what Chai Shaozhi said, finally came back to his senses, seriously, this is indeed the only feasible way, he smiled and said: "Aiqing and I thought of going together, Yang Dong's soldiers are strong, our army is already at a disadvantage, Li Shentong poked me out again, if I don't rush to Nanyang to preside over the overall situation and appease the army, I am afraid that the morale will decline more and more, then Nanyang will really not be able to keep it, if Nanyang is completely lost, the enemy army will come to Xiangyang City to ......"

Chai Shao noticed that after Li Yuan mentioned the word 'Yang Tong', there was a feeling of gnashing his teeth in his voice, which was an unforgettable hatred, a kind of hatred that could not swallow his flesh alive!

Li Yuan seemed to sense the inquiry in Chai Shao's eyes, he slowly turned his head, and then lowered his gaze to the rain curtain outside the hall, and sighed: "I also know that I have to go out in person, but I am now facing a dilemma, should I go to Zhenping first to repel Zuo Tiancheng, or to repel Qin Qiong, who is about to move, or go directly to Nanyang City to take over the army?" The current situation is that I need to save everything, but I can't seem to save any of them...... Is there any way Aiqing can teach me? ”

Li Yuan seems to have put himself in a very humble position, this posture may be useful to the courtiers at this time, but Chai Shao is smart and witty, and far-sighted, otherwise he would not have ignored the opposition of his relatives when he was a teenager, and he was alone in fighting a thousand miles of swords, and it was his persistence when he was a teenager that won the reputation of a 'chivalrous young man' who fought for righteousness and squandered money, worried about the country and the people, and had justice in his heart, and this reputation later became his 'stepping stone' in his career. At that time, even the prince of Yuande of the Sui Dynasty in the deep palace heard that Chai Shao was "agile and courageous, in order to suppress the strong and help the weak", and tried his best to recruit into the palace, so that he was prepared for a thousand cattle, and doubled his grace, if the situation developed normally, and the prince of Yuande successfully ascended the throne, Chai Shao's future in the Sui Dynasty must be bright, but the follow-up development was the death of Prince Yuande, the world was in chaos, Chai Shao reappeared in the 'rivers and lakes', and switched to Li Yuan's door.

Chai Shao knew that Li Yuan's current attention was not a good thing for himself, and it was good to win, if the imperial conquest ended in failure, then the self who 'instigated the emperor' pro-conquest would become the scapegoat for failure, so he was very humble and bent down, trying to make himself look more humble, and his tone became more and more respectful, "Qi Qi Sheng, the Sui army is huge, it seems to be like a thunderbolt, but it is not without drawbacks, but it is a pity that no one can see it from my top and bottom, so people are panicking." ”

"Oh? What are the drawbacks, come quickly. Li Yuan suddenly came to his senses, and he wanted to hear this voice now.

The civil and military forces of the Manchu Dynasty also looked at Chai Shao, and they were all interested. The theory of defeat has long permeated the Tang Dynasty, and everyone really needs a strong voice to refute this theory of the death of the country.

"Many people say that the Sui army is like not going down the river, saying that their failure to enter is like a dam to store water, once the time is ripe, they will attack our Tang Dynasty with the momentum of breaking the embankment, and they have a pessimistic mood of failure, and some people even advocate moving the capital into Shu, temporarily avoiding the momentum of the Sui army, and then making a comeback when the time is ripe."

Chai Shao didn't play tricks, and pointed out his point of view with a slight smile: "However, is the Sui army really so powerful?" The last general will not think so. ”

"The general said that the Sui army is not strong, this is too arrogant, right?" All the ministers in the hall were speechless, thinking that Chai Shao would appear at this time, there must be a wonderful theory, but it turned out to be a fallacy that obliterated the facts, and everyone's interest was greatly reduced, and some people even ridiculed loudly, and in an instant, the atmosphere in the hall was finally warm.

Even Li Yuan, who listened carefully, was patient, even he didn't believe it, it was too unconvincing, just when Li Yuan was about to interrupt, Chai Shao reluctantly continued: "Holy Lord, colleagues, Shao is not denying the combat power of the Sui army, please listen patiently, okay?" ”

"You say!" Li Yuan's face sank like water.

When the hall was quiet again, Chai Shao spoke: "For my Tang Dynasty, the Sui army is indeed powerful, and it is indeed not presumptuous. But if you look at the whole world is not so, Yang Tong is now launching a battle to unify the world, not only with my Tang Dynasty, but also divided troops to attack Li Mi, Liu Heimin, Dou Jiande, even Xiao Mi, Lin Shihong, Du Fuwei, Shen Faxing, Li Zitong and others are also among his expedition objects, if the Tang Dynasty is compared to the most pressured Nanyang Tang Army, then Li Mi is undoubtedly a relatively relaxed His Royal Highness the Prince, Liu Heimin is the King of Jin who faced Pei Xingyan, Dou Jiande, Xiao Miao, Lin Shihong, Du Fuwei, Shen Faxing, Li Zitong was temporarily spared the defenders of the border county affected by the scourge of war. ”

Hey, after Chai Shao said this, Li Tang Junchen felt as if it was really like this.

"For my Datang, the Sui army is advancing very steadily, but when it is put into the whole world, this is a very aggressive move. Today's Sui army is led by various generals, scattered in Yong, Liang, Henan, Yan, Qing, Xu and other prefectures, the armies are hundreds of miles apart, thousands of miles apart, there is no contact with each other, if there is an army mistakes, the surrounding friendly forces can not be rescued, Yang Tong, who controls the armies in Luoyang, for the sake of the overall situation, either concentrates his forces to attack one side, or demolishes the east wall to supplement the west wall from various wars to draw troops to support, but no matter whether he chooses the former or the latter, it will take time, wait for him to redeploy his forces, I'm afraid it's already a cold winter moon that can't fight! And this will give us enough space to reorganize our army. ”

"Let's look at the performance of the Sui army after it went south, they were arrogant and aggressive before, and won Henan, Xingyang, Yingchuan, Dongjun, Dongping, Jibei, Qijun, Jiyin and other seven counties in the Central Plains in one go...... Looking at Yang Tong's presence in Luoyang, all Sui armies were silently consolidating the territory they occupied, and there were no big moves or big actions. I think this is Yang Tong's lack of confidence in the battle to dominate the world, and he shows caution. ”

In the end, Chai Shao came to a conclusion.

"How so?" Li Yuan asked.

"The Sui army's defeat of Henan, Xingyang, Yingchuan, Dongjun, Dongping, Jibei, Qijun, and Jiyin was not the strong combat effectiveness of the Sui army, but the undefeated prestige of the Sui army." Chai Shao looked at Li Yuan, who was thinking bitterly, and said with a wry smile: "In fact, the Sui army really didn't fight a few decent wars after going south, except for a few small resistances, only Luo Shixin and King Rencheng fought the Battle of Yique, and the King of Zhaojun fought the Battle of Xiangcheng and the Battle of Shuyang. ”

Hearing this, Li Yuan let out a long breath.

Li Mi was afraid of the undefeated prestige of the Sui army, worried that he would become the first object of annihilation of the Sui army in the south, and promised to cede the Central Plains counties to us in exchange for food and materials, in fact, he had reached an agreement with the Sui Dynasty, he used Yingchuan, Dongjun, Dongping, Jibei, Jiyin five counties in exchange for the opportunity to live in peace with the Sui Dynasty, and when we received the counties according to the agreement, the interests of the Sui Dynasty conflicted, so it became Yang Tong's target, but he Li Mi was able to stay out of the matter and go to fight with Du Fuwei for Jianghuai with peace of mind. Do your best to occupy the southern land south of Huaishui, once the battle between Sui and Tang has a result, Li Mi, who has become the actual overlord of the south, can concentrate the power of the south, and the weak Sui or Li Tang who came out of the Northern Expedition will be victorious.

Li Yuan, who came back to his senses, finally understood that he was scolded by Li Mi, but Li Mi couldn't be blamed, who made him Li Yuan over-inflate and covet the land in the hands of others! Besides, did Li Yuan have a good heart at the beginning? Otherwise, Li Yuan's strategy would stop at the south bank of the Yellow River in the north, take Henan and Hongnong counties as strategic depths, and use the Yellow River in the north, the Tiger Pass in the east, and the Hangu Pass in the west to keep the Sui army in the north, Xingyang, and Guanzhong, and deter and counteract them. His strategic focus is in the south, and his deal with Li Mi is nothing more than to make Li Mi his vanguard in recovering the south, but in the end, Li Mi is still a step ahead.

"I see!" Li Yuan motioned to Chai Shao to continue, and did not waste time on Li Mi, first, the matter had happened, it was too late to regret it, and it was useless to pursue it, and secondly, the result of the investigation was still his Li Yuan's fault, and the alliance with Li Mi and the plan of the Eastern Crusade were the result of his efforts to eliminate differences.

Chai Shao continued: "What achieved the results of the Sui Dynasty's southern conquest was the undefeated prestige of the Sui army, which was Yang Dong's most powerful weapon. At that point, the Turkic, Goguryeo, and Western Regions states that were exploited by him would definitely take advantage of the Central Plains War to rebel against the Sui Dynasty, and Yang Tong could not afford this consequence... Therefore, Yang Tong cannot be defeated or dare not be defeated, which may be the reason for his caution. ”

"The general is too taken for granted!" Dou Liang sneered.

"Listen to the general first." Li Yuan reprimanded dissatisfiedly, this is cool, you plug in a stick, what do you mean?

"Yang Tong's forces are too scattered, the armies are guarding all around, and the available troops are actually only his Xiaoguo army, plus he has to deal with sudden changes everywhere, the troops he can put into the battle of Sui and Tang are actually pitiful!" Speaking of this, Chai Shao looked at Li Yuan, who was very interested, and said with a smile: "The army of more than 100,000 troops under the command of King Jin is well-equipped, with sufficient grain and grass, and His Royal Highness the Prince as a support. Therefore, only Nanyang is worried. ”

"But as I said before, Yang Tong has not many troops to use, and Nanyang has only one Qin Qiong to deal with, even if the Sui army is reinforced from Luoyang, there is not much, and Zuo Tiancheng did not cause much damage to Li Xiaoji, the king of Yong'an County, especially the main force of our army. If the Holy Lord goes to Nanyang to preside over the overall situation, it will definitely boost the morale of our army, not to mention defeating Qin Qiong and Zuo Tiancheng's two divisions, just making it difficult for the two generals to advance an inch, we will win a precious respite! The Sui Dynasty made enemies all around, the army fought for many months, there is always a day of fatigue and slackness, once there is a change in a certain battlefield, it is the day when we break the enemy, at this time, if we unite Li Mi and others to defeat the Sui, the violent Sui will die. ”

Chai Shao is usually modest and respectful, but at this time, he is sharp, Li Yuancheng is unpredictable, but it also makes him excited. He got up from the throne and looked around at the ministers: "I am playing according to Qingqing, and I will personally conquer Nanyang." ”

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