Li Guangbi shook his head and said, "Your Majesty, this is not necessarily a bad thing. In the end, we are going to send troops to fight against Wang Yuan, so if the Hui people go to war with Wang Yuan at this moment, not only will it not do us a big harm, but it will have a small benefit. The minister had always feared that the Hui would not be able to do their best and would not follow orders, which had happened before. In the future crusade against Wang Yuan, it is difficult to say whether the Hui people will do their best. But this time, if the Hui people went to fight Wang Yuan, they would have to fight with all their might. As long as they fight Wang Yuan with all their might, it will be tantamount to starting to exterminate Wang Yuan's soldiers and horses for us in advance, no matter who wins or loses, it will be beneficial to us. Wang Yuan won, one solved the big trouble of the Hui people for us, because the Hui people will covet my Tang land city sooner or later, and the minister has always been worried that they will not leave, and after destroying Wang Yuan, they will fight back, which is also a very tricky thing. If Wang Yuan wins, not only will Wang Yuan's soldiers and horses suffer great losses, but also Wang Yuan's hands will be able to get rid of a scourge, why not? If the Hui people win, it will also get rid of this big trouble for us. The Uighurs will also pay a great price, and they will not be able to compete with us in the future. Or it is unknown whether His Majesty will be able to send troops to force the Hui people to become vassals in the future, and complete the great cause of unification that the ancestors failed to complete. In short, Chen's suggestion is that letting them go dog-eat-dog is actually good for us. ”

Li Mao was pleasantly surprised: "Yes, why didn't I think of this section?" It's best for them to go and fight in the dark, and I just sit on the mountain and watch the tiger fight. But I'm worried that Guli Peiluo will just leave it alone and withdraw his troops and leave. Then we're going to steal chickens and rice. ”

Li Guangbi shook his head and said: "Guli Pei Luo already has the heart to devour the land of my Tang City, otherwise how could he propose an agreement to borrow troops at the cost of the land in the city?" He had planned to borrow what he didn't pay back, so His Majesty shouldn't have understood their thoughts. Unless Guli Pero is determined not to want these cities and lands, he will fight. But with the character of Guli Peiluo, how can he be willing? Let's add some fire to him, and the minister will go to see Qizanali and tell him that these cities and places, my Datang is planning to cede them to the Hui people permanently. Now that it is like this, the imperial court is powerless to stop it. If they could defeat Wang Yuan, the imperial court would officially cede these lands and cities to them, after all, they had helped to recapture them. In this way, are you afraid that they will not fight to the death with Wang Yuan? ”

Li Mao nodded happily and said, "Good way, throw a big piece of fat meat to the wild dog, and the wild dog will break the blood." That's it. ”

Li Guangbi smiled and nodded. But Li Mao's face suddenly became gloomy, and he frowned and said, "Guangbi, but at this time, if Li Hui and Li Pu and their 60,000 soldiers and horses take the opportunity to attack, how can we resist?" On the left side of Chang'an City, in addition to the 80,000 Hui cavalry, our own strength is only more than 30,000. Once they do, they won't be able to resist it. That's what I'm worried about. Do you want to withdraw troops from Luoyang and other places to Chang'an? How can it be achieved by gathering sixty or seventy thousand soldiers and horses to meet the battle? ”

Li Guangbi nodded and said: "Your Majesty's concern is very correct, Wang Yuan's move is to divert the tiger from the mountain, and the minister dares to guarantee that Li Heng and Li Pu will definitely take the opportunity to attack Chang'an." Wang Yuan's plan would only work if he cooperated with them to attack Chang'an. But Your Majesty does not need to worry, there is good news for Your Majesty, and Your Majesty will be very happy after hearing this good news. ”

Li Mao exclaimed: "What good news? ”

Li Guangbi leaned over and whispered a few words in Li Mao's ear, Li Mao's eyebrows fluttered, her excited face flushed, and she was overjoyed: "Is what you said true?" ”

Li Guangbi smiled and said: "How dare the minister have half a sentence to conceal, this is the news that the minister has just received, and the letter from Guli Peiluo has arrived, otherwise how dare the minister offer advice to let the Hui cavalry go to fight with Wang Yuan?" Your Majesty can rest assured, I'm afraid that Li Heng and Li Pu won't come, as long as they dare to come, this time it will just kill them and Wang Yuan in one fell swoop. It's time for these things to come to an end. ”

……

On June 15, under the city of Huaiyuan. The 100,000 troops of the Shence army came to the city. Although it took a lot of time to cross the river, Wang Yuan still led the army to Huaiyuan City before the reinforcements of the Hui army arrived. The defenders of Huaiyuan City had received news of the attack by the Shence Army a few days earlier, but they had nothing to do. The city was fully defended by 4,000 soldiers and horses, and it was simply impossible to face the attack of such a powerful enemy. As a result, Guli Peiluo collected 10,000 soldiers and horses from Fengzhou and the surrendered city to reinforce Huaiyuan City, which was already all the soldiers and horses that Guli Peiluo could take out at hand.

Guli Peiluo didn't know that it was difficult to defend the city with just these 14,000 soldiers and horses and the more than 10,000 people of the Tang Dynasty who drove him, but he couldn't just give up Huaiyuan City. The 80,000 cavalry who had been retraced from Chang'an had already embarked on the journey north, and Guli Peiluo hoped to delay in Huaiyuan City for a few days, so that the 80,000 cavalry could reach Fengzhou and the surrendered city in time, so that they could have the opportunity to fight to the death with Wang Yuan's soldiers and horses on the Gobi Desert under Fengzhou City. The last thing Guli Peiluo wanted was to be quickly regained by Wang Yuan before the army could arrive in time, and he would have to evacuate Fengzhou and return to the grassland. Once Wang Yuan occupied Fengzhou and the surrendered city, he could defend the city according to the fortified cities of the two border cities, and then the 80,000 cavalry would be useless.

In the early morning of the 16th, amid a loud horn and a terrifying sound of war drums, the Shence army began its attack on Huaiyuan City. In the face of this small city, the Shence Army displayed a powerful and terrifying siege ability. At the beginning of the siege, more than 200 Shenwei cannons were placed hundreds of paces below the city and began to throw thunderbolts into the city. Huaiyuan City is not big, the radius is only five miles, the range of the Shenwei cannon almost covers the distance of half of the city, and one after another thunderbolts fell from the sky, blowing up several streets in the city near the south gate. The roads of the houses were blown up and burned down, leaving little place to stand. After half an hour of bombing, more than 100 Shenwei cannons died and nearly 3,000 thunderbolts were thrown, and the city was already full of fireworks and chaos.

More than 10,000 defenders stood at the head of the city despite the thunderbolts falling from the sky, and although nearly 3,000 people were killed and wounded, the thunderbolts could not destroy the city walls. As long as the walls are still there, everything is fine. When the Shenwei cannon was silent, all the Hui defenders breathed a sigh of relief. They were very surprised by the tactics of **, why didn't they launch a siege while the bombing was in full swing? Is it expected that a bombardment will make the defenders surrender? It's a joke.

But soon, they understood that there was a reason why the Shence army did not attack the city under the cover of Shenwei artillery fire, because they did not need to adopt such a method of warfare, because the seemingly strong walls of Huaiyuan City could not stop them at all, and they had a better way to break through the walls.

After the bombardment of the Shenwei artillery stopped, dozens of tightly packed carts wrapped in tarpaulins were launched in the Shence army. A dozen soldiers in each car unloaded the heavy loads with oilcloths from the vehicles and placed them on solid ground, and then the oilcloths were uncovered, and dozens of black iron cannons squatted on the ground like tigers with their heads held high.

The battlefield debut of the Tiger Squat Cannon was left to Huaiyuan City.

In Liu Dehai's slightly trembling order, the tiger squat cannon let out an earth-shattering roar, and solid iron bullets flew out of the barrel and instantly arrived in the sky at the head of the city. This first launch was actually not accurate, because the angle was unknown, so most of the iron bullets flew into the city, hitting the houses and collapsing the walls, and hitting the trees directly lazy and broken. But these are not the desired consequences.

After two or three adjustments, the gunners found an angle. In another earth-shattering explosion, I saw dozens of smoke and dust erupt from the gates of Huaiyuan City and the strong walls of the city tower. After the wooden pillars of the castle tower were blown off, the castle tower at the head of the castle began to collapse like an avalanche. Then part of the wall began to crack, and then part of the wall began to collapse. After eight rounds of continuous bombardment of the city gate, and under the heavy bombardment of hundreds of iron bullets, the city gate finally could not be supported. In everyone's astonishment and amazement, the city gate collapsed like a building block toy.

After the smoke and dust, a huge gap with a width of more than ten zhang appeared at the gate of Huaiyuan City. The collapsed adobe and mud formed an upward slope that became the best passage for the attack.

The next moment, drums beat out, and tens of thousands of siege infantry began a ferocious attack.

The soldiers and horses defending the city have never seen such a divine weapon, although the divine power cannon has been shocking and unspeakable, but after all, the divine power cannon has long been no secret, and the Hui people have long known that Wang Yuan has such a sharp weapon in his hands. However, although the Shenwei cannon is fierce, its range is limited after all, and it can only destroy the weak city defenses. When encountering a strong city, it cannot destroy the city except to cause damage. Although the Hui people are not good at defending the city, they also deliberately took some precautions after occupying the Tang City, and the city head is also built with a bunker against the power of the cannon. As long as they don't hit directly, the explosive power of the Shenwei cannon can't do anything to them.

However, at this moment, what they saw was a divine weapon that they had never seen before, a row of black objects that could be launched from a few miles away, and the iron bullets fired were so powerful that even the strong city towers collapsed under the attack, and the power was simply jaw-dropping. Many Uighur soldiers had just witnessed the iron bullets shattering the battlements of a few feet thick and smashing several Uighur soldiers hiding behind the battlements into meatloaf.

Before they could settle down, the siege of the Shence Army had already begun. Tens of thousands of Shence soldiers poured into the city like a tidal wave, and under the pressure of countless bows and arrows, the soldiers swarmed into the city through the gaps in the collapsed towers. After the collapse of the city tower, in fact, there was no point in defending the city. After only symbolically resisting, the Hui soldiers and horses began to rout in the city. Tens of thousands of Hui soldiers and horses desperately fled to the north of the city, and the soldiers of the Shence Army pursued along the streets and alleys, and the battle soon ended. Guli Pei Luo originally planned to use the city to block the Shence army for one to two days at the cost of more than 10,000 soldiers and horses, but as a result, Huaiyuan City was broken in only two hours.

Fortunately, half of the 15,000 Uighur defenders escaped. All the rest were annihilated. This is also because Wang Yuan did not give the order to pursue relentlessly, but only symbolically sent cavalry to chase and kill for half an hour before stopping the pursuit.

It's not that Wang Yuan doesn't want to annihilate this enemy, but what Wang Yuan cares about is the overall rest and preparation. After this battle, the army will cross the Yellow River again and turn around and march to Toyosu in the northeast, before the soldiers and horses need to be resupplied with a large supply. Li Mi, who was in charge of logistics, would escort grain and grass supplies to supply the army. It's just about grain and grass materials, Wang Yuan is more concerned about the next batch of **. Wang Yuan needs to add another batch of ** to the soldiers and horses, because Wang Yuan knows that a big battle under Fengzhou City may be unavoidable. If the Hui army rushed to Fengzhou as soon as they got the news, it would be too late for the army to capture Fengzhou in advance, no matter how fast they hurried. It takes time to attack a city, it takes time to rush, especially to cross the Yellow River. It would take six or seven days to cross the river with heavy soldiers and horses, and the Hui people had enough time to rush back to Fengzhou.

After clearing the battlefield, it was getting late. When Wang Yuanzheng and Gao Xianzhi were having dinner in the back hall of the county government, Zhao Qing led three scout teams who were in charge of listening to the news in Chang'an Zuo into the back hall, and they brought the news of the Hui cavalry.

As early as half a month ago, several groups of scout cavalry roamed around Chang'an, paying close attention to the every move of the Hui soldiers and horses. Five days ago, when the Hui cavalry returned from Chang'an to aid Fengzhou, the scout cavalry immediately flew more than 700 miles and rushed from Chang'an to the army to deliver a message. After five days, they finally arrived in the army.

The leader of the scout team who came to report was a lean and swarthy young man, and he and the two cavalrymen accompanying him were not in human shape, with chapped lips and teeth, and his face was covered with dust, and he couldn't speak. Wang Yuan personally poured herbal tea for them and handed it over, and several people poured a large amount of herbal tea, and then they gasped and calmed down.

"Report to the marshal, the senior deputy marshal. The 80,000 cavalry of the Hui army marched north five days ago. The villain followed them for more than 200 miles, and made sure that they were returning to Fengzhou, so they rushed to report. I thought it would be feasible for three days on the road, but the weather was too hot and the road was difficult to walk, so I didn't come to report until today and pray for the forgiveness of the sins. The scout leader knelt down and replied.

Wang Yuan nodded and said, "It's hard work, you have done a good job for more than 700 miles this way." How many soldiers and horses did the Uighurs move? ”

"Commander, all 80,000 cavalry are dispatched. It's as overwhelming as locusts. I asked the other three brothers to follow them, and in a few days they should have news of the commander. ”

"Well done. The news came at a timely time. You go to the good life to rest, rest, eat something to refresh your energy. Come and arrange for the three brothers to go to dinner and rest. Wang Yuan nodded.

"Dashuai, the villain has a brother who fell down from heat stroke on the road, can Dashuai send someone to find his body. We were in a hurry to deliver the letter, and we couldn't bury him. and in the wilderness, he was afraid that the beast would destroy his corpse. The squad leader said in a deep voice.

Wang Yuan was stunned and said, "What's the matter?" ”

The leader of the scout team said in a deep voice: "I'm in a hurry, the weather is too hot, and I haven't woken up since I got heatstroke." ”

Wang Yuan frowned and sighed, patted him on the shoulder and said, "It's a pity, don't be sad, Ben Shuai immediately sent someone to find his body and bring it back to the army for a thick burial." You guys are very good. You tell Commander Zhao where the body is placed, and Zhao Qing will send someone to find it. ”

Several scouts knelt down and kowtowed and thanked them, "Thank you, Boss." ”

After several scouts retreated, Wang Yuan sat in his chair and was a little silent. Gao Xianzhi said in a deep voice, "Brother Xian, is this news unexpected to you?" ”

Wang Yuan shook his head and said, "Not really, I made this preparation from the day I sent out the army." I didn't expect Li Mao to be so decisive, and he actually put back the soldiers and horses to help. Five days, don't ...... The Hui people are afraid that they have already passed the Great Wall. It only takes five or six days to cross the Gobi Desert to reach Fengzhou. It seems that we will not be able to capture Fengzhou in advance. ”

Gao Xianzhi nodded and said: "That's true, the army still needs to rest and replenish, and it will take at least three or four days after crossing the river before the army can come to Fengzhou." It was too late. ”

Wang Yuan said: "Brother, since this is the case, there is no need to worry. A hasty march is not good. Since this battle is inevitable, let's fight them. ”

Gao Xianzhi looked at Wang Yuan and said, "Did you really decide to fight to the death with the Hui cavalry?" That's 80,000 elite cavalry. ”

Wang Yuan shook his head and said, "No, it's 100,000." There were at least 10,000 or 20,000 Hui cavalry in the surrendered city of Fengzhou. ”

Gao Xianzhi nodded and said, "It's very true, 100,000 cavalry, 100,000 cavalry, this battle ...... I'm afraid it's a vicious battle. Li Mao obviously did this in the hope that we would have a fight with the Hui people, and he would take advantage of the fisherman. This is a shrewd calculation. Do you really want to do what he wants, as he wills? ”

Wang Yuan groaned: "Sooner or later, there will be a battle, and a late battle is better than an early battle." Li Mao may not be able to reap the benefits of doing so. The scout must have reported the news to Ningzhou, and Li Heng, Li Pu and others must have sent troops. Maybe they've already arrived west of Chang'an. Chang'an's troops were empty, and Li Mao was afraid that he was already panicking at this time. ”

Gao Xianzhi nodded and said, "That's right, this is our plan." A battle with the Uighurs is also planned. But this battle may be extremely tragic. Are you ready, brother? ”

Wang Yuan looked up at Gao Xianzhi and smiled, "Brother, I've always been ready." This victory is related to the overall situation, and this should be the most important battle of my life. I'm going to do my best, and I hope my brother can help me. ”

Gao Xianzhi smiled: "Of course, how can I not help you." Brother Xian, it's time to tell the generals the news. After today's battle, the mood of underestimating the enemy in the army is pervasive, and from now on, they need to understand the grim situation in front of them