Li Shimin pondered for a moment when he heard this, and asked, "Then poet madman, tell me, what kind of military position should Xue Rengui have?" ”

Li Hao said: "The minister asked General Xue for the position of head of the march. ”

As soon as these words came out, the ministers were in an uproar, the head of the march, that is a great military position, second only to the existence of the head of the march, the life and death of an army are all in his hands, and it plays a vital role in the success or failure of the war.

Kong Yingda immediately came out to object: "It's ridiculous! Your Majesty, by all means, the position of the head of the march should be held by a person with outstanding military achievements, Xue Rengui is just starting out, how can he be this great responsibility! ”

The rest of the ministers seconded the proposal one after another, opposing Li Hao's proposal.

Li Shimin was a little embarrassed, he trusted Li Hao's vision very much, since Li Hao said that Xue Rengui was powerful, there must be two brushes, but now that the ministers are opposed, he can't just go his own way, so he said: "Poetry maniac, give him the position of captain, what do you think?" ”

Li Hao suddenly said in a loud voice: "Your Majesty, the minister is willing to vouch for the head, if General Xue Rengui is appointed as the head of the march, he will definitely be able to win a big victory, otherwise the minister will come to see you!" ”

As soon as these words came out, the whole hall was shocked again, even Li Shimin was dumbfounded, and he was speechless for a long time, he didn't expect Li Hao to be so persistent and willing to guarantee Xue Rengui with his life, how much trust Xue Rengui has to have.

Chu Suiliang's eyes rolled, and he suddenly came out and said: "Your Majesty, since Li Hao is so convinced of Xue Rengui's ability, presumably this person must have something extraordinary, so that he can be so appreciated by Li Xianhou, Your Majesty has always been eclectic in appointing talents, and the minister thinks he might as well give it a try." ”

Many people looked at Chu Suiliang with strange eyes, this old thing is too bad, just now he opposed Li Hao's proposal, and now Li Hao is willing to use a head to vouch for it, and immediately turn the direction of the wind, isn't it clear that he wants Li Hao's head to land.

Li Shimin didn't speak, to be honest, now he didn't dare to let Xue Rengui do any position as the head of the march, he was worried that once Xue Rengui suffered a defeat and affected Li Hao, it would be terrible, whether he would kill Li Hao or not?

But Chu Suiliang's words reminded Li Hao's group of opposition forces, and some Confucian ministers and spokesmen of the gate lord clan immediately came out to second, and let Li Shimin worship Xue Rengui as the head of the march.

Cheng Biting Jin, Li Ji, and Qin Qiong were all in a hurry, and they glanced at Li Hao again and again, asking him to retract his words, but Li Hao gave them a confident smile, signaling them to feel at ease.

The will of the people was unstoppable, although Li Shimin was a hundred unwilling, but in the end he nodded and agreed to Li Hao's request, and Li Hao was listed.

In order to ensure that Xue Rengui does not suffer defeat, Li Shimin naturally wants to let Li Hao go on the expedition, so that he can help Xue Rengui, according to everyone's proposal, in the end, Li Shimin worships Su Dingfang as the general manager of the Sanmi Road march, Li Hao as the head of the Futu Road march, and Xue Rengui as the head of the Qiuzi Road march.

Later, three candidates for the prison army were decided, and Li Hao's Futu Road marching supervisor was actually an old acquaintance Ma Zhou.

In the afternoon, the official document of the Ministry of War arrived, Li Hao and Xue Rengui went to the Ministry of War to receive the official document, and happened to meet, Xue Rengui was very excited, and Li Hao returned to Taibai Building to have a few drinks.

After preparing for two days, the army was assembled, Su Dingfang, Li Hao and Xue Rengui led the troops to set off, Su Dingfang led 40,000 troops, Li Hao led 20,000 troops, Xue Rengui led 20,000 troops, because it was a grassland battle, there were more cavalry, and Li Shimin specially ordered, so the 20,000 soldiers and horses arranged for Li Hao were all elite cavalry.

The army set off, Li Hao did not take the Xuanjia Army to the expedition this time, but left them in Lantian to watch the family, because Qin Su and Gu Lina Elena were pregnant and had just found out, so Li Hao was not at ease at home, so he left Chen Song and the two hundred Xuanjia Army all to watch the house, but he brought Zhu Ruihuan and Feiying, Feiying brought two hundred people over this time, these two hundred people are special forces trained by Feiying himself, and this time they will serve as Li Hao's personal guards.

When Li Hao's army left Chang'an, a green-robed man wearing a hat had already galloped towards Mobei on a fast horse, and that direction was where Xue Yantuo and Hui Hui were located.

This green-robed man is naturally Li Hao's old enemy, this war between the Tang Dynasty and the Western Turks is a rare opportunity, he wants to say that he will move Hui and Xue Yantuo to join the war, expand the war, and create a big chaos, it is best to defeat the Tang Dynasty and make the Tang Dynasty decline from prosperity, as for Li Hao's life and death, it is not within the scope of his consideration.

Ten days later, the spies placed in the Tang Dynasty on the Tibetan side learned about the movements of the Tang Dynasty soldiers and horses, and knew that the Tang Dynasty might be about to start a war against the Western Turks, so they requisitioned 50,000 soldiers and horses to the northwest, and the army commander Tenzin Jiangcuo directly stationed troops on the Tuyuhun border, and sent an envoy to see the king of Tuyuhun, so that he could send troops to attack the Tang Dynasty together.

Two months later, Li Hao and they arrived in Yizhou, only to see that the city of Yizhou was in ruins, the city was already very backward, burned by the fire, after entering the city, not even half a figure was seen, only the ruins and broken walls, and the deserted ancient city of Loulan is somewhat similar.

Li Hao was angry in his heart, his fists clenched, and just when he was extremely angry, Feiying suddenly came to his side and said, "Master Hou, I found the secret word left by Jin Li, and he has properly settled the remaining people in Yizhou City, a total of 33,000 people. ”

Li Hao nodded when he heard this: "That's good, you send someone to inform him, there will be a big battle here in the desert recently, let him stay away, don't get involved." ”

"Yes." The Flying Eagle Jaw Leader commands.

The army continued to hurry, and arrived in Xizhou half a month later, Su Dingfang ordered to stop in Xizhou, began to build siege equipment on the spot, and at the same time discussed the deployment of the war with Li Hao and Xue Rengui.

When the Western Turks heard that the Tang Dynasty had sent an army of 80,000 troops, the Khan hurriedly sent an envoy to meet with Su Dingfang and ask for peace, and at the same time sent an envoy to Tubo and Xue Yantuo to ask them for help.

Su Dingfang ignored the Western Turkic envoy and directly scolded him away.

Half a month later, it was late autumn, the weather was getting cooler, and the siege equipment was almost built, Su Dingfang followed the strategic policy formulated before, let Li Hao attack the north and take the Khan Futu City, because there were 20,000 troops stationed in the Western Turks, and they must take it down, so that they could safely attack the Western Turkic royal court, otherwise they would face the danger of being attacked by the enemy on their backs, and Su Dingfang and Xue Rengui were responsible for leading the troops to advance to the east and northeast respectively to attack the Western Turks.

After Li Hao got the military order, he set off with 20,000 troops, and went north, attacking the Khan Futu City can be said to be a difficult task, the Khan Futu City is located in the north of Tingzhou, located in the desert, the desert here is very famous, called Shatuo Moraine, and it is also a part of the Gurbantunggut Desert in later generations, which is very large and is located in the Junggar Basin.

Li Hao planned to march to Tingzhou first, and then attack Khan Futu City, after all, it was a siege battle, which was difficult, and he couldn't be tired of attacking.

However, he had only traveled two hundred miles, and early in the morning, when he was marching, Li Hao habitually used his binoculars to look around, but was shocked to find that two armies were coming from the northwest to the east, and there were about one hundred and fifty miles away from them, and there were too many people, according to his experience, the smaller army was about 10,000 people, and the other had at least 30,000 people, adding up to no less than 50,000 troops.

Li Hao was stunned, an army of 50,000 suddenly appeared, what this meant, he could think of it with his feet, and the army coming from that direction was obviously the army of Xue Yantuo and Hui Hui.

Even if Li Hao began to think about it, how to deal with the 50,000 army, Xue Yantuo and Hui Su suddenly joined the war, which was not good news.

Just when Li Hao was pondering, suddenly a soldier came to report, a messenger from Xizhou came, and there was an urgent military report.

Li Hao hurriedly passed the messenger in, the messenger gasped and rushed into the barracks, handed a letter to Li Hao, gasped, and said: "Manager Li, the big thing is not good, Tubo and Tuyuhun suddenly attacked from behind, Xizhou was lost, and Governor Guo Xiaoke was coming here with the remnants and the people. ”

"What!" Li Hao suddenly stood up in surprise when he heard this, frowned and shouted, "How did Guo Xiaoke do it, he actually lost Xizhou!" Wouldn't that be cut off by someone! ”

The messenger said helplessly: "Chief Li is angry, the enemy is coming too fast, and there are too many people, we can't hold it at all. ”

"How many of them are there?"

The messenger said: "Tubo and Tuyuhun have dispatched a total of 60,000 troops!" ”

"Sixty thousand!" Li Hao was shocked, now they are really suffering from the enemy, and their base camp Xizhou has been killed, which means that they will cut off the supply of grain and grass, and fight on the desert, without grain and grass, they are basically waiting for death.

Li Hao frowned, paced back and forth for a long time, and asked, "Do they have any next move after capturing Xizhou?" ”

The messenger said: "Guo Xiaokedu sent scouts to investigate, and learned that they sent 50,000 troops to the north, seemingly to attack Tingzhou, leaving 10,000 to defend Xizhou. ”

"It's a good move to enter the house and fight to raise the war, they want to occupy all Xizhou and Tingzhou, use our Tang city as a camp, and then the multinational army will attack, we will be defeated by the enemy, it seems that it is Geerdonzan's handiwork." Li Hao gritted his teeth and sighed, his brain spun quickly, and he began to sort out his thoughts.

Now Xue Yantuo, Huifu, Tubo and Tuyuhun have joined the war, and the spearhead is all pointed at the Tang Dynasty, if they say that they did not collude, the ghosts do not believe it, now the most important thing is that the Tang army has lost the base camp of Xizhou, even if it can keep Tingzhou, it is useless, because Xizhou is the seat of the Anxi Protectorate after all, the newly built city, and the grain and grass are hoarded abundantly, enough to defend the city, but Tingzhou is not.

Li Hao turned his head and stared at the military map for a moment, and suddenly said loudly: "Pass my military order, everyone bring four days of water and food, abandon all baggage and grain and grass, and immediately set off lightly and quickly go to Xizhou!" ”

Ma Zhou on the side was shocked when he heard this, and hurriedly stepped forward and said, "Poetry madness, what do you want to do?" ”

"Take back Xizhou!" Li Hao said with a resolute gaze, "If you don't take Xizhou back, there will be no need to fight this battle." ”

Ma Zhou was surprised: "There are tens of thousands of enemy troops guarding Xizhou, you only have 20,000 soldiers and horses, and you have thrown away the siege baggage, how can you fight it, even if you can capture Xizhou, it will be a heavy loss, and it will take too long." ”

"I've got my own measure!" Li Hao said resolutely, "Quickly go and pass on my military order, without delay, if there is a violation of the order, behead!" ”