The eldest grandson Wuji was stunned, and suddenly said urgently: "Your Highness, Yang Yuanqing is peeking at us from behind, whether we can successfully withdraw from Hongnong is here, Your Highness leaves the army at this time, I am afraid it will be unfavorable to the morale of the army." ”

The eldest grandson Wuji was slightly dissatisfied in his tone, during this time the King of Qin did not discuss many things with them, yesterday the army evacuated to Shaanxi County, but just set off for dozens of miles to get the news that the King of Qi arrived at the reinforcement camp, and the army hurriedly retreated to the Changyuan camp.

Early this morning, without any warning, King Qin ordered to evacuate to Tongguan, and now he actually wants to lead the army to Tongguan first, which makes the eldest grandson Wuji a little unbearable.

Fang Xuanling next to him understood Li Shimin's thoughts, he wanted to enter Tongguan before Li Yuanji, which was also feasible.

Fang Xuanling smiled and said: "It's okay, although Yang Yuanqing is peeping behind, his troops are insufficient, the reinforcements on the Western Front have not arrived, and he will not risk pursuing us, if His Highness wants to go to Tongguan first, although he goes, we will lead the army, and we will arrive later." ”

The eldest grandson Wuji realized that he was a little helpless in his heart, thinking that the dispute between the crown prince and the king of Qin would not affect the military operations of the Tang Dynasty, but in fact, the impact was quite huge.

Yang Yuanqing only had 50,000 troops, while the King of Qin had 80,000 troops, plus 30,000 new troops, and the Tang army had 110,000 people.

This kind of depression in his heart made the eldest grandson Wuji helpless, so he had to nod, "I wish Your Highness all the best and enter Tongguan as soon as possible." ”

Li Shimin saw that both of them agreed, so he said happily: "Please leave everything to the two of you later!" ”

Li Shimin immediately took Captain Chi Gong and led 5,000 elite horsemen to gallop in the direction of Tongguan......

About two hours after Li Shimin's army left the camp in Changyuan County, Yang Yuanqing led a large group of men and horses to arrive at the already vacant Tang army camp.

At this time, this Tang army camp, which covers an area of hundreds of acres, has been occupied by Xie Yingdeng and 5,000 Sui cavalry.

When Yang Yuanqing's army arrived at the Tang army camp, Xie Yingdeng had been waiting at the door for a long time, and he hurriedly stepped forward to salute. "Humble position, see the steward!"

Yang Yuanqing turned over and dismounted. A closer look at this vast camp showed that there was little change except that the battle flags had been taken away. Even the watchtowers still stand on both sides of the camp.

"Did you catch any guards?" Yang Yuanqing asked.

"Back to the general manager, more than a hundred soldiers were caught, and there was also a Tang Army's Cang Cao."

Xie Yingdeng waved his hand. "Bring it on!"

The Sui soldiers brought forward an official, about forty years old, short and stocky, wearing crimson low-ranking official robes, who did not look like an official but a shopkeeper.

His face was full of panic, and he knelt down when he stepped forward, "Villain Gong Aimin, Cang Cao is engaged." I beg your Highness to spare your life! ”

Yang Yuanqing glanced at him and said lightly: "You don't have to be afraid, I won't kill you." Just take the books and help my people sort out the warehouse. I will spare you. ”

Cang Cao engaged in prostrating repeatedly, "Thank you, Your Highness." The villain must have done everything he could to assist. ”

Yang Yuanqing, accompanied by everyone, entered the Tang army camp, even half of the tents were left in the camp, and the soldiers' tents were full of messes, and large items that could not be taken away could be seen everywhere, Yang Yuanqing frowned, "Why didn't the Tang army take these tents away?" ”

The Tang army just now hurriedly bowed down and said: "Your Highness, the main reason is that the Tang army is short of animal power, the army has collected everywhere, and only more than 1,000 ox carts have been collected, and together with their own war horses, they really can't carry so many materials, and only 1,800 of the 4,000 military tents have been taken, and even the soldiers have to carry armor. ”

Yang Yuanqing nodded, "Go to the grain depot!" ”

The group turned to the large tent group of grain storage, located in the north of the camp, consisting of hundreds of tents, which was the money and grain depot of the Tang army.

Yang Yuanqing was overjoyed in his heart, and sure enough, as he expected, the Tang Army did not carry away the grain, nor did he destroy the grain, which made his somewhat nervous heart relax.

Xie Silizai carefully inspected the grain in several large tents, and he asked with some curiosity: "I don't think I have taken any of this grain away, why is that?" ”

He smiled bitterly and said: "I really can't take it away, all the animal carts are full of armor, silver and tents, and even half of the tents are left, not to mention food, but all the armor and silver money have been taken away." ”

"That's weird!"

Xie Sili said to himself: "The armor and silver money are to be taken away, but the food is gone, is it not important to the Tang Army?" ”

Yang Yuanqing smiled and said: "This is normal, as long as you have the armor and silver money in your hand, you can recruit new soldiers, as for food, I think there should be a lot of food in Guanzhong, so it is not very important." ”

Yang Yuanqing asked again, "Is there still grain and grass in the barracks?" ”

"Returning to Your Highness, there are about 230,000 stone of grain and 500,000 quintals of forage."

Yang Yuanqing nodded, and said to Xie Sili: "I will hand over the inventory of materials to you, keep the accounts one by one, and finally give me a general report." ”

"Obedience!" ……

The military forces directly under the crown prince Li Jiancheng were mainly concentrated in the eastern part of the country, that is, east of Guanzhong, mainly including Guangtongcang, Imjin Pass and Tongguan, with an army of about 30,000 people.

Among them, Tongguan is the top priority of the prince's power, and this gate has a pivotal strategic position for the entire Tang Dynasty, and is generally guarded by senior military officials of the three grades.

At present, the marshal guarding Tongguan is Luo Yi who returned to Tang from Youzhou, Luo Yi was named the general of the right Wuwei after returning to the Tang Dynasty, and the title was changed to the Duke of Yanguo, and the official was high and heavy, Li Yuan did not treat him badly, but this was just to show the open-mindedness of the Tang Dynasty.

In fact, whether it is an official or a knight, he is just idle, he has nothing to do, and there is not a single soldier under him, and he has nothing to do all day long in Chang'an.

But the crown prince Li Jiancheng took a fancy to Luo Yi's ability to lead troops and his qualifications in the army, and for Li Jiancheng, what he lacked most now was such a highly qualified general.

It was under the strong recommendation of the prince that Luo Yi was appointed as the commander of Tongguan and was in charge of the 10,000 defenders of Tongguan, and Luo Yi also became Li Jiancheng's henchman, and together with Sheng Yanshi, he became the right-hand man in the prince's army.

On the head of Tongguan City, the golden glow of the sunset gradually disappeared, the sky dyed red by the sunset has darkened, the endless mountains and forests have become a dark black, the night begins to fall, with the colorful night of the last afterglow of the sunset, in the Tongguan City.

Luo Yi was dressed in armor, with his hand on the hilt of his sword, standing at the head of the city and staring at the winding mountain path in the distance, which had gradually blurred in the night, and his eyes were full of worry.

On the side, the eldest son Luo Cheng could feel his father's heavy concerns, so he asked with concern: "Father has been silent for a day, has something happened?" ”

After a while, Luo Yi sighed and said, "If the Central Plains is defeated, the battle between the King of Qin and the crown prince will become more and more intense, and we will inevitably be involved." ”

"Father, the child doesn't understand, why did the Central Plains fail, and their struggle intensified? The child felt that at this time, they should work together to get through the difficult time. ”

Luo Yi shook his head, "It's a pity that there is only one throne, what if they don't fight?" Originally, it had nothing to do with King Qin, but the Shengshang's ambiguous attitude gave him hope, but now that the main military power is in his hands, it may not be so easy to cut off his hope. ”

After a pause, Luo Yi said again: "This battle of the Central Plains has broken the original balance, it is estimated that the power of the King of Qin will suffer a heavy setback, how can he give up, he will inevitably make a big move in the army forces, the prince also guessed his intentions, so he persuaded the Holy Lord to let the King of Qi go to Shaanxi County to take charge of the 30,000 new army, just to prevent him from taking the opportunity to seize military power." ”

Luo Cheng sighed, "Father, I knew that we should still surrender to the Sui Dynasty, and we wouldn't get involved in their brothers' internal strife, to be honest, I really don't think about the Tang Dynasty." ”

Luo Cheng was still worried about his father's return to Tang, but he didn't dare to really complain about his father, so he could only suppress this dissatisfaction in his heart, and today he finally couldn't help but reveal it.

Luo Yi was stunned, he glanced at his son in surprise, it turned out that his son was still worried about returning to the Tang Dynasty?

He felt sorry for a while, and patted his son on the shoulder, "You don't have to worry, there will be opportunities in the future, first of all, you need to have qualifications and status in the military, you are only a lieutenant now, even if you surrender in the past, you are still only a captain, but if you are a general of the Tang Dynasty and surrender in the past, then you can be more valued, and you can settle down and promise your father that you will be promoted to general within three years." ”

Luo Cheng nodded silently, and at this moment, the sound of horses' hooves came from the mountain road, and he saw a scout cavalry rushing towards him, and soon ran to the bottom of Tongguan, shouting loudly: "General Luo!" ”

Luo Yi had already seen this scout cavalry, he was stunned, walked to the battlements and leaned over and asked, "What happened?" ”

"General Luo, His Royal Highness the King of Qin has arrived with five thousand cavalry, ten miles away."

Luo Yi was stunned for a moment, King Qin led five thousand cavalry to come, why is this? Why are there only 5,000 people, could it be that he was defeated in the Battle of the Central Plains?

Luo Yi's mind turned extremely fast, it was impossible to be defeated, if he was defeated, he would have gotten the news a long time ago, could it be......

A thought surged from his heart, he suddenly became nervous, and he suddenly realized that Li Shimin's arrival would bring him great trouble.

Thinking of this, he immediately said to his son Luo Cheng: "You immediately rush back to the capital and tell the crown prince King Qin to come to Tongguan to seize power, I may not be spared, let the prince report to the saint quickly." ”

Luo Cheng was so nervous that his voice trembled, "Will something happen to my father?" ”

"Don't worry, my father won't let him have a chance to kill me, I will cooperate with him to seize power, but I have to tell the prince in advance, so that the prince won't blame me for handing over the military power, you go quickly!"

Luo Cheng let go of his heart at this time, he rode out of the West Gate and galloped in the direction of Chang'an.

Luo Yi kept looking at his son in the distance, and he returned to the main gate of Tongguan, only to see a cavalry galloping towards the city gate in the distance