On the west city wall, you can clearly see the surging Yellow River a mile away, only to see hundreds of ships on the turbid river, these ships are about 500 stones, especially slender, and the long oars distributed densely on both sides are like worms crawling slowly on the water surface. Pen "Fun" Pavilion www.biquge.info

At this time, a soldier shouted: "Look, there is a flag on that ship!" ”

I saw a big ship of about a thousand stones appeared, and a big flag was hung on the mast, which was the Qinglong Red Flag of the Northern Sui Army, and the hearts of everyone on the city seemed to sink into the abyss, and the naval army of the Northern Sui Army appeared and blocked the Yellow River, even if they had a large raft, they didn't want to cross the river.

At this time, Chu Luo Khan only felt unbearable pain in his heart, his throat was sweet, and a mouthful of blood spurted out directly, his eyes became pitch black, all consciousness disappeared, and he fell backwards on his back.

"Khan! Khan! ”

Several commanders supported Luo Khan and shouted, the city was in chaos, the commanders looked at the main general at a loss, and sighed secretly, both north and south were blocked by the mountains, if they couldn't cross the Yellow River, they could only turn around and retreat east.

...........

At the same moment when Chuluo Khan fainted in Linquan County, a vast army of more than 50,000 people appeared in the east of Yulin City, hundreds of miles away in the north.

Yulin County is the county of Yulin County, located at the top of the east of the Yellow River's 'several' shape, the Yellow River flows from west to east for thousands of miles, and begins to turn and flow south in Yulin County, which belongs to the east of the Hetao Plain, Wuyuan County belongs to the middle set, and Lingwu County belongs to the west set.

"The Yellow River is harmful, only a set of profits", refers to the Hetao Plain, the northern end of the Yellow River composed of Lingwu County, Wuyuan County and Yulin County, where the land is fertile, irrigation is convenient, since the Han Dynasty is a famous grain producing area, the current three counties have a population of hundreds of thousands, but mainly concentrated in Lingwu County and Wuyuan County.

At present, the Hetao area is controlled by two major warlords, one of whom is Liang Shidu of Lingwu County, and the other is Zhang Changxun, the former commander of Wuyuan of the Sui Dynasty, who controls Wuyuan and Lingwu County.

Although these two warlords are attached to the Turks, but the Turkic factions they are attached to are different, Liang Shidu was originally the leader of the Black Wolf Army of Jinshan Palace, he was of course attached to the Turkic high priest Mo Aaron, and Zhang Changxun asked Shibi Khan to surrender, and now he is attached to Luo Khan, the two are attached to different factions, plus the Hetao is vast, and the two armies are blocked by the vast Gobi Desert, so the well water has always not violated the river water.

Although they were attached to the Turks, they were all Han Chinese after all, and the Turks did not want to include them in the Turkic tribes, but supported them to support their own armies and make them officials, making them the southern vassals of the Turks.

On the other hand, Zhang Changxun was different from Liang Shi, who was ambitious, established himself as the Son of Heaven, founded the country Liang, and was named Dadu Viga Khan by the Turks.

Zhang Changxun's surrender to the Turks was just a measure of rights and interests, and he was bent on returning to the Central Plains, so after Li Yuan established the capital in Chang'an, he secretly surrendered to the Tang Dynasty and was named the governor of Fengzhou by Li Yuan, but in order to protect himself, he did not immediately play the banner of the Tang Army, and still erected the Turkic banner.

The 50,000-strong Sui army that arrived in Yulin County was the Northern Expeditionary Army led by Li Jing, Li Jing's northern expedition to the Turkic king's tent was just a false attack, and now the national strength of the Northern Sui was not enough to destroy the Turks, and the current strategy of the Northern Sui against the Turks was still to provoke civil strife in the steppe and weaken the strength of the Turks from within.

Although Li Jing's northern expedition was not aimed at the Turks, Li Jing still had deeper intentions to go north, and Zhang Xuan's layout was far-reaching, not only to occupy the northern part of Bingzhou, but also to continue to advance westward, destroy Zhang Changxun and Liang Shidu, control the entire Hetao, and form an encirclement of Guanlong from the north.

After the Battle of Zihe, Li Jing immediately swept into Dingxiang County, annihilated the 3,000 Turkic troops stationed in Dingxiang County, and rescued more than 30,000 Han people who were placed in Dingxiang County by the Turks.

The Turks placed these official slaves in Dali City, Dingxiang County, and they were mainly engaged in handicrafts such as pottery, blacksmithing, tanning, and weaving, providing a steady stream of tools and supplies for the Turkic government, and an army of 3,000 monitored and controlled them.

After Li Jing captured Dingxiang County, he appointed He Zhaonian, who joined the army, as the governor of Dingxiang County, and ordered Zhao Zhi, the general of Huya, to lead 5,000 troops to garrison Dingxiang County, while Li Jing continued to lead the army to the west.

In the afternoon of that day, after crossing the Yellow River, the army arrived at Yuguan Town, and Li Jing stopped continuing to advance westward, and ordered the whole army to rest on the spot.

Yuguan Town is a commercial town, the town is actually a street about one mile long, more than 100 households, shops on both sides of the street, inns, wine shops, green buildings have more than a dozen, it can be seen that the business here was quite prosperous in the past, but under the influence of the Turkic Southern Expedition, there are basically no merchants in the town, the business is very deserted, and most of the shops are closed and padlocked.

Li Jing walked slowly on the street with more than a dozen soldiers, and followed by Chu Suiliang, this time Li Jing's westward expedition was to establish the foundation of the Hetao, and a large number of civil officials were needed, Zhang Xuan transferred dozens of young and promising civil officials to him, Chu Suiliang was one of them, and he served as Cangcao in Li Jing's army to join the army.

Li Jing saw Chu Suiliang's face full of surprise, and couldn't help but smile slightly: "I didn't expect it!" ”

Chu Suiliang nodded, "I really didn't expect that there would be such a prosperous business in the bitter cold land outside the Saiwai, I always thought that Yuguan was a pass, but I didn't expect it to be a small town." ”

"Don't underestimate Yulin County, after passing the Longmen Pass, you can go north to the grassland along the west bank of the Yellow River, which is an extremely important trade route, generally from Yulin County to cross the Yellow River, this Yuguan Town is the only way for business travel, but it is a pity that it is now affected by the war, and the caravan to the north is gone, so it has become so calm."

"Is it because of the Turkic invasion?"

Li Jing shook his head, "The Turkic invasion of the south is in Bingzhou, and it does not affect here, this is mainly Song Jingang who fought with the Tang army in Yan'an County, blocking all caravans from going north." ”

"I see!"

Chu Suiliang suddenly realized that at this time, he found that a house on the left was quite interesting, so he smiled and said: "General, there are also officials here." ”

Everyone stepped forward, this is an abandoned small official office, a sign is hung above the gate, the wind and rain, the handwriting on it is no longer clear, only the word 'seizure' can be vaguely seen.

Li Jing said with a smile: "I remember, I have been here before, it seems to be the Yulin Investigation and Arrest Office of Fengzhou Jiaoshi Supervisor." ”

Chu Suiliang knew that Jiaoshi Jian was the official office in charge of border trade in the Sui Dynasty, but he didn't quite understand what the arrest office meant, so he hesitated and asked, "What are you arresting?" ”

"Of course, it is to seize contraband, pig iron, salt, armor, raw materials for making bows and arrows, etc., once caught, it is a felony to kill the head."

"But if you really transport the contraband, you won't go from here, and there are many ways to go north! How can you manage it. ”

Li Jing glanced at him strangely and said with a smile: "Do you think that the previous dynasty was used to build the Great Wall to resist the northern nomadic cavalry going south?" Wrong, the real purpose of building the Great Wall is to prevent unscrupulous merchants from the interior from transporting forbidden goods to the north, and also to prevent the Central Plains people from crossing the border and fleeing north, otherwise the pass of several hundred garrisons can withstand the thousands of cavalry going south? The management of caravans and fugitives is about the same. ”

Zhu Suiliang was stunned, he always thought that the Great Wall was built to resist the southward movement of the steppe nomads, but he didn't expect Li Jing to say that it was to prevent the caravan transporting the forbidden goods from going north, and also to prevent the mainlanders from escaping to the grassland, which completely subverted his understanding of the Great Wall.

Li Jing patted him on the shoulder, and said earnestly: "You have to think about everything, when did the Great Wall stop the steppe cavalry from going south?" ”

Chu Suiliang nodded silently, and at this time, a cavalryman galloped over and shouted loudly: "General, Zhang Changxun's envoy has arrived at the camp!" ”

Li Jing snorted coldly, "He's coming quickly, let's go back to the camp immediately!" ”

The soldiers brought their horses, and everyone got on their horses, turned their horses, and galloped eastward. (To be continued.) )