Soon after Yang Yuanqing led the army back from Wenxi County and rushed westward, Dugu Huaien, the Taishou of Jiangxian County, got the news, and he immediately realized that the Fengzhou army must be going to intercept Li Shuliang's army, and he was in a hurry, and immediately ordered his general Cao Ji to lead 3,000 troops to support Li Shuliang.

The army was sent out, Dugu Huai'en was uneasy in his heart, he climbed the wall, held on to the wall and looked west, the distance was the dark and boundless night, and the starlight reflected a vague outline of Zhengping Mountain a few miles away.

Dugu Huaien sighed, at the beginning Li Yuan asked him if he was willing to enter Guanzhong or stay in Hedong, he chose to stay in Hedong, now it seems that his original decision was a bit wrong, Hedong is a place where soldiers from all walks of life must fight, even if Yang Yuanqing does not come, Dou Jiande will come, and it is a wise choice to go to Guanzhong.

Dugu Huaien turned around to go down to the city, and suddenly a soldier shouted: "Envoy, an army is coming." ”

Dugu Huaien was taken aback, and took a closer look at the wall, only to see about a thousand people rushing towards this side, and then someone shouted under the city: "Envoy, open the city gate quickly, it's me!" ”

It's the voice of the general Cao Ji, he just went less than an hour, why did he come back? Dugu Huaien hurriedly ordered the door to be opened, and he also ran to the city gate, only to see a large group of defeated soldiers pouring in, many of them were wounded, and their bodies were full of blood, Cao Ji was on his horse, and an arrow was stuck in his back.

Dugu Huaien was taken aback, and stepped forward and asked urgently, "What's wrong?" ”

"Envoy, we were ambushed in Zhengping Mountain, and the brothers suffered heavy casualties."

"How many ambushes are there?" Dugu Huaien asked again.

"I don't know, the other party is a cavalry, and there are bows and arrows, surround us, and the humble duty is to fight desperately to get out of the encirclement."

Dugu Huaien couldn't say a word for a long time, and an ominous premonition poured into his heart.

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Li Shuliang stood on the top of the watchtower, looking solemnly at the distance of the enemy army, but he was not happy at all in his heart, and an intuition told him that the enemy's distance was like the retreat of a fierce beast, for a more powerful fatal blow.

Li Shuliang sent several teams of scouts to investigate, and he returned to his camp worriedly, and the deputy general Liu Hongji had been waiting for him in front of the big tent for a long time.

"Marshal, do you think the enemy army has really retreated?"

Li Shuliang shook his head, "They are a pack of wolves, how can they retreat without eating their prey." ”

Li Shuliang sighed and walked into the big tent, Liu Hongji followed into the big tent, and hurriedly said: "Marshal, I think that the purpose of the enemy's retreat is to wait for us to withdraw from the camp and set off, and then attack us halfway, at that time, we will not have the defense of the camp, we can only fight with them hard-to-hard, this is the best way to break our defense." ”

Li Shuliang sat down, bowed his head for a long time and didn't speak, he didn't want Liu Hongji to say this, but no matter what he thought, Liu Hongji was completely right, unless he didn't leave, maybe the other party would be helpless with him, but as long as he moved, the other party would seize the opportunity, he hugged his head in pain, how should he deal with it?

Liu Hongji's lips pursed into a line, his gaze was very serious, he had realized that the other party was an experienced general, and he could intercept them between Jishan and Zhengping County, which showed that the other party was good at seizing fighters, could it be that the other party's main general was Yang Yuanqing?

If it was really him, then the situation they faced would be grim, and Liu Hongji was also nervous in his heart, "Marshal, now we urgently need to ask the lord for help, otherwise we will be in danger of being wiped out." ”

Li Shuliang sat without saying a word, his mind was a little dazed, his thoughts were also confused, his hands were crossed on his laps, and his body leaned weakly on the big box behind him, he seemed to be thinking about Liu Hongji's suggestion, but he seemed to be in a daze without what to do.

After sitting like this for a quarter of an hour, Liu Hongji didn't dare to disturb him, and was about to slowly withdraw from the big tent, when Li Shuliang's heavy voice came from behind him.

"Before leaving, King Tang had already told me that he could only take out 20,000 troops, and asked me to gather the troops of the counties in Hedong, as well as the defenders of Taiyuan, so that there would be an army of 100,000 to compete with Yang Yuanqing, even if we asked for help, he could also let the defenders of the counties in Hedong come to support us, but have you thought about it, the armies of the counties set out to support us, will they be broken by Yang Yuanqing's army?"

Liu Hongji's body was shocked, and he slowly turned around, he had to admire Li Shuliang's cautious thinking, Yang Yuanqing had 30,000 cavalry, and there were only 10,000 here, and it was likely that the rest of the army was dismantled, just to prevent the counties from coming to rescue them.

"What about the five thousand defenders of Zhengping County? We can bring them in to help. ”

As soon as he finished speaking, a soldier reported outside the tent, "Dugu Taishou sent someone to report that there was an emergency. ”

"Let him in!"

After a while, a messenger was brought in, and he knelt down on one knee to report, "Dugu Taishou sent troops to help, but was ambushed by the enemy on the mountain road, and suffered heavy casualties, Dugu Taishou could only hold on to the city, hoping that Li Dashuai could lead the army into the city and defend together." ”

After speaking, he presented a letter, and after reading the letter, Li Shuliang handed the letter to Liu Hongji again, and instructed left and right, "Take him down and reward him with five hundred hangings!" ”

"Thank you for the reward."

The messenger retreated, and Li Shuliang glanced at Liu Hongji, "What do you say now?" ”

"Marshal, the other party is a light horseman, and he shouldn't have brought much food and forage, so we might as well stick to the camp and wait for them to run out of food and retreat."

"It is impossible to run out of food, Jiangjun is a rich land, and they have just harvested wheat, where can they get food, and except for Zhengping County, there are basically no defenders in other counties, it is easy to seize it, besides, they have just defeated the reinforcements of Zhengping County, and they should have captured a lot of grain and grass, although the letter did not say, but we should think about it."

Li Shuliang sighed, he was in a dilemma, and he didn't know what to do.

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At dawn, the scout brought back the information, and found that the opponent's cavalry was twenty miles away and did not go far, Li Shuliang knew that his judgment was correct, and it was impossible for the other party to withdraw his troops, so he was waiting for them to set off from camp, attacking them halfway, Li Shuliang did not dare to risk setting off, he finally accepted Liu Hongji's suggestion and sent someone to Guanzhong for help.

Yang Yuanqing's cavalry rested in a forest twenty miles away for a night, and recovered his strength, at this time, Xu Shiyun, who ambushed the enemy's reinforcements in Zhengping Mountain, also returned, he led a thousand cavalry to set up an ambush in front of Zhengping Mountain, defeated the reinforcements of Zhengping County, annihilated more than 1,000 enemies, captured more than 600 people, and captured a lot of military resources, grain and grass, which could maintain the army for three days.

This unexpected harvest suddenly solved the hidden danger of insufficient food and grass in Fengzhou, and Yang Yuanqing was overjoyed and remembered Xu Shixian's great achievements.

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At noon, Yang Yuanqing rode a horse to inspect the situation in the army, this time they were light soldiers, did not carry tents and other baggage, most of the time camped in the woods, if it rained, they entered the county seat.

The 10,000 army consisted of 8,000 cavalry and 2,000 heavy infantry, the heavy infantry did not use war horses only when fighting, and the usual marches were on horseback, they were equipped with two horses, and one war horse carried special equipment.

At this time, Yang Sien was leading the heavily armored Mo knife army to practice, and their Mo swords had all been replaced, lighter, longer, and harder, and they were no longer slapping blades, but real Mo swords, which were enough to resist the impact of powerful cavalry.

The two thousand Mo sword army were divided into four teams, and they were training in teams, shouting and killing like thunder.

Not far from the training of the Modao Army, thousands of soldiers cut down thousands of trees, and were busy tying the tree rows, and in another open space, there were piles of fire cloths carried by the soldiers, and the fire cloth was soaked in fire oil and dried, becoming extremely flammable, generally used to make rockets, and each soldier would carry a bag, which was the unique equipment of the Fengzhou Army at this time.

At this time, a soldier reported: "Chief Qiyu, the scout has caught the other party's spies!" ”

Yang Yuanqing was overjoyed, and immediately turned his horse's head and ran towards the marching tent.

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In the big tent, a scout lieutenant knelt down on one knee and reported to Yang Yuanqingyu: "Report to the chief manager, the brothers have found two teams of enemy spies with a total of 20 people, all of whom have been surrounded and annihilated, and two prisoners have been captured. ”

"Bring it on!"

Soon, the soldiers pushed the two captives into the tent, and the captives knelt on the ground and begged, "General, spare your life!" ”

Yang Yuanqing glanced at them and said, "I can spare your life, but you must honestly confess, if there is half a lie, I will sacrifice your head to the flag." ”

"We don't dare to hide anything."

"Good! Let me ask you first, how many troops are there in the camp, who is the main general, and who is the adjutant general? ”

"General Hui, a total of 20,000 troops, about 3,000 cavalry, 15,000 infantry, and 2,000 heavy soldiers. The main general will be Li Shuliang, and the deputy general Liu Hongji. ”

Yang Yuanqing nodded, he could hear that the other party was not lying, and asked: "How much grain is there, what kind of war horse is it, and what kind of equipment is the soldier?" ”

Next to Xu Shiqing listened to Yang Yuanqing's question very carefully, he secretly praised in his heart, no wonder Yang Yuanqing is known as the first general of the Great Sui Frontier, from his request for information, it can be seen that he has rich experience, even asked what kind of war horse the other party is, and mastered all the details, this is called knowing oneself and knowing one's opponent, and winning all battles.

Yang Yuanqing asked for more than half an hour, and then ordered someone to take the two prisoners of war who had been exhausted by questioning, and the three clerks next to him wrote quickly and recorded all the inquiries, and the three clerks retreated to the other account to sort out their confessions.

Yang Yuanqing saw Xu Shixian's surprised face, so he smiled slightly and asked, "Didn't the Wagang Army do this?" ”

Xu Shiyun shook his head, "We just ask some key questions, never more than a quarter of an hour, and no more than twenty questions, this is the first time I have encountered such a careful question as a general." ”

"Actually, it's not for me to ask."

Yang Yuanqing pointed to Zhang Shu next to him and said with a smile: "The Fengzhou Army has its own set of strict systems, and there are special interrogators, and Zhang Senjun should interrogate them, but I am more anxious, so I will ask Zhang Senjun again." ”

He asked Zhang Shu again, "Zhang joined the army, was there any omission in my interrogation?" ”