Chapter 61 Princess Pingyang
"I'm destroying my own food. What does it have to do with you? Why are you so excited?"
After reading Li Shimin's letter, Li Yuanji's face turned black.
The damn Li Shimin still has evil intentions and is still thinking about his food. Otherwise, he would destroy his food. Why would Li Shimin be so excited?
“Bang!”
Li Yuanji was sulking for a while, then angrily slapped the table, "Not only are you thinking about my food, you even dare to mobilize my troops? Do you think I'm giving you face?"
In the letter, Li Shimin not only advised him with great sorrow not to destroy the food supply again, but also vaguely mentioned that Li Xiuning of Weize Pass was in danger after repeated attacks by the Turks and urgently needed help, but he could not send any man.
Li Shentong and Li Shiji were guarding the long defense line from Shizhou to Chitang Pass, and had no spare energy to support Li Xiuning.
There is a famine in Youzhou now. Li Yi has to deal with the Turks and the famine in Youzhou at the same time, so he has no way to support Li Xiuning.
Li Shimin stopped writing here.
But his meaning is self-evident.
That was to let Li Yuanji dispatch the troops of the newly established Zuo Yi and Zuo Er Military Headquarters to rush to support Li Xiuning.
In terms of blood relationship, Li Xiuning is Li Yuanji's biological sister, so it is impossible for Li Yuanji to stand by and watch her die.
From a planning perspective, Li Xiuning would become one of Li Yuanji's important allies in the future, and it would be even less likely that Li Yuanji would stand by and watch her die.
In his heart, Li Yuanji did not want to see this rare and extraordinary woman die at the hands of the Turks.
Li Yuanji knew that the damn Li Shimin was using him, but he still did as Li Shimin wanted.
Li Shimin should not have suppressed him or weakened his intentions in this matter.
It was purely because he saw that he had recruited a group of brave warriors, so he wanted to make the best use of them and transferred his men to Weize Pass to share the pressure on Li Xiuning.
By the way, we can get some money from him and replenish the food and grass at Weize Pass.
If Li Shimin really wanted to suppress and weaken him, he should have transferred him to the Weizhou battlefield.
Hundreds of thousands of soldiers are about to start a fierce battle there, and human lives will be harvested like leeks.
Transfer him to Weizhou and let the soldiers of the Left One and Left Two Military Headquarters attack the enemy's center army. It will only take three times to destroy the Left One and Left Two Military Headquarters.
"Someone, call Xie Shufang into the palace."
Li Yuanji gave orders towards the door.
Not long after, Xie Shufang hurried to the side hall .
Li Yuanji did not say much in the way of pleasantries, but decisively gave the order: "Xie Shufang, you are now transferred to be the deputy commander of the Left First Army Office. Lead the officers and soldiers of the Left First Army Office and the officers and soldiers of the Left First Army Office's main camp to escort 50,000 dan of grain and rush to Weize Pass immediately to obey Princess Pingyang's orders."
This is a military order, not idle talk.
Xie Shufang had no room to retort, let alone ask more questions.
Xie Shufang bowed quickly, "I obey your order!"
Li Yuanji waved his hand and asked Xie Shufang to go down and prepare quickly.
He was very generous to Li Xiuning and gave her 50,000 shi of grain at a time.
If it were Li Shimin, he would think five stones was too much.
He can generously give his food to anyone, but others cannot help him be generous, nor can they steal or rob him.
Xie Shufang acted quickly. He assembled his troops and prepared food in just two hours.
Li Yuanji personally went to see him off and told Xie Shufang that after arriving at Weize Pass, he must obey Li Xiuning's orders.
Li Yuanji was convinced of Li Xiuning's military talents.
When Li Yuan started his army, he only gathered nearly 10,000 troops. He fought his way from Taiyuan to Guanzhong. Along the way, he worked with Li Jiancheng, Li Shimin, and a group of civil and military officials under his command. He tried his best to expand the army to 120,000 or 130,000.
Only after arriving in Guanzhong did they discover that Li Xiuning, relying solely on the little family property left in Chang'an, had managed to develop an army of 70,000 men and occupied most of Guanzhong.
The reason why Li Yuan was able to lead an army of 200,000 to capture Chang'an was that Li Xiuning contributed nearly 40% of the force.
It is not known whether it was because Li Xiuning, as a woman, overwhelmed all the outstanding people in the Tang Dynasty, which made some people with strong self-esteem unhappy and slandered Li Yuan; or whether Li Yuan felt that Li Xiuning, as a woman, was not suitable to show up in public.
After Li Yuan captured Chang'an, he hid Li Xiuning and confiscated most of Li Xiuning's troops. He only left Li Xiuning with 10,000 elite soldiers and asked Li Xiuning to guard Weize Pass.
Although it was said that Li Xiuning was to guard Li Tang's base camp, Li Xiuning's military orders could not leave Weize Pass at all.
Not only that, Li Yuan also sent Li Yuanji's predecessor to guard Li Tang's base camp.
Li Yuan was a nepotist, and the Tang Dynasty was in need of talent at that time.
If Li Yuan had no intention of hiding Li Xiuning, why did he send Li Yuanji's predecessor to guard Li Tang's base camp after Li Xiuning? And why did he follow Li Yuanji's predecessor's orders?
Li Xiuning has proved with practical actions that her military talent is far superior to others.
As long as she has enough power, she will be more than capable of guarding Li Tang's base camp.
If Li Yuan had no intention of hiding her, why would he go to such lengths?
Li Yuanji did not have the idea of favoring boys over girls like Li Yuan. Li Xiuning's achievements were too brilliant and would not hurt his self-esteem.
He only hoped that Li Xiuning was alive, and he only hoped that Xie Shufang would take the soldiers of the General's Mansion out and bring them back safely.
Therefore, he didn't mind giving full command of the generals to Li Xiuning.
If he were the commander of this army, he would even remove the shackles that Li Yuan had put on Li Xiuning, allowing Li Xiuning to completely let go and do something great.
As long as his allies are strong enough, he will be safer.
After Xie Shufang led the soldiers of the Zuo Yitong Military Headquarters and the Zuo Tongjun Camp to leave Luoyang, Luoyang became calm and peaceful with almost no disturbances.
There are more convoys transporting grain to Luoyang City.
…
The third day of February.
Li Shimin deployed his troops in Weizhou and prepared for a battle with Liu Heita.
But before Li Shimin could take the first step, Liu Heita took action first.
Tens of thousands of troops rushed towards the Qi River, vowing to chop off Li Shimin's head, pay tribute to Dou Jiande's spirit in heaven, and re-establish the Great Xia Kingdom.
Even though Li Ji was hundreds of miles away, he could guess Li Shimin's reaction after hearing this.
His eyes must be shining and he must be laughing out loud.
Liu Heita's behavior was like a fat guy who took the initiative to provoke a strong man.
Liu Heita had only swallowed up the Hebei provinces in a hurry and had not yet begun to digest them. The troops under his command were also cobbled together, or they were recruited to surrender along the way.
Compared with the fundamentals, he is not on the same level as Li Shimin at all.
Faced with Li Shimin's heavy military attack, Liu Heita's most important thing to do was to defend himself strictly, advance steadily, and fight a war of attrition with Li Shimin.
The quality of the troops under his command is not as good as Li Shimin's, so he should rely on numbers to consume Li Shimin.
In the process of consumption, while digesting the various states in Hebei, he also won over the aristocratic families in Hebei.
As long as a super family like the Zhaozhou Li family is tied to the chariot, it will not be easy for Li Shimin to take over Hebei.
But he chose to face Li Shimin directly and go to war with him directly.
Perhaps it was because the Hebei provinces were defeated too quickly that he spoiled him and thought that Li Shimin was a soft persimmon like the defenders of the Hebei provinces.
Li Shimin did not indulge Liu Heita.
When Liu Heita's army arrived at the Qi River, before they began to set up camp, Li Shimin sent infantry to launch a surprise attack and cavalry to launch a sneak attack on both wings.
The infantry led by Shuang Shiluo and Qi Shanxing advanced forward step by step and suppressed Liu Heita's troops.
Luo Shixin and Yuchi Gong, one on the left and one on the right, led two cavalry units to rush out from the left and right wings, frantically strangling the soldiers under Liu Heita's command.
After Luo Shixin went crazy with killing, he once killed his way to within 500 steps of Liu Heita's front army commander's tent.
He almost picked Liu Heita's vanguard general.
The soldiers under Liu Heita were used to fighting favorable battles, so they were a little uncomfortable when encountering such a tough opponent.
The army was immediately defeated and fled in all directions.
Li Shimin won the first battle, but did not pursue the victory. Instead, he ordered his troops to return to the camp.
Liu Heita suffered a great loss, which made the three corpse gods furious, but he did not learn his lesson and sent another general to lead the troops to the Qi River again.
After Li Shimin received the news, he led thousands of cavalry to launch a surprise attack hundreds of miles away, robbing and killing the enemy along the way. Before the enemy could reach the Qi River, they were defeated by Li Shimin again.
After suffering two defeats, Liu Heita finally learned his lesson and dared not send troops to challenge Li Shimin again.
Only after Liu Heita refused to send troops to fight did Li Shimin order his troops to advance into Xiangzhou.
Liu Heita suffered two defeats and the morale of his troops was low.
Li Shimin won two battles, and the morale of his soldiers was naturally high.
With one high and one low, when they faced off again, Li Shimin's troops naturally won.
In just three days, Li Shimin successively captured Linhe, Tangyin, Linlu and Neihuang counties in Xiangzhou.
Liu Heita was forced to retreat to Anyang City and stayed indoors.
Li Shimin ordered his soldiers to hide in the mountains and forests on both sides of Anyang City, and he led a hundred cavalry to the gate of Anyang City to challenge Liu Heita and lure him into action.
Li Shimin often used this trick.
When Li Shimin was conquering other countries before, he often used his own head to lure the enemy to open the door and pursue him, and then he would give the enemy a severe blow and then kill his way into the city.
But it's because it's used too much.
So even though Liu Heita saw Li Shimin lurking right under his nose, he only ordered his men to hide on the city wall shoot arrows from behind, and he refused to lead his troops out of the city to fight Li Shimin.
When Li Shimin's plan failed, he ordered his troops to launch a violent attack.
Liu Heita was defeated and had to lead his troops out of Anyang City. He retreated from Xiangzhou while being hunted down by Li Shimin.
Li Shimin recovered the entire territory of Xiangzhou.
On the twelfth day of the first lunar month, Li Shimin's troops entered Feixiang in Mingzhou and summoned Li Ji to lead his troops to Mingzhou, preparing to enter and garrison Guangzhou.
Li Yuanji received the command from Li Shimin and ordered someone to find Li Sixing.
Li Sixing had been traveling outside for more than a month. He looked much older, with frostbite on his ears and hands.
The front hall of Luoyang Palace.
Li Yuanji watched Li Sixing scratching his ears and hands, leaving red marks. He frowned and said, "Did my father fail to pay you enough salary or reward? How did you end up like this?"
