In the fourth year of Wude in Li Tang Dynasty, the war in the Central Plains still continued, and it was no worse than the previous year. However, the eyes of the princes of the world returned to Henan again after Li Mi's defeat.
Because it is located in the hinterland of the Central Plains, as the boundaries of the princes are gradually becoming clearer, both from a military and political perspective, the complexity exceeds previous wars.
But the progress of the war still exceeded all expectations...
Wang Shiwei, king of Chu, led an army of 50,000 people to cross Hongnong, plundered the counties and advanced to Tongguan.
Wang Shiwei's forward army moved very fast. At this time, it was more than forty miles away from Wang Shichong's central army. For the Henan army with few cavalry, this was undoubtedly a relatively dangerous distance.
In other words, when Wang Shiwei's troops are attacked, it will be impossible to receive effective support from the Chinese army in a short period of time.
Of course, this is not something that can be described as underestimating the enemy's advance, but the generals under Wang Shiwei's command simply could not stop.
They swarmed through the mountains and fields like locusts, leaving nothing behind. Shan Xiongxin's subordinates even set a fire in Hongnong County when they passed by it.
When Wang Shiwei heard the news, he was absolutely furious. Brutal behavior was nothing in his eyes. He himself had committed many murders and arson. Do you think it was a joke that Luoyang, the eastern capital, was called a bandit's nest?
If the people who hold high positions there don't have bloody hands, you would be embarrassed to go out and meet them.
But as the vanguard of the army, forget about the others, but someone set fire to Hongnong. Such a stupid act cannot be easily forgiven. Even if Shan Xiongxin, the general of Zuotunwei, personally interceded, Wang Shiwei still cut down a few bigger ones.
The head pull shocked the armies.
Shan Xiongxin was very unhappy and had a quarrel with Wang Shiwei before he went back bitterly and never wanted to see Wang Shiwei again. It was Wang Shiwei who sent someone to urge Shan Xiongxin back again.
There is no way, the Wagang bandits are powerful, most of the forward troops are old Wagang troops, and their combat effectiveness can be regarded as an elite division among Wang Shichong's army. If not, Shan Xiongxin would not be allowed to be Wang Shiwei's deputy.
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In Wang Shichong's view, this was a relatively stable arrangement. Shan Xiongxin was Zhai Rang's old subordinate. Zhai Rang defected to Li Mi after his death and had always been at odds with General Wagang under Li Mi's command.
After joining Wang Shichong, this man played a great role in dividing, squeezing, and reducing the military power of Li Mi's old army. After Li Mi's death, Shan Xiong restrained himself a lot out of grief, but there were still rumors in private that this man was hosting a banquet at home.
, I was very happy to tell my confidants that Li Mi deserved his crime, and I wished I could kill him with my own hands to avenge the king.
The king he spoke of was naturally not Wang Shichong. He must have been Zhai Rang, who had already entered the underworld and was waiting for his old subordinates to reunite.
Regardless of whether the rumors are true or not, Wang Shichong felt that this person valued friendship and was worthy of winning over. In fact, he was definitely not thinking about things like friendship, because these were all burdensome to Wang Shichong, who always liked to go back on his word and be ruthless.
He was actually interested in Shan Xiongxin's prestige and qualifications in the Wagang Army, and Wang Shichong actually had only a few ways to win over people.
First, they entertained her with good wine and good food. After being courteous and polite as a corporal, she married Shan Xiongxin and gave him a rank and title. Therefore, Shan Xiongxin became the person with the highest rank and the most military power among the old people of Wagang.
one.
As a result, the underworld leader of Dongjun became famous in Luoyang City and killed more and more people. He was regarded by the Dongdu clan as a vicious dog and gradually disgusted Cheng Zhijie, Qin Qiong and others who were also members of Wagang's old tribe.
Very.
Now, even the emperors and clansmen like Chu King Wang Shiwei can't hold him back, and the whole thing is about to go to heaven.
It was not without reason that Shan Xiongxin's men looted Hongnong and set fire to kill them. When Li Mi was in great power, Shan Xiongxin and others were sent to the west to attack the city and seize territory, and frequently fought with Zhang Shigui on the boundary of Hongnong.
At that time, Zhang Shigui had already defected to Li Yuan. With Liu Wenjing's back in Tongguan, no one could do anything. Shan Xiongxin's brother Shan Da was killed in the battle with Zhang Shigui (Shan Da's death is another story in the novel).
, there are also Erxianzhuang and the like, they all seem to be fabricated, so there is no need to study them in detail), plus Li Yuan once killed Shan Yu...
Well, old grudges are added to new grudges... In fact, there is no need for Wang Shiwei to supervise anything, and there is no need to worry about Shan Xiongxin's lack of effort in the attack on Tongguan.
Therefore, in the vanguard of the army, Wang Shiwei was almost a decoration. The real leader was Shan Xiongxin. They moved so fast and it was inseparable from Shan Xiongxin.
It was still a matter of lack of food, and everyone in Shan Xiongxin's unit still adhered to the usual style, thinking of robbing homes and houses wherever they went, so the vanguard army was a little unable to contain it.
In fact, their gains were very little. Hongnong County had actually been deserted long ago, without Li Tang having to waste any effort. When Zhang Shigui led his army back to Tongguan, most of the people in the county moved westward, leaving some families who were still attached to their hometown.
After that, they either starved to death or fled here.
The army stopped for a while in Hongnong County, because Shan Xiongxin and his men went out to search for Zhang Shigui's ancestral grave, and then came back dejected, but they must not have found it.
But while Wang Shiwei and Shan Xiongxin were marching carelessly and getting into trouble, the army had already advanced less than forty miles away from Tongguan. At such a dangerous distance, there was a sense of relaxation throughout the forward army. This was very
An unimaginable thing.
The war then told them that it was time to pay the price.
The thick east gate of Tongguan slowly opened with a creaking sound, and groups of cavalry with helmets and armors marched out one after another, lining up on the east side of Tongguan, with battle flags flying fiercely above their heads.
Zhang Shigui led his army out of the border.
There were three thousand cavalry, no more and no less. The moment he received the military order, even Zhang Shigui was a little surprised. Hey, has Li Dalang enlightened?
But the subsequent deployment of the Tongguan garrison made Zhang Shigui understand that he had thought too much.
These three thousand men are not the vanguard of the army, they are just knives used to slash at the enemy. They look sharp, but in fact they are just the effect of a false shot.
Subsequent military orders came one after another, and Zhang Shigui's nose almost became angry.
First, he sent two lieutenants to him, one was Lu Chengye, the younger brother of Lu Chengdanai, and the other, even more strangely, was Ashina Danai, a remnant of the Western Turks.
Lu Chengye's arrival at this time showed Li Jiancheng's extreme distrust of him. Let's not talk about him first, Ashina Danai is interesting.
This man was still a child when he came to the Sui Dynasty in the seventh year of Daye, and later settled in Loufan with his tribe.
When it had grown up a little, it was the time when Khan, the first Turk, led his army to the south. Shi Danai was living a very hard life at that time, and he did not want to live under the despotic power of his cousin Ashnarongzhen, so he gritted his teeth and took him with him.
Several tribesmen joined the army and followed the prefect of Loufan, Yin Shishi, to aid Yanmen.
In fact, the siege of Yanmen had been resolved at that time, and he only went to Yanmen for a tour with the army. Yin Shishi immediately resigned and followed Yang Guang back to the Eastern Capital, and his men quickly dispersed.
Ashina then joined Li Yuan, who had arrived late, and went to Taiyuan together. As they went further and further, his horizons became wider and wider. He no longer wanted to go back to Loufan to herd sheep. Unless he was too young, he would
There was no decent official position, otherwise, he would have wanted to bring all the clan members to live in the state.
And when he left, he was traveling all over the world.
He followed Li Yuan south to Chang'an and made many military exploits. Then he followed Qin King Li Shimin into Shu to attack Xiao Mian, and then went to the northwest to fight bloody battles with Xue Ju. Along the way, he unknowingly became a close confidant of the Qin Palace.
Being straightforward by nature, he was driven to the edge of the Yellow River by Li Yuanji in a daze. He didn't care much. There was King Qin here and his comrades who fought together in the battle formation. He was actually quite happy.
The only thing that made him uncomfortable was that Li Ding'an actually married his cousin. When he heard the news, what he thought was that that woman actually got married? Li Ding'an is amazing. He is not afraid of being eaten alive.
Yet?
Ashina Danai is actually not stupid. He knows that it is not easy to use swords and guns with relatives. Moreover, his surname is very conspicuous, so he is easily injured by others on the bank of the Yellow River.
So he took the initiative to ask the King of Qin for the position of escorting grain and fodder. He met Zhang Shigui several times, so he also got Zhang Shigui's bad luck.
The King of Qin returned to the capital and took away his confidants. Ashina was not one of them since he was too young and a Turk. He would not be of much help after returning to the capital.
Ashina Danai then came to serve under Li Jiancheng. Unlike Zhang Shigui, he was not as conspicuous as Zhang Shigui. After arriving at Tongguan, because he was a Turk, his family background was quite "prominent". He also went south with Li Yuan and interacted with many tribes under Li Jiancheng.
They met each other and were much more comfortable hanging out together than Zhang Shigui.
However, he and Zhang Shigui have one thing in common, that is, Ashina Danai does not pay much attention to factions. When he is under the command of the King of Qin, he will work for the King of Qin. When he is under the prince's account, he will fight for the prince. He is the Western
The descendants of the Turkic royal family will have to go back to the west sooner or later to collect all their debts. As for who becomes the emperor, it has nothing to do with him.
He appeared in front of Zhang Shigui because he was the most brave and skilled among the generals of the cavalry army under Li Jiancheng. With him around, Zhang Shigui could not act recklessly.
There were not many cavalry troops in Tongguan, and Li Jiancheng was afraid that Zhang Shigui would lose his 3,000 troops due to his enthusiasm, so he sent these two men as his deputies.
When leaving Tongguan, the flames on Zhang Shigui's head were almost burning him. You said that as the prince, Li Dalang cares about such "trivial matters". Why don't you just let someone else lead the army? Why do you insist on him Zhang Shigui?
Walking around in a circle? Do you want these two people to take the opportunity to kill him?
Li Jiancheng thought that the arrangements were in place, but what he never thought was that he had pushed Zhang Shigui into a panic, and Ashina Danai was far less "restrained" than he thought when he was on the battlefield.
So a murder that surprised everyone happened...
This chapter has been completed!