"What does it have to do with you if I harm my food? Why are you so excited?"
Li Ji had a dark look on his face after reading Li Shimin's letter.
The stubborn Li Shimin is still obsessed with his crime, and is still thinking about his food. Otherwise, if he doesn't harm his food, why would Li Shimin be so excited?
"Bang!"
Li Ji was sulky for a while, and slapped his head angrily, "Not only do you care about my food, but you also dare to mobilize my troops? Is this a shame for you?"
In Li Shimin's letter, he not only sadly advised him not to harm the food supply, but also vaguely mentioned that Li Xiuning of Wezeguan was in danger under the successive attacks of the Turks and was in urgent need of help, but he could not send any manpower. .
Li Shentong and Li Shiji guarded the long line of defense from Shizhou to Chitang Pass, and had no spare power 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, and there is no way to support Li Xiuning.
Li Shimin stopped writing his letter here.
But his meaning is self-evident.
That is to ask Li Ji to send the soldiers and horses of the newly prepared Left 1st and 2nd Unified Military Mansion to rush to Li Xiuning's aid.
From a blood perspective, Li Xiuning is Li Ji's biological sister, and it is impossible for Li Ji to ignore death.
In terms of planning, Li Xiuning will be one of Li Ji's important allies in the future, and it is even more impossible for Li Ji to ignore death.
In his heart, Li Ji did not want to see this rare and strange woman die at the hands of the Turks.
Li Jiming knew that the stubborn Li Shimin was taking advantage of him, but he still followed Li Shimin's wishes.
Li Shimin should not have suppressed him or weakened him in this matter.
Cuncui saw that he had recruited a group of warriors, so he wanted to make the best use of them and transferred his men to Weizeguan to share the pressure of Li Xiuning.
By the way, I scraped a layer of oil from his hand to replenish the food and grass in Weizeguan.
If Li Shimin really wanted to suppress him and weaken him, he should send him to the Weizhou battlefield.
There will soon be hundreds of thousands of soldiers and horses fighting fiercely there, and human lives will be harvested one after another like leeks.
Transfer him to Weizhou and let the soldiers from the Left, First and Left Tongjunfu attack the enemy's central army. It only takes three times to cripple the Left, First and Left Tongjunfu.
"Here comes, summon Uncle Xie into the palace."
Li Ji ordered towards the door.
Not long after, Xie Shufang hurried to the side hall.
Li Ji did not say too many pleasantries, but decisively ordered: "Xie Shufang, you are now transferred to the deputy commander of the Zuotong Army. You will lead the officers and soldiers of the Zuoyitong Army and the soldiers of the Zuotong Army Camp to escort 50,000 shi of grain. Rush to Weize Pass immediately and follow Princess Pingyang’s orders.”
This is a military order, not idle talk.
Xie Shufang had no room to reply, let alone ask any more questions.
Xie Shufang quickly bowed and said, "I obey your order!"
Li Ji waved his hand and asked Uncle Xie to quickly go down and prepare.
He was very generous to Li Xiuning, giving him 50,000 shi of food.
If it were Li Shimin, even five stones would be too much for him.
He can give his food generously to anyone, but others cannot help him generously, let alone steal or rob him.
Xie Shufang acted very quickly. He ordered all the troops and horses and prepared the food in two hours.
Li Ji personally went to see him off, and told Xie Shufang that after arriving at Weize Pass, he must obey Li Xiuning's orders.
Li Ji was convinced of Li Xiuning's military talents.
When Li Yuan raised his army, he only gathered nearly 10,000 troops and fought from Taiyuan to Guanzhong. Along the way, he worked with Li Jiancheng, Li Shimin, and all the civil and military personnel under his command, and they tried their best to increase the number of troops to 120,000 or 30,000.
After arriving in Guanzhong, it was discovered that Li Xiuning had developed a force of 70,000 soldiers and horses, occupying most of Guanzhong, relying only on the little bit of property the Li family had left in Chang'an.
The reason why Li Yuan was able to bravely lead an army of 200,000 to conquer Chang'an was because Li Xiuning contributed nearly 40% of his strength.
I don’t know whether it was because Li Xiuning, as a daughter, overwhelmed all the heroes of the Tang Dynasty, which made some people with strong self-esteem feel unhappy and slandered Li Yuan; or because Li Yuan felt that Li Xiuning was born as a girl and was not suitable for public appearances.
After Li Yuan captured Chang'an, he hid Li Xiuning in the snow and confiscated most of Li Xiuning's troops, leaving only 10,000 elite soldiers for Li Xiuning to guard Weize Pass.
It was said that Li Xiuning was asked to guard Li Tang's base camp, but Li Xiuning's military orders could not leave Weize Pass at all.
Not only that, Li Yuan also sent Li Ji's predecessor to guard Li Tang's base camp.
Li Yuan was a nepotistic person. At that time, the Tang Dynasty was in a period of employing people.
If Li Yuan had no intention of hiding Li Xiuning, why did he send Li Ji's predecessor there after sending Li Xiuning to guard Li Tang's base camp? Why did Li Ji's predecessor still give priority to his orders?
Li Xiuning has proven with practical actions that her military talents are far superior to others.
As long as she has enough authority, she will be able to guard Li Tang's base camp.
If Li Yuan didn't hide her thoughts, why bother?
Li Ji did not have Li Yuan's patriarchal mentality. Li Xiuning's achievements were so dazzling that it would not hurt his self-esteem.
He only hoped that Li Xiuning was alive, and he only hoped that after General Xie Shufang took the soldiers from the Tongjun Mansion out, he would bring them back intact.
Therefore, he did not mind completely handing over the command of the officers and soldiers of the Tongjun Mansion to Li Xiuning.
If he were the commander-in-chief of this army, he would even untie the shackles Li Yuan had on Li Xiuning, allowing Li Xiuning to completely let go and fight.
As long as his allies are strong enough, he will be safer.
Xie Shufang led the Zuoyi Tongjun Mansion. After the soldiers from the Zuotongjun camp left Luoyang, Luoyang became calm with almost no disturbances.
That is, the number of convoys transporting food to Luoyang City has increased again.
…
The third day of February.
Li Shimin sent troops to defend the state, and prepared his troops to fight Liu Heita.
But before Li Shimin could take the lead, Liu Heitai took action first.
Tens of thousands of troops flocked to Qishui, vowing to chop off Li Shimin's dog's head, pay homage to Dou Jiande's soul in heaven, and establish the Great Xia Kingdom again.
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 is laughing loudly.
Liu Heita's behavior was like a fat guy taking the initiative to challenge a strong man.
Liu Heitai had only swallowed up all the states in Hebei, and had not yet begun to digest them. The troops and horses under his command were also patchwork, or they had been recruited and surrendered along the way.
Basically, he is not on the same level as Li Tang.
Faced with Li Shimin coming to suppress the enemy with heavy troops, the most important thing to do is to strictly guard against death, fight steadily, and fight a war of attrition against Li Shimin.
The quality of the soldiers and horses under his command is not as good as that of Li Shimin, so he should rely on the number of people to consume with Li Shimin.
In the process of consumption, while digesting the states in Hebei, he also won over the aristocratic families in Hebei.
As long as a super aristocratic family like the Zhaozhou Li family is tied into a chariot, it will not be easy for Li Shimin to take over Hebei.
But he chose to face Li Shimin directly and start a war with Li Shimin directly.
Perhaps the Hebei Provinces were defeated too quickly and spoiled him, making him think that Li Shimin was a soft persimmon just like the defenders of the Hebei Provinces.
Li Shimin was not used to Liu Heitai.
When Liu Heitao's army arrived at Qishui, before they could set up camp, Li Shimin sent his infantry to attack the formation and his cavalry to sneak attack on both wings.
The infantry led by Shuang Shiluo and Qi Shanxing advanced step by step, suppressing Liu Heitai's troops.
Luo Shixin and Yuchi Gong, one on the left and one on the right, led two cavalrymen to rush out from the left and right wings and frantically strangled the soldiers and horses under Liu Heitai.
After Luo Shixin went crazy with the killing, he once reached 500 steps in front of Liu Heitai's former military commander's tent.
I almost picked the former army general Liu Heitai.
The soldiers and horses under Liu Heitai were used to fighting in smooth battles, so they were a little uncomfortable when encountering such tough situations.
They were immediately defeated and fled in all directions.
Li Shimin won the first battle, but instead of pursuing the victory, he ordered his troops to return to camp.
Liu Heita suffered a big loss and the Three Corpse Gods were furious. However, he did not learn the lesson and sent another general to lead his troops to Qishui again.
After Li Shimin got the news, he led thousands of cavalry to attack hundreds of miles away. Before they could reach Qishui, they were defeated by Li Shimin again.
After two defeats, Liu Heitai finally learned a lesson and did not dare to send troops to challenge Li Shimin again.
After Liu Heitai refused to send troops and horses to fight, Li Shimin ordered his troops to rush into Xiangzhou.
Liu Heitai suffered two defeats, and the morale of his troops was low.
Li Shimin won two games, and the morale of his troops was naturally high.
One high and one low, when they faced each other again, Li Shimin's troops would naturally win.
In just three days, Li Shimin successively captured Linhe, Tangyin, Linli, and Neihuang counties in Xiangzhou.
Liu Heitai was forced to retreat to Anyang City and stayed behind closed doors.
Li Shimin ordered his soldiers and horses to hide in the mountains and forests on both sides of Anyang City. He led a hundred cavalry to the gate of Anyang City to call for formation and lure Liu Heitai to take action.
This trick is commonly used by Li Shimin.
When Li Shimin was conquering other people before, he often used his own head to lure the enemy to open the door and pursue them, and then gave the enemy a hard blow and took advantage of the situation to rush into the city.
But it’s just because it’s used too much.
Therefore, even if Liu Heitai saw Li Shimin wandering around under his nose, he just ordered his men to hide on the city wall and shoot hidden arrows, and refused to lead his troops out of the city to fight Li Shimin.
Li Shimin's plan failed and he ordered his troops to attack.
Liu Heitai was defeated and could only lead his army to withdraw from Anyang City. He was chased by Li Shimin all the way and withdrew from Xiangzhou.
Li Shimin regained the entire territory of Xiangzhou.
On the twelfth day of the first lunar month, Li Shi's militiamen entered Feixiang in Mingzhou, and summoned Li Ji to lead his troops to Mingzhou, preparing to enter Guangfu and guard it.
Li Ji received Li Shimin's command and ordered someone to find Li Sixing.
Li Sixing has been traveling for more than a month. He looks much older and has frostbite on his ears and hands.
The front hall of Luoyang Palace.
Li Ji saw Li Sixing scratching his ears and hands repeatedly, leaving red marks. He frowned and said, "Did my father deprive you of your salary or your reward? How could you end up like this?"
