After the First World War in Jingzhou, the Tang army expelled the Turks, successively recovered Baiquan County and Pingliang County, and built a camp to the east of Baiquan County that was not grand in scale, but was very special in this era.
Over the past few months, more than 50,000 troops, nearly 10,000 civilians, and more than 10,000 war horses have made this camp extremely noisy. But now, walking in it, you can't hear any sound.
News of the Handan King's capture of Xiaoguan on the snowy night of New Year's Eve has spread throughout Yuanzhou. The marching commander Shi Wenyanbo led the rear army to sit in Baiquan County and allocate supplies. The Tang army continued to march towards the northwest. At this moment, there were only two thousand soldiers in this camp.
There were many soldiers and thousands of civilians who could set off at any time, but it seemed empty.
"Today's official document states that the troops of Longzhou Prefecture have left Longshan Pass, and Guo Xiaoke is very well-behaved."
"Zhaode!" Zhang Wenguan glared at Li Zhaode who spoke freely, put the official document away, and whispered: "Guo Xiaoke is the favorite general of the King of Qin, the Guo family of Taiyuan..."
Li Zhaode sneered and said: "That guy comes from a rough background, but he actually wants to join the Guo family in Taiyuan, and he is not afraid of others making fun of him."
Years ago, the main force of the Tang army stormed the city. Li Shan ordered Guo Xiaoke, the general manager of Longzhou, to send troops. However, after a heavy snowfall, Guo Xiaoke chose to retreat and was chased by Liang Luoren. He suffered a big loss.
Afterwards, Guo Xiaoke wrote a letter to the court. Although it was not an impeachment of Li Shan, he still had some complaints... Before the memorial came to Beijing, Zhang Wenguan got the news, and Zhang Wenxi and Yang Ze both sent news.
Just after the memorial was sent away, the news came that Li Shan had captured Xiaoguan. Guo Xiaoke immediately led his troops to the north. According to the calculation of the time, they might be close to Guyuan County now... I just guessed that they would not be able to catch up.
Return to that memorial.
Li Zhaode was still complaining, but Zhang Wenguan ignored him and only focused on taking care of the paperwork. In fact, he couldn't do much. Most of the time, he just became familiar with these and reviewed the key points in the letters sent by Li Shan, such as the following.
The main force of the war is cavalry, but in such a climate, war horses need a large amount of food and grass to support them, and a considerable number of horseshoes are also required.
Li Zhaode lost interest over there. After being silent for a while, he suddenly said with envy: "If word of this battle returns to Chang'an, the whole city will be in uproar."
"But it is also quite dangerous." Zhang Wenguan shook his head and said: "Brother Huairen mentioned in the letter that more than 800 elite soldiers marched, and when they arrived at Xiaoguan, only about 700 people were left, and 15% of the troops were lost along the way."
"That's true." Li Zhaode scratched his chin, "Speaking of Brother Huai Ren's military exploits over the past few years, he is not weaker than King Qin, right?"
Zhang Wenguan was silent for a moment and then said: "It cannot be compared."
"That's about it. King Qin defeated Western Qin, defeated Liu Wuzhou, the battle of Hulao in Luoyang, and the great victory in Luoshui." Li Zhaode pointed his fingers enthusiastically, "Brother Huairen did not mention the great victory in Wei County, but also the great victory in Yanmen, and the three defeats of the Turks last year.
Another great victory in Jingzhou..."
Zhang Wenguan didn't say anything else. Although he was not good at military strategy, he had heard Su Dingfang, Ling Jing, and Li Shan discuss that King Qin's military achievements were unparalleled, but in fact, the battle that best reflected his commanding ability was not the Battle of Qianshuiyuan, the Battle of Baibi, and
The world-famous Battle of Hulao Pass was the Battle of Luoshui and the Battle of Luoyang.
Li Shimin led an army to conquer the Central Plains in the third year of Wude. At that time, Wang Shichong was very powerful and had a large territory. However, Li Shimin used his superb command ability to divide them one by one, destroy the enemy, cut off the grain roads, and forcibly blocked Wang Shichong in Luoyang City.
Unable to move.
The battle at Luoshui was similar. Li Shimin even suffered a big loss in the early stage. The famous Luo Shixin died in the battle, but in the end the grain road was cut off and Liu Heitai was forced to fight on the side of Luoshui.
Zhang Wenguan thought to himself that Li Shan did not show such overall command ability. Even the great victory in Jingzhou and the war in Yuanzhou were based on points and did not involve complex command decisions.
Thinking of this, Zhang Wenguan's thoughts flew wild. Li Shan's sudden appearance made the current situation in the court become very mysterious...at least in his opinion, because he did not believe that Li Shanzhen had always remained neutral.
"It's a pity that my father refused, otherwise I really wanted to follow my sixth brother to Xiaoguan to have a look." Li Zhaode became frustrated when he talked about this. Li Kai, the magistrate of Baiquan County, was ordered to lead the people to the north to transport grain, grass and ordnance.
"Brother Demou should be here soon." Zhang Wenguan murmured: "Brother Huairen mentioned in the letter that cold air enters the body..."
"It shouldn't be a serious problem, right?" Li Zhaode suddenly laughed, "It seems that the memorial of merit has just been sent to Chang'an?"
"Um?"
"Guo Xiaochun's memorial..." Li Zhaode laughed and said, "It's like recruiting Yuan Junzhang back then."
Zhang Wenguan couldn't help but smile. When King Li Shenfu of Xiangyi sent a letter to the court, Liu Shirang rebelled, Li Huairen and Cui Xin were trapped in Mayi. As a result, the news soon came that Li Shenfu was driven to Lingzhou, and some
reasons for this.
It's similar this time. Guo Xiaoke's memorial has probably been sent to Beijing, and the memorial to report his merits will only be delayed for a day or two before he can enter the court. By then, Guo Xiaoke will really become a joke.
When the two of them were talking about Guo Xiaoke, hundreds of miles away in Xiaoguan, Li Shan, who was leaning on the bedside, also looked at Master Li, Li Kai and his son speechlessly, "Does Guo Xiaoke have a grudge against someone?"
"This man was born in Wagang. He was highly regarded by the King of Qin during the Battle of Hulao in Luoyang, and he was quite familiar with Li Shiji..." Li Keshi was also speechless.
This matter is causing a lot of trouble...the left hand is beating the right hand. If it's just a beating, that's fine. The problem is that it's brought to the imperial court.
Li Kai was even more speechless. He had personally heard Li Shan instruct the messenger to be careful when sending troops from Longzhou and not to rush in... As a result, Guo Xiaoke knew that the main force was attacking that city area, so he chose to rush in with light troops, trying to take the lead. As a result,
He failed to succeed and was defeated by Liang Luoren in a heavy snowfall. Who can blame him?
Long Governor Shi Yang had read the memorial and asked Zhang Wenxi to write a letter to Zhang Wenxi. The letter mentioned that the King of Handan attacked Guyuan on a snowy day regardless of the casualties of his soldiers. There were widespread complaints in the army and the soldiers had no fighting spirit...
He even said that if Guo Xiaoke hadn't run so fast, Longshan Pass would have been lost.
All in all, the blame falls on Li Shan and Guo Xiaoke is not responsible.
Li Kai whispered: "I heard that Guo Xiaoke was quite extravagant in Longzhou. The bed curtains and utensils in the military tents were mostly made of gold and jade, so many soldiers were unhappy."
Li Shan sighed, Li Shimin had many heroes under his command, but many of them were birdies... Look, Yang Ze has written a letter to complain.
In fact, Li Shan didn't care about Guo Xiaoke's memorial, but the problem is that in this war, from himself, Zhang Zhongjian, and Duan Decao who attacked Xiaoguan, to Su Dingfang and Xue Wanche who led the attack on the city, and then to Dou Gui, who was in the army,
Li Daoxuan, everyone has merit, but Guo Xiaoke has no merit.
There must be an extremely sharp contrast between this memorial and the memorials that have already been sent to report the merits. In this case, Guo Xiaoke's position as the general manager of Longzhou is not safe.
A few months ago, Li Shan put in a lot of effort to get Luo Yi away, in order to prevent the position of Longzhou's general manager from being controlled by the prince's lineage... Once there are changes in Chang'an, as long as they pass through Qizhou, Longzhou's troops
Being able to quickly enter Jingzhao is an extremely unstable factor.
If Guo Xiaoke gets out, maybe this position will fall into the hands of the East Palace... The reason is very simple. Guo Xiaoke is the favorite general of the King of Qin, so Li Yuan is likely to exclude the King of Qin's lineage when considering his successor.