Cheng Yaojin killed the Li family envoy, and the news that Xu Shiji surrendered to Wang Junlin reached Chang'an.
This news certainly made Li Yuan and his son depressed and frustrated, but what was causing them the most trouble and headache right now was another matter.
The army of horse thieves in Mayi County has been frequently dispatched recently, plundering the grain, grass, population and other resources in Hedong and Chang'an border counties under the control of the Li Yuan Group, and sneak attacks on some military villages.
Naturally, the Li Yuan Group could not remain indifferent, and immediately dispatched a large army to encircle and suppress the abominable horse thieves in Mayi County. Unfortunately, these horse thieves could always get the news in advance, and mobile warfare and guerrilla warfare were carried out very smoothly. Every time, the Li Yuan Group's army was in vain.
You may suffer losses if you are not careful.
Li Yuan was furious and prepared to send more troops to encircle the horse thieves. Unexpectedly, Wu San, the warlord leader of Pingliang County, and Shangguan Hu, the warlord leader of Tianshui County, suddenly each commanded 30,000 troops to hunt on the border of Guanzhong.
Li Yuan was extremely angry and sent people to negotiate. Wu San and Shangguan Hu spoke uprightly and drove the Li family envoy out. They were joking, we are hunting on our own territory and it is none of your business.
The Li Jiajun just spent more than half a year to defeat Guanzhong, which consumed a lot of troops, financial resources, money and food. Although they would not regard Wu San, Shangguan Hu and the horse thieves of Mayi County as opponents of the same level, they did not dare to underestimate them. In addition, the king of the Far East Army
Jun Lin was watching eagerly from the side, but Li Yuan didn't want to start a war with these three forces for a while.
Speaking of Li Yuan's group's army attacking Guanzhong, most of the nobles who secretly supported him were Guanlong nobles. With the secret support and cooperation of these local snakes, the early stage of the attack went very smoothly. In more than two months, all the people except Chang'an City were conquered.
The central counties and counties were captured, and the losses were not much.
But it will be different when we attack Chang'an City.
Under Wang Junlin's instructions two years ago, the Military Intelligence Bureau, Xiaoyu Theater, the Martial Arts Guild and the Lan Yiwei forces worked together to make unified plans. In the past two years, a lot of foreshadowing has been laid in Chang'an City, especially the large number of shipments that have been brought in.
Hand grenades and gunpowder packets forced the Li army to take more than three months to capture Chang'an City, with the loss of a full 60,000 troops and countless money and food.
Fortunately, only the horse thieves in Mayi County were plundering and harassing everywhere, and the warlords in Tianshui County and Pingliang County were only military deterrents and did not directly send troops. Guanzhong and Chang'an were able to have some peace, otherwise Li Yuan would be even more troubled.
However, there was one incident that greatly compensated for the Li Yuan Group's losses in Guanzhong.
Under the vigorous operation of the intelligence organization controlled by Li Shimin, coupled with the efforts of various powerful families behind Li Yuan, in these days, the Sui Dynasty Army and the Xiaoguo Forbidden Army who had escaped from Luoyang and even Yangzhou, as well as the children of the Guanlong nobles, arrived in Guanzhong one after another.
Among them, there were more than 100 civilian officials and military generals who escaped, and more than 40,000 middle- and lower-level officers and soldiers.
In addition, many aristocratic families moved their families from the Central Plains and Luoyang to Guanzhong, which provided Li Yuan with great support in terms of financial resources, talents in various fields, and money and food.
Li Yuan was overjoyed and gave important responsibilities to the civil and military officials from Luoyang and Yangzhou, and granted them official positions one after another. All ordinary soldiers were also recruited with generous military pay and land.
After the news came out, all the noble families and nobles in the world praised Li Yuan as a generous elder who had the air of an emperor.
In a good atmosphere, the Guanlong nobles and powerful families fully supported Li Yuan. All major families had money and strength to contribute. The Dugu family alone donated three million stones of grain and one million taels of silver to Li Yuan.
Li Yuan's treasury was abundant and his troops were well-prepared. The escape of 30,000 imperial troops and the Xiaoguo Imperial Army replenished and strengthened Li Yuan's military strength.
In addition, Li Yuan recruited all the mountain bandits, rebel bandits, horse thieves and green forest heroes in Guanzhong. Not only did he make up for the original loss of troops, but the number of troops in Guanzhong reached as many as 250,000, of which Guanlong's children accounted for
Half, plus the hundreds of thousands of troops from Hedong, his army is close to 400,000, and its power is unprecedentedly powerful.
After repeated requests and petitions from all the family members and Li Yuan's civil and military officials, Li Yuan pretended three times, declined three times, and lied three times. He changed his name from Duke of Tang to King of Tang, becoming the second person with a different surname in the world besides King Qin An.
King of.
Li Yuan officially changed the army under his command to the Tang Dynasty Army, or Tang Army for short, and reorganized and intensively trained all the troops under his command in Chang'an, which effectively improved the combat effectiveness of the troops and increased his family's control over the 400,000-strong army.
Of course, this process has always been accompanied by the process of dividing the cake between the various wealthy families behind Li Yuan and the Li family, and there are inevitably some conflicts. However, under the attempted failure of major events, various wealthy families are very restrained, and Li Yuan has always dealt with such matters.
He is handy and experienced, and has generally achieved a balance. There will be no major conflicts within the Li Yuan Group in the short term.
Aiming at the threat of the difficult horse thieves in Mayi County and the warlords in Pingliang and Tianshui counties, Li Yuan ordered Liu Hongji to lead an army of 50,000 to build a city in Qianshuiyuan, with Hou Junji as deputy general responsible for defending the northern road and encircling and suppressing the horse thieves in Mayi County.
He also appointed his second son Li Shimin as the marshal of the East Route Army and Dou Kang as the deputy commander. The two led an army of 80,000 to defend the Far Eastern Army and Luo Yi of Youzhou might launch an attack at any time.
He also appointed Li Shentong as commander-in-chief of the West Route Army and Li Gui as deputy general, commanding 50,000 troops to defend against the two warlords Wu San of Jincheng County and Shangguan Hu of Tianshui County.
Li Xiaogong also served as the commander-in-chief of the Southern Route Army. During the attack on Guanzhong, Li Xiaogong commanded 50,000 troops of the Southern Route Army. He defeated the rebel Zhu Jie in Shangluo County, recovered Shangluo County, and invaded Hanzhong Bashu. He began to plan the Sichuan-Sichuan War.
land.
It has to be said that Li Yuan's series of troop reorganization and readjustment of troops was very sophisticated. Although it cannot make the territory under his command impregnable, it can at least initially prevent the enemy from outside the territory.
Unfortunately, just when Li Yuan was deploying his troops in all directions and singing his triumphant song in succession, a piece of news came that made him extremely panicked.
Mayi County officially declared its surrender to King Qin An to the people of the world, and the 50,000 horse thieves also became a battalion of the Far East Army, and were given the name Pegasus Camp by King Junlin.
If this was the case, although the Li Yuan Group was angry, they were not surprised because they had long known that the horse thieves in Mayi County were from Wang Junlin.
Unfortunately, news came soon after that Wang Junlin appeared in Mayi County, and Yuchi Jingde, a famous general of the Far East Army, led an army of 50,000 Tiger Battalion, and also appeared in Mayi County without anyone noticing.
In Chang'an City, the original imperial palace of the Sui Dynasty, in the Hall of Wude, Li Yuan had been sitting in front of the huge sandbox created by the Far Eastern Army for almost three hours, watching that except for the Sichuan-Sichuan direction and the Luoyang direction, all other directions had been formed by the Far Eastern Army.
Li Yuan felt a little afraid in his heart due to the encirclement.
Although he was powerful at this time and had already taken control of Guanzhong and planned the world, what Wang Junlin had done in these years was really too prominent and scary.