Li Chongbao burned the entire Meilianggou with fire and won the biggest victory since his attack on Jiangzhou.
He excitedly went to the camp to see his father, and the generals in the army looked at him differently. This was truly called a tiger father without a dog son, and finally he did not lose his father's reputation.
Li Siye sat on the throne and looked at his son with satisfaction, nodded and praised: "In this battle, you won the greatest victory with the smallest loss. It indeed exceeded my expectations, but there is no need to be too complacent. In the future, you will still have to pay tribute to
Generals, I humbly ask for advice, and you must know that when three people walk together, there must be one who is our teacher."
Li Chongbao put up a smile and stepped in: "What my father taught me is that I must guard against arrogance and impetuosity, and learn more from the generals."
"Well, although the fire attack is more effective with half the effort, it also causes too much damage and damages the mountains and forests too seriously. The fire in Meilianggou is still spreading. We may have to wait in Jiang County for a while."
There is another Yuan County to the southwest of Jiang County and Wenxi County. It is located between the Zhongtiao Mountains and the Yellow River Bend. The road is steep and difficult to walk due to high mountains and dense forests. It will probably waste too much energy and time to capture it. But.
This county did not have much influence on his control of Jiangzhou, so Li Siye directly ignored it. As long as he occupied Wenxi, it would be equivalent to controlling the transportation artery between Jiangzhou and Puzhou.
They waited for nine days in Jiangxian County, waiting for the fire in Meilianggou to spread to the west of Mingtiao Gang, before leading their troops through Meilianggou and occupied Wenxi.
If Wang Sili couldn't get reinforcements from the court, he would have only a few thousand remaining soldiers in Puzhou, and he could only watch helplessly as Li Siye rolled over in front of him.
Wang Sikong can't expect Deng Jingshan, the military governor of Hedong, now. Even if he is willing to send troops southward, water from far away can't save him from thirsty.
The lieutenant sent by the imperial court had already headed to Taiyuan along the Jinzhou Basin, but this trip was in vain.
When he was anxious, he decided to report the crisis to the court again. If the Hexi Army was allowed to occupy the entire Puzhou, then Longmen Ferry in the upper reaches of the Yellow River and Jinpu Ferry in the lower reaches would be directly occupied by him. He would have to cross the Yellow River to enter
Guanzhong is a piece of cake.
…
Li Heng was lying on the couch, with two eunuchs kneeling on the ground in front of him. One was holding a plate with decoction in his hand, and the other was holding a plate with elixir. He first took the elixir and put it into his mouth, and then stretched out his hand.
He took the decoction and took it.
Li Fuguo stood in front of him, holding the memorandum sent by Wang Sili in his hand, and his voice gradually lowered: "The Hexi Army is coming fiercely. Our army is defeated and can only retreat to Puzhou temporarily. However, the terrain of Puzhou is flat and it cannot be defended with a small number of troops. Please.
Your Majesty, please send troops to help. The situation has reached a critical juncture. If Puzhou loses its defense, Guanzhong will be in danger."
"Pfft!" The half-sip of hot tea that Li Heng had just taken spit out instantly, threw the tea bowl in his hand to the ground, and said angrily: "Wang Sili is useless after all, I should appoint Li Guangbi to serve as the governor of Zelu."
Li Fuguo secretly complained that if he only sent people but not troops, it would be useless to send anyone at this time. Wang Sili always reported good things but not bad things. The fact that he could write this in the memorial showed that he could no longer hold back the fire.
"Your Majesty, it is better to mobilize 20,000 troops from Tongguan and order Li Guangbi to lead an emergency crossing of the river to Puzhou. This can still relieve Pujin's worries."
"Well, that's all we can do now."
Li Fuguo turned around and was about to leave when the emperor suddenly stopped him and said, "Go and invite Li Mi over."
He walked slowly outside the palace with small steps, his pig-kidney face slowly turned gloomy, and he ordered a young eunuch following him: "Go and call Li Mi."
After a while, Taoist Li Mi in white entered the Zichen Hall and went straight to the emperor's bed.
Li Heng sat up from the couch with the support of the palace maid, stretched out his hand to greet Li Mi, and sighed: "When you asked to go back to Hengshan, I shouldn't have listened to the advice of Li Jingzhong and Cui Yuan and let you go. As a result, now
The situation has taken a sudden turn for the worse, and my country is in danger."
Li Mi put the fly whisk on his shoulders and lowered his eyes and said: "This is also the fault of the mountain people. Your Majesty, do you still remember what I said before leaving? No one in this world is determined to rebel since they were born. The choices they made
It's just that his desires and mood change with different circumstances. The former is like An Lushan. If the Supreme Emperor only gave him a town of Jiedushi and 670,000 or 70,000 troops from beginning to end, would he still have the ambition to rebel? The latter is like Li Siye.
, If His Majesty hadn’t suspected him and made him imprisoned in the capital, would he have sneaked out of Chang’an and raised a flag to rebel?”
Li Heng suddenly frowned: "After all, it was my fault."
Li Mi sighed and said, "This is not only your Majesty's fault, but also the fault left by the Supreme Emperor, which gave the rebels the chance to rebel. In fact, I just want to give you advice."
The emperor's worries turned into joy: "Do you have a way to retreat the Hexi Army?"
"have."
"Come quickly."
"I have only two strategies for your Majesty to choose. The first strategy is to re-send envoys to the north quickly, contact Shi Siming, agree to give him all Hedong, Hebei, and Henan, and order him to join forces with Deng Jingshan to go south to attack Shangdang, and send Li Guangbi to separate.
If half of Tongguan's troops defend Puzhou, they may be able to hold on until reinforcements from Shi Siming and Deng Jingshan arrive."
"The second strategy was to take advantage of the mutiny of the Hexi army to raise troops. He neither went north to attack Shi Siming to capture Youyan nor went south to defeat Lu Jiong and Wei Zhi to occupy the east of the Xiangyang River. Instead, he made a plan to move forward into Guanzhong. He just wanted to return to his home base of Hexi.
Why don't your majesty make him the Jiedu Envoy of the Fourth Town of Anxi, Beiting, Longyou River, and let him take a detour from the Shuofang Hetao area into Longyou Hexi. The imperial court can withdraw the small number of troops and horses left in Shuofang and provide the army with the necessary means to detour.
of food and grass.”
Li Heng slowly raised his head and looked at the gauze tent above his head without saying a word. After a while, he said: "It seems that you don't believe that Li Guangbi can defend Puzhou by crossing the Yellow River."
"But I have this hope! Although Li Siye has hundreds of thousands of troops in his hands, he only relies on the 400,000 shi of grain stored in Hanjiacang. In less than three months, his Hexi Army will be unsustainable in the Central Plains and will eventually fail.
The attack was self-defeating. The Hexi Army under his command wanted to return to their homeland, but I failed to do so, causing them to rebel in despair and end up in a place where they would never die."
Li Mi let out a long sigh, crossed his arms at Li Heng and said, "Your Majesty was previously unwilling to accept my suggestion to attack the rebel base of Youzhou from Hedong. Instead, he was anxious to regain the two capitals, which caused Shi Siming to take the throne in Youzhou."
. Now that your Majesty is unwilling to listen to my suggestion to surrender Li Siye, I am afraid that he will give up Guanzhong again and flee south to Shuzhong. I am by no means alarmist, and I hope your Majesty will think twice."
Li Heng raised his head proudly again: "You and Li Siye were old friends in the past. Could it be that you want to find a way out for him?"
This sentence was really hurtful to Li Mi who was devoted to planning for him. The friendship between the two of them was far deeper than that with Li Siye. When Li Heng was the prince, Li Mi was his confidant and gave him
He blocked many open and secret arrows played by Li Linfu. It’s just that Li Mi was well versed in the Taoist strategy of escaping from the world and would never seek to be above the temple. Whenever he was excluded, he would retreat to the mountains to practice Taoism. This is not because he did not have the ability and brains to do it.
Power struggle. But his temperament is inherently indifferent, and he hates the overt and covert struggles between the ruling classes.
In the past, when Li Heng was still a prince, he used to be courteous to virtuous corporals and humbly accept advice. However, now that he has become the emperor of the Tang Empire, he has been dazzled by the power he has obtained. Not only him, there are many people in history who have become kings in adversity.
The tailwind turned to bronze.
He bowed down and bowed to Li Heng, and said calmly: "In this case, the mountain man will leave."
Idle Cloud Yehe and Taoist Li floated away. Li Heng pushed away the medicinal tea handed over by the palace maid and sat on the couch sulking. He lowered his head and was silent for a long time before shouting to the eunuch standing behind the palace pillar: "Go and send a message to Jingzhong.
Let him issue an imperial edict immediately, ordering Li Guangbi to go to Jinpu Ferry immediately, and then send people to ride fast horses to Tongguan, and ask Guo Ziyi to mobilize 20,000, no, 30,000 people to go to Pujin Ferry to cross the Yellow River to guard Puzhou!