Chapter 2234: Not enough elites, so soldiers come to join us
While Huo Qubing was still cleaning the battlefield, Li Shimin had returned to Chang'an.
The Qin army that invaded Guanzhong posed too great a threat to the Tang state. As soon as Li Shimin returned to Chang'an, he immediately summoned Du Ruhui, Li Kui and other counselors to discuss how to annihilate Huo Qubing's troops in the shortest possible time and where to deploy troops for encirclement and suppression.
During the Sizhou Battle, 150,000 Tang troops invaded Sizhou, but in the end only 80,000 people escaped back to Guanzhong.
Afterwards, the Qin and Tang Dynasties faced off at Tongguan. Li Shimin mobilized another 20,000 troops to Tongguan, and gathered a 100,000 troops to confront the Qin army. At the same time, he also ordered various places to urgently expand their troops.
Li Shimin had exhausted all his plans, but he never expected that Li Jing would attack Tongguan in the open and attack Wuguan secretly.
The fall of Wuguan changed the Qin army's main attack direction from Tongguan in the east to Wuguan in the southeast.
In order to prevent the Qin army from going straight to Chang'an through Wuguan, Li Shimin personally sent 40,000 troops to Lantian, leaving Li Keyong to lead 60,000 troops to guard Tongguan.
Li Shimin wanted to stop Li Jing in Lantian, but unfortunately he failed. Lantian was quickly captured by the Qin army. The Tang army lost 10,000 elite and 10,000 county soldiers and retreated to defend Aoguan Pass.
In addition to the 20,000 elite Tang troops, there were also 30,000 county soldiers in Aoguan. However, these tens of thousands of troops could not stop Li Jing's army of hundreds of thousands, so Li Shimin prepared to transfer 40,000 elite troops from Chang'an to Aoguan.
But what Li Shimin didn't expect happened. The Qin State actually sent Huo Qubing to lead the cavalry to attack Xiaoguan by surprise over a distance of more than 3,000 miles.
Not only did Xiao Pass be captured in less than a day, but the 40,000 troops who came to support were unable to advance or retreat, and had to fight the Qin army decisively.
The Tang army rushed to a decisive battle, and the result was as expected. Only 5,000 of the 40,000 elites were left, which made the situation of the Tang state even worse.
Before the war with Qin, although the Tang State had 300,000 troops nationwide, it only had 230,000 elite soldiers, and the rest were county soldiers with weak combat capabilities.
In the battle of Sizhou, the loss was 70,000, Wuguan lost 5,000, Lantian lost 10,000, Xiaoguan lost 5,000, and Qixian lost 35,000.
The Tang State has lost 125,000 elites. Although the total strength has not decreased after the expansion of the army, there are only 105,000 elites left.
Of these 105,000 elite soldiers, 60,000 are in Tongguan, 20,000 are in Aoguan, and 10,000 are in Hanzhong. The remaining elite troops add up to only 15,000.
Judging from the current situation, the Tang State has been forced to a dead end. If you are not careful, not only will the country be in danger, but it will even be in danger of subjugation.
If you want to wipe out Huo Qubing's cavalry, you must dispatch elite troops, but the current situation in Tang State obviously cannot mobilize so many elite troops.
So the question is, where should we mobilize our troops?
In addition to the three counties of Guanzhong, the Tang State also had three counties of Hanzhong, three counties of Longxi, and three counties of Qiang, for a total of twelve counties.
Hanzhong is now threatened by Han Xin, and Li Xiaogong has too much time to take care of himself, so the troops in Hanzhong must not be moved.
The elite troops from Longxi and Qiang regions had been transferred to Guanzhong long before the war. The new army after the expansion was no longer needed, and even if it was recruited, it was already too late.
So we still have to rely on the army in Guanzhong.
After some discussions, Li Shimin made the following adjustments:
Forty thousand troops were transferred from Tongguan, 20,000 infantry were transferred to Aoguan, and another 20,000 infantry were transferred to Wuzhangyuan.
Then from Jing Zhaoyin and Zuo Feng Ling, they each transferred 10,000 county troops, and a total of 20,000 county troops were stationed in Tongguan.
Under this arrangement, the Tongguan garrison will be reduced to 40,000, including 20,000 elite soldiers and 20,000 county soldiers.
The garrison at Yaoguan rose to 50,000, including 30,000 elite soldiers and 20,000 county soldiers.
Such an arrangement can only treat the symptoms, but not the root cause, so Huo Qubing must be defeated as soon as possible.
There are still 80,000 troops in the barracks in Chang'an City, including 10,000 elite soldiers and 70,000 county soldiers.
Li Shimin decided to personally go to Wuzhangyuan with 10,000 elite cavalry and 20,000 troops.
Including the 20,000 elite infantrymen in Tongguan and the 10,000 garrison troops in Wuzhangyuan, the total is 60,000 troops.
In addition, Li Shimin also ordered Li Siyuan, the governor of Youfufeng, to lead 20,000 troops to support, including Gao Siji's 5,000 elite cavalry.
After all the troops from all parties arrive, the Tang army will have 80,000 troops in Wuzhangyuan, including 35,000 elites and 20,000 cavalry.
As long as they are deployed properly, there will be no problem in dealing with Huo Qubing's 30,000 cavalry.
There are not enough elite soldiers, so miscellaneous soldiers come to make up the troops.
Li Shimin had made up his mind to eliminate Huo Qubing's army, even if it cost them lives.
On the way to Wuzhangyuan, Li Shimin was suddenly alerted.
"Report... to report to my lord, the Qin army did not take advantage of the victory to pursue it, but chose to stay in Qixian County to rest and recuperate."
After hearing the news, Li Shimin couldn't help but secretly thought it was a pity.
The Qin army traveled a long distance and experienced two consecutive battles, suffering a lot of losses. Now they must be exhausted and their combat effectiveness is greatly reduced.
If the leader of the Qin army is arrogant and continues to advance aggressively, Li Shimin will lead his army to wait for work at Wuzhangyuan, and he is absolutely sure to defeat the Qin army head-on.
It's a pity that Huo Qubing is not that kind of person and will never give Li Shimin this opportunity.
"Report... Lord, after the Qin army rested in Qian County for two days, they left 5,000 defenders to guard Qian County. The remaining 25,000 cavalry, under the leadership of the general Huo Bing, are heading towards Wuzhangyuan. "
"Haha, Huo Bing'er only has an army of 35,000. When he goes deep alone, he doesn't concentrate on fighting, and he still divides his troops. He is simply asking for death."
Huo Qubing had already left 5,000 troops in Xiaoguan, and now he had left another 5,000 troops in Qian County. This was naturally good news for Li Shimin.
Huo Qubing went deep into the army alone. He already had insufficient troops, no logistics, and no retreat, but he still dared to divide his troops in this way. This was obviously a taboo for military strategists.
The Qin army's cavalry had extraordinary combat power. If 35,000 cavalry were to gather together and fight head-on, Li Shimin would not dare to fight against the Qin army without a hundred thousand troops.
But now Huo Qubing has chosen to divide his troops, which is tantamount to abolishing his martial arts, and Li Shimin is more sure of dealing with him.
After Huo Qubing's main force is eliminated, it will be easier to destroy the remaining 10,000 Qin army's cavalry.
"Huo Bing, who was almost sealed as a wolf, is nothing more than this."
Li Shimin sneered, but at the same time he was a little lucky. He had received the news that because Liangzhou was about to be unified, Huo Qubing sent 30,000 cavalry to support Ma Chao, otherwise Tang would face the 70,000 Qin army alone.
To deal with the Qin Army's 30,000 cavalry, Li Shimin recruited troops from all over the place, but only managed to gather 80,000 troops. If the Qin Army's 70,000 cavalry came to Guanzhong, this battle would really be unwinnable.
Wuzhangyuan is only more than 200 miles away from Chang'an. It is bordered by the Qinling Mountains to the south and the Wei River to the north. There are deep ravines in the east and west. The situation is dangerous, easy to defend but difficult to attack.
Zhuge Liang once stationed troops in Wuzhangyuan and faced Sima Yi across the Wei River. He later died of illness in Wuzhangyuan due to overwork, and Wuzhangyuan became famous all over the world.
(End of chapter)
