Chapter 2424: Surprise attack on Chencang, then declared war
After hearing what Li Jing said, everyone present was shocked.
What did they just hear? Not only did this attack on the Tang Dynasty involve 170,000 elite soldiers, including Li Jing, Wu Qi, Wang Jian, Gongsun Xuanyuan and many other famous generals, but also Li Cunxiao, Sun Lingming, Yuwen Chengdu, Jiang Song and other peerless generals?
Such a lineup is more than enough to defeat the Tang Kingdom, let alone win Guanzhong!
All the civil and military personnel present believed that this battle was a sure win, but Li Jing did not think so.
Although the Tang State's national power was weak and its army's morale was not high, it had many top civil servants and generals.
There are seven war gods on the bright side, namely: Li Yuanba, Yang Jian, Ma Shanwei, Gao Siji, Kong Peng, Wang Shi, and Wang Xiang.
There are a lot of divine generals, including: Xin Wenli, Shang Shi and Disciple, Kang Anyu, Gao Siji, Gao Xingzhou, Kang Junli and so on.
There are also many famous marshals, including: Li Shimin, Li Xiaogong, Zhao She, Yu Wentai, Li Siyuan, Li Mu, Li Zuoche, etc.
To put it bluntly, Tang is the country with the strongest talent lineup besides Da Qin.
If it weren't for being sandwiched between the Qin, Sui, and Shu kingdoms, without much room for development, and if the development momentum was completely interrupted by the Qin Dynasty, the scale of Tang's power would never be limited to Kansai.
In addition to these things on the surface, there is an even more terrifying force behind the Tang Kingdom, and that is Taoism.
Taoism is the strongest and most mysterious sect among hundreds of schools. Once it fully supports the Tang Dynasty, God knows what powerful figures will emerge?
Therefore, it was easy for Da Qin to defeat the Tang State and even easier to occupy Guanzhong, but it was not easy to destroy the Tang State, at least it was not the time yet.
Ying Hao launched the second Battle of Guanzhong. He had no intention of destroying the Tang Dynasty from the beginning. He just occupied Guanzhong in advance and severely weakened the Tang Dynasty. By the way, he was testing the Taoist reaction.
"Grand Governor, just tell me, how should we fight this battle?" Qin Yong asked impatiently.
Li Jing tapped his fingertips on the table and said sixteen words with a sneer.
"First seize Chencang, then break through Sanguan, seal the pass, and catch turtles in the jar."
When Wu Qi, Wang Jian, Gongsun Xuanyuan and others heard this, their eyes suddenly lit up.
Although what Li Jing said was small, it contained a lot of information and basically pointed out the strategy for this battle.
Three of the four major gates in Guanzhong have been occupied by Da Qin, leaving only Sanguan still in Li Tang's hands. If he wants to break Sanguan, he must first capture Chencang.
Once Sanguan is successfully captured, all roads from Guanzhong to the outside world will be completely blocked. Even if other forces want to support Guanzhong, they will have no way to support it. Then the initiative will completely rest with Great Qin.
It is not impossible for the Qin Dynasty to deal with the Tang army however it wants. It is not impossible to even capture Tang Gong Li Shimin alive and completely annihilate the Tang army in Guanzhong.
But it is obviously not easy to capture Sanguan.
As the only channel to the outside world, Li Jing knew the importance of Sanguan, and Li Shimin naturally knew it, so he attached great importance to the defense of Sanguan.
There are a total of 120,000 Tang troops in Guanzhong, including 60,000 veterans, one-third of whom are scattered defenders, and the guard is Li Siyuan, the general of the Li Tang clan.
As early as the first Guanzhong War, Li Jing proposed the strategy of "seizing the four passes and locking the Guanzhong", but he failed to reach Sanguan City and was blocked by Li Siyuan outside Chencang City.
If you want to seize Sanguan this time, Li Siyuan will be the biggest obstacle.
Neither Wu Qi nor Wang Jian expected that Li Jing would repeat his old words and once again propose the strategy of blocking Guanzhong. To be fair, this strategy was good, but it was also very difficult to implement.
Wang Jian stood up and said: "Grand Governor, if you want to capture Sanguan, you must first capture Chencang.
For our army, there is only one chance for a sneak attack. Regardless of success or failure, it will definitely alert the enemy.
If Chencang is raided, even if Chencang can be captured, Sanguan will definitely receive the news. It will not be easy to break through Sanguan when they are on guard.
The final general believed that rather than using this opportunity in Chencang, it would be better to directly send troops to surprise Chang'an.
If the city of Chang'an is destroyed, then Guanzhong will be settled. "
"Yes, that's right, what the deputy governor said makes sense."
Yue Yun, Xue Dingshan and other generals agreed one after another. After all, if there is a chance to directly attack Chang'an, why should we beat around the bush to defeat Sanguan?
Li Jing explained with a smile: "The reinforcements from Sizhou have not arrived yet, nor have Generals Li Cunxiao, Sun Lingming and others. With only Yongzhou generals, even if they can sneak in by sneak attack, they may not be able to completely occupy Chang'an City. It is better to seize Sanguan and trap the Tang army to death. It can also minimize losses.”
After hearing this, everyone reacted.
Although Sizhou's 100,000 elite troops, as well as generals such as Li Cunxiao and Sun Lingming, will come to participate in the Guanzhong battle, they have not yet arrived in Guanzhong, so they still have to rely on themselves in the early stage.
But without Li Cunxiao, Sun Lingming and others, just relying on the words of General Sizhou, even if they invade Chang'an, they may not be able to stop the counterattack of Li Yuanba, Yang Jian, Kong Peng and others.
Li Jing's implication is that if Li Cunxiao and Sun Lingming don't come, Chang'an can't be conquered with only one hundred thousand people present, so it's better to retreat and attack Sanguan the next best thing.
But in everyone's opinion, although the difficulty of breaking Sanguan is lower than Chang'an, it is not much lower.
If you want to break through Sanguan, you must first break through Chencang, but if you break through Chencang, Sangguan will definitely be on guard against such a big movement.
The difficulty of breaking through a defensive level is different from that of an undefended level.
All the generals present were aware of this, and it was impossible for Li Jing not to realize it. Since he dared to propose the strategy of "locking the pass" again, he was naturally sure to capture Chencang and Sanguan at the same time.
Li Jing looked down at a foreigner with blond hair and blue eyes, and asked: "Prefect Bi, you are responsible for the estrangement within Li Tang. Did General Chencang successfully instigate rebellion?"
"Reporting to the Governor, Magistrate Chencang has decided to join Da Qin, but Magistrate Chencang does not have much military power, and it is impossible to open the city gate."
Although this man does not look Chinese, he speaks fluent Chinese and his behavior has been Chineseized. He is Bismarck.
Bismarck's implanted identity was that of mixed Han and Hu. He was originally a minister of the Tang Dynasty, but he suffered discrimination from the top officials. Even if he had outstanding political achievements, he was not promoted. He was just a county magistrate.
After the Qin army attacked the Tang Dynasty, Bismarck saw the opportunity and surrendered to the Qing army in Kaicheng. He also persuaded many county magistrates of Zuo Fenling to surrender together, and then he was promoted to the county minister of Zuo Fenling by the Qin Dynasty.
After becoming a county minister, Bismarck made many great achievements one after another in the past year, so he was promoted to prefect.
Bismarck was just a small county magistrate in the Tang Dynasty, but after surrendering to the Qin Dynasty, he became the governor of a county. His experience made many Tang officials envious, and they all wondered if they would be like Bismarck if they surrendered to the Qin Dynasty.
It was with this in mind that Li Jing put Bismarck in charge of alienating officials and generals who were specifically responsible for instigating rebellion against Li Tang.
Over the past year, with Bismarck's continuous efforts, he has naturally achieved considerable success.
Among the 17 counties of the Tang State in Guanzhong, many county magistrates had actually been instigated by Bismarck to rebel and secretly defected to Qin. Once the Qin army sent troops, these counties would also directly defect.
At the same time, many surrendering civil servants and generals in Chang'an were also instigated by Bismarck to rebel, but they just lacked a suitable opportunity to defect.
Everyone was a little disappointed when they heard Bismarck say that he only instigated the rebellion against the Chencang County Magistrate.
Unlike other county towns, Chencang is an important town, easy to defend but difficult to attack. It is guarded by specialized generals. Without military power, a mortal county magistrate is naturally not that important.
"Although Chen Cang Ling cannot control Chen Cang, through Chen Cang Ling, his subordinates have also set up another line, that is Chen Cang's guard Li Sizhao's deputy general Li Cunjin, and he has also agreed to abandon the secret and surrender to the Qin Dynasty." Bismarck said unhurriedly said.
"Okay, with Li Cunjin as the internal response, Chen Cang can be defeated overnight.
After the army breaks through Chencang, they can continue to attack Sanguan without stopping, without giving Li Siyuan any chance to react, and break through Sanguan in one fell swoop. Jia Fu said with excitement.
The generals nodded one after another, obviously thinking that this method was feasible, at least it was more reliable than directly attacking Chang'an.
"There are not only Li Siyuan in Sanguan, but also three powerful generals: Kong Peng, Wang Shi, and Wang Xiang, so there can be no carelessness in this operation."
After saying that, Li Jing's eyes fell on Gongsun Xuanyuan below and ordered: "General Gongsun, the task of surprise attack on Sanguan is left to you. The governor will give you 20,000 fine cavalry. In addition, Yuwen Chengdu, Pei Yuanqing, Huang Tianhua, Qin The five generals Yong and Yue Yun will also help you."
"Thank you, Commander-in-Chief, for your trust. Gongsun Xuanyuan will definitely live up to his great trust."
Gongsun Xuanyuan clasped his fists and said in a deep voice.
After saying that, Gongsun Xuanyuan directly accepted the order and left, while the five generals Yuwen Chengdu, Pei Yuanqing, Huang Tianhua, Qin Yong, and Yue Yun followed closely behind.
After Xuanyuan and others left, Li Jing said again: "We, the Qin Dynasty, have come to the country in a dignified manner and declared war without declaring it, which will be unpopular. Therefore, I am going to send someone as an envoy to Chang'an to hold Duke Tang accountable and declare war on the Tang Dynasty."
Wu Qi, Baili Xi and others looked at each other with something strange, and they obviously knew what Li Jing wanted to do.
Li Jing only said that he would send an envoy to declare war, but he did not say how the envoy would go. If he went slowly, by the time the envoy arrived in Chang'an, Sanguan would have been captured. After all, Xuanyuan had all the cavalry under his command.
This cannot be called a war without declaring it, it should be called a war with a post-declaration. Although there is only one word difference, the implications are huge.
You, the Tang State, accused me, Great Qin, of going to war without declaring it, but I clearly declared it. It was just that the envoys were a little slow in moving. By the time they arrived, the war was over.
Who should be blamed? Anyway, you can't blame me, Da Qin. If you want to blame it, you blame Tang State for being too weak. You couldn't even hold on for just two days.
Li Jing was thinking about the overall plan in his mind, and then asked: "My lords, who is willing to be the envoy?"
Ban Chao, the youngest and least qualified among the civil servants, was the first to stand up, clasping his fists and saying, "I'm willing to go."
