Hulao Pass, in the military government hall.
Li Shimin was sitting in his seat staring into the distance with his eyes blank. On the desk in front of him was an urgent document from 800 Miles that had just been forwarded from the Luoyang Camp. It described in detail the story of Long Zhi and Li Mi leading his army to sneak into Ziwu. Gu Ben's attack on Chang'an, Li Yuan leading his ministers to flee north to Xianyang, and Liu Wenjing's death remonstrance in front of the palace were accompanied by Li Yuan's imperial edict ordering Li Shimin to withdraw his troops from Guanzhong.
Li Siyuan, Gao Xianzhi, Bi Zaiyu and other generals of the Tang army also stood silently in the hall. Li Shimin treated others kindly. In the past, these generals under his command would discuss matters in the hall without any scruples, but today no one dared to speak.
"Your Highness, Chang'an is the capital of the Tang Dynasty. Its strategic significance is far greater than Luoyang. Now that it has been attacked and occupied by the Sui army, Guanzhong must be devastated. At this moment, Your Highness can only rush the army back to Guanzhong and regain it with thunderous momentum. The best policy is to stabilize people's hearts in Chang'an."
After a long silence, Li Shimin's confidant Du Ruhui, who came with the imperial edict, was the first to break the silence.
Seeing that Li Shimin was still silent, Du Ruhui carefully scanned the generals around him with his peripheral vision and confirmed that all the generals in the hall were Li Shimin's direct descendants. Then he spoke in a low voice: "Your Highness, Your Majesty has now given orders for His Majesty to withdraw his troops and return." Guanzhong, if His Majesty resists and disobeys the decree, how will His Majesty give you another chance to lead the army in the future?"
"Alas -" Li Shimin let out a long sigh and said: "Keming, don't you know these Gu you are talking about? But Gu led his army to fight bloody battles with the Sui army in Luoyang for nearly two years, and he lost countless soldiers before he was able to contain it. The main force of the Sui army marched into Luoyang, but now they have to hand over the entire territory of Luoyang to Yang Gao'er. How can I have the face to see those soldiers who died in battle!
What's more, after Yang Gao'er wins Luoyang, his momentum will definitely become more powerful. On the other hand, in the Tang Dynasty, not only did we not capture an inch of land during our many eastern expeditions, but we lost troops and generals one after another. Now, even the capital has been conquered! Keming, this is the first time that Gu has no confidence in the future of Datang! "
At this point, Li Shimin was already holding his head in pain.
Du Ruhui also sighed after hearing this and said in a deep voice: "Your Highness, now we have to admit that the national power of the Sui Dynasty is indeed greater than that of the Tang Dynasty. The Tang Dynasty indeed lost the battle of Luoyang! And now we have What we can do is to bring as many of the hundreds of thousands of main troops back to Guanzhong as possible. These hundreds of thousands of troops are the most elite troops in our Datang Dynasty, so we must not make any more mistakes!"
Although Du Ruhui's words were a bit too ambitious, Li Shimin knew that what he said was all the truth.
During this time, the Sui and Tang Dynasties fought on several fronts, but Li Jiancheng of Qingzhou and Li Xiaogong and Li Shiji of Bashu all lost their troops, cities and territory. Even though they commanded the most elite main force of the Tang Dynasty, they did not lose their lives to the Sui army. Get some benefit.
Everyone in this world can deceive themselves and others, but there is only one kind of person who cannot, and that is the superiors. They must always recognize the reality and make the most correct response. Otherwise, there is only a dead end waiting for them.
"Keming, you are right!"
Li Shimin is indeed one of the most outstanding emperors in history. Although he was extremely reluctant to admit it, he still nodded and said: "The Sui army is far more powerful than our army. Xue Rengui, Chang Yuchun, Li Jing, Yue Fei, Qin Qiong, Zhang Xun and others are all independent generals, and brave generals such as Li Cunxiao, Yuwen Chengdu, Gao Chong, and Xue Kui emerge one after another. A small partial army general, Long Zhi, dares to do such a thing as a surprise attack on Chang'an. With the strength of our Tang family alone, there is no way We can’t deal with the Sui army!”
"What His Highness said is absolutely true!"
Du Ruhui nodded heavily and said loudly: "I believe that if we want to defeat the Sui Dynasty, we must contact all the forces we can contact. Zhu Yuanzhang and Yuan Chu in Hebei, Temujin outside the Great Wall, Wanyan Aguda, Yelu Abaoji and others Goguryeo and Japan are all forces we can contact, and when the time is right, we can even besiege the Sui Dynasty from all sides!"
Li Shimin nodded slowly: "When I return to Chang'an, I will advise my father. I will follow the example of Su Qin who united the six countries to fight against the violent Qin, and contact all the forces in the world to temporarily put aside their past grudges and work together to deal with Yang Gao'er."
"But the most urgent task right now is to find a way to bring the main force of the Tang Dynasty back to Guanzhong. If all these soldiers and horses are lost here, let alone contacting forces from all over the world, these ambitious guys will probably destroy us. If Tang is a soft persimmon, everyone will come and take a bite!"
Li Shimin changed the subject, took the map from the desk, spread it out, and said in a deep voice: "As far as I know, Sui general Yang Yanzhao has led 40,000 elite troops to set up camp in the Wanxiang Mountain area, the main road from Hulao Pass to Luoyang. , blocking the retreat route to Luoyang."
"Your Highness, rushing from Hulao Pass to Luoyang does not necessarily require passing through Wanxiang Mountain. Here, I used a small path to bypass Yang Yanzhao's headquarters."
Du Ruhui said cautiously: "Although this path is steep and difficult and does not allow large groups of soldiers to pass, it can still pass hundreds of people without any problem."
