The suspicious messenger Li Menglong was indeed the person sent by Sibi Khan to contact Ambassador Li Yuan. Originally, Sibi Khan also knew that doing so would be risky, and the consequences would be unimaginable if there was an accident, but there was no way, Li Yuan never sent anyone to establish Stable and reliable communication channels, the traitor who betrayed the Turkic army's sneak attack plan is also in the throat. If you don't quickly find out this damn traitor and kill him, Shibi Khan, let alone kill the Sui army King Qin's army and break through Yanmen City, will be in Daying He didn't dare to close his eyes while sleeping in bed, so he had no choice but to bite the bullet and take the initiative to send someone to contact Li Yuan, asking Li Yuan to help investigate this damned Turkic traitor.
Of course, while actively sending someone to contact Li Yuan, Shibi Khan and Ashina's family inevitably had some grievances against Ambassador Li—Chen Sangliang set up a trap to ambush the Turkic army. Why are there so many casualties? Ashina birth rate and why the head fell? So while relying on Ambassador Li's help, Shibi Khan and Ashina's family were not very reassured about Li Yuan, and secretly decided that even if they received Li Yuan's tip, they should carefully investigate the authenticity before doing anything, so as not to be caught by the Sui army. Tricks, wronging the innocent and causing civil strife.
The messengers were dispatched, and the number of casualties in the defeat of the sneak attack was also counted. To the great annoyance of Shibi Khan and Ashina's family, less than 40,000 of the 60,000 troops who went south for the sneak attack fled back to the camp. The tragedy made the thin Turkic tribe feel extremely heartbroken. At the same time, the siege camp that was attacked by the Death Squad of the Yanmen Defense Army also suffered a lot of losses. Because of being caught off guard, more than 1,400 Turkic soldiers died tragically under the knife of the Death Squadron of the Yanmen Army, but more than half of the 500 Death Squadrons of the Sui Army The troops fled back to the city smoothly, Shibi Khan was furious and personally beheaded the two Turkic commanders who took the lead in fleeing for their lives, but he still couldn't let go of his anger.
This is not the only thing that made Shibi Khan and Ashina's family angry, and the performance of Tuojiehu soldiers on the battlefield in the Sui army camp also made Shibi Khan and Ashina's family furious—the Turkic defeated soldiers truthfully told Shibi Ke Khan reported that after being ambushed by King Qin and the Sui army, Tuojie Hubing frantically waved his butcher knife at the Turkic soldiers in order to escape, and killed the Turkic soldiers even more ruthlessly than the Sui army soldiers. Soldiers pushed into the sea of fire and burned to death, deliberately pushed Turkic soldiers into trenches, and even deliberately chopped Turkic soldiers into trenches to make way for them. And feet, almost every Tuojie Hu soldier deserves death, and every Tuojie Hu soldier should be put into a sack and trampled to death with a thousand horses!
No matter how popular these Tuojie Hu soldiers are, there is nothing they can do. As I said earlier, the Turkic army is composed of three parts: Fuli, Control String, and Tuojie. The elite, but limited by the small number of productivity, are basically used as guards; It is worse, they have received less formal military training, their combat effectiveness is uneven, and their equipment is also good and bad. Basically, they rely on a large number of people and a large number of bows and arrows to fight. It is used as an elite dead soldier at critical moments.
In this way, the importance of Tuojiehu soldiers in the Turkic army is extraordinary. These mercenaries from Central Asia are not only tall and powerful, but also proficient in melee combat, assault, riding and shooting, and are also cruel and tyrannical in nature. Not only is he not afraid of seeing blood but also likes to see blood. He is the most ideal charge soldier in the era of cold weapons. Although the hiring price is higher, the discipline is also so-called worse, and the character is too greedy and capricious, it can just make up for the Turkic army. The weakness of insufficient elite soldiers, even members of the Shibi Khan and Ashina family, had to be polite and respectful to these Tuojie Hu soldiers, and could not be killed as they said to ordinary Turkic soldiers, so Shibi Khan and Ashina No matter how big the Huoda family is, they can only pretend to be ignorant of what they did and not pursue it.
Gossip is far away, let’s get down to business, on the night when he took the initiative to send someone to contact Li Yuan, Shibi Khan held a military meeting in his sweat tent to discuss the next battle plan. King Qin's Sui army also showed a strong combat power that cannot be ignored. It is obviously impossible for the Turkic army to fight on two fronts. Therefore, Ashina's family agreed not to attack Yanmen City for the time being, and concentrate their main forces to deal with King Qin's Sui army. However, on the issue of how to deal with King Qin's Sui army, the Ashina family had huge differences, and there were three completely different combat opinions.
Let’s take a look at the three different combat ideas. One is based on the defense, and wait for an opportunity to attack while holding on to the camp, looking for the weakness of the Sui army’s weakness, and then launch a fierce attack against the weakness of the Sui army; the second opinion is a full-scale decisive battle. Taking advantage of the fact that the overall strength of the Turkic army is still stronger than that of the Sui army, launch a full-scale decisive battle as soon as possible to crush and win; the third tactical suggestion was put forward by the Turkic general Ashina Simo, suggesting that a light cavalry should be allocated at the beginning and end Going south, detoured to the rear of the Sui army, to destroy and cut off the food and grass supply line of the Sui army, so that King Qin and the Sui army lost their food and grass supplies without fighting and chaos, and Ashina Simo volunteered to take on the task of cutting off food.
If it is replaced by the Central Plains army, the second of the three tactical opinions is undoubtedly the most suitable. It will overwhelm the enemy with force and give full play to the manpower advantage of having a large number of troops. Weakness and sparse population are the fatal wounds of the Turkic army. In a decisive battle with the powerful Sui army of King Qin, even if they win, they will suffer heavy casualties, and even the gains outweigh the losses. Therefore, Shibi Khan, who is still quite competent, first abandoned this plan, concentrated on considering the first and third tactical opinions, and once asked Ashina Simo: "Simo, if I give you a How sure are you that Qingqi will cut off the barbarian army's food route?"
"Forgive me, Khan. This will not be guaranteed." Ashina Simo replied truthfully, "Because the general still doesn't know the size of the barbarian's grain team, how many troops are escorting them, and who are the barbarians?" The famous general leads the army to protect, so the last general can only go back to the barbarian's rear to play by ear, and can't give you a guarantee now. But one thing the last general can guarantee is that the last general will try his best to prevent the barbarian army from transporting food forward. Even if it cannot be completely cut off, it will definitely make it extremely difficult for the barbarian army to supply food and grass, making it impossible to fight with peace of mind."
The fact-seeking answer made Shibi Khan worried and dissatisfied, and Shibi Khan shook his head and said: "Since you are not sure, it is best not to take risks. Our army has to surround the tyrant Yang Guang while meeting the barbarian reinforcements. We are already being attacked on both sides, so it would be best if you split your troops to the south and cut off the barbarian’s food supply, if there is another accident, we will not be able to support it even if we want to, our previous losses are already big enough, we can’t take the risk of expanding it.”
"Khan, but if we don't do this, then it will be very difficult for us to kill the reinforcements of the barbarians?" Ashina Simo insisted: "Why don't you let the last general take only five thousand Qingqi to go south, so that it will be regarded as a successor?" There won’t be too many casualties in any accident, but if we succeed in the end, we will win.”
Shibi Khan was a little moved, but Ashina Yushe, who was chasing him over there, said: "Khan, there is no need to risk dividing our troops. In my opinion, we only need to fight against the wall and we will win. Don't forget, Khan. Xiao Yu, the barbarian official we detained, once said that Chen Yingliang, the barbarian, gave Yang Guang enough food and grass for at most five days. Now two days have passed. We only need to besiege Yanmen for three days, and Yang Guang will run out of food again. At that time, in order to rescue Yang Guang as soon as possible, the barbarian Chen Yingliang would definitely launch an attack at any cost. We will fight calmly, not only can we fight easily, but also have the opportunity to seize the flaws exposed by the barbarian Chen Yingliang's desperate attack and launch a counterattack. This way, we have a greater chance of winning .”
Ashina Yushe brought up the issue of food and grass for the Yanmen defenders, and Shibi Khan realized that he almost forgot the important issue of Yang Guang's imminent food shortage. Seeing that Ashina's family agreed with Ashina Yushe Shibi Khan made some calculations before nodding his head and said: "Good idea, let's do this. Continue to besiege the city and force Chen Yingliang's barbarians to attack us. We will hold on to the camp and look for opportunities to fight back. We will definitely win."
Ashina's family all praised him well, but Ashina Simo sighed quietly, and secretly said: "The terrain around Yanmen is originally relatively narrow, which is not conducive to our Turkic army's combat, and the Great Khan even voluntarily gave up the only one that can be used for mobile warfare." Isn't this taking our weaknesses to compete with the strengths of the barbarian army?"
Sighs are sighs, Ashina Simo, who couldn't be killed by Fengcha because of his blood is not pure enough, spoke lightly, and didn't dare to continue to insist on his opinions, but Shibi Khan over there sighed again, saying: " It's a pity that Duke Tang has not fully attached to us, otherwise, it would be too easy for us to defeat the barbarian army. By the way, after we sent someone to contact Duke Tang today, did Duke Tang reply?"
Ashina's family shook their heads and advised Shibi Khan to continue to wait patiently, because no matter how courageous Li Yuan was, he would not dare to openly send envoys to the north to contact the Turkic army in broad daylight, so even if Li Yuan had any reply, it must be in At night, Shibi Khan thought it made sense, so he nodded and said, "Okay, let's arrange more scouts outside the camp that night, and tell them that if they find someone going north, don't rush to kill them, ask them first. Besides, if Duke Tang sends someone to contact me, no matter how late it is, he will bring him to see me right away."
Everyone agreed, and quickly made arrangements. Then Shibi Khan ordered the tents to be disbanded, and let a group of blood relatives go back to rest. The animal nature is gone, and they have been tossing and tossing until midnight before falling asleep. Most of the Ashina family is like this, but Ashina Simo routinely leads the army to patrol the camp in the middle of the night, loyally taking responsibility for Shibi Khan. Start a night patrol mission.
Not to mention, Shibi Khan was actually woken up once by the attached soldiers at around four o'clock that night. Shibi Khan, who had explained it before, was also overjoyed for a while, and asked if he was Li Yuan's emissary arrival? Fuli's personal soldiers replied truthfully: "Qi Khan, it is not the envoy of Duke Tang who came, but some Tuojie who fled into the mountains last night came back. There are about 30 people. They have checked their identities. They asked Returning to the camp and returning to the army, the camp gate officials dare not make decisions, so they come to ask you for instructions."
"Nine-surnamed Hugou!" Shibi Khan cursed a curse word, and casually ordered these Tuojie to return to the camp, and then got into the bed again, biting the beautiful girl in the bed and fell asleep again , completely regardless of the fact that the girl in her arms was covered with scars all over her body, and she couldn't cry.
The night finally passed, and the next morning, the first thing Shibi Khan said when he woke up was "Is there any news from Duke Tang?" After getting a negative answer, Shibi Khan was very disappointed, so he got up cursing, and then asked casually: "Those Tuojies returned to camp last night? How are they doing?"
"They're all back in camp." Fuli's guards replied truthfully: "They are in good condition, their weapons and armor are still there, but their horses are missing, so I ask Khan to allocate horses for them."
"Hu Gou with the nine surnames, he still has the face to ask me for a war horse after losing a battle."
Shibi cursed again, and when he was about to say something more, there was another report from outside the tent, which read: "Qi Khan, our patrol scouts caught a man in civilian clothes outside the camp. He claimed to be a messenger sent by Tang Duke Li Yuan, asking to see you."
"It's finally here!" Shibi Khan was so happy that he jumped three feet high. He couldn't wait to rush out before even putting on his clothes. Come to see me in the Khan Tent, prepare to interpret, and then, blow the trumpet to raise the tent, and summon all Ashina generals to enter the tent for discussion."
The horn blew, and Ashina's family rushed to the sweat tent to wait for their orders. It was a coincidence that as soon as Ashina's family arrived, a young man dressed as a commoner was escorted into the Golden Wolf sweat tent. Khan Gao sat in the middle, and the young man hurriedly bowed and said, "Mao Fugui, the guard under Li Yuan, Duke of the Sui and Tang Dynasties, has come to visit Turkic Khan Shibi and Khan Jin'an at the order of Duke Tang."
After all, Mao Fugui quickly showed his waist badge, held it up with both hands and said, "This is the identity token of the villain, please take a look at it Khan."
The interpreter quickly translated Mao Fugui's words, and before Shibi Khan gave orders, a soldier attached to him had already stepped forward to take Mao Fugui's badge, and passed it to Shibi with both hands, and Shibi Khan took it for a closer look , I found that it was exactly the same as the Hou Junji badge I caught back then, and I was even more overjoyed. The interpreter next to me also translated the text on the badge, proving that Mao Fugui was indeed Li Yuan's guard. Fu Gui hummed and asked, "Are you Duke Tang's guard? Ben Khan is now fighting Duke Tang. What did he send you here for?"
When the interpreter sent the message, Mao Fugui was taken aback, and then realized that Shibi Khan was testing himself, and said respectfully: "Khan, of course Tang Guogong sent me to work for you. You sent me to contact Tang Guogong earlier. Hou Junji, brother Hou, because Chen Yingliang, Marshal Chen, had already made contact with Yanmen City once, and the person Chen Yingliang sent to Yanmen City to meet the emperor knew Hou Junji. Tang Guogong was afraid that Hou Junji's identity would be exposed, so he let him First, I went back to Taiyuan to hide temporarily, and then sent villains to visit Khan and do my best for Khan."
After hearing the words translated by the interpreter, Shibi Khan remembered that Hou Junji had indeed said that he had met Qian Xiangmin, Chen Yingliang's envoy into the city, and that Chen Yingliang had sent someone to deliver food to Yanmen City. Having seen Qian Xiangmin, Hou Junji's identity might indeed be exposed, and Shibi Khan suddenly realized that, while secretly admiring Li Yuan's meticulousness, he changed his friendly face and said with a smile: "Duke Tang sent you here. What letter did you bring here?"
"Qi Khan, Tang Guogong, for the sake of caution, did not dare to let the villain bring the letter, so that even if the villain was discovered by Chen Yingliang's people on the road, he could still use the excuse that he was a scout disguised as a commoner. Afraid that the letters will be searched." Mao Fugui replied respectfully: "Tang Guogong only asked the villain to give you three messages, and said that you can understand them as soon as you hear them."
"Three messages?" Shibi Khan asked quickly.
"To Khan, Tang Guogong's first message was that he hadn't made up his mind before." Mao Fugui replied in a deep voice, "But now, Tang Guogong has made up his mind and is determined to help Khan defeat his enemy." Chen Yingliang."
"Duke Tang, why did he just make up his mind now?" Shibi Khan hurriedly asked again.
"The night before yesterday, Chen Yingliang once again humiliated Tang Guogong in public." Mao Fugui replied: "In order to boost morale, Chen Yingliang once again mentioned in front of everyone that Tang Guogong's son-in-law forced him to divorce him, and encouraged the officers and soldiers to report to him. Studying, fighting hard, making meritorious deeds and becoming famous, made all the enemies regret. Although he did this to boost morale, we Ambassador Li still felt that we had been greatly humiliated, so we made up our minds to get rid of Chen Yingliang, and this is why we deliberately killed Chen Yingliang in the chaos. Release the Khan and your generals, and let them come back to warn you, the Khan."
After hearing Mao Fugui's introduction, Shibi Khan suddenly realized again, and at the same time as the Ashina family next to him was also awakened, someone asked Mao Fugui, "Then why didn't Duke Tang send someone to warn us immediately, so that we don't have to worry about it?" As for stepping into the trap? Lost so badly?"
Shibi Khan also asked this question, and Mao Fugui replied helplessly: "Khan, it was too late at that time, your army had already begun to reach the edge of the camp, and our Ambassador Li was by Chen Yingliang's side at that time, so there was no time at all. Reporting to you to warn you and secretly releasing your generals is only after our Ambassador Li personally led the army to participate in the war and found the opportunity, so Ambassador Li wants the villain to apologize to you and promises that such a thing will never happen again."
"You dog barbarian, how good is it to make up your mind earlier?" Shibi Khan cursed secretly, choosing to temporarily believe in Mao Fugui's explanation, and then Shibi Khan hurriedly asked: "Then the traitor that Chen Yingliang barbarian planted in our place Who is it, Duke Tang will find out for me?"
"To Khan, this is the second message that Ambassador Li asked the villain to bring to you." Mao Fugui replied, "Ambassador Li said that Marshal Chen Yingliang is very cunning and never announced the name of the traitor, so he It will take some time to find out. However, Chen Yingliang once said in the account of the Chinese military commander that he knew the reason why the traitor betrayed you. He believed very much that the information provided by the traitor was true, so our Ambassador Li suspected that the traitor It is very likely that the people around you, Khan, can know your tactical plan in advance, and for some reason, they really want to betray you."
"Can you know my tactical plan in advance? And for some reason, you really want to betray me?"
Shibi Khan began to ponder in his heart, Ashina's family also calculated and analyzed in their hearts, and one or two immediately noticed Ashina Simo who stood at the end without saying a word—after all, Ashina In the family, Ashina Simo is definitely the most talented one, but because of his lack of pure blood and Turkic ancestral training, he can't get the trust of Shibi Khan anyway.
Still the same sentence, Shibi Khan has only limited trust in Li Yuan at present, even though Shibi Khan has doubts about Ashina Simo, but he dare not believe Li Yuan's envoy immediately, so Shibi can Khan could only temporarily put the matter aside, and asked Mao Fugui: "What is the third message that Duke Tang asked you to bring to me?"
"Report to Khan, the third message from Ambassador Li." Mao Fugui replied respectfully, "It was yesterday evening. Some generals of our army who were familiar with your situation made a suggestion to Chen Yingliang, suggesting that Chen Yingliang buy the The Tuojiehu soldiers caught on the battlefield, and then release them back, incite your Tuojiehu soldiers to rebel and rebel, and cooperate with Chen Yingliang to attack you in exchange for heavy rewards."
"Those generals also said that Tuojie Hubing is the most greedy and has no loyalty at all. As long as Chen Yingliang is willing to ask a price, these Tuojie Hubing will definitely abandon you to Chen Yingliang. Chen Yingliang thought it made sense, so he decided to give it a try, so We, Ambassador Li, ask Khan to be careful..."
Mao Fugui hadn't finished his message, and the interpreter hadn't finished translating Mao Fugui's words, Shibi Khan's face changed, and he jumped up immediately, shouting: "Quick, go and get back from last night immediately." Arrest all those Tuojies, they must be spies sent by the barbarian Chen Yingliang!"