Since Fang Xuanling has been thinking about it all night, he should consider everything carefully, and Zhang Xuan doesn't want to bother with this issue from the details.

Whether to attack Xiangyang is the key to considering the overall situation. Zhang Xuan sent an envoy to Luoyang secretly, hoping to reach an agreement with Wang Shichong to jointly attack Jingzhou. It is said that although Wang Shichong did not clearly agree to this plan, he also agreed.

Judging from the current implementation situation, Wang Shichong has indeed saved the secret of the Sui army's attack on Jingzhou. This is a good thing. In fact, Wang Shichong's increase in troops to Xiyang County and preventing the Tang army from opening up the Nanxiang Road was also a response to Zhang Xuan's expectations.

But more importantly, Wang Shichong was slow to control his troops when he attacked Xiangyang County, which made Zhang Xuan a little dissatisfied. If Wang Shichong attacked Xiangyang, it would put huge pressure on Jiangxia's Tang army. The Sui army would defeat the troops without fighting and force the Tang army out of Jiangxia in one fell swoop.

It is precisely because Wang Shichong has not sent troops to Xiangyang for a long time that the Tang army has two strategic support points in Jingbei, one is Jiangxia and the other is Xiangyang. The two have lost their lips and teeth and are supporting each other. If Jiangxia does not fall, Xiangyang will defend to the death. Similarly, if Xiangyang is not destroyed, Jiangxia will not find an excuse to withdraw its troops and will defend to the death.

This is the fundamental reason why Fang Xuanling proposed to attack Xiangyang first. Zhang Xuan fully understood the background of Fang Xuanling's proposal. He pondered for a long time and said: "It is better to siege the city and attack the aid and force the Xiangyang army to rescue Jiang Xia."

Fang Xuanling nodded, "This is OK, but we must beware of Wang Shichong taking advantage of the empty gap in Xiangyang and sending troops to occupy Xiangyang."

Zhang Xuan sneered, "Wang Shichong has been holding his troops for a long time, and it is very likely that he is waiting for the opportunity to send troops. But I am afraid that he will not send troops. If he is willing to send troops, I will give him Xiangyang."

Fang Xuanling seemed to have some understanding, "Your Highness means"

Zhang Xuan said lightly: "Xiangyang is a huge piece of bait, it can catch big fish that we can't imagine."

The Tang army, besieged on the mountain, waited for four days without waiting for reinforcements from Wuchang County to come. The chief general Li Leishi changed from expectation to disappointment, and finally gradually became desperate. At this time, the Tang army's food was cut off. Apart from breaking through, they had no choice but to surrender.

At this time, Luo Cheng, the chief general of the Sui army, had enough patience to wait. Luo Cheng also wanted to make greater contributions and wait for the arrival of Tang army reinforcements.

But after waiting for four days, the Tang army reinforcements still did not arrive, and Luo Cheng gradually lost patience. He eventually stopped waiting and decided to annihilate the large Tang army on the hill.

As soon as night fell, hundreds of cavalry lit the woods in the southeast. The Sui cavalry had already made preparations and accumulated a large amount of dry firewood and dry grass in the woods in the southeast corner. They just waited for the command of the main general to ignite the mountain.

At this time, the southeast wind was strong, and the fire took advantage of the wind. The smoke suddenly rolled in the woods at the foot of the mountain. The smoke was mixed with the red flames that were constantly sucking and igniting, and the fire quickly spread to the mountain.

Most of the hills were pine trees. The burning of pine needles and pine resin brought a lot of thick smoke, swallowing up the entire hill. The Tang army on the hill began to get in chaos. Some of them advocated surrender, while others insisted on breaking through. The two generals were quarreling, but Li Shilei was unable to make up for a moment.

The Sui army suddenly set fire to the mountain and caught the Tang army off guard. Soon, thick smoke covered the entire top of the mountain. The Tang soldiers could not hide in the woods. In a panic, they began to run to the bottom of the mountain. Li Shilei shouted: "Brothers who break through the siege come with me!"

More than 4,000 Tang soldiers followed Li Shilei to break out to the east. The fire started from the southeast, and breaking from the east was equivalent to going down the mountain along the edge of the fire. Li Shilei considered that the Sui cavalry here might be less.

At this time, there was a sound of begging for surrender on the west and north of the hill. Thousands of soldiers who wanted to surrender surrendered to the Sui cavalry. Thousands of Tang soldiers rushed down the mountain with Li Shilei's leadership. The smoke filled the mountain. Many soldiers could not bear the smoke of the smoke and fell directly into the woods.

"Kill out!"

Li Shilei roared, and thousands of Tang troops followed him out of the forest. Sure enough, because the fire in this area was too big, most of the Sui cavalry were forced to retreat. Li Shilei snatched the direction. Seeing that there were only more than a hundred Sui cavalry at the foot of the mountain, he was overjoyed and led his soldiers to pounce on more than a hundred Sui cavalry.

Seeing that the Sui army was coming fiercely, the cavalry of the Sui army drove back and retreated to the west and north. Li Shilei did not chase him. He turned his horse and led his soldiers to run eastward. He knew better than anyone else that the tens of thousands of cavalry of the Sui army could easily crush and smash his soldiers. Now he took advantage of the opportunity of the Sui army accepting surrender in the west and north to escape. The only chance is that if they can't catch them, they will be finished.

But they only ran for a few miles, and the sound of Sui cavalry shaking horse hooves came from behind. I don’t know how many cavalrymen came to chase them.

Li Shilei was so shocked that he scattered and shouted: "The enemy is chasing you, everyone will go up the mountain to escape!"

The morale of the Tang army soldiers had dispersed, so they no longer followed the chief generals and fled to the mountain. Only by climbing up the mountain and drilling into the woods was the only way to escape from the pursuit of the Sui army.

Li Shilei no longer cared about the soldiers, whipped the war horses twice, and fled eastward with more than a dozen cavalrymen, and soon disappeared into the lush woods.

At this time, Luo Cheng led 5,000 cavalry to come quickly. He was leading soldiers to receive the surrendered Tang soldiers, but found that the number of people was not up to par. News from the east came in time. Luo Cheng realized that he had made a mistake. The enemy general rushed out of the place where the fire was burning, which was exactly a gap in his encirclement.

Luo Cheng was furious and immediately ordered Deputy General Xiao Jinyong to continue to confiscate the surrendered troops. He personally led 5,000 cavalry to chase after him. At this time, night had already fallen, and the surrounding mountains were pitch black. Luo Cheng led his army to chase after him for several miles, but there was no trace of the Tang army soldiers. He was confused and suddenly heard someone shouting: "Give up your life! Don't kill us."

Luo Cheng stopped his horse and turned around. Then he found a group of Tang soldiers hiding behind a big rock on the side of the road and being discovered by the cavalry. More than 20 Tang soldiers were taken out. Luo Cheng urged the horse to meet him and asked, "Where have the Tang army fled?"

A brigade coach said tremblingly: "All brothers have disbanded and fled to their own lives, and most of them have fled up the mountain."

"Where is Li Shilei?"

"General Li escaped. He rode his horse quickly. We couldn't catch up, so we had to hide behind the big stone."

At this time, the Sui army cavalry stopped chasing, and a general asked in a low voice: "General, what should we do?"

Luo Cheng looked at the night. The dark clouds closed at night, and the surroundings were particularly dark, with only thick smoke and fires rising from behind.

"Go back first!"

Although Luo Cheng was extremely annoyed, he was not reckless. If he continued to pursue this, he would easily be ambushed. Anyway, these soldiers were cut off from food and could not run far. I would deal with them tomorrow.

He turned the dock and led his army back to the temporary camp

As the sky gradually became brighter, the fire on the mountain finally went out. The entire mountain was burning black, and broken wood burned into charcoal were everywhere. Although the fire had been extinguished, it was still simmering black smoke. You could still feel the heat waves coming close to the edge of the mountain.

As Luo Cheng judged, just as the sky was dawn, groups of fleeing Tang soldiers came to the temporary camp of the Sui army to surrender. Their food was cut off, and they had to return to Wuchang for at least two days. The soldiers could only face reality, and there might be a way out for surrender.

Teams of Sui cavalry were sent to search the neighborhood. In just half a day, more than 3,000 fugitive soldiers emerged from the mountains and forests and surrendered to the Sui army one after another.

Despite this, more than a thousand people escaped, which made Luo Cheng even more annoyed that the enemy general Li Shilei also escaped. If it weren't for his misjudgment, none of the Tang soldiers surrounded this time would have been able to escape.

At this moment, a team of Sui troops rode on horseback and rushed to Luo Cheng and shouted: "General, the general has arrived, just ten miles south."

Luo Cheng was shocked and hurriedly took the generals to welcome the coach's arrival.

Soon, a vast army slowly came from a distance, and it was the 50,000 army led by Zhang Xuan.

Zhang Xuan was riding on the war horse, looking at the smokey hill from afar. Last night, they saw the fire here sixty miles away. Later, they learned that it was the Sui army setting fire to the mountain and forcing the Tang army trapped on the mountain to surrender. This was beyond Zhang Xuan's expectations. Luo Cheng actually confronted the Tang army for several days before taking action. With such good patience, he has indeed made progress.

"Master, General Luo is here."
Chapter completed!