In the entire counterattack situation of the Qingzhou army, Tumen Pass was a key point. In order to lure the enemy into depth, Tumen Pass needed to withdraw its troops first and let the Tang army enter Hebei. However, after annihilation of the Tang army entering Hebei, the Qingzhou army had to regain Tumen Pass and completely block the strategic channel to Hebei.

Before, Luo Shixin did not dare to disobey the military orders, so he had to withdraw his troops south and give up Tumen Pass. Although the military orders were difficult to violate, Luo Shixin had already been full of anger. Of course, after receiving the news that Zhang Xuan had recovered Tumen Pass, Luo Shixin immediately rushed to the north and led 6,000 troops to pounce on Tumen Pass.

In the past two days, Qu Tutong was nervously building high-gate walls. Before, Tumen Guanguan was only one meter high, which was difficult to stop the army's strong attack. It must be raised to two meters, which is similar to ordinary city walls to barely have a defensive effect.

Unfortunately, although Qu Tutong's idea is good, it is obviously unrealistic to complete it in a short period of time. Imagination is always too simple and ideal, but actual operation is another matter. First of all, you need to open mountains, chisel stones, repair and recruit a large number of laborers. For the cooperation of the local government, you need to do countless fine and tedious things. Just dragging the huge stone to the Tumen Pass requires a lot of manpower and material resources. But where does the manpower come from? Where does the material resources come from?

It was not until this time that Qu Tutong finally realized why the wall of Tumen Pass was only ten feet high, because it took a lot of effort to build a wall of this height.

Finally, Qu Tutong adopted a compromise plan, using soil bags to increase the wall closing. Although the effect is far less than that of the stone wall, it is also a countermeasure.

Unfortunately, even with such a simple response, Qu Tutong could not complete even half of it because the Sui army did not give him time.

Qu Tutong received an urgent report from the spy that the Sui army general Luo Shixin had led 6,000 to 20 miles to Tumen Pass and continued to advance towards Tumen Pass.

The reason why Qu Tutong is called a famous general has his own uniqueness. Qu Tutong attaches great importance to intelligence and pays attention to the details of intelligence. For example, general generals only ask the other party how many troops and equipment they have, and Qu Tutong is more concerned about who the enemy's chief general is?

By analyzing the enemy's chief general, he knew his response. If it were Wang Bian, Li Jing, Xu Shiji and others, Qu Tutong would know that the combat effectiveness of the opponent's soldiers would not be too strong. The opponent's chief general was Luo Shixin. The former famous general of the Flying Eagle Army and the elder general who followed Zhang Xuan, Qu Tutong knew that the 6,000 people under Luo Shixin must be the most elite soldiers.

At the same time, Luo Shixin is known as the Overlord Gun and is very brave in combat. Qu Tutong knew that Luo Shixin would definitely attack Tumen Pass and would face a tough battle.

But compared to Luo Shixin, Qu Tutong was more worried about Li Shuliang's army and Sang Xianhe's army as a supporter. Luo Shixin was the guard of Tumen Pass before. He deliberately retreated so that the Tang army could advance eastward. Now he has killed him again, which shows that Zhang Xuan has begun to fight back.

Although there was still no news from Luo Yi, Qu Tutong had guessed the truth. I'm afraid Luo Yi was finished. Zhang Xuan's army had already arrived in Youzhou. If this were the case, if Li Shuliang went deep alone and no one would respond, it would be a lot of danger now.

Qu Tutong sighed in his heart. Originally, this Eastern Expedition plan was a very visionary strategic layout. He used Zhang Xuan's opportunity to intercept Yu Culture and enter Hebei and join Luo Yi's army. At that time, it was too late for Zhang Xuan to withdraw back to Hebei in a hurry.

Unfortunately, the prince chose the wrong breakthrough direction and marched from Hanoi County. The prince's personal feelings for Hanoi County affected the overall situation. If he adopted his own plan from the beginning and directly entered Hebei from Jingxing, the overall situation would probably be decided now.

Although the prince's wrong direction missed the opportunity for war, what really caused Li Shuliang to fall into danger was the last blind decision of the Tang King. The Tang King wanted to reduce political pressure through military victory, but the final result was probably contrary to his wishes. He was defeated militarily and politically at the same time.

Just as Qu Tutong was pondering, a cavalry rushed over from a distance, rolling up dust. When the cavalry rushed to the wall, Qu Tutong was secretly surprised. He knew that it was a personal soldier of Sang Xianhe. He saw that he was covered in blood and a crossbow arrow was inserted on the back of his shoulder. The man could still hold on, but the horse could no longer do it. As soon as the war horse ran to the wall, it fell down, lying on the ground, twitching with four hooves, foaming at the mouth, and the cavalry was also thrown by him for more than ten feet away.

A soldier had already stepped down the wall and lifted the cavalry up the wall. The cavalry had fainted at this time. Qu Tutong urgently ordered the military doctor to treat him. Soon after, the cavalry woke up. Qu Tutong immediately squatted down and asked, "What is the situation in Zhending County?"

The cavalry was extremely weak and his voice was very low. "Report to the general that Li Changshi had all his army destroyed. We left the city to retreat, but were blocked by the cavalry and had to retreat to Zhending County."

Qu Tutong's scalp was almost exploded, and he was unfortunately guessed that Li Shuliang had already destroyed his entire army. He asked anxiously again: "How many enemy troops are there?"

Qu Tutong asked twice in a row, but the cavalry could no longer answer the letter, and fainted again. In fact, it was not necessary to ask Qu Tutong that it must be Zhang Xuan's main force who had been killed. Then Luo Shixin was just the vanguard, and it was probably the army led by Zhang Xuan behind him.

"General, what should we do?" several generals asked in a low voice, everyone's faces full of worry.

Qu Tutong was really embarrassed. The wisest decision in this situation was of course to evacuate, but what should I do if Sang Xianhe was evacuated?

Moreover, Li Shuliang's entire army was destroyed, and he Qu Tutong escaped. Will Li Yuan spare him?

After pondering for a long time, Qu Tutong sighed and said, "First guard Tumen Pass and wait for the prince's order!"

Qu Tutong then turned around and asked, "Is there any news about the crown prince's army?"

Several soldiers shook their heads and said there was no news, which made Qu Tutong feel a little strange. According to the plan, the prince's army should have arrived at Tumen Pass for a long time, but it has not been delayed and no news has come. Could something happen again later?

At this moment, a soldier behind him shouted: "The prince has sent someone to deliver a letter!"

Qu Tutong didn't expect any coincidence that all the news was delivered at the same time. He hurriedly said, "Get the letter quickly!"

After a moment, the sender presented a letter, and Qu Tu asked through the letter: "Where is the prince now?"

"You report to the general, the prince has retreated to Xigu Pass."

Qu Tutong was stunned, "Why is this?"

The sender sent the letter smiled bitterly and said, "I heard that a fire broke out in the logistics grain camp, burning all the food and food supplies. The prince had no choice but to withdraw his troops and return."

Qu Tutong didn't say anything for a while. With Wang Bodang's caution, how could the logistics grain camp catch fire? Needless to say, he must have been secretly attacked by the Sui army scout. He opened Li Jiancheng's letter again.

Li Jiancheng's letter was quite long. The first thing in the letter was that Zhang Gongjin found out the situation in Youzhou. Zhang Xuan's army had captured Youzhou. Luo Yi's whereabouts were unknown. Li Jiancheng was very worried about Li Shuliang's situation in the letter. He ordered Qu Tutong to send someone to inform Li Shuliang to withdraw his troops immediately.

Seeing this, Qu Tutong sighed in his heart. It was too late to inform him now. He shook his head and continued to read. Li Jiancheng wrote a self-blame behind him, saying that he would never shirk responsibility, but in the end he asked Qu Tutong to accept Li Shuliang's army and withdraw back to Bingzhou together.

Qu Tutong showed a wry smile on his face. As expected, Li Jiancheng's meaning was actually very simple. To put it bluntly, if Li Shuliang did not withdraw, he would not even think about withdrawing his troops.

He raised his head and glanced at the generals. Seeing that everyone was looking at him expectantly, obviously hoping to order the withdrawal of the troops. Qu Tutong shook his head and shouted loudly: "Tell me my order, the whole army is ready to fight!"

An hour later, the 6,000 troops led by Luo Shixin finally appeared in the distance, and the army did not immediately join the attack. Although Luo Shixin is known for his bravery and is also full of anger, he has experienced many battles and has rich practical experience. He knows what to do before the attack.

Luo Shixin looked at the wall in the distance, and found that there had been great changes in the wall in just a few days. First, three-foot-high mud bags were piled up in the southern section of the wall, and secondly, three long ditches were dug within two hundred steps of the wall. They looked quite wide, but the depth was unknown.

However, these could not stop Luo Shixin's determination to attack Tumen Pass. He pointed to the large grass in front of him and ordered: "Send fifty scouts to check the grass for me!"

Fifty scouts ran away. They held shields in their hands and lined up and crawled on the ground to check the situation in the grass, mainly to check whether there were no iron thorns or caltrops. Luo Shixin suffered a great loss when attacking Xu Yuanlang a few years ago. Xu Yuanlang sprinkled countless venomous iron thorns in the grass. As a result, hundreds of soldiers were attacked, and nearly two hundred unfortunately died of poison. The lesson was remembered by Luo Shixin. Before siege, he would never dare to launch a hasty attack.

After a while, fifty soldiers came back one after another and reported to the head brigade coach: "There are no iron thorns or caltrops a hundred steps away from the gully."

Luo Shixin nodded. Generally speaking, scattering caltrops will never be spread within a hundred steps. If there is no more than a hundred steps, it means that the other party has not used this trick.
Chapter completed!