The news that the Sui army had completely wiped out Li Xiaogong's army on the eastern front reached the Sui army camp on the western front, and the Sui army camp was filled with joy.

After more than a month of confrontation, the Sui army took the initiative and finally achieved a brilliant victory. The remnants were intercepted by Xu Shiji, the chief Shi Dugu Huaien was captured, and Li Xiaogong led less than a thousand people to flee back to Xiangyang.

This is a battle that determines the entire Central Plains pattern. The end of this battle means that the Tang Dynasty will be completely driven out of the Central Plains, Li Mi retreats eastward, Dou Jiande fights internally, and Wang Shichong defends the lonely city, which indicates that the Central Plains will become the territory of the Sui Dynasty.

In the camp, the Sui soldiers were singing and dancing happily, celebrating the victory of the Eastern Front in their own way, while the central army's tent was very quiet. The curtains inside and outside were lowered, making the light in the tent dim. Yang Yuanqing stood alone in front of the sand table, staring at the sand table, but his mind was full of thoughts.

Although the victory on the Eastern Front is exciting, as the head coach of the entire army, Yang Yuanqing needs to remain calm at this most critical moment.

As he expected, the great victory of the Central Plains was his step by step and made far-sighted. If the whole game of chess still fails, it will only prove Li Jing's serious incompetence.

At this time, Yang Yuanqing was most concerned about the next move. He had just received news that Chen Len of Jiangdu had surrendered to Li Mi, which meant that Li Mi's power moved eastward and took the most critical step.

At the same time, he also received another news that Du Fuwei's 30,000 troops were defeated by Shan Xiongxin in Xucheng County, Xiapi County, and Du Fuwei led only hundreds of people to escape back to Liyang.

Chen Len's surrender and Du Fuwei's defeat caused a huge change in the Jiangdong pattern, and Li Mi's strong entry into Jiangdong was a foregone conclusion.

The failure of the Tang Dynasty in the Central Plains would also force Li Yuan to take a defensive position. Li Mi would concentrate on managing Jiangdong, and what is his next step for Yang Yuanqing?

Although Li Jing suggested expanding his advantage in a letter to him and seizing Jingxiang, Yang Yuanqing was very calm. The front line was too long and the unrealistic blind expansion would eventually lead to his overall defeat.

If he had to choose, he would rather destroy Dou Jiande first and relieve the future troubles in Hebei.

Li Jing didn't know the pressure of the court. But Yang Yuanqing knew better than anyone else. Why Wei Zheng came was because there were huge differences within the court due to the southward transition to the Central Plains.

This year's agriculture is the small New Year, and the general harvest is poor. The Western Turks continue to expand eastward, seriously threatening the security of Fengzhou and forcing the imperial court to return a large number of Fengzhou's population to Hebei, causing the arable land area in Fengzhou to sharply reduce. This year's grain output can be imagined.

The dilapidated Hebei is still a huge burden for the court. It will be difficult to restore vitality without a year or two. In fact, the Sui Dynasty relied on the support of Hedong, and maintained the military rations of 200,000 troops, as well as the huge relief expenses in Hebei. In addition, the harvest this year is not good, the pressure from the court can be imagined.

The capture of the Central Plains was just a military victory, but it was a huge economic burden for the Sui Dynasty, no less than that of Hebei.

The peasant rebellion at the end of the Sui Dynasty brought a devastating blow to the economy of the Central Plains. The savings of the thirty years of the Sui Dynasty were gone. The Liyang Cang and Luokou Cang were all empty, the fields were deserted, and the people were displaced.

As Li Mi moved south, he took away a large amount of food and helped the victims of the Central Plains to transfer the important task of reliance on the Sui Dynasty. The Battle of the Central Plains had already consumed a lot of financial and material resources of the Sui Dynasty, and only 100,000 stones of grain were left in Taiyuan.

This is why the numerous ministers in the court opposed the seizure of the Central Plains. Fighting for dominance of the world is by no means a unilateral military action, without strong national strength. Military expansion cannot go far.

To be frank, a battle in the Central Plains made the Sui Dynasty's financial resources reach the brink of bankruptcy and he was unable to bear the war before continuing.

Just one reward to the three armies after winning the battle is a big problem that makes him Yang Yuanqing’s head a headache. What does he use to reward the three armies?

Yang Yuanqing paced back and forth in the room with his hands behind his back. He was thinking about how to clean up the mess in the Central Plains. Since he had already drunk the fine wine of military victory, he would have to bear the huge pressure brought by the mess in the Central Plains.

All problems are concentrated on food, which is the hard currency of this era. As long as he has food in his hands, he can appease the victims, reward the three armies, and calm the anger of the ministers in the court.

However, the emergence of food takes time. How should we solve the urgent problem now? Yang Yuanqing was worried.

At this time, a personal soldier reported outside the tent: "Report to the Chief Executive, Li Changshi's second battle report has arrived."

He received only a few words in the morning. He urgently needed more news. Yang Yuanqing immediately said: "Come in!"

The personal soldiers walked into the tent and submitted a letter to the eagle. Yang Yuanqing took the letter and took out the silk from the letter tube. The second battle report reported the results of the battle, captured more than 20,000 enemies, and seized a large amount of food and grass military funds.

Yang Yuanqing was not interested in how many military tents he seized. He was more concerned about the food seized at this time. He seized 30,000 stones with the military food. In addition, he seized 100,000 stones of military rations that could not be transported away in Yingchuan County. This is 130,000 stones.

Yang Yuanqing knew that there were at least 200,000 shi of military rations in the Tang Army camp in Changyuan County. Li Shimin withdrew from Guanzhong and could not transport the food away. Then he had more than 300,000 shi of food in his hand, which could be used to provide relief to the hungry people in Henan Province.

With 300,000 stones of grain as the guarantee, Yang Yuanqing let go of his heart.

At this time, his attention turned to Li Shimin's army again. A strange thing happened to Li Shimin's army two days ago. Li Shimin's 80,000 troops evacuated northwest the day before yesterday, but after walking dozens of miles, he turned back to Changyuan Camp. This situation made Yang Yuanqing a little puzzled. What happened here?

Li Shimin now has 80,000 troops. These 80,000 troops are elite troops of the Tang army and have very strong combat power. Yang Yuanqing only has 50,000 troops, and his troops are inferior to the Tang army, and his combat is not very strong.

His army was not the main force of the Sui army, but were all new recruits and some of the Sui army transferred from the surrendered army of Liu Wuzhou and Song Jingang. The combat effectiveness was relatively weak, and the only one who could take advantage of was the five thousand heavy armor infantry.

It was also the outstanding performance of this heavy armored infantry when landing that successfully deceived Li Shimin, making him suspicious and dared not fight with him.

Compared with the advantages of the Sui army on the eastern front, the Sui army on the western front was not optimistic. Yang Yuanqing's 50,000 Sui army not only had to face Li Shimin's 80,000 elite troops, but also had to face 30,000 Tang army reinforcements in Shan County. In addition, Xu Shiji's 20,000 people also went east to support the decisive battle on the eastern front of Yingchuan County.

This made Yang Yuanqing faced a very serious situation, but he finally withstood the test. It should be said that this was a victory of his political strategy, and he successfully used the power struggle within the Tang Dynasty.

Now that Li Xiaogong is defeated, Li Shimin will not fight him easily. These 80,000 troops are Li Shimin's last political force. If these 80,000 troops are weakened again, Li Shimin's political career may end early.

It was precisely because of Li Shimin's mentality of polite battle that Yang Yuanqing's 50,000 troops successfully delayed the 110,000 Tang troops on the Western Front, ensuring a great victory on the Eastern Front.

Now that the game is in the final stage, Yang Yuanqing is also extremely cautious and he cannot have any accidents.

At this moment, another soldier outside the tent reported: "Reported to the general manager, the Tang army in Changyuan County evacuated northwest again, with only a thousand ox carts in the baggage."

The news came at the right time, and Yang Yuanqing immediately ordered: "Sorry Xie Yingdeng to lead 5,000 cavalry to Changyuan County quickly, and be sure to capture the Tang army camp."

.........

Li Shimin had never considered a decisive battle with the Sui army. He led his army to the Central Plains to attack Luoyang, rather than to fight Yang Yuanqing. So when he heard that Yang Yuanqing led his crossing from Mengjin, he resolutely decided to give up attacking Luoyang and retreat to Hongnong County.

The first attack on Luoyang was Li Shimin's suggestion. Li Yuan finally made up his mind, which was the result of his repeated persuasion. If Li Yuan took Luoyang to remove the nail in his eyes and open the door of the Tang Dynasty to enter the east, then Li Shimin's request to attack Luoyang had a profound political purpose.

Of course, he also wanted to take Luoyang, and taking Luoyang would add a huge political bargaining chip to him, but he also knew that Yang Yuanqing would definitely send troops to interfere. In this case, he hoped to put pressure on the court through Yang Yuanqing's troops and let his father send troops to help.

He knew very well that the troops left in Guanzhong at this time were almost all the prince factions. Once the father agreed to send troops, he would definitely send the prince factions' army. He could take this opportunity to annex the prince's army and completely take the military power into his own hands.

Therefore, Li Shimin proposed to use his troops to fight Yang Yuanqing to fight with his country. This was also due to this consideration. Of course, he would not take the risk of a fight with Yang Yuanqing. Once he took all the military power, he would retreat to Tongguan.

But he did not expect that his father was tempted by Li Mi's migration eastward and sent Li Xiaogong to lead the Tang army in Xiangyang to the Central Plains. This made him feel a lot of pressure. Once Li Xiaogong was defeated by the Sui army, his power would be greatly weakened.

This result made Li Shimin unexpected, and he had to suppress his regret in his heart, and even Fang Xuanling and Changsun Wuji did not say anything.

On the official road west of Changyuan County, a huge army was slowly evacuating northwest. This was Li Shimin's 80,000 main force leading him to retreat westward. He also received a message from Feiying, and Li Xiaogong's army retreated south in panic.

In the north, there were Li Jing's 60,000 troops chasing him, and in the south, there were Xu Shiji's 20,000 troops intercepting him. You don't have to think about him and know what the result would be. Li Xiaogong will definitely be defeated.

Under this circumstance, Li Shimin had no need to confront Yang Yuanqing again. He had to save his 80,000 troops, which was his last political force.

But yesterday another thing happened that made him a little depressed. King Yuanji of Qi rushed to the Shan County army overnight and took over the command of 30,000 new troops from Chang He.

Li Shimin did not expect such a change to happen, which only means that because of something, the father made concessions to the prince.

No matter what the reason was, this disrupted Li Shimin's plan and made his plan to seize the military power of the new army fog.

At this time, Fang Xuanling and Changsun Wuji came on horseback and asked, "Your Highness, is there anything you can do when you come to us?"

Li Shimin pondered for a moment and said, "I want to lead five thousand cavalry back to Tongguan first!"

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