..Huoyi County is guarded on the official road in central Hedong. The mountains on both sides are continuous for hundreds of miles, making Huoyi County the only way to go north to Taiyuan and the throat of Taiyuan. It has an extremely important strategic position...

In every war for Hedong, Huoyi is an unavoidable hurdle. For ordinary people, they may be able to find mountain paths to bypass Huoyi County, but for the army carrying baggage, Huoyi County is the fort they have to face...

At this time, Huoyi County was occupied by the Sui Army in Fengzhou, with 5,000 garrisons, commanded by Cui Pojun, the general of Yingyanglang. Cui Pojun was about twenty years old and came from the Cui family of Boling. His grandfather was Cui Hongsheng, the former prefect of Zhuo County. Cui Pojun studied and practiced martial arts since he was a child and was highly valued by Yang Yuanqing. He handed over the important task of guarding Huoyi County to him. He did not disappoint Yang Yuanqing and defended Huoyi as if it were an iron barrel.

Huoyi County is not big, with a circumference of only more than ten miles and a permanent population of more than 20,000, but the business is very developed. There are many shops on the three streets, and there are as many as thousands of merchants, mixed with fish and dragons.

That morning, in front of an inn on the back street of the county town, Cui Pojun personally led hundreds of soldiers to surround the inn. The soldiers held shields in their hands and slowly approached the inn, and shot cold arrows from the inn from time to time.

"The people inside came out to surrender, spare your lives!" Several soldiers shouted repeatedly.

Early in the morning, Cui Pojun received a report from the county magistrate that someone found that more than twenty people of unknown origin were hiding in the inn, carrying swords and not going out. Cui Pojun immediately guessed that this was probably an enemy spy, so he brought people to arrest him personally.

"General Cui, I refuse to surrender!" An officer stepped forward to report.

Cui Pojun's eyes showed anger and immediately ordered: "Light the fire and burn the room, and if it doesn't come out, it will be burned to death!"

The county magistrate was startled and hurriedly stepped forward and said, "But the general, the inn shopkeeper and several merchants were also inside, and they were taken hostage by them."

"Set fire!" Cui Pojun ordered coldly.

Torches were thrown into the inn, and thick smoke rolled in the inn, and the flames spread rapidly. After a while, more than twenty people rushed out with knives and shouted to kill the soldiers around them. Hundreds of soldiers around them fired arrows at the same time, screaming. In a moment, they shot all twenty people to the ground.

The soldiers put out the fire again, searched the inn for a moment, and found more than a dozen intelligence that had been written and had not yet sent. They submitted it to Cui Pojun. "Report to the general, this is the information found."

Cui Pojun opened the information and read it, and was furious. "Who guarded the South Gate yesterday?"

A lieutenant stepped forward tremblingly, "Last night, I was on duty to guard the South Gate."

Cui Pojun angrily scolded him: "Last night someone was able to climb over the wall from the southwest corner to enter the city. This is your dereliction of duty. Push it down and beat a hundred military sticks!"

More than a dozen soldiers dragged the captain down, and Cui Pojun felt that there were still loopholes in defending the city, especially at night. If Li Shimin's army attacked at night, it would be dangerous and he had to plug all loopholes.

He immediately ordered: "All officers above the lieutenant went to the military yamen to discuss matters!"

............

Three days later, Li Shimin led a 70,000 army to Huoyi County. In addition to the 50,000 army brought from Guanzhong, the rest were all from the armies of Hedong counties. Li Shimin learned the lesson that Li Shuliang's army was defeated by each of them, and no longer divided his troops to go north, but concentrated his troops to go north to Taiyuan.

The camp of Li Shimin's army was built three miles south of Huoyi County. A tent was neat and arranged for several miles, and in the central army's tent. Li Shimin was discussing plans to go north to Taiyuan with deputy general Qu Tutong, military advisor Fang Xuanling, marching Sima Changsun Wuji, and Wu Shigui, chief food and supplies manager Wu Shigui.

Li Shimin was a little worried and paced back and forth in the tent with his hands behind his back. He had just received a report from a spy that Huoyi County had closed the city gate and had more than twenty heads hung at the gate. It was the scout who sent to ambush in Huoyi County. Unfortunately, he also received another news.

Li Shimin sighed and said, "I just got another news from the spy. The small road in Gaobiling has been blocked by Fengzhou military with huge rocks. Now we have no other way to take Huoyi County except for a hard attack."

He looked at the deputy general Qu Tutong again, and saw that he had been thinking and silent, he smiled and said, "Elder General Qu Tu, I want to hear your opinion."

Qu Tutong has been silent since he entered Hedong. The old scenery in Hedong made him sad. In just a few months, he felt that he had reached his next life. The past was so far away from him. He also understood that Li Yuan trusted him on the surface, but in fact he was still guarded against him, so he tried to keep a low profile and not participate in decision-making.

Now Li Shimin asked him on his own initiative, making him unable to answer. Qu Tutong hesitated and said, "I will consider the matter of Taiyuan again. Based on my understanding of Yang Yuanqing, he should have taken Taiyuan now. If we go north, can we regain Taiyuan?"

Several people were stunned for a moment, and Li Shimin hurriedly asked him, "Why did you see that Taiyuan has been lost?"

"When he was in Hedong County, Qin Gong told me that Yang Yuanqing did not attack Taiyuan, and I felt a little uneasy, because Yang Yuanqing was a person who planned and moved before he could move, and he would never let himself be passive. He could not know that we went north. Since that was the case, he was not in a hurry and did not attack Taiyuan City. I felt that he was actually sure to capture the city and was just waiting for the opportunity."

Everyone in the tent was silent, and everyone had to admit that Qu Tutong's statement made sense. Changsun Wuji said again: "General Qu Tu just said that Yang Yuanqing was sure to take Taiyuan, but it does not mean that he had already taken Taiyuan City now."

Qu Tutong smiled bitterly, "If we take Huoyi County in one day and the cavalry can reach Taiyuan City in just two days at the fastest, then we may arrive at Taiyuan within three days. Yang Yuanqing also understands this. He still needs to control Taiyuan and prepare for the battle. Three days are too urgent for him, and he will not let himself be so passive, so I think he has taken Taiyuan at this time and is actively preparing for the battle."

Li Shimin walked to the map and stared at the map. He felt that Qu Tutong was right. In fact, Qu Tutong knew everything in his heart. He should communicate more with Qu Tu. It was his biggest mistake to be indifferent to him along the way.

Thinking of this, Li Shimin turned around and asked Qu Tutong softly: "I would like to ask the old general, if we continue to go north to Taiyuan, how much will the old general think we have the chance of victory?"

This question is indeed difficult to answer. After thinking for a long time, Qu Tutong slowly said: "Let me talk about two things! The first thing is that in the ninth year of Daye, Yang Yuanqing's power expanded south to six counties in the north of Guan. I was ordered by the emperor to lead 50,000 troops to fight back against Yang Yuanqing's southern invasion. At that time, the emperor entrusted me with full authority, and I could even wait for an opportunity to retake Fengzhou, but I had been stationed in Yan'an County and never had a war with Yang Yuanqing, because I knew that my logistics could not keep up with me. If the war started, I would definitely lose. Instead of losing a big way, it would be better to retain the strength of the emperor 50,000 troops. So I endured for two years. In the end, what proved me was right, and my 50,000 troops became the main force in Luoyang."

Qu Tutong said it very implicitly, and he actually told Li Shimin. If it were him, he would not fight this battle with Yang Yuanqing, but would keep the army.

Li Shimin understood what Qu Tutong meant. After pondering for a moment, he asked again: "What about the second thing?"

"The second thing I want to show Qin Gong something."

Qu Tutong walked to the door of the tent and ordered the soldiers to say a few words. The soldiers immediately ran towards his camp. After a moment, Qu Tutong's personal soldiers walked up with something, like a plate, three feet wide and a piece of cloth covered with it.

The personal soldiers carefully placed the items on the table, and everyone surrounded them. Qu Tutong lifted the cloth covering it. Everyone exclaimed in surprise. It turned out to be a terrain plate, with the mountains, rivers, terrain and cities on it made of clay sculptures, which were vivid. Fang Xuanling looked at it for a while and suddenly recognized, "This is Hedong County!"

Qu Tutong nodded. "This is made by myself and it is very rough, but I think this kind of map is more military than ordinary paper maps. He can tell us very clearly how to march and fight. If we use this clay map to fight, we will have much greater confidence in winning."

Li Shimin stared at the map, and after a long time he sighed softly, "I know that Ma Yuan of the Eastern Han Dynasty once made a mountain of rice. But he had never seen the real thing, and today he was eye-opening."

He glanced at Qu Tutong again and asked, "Is this a wonderful method that General Qu thought of?"

Qu Tutong shook his head, "This is the second thing I want to say. This is Yang Yuanqing's military item. I once caught a Fengzhou army scout. He told me that in Yang Yuanqing's central army tent, there are complete clay maps of Hedong, Guanzhong, and Hebei, three meters long and two meters wide. Yang Yuanqing has always used this map to deploy the battle situation."

The big tent was silent again, and Qu Tutong still didn't say it clearly, and still implicitly told everyone that Yang Yuanqing not only had a clever combat map, but more importantly, he had already begun to make a plan to capture Hedong. They were facing a premeditated, prepared and powerful enemy.

Fight or not?

...........

Everyone retreated, and only Li Shimin and Fang Xuanling were left in the central army's tent, and Fang Xuanling was called by Li Shimin.

Li Shimin sighed and said, "The person I admire most since I was a child is Yang Yuanqing. I still vaguely remember the first time I met him was in Renshou for four years. I was in a wine shop in Xianyang. I was only six years old at that time. I was very interested in his weapons. He was only fifteen years old and his sky-breaking spear had more than one hundred kilograms. He said that his most powerful thing was not weapons. I thought he was talking about bows and arrows. When I grew up, I realized that his most powerful thing was not weapons, but soldiers, commanding thousands of troops."

A ray of sunlight shone into the tent through the oil tiles on the top of the tent, shining on Li Shimin's face. He seemed to be immersed in his memories of the past. Fang Xuanling sat aside and listened quietly to his remarks without interruption.

"A few years ago in Zhuo County, he told me what a commanding arrow is. The commander is to plan and then move. Everything is in control. I felt a sudden enlightenment at that time, but it was difficult to do it. For example, this time, my father forced me to go to war and did not give me time to deploy calmly, which made me rush to send troops. A few days ago, the scout who had just sent to Huoyi County was killed. If I could deploy one month earlier, I would not be as passive as today."

Li Shimin turned his eyes to Fang Xuanling, and there was a deep worry in his eyes, "I responded in a hurry, and Yang Yuanqing made a calm arrangement. To be honest, I have no confidence in defeating him in my heart."

.........

[After reading it, vote for a recommendation!!] To be continued...
Chapter completed!