Li Jing said he would leave, and Yang Yuanqing was the only one left in the tent. He walked to the tent with his hands behind his back and pondered for a long time. Li Yuan marched towards Jing Xiang. He could not remain indifferent, but he didn't want to show his worries in front of Li Jing.

What he was considering was not how much strength Xiao Xian could preserve, but the change in Li Yuan's strategic intentions changed from Hongnong County to Jingxiang, which was obviously intended to give up the pursuit of the Central Plains and develop to the south.

It should be said that Li Yuan has a very strategic vision. After years of banditry and war, the population has declined, and the red wilderness has been thousands of miles away, and the society has suffered heavy damage. It is difficult to restore vitality without ten years.

On the contrary, the South was not affected by Yang Guang's special protection, and the war was not affected by too many wars. Moreover, Xiao Xian, Lin Shihong, Chen Faxing, Li Zitong and others were all weak. A little stronger was Du Fuwei, but it was difficult for the Tang army to be the opponent.

Guanlong has always been the main source of the Sui army. Its palace troops were strong. Coupled with the Battle of Goryeo and the Yangzhou Rebellion, a large number of soldiers fled back to Guanlong, giving the Tang army an extremely excellent source of troops.

More importantly, the Guanlong nobles had a large amount of money and grain savings, and the world's wealth was ten, and five cents were in Guanlong. It was precisely because of their full support that the Tang army had sufficient money and grain and the soldiers served.

People, money, things and people's will, this is the fundamental reason why the Tang army was able to quickly defeat various forces in history, and it is by no means Li Shimin's personal heroic talent.

Now that they have their own existence and suppressed the development of the Tang army, they cannot enter the Central Plains and can only move to the south. Although they cannot be compared with the Tang Dynasty in history, their strength cannot be underestimated. If they want to unify the world, their biggest enemy is the Tang Dynasty.

If Li Yuan really got to the south, it would definitely greatly improve the strength of the Tang Dynasty and would be very unfavorable to him, which made Yang Yuanqing worried.

Yang Yuanqing thought of himself again, but in fact he knew very well that although he defeated the Tang Dynasty several times, it was because of the foundation established by Fengzhou.

If the troops of the six counties in Guanbei in Fengzhou were added, his total strength was less than 200,000. In addition, the surrendered army in Youzhou was still reorganized in Taiyuan and did not officially form an army.

The number of soldiers is not large but the essence is always the principle he pursues. Despite this, he still has an army of nearly 200,000. If it weren't for the large amount of grain accumulated in Fengzhou in recent years, he could not afford such a large army burden.

Unless he also embarked on the path of Liu Wuzhou and Wei Daoer and fished out of the lake, he would not have thought of defeating the Tang Dynasty and would have to go to the path of destruction in the end.

Among the 200,000 troops, his real elite army was only about 80,000, and the rest were surrendered troops of Liu Wuzhou and Song Jingang, as well as some newly recruited troops. The reorganization took only half a year. If they wanted them to become elite troops in Fengzhou, they still needed training and practical training.

Although he has 80,000 elite soldiers, this is only a temporary strength. His strength is actually not strong. More importantly, Hebei is an easy to attack but difficult to control, and it requires a lot of his energy to be consumed.

This time, the Sui army used 140,000 troops to deal with Dou Jiande's 300,000 troops. In fact, if we only look at war, his 80,000 elite troops would be enough to defeat Dou Jiande's 300,000 troops.

But 80,000 elite soldiers could not control Hebei. Dou Jiande's army itself was formed by accumulating hundreds of large and small forces. Once Dou Jiande was defeated, countless small separatist forces might appear in various parts of Hebei, which would completely destroy the already riddled Hebei society.

The Anshi Rebellion in history was such a consequence. The court was unable to control Hebei, which led to the death of An Lushan and Shi Siming. His generals all relied on their own, forming a situation of separatist vassal states.

Hebei is a gathering place for descendants of border troops in six towns. The people are tough and difficult to control. In addition, there are many remnants of Northern Qi who are hidden among the people. They are not convinced by the Sui Dynasty and are far less easy to manage than Hedong. This hidden danger Yang Yuanqing has to consider.

Despite the difficulty in governing Hebei, he still wanted to fight Hebei without taking the land of Yan and Zhao. How could he fight for the world by relying solely on the Three Jins? Cao Cao also took Hebei first to eliminate the troubles behind him.

"Report to the Chief Executive, the scout has emergency information!"

The report interrupted Yang Yuanqing's thoughts, and his thoughts returned to his eyes and said, "Let him come in and report!"

After a moment, a scout quickly walked into the tent and knelt down on one knee to report: "Report to the general manager, Zhang Ju, the brigade commander of the Second Scout Regiment, is responsible for the collection of intelligence in Zhangnan County. An emergency intelligence has been discovered."

"What information?"

"Bizhi led his brothers to find a fleet of ships in Zhangnan County. There were about a hundred ships loaded with supplies. There were army escorts on the ship and covered with tart cloth. I don't know what it was, but Beizhi found an abnormality on the river where the ship passed."

The scout looked behind him, and a personal soldier stepped forward to put a pottery jar on the table. The scout reported: "This is a little river water collected by Bei Yi from the river behind the ship. There is a layer of black oil floating on it, as if it is tinder oil."

"Tube oil?"

Yang Yuanqing was stunned. He looked into the can, as if there was a layer of shiny things floating on the surface. He stretched out his finger and sucked it in the can. A layer of black greasy thing was stained on his finger. He leaned in front of him and looked carefully, and smelled it again. It was indeed tinder oil.

This made Yang Yuanqing take a breath of air conditioning. Where did Dou Jiande get the turmeric oil? Could it be that the Tang Dynasty supported them? He only knew that the Tang Dynasty had supported Luo Yi and was intercepted by himself.

But regardless of whether it was the support of the Tang Dynasty or not, at least Dou Jiande already had turmeric oil. He immediately asked: "Where is the fleet now?"

"I used three war horses to gallop and arrived at the camp one day and one night, but the ship speed was not fast. I guess the fleet should be less than Dongguang County."

It is about 350 miles from Zhangnan County to Leshou County. According to the scout's description, there should be about 250 miles. Yang Yuanqing asked again: "How many army guards are there?"

"Report to the general manager, there are about twenty people on each ship and more than two thousand guards."

Yang Yuanqing pondered for a moment and immediately ordered: "Go and find General Pei Xingyan to see me!"

After a moment, Pei Xingyan quickly walked into the tent and knelt down on one knee to salute, "I will meet with the general manager!"

"General Pei, the scout found a fleet of ships departing from Zhangnan County and heading towards Leshou County. There were more than 2,000 troops stationed on the ship. I suspect that there was a large amount of tinder oil on the ship. I will give you three thousand cavalrymen. You must destroy this fleet for me."

"I will obey the order!"

Yang Yuanqing said to the scout again: "You can take General Pei to find this fleet. If things are successful, I will have a great reward."

The scout, Lu Shuai, bowed and took Pei Xingyan out of the tent. Yang Yuanqing stood in front of the sand table, staring at the Yongji River, and couldn't help but say to himself, "Where did Dou Jiande get the turbid oil?"

...........

Dou Jiande's capital is in Leshou County, but his hometown Zhangnan County is also an important foundation of his hometown. He has 30,000 troops stationed in Zhangnan County, and a large amount of supplies are stored there.

There was no direct waterway connection from Zhangnan County to Leshou County. Generally, water transported from Yongji Canal to Gonggao County and then transferred to land transportation, which was time-consuming and labor-intensive.

But at the beginning of last year, Dou Jiande ordered the excavation of a canal from Gonggao County to Leshou County. Although it cannot be compared with the Yongji Canal, it can also use a medium-sized ship of 500 stone, making water transportation very convenient.

Before dawn, a cavalry of 3,000 people rushed all the way on the official road on the west bank of Yongji Canal. The area from Leshou County to Zhangnan County is Dou Jiande's ruling center, and the population is better than other counties.

From time to time, you can see villages on the plains in the distance. White smoke from cooking stoves rose up above the villages. Large wheat fields were covered with green wheat seedlings. You can constantly see farmers busy in the fields. They raised their heads in surprise and watched the Sui army speeding past them like lightning.

The three thousand cavalry led by Pei Xingyan set out yesterday afternoon. Each cavalry was equipped with a double horse. After an afternoon and an evening of galloping, they had already run for nearly two hundred miles.

Pei Xingyan saw that the people and horses were exhausted. He looked around and found a dense forest a mile away. He ordered: "Go to the forest to rest for an hour!"

The cavalry left the official road, ran to a field, and ran towards the woods. After a moment, three thousand cavalry rushed to the woods. The soldiers dismounted one after another. Many soldiers fell to the ground and the war horses were so tired that they sniffed.

The soldiers were still vigorously motivated and fed the war horses with clear water and forage. Pei Xingyan drank water while eating dry food. The scout Zhang Ju told him that the fleet should be nearby, so Pei Xingyan decided to wait for news of the scouts here.

After only half an hour of rest, several cavalry rushed from the south. They saw the Sui army resting in the woods and turned their horses to rush towards this side.

The leading scout was Xiao Yannian. He was transferred to Pei Xingyan's commander half a month ago and served as the scout's brigade commander. He was highly valued by Pei Xingyan. Xiao Yannian turned over and dismounted, ran to Pei Xingyan all the way, and knelt down on one knee to report: "Report to General, the Xia army fleet is twenty miles away."

Pei Xingyan was overjoyed and immediately stood up and ordered: "Order all soldiers to hide in the woods immediately."

The soldiers stood up one after another and hid in the woods, covering an area of ​​more than a hundred acres, enough to hide their three thousand men.

...........

About ten miles away, a fleet of 120 300-stone flat-bottomed tugboats were slowly sailing north. Now their location is ten miles north of the East Light, and they have just changed their boatman.

Since the fleet is moving against the current and has no motivation, it needs to be driven by the trainer. There are hundreds of trainer men on both sides of the Taiwan Strait to drive the fleet slowly. This fleet is Dou Jiande's military capital transportation team, which is mainly responsible for transporting materials between Zhangnan County and Leshou County.

This time they transported a large number of important military goods, including two thousand barrels of tincture oil. These tincture oils were not given to Dou Jiande, but supplies sent by Li Mi.

Li Mi also discovered a turbulent well in Puyang County, Dongjun and obtained a lot of turbulent oil. In order to support Dou Jiande and the Sui army's battle, he sent a ship to deliver two thousand barrels of turbulent oil not long ago.

At this time, the soldiers on the ship had already seen a dense forest in the distance.
Chapter completed!