People in the early Tang Dynasty: I compete with Wu Zhao for the throne

Chapter 1633: Conquering Luoyang, we should follow the story of Emperor Taizong
In the lobby of Hangu Pass, Li Xuan, dressed in black clothes and black armor, looked at everyone in the hall with a solemn expression.

Wang Fangyi, Tang Zhenxing, Li Duozuo, Cui Ding, Zhou Qian, Ren Enci, Li Gu, Lun Gongren, Liang Xing and others all stood up in awe.

Li Xuan nodded calmly and said, "You all have familiar people with the enemy's main generals, Yang Zaisi, the Minister of War, Yang Zhirou, the Junior Secretary of the Imperial Guards, Lou Shide, the Doctor of the Ministry of Justice, and Cao Renshi, the General of the Right Guards. However, it is easy to control the enemy's generals, but it is difficult to prevent their tricks.

Especially Lou Shide, when he was in Fanzhou, he was good at studying our military's major strategies and had quite a lot of insights."

Tang Zhenxing, Li Duozuo, Cui Ding, and Zhou Qian nodded at the same time.

They all had contact with Lou Shide.

Although this man was born as an imperial censor, he was extremely keen on military strategies and was good at learning. Anyone who was not careful might fall into his trap.

“Of course, in a military war, the key is to win with the momentum.” Li Xuan looked at the generals and said in a deep voice, “So I have decided that the army will march out in three directions. The main route will be to enter Maojindu from Hangu Pass. In the south, the Right Guard General Qu Chongyu has led 3,000 Right Guards and 3,000 Right Army Guards to enter Hanzhong and advance to Nanyang from Hanzhong. In the north…”

Li Xuan turned around, looked directly at Wang Fangyi, and said, "General Wang."

"I am here." Wang Fangyi stood up and bowed.

Wang Fangyi was the Minister of War, Inspecting General of the Right Guard, and led 10,000 Left Guards and 5,000 Right Guards. He was the most trusted general under Li Xuan.

Li Xuan nodded and said, "You were born in Taiyuan and are familiar with Bingzhou. Today, I will appoint you as the pacification envoy of Bingzhou. From today on, you will attack Hejin, cross Hejin and enter Bingzhou, attack Taiyuan, and even Hebei, contact the general of the Right Guard, and go south to threaten the north of Luoyang."

"Yes!" Wang Fangyi bowed his head solemnly, then turned and left.

Li Xuan and his generals had previously discussed the strategy of attacking Luoyang, and had also discussed many details of the expedition before reaching today's decision.

Li Xuan resigned as the General of the Right Guard and transferred Qiu Zhenmu from the Right Guard, but he appointed Wang Fangyi and Qu Chongyu as Inspector Generals of the Right Guard and still maintained a firm control over the Right Guard army.

Li Xuan turned to look at Li Duozuo and said, "Select the best troops from the Right Army Guard, cross Mount Xiao, and attack the important roads of Shangluo and Lushi counties. Be careful that Luoyang may send people from the small roads to attack Chang'an. All people passing along the way will be detained."

"Yes!" Li Duozuo immediately bowed, then turned around and left.

Li Xuan looked at Tang Zhenxing and Su Baotong and said, "The main forces of the left and right guards will be stationed at the Guancheng Pass, and at the same time support the armies in the north and south."

"Yes!" Tang Zhenxing and Su Baotong bowed solemnly, then turned and left.

Su Baotong is now the Lieutenant General of the Right Guard. He is responsible for commanding the 5,000 main forces and 3,000 naval forces of the Right Guard.

Li Xuan looked at Li Gu and Ren Enci and said seriously, "The left and right guards will patrol between Hangu Pass and Chang'an. Any carrier pigeons will be shot to death. People will set up checkpoints to check back and forth. If there are any suspects, they will be detained first. If there are any resistance, they will be killed directly."

"Yes!" Li Gu and Ren Enci bowed and turned to leave.

"Left and right guards!" Li Xuan looked up at Lun Gongren.

Lun Gongren bowed and stood up.

Li Xuan nodded and said, "The soldiers coming from Fanzhou must change their clothes, shave their beards and change their clothes to adapt to the weather, and wait for the left and right guards to arrive, and then be sent to Beiluo River, Ba River, Qian River, Qishui River and other rivers to station and build dams. These are all things we are familiar with in Fanzhou.

Remember, once the water is stored, I will not let even a drop of it converge onto the Wei River."

"Yes!" Lun Gongren immediately bowed.

Li Xuan looked up at Zhou Qian and said, "Send someone to sneak into Heluo and tell them everything that happened in Chang'an... I think the Queen Mother should have blocked all news about Chang'an. We need to let them know the orthodox things in the world, especially the truth about the death of Emperor Zhongzong. I think they will have a lot of doubts."

Crown Prince Li Chongzhao ascended the throne in Yangzhou. Many people who were unaware of the situation in the court were completely confused.

The prince was clearly in Chang'an as regent, so why did he suddenly run away to Yangzhou?
The crown prince was still alive, so why did the Prince of Xiang ascend the throne?

Why did the imperial court send troops to attack after the crown prince ascended the throne in Yangzhou, and even...

Li Xuan will give a reasonable answer to these questions.

Especially since Yangzhou has fallen, Li Xuan now needs to start planning for the next step.

Zhou Qian immediately clasped his hands and bowed, saying, "I will obey your orders."

Zhou Qian turned and left, leaving only Cui Ding among the generals left in the hall.

"The Jinwu Guard is responsible for military discipline and information transmission." After a brief pause, Li Xuan took out a memorial and three letters from under the table and handed them to Cui Ding: "Find a suitable person to deliver this memorial and three letters to General Cao on the other side of the river."

"Yes!" Cui Ding accepted the order solemnly, then turned around and left quickly.

Li Xuan sat behind the desk, his expression gradually becoming serious.

The four people on the opposite side, Cao Renshi, Yang Zaisi, and Yang Zhirou, are not ordinary people.

In particular, there is a person named Lou Shide who became very famous in later generations.

For such a person, it is necessary for Li Xuan to arrange more methods.

Now it depends on whether Luoyang will reveal any flaws under his actions.

……

In Shanzhou, Lou Shide walked quickly into the hall and bowed to Yang Zaisi, who was sitting in the main seat, and said, "Greetings, Marshal."

"Zongren is here." Yang Zaisi nodded and said, "Please sit down."

"Thank you, Marshal." Lou Shide turned around and bowed to Yang Zhirou on the side, saying, "Brother Zhirou."

"Brother Zongren." Yang Zhirou nodded solemnly.

Seeing Lou Shide sitting down next to Yang Zhirou, Yang Zaisi nodded, handed a memorial and three letters to Yang Zhirou, and said, "Prince Peng has arrived at Hangu Pass. He sent someone to deliver a memorial and three letters to General Cao... The memorial is from him to the Queen Mother, and the other three letters are from Prince Peng to General Cao, from the Crown Prince to Your Majesty, and the last letter is from Prince Peng to Your Majesty. The last memorial is from Prince Peng to the Queen Mother." Yang Zhirou paused and put Li Xuan's memorial to Empress Wu, Li Xuan's letter to Li Dan, and Li Chengqi's letter to Li Dan at the bottom, and only opened Li Xuan's letter to Cao Renshi.

Master Cao Ren must have opened it and read it, so he sent it to them.

The letter paper was open, and there were only two of them.

Water attack.

Yang Zhirou's breathing suddenly sank, and then he handed the letter to Lou Shide with a serious expression.

After taking a look, Lou Shide's expression was solemn, but with a hint of doubt.

The letter was put back on Yang Zaisi's desk. He looked up at Yang Zhirou and Lou Shide and said, "You two have followed King Peng to conquer Tubo. You all know that King Peng is best at water attack. Now, on this great river, can he practice his water attack?"

Yang Zhirou and Lou Shide looked at each other, and Yang Zhirou spoke first: "King Peng has three tactics, water attack, psychological attack, and cavalry. What we are doing now should be a combination of the first two.

Since King Peng mentioned a water attack, there will definitely be some action, which can be determined by looking at the rise and fall of the water. However, the extent of the water attack will also depend on the water level and the weather..."

"In order to conquer Tubo, King Peng had already made plans in Tanggula Mountain a year in advance, and he was not afraid that Lun Qinling would know about it. After several battles between the two sides, the situation finally fell into King Peng's hands. In the end, the flood poured down and completely blasted open the gate of Tubo. So in my opinion, King Peng's water attack technique was inevitable."

Lou Shide definitely gave an answer, then looked up at the entire Shanzhou City and said, "Shanzhou is located in a low-lying area. When heavy rains fell that year, the entire city was submerged. Such a terrain is too advantageous for King Peng, and he will not let it go."

Opportunity. If you see the opportunity and don’t take action, you are definitely not Li Xuan.

Yang Zhirou nodded, then shook her head and said, "That's true, but the Historian Bureau said there won't be heavy rains this year. Could it be that King Peng will really wait until next year?"

"Wang Xiaojie thought so too, but in the end he was defeated by King Peng's water attack." Lou Shide was still cautious and said, "King Peng used the method of attacking his mind to lure him in, making him careless and finally defeated by the water attack and died under the city of Lanzhou."

Yang Zaisi nodded and said, "In that case, we should prepare for a water attack as King Peng would, as there will be heavy rains this year. Moreover, General Cao has already transferred his troops to the north, and Wang Fangyi has led his troops to Hejin, preparing to attack Bingzhou. He should be on guard."

Yang Zhirou and Lou Shide looked at each other.

Well, before they made a decision, Cao Renshi had already moved his troops north to avoid King Peng's frontal naval attack.

After a brief pause, Yang Zhirou spoke first, "Water attack is not just about flooding. From your humble opinion, there are also accompanying warship attacks. I wonder if we can ask the court to mobilize the navy to help."

"Okay." Yang Zaisi nodded.

"And Shanzhou City also needs to be prepared to deal with the impact of the flood." Yang Zhirou said solemnly: "Once King Peng enters Shanzhou City, it means that he has a foothold in Henan. It will be difficult to stop him completely at the remaining checkpoints."

"Hmm!" Yang Zaisi's face became serious: "Mobilize the navy and the craftsmen."

"I think that King Peng's plan may be more than that." Lou Shide said, looking at Yang Zaisi cautiously, "I don't think King Peng's focus may be on Shanzhou, but it may also be on the Yellow River, especially from the Yellow River all the way to Hulao Pass."

"Cut off Hebei?" Yang Zhirou understood immediately, and then his face changed slightly, and he said: "Prince Peng is imitating Emperor Taizong's strategy of attacking Luoyang."

"Although the situation is different, there is still the Left Guard Army of the Duke of Pingyuan in Liaoxi. By then, it is hard to say who the reinforcements are." Lou Shide stopped and looked at Yang Zaisi and said, "General, we can deploy iron locks on the Yellow River and make waterproof arrangements for Shanzhou City. At the same time, we can send people to the front of the Wei River to destroy the dam on the Wei River to prevent King Peng from carrying out the water storage technique."

"Yes, it's only May now, and the weather won't get cold until October. This time is too long." Yang Zhirou was still under a lot of pressure in her heart.

"Yes!" Yang Zaisi nodded and said, "Let the garrison be stationed mainly in high places, and at the same time send people across the Yellow River and sneak into Yongzhou from the north to investigate the truth."

"The Marshal is wise." Yang Zhirou and Lou Shide bowed at the same time.

Yang Zaisi waved his hand and said, "King Peng has always been cunning. With only our 30,000 men, we may be able to stop him temporarily, but for more, we still need to send troops from the court.

Zongren, you should go to Luoyang and take back the memorial from Prince Peng and these three letters to present to the Empress. "

Lou Shide's mouth curled up slightly, and his eyes fell on the memorial and the letter below.

You said it all, King Peng has always been cunning.

Then there is no doubt that there must be astonishing means in this memorial and these two letters.

He personally went to hand it over to Empress Wu, so it would be strange if she didn't vent her anger on him.

You are members of the Yang family, half of the Queen Mother’s maternal clan, why don’t you go?

Lou Shide raised his head and said solemnly, "I obey your orders."

"Okay!" Yang Zaisi smiled.

……

On Luoyang Tianjie, Lou Shide rushed towards the palace frantically.

The people were in high spirits along the way.

Because of one incident, Yangzhou City was broken.

War disasters are eliminated.

In Qianyang Palace, Empress Wu looked at her ministers with a smile.

At this moment, a eunuch appeared in front of the palace gate with Lou Shide.

Empress Wu frowned subconsciously.

Didn’t I ask you to stop King Peng?
(End of this chapter)