Vol 2 Chapter 2428: Surprise attack on Chencang, then declare war

Chapter 2428: Surprise attack on Chencang, later declared war

Chapter 2424: Surprise attack on Chencang, later declared war

 After hearing what Li Jing said, everyone present was shocked.

 What did they just hear? Not only did this attack on the Tang Dynasty involve 170,000 elite soldiers, including Li Jing, Wu Qi, Wang Jian, Gongsun Xuanyuan and many other famous generals, but there were also peerless generals such as Li Cunxiao, Sun Lingming, Yuwen Chengdu, Jiang Song and others?

 Such a lineup is not only enough to win Guanzhong, it is more than enough to destroy the Tang Dynasty!

All the civil and military officials present believed that the battle was a sure win, but Li Jing did not think so.

Although Tang's national power was weak and its army's morale was not high, it had many top-notch civil servants and powerful generals.

There are seven war gods on the bright side, namely: Li Yuanba, Yang Jian, Ma Shanwei, Gao Siji, Kong Peng, Wang Shi, and Wang Xiang.

There are a lot of divine generals, including: Xin Wenli, Shang Shi and Disciple, Kang Anyu, Gao Xingzhou, Kang Junli, etc.

 There are also many famous marshals, including: Li Shimin, Li Xiaogong, Zhao She, Yu Wentai, Li Siyuan, Li Mu, Li Zuoche, etc.

To put it bluntly, Tang is the country with the strongest talent lineup besides Da Qin.

Had it not been sandwiched between the Qin, Sui and Shu kingdoms, without much room for development, and if the development momentum had been completely interrupted by the Qin Dynasty, the scale of Tang's power would never have been limited to Kansai.

In addition to these things on the surface, there is also an even more terrifying force behind the Tang Dynasty, and that is Taoism.

Taoism is the strongest and most mysterious sect among hundreds of people. Once it fully supports the Tang Dynasty, God knows what powerful figures will emerge?

Hence, it was easy for Qin to defeat Tang and even easier to occupy Guanzhong, but it was not easy to destroy Tang, at least it was not the time yet.

Ying Hao launched the second Battle of Guanzhong. He never wanted to destroy the Tang Dynasty from the beginning. He just occupied Guanzhong in advance, severely weakened the strength of the Tang State, and tested the reaction of Taoism.

“Grand Governor, just tell me, how should we fight this battle?” Qin Yong asked impatiently.

Li Jing tapped his fingertips on the table and said sixteen words with a sneer.

 “First seize Chencang, then break through Sanguan, seal the pass, and catch turtles in the urn.”

 When Wu Qi, Wang Jian, Gongsun Xuanyuan and others heard this, their eyes suddenly lit up.

Although Li Jing said little content, he had a lot of information and basically pointed out the strategy of this battle.

Three of the four major gates in Guanzhong have been occupied by the Qin Dynasty, leaving only Sanguan still in the hands of Li Tang. If you want to break Sanguan, you must first capture Chencang.

Once Sanguan is successfully captured, all roads from Guanzhong to the outside world will be completely blocked. Even if other forces want to support Guanzhong, there will be no way. The initiative will be completely with Da Qin.

It is not impossible for the Qin Dynasty to deal with the Tang army however it wants. It is not impossible to even capture Tang Gong Li Shimin alive and completely annihilate the Tang army in Guanzhong.

 It is obviously not easy to capture Sanguan.

As the only channel to the outside world, Li Jing knew the importance of Sanguan, and Li Shimin naturally knew it, so he attached great importance to the defense of Sanguan.

There were a total of 120,000 Tang troops in Guanzhong, including 60,000 veterans, one-third of whom were scattered defenders, and the guard general was Li Siyuan, the general of the Li Tang clan.

As early as the first Guanzhong War, Li Jing proposed the strategy of "seizing the four passes and locking the center of the pass", but he failed to reach Sanguan City and was blocked by Li Siyuan outside Chencang City.

If you want to seize Sanguan this time, Li Siyuan is the biggest obstacle.

Neither Wu Qi nor Wang Jian expected that Li Jing would repeat his old words and once again propose the strategy of blocking Guanzhong. To be fair, this strategy was good, but it was also very difficult to implement.

Wang Jian stood up and said: "Grand Governor, if you want to capture Sanguan, you must first capture Chencang.

 For our army, there is only one chance for a sneak attack. Regardless of success or failure, it will definitely alert the enemy.

If we attack Chencang, even if we can capture Chencang, Sanguan will definitely receive the news. It will not be easy to break through Sanguan when we are on guard.

 The general believed that instead of using this opportunity in Chencang, it would be better to directly send troops to surprise Chang'an.

 If the city of Chang'an is destroyed, Guanzhong will be settled. "

“That’s right, what the deputy governor said makes sense.”

Yue Yun, Xue Dingshan and other generals agreed one after another.

After all, if there is a chance to attack Chang'an directly, why should we beat around the bush to defeat Sanguan?

Li Jing explained with a smile: "The reinforcements from Sizhou have not arrived yet, nor have Generals Li Cunxiao, Sun Lingming and others. With only Yongzhou generals, even if they can sneak in by sneak attack, they may not be able to completely occupy Chang'an City. It is better to seize Sanguan and trap the Tang army to death. It can also minimize losses.”

 After hearing this, everyone reacted.

Sizhou’s 100,000 elite troops, as well as generals such as Li Cunxiao and Sun Lingming, will come to participate in the Guanzhong war, but they have not yet arrived in Guanzhong, so they still have to rely on themselves in the early stage.

But without Li Cunxiao, Sun Lingming and others, just relying on the words of General Sizhou, even if they invade Chang'an, they may not be able to stop the counterattack of Li Yuanba, Yang Jian, Kong Peng and others. Li Jing's implication is that if Li Cunxiao and Sun Lingming don't come, we can't break through Chang'an just by relying on ourselves. It's better to retreat and attack Sanguan by surprise.

But in everyone's opinion, although the difficulty of breaking Sanguan is lower than that of Chang'an, it is not much lower.

If you want to break through Sanguan, you must first break through Chencang. However, if you break Chencang, Sanguan will definitely be prepared for such a big movement.

 The difficulty of breaking through a defensive level is different from that of an undefended level.

All the generals present were aware of this, and it was impossible for Li Jing not to be aware of it. Since he dared to propose the strategy of "locking the pass" again, he was naturally sure to capture Chencang and Sanguan at the same time.

Li Jing looked down at a foreigner with blond hair and blue eyes and asked: "Prefect Bi, you are responsible for the internal affairs of Li Tang. Did General Chencang successfully instigate rebellion?"

“Reporting to the Governor, the County Magistrate of Chencang has decided to join the Qin Dynasty, but the Magistrate of Chencang does not have much military power, and it is impossible to open the city gate.”

Although this man does not look Chinese, he speaks fluent Chinese and his behavior has been Chineseized. He is Bismarck.

The identity that Bismarck implanted was that of mixed Han and Hu. He was originally a minister of the Tang Dynasty, but he suffered discrimination from high-level officials. Even if he had outstanding political achievements, he was not promoted. He was only a county magistrate.

After the Qin army attacked the Tang Dynasty, Bismarck saw the opportunity and surrendered to the Qin army in Kaicheng. He also persuaded many county magistrates of Zuo Fenling to surrender together, and then he was promoted to the county minister of Zuo Fenling by the Qin Dynasty.

After becoming a county minister, Bismarck made many great achievements one after another in the past year, so he was promoted to prefect.

Bismarck was just a small county magistrate in the Tang Dynasty, but after surrendering to the Qin Dynasty, he became the prefect of a county. His experience made many Tang officials envious, and they all wondered if they would be like Bismarck if they surrendered to the Qin Dynasty.

Li Jing had this in mind, so he put Bismarck in charge of alienating officials and generals who were specifically responsible for instigating rebellion against Li Tang.

 Over the past year, with Bismarck's continuous efforts, he has naturally achieved considerable success.

Of the 17 counties of the Tang State in Guanzhong, many county magistrates had actually been instigated by Bismarck to rebel and secretly defected to Qin. Once the Qin army sent troops, these counties would also directly defect.

At the same time, many of the surrender faction's civil servants and generals in Chang'an had also been instigated by Bismarck to rebel, but they just lacked a suitable opportunity to defect.

 Hearing that Bismarck said that he only instigated the rebellion of Chencang County Magistrate, everyone was a little disappointed.

Unlike other county towns, Chencang is an important town, easy to defend and difficult to attack. It is guarded by specialized generals, and the county magistrate without military power is naturally not that important.

"Although Chen Cang Ling cannot control Chen Cang, through Chen Cang Ling, his subordinates have also set up another line, that is Chen Cang's guard Li Siben's deputy general Li Cunjin, and he has also agreed to abandon the secret and surrender to the Qin Dynasty." Bismarck said unhurriedly said.

“Okay, with Li Cunjin as the internal response, Chen Cang can be defeated in a day or night.

 After the army breaks through Chencang, they can continue to attack Sanguan without stopping, without giving Li Siyuan any chance to react, and break through Sanguan in one fell swoop. Jia Fu said with excitement.

The generals nodded one after another, obviously thinking that this method was feasible, at least it was much more reliable than a direct assault on Chang'an.

“There are not only Li Siyuan in Sanguan, but also three powerful generals: Kong Peng, Wang Shi, and Wang Xiang, so there can be no carelessness in this operation.”

After saying that, Li Jing's eyes fell on Gongsun Xuanyuan below and ordered: "General Gongsun, the task of surprise attack on Sanguan is left to you. The governor will give you 20,000 fine cavalry. In addition, Yuwen Chengdu, Pei Yuanqing, Huang Tianhua, Qin The five generals Yong and Yue Yun will also help you."

 “Thank you for your trust, Governor, Gongsun Xuanyuan will definitely live up to the great trust.”

Gongsun Xuanyuan clasped his fists and said in a deep voice.

After saying that, Gongsun Xuanyuan directly accepted the order and left, followed closely by the five generals Yuwen Chengdu, Pei Yuanqing, Huang Tianhua, Qin Yong, and Yue Yun.

After Xuanyuan and others left, Li Jing said again: "We, the Qin Dynasty, have come to the country in a dignified manner. If we go to war without declaring it, it will be unpopular. Therefore, I am going to send someone as an envoy to Chang'an to hold Tang Gong accountable and declare war on Tang."

Wu Qi, Baili Xi and others looked at each other with a strange expression. It was obvious that they all knew what Li Jing wanted to do.

Li Jing only said that he would send an envoy to declare war, but he did not say how the envoy would go. If he went slowly, by the time the envoy arrived in Chang'an, Sanguan would have been captured. After all, Xuanyuan had all the cavalry under his command.

This cannot be called war without declaring it. It should be called war with subsequent declaration. Although there is only one word difference, the consequences are huge.

You, the Tang State, accused me, the Qin Dynasty, of going to war without declaring it, but I clearly declared it. It was just that the envoys were a little slow in moving. By the time they arrived, the war was over.

Who should be blamed for this? Anyway, you can't blame me, Da Qin. If you want to blame it, you blame Tang State for being too weak. You couldn't even hold on for just two days.

Li Jing was thinking about the overall plan in his mind, and then asked: "My lords, who is willing to be the envoy?"

Ban Chao, the youngest and least qualified among the civil servants, was the first to stand up. He cupped his fists and said, "I'm willing to go."

 (End of this chapter)