Compared with the scheming Dou Kang, Li Shentong, who fought against Huang Mingzheng in Weibei, had much more pure intentions. Although the counties in Weibei were considered Li Shentong's territory, giving up like this would harm Li Shentong's interests the most, but for Li Shentong's sake

Although Li Shentong gritted his teeth, he was willing to accept it.

However, Li Shentong wanted to retreat, but he couldn't.

Under Li Shentong, there are Xuange Army and Zhang Pinggao's Tianjie Army, with a total army of about 30,000 men. The main force of the Tianjie Army is stationed in Tongguan County, which is the northernmost and most important line of defense of the Tang Army in Guanzhong. And Li Shentong

Shentong led the main force of Xuan Ge's army and stationed it in Huayuan County. On the one hand, it protected the back road of Tongguan County, and on the other hand, it met the Sui army in the direction of Huangqin Mountain and prevented the Sui army from breaking into Guanzhong.

From the time Huang Mingzheng marched south to July, the two sides faced off at the Phoenix Valley, Huangqin Mountain-Tongguan, and Huayuan lines for more than six months.

In fact, it is not that Huang Mingzheng has no chance to break through this line of defense.

With the military strength of both sides not much different, the military level of Li Shentong, a poor commander who was evaluated by Huang Mingyuan as "not much better than a pig", was far inferior to that of Huang Mingzheng, who had experienced hundreds of battles.

And Zhang Pinggao was also a low-level general who suddenly became famous. Before Jinyang launched his army, he was just a captain of Yingyang School. He had never even led an army of more than a thousand men. His commanding ability could not be compared with that of Huang Mingzheng.

So in the first two field battles between the two sides, the Tang army lost both times.

After that, Zhang Pinggao did not dare to fight again and chose to defend the fortified city. However, Huang Mingzheng did not take advantage of the victory to attack. Instead, he semi-surrounded Tongguancheng and launched attacks on Tongguancheng at regular intervals, as if it was for official business.

This strange scene was not because Huang Mingzheng was timid, but because Huang Mingzheng deliberately used this method to hold back Li Shentong's 30,000 troops.

The more decisive the battle, the more prudent it is.

For the Sui army, which has divided the Tang army on all sides, it no longer seeks a big victory to change the situation of the war. The safest way is to consume the Tang army's strength bit by bit. The various Sui armies are surrounded by each other.

If a certain area fails to attack rashly, it is likely to trigger a chain reaction and lead to the overall collapse.

Therefore, Huang Mingzheng used delay instead of fighting, restraining Li Shentong's tens of thousands of troops and preventing them from moving.

Of course, procrastination does not mean slacking off. All the procrastination is waiting for the big change when Huang Ming and Liao soldiers enter Guanzhong. So today, Li Shentong prepared to break out and finally gave Huang Mingzheng a chance to defeat the enemy.

It is very difficult for Li Shentong to break through. He needs to face two problems.

The first is Li Shentong and Zhang Pinggao. Their troops are divided into two places, one is in Tongguan and the other is in Huayuan. Li Shentong's department is better. There is no Sui army surrounding him and he can retreat quickly. However, the Sui army almost semi-surrounded Tongguan.

He was an officer and had the advantage of cavalry. If Zhang Pinggao retreated hastily, he might suffer heavy casualties.

But the problem now is that Zhang Pinggao must give up Tongguan County.

Li Yuan's plan was to have Huang Mingzheng and Xue Rengao fight in Weibei. This was a plan to drive out the wolf and devour the tiger. If Huang Mingzheng was blocked by Zhang Pinggao, and the tiger was not there, but the wolf had already entered, then it would not be about driving out the wolf and devouring the tiger, but luring the wolf into the house.

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Therefore, Li Yuan requested in a letter to Li Shentong that, no matter what, a passage must be opened for Huang Mingzheng to face Xue Rengao directly. That is, Tongguan, Huayuan, Sanyuan, and Yunyang (today's northwest of Jingyang County, Shaanxi Province) in the west of Weibei

Facing four counties, we must give up.

This puts Li Shentong in a difficult position.

Seeing that the time requested by Li Yuan was getting closer and closer, Li Shentong had no choice but to think of no other solution, so he simply forced Zhang Pinggao to break through, while he himself was in Huayuan to provide support.

It has to be said that this order is no different from asking Zhang Pinggao to die.

Zhang Pinggao was shocked when he received the order. He stayed in Tongguancheng and faced Huang Mingzheng, but he could barely cope. Breaking out to the south and fighting in the field with the opponent was not asking for death.

Zhang Ping was as tall as an ant on a hot pot and was helpless.

At this time, Zhang Pinggao's general Li Daliang suggested that Zhang Pinggao should break out of the encirclement by water.

Li Daliang was born in the Wuyangfang of the Li family in Longxi. He was the son of Li Chong, the famous general of the Sui Dynasty and the former governor of Shuozhou, Duke of Wuyang County. Although Li Daliang was both civil and military, his father Li Chong was dismissed from his post because he was accused of treason.

Li Daliang, a person with questionable status, could only be a soldier with Yang Guang in the Sui Dynasty.

After Li Yuan rebelled, Li Daliang abandoned his official position and went to Li Yuan, and was appointed as the marching commander of the Tianjie Army.

Outside Tongguan City is Tongguan Water, also called Tongguan Water.

Neither the Sui army nor the Tang army had any naval forces here, so they did not pay much attention to the defense of this river with a small flow of water.

The Tongguan River originates from the mountains to the north of Tongguan, and flows southward into the Ju River in Huayuan County. In Li Daliang's opinion, since both sides have no defense against the Tongguan River, it would be better to order the soldiers of the three armies to take advantage of it.

The boat went south along the river and reached Huayuan.

Although the Sui army's cavalry was strong, they could not reach the surface of the river.

Zhang Ping was thinking hard and was at a loss when he heard Li Daliang's suggestion. He was very happy. So he followed Li Daliang's plan and ordered people to build boats in the city for crossing the river.

The locals rarely go boating, so if there are any boats, they must be enough to accommodate more than 10,000 people.

For this reason, Zhang Pinggao even cut down all the trees in the entire county. As for the doors and windows, they were all demolished. Even the sheepskins in the hands of the people were gathered together.

The entire Tongguan County is filled with crudely made boats.

Of course, these ships were not enough, so Zhang Pinggaonai ordered people to carry one day's military rations and weapons and equipment, and discard all other items.

It is more than forty miles from Tongguan to Huayuan, and we can reach it in one day's march.

Huayuan County, as the rear base for fellow officials, has no shortage of food.

On the day Li Yuan broke through the siege, Zhang Pinggao led more than 12,000 men to break out of Tongguan City. Everyone left the city through the west gate and headed straight to the Tongguan River in the west of the city.

These more than a thousand boats of various kinds are easy to transport. A few people can carry them to the river, put them down, and then they can sail.

Because the boats were not high, the various small boats were densely packed with people.

Many people even lost their feet and fell into the water because of the narrow boats.

The ships collided and squeezed with each other, and an unknown number of ships overturned as a result. These small sampans had little protection, and some even sank directly into the water because there were too many people on them.

Zhang Pinggao couldn't care about this and could only keep urging everyone to get on the boat.

At the fifth watch of the day, the large group of people finally headed south.

There are boats all over the entire river, just like garbage floating on the water, densely packed and everywhere.

But everyone finally left.

Zhang Pinggao looked back at Tongguan on the boat with infinite melancholy. In Tongguan City, there were still 500 soldiers left behind by Zhang Pinggao. He ordered these people to spread flags widely on the city top and beat more drums and gongs.

Confuse the Sui army and buy time for the main force.

Of course, the fate of this group of people can be met.

Zhang Pinggao had stayed in Tongguancheng for more than half a year, and he had some feelings for him.
Chapter completed!