Save the Bachelor of Heaven

Li Shimin led his army to attack Lingnan but failed, and he had a fire in his backyard.

His eldest brother Li Jiancheng wanted to seize his military power, and his fourth brother Li Yuanji was a hopeless case. He lost many soldiers and generals in fighting Liu Heita, which was really useless.

Therefore, Li Shimin was overwhelmed and had no choice but to withdraw his army back to Ganzhou for rest.

He had originally arranged for Li Jing to lead an elite ambush, so that once the Song clan went out of the city to chase and kill, Li Jing would lead his troops to kill and catch it off guard.

But unexpectedly, Xiang Nan did not lead his troops to chase and kill, but only asked people to reinforce Shaoguan, and did not even send troops to occupy several counties such as Renhua, Dayu, and Chongyi.

This surprised Li Shimin a little. He didn't understand whether Xiang Nan didn't want to divide his troops, or he had seen through his plan?

Only Song Que and Xiang Nan knew that Xiang Nan was only responsible for protecting Lingnan, not helping the Song clan to conquer the world. Therefore, it was obviously a good opportunity to beat the dog when it was down, but Xiang Nan gave it up.

…

A month later, Li Jiancheng and Li Yuan's imperial edict took away Li Shimin's military power.

Although Li Shimin was highly respected in the army, it was difficult to disobey his father's order, especially now that he had no ability to refuse.

In history, when the Xuanwu Gate Incident occurred, Li Shimin's power was already quite strong. The reason why Li Jiancheng and Li Yuanji launched the Xuanwu Gate Incident was because they could no longer control him in the open, so they wanted to assassinate him at Xuanwu Gate.

But now Li Shimin's power is not so strong. Although he still has hundreds of thousands of troops, his food and grass supply depends on the rear. Once Li Yuan cuts off his food and grass, no matter how many troops he has, it will be useless.

Just like in "Yongzheng Dynasty", the reason why Yongzheng was not afraid of Nian Gengyao leading his troops to rebel was because his army needed food and grass supply from the mainland.

Once Yongzheng cut off his food and grass, even if he had hundreds of thousands of troops, he would still be a tree without roots and water without a source. If he did not have food and grass to feed those troops, those soldiers would kill him first.

Therefore, Li Shimin had no choice but to hand over the power and seal to his brother Li Jiancheng, and he led a personal army to Jizhou to replace Li Yuanji and fight against Liu Heita.

…

After Li Jiancheng got the seal, he was eager to make merit, so he led the army to attack Shaoguan again.

But his ability was far inferior to that of Li Shimin. Xiang Nan only sent a general, pretending to have worked under Xiang Nan, but was punished for a small matter, so he was furious and prepared to serve Li Jiancheng and surrender in the middle of the night.

Li Jiancheng believed it and led the army to Shaoguan at night, just waiting for the time to come to attack the city.

Sure enough, in the middle of the night, the city gate opened, and Li Jiancheng immediately led the army to attack the city. But when he entered the city, he was dumbfounded. It turned out that Xiang Nan had already built a city wall waiting.

As soon as Li Jiancheng's army entered, they immediately ignited the explosives buried in Wengcheng. In an instant, there was a loud bang, and people and horses were blown to the ground, and many were killed and injured.

The rest of the Li family army that had not yet entered the city retreated in a hurry when they saw that they had fallen into a trap. As a result, they were bombarded by Xiang Nan again, and suffered heavy casualties again.

Of the 100,000 troops that went out, only 30,000 returned to Ganzhou. Others were either dead or injured, or captured alive, or dispersed. In short, the losses were extremely heavy, and even the general Li Jiancheng was injured and captured.

…

When the news was passed back to Taiyuan, Li Yuan was naturally anxious and heartbroken.

The Li family's army was only more than 300,000, and this time they sent troops to Lingnan, they used half of their military strength. Compared with the 20,000 troops of the Song family, the 150,000 troops had the advantage, and they thought they could conquer Lingnan without any effort.

Unexpectedly, the 150,000 troops were reduced to only 30,000 in the end. The Li family's army lost one-third for nothing. This is an unbearable burden.

Just like the Battle of Sarhu between the Ming Dynasty and the Later Jin Dynasty, although the Ming Dynasty had a million troops, it only lost 50,000 in the Battle of Sarhu, which led to a reversal of the military power between the Ming Dynasty and the Later Jin Dynasty.

From then on, the Ming Dynasty could only defend against the Later Jin Dynasty, but could not attack, and was finally invaded by the Later Jin Dynasty.

Now the Li family has lost hundreds of thousands of troops, and the impact is greater than the Battle of Sarhu. Many areas that have been pacified have shown signs of rebellion again.

For example, Jingchu, Jiangnan, Xubang, Fujian and Zhejiang, and even some gentry in Sichuan, Chongqing and Chang'an have shown signs of rebellion.

In fact, ancient wars were not attacks on one city after another. Many times, once the main force of the opponent was defeated, the area he ruled could basically be "determined by a proclamation".

After all, the officials and gentry in the city were not idiots, and they were not so loyal. When facing the army that was about to attack, it was common to choose to slide and kneel, and there were very few who resisted stubbornly.

Since they chose to kneel down and surrender, the other side would naturally not kill them all, but would try to protect the interests of these people. In this way, they would get a city and those people would keep their jobs, which was the best of both worlds.

But this also left a hidden danger, that is, if the war went smoothly, those people would naturally be content to be obedient. But once the war went badly and the victorious party became the losing party, those officials and nobles who surrendered before would probably rebel again.

Just like during the Three Kingdoms period, Tao Gongzu gave up Xuzhou three times, and Xuzhou was successively ruled by Liu Bei, Lu Bu, and Cao Cao. Only a small number of local officials and powerful people in Xuzhou rose up to resist, and most of the others followed the wind. Liu Bei came with Liu Bei, Lu Bu came with Lu Bu, Cao Cao came with Cao Cao...

Although the Li family had previously captured Chang'an, Sichuan and Chongqing, Jingchu, Xubang, Jiangnan, Fujian and Zhejiang, etc., the time they occupied was too short, and they did not take root and completely control these areas.

Therefore, these areas are nominally owned by the Li clan, but in fact, the real control rights are still in the hands of local powerful people. Now we see that Li Clan lost the battle and lost hundreds of thousands of troops.

Several cities in Fujian, Zhejiang, and Jiangnan immediately rebelled directly and announced their return to the Song clan.

…

Song Que was also very happy to hear the news of the victory in Shaoguan, and immediately led an army of five thousand to Shaoguan.

"Zhong'er, you did a good job." He praised with a smile.

Li Clan's 120,000-strong army was wiped out, which can be regarded as a serious injury.

"Dad, why don't you take this opportunity to talk to Li Clan and how about becoming a nominal vassal state?" Xiang Nan suggested to Song Que.

"A vassal state?!" Song Que was stunned, "Now that the situation is good, we can definitely counterattack. This time I personally take action, I will definitely defeat the Li clan and unify the Central Plains. What kind of vassal state do you think it is?"

"Fighting back and forth will only cause more pain to the people. It's better to just give up when things are good." Xiang Nan suggested, "Let's keep Lingnan and then occupy the southeast. There is a vast world and a lot to do, so why not limit it to the Central Plains?"

"Zhong'er, Shi Dao has a calm and gentle personality and is not suitable to be my successor. Everything I have now will be inherited by you in the future. Do you really not want to be the emperor of the Central Plains?" Song Que asked immediately.

"Dad, if I really wanted to be the emperor, I wouldn't have to wait until the future." Xiang Nan waved his hand and said, "I really have no interest in being the emperor. If it weren't for you and my eldest brother, I would have taken Yuzhi and retired from the world. ”

Hearing what he said, Song Que was stunned for a moment, then let out a long sigh.