Tibet

Xue Song immediately handed over the military power to Lei Wanchun. He returned to the capital with his brother Xue Ji on the same day. Lei Wanchun immediately took over Xue Song's 15,000 troops and appointed Xue Song's son Xue Ping as the commander and Tiger Guard General.

The next step was to merge and reorganize the two armies, and Xue Song's subordinates were reappointed to military positions according to the standards of the Guanlong Army.

Not long after Xue Song handed over the power, Guo Ziyi led an army of 100,000 into Yanzhou, and the governor of Yanzhou opened the city and surrendered.

Yanzhou was already Li Zhengyi's territory. Guo Ziyi's army entered Yanzhou, which meant that the court's war to pacify the vassal states had officially begun.

Li Zhengyi's old nest was in Yidu County, Qingzhou. He originally only had Zibo and Qingzhou, so he was called Zibo-Qingjieshi, which was the territory given to him by the court.

But as his ambitions continued to expand, his territory also began to expand rapidly. He occupied Laizhou, Dengzhou and Mizhou to the east, Jizhou, Qizhou and Yunzhou to the west, and Yanzhou and Yizhou to the south.

Li Zhengyi controlled ten states, becoming the largest of the four major vassal towns.

Li Zhengyi also knew the danger he was facing, especially after Li Xilie was wiped out and Li Lingyao fled north, the next person the regent would have to deal with was definitely himself.

So Li Zhengyi tried his best to expand his army, traded with Bohai Kingdom by sea, purchased thousands of war horses, and used his advantage of being a Goguryeo person to obtain 20,000 troops from the remnant forces of Goguryeo in Silla in the name of restoring the country.

The four major forces formed after the Goguryeo people destroyed the country were thus clear. Some were loyal to the court, like Gao Xianzhi and Wang Sili, some stayed in Youzhou and were loyal to An Lushan, some surrendered to Khitan, and some were annexed by Silla.

Although Li Zhengyi was a Goguryeo person who was loyal to An Lushan, he did not want to restore his country. He wanted to establish his own dynasty and name it Qi.

So Li Zhengyi could not talk to the Goguryeo people in Youzhou, but he wanted to get Goguryeo's resources, so he turned his attention to Silla, introduced tens of thousands of Goguryeo households from Silla, organized them into military households, and recruited 20,000 soldiers.

Li Zhengyi currently has an army of nearly 100,000 people, so he has the confidence to confront the court.

However, what made Li Zhengyi extremely angry was that the Hezong Army established last year was treacherous and reluctant to support him.

"Bang!"

Li Zhengyi slammed his fist on the table and gritted his teeth and said, "I knew that Tian Chengsi was unreliable and would only betray at critical moments. How many times have I been cheated by him!"

The second son Li Na was silent on the side. He was fully responsible for participating in the alliance. In the end, he did not expect that Tian Chengsi was unreliable. This was his responsibility.

Military strategist Jia Shen sighed and took the responsibility on himself, "This is my responsibility. I didn't see through Tian Chengsi's character and thought too highly of him."

At this time, the eldest son Li Jing advised: "Father, Tian Chengsi didn't say that the coalition army would not come. It is very likely that the Tang army has tied them down. Didn't they say that Lei Wanchun led 50,000 troops in Huaizhou? Could it be related to this army? In short, urge Tian Chengsi again and ask him to fulfill the alliance agreement immediately!"

Li Jing actually said nothing, but the purpose of these words was not to solve the problem, but to end the topic and turn to business.

Seeing Jia Shen took the initiative to take the blame, Li Zhengyi could not get angry anymore, so he nodded, "Well! Urge Tian Chengsi again, Erlang will be responsible for keeping a close eye on this matter."

Li Na hurriedly bowed and said, "The child will definitely keep a close eye on it!"

Li Zhengyi then turned back to the main topic, and asked the military advisor Jia Shen, "What do you think of Guo Ziyi's dispatch of troops?"

Jia Shen picked up the wooden pole and pointed at the sand table, saying, "I originally thought that Guo Ziyi would attack Yunzhou, but I didn't expect him to feint and lead the army to attack Yanzhou. I thought about it all night and probably understood Guo Ziyi's intention."

Jia Shen pointed the wooden pole to the north of Qizhou, "If I'm not wrong, Guo Ziyi's next goal must be to attack Qizhou!"

"What is Guo Ziyi's intention?" Li Zhengyi asked.

Jia Shen sneered and said, "Once the Tang army captures Qizhou, it will be connected to Yanzhou. Then Yunzhou and Jizhou will be cut off by this line and unable to keep in touch with us. In fact, they will be lost. This is Guo Ziyi's strategy of attacking two states and seizing four states."

Li Zhengyi looked at the map carefully and it was indeed the case!

"What do you think?"

"I suggest that all the troops in Jizhou and Yunzhou be withdrawn to Qizhou immediately and reinforcements be sent to Qizhou. Qizhou is the top priority and we must keep it!"

Qizhou is the leader of Li Zhengyi's Qi State in terms of population, taxation and commerce, far exceeding Qingzhou Yidu, so Li Zhengyi is preparing to move the capital to Licheng County, Qizhou. Moreover, the city walls of Licheng County are tall and strong, easy to defend and difficult to attack. There are 400,000 stones of grain in the city, which is particularly suitable for long-term combat.

Thinking of this, Li Zhengyi decisively said to Li Na: "Erlang and Jia Junshi lead 50,000 troops to support Qizhou, and we must keep Licheng County."

Li Na was shocked, "Father, with 50,000 people, there will only be more than 10,000 people left in Yidu."

Li Zhengyi waved his hand, "I will gather the troops of other states to Yidu County, and the force will reach 30,000. As long as we keep Licheng County and Yidu County, and make the Tang army unable to attack for a long time, Li Ye will probably turn to attack Hebei first."

Of course, this is Li Zhengyi's wishful thinking, and it is also something he dreams of.

That night, Li Na and Jia Shen led 50,000 troops to Qizhou at a rapid speed. Li Zhengyi also ordered the troops of various states to gather in Yidu County.

Li Zhengyi also ordered 6,000 troops from Jizhou and Yunzhou to gather in Qizhou.

Guo Ziyi sent troops to Yanzhou on January 20th. This was a plan made last year. January 20th was the agreed date, so on this day, on the Donghai Island in Haizhou, 400 large ships loaded with 30,000 soldiers and a large amount of supplies went out to sea.

In fact, Li Ye could have gone directly north from Haizhou, seized Yizhou, which was short of troops, and then entered Mizhou. There was no need to take the risky sea route.

This was actually training troops and practicing sea transport to prepare for the next step of overseas expansion.

Three days later, 400 ships arrived at their destination, a huge bay, which was the Jiaozhou Bay in later generations. However, this place did not have a name in the Tang Dynasty. It was just a place for fishermen to fish. The bay was at the junction of Mizhou and Laizhou and was sparsely populated.

This bay is also a natural harbor. 400 large ships sailed into the bay. Under the guidance of local fishermen, the fleet docked one after another. A large number of troops got off the ships and began to rest temporarily on the shore.

It took a whole day for all 30,000 troops to land. After a night's rest, the next morning, the army was fully refreshed and quickly headed for Gaomi County, 50 miles away.

The army easily captured the county, but did not continue to advance. Instead, they stationed in Gaomi County. Nan Jiyun sent people to Yanzhou to contact the commander Guo Ziyi.

Nan Jiyun sent another 10,000 troops into three teams, which went to various places in Mizhou, Laizhou and Dengzhou respectively. They first occupied the three states, and then began to collect carts to transport food and supplies.

At the same time, 400 large ships returned to Donghai Island to load food and supplies again.

Before deciding to attack Li Zhengyi, the Privy Council made sufficient intelligence preparations, and Li Zhengyi concentrated all the food and supplies in the core city.

There are three core cities in total, one is Yidu County in Qingzhou, one is Zichuan County in Zibozhou, and one is Licheng County in Qizhou. All the food and supplies in Zichuan County were transported to Yidu County half a month ago.

Therefore, the most important thing for the Tang army was logistics. As the rivers in various places were frozen, the water route was not realistic and the land route was relatively far, so the Privy Council considered the sea route.

Since Jiaozhou Bay did not freeze in winter, the food and grass supplies could be transported by sea to the coast of Jiaozhou Bay, and then twenty ice sled boats could be used to transport the food and grass supplies to Gaomi County along the Gaomi River.

With Gaomi County as a key logistics base, it was much easier to transport food and grass supplies to Yidu using large carts.