Tibet

Li Guangbi led the army to Qipanguan Pass. He set up camp under the pass. He was not in a hurry to attack the pass, but asked his soldiers to search for the people around him.

In the afternoon, the soldiers found a dozen villagers who were hiding. There are many villages near Qipanguan. Because of the war, the villagers have hid in the mountains.

Li Guangbi invited them into the big tent. Seeing that the villagers were all trembling with fear, Li Guangbi smiled and said, "Don't be afraid. I don't mean any harm. I'm just asking for some news from you."

Everyone's nervousness eased a little, and an elderly villager asked: "What does the general want to ask?"

"I want to know if there have been troops crossing the border in the past month, not one or two thousand, but tens of thousands of troops."

Everyone was silent, no one spoke, and Li Guangbi asked someone to bring more than a dozen dollars, "You just need to tell me, this money is all yours!"

Everyone still didn't speak. At this time, Li Guangbi noticed that one of the thin men was staring at the money, with a look of longing in his eyes. He quietly told his men a few words and then asked everyone to go back.

Not long after, the soldiers brought the thin man back. Li Guangbi smiled and said, "Tell me everything you know, and the money will be yours."

The thin man stared, swallowed and said, "Actually, everyone knows what's going on. It's just that they are too frightened by the power of King Qi to say anything."

Li Guangbi was surprised, "Has King Qi come?"

The thin man nodded, "I have seen it all with my own eyes. King Qi summoned the elders in the village and asked everyone to keep it a secret. His attitude was quite good. If it weren't for the ten thousand dollars, I wouldn't have said it!"

Li Guangbi cursed secretly in his heart and asked quickly: "When did it happen and how many troops are there?"

"Actually, there were two groups of troops. The first batch was twenty days ago. There were about 20,000 to 30,000 troops crossing the border. Many people didn't know it, but I saw it with my own eyes. Their general's surname seemed to be Bai. I saw a white character on the big flag. .”

Li Guangbi understood clearly in his heart that the general should be Bai Xiaode.

"Then what?"

"Then about ten days ago, the King of Qi led an army. There were probably hundreds of thousands of people. It took two days to finish the journey with the camels alone. They were all carrying a lot of food. I have never seen so many camels. It was so spectacular. .”

Li Guangbi understood everything. He had no intention of listening any more. He waved his hand and asked the soldiers to take the thin man down and give him the money as well.

At this time, the scouts came to report that they found countless camel dung and a large number of footprints on the mountain road from Xingzhou in the north, at least tens of thousands of camels.

Some scouts asked for information from other villagers, and found that hundreds of thousands of troops did cross the border ten days ago.

With all kinds of intelligence gathered, the situation has become clear.

Li Guangbi paced back and forth in the tent, feeling very agitated. He had now determined that Li Ye's army would go south first, and it would be meaningless to continue attacking Qipanguan.

The current situation is very serious and cannot be solved by him. He must report it to the emperor immediately.

Thinking of this, Li Guangbi immediately ordered: "Send my order and the entire army retreats to Nanzheng County!"

The 50,000-strong army that had just camped for less than a day began to retreat. At this moment, Yu Chaoen came over with a group of men.

When he heard that the army was retreating, he was shocked and came to see Li Guangbi immediately.

"Deputy Commander Li, why do you want to retreat?"

Li Guangbi sighed and said: "Yu Sima, Li Ye has already led hundreds of thousands of troops into Bashu, we are one step late!"

Yu Chaoen was stunned for a moment, "How does General Li know?"

"I asked the people around me and they all saw it with their own eyes."

"What if these unscrupulous people lied to us?"

Li Guangbi shook his head, "How could you deceive me about this matter? It's not just one person who said this. So much evidence has been collected, including the footprints and feces of tens of thousands of camels. Don't Yu Sima still believe it?"

"Even if it's true, we can still enter Bashu!"

"How can it be?"

Li Guangbi said angrily: "Going all the way down, there are Qipanguan Pass, Feixian Pass, Miangu City, and Jianmen Pass, all of which are guarded by elite Helong troops. Even if our 50,000-strong army invades Bashu regardless of the cost, our enemy will not be able to defeat it." Over the hundreds of thousands of troops led by Li Ye personally?"

Yu Chaoen also gritted his teeth with hatred and said: "Is this all? Just watching Li Ye seize Bashu, we did nothing at all?"

Li Guangbi narrowed his eyes and said sternly: "Yu Sima, the current situation cannot be solved militarily, nor can you and I decide. We must report it to the emperor immediately and let the emperor summon his ministers to make a decision. If we want to attack Bashu, we must redeploy. , summoning more troops, not just 50,000 people can take it down, but at least 200,000 troops are needed to fight the Helong Army."

Yu Chaoen stared at Li Guangbi for a long time and nodded, "Then I will return to Chang'an immediately. Deputy Commander Li will be waiting in Hanzhong to see what the emperor's attitude is. In addition, I must get conclusive evidence that Li Ye's army will go south, otherwise I can’t report to the emperor!”

Li Guangbi sneered and said: "If Mr. Yu must have conclusive evidence, I can seize Qipanguan and capture the Helong defenders and ask for confessions, but all the consequences will be borne by Mr. Yu!"

At this moment, a soldier came to report, "Deputy Commander, there are defenders at Qipanguan. Come and deliver a letter!"

Li Guangbi was startled and immediately ordered: "Bring him here quickly!"

After a while, a soldier was brought in, knelt down on one knee and saluted, took out a letter and presented it to Li Guangbi, "This is a letter left by our Highness the King of Qi, please Li Shuai to read it!"

Li Guangbi took the letter. It was indeed a letter left to him by Li Ye, King of Qi. He opened the letter and read it again, then handed it to Yu Chaoen, "This is conclusive evidence. Li Ye's personal letter, in which he responded to the emperor's edict." , lead an army of 100,000 to Bashu to capture the rebellious Li Lin, and welcome back the coffin of the Supreme Emperor!"

Yu Chaoen said bitterly after reading the letter: "Our family will return to Chang'an right now and let the emperor decide! Please make sure Deputy Commander Li stays in Hanzhong."

Yu Chaoen hurried back to Chang'an, and Li Guangbi led an army of 50,000 people back to Nanzheng, stationed in Nanzheng and waited for the emperor's orders. Li Guangbi really sighed in his heart, what does it mean to have an army with great speed? This is it. Li Ye's ability to seize strategic opportunities is far better. Far more than the imperial court, and far more than himself.

Li Ye did not use Li Guangbi's strategy of attacking the border first and then attacking Chengdu. That was because the imperial army had too few troops, and Li Ye had an army of 100,000. Of course he wanted to go straight to Li Lin's home base.

After taking Mianzhou, Li Ye's army continued southward and fought all the way into Hanzhou. Three days later, the army arrived at Luoxian County.

At this time, Li Ye received news that Li Lin personally led an army of 80,000 people to fight from Chengdu, which was only more than 100 miles away from Luoxian County.

This information was a bit beyond Li Ye's expectation. He didn't expect that Li Lin would dare to take the initiative, and he didn't expect that Li Lin would actually gather an army of 80,000 people.

Did he even count the newly recruited troops?

But it is a habit that Li Ye has developed not to underestimate the enemy. Especially this time, the 100,000 troops he led in the southern expedition were mainly new soldiers and their combat effectiveness was not strong. However, Li Lin had an experienced army.

Li Ye did not dare to be careless. He immediately made careful arrangements and divided his troops into three groups to face Li Lin's army.