The film and television world begins with the battle for the throne in Kowloon

Chapter 913 The army presses the territory
In the past, Li Ji’s Tongmo Road had no more than 100,000 soldiers at most.

But now, there are 200,000 soldiers and horses gathered in the Jiuyuan Fengzhou area alone, plus the Shengzhou and Yulin areas in the east, there are now more than 300,000 soldiers and horses along the Yellow River in the north.

Even so, Chang'an continued to transfer troops to the north, which was obviously the rhythm of preparing for a big war.

Seeing that Li Ji looked unhappy, the deputy general Hong En asked, "General, the court now attaches great importance to the defense of the northern border. With the increase in military strength, your influence will also increase. Isn't this a good thing?"

"I see you are worried, what is the matter?"

Li Ji was a general from Wagang at the end of the Sui Dynasty. He later surrendered to Li Yuan and was one of the few young heroes in the Tang Dynasty. He was named Duke of Ying at a young age and made great contributions to the establishment of the Tang Dynasty. He was a talented general with great strategies.

But before the Xuanwu Gate, he refused Li Shimin's invitation and was marginalized from then on.

However, his talents were so outstanding that Li Shimin had to rely on him.

Available but not trustworthy is how Li Ji evaluated himself in the emperor's mind. This evaluation was also the fundamental reason why Li Ji was always depressed despite his high position.

Deputy General Hong En was a fellow townsman of Li Ji and an old man who had followed Li Ji since he went to Wagang.

After spending many years together, they were nominally master and servant, but actually brothers. Li Ji knew a little about Li Ji's concerns, but his influence was not influential, and he was helpless when it came to matters at the top.

"what do you know?"

Li Ji's eyes flashed with worry: "The ones who lead the heavy troops in the court now are either the old men from the Qin Palace or the old generals from Xuanwu Gate, and I am the only general who does not belong to these two factions and can lead so many troops."

"It was OK before when the Yellow River defense line only had 100,000 soldiers. Although there were many people, it was far away from Chang'an. There were also 200,000 cavalrymen of Ashina Yun outside. The Jinshan Grand Military Governor's Office in the northwest was not far from the Yellow River either. With the protection of these two major military governor's offices, the emperor was very relieved."

"But what now?"

"The court has tripled the size of the army here, but has not promoted my position?"

"Back then, before the Battle of Dingxiang, Cheng Yaojin served as the Dingxiang Road Army Chief, but I am still an ordinary Army Chief. What does this mean? Doesn't it mean that the emperor doesn't want to promote me?"

Hong En comforted him, "That's not necessarily the case, General. The fact that the Emperor has not appointed a new commander shows that he values ​​you. As for not promoting you, maybe it's because the Emperor doesn't think the Turks will go south?"

"Some time ago, Duke Lu went north to negotiate on the orders of the Emperor."

"This shows that the emperor prefers to explain the Turkic issue in a peaceful way. If you are promoted to the chief military commander, it will not only be a military position, but also mean that the entire Tongmo Road will enter a wartime mechanism, which will greatly stimulate the Turkic people."

"Your Majesty is increasing the number of troops while keeping the original specifications unchanged. This is for the sake of the overall situation and will not specifically target the generals."

What Hong En said made sense. Li Ji felt a little relieved and his expression softened. He sighed secretly, thinking, is it because he has too many worries?

Just as he was about to praise Hong En, his eyes suddenly shrank, and he saw three thick black smoke rising from a hilltop on the southern foot of the Yinshan Mountain in front of him. Li Ji hurriedly ran to the tower and looked north, only to see that there were many mountains and many hilltops were covered with smoke.

It winds and rises to the deepest part of the desert.
Before anyone could react, the alarm bell on top of Fengzhou City was urgently rung, and the shrill sound spread throughout the city.

Since the fourth year of Zhenguan, when the Tang Dynasty defeated Jie Li and pushed its defense line to the Yellow River, it erected dozens of beacon towers on dozens of hilltops within the Yinshan Mountains, secretly extending to the depths of the grassland thousands of miles away.

Having been in the border town for a long time, almost all the soldiers knew that one wolf smoke smoke meant a small number of unknown troops were approaching, signaling the city to step up its alert; two wolf smoke smoke meant the presence of more than 10,000 cavalrymen, and three wolf smoke smoke smokes, the highest warning level, meant a large-scale invasion of the Tang Dynasty by more than 100,000 grassland cavalrymen.

'coming! ’

Li Ji muttered to himself, then took a deep breath and gave a loud order: "Hong En, pass on my order. All border towns along the Yellow River, including Fengzhou, Yongfeng, Feng'an, Jiuyuan, etc., enter a wartime state, close the city gates, and block some ferry crossings to the north."

"Call all the soldiers in the city to defend the city. Open the warehouses and move all the rolling logs, radium stones, kerosene and arrows to the top of the city walls."

"At the same time, send messengers to Shengzhou Yulin in the east, Ashina Yunbu in the south of the desert, and Dingxiang Lingzhou Chang'an to report the situation here."

"And have the 100,000 infantrymen from Jiuyuan cross the Yellow River to support Fengzhou. Move the General Administration Office to Fengzhou and summon all military officers above the rank of Lieutenant General to the government office for discussion."

Li Ji was indeed a veteran general, busy but not chaotic, blurting out military orders almost without thinking. The messengers around him went to different directions after receiving the orders, and the whole city quickly became busy under his command.

Li Ji knew that the beacon fires were transmitted one after another at a fast speed, and the Turkic army was still hundreds of miles away. Within three days, the Turkic vanguard would definitely arrive at the foot of Yinshan Mountain and in front of Fengzhou City.

The longer this time is delayed, the more enemies will come and the larger their scale will be.

Li Ji muttered to himself that he had heard that this time the Right Wise King was leading an expedition to the west with an army of 700,000 to 800,000 people, and after the two great battles between Biheli and Yi Nan, their forces should be greatly weakened.

The Tang army had 300,000 soldiers on the Yellow River, the Ashina Yun tribe in the south of the desert had 200,000 cavalry, plus the 300,000 soldiers of the Yi Nan army, a total of 800,000 soldiers. Facing such a large garrison and the strong city, was the Right Wise King really so arrogant?
Three days later, outside Fengzhou City, Turkic cavalry began to appear from the distant mountains. From the moment the first cavalryman appeared, it was like poking through an ant nest, and waves of cavalrymen began to emerge like a tide, densely packed and endless.

In just one day, the wilderness outside the city was completely occupied.

Li Ji was standing on the top of the city wall, and he was extremely shocked. The news came from Yongfeng City, which was dozens of miles away, and the news was the same outside Yongfeng City.

By this calculation, at the foot of the Yinshan Mountains beyond the Yellow River, the Turkic cavalry stretched for hundreds of miles. With such a scale, it is estimated that the number of Turks may have reached one million.

In his impression, when had the Tang Dynasty ever encountered such a powerful foreign enemy?

Fengzhou is sandwiched between two rivers. The Yellow River in the south is the main river, with surging water and high waves, while the Yellow River in the north is shallow and slow. The flat terrain leads to criss-crossing river channels, sand dunes and rocky beaches everywhere, and the water flow often changes without any fixed rules.

The Turkic cavalry stopped at the edge of the grassland across the river beach several hundred meters away, and began to raise tridents, hold scimitars, strike their shields, and roar unscrupulously at the top of the city wall, trying their best to intimidate.
Hundreds of thousands of people formed a siege formation at the same time, creating a tremendous murderous intent that weighed down the entire Fengzhou city like a dangerous ship sailing in raging waves, which could capsize at any time.

The Tang Dynasty defenders on the city wall were very nervous. Many of them were veterans who had experienced the era when the Turks invaded the Central Plains almost every year before the fourth year of Zhenguan. They were very familiar with the Turks' way of fighting, which was to show off their strength first and then attack the city.

Li Ji knew clearly that with the size of the Turks, Fengzhou City would not be able to hold out for long as long as they attacked.

The river outside the city had a messy rocky beach. In early summer, the water was not deep and many places could be waded through. Because of these complex river channels, there was no moat outside Fengzhou City. Even if the Turks did not have siege equipment, they could not resist for long.

Just when everyone thought that the Turks would launch an attack soon.

The Turkic formation in the direction of the city gate split up, and a group of Tang soldiers walked out of it. These people left the Turkic group and headed straight for Fengzhou City.

When they arrived at the foot of the city, Li Ji could see clearly that the person leading the way was none other than Duke Junji of Lu, who had been sent on a diplomatic mission to the grassland half a month ago.

Hou Junji also spotted Li Ji on the top of the city wall at this time, and hurriedly shouted: "General Li, quickly open the city gate. We are returning to the Tang Dynasty from our mission to the Turks. I have important military information and I must rush to Chang'an to meet His Majesty."

The generals on the city wall looked at Li Ji. Li Ji saw that the large group of Turkic troops in the distance had no intention of moving forward, so he ordered the soldiers to open the city gate and let Hou Junji and his party enter the city.

Not long after that, the Turks slowly retreated, and within an hour, they disappeared without a trace, as if they had never been there.

This made Li Ji and the generals in Fengzhou City very confused.

Fengzhou was still 1,500 miles away from Chang'an. While preparing horses and rations for Hou Junji in the city, Li Ji pulled Hou Junji aside and asked anxiously, "Duke Lu, didn't you go to the grassland to negotiate? How did you attract the Turkic army?"

"What are you talking about? How did you invite me to do this?"

Hou Junji refuted unhappily, and then said with great regret: "Originally, I had already negotiated that the Tang Dynasty recognized the Turkic occupation of Mobei, and the Turkic Dynasty also made peace with the Tang Dynasty, and the two families would marry and not invade each other."

"When the Right Wise King's tribe was about to return to Urge, something unexpected happened."

"What happened?" Li Ji asked nervously.

Hou Junji seemed to be worried and said, "If I tell you, you must not spread it, otherwise the army will be in chaos."

"Don't worry, the emperor has entrusted the Jiuyuan defense line to me. The city survives and the people survive. If the city is destroyed, the people will die. I know the importance of this."

Hou Junji lowered his voice and said, "Yinan, the traitor, actually secretly sent an envoy, willing to surrender his tribe to the Right Wise King and support the Right Wise King in unifying the grassland. At the same time, before this news spread, Yinan used the name of the Great Tang Jinshan Grand Military Governor's Office."

"While the Tang Dynasty's attention is being drawn to the heavy Turkic troops in the north, we will launch a surprise attack on the Lingzhou Huaiyuan area from the west of the Helan Mountains and the Yellow River."

"Then join forces with the Right Wise King to attack from the front and back, completely devour the Tang army on our front line, and then lead a million-strong army into Guanzhong."

(End of this chapter)