Jiang Caiping stared at her extended hand for a long while, finally nodding in agreement and boarding the carriage that had warming braziers inside. Jirong lowered the curtain and instructed the driver to move forward.
At this moment, a fierce battle was unfolding at Qianshui Plain.
After Li Shimin learned of Xue Rengao’s lack of supplies, he anticipated that the time to counterattack Xue Rengao had come. At that time, he faced two choices. First, to fiercely attack Gaocheng; this would have one disadvantage – the Western Qin army might very well become desperate and fight to the death, and even if they captured Gaocheng, the Tang army would also suffer heavy losses.
The other choice was to maintain the status quo, continuing the siege-but-not-attack situation, waiting for the Western Qin army to completely run out of supplies. But if Western Qin reinforcements arrived, they might find themselves attacked from both front and rear, which would be equally disadvantageous.
In everyone’s view, this situation was problematic whether they attacked or not, creating a dilemma.
At this time, Liu Hongji proposed a third option: attack, but not blindly assault Gaocheng. He pointed to the location for the decisive battle – a place no one would expect: Qianshui Plain!
At the end of November, Right Martial Guard General Pang Yu deployed his forces south of Qianshui Plain to lure Zong Luohou, who was defending Gaocheng, into battle. Liu Hongji’s instructions to Pang were: he must force Zong Luohou to fight, but was permitted to lose but not to win. He didn’t explain why, only saying to keep him occupied while others would provide support.
Zong Luohou had received Xue Rengao’s orders early on. Facing Pang Yu’s provocations, he turned a deaf ear, completely ignoring them as if he hadn’t heard anything.
If it had been someone else in this situation, they would have been helpless against Zong Luohou, but he happened to encounter Pang Yu, which changed everything completely.
When Liu Hongji recommended Pang Yu to Li Shimin, it wasn’t because he was particularly skilled at warfare, but because of his other talent: he could curse people. Pang Yu was a crude man who had always mixed with a bunch of soldiers. Not only did crude words come easily to him, but he varied them in all sorts of ways, even using Zong Luohou’s name in his curses, making it truly unbearable.
However, Zong Luohou was not an ordinary person after all. Though angered, he endured it. But Pang Yu didn’t give up. He somehow obtained a monkey, hung a sign on the monkey’s chest with “Zong Luohou” written on it, and constantly beat gongs beside it, making the monkey perform various comical actions. This truly made Zong Luohou furious.
A scholar can be killed but not humiliated!
This time, Zong Luohou finally lost his original composure and gave orders to leave the city and engage the Tang army in battle. During the clash between the two armies, Pang Yu didn’t forget Liu Hongji’s instructions, fighting while retreating northward.
Just as Zong Luohou was in hot pursuit of Pang Yu and his men, a cavalry unit appeared like divine soldiers behind him, exactly as the Western Qin army had suddenly appeared behind Li Yuanji before.
Using one’s own methods against oneself!
The main reason Liu Hongji chose Qianshui Plain for the decisive battle was because this was the best location for such a battle, but beyond that, he also hoped to boost the morale of the soldiers and avenge past humiliations.
Zong Luohou was suddenly attacked, and the result was the same as Li Yuanji’s had been – his formation fell into chaos. Li Shimin’s cavalry charged through like breaking bamboo, scattering them completely and causing the loss of several thousand men at once.
Right from the first engagement, losing several thousand men was absolutely a number that terrified Zong Luohou. He wanted to retreat to Gaocheng, but that route was completely blocked, making Gaocheng visible but unreachable.
With no other choice, being attacked from two sides, he could only retreat to Zhezhi City, where Xue Rengao was located.
Li Shimin immediately decided to advance with the entire army toward Zhezhi City.
Having experienced countless battles, Li Shimin understood well the principle of striking while the iron is hot. If they sounded the retreat now, the hard-won high morale would dissipate, and who knew if they would have such a good opportunity again.
When preparing to attack Zhezhi City, one person raised an objection. This person was named Dou Gui, brother of Lady Dou and Li Shimin’s maternal uncle, who was also part of this expedition.
Dou Gui believed that although Zong Luohou had suffered a great defeat, Xue Rengao’s strength remained intact and hadn’t suffered any losses. Attacking now, if they won, naturally everything would be fine, but if they lost…
As Li Shimin fell into hesitation because of his words, Liu Hongji said one sentence: “Opportunity cannot be lost, and will not come again. If we abandon today’s momentum like breaking bamboo, Western Qin will be difficult to destroy.”
It was precisely this sentence that made Li Shimin finally make up his mind to attack Zhezhi City with the entire army.
No one could have expected that Xue Rengao, who had always charged at the forefront, would this time act like a coward, hiding in Zhezhi City and refusing to come out no matter how Li Shimin challenged him to battle.
Xue Rengao’s withdrawal created difficulties for Li Shimin. He had been on campaign for three months now. Although supplies from Chang’an were still being delivered continuously, the officials responsible for escorting supplies had told him that his elder brother had already begun gathering supplies from around Chang’an. Now that autumn harvest was over, with current supplies, they could probably sustain an army of three hundred thousand for another month. He would try to gather more from elsewhere, but when and how much could be gathered remained unknown.
Li Jiancheng’s intention was for Li Shimin to end this war before the New Year if possible, to avoid excessive losses. This was also one of the reasons Li Shimin decided to follow Liu Hongji’s advice and attack Zhezhi City in one stroke.
During the council meeting in camp, Pang Yu requested orders: “Your Highness, why not let this general go challenge them to battle again and force that boy Xue Rengao to come out and fight.”
Du Ruhui shook his head: “It’s useless. Zong Luohou has already fallen for your trick and will surely remind Xue Rengao to be careful.”
Pang Yu stiffened his neck: “Being careful is one thing, but being able to endure is another. Your Highness, this general is confident he can force Xue Rengao out.”
Li Shimin didn’t speak, but turned to see Liu Hongji sitting calmly in his chair and said, “Sir, you seem so composed and confident. Have you already thought of a method to deal with Xue Rengao?”
Liu Hongji leaned forward slightly in his chair: “What General Pang just said is indeed one method, but I believe that rather than simply hurling abuse, we should employ psychological warfare instead!”
“Psychological warfare?” Yin Kaishan frowned: “What kind of psychological warfare? Are we going to be like Xue Ju before, capturing some surrendered soldiers and torturing them to death beneath the city?”
Liu Hongji shook his head: “Of course not. Not to mention that Xue Rengao doesn’t value human life at all, even if we really forced him out, it would violate the Way of Heaven’s benevolence and damage His Highness’s fortune and longevity.”
Yin Kaishan said gruffly: “Then what do you mean by psychological warfare?”
Liu Wenjing said from the side: “Sir, stop keeping us in suspense. Speak quickly – what exactly is this psychological warfare strategy?”
“Your Highness and all the generals might consider this: how long have those soldiers under Xue Rengao been away from home? They all have families and relatives. Having been away so long, wouldn’t they miss them?”
“Furthermore, the lack of supplies in the city is an undeniable fact. Does Your Highness think those soldiers would rather starve to death than accompany Xue Rengao in this siege? He’s not Liu Gan!”