Chapter 258 Bingzhou Tuoba
Li Er's trip to Huainan did not cause any trouble and had no specific impact on the war situation.

If I have to say, it probably strengthened Li Si's strategic vision.

However, Li Yuanhui felt that they could not just sit there and waste time, they could not sit idle, and they could not let the army lose its edge and become lazy in a long confrontation.

Therefore, in addition to ensuring that the soldiers are well fed and maintaining normal training, they must be given something to do.

The solution Li Yuanhui thought of was Cuju.

He didn't even need to popularize or formulate rules, because the rules of modern football had already been worked out by their predecessors.

Li Yuanhui only needed to let each department organize a team to participate in the competition.

Of course, there must be entertainment activities, but they cannot affect the normal training and rest of each department.

Moreover, Li Yuanhui specially asked several soldiers to practice ball skills not far from the Wei army camp to provoke the Wei army's anger.

Cao Yuanjing was quite disdainful of this behavior. "This kid Li Yuanhui is really out of ideas. He can only do these little tricks and have crooked ideas. He doesn't dare to attack our camp directly. He will be captured by our army sooner or later."

In fact, Cao Yuanjing's words were entirely intended to comfort the Wei army soldiers.

A long-term military confrontation is a test for the army. If it is too relaxed, the troops will lose their vigilance and the necessary tension. If it is too tense, the soldiers will always be in a state of high tension and easily collapse after a long time.

Therefore, in order to solve this problem, Cao Yuanjing adopted the approach of tightening the outside and loosening the inside.

The troops stationed in the outer camps must remain vigilant at all times to prepare for war.

The camp inside is relatively relaxed, allowing the soldiers to get sufficient rest.

For half a month, each camp took turns to guard the periphery to guard against a surprise attack on the camp by the Western Yan army.

Basically, achieve a balance between relaxation and tension.

Both sides were closely watching each other's every move, looking for each other's weaknesses, but at present, it seemed that neither army had the ability to defeat the other.

Therefore, no one dared to take the initiative in a big way. They all tried some small tricks, hoping that the other party would be too tired to deal with it, so they could find a chance to win.

On the other hand, after Li Er returned to Jingzhou, he went straight to Wancheng.

At this time, the aftermath of the war was being carried out in full swing. After leaving more than 10,000 troops in Xinye, Li San led the army back to Wancheng to join forces with his two brothers.

It was not until he arrived in Wancheng that Li San learned that his second brother had gone to Jianghuai on a whim.

"Erlang threw all these military affairs to me and went to Jianghuai by himself. How carefree." Li Dalang complained half-jokingly.

San Lang smiled and said, "Second brother is the same. Why didn't you ask me to go with you to Jianghuai?"

The two were chatting and laughing when a messenger came down to report that the right commander-in-chief had returned.

"So fast? Second brother is really fast."

While saying this, the eldest and the third brother welcomed the second brother into the governor's mansion.

This Governor's Mansion, which was the former Governor's Mansion, was used as Huang Niujiao's palace when he occupied Wancheng. Li Er entered the Governor's Mansion covered in dust and asked the waiters in the mansion to prepare meals.

While eating, he told the eldest and third brothers about what he had seen and heard on this trip and the current situation in Jianghuai.

"Silang is quite good at managing the army and government. The army is harmonious, the barracks are clean, the ranks are orderly, and the soldiers are quite energetic. In addition, outside the cities of Hefei and Shouchun, there are large tracts of farmland with good growth. The people can eat food almost every day, and the people have no vegetables. Based on this, I dare to assert that neither Zhai Rang nor Cao Yuanjing can do anything to Silang."

Li San and Li Da both looked solemn upon hearing this.

For ordinary people, food is very precious. In addition to paying land taxes, some people also have to pay land rent. As long as they can eat food every day, regardless of whether they can eat enough, they are already in a wealthy place.

As for being able to eat as much as you want? I don't even dare to think about it.
Li San said: "As my second brother said, my fourth brother is in Jianghuai, so there should be no worries in the south. The only concerns are Yuzhou's Lou Jushi and Qingzhou's Zhai Rang, which are not worth worrying about. The Yuzhou army was defeated by my second brother, and more than half of the 40,000 elite troops from China and foreign countries were lost. Qingzhou's Zhai Rang was also defeated by Li Yaoshi, and the losses were not small. We can't fight any more foreign battles for a year or so. Next, maybe we can try to go north to Luoyang from Yingchuan."

Li Dalang said, "Although the Eastern Army has no strategic location to defend on this road, our army has been besieging Wancheng for more than half a year. The reserves in Guanzhong are not much. Although it is close to the autumn harvest, the laborers are busy harvesting. It is not worth the effort to recruit them at this time. It is better to postpone it."

Li Er said, "Sanlang's point is reasonable. The Yingchuan area is no longer indefensible. Even if we cannot march north to Luoyang, we can still capture Runan in the west of Yuzhou. But what my brother said is that if the war lasts for a long time, the people should not miss the farming season. This is also true. So I think we can let the laborers and the main army withdraw, leaving behind a small army of tens of thousands of people, and let my fourth brother send troops to cooperate and provide food and grass. We must not let the Yuzhou army have a chance to regroup."

After some discussion, the three brothers prepared to write a letter to Li Yuan to explain the current situation and the next arrangements.

But before the letter was sent, he received an order from Li Yuan in Chang'an.

Dalang and Erlang led the central army back to Guanzhong, while Sanlang stayed in Jingzhou and served as the commander-in-chief of Jingzhou's military affairs to maintain connectivity with the Yangtze and Huaihe River regions.

The reason why he was so anxious to order the army to return was because Tuoba Yuqing, the governor of Bingzhou, stationed his troops in Hedong, and seemed to be planning to advance westward into Guanzhong.

Hedong's geographical location and shape give it geographical advantages over Guanzhong, Hebei and Luoyang Basin.

In another time and space, Li Tang first entered Guanzhong from Hedong, then took over the two Longs and Liangzhou, obtained war horses and excellent soldiers, and then went east to Luoyang to unify the world.

But in this version, the Li family fought their way out of Yizhou, following Zhuge Liang's route, going north out of Qishan, first conquering Longyou, and then straddling Liangzhou and Yizhou, and entering Guanzhong from a high position.

So at present, the Hedong region, that is, Bingzhou occupied by Dai Guogong Tuoba Yuqing, poses the greatest threat to Guanzhong.

Therefore, Li Yuan, on the one hand, dispatched troops to closely guard the Yellow River and Tongguan, and on the other hand, sent a letter to Jingzhou asking the eldest and second brothers to lead the troops back to Guanzhong.

In fact, he knew that the real purpose of Daiguo Duke Tuoba Yuqing was to show off his power and negotiate some conditions.

After all, the original queen of the Western Yan regime was a woman from the Tuoba family. Now the emperor has changed, the queen has also changed, and there are still several relatives and in-laws of the Tuoba family in Chang'an City, so Tuoba Yuqing plans to negotiate some conditions with the Li family.

Li Yuan saw this very clearly. In addition to the geographical advantage, the war potential of the Tuoba family in Bingzhou was completely incomparable to the three states of Yong, Liang and Yi owned by the Li family, not to mention parts of Jingyang.

But even so, the army still needs to be sent back, otherwise he might take real action when he sees that Guanzhong is empty.

Can't help but be on guard.

Li Yuan also made arrangements for the placement of the surrendered generals. Huang Niujiao and Xu Tianzuo said that the army they commanded was about 30,000 people, of which 20,000 people were assigned to Xu Tianzuo, who was ordered to be the general commander to assist Li San in defending Jingzhou. Huang Niujiao led more than 10,000 people to follow Li Da and Li Er back to Guanzhong.

Sure enough, after Li Er led more than 10,000 cavalrymen to return to Guanzhong from Wugu Pass, he went straight to Linjin without even entering Chang'an.

As soon as the flag was raised, Tuoba Yuqing directly sent messengers to meet the Emperor and the King of Tang.

(End of this chapter)