Chapter 412: Temptation
Inside Yongyu City, it was very warm in the central military tent where Liu Xuanji was.

A group of aides sat in their respective seats to handle various affairs, while King of Han Liu Xuanji sat alone behind the desk reading a book.

It was you who instilled the habit of reading in Li Yuanhui back then. Later, after they got married, Princess Li urged him to read more and broaden his horizons.

By now, his attitude towards reading had become completely spontaneous.

The more history books and military books he read, the more he felt that there was nothing new under the sun.

From "Spring and Autumn Annals", "Records of the Grand Historian", "Book of Han", "Records of the Three Kingdoms" and "Book of Wei", the more you read these things, the clearer they become.

No wonder these educated people have so much knowledge, everything seems to have a traceable path.

For example, in the "Romance of the Three Kingdoms" he is reading now, many characters have been told by Li Yuanhui and Princess Li, but when he reads it himself, it is a different story. How similar are the results of Murong Ying's sons to those of Yuan Shao's sons? From this, Liu Xuanji also thought of another thing, that is, can the Li brothers also learn from Yuan Shao's sons? If these people fight, the world will be given to our Liu family for free.

However, he also knew that to conquer the world, one cannot rely solely on the opponent making mistakes.

Cao Cao fought hard for his chance of survival in the Battle of Guandu. If he had lost Guandu, he would not have lived to see Yuan Shao's death, let alone the civil strife among Yuan's sons.

So the first point is to be able to win.

The second point is to be able to live long enough.

Only if you can do these two things will you have the opportunity to reap the benefits.

Cao Cao attacked Wuchao at night, and he fought desperately. No one cared about him until the pursuing troops came behind him!
"Yuan Shao was a hero, but his sons were useless. If the sons of the Yuan family were in harmony, what would Wei Wu have to do with them?"

Thinking of this, Liu Xuanji let out a sigh, and several aides stopped what they were doing and looked up when they heard this.

"Taiwei, are you talking about the Qi brothers of the Li Tang royal family?" Li Yuanzhong asked first.

Liu Xuanji said: "After Yuan Shao passed away, his sons were able to resist Cao Cao when they worked together, but once they rebelled, the Yuan family would be defeated. Let's not talk about the distant past, let's just talk about the sons of Emperor Zhaowu."

Wang Sizheng said, "What the commander said is reasonable, but the Yuan brothers are far inferior to the Li Tang brothers. I have seen that since ancient times, there have never been talented people like the Li Tang brothers in the imperial family. But too much is as bad as too little. The Li brothers may not be able to stay consistent. Your Majesty can wait and see. Sooner or later, something will happen."

Liu Xuanji nodded when he heard this. He also agreed with what Wang Sizheng said.

Some things are just human nature. Being human, one cannot escape the control of nature. Can you brothers really put aside the conflicts of interest and be consistent? Work together?
I do not believe.

But if you really do this, there is nothing you can do even if you lose.

Just as a few people here were expressing their feelings, a personal guard brought information and delivered it directly to Liu Xuanji's desk.

When Liu Xuanji saw it unfolded, he couldn't help but smile, and slammed the table and said, "If I can have Luoyang someday, it must be a gift from Lord Li."

Afterwards, Liu Xuanji circulated the intelligence, and after reading it, several key aides had different expressions.

Li Yuanzhong's face was serious. "Li Yuan has sent out hundreds of thousands of troops with great momentum. He is not here with good intentions. Our army still needs to make more preparations. It is better to retreat to Yecheng to meet the enemy. We will have a better chance."

Wang Sizheng shook his head and said, "In my opinion, it may not be aimed at our Dayan. Maybe..."

Liu Xuanji said, "This is targeting Li Si. I didn't expect it. Hahaha. I thought they would be at odds with each other, but I didn't expect the same thing to happen between father and son. In this case, Li Si will probably be taken back to Guanzhong by his father. Hahaha, no matter who is in Luoyang next, can he be more difficult to deal with than Li Si?"

Liu Xuanji had a very sensitive nose. After reading the news that Li Yuan was going to lead a large army on an eastern tour, he knew there must be something fishy going on. Then he thought of the current situation in the Tang Dynasty and Li Yuan's situation.

Even if Li Er was substituted to fight him, he was not afraid at all. But he felt a little guilty when facing Li Si.

It means that you know what he will do, but you just can't do anything about it.

But now it seems that Li Yuan should bring Li Si back to Guanzhong, otherwise why would he bring so many troops with him? Could it be that he really wanted to go to the Northern Expedition?

Ling Jing, who had been silent all this time, suddenly said, "We must withdraw our troops, but we can choose when to withdraw."

Liu Xuanji said, "General Ling, please speak."

"I think the commander should withdraw his troops after Li Yuan enters Luoyang, and make sure to spread the word that our army is withdrawing because they are afraid of the reputation of the Tang Emperor."

"You mean, lure him to attack Yecheng?"

"Of course."

After Liu Xuanji heard the idea, his expression turned serious.

This was a strategy to lure the Tang army into going deep into Hebei. If Li Yuan could lead a large army to attack Yecheng, he could defend the city and wear down the Tang army's morale.

The so-called avoiding the enemy's sharp edge and attacking when the enemy is tired.

"What a good plan." Liu Xuanji thought for a moment and exclaimed, then changed the subject and said, "But Emperor Tang Li Yuan is not a short-sighted person. He may not attack Yecheng according to our idea."

Ling Jing nodded: "So, we are still needed to show the enemy our weakness. We need to lose a few battles before retreating, so that Li Yuan will think that our army is just average and the Tang army will benefit. The reason why Li Si confronted me for a long time was just to show his self-respect."

After hearing this plan, Liu Xuanji was delighted. "If we can win this battle, General Ling will have made a great contribution."

"Ling doesn't deserve such praise from the Grand Commandant. Now it's just talk on paper. If it can be implemented, it depends on the Grand Commandant to coordinate and the soldiers to follow orders. How can I dare to talk about any credit?"

Liu Xuanji smiled and said, "There are those who work hard with their minds and those who work hard with their bodies. Neither is indispensable."

At this time, the Yan army and the Tang army were still unaware of the news that Li Yuan was coming east, but some changes caught people off guard.

Liu Xuanji was leading the main force of the Yan army to confront the Tang army, and the Turks in the north were becoming restless again.

The snow in the northern desert was extremely heavy, even causing a white disaster, and many cattle, sheep and horses of the herdsmen on the grassland froze to death.

In general, what they do is very simple: go south to rob.

No matter if it was Tang or Yan, he had to rob them. In order to survive, he didn't care about anything else.

Just after the twelfth lunar month and approaching the end of the year, Longyou, Beidi, Shangjun, Liangzhou in the Tang Dynasty and Youzhou, Youbeiping and Liaoxi in the Northern Yan all suffered invasions by the Turks.

Under such circumstances, Liu Xuanji had no choice but to abandon all plans and retreat.

He led his elite cavalry back to Youzhou to drive out the Turks.

As for Guanzhong, Li Yuan was also very troubled by the chaos. He had no choice but to let the crown prince come out to take charge of defense, hoping that it would not affect his eastern tour after the New Year.

When Li Yuanhui learned about the Turkic invasion and Liu Xuanji's retreat, he immediately sent out cavalry to pursue them. As a large group of cavalry was taken away by Liu Xuanji, most of the Yan army was left with only infantry and retreated slowly. Liu Changmin, who was in charge of the remaining troops, retreated to Yecheng without slacking off along the way and always maintained a strict marching formation. In addition, Yecheng was only about a hundred miles away from the battlefield where the two sides were confronting, so the Tang army did not find a suitable opportunity to fight.

In the blink of an eye, four years of Wude had passed.

On the 18th day of the first lunar month in the fifth year of Wude, after the Crown Prince took charge of military affairs, the Turks were unable to cause any impact on the core of the Tang Dynasty, Guanzhong.

The Tang Emperor Li Yuan also followed the original plan and led his army on an eastern tour after the Lantern Festival.

(End of this chapter)