On the occasion of rebirth Zhou Sui

Chapter 420 Target Henan

On April 19, the first year of Yongchang in the Eastern Sui Dynasty (AD 605), after Du Ruhui had a small gathering with his family members who came to Jinyang, he and Li Mi hurriedly set off for Qingzhou.

Cui Che personally saw them off and told them to live well and assist the crown prince.

Du Ruhui and Li Mi were sent away, and all preparations for the trip south were in place.

Cui Che planned to lead 10,000 soldiers with Mai Tiezhang, the governor of Daizhou, to command the soldiers of Daizhou and guard the northern gate of Hedong.

Now that the Eastern Turks are caught in a civil war, Dulan Khan and Qimin Khan have not yet decided the winner, so the defensive pressure faced by Mai Tiezhang is not great.

In fact, Qimin Khan was caught between the forces of Cui Che and Dulan Khan. Cui Che did not lead his troops to the north, so Qimin Khan had to burn incense to celebrate, so how could he dare to provoke Cui Che again.

He wished that Cui Che would focus all his attention on the Central Plains so that he could focus on the showdown with Dulan Khan.

As for the defense of the west, Cui Che handed over to Qin Qiong, the governor of Puzhou, and also sent Gao Yaxian, Zhou Kan, Zhang Heng, and Wang Qing, a total of 20,000 soldiers, under Qin Qiong's command.

General Qin Qiong commanded 30,000 soldiers and soldiers from Puzhou Prefecture to guard Puban. He originally had 10,000 soldiers under his command.

Cui Che also led 20,000 troops to stay in Jinyang with Pei Le, Li Min, Mai Mengcai and Liu Tongren.

Among them, Pei Le led five thousand troops and was responsible for Jin Yanggong's bodyguard and at the same time monitoring Yang Liang.

Pei Le, Li Min, Mai Mengcai, and Liu Tongren are all relatives of Cui Che. They have one adopted son and three sons-in-law. Some of them have never even been on the battlefield, but their loyalty is their greatest advantage.

Of the 200,000 soldiers, Cui Che divided 60,000 soldiers to stay behind, and launched this Central Plains war with a scale of 140,000 soldiers.

The generals who accompanied them south include Li Jing, Cheng Yaojin, Su Dingfang, Dou Jiande, Liu Heitai, Lu Mingyue, Wang Ba, Pei Renji, Pei Xingyan and other generals.

Bo Weizheng, the head of the Prime Minister's Palace, is still in charge of military logistics.

The military and political affairs in Hedong and Hebei were handled respectively by Shi Fangxuanling, the Prime Minister's Office Director, and Shi Liufang, the Chinese and Foreign Office Director.

The two of them have followed Cui Che loyally for more than 20 years. They are also sons and daughters, and they are both trustworthy people.

Cui Che prepared for this southern expedition for more than two months. After the spring plowing, Fang Xuanling successively recruited 200,000 civilians in Hedong for Cui Che to supply the needs of this war.

Otherwise, all the soldiers under his command are around Jinyang, so there would be no need for such a long period of pre-war preparations.

In the past, when Cui Che fought against foreigners, he drove cattle and sheep on the grassland to fight. He only needed to recruit Xi people to herd the livestock.

However, the Central Plains is not the Monan Grassland, and there are not that many pastures where Cui Che can drive cattle and sheep to fight. He had to return to the fighting method of farming civilization and recruit a large number of civilians to transport grain and grass.

Of course, Cui Che was busy preparing for war in Hedong, and the Western Sui Dynasty was not blind or deaf.

In the Western Sui Dynasty, Cui Che wanted to follow Yang Liang's example, enter the pass from Puban, and drive straight into the pass to capture the central part of the pass.

There was endless debate as to whether we should go south, cross the Yellow River, and go straight to Henan.

Most close officials believe that Cui Che will go to Puban to compete for Guanzhong.

If Daxing falls, if Yang Guang cannot escape in time, the center of the imperial court will be controlled by Cui Che, and the rest of the country will most likely be able to spread the message.

In order to prevent anyone from imitating Cui Che and raising troops to rebel, Yang Guang had already issued an edict to abolish the governors of various states.

But some people think that Cui Che will go south to capture Henan.

Yang Su, Yu Wenshu and others were among them.

They believed that Guanzhong was easy to defend but difficult to attack, and Cui Che would never risk heading westward, but instead went south to fight for Henan.

Once Cui Che captures Henan, he will be able to cut off the connection between Guanxi and Huaihe, Jiangnan, Jingxiang and other places.

If food from the south wants to be transported to Guanxi, it can only take the Sichuan-Sichuan route.

Not to mention how difficult the road to Shu is, it is obviously unrealistic to send grain from the Huaihe River and Jiangnan to Kansai via Sichuan and Shu.

If Henan is lost, the Kansai region, which often suffers from droughts, will not be able to rely on its own water and soil to support a huge population of more than one million households, and it will be a matter of time before the capital is moved.

The imperial court moved south, how long can the abandoned Kansai hold on?

After some debate, Yang Guang still adopted the views of Yang Su and others, believing that Cui Che would definitely plot to seize Henan.

Yang Guang and Cui Che have been friends for a long time, and they know this childhood friend well.

In Yang Guang's view, the judgments of Yang Su, Yu Wenshu and others were obviously more in line with Cui Che's past impression of him.

Only this time, Yang Guang did not use Yang Su as his coach, but asked him to stay in Guanzhong as a precaution.

Yang Guang sent You Yiwei Generals Yu Zhongwen and Xu Guogong, Zuowei Generals Yu Wenshu, and Generals Duan Wenzhen, Yang Yichen and others eastward to divide the towns in various parts of the Central Plains.

With Yu Zhongwen as the commander-in-chief of the march in Henan Province, all the generals in Henan were under his control.

Yu Zhongwen is the grandson of Yu Jin, one of the Eight Pillar Kingdoms. He is known for his strategic skills and repeated military exploits, and is deeply favored by Yang Guang.

During the battle at Gaobiling, he noticed something was wrong in the army and tried to persuade Yang Su not to kill again, but Yang Su did not listen.

Not only were the soldiers from various places in the Central Plains recruited, but the soldiers from the Jingxiang area were also mobilized again to support the war in Henan at any time.

At the same time, Yang Guang did not blindly defend. He immediately issued an edict to recruit soldiers from the Huaihe Prefecture and put them under the control of the general to protect his children and wait for an opportunity to regain Qingqi and other states on the south bank of the Yellow River occupied by Cui Che.

Only a few months after the Hedong War ended, a war in the Central Plains was already imminent.

On April 25, the first year of Yongchang in the Eastern Sui Dynasty (AD 605), Cui Che swore an oath outside Jinyang City.

Yang Liang, who had been detained in Jinyang Palace, was also released to watch the ceremony.

Yang Liang looked very bad, even though Cui Che swore not to harm his life, and even three meals a day were provided with delicacies.

However, the political frustration still made Yang Liang depressed, and he was losing weight day by day.

Yang Lihua, who was seeing Cui Che off, and Yang Ahwu felt very distressed when they saw Yang Liang's emaciated and haggard appearance.

However, they felt guilty and did not dare to face him.

Yang Liang stood on the city tower, looking at Cui Che with complex eyes on the high platform outside the city, swore an oath to the soldiers impassionedly.

At this moment, Yang Liang's heart was filled with despair.

Previously, he listened to the queen's words and thought that Cui Che would give him a chance like Yu Wenhu, so he did not go north to Daizhou, but stayed in Jinyang.

But he never thought that even if Cui Che had changed the guards of Jinyang Palace, he would still not be able to enter the palace easily.

Even if it was a court meeting, he never attended.

Of course, this so-called court meeting is just a formality.

If there were any major military and national affairs, Cui Che would not bring them to the court meeting to discuss with the ministers, but would have made a decision with his staff in private long ago.

Now, after Cui Che finally left Jinyang, all the generals left behind were his relatives, and Yang Liang had no chance to escape.

It also made Yang Liang fall into despair.

There should be no more today. I will sort out my thoughts about the war in the Central Plains.

Five updates tomorrow.

(End of chapter)