Chapter Seventeen Initial Deployment

  Collecting, recommending votes, seeking all support!

  Yang Hui, who clearly felt the change in Gao Shuhan's attitude and tone of voice, breathed a sigh of relief again and immediately said: "This general has already made a military order in front of Your Majesty, and will definitely guard Tongguan, blocking the rebel army outside the pass. If it can't be done, I will surely report to the country with my death!"

  Yang Kai said with a proud and stern tone, which moved people. However, he immediately added: "Of course, the end will know that relying on shouting slogans can't hold Tongguan Pass. To think of holding Tongguan Pass with these remaining defeated soldiers is extremely difficult, we must make meticulous arrangements! Fortunately, the rebels have not yet attacked under the city of Tongguan, and we have time to respond!"

  When Geshu Han's troops retreated, several units, such as Wang Silie and Pang Zhong, although also defeated, still set up roadblocks along the way to slow down the rebel army's pursuit, which seemed to have achieved some effect.

  Just as Yang Kai personally supported Geshu Han towards the direction of his commander's tent, a shout for killing came from afar, but it was not very loud and soon subsided. Seeing Yang Kai turn his head to look around, Geshu Han showed a faint smile at the corner of his mouth, saying: "General Yang, don't worry, the south gate is safe, it has been re-controlled, someone will come to report in a moment!"

  As the two men walked into the tent, Geshu Han asked Yang Jing a question: "Yang Bingmashi, in your opinion, how should we deploy our troops to hold Tongguan?"

  "How to defend, I'd like to discuss with General Geshu in detail, listen to the current situation at Tongguan and then express my opinion. However, I think there are a few things that must be done now! One is to clear the corpses from the moat, let the moat recover its function of blocking the enemy, and another point is... " Yang Hui said, pausing for a moment before continuing: "According to my idea, we should send a group of troops out of the city, ambush on the road from Lingbao to Tongguan!"

  "What? Set an ambush? Why do you think that?" Yang Hui's words shocked Geshu Han, who furrowed his brow and asked: "Yang Bingmashi, you should know that currently inside Tongguan City, apart from the three thousand troops you brought with you, the rest are all defeated soldiers with no fighting strength. If we send more troops out of the city to set an ambush, not to mention whether it will be effective or not, it will definitely lead to a decrease in the number of soldiers defending Tongguan, and when the enemy comes to attack, there will be chaos! If the ambush fails, it will even more cause chaos, leading to instability among the troops. Who knows, maybe the defenders of Tongguan will collapse without a fight!"

  "Gao Shu Yuanshuai's words are very reasonable, but I think it is still necessary to set up ambushes outside the city," Yang Hui replied to Gao Shu Han's blunt question, and then explained: "The purpose of doing so is not to effectively kill the rebel army, but only to slow down their advance. I'm sure Gao Shu Yuanshuai also understands that the rebel army must be rushing towards Tongguan at this moment, and can arrive at Tongguan City at any time. If they encounter ambushes along the way, they will definitely become suspicious, fearing a large-scale ambush by our troops, and will slow down their advance to investigate the situation before making further arrangements. If such things happen two or three times, we can gain time to adjust the deployment of Tongguan's military strength, and even wait for Chen Xuanli's main force to arrive! This is just a stratagem of doubt!"

  Yang Kai continued to express his deeper thoughts and explained some details.

  After listening to Yang Jie's explanation, Gesu Han fell into deep thought and did not express his opinion immediately.

  Geshu Han was slightly moved by what Yang Jie said, and he continued to explain: "General Geshu, if the ambush troops are the reinforcements brought by General Yang, even if they raise the 'Yang' flag, the rebels will be suspicious; If they know that the imperial court's reinforcements have arrived at Tongguan, they will be more concerned, and it is possible that they will give up their decision to attack Tongguan immediately! General Yang knows that with the current strength of Tongguan, this point of soldiers, these defeated generals, it is very difficult to defend Tongguan. The moat outside the pass has been filled with corpses, so we must think of all possible ways to slow down the rebels' attack on the city!"

  Yang Hui finished speaking, a pair of eyes shining with determination stared straight at Ge Shuhan, without any intention of backing down or showing fear.

  What he needs to do now is to be as sincere as possible in order to gain the trust of Geshu Han and his generals. Without the trust and support of Geshu Han, Wang Silie, Pang Zhong and others, it would be difficult for him to defend Tongguan City with just three thousand men. It's estimated that there are over a million rebels outside Tongguan City, and with only three thousand men against tens of millions, who would believe he could win and hold Tongguan? He himself wouldn't!

  Unless he led a modernized army equipped with modern weapons, such as the troops he commanded in later times, armed with various firearms, grenades and even artillery, otherwise the ultimate fate would be the city being breached and the people dying.

  In the era of cold weapons, under certain circumstances, three thousand and thirteen thousand, the combat power that burst out may differ by several orders of magnitude!

  Moreover, having a bad relationship with Geshu Han and his subordinate generals would lead to being restricted everywhere, and the power of 3,000 soldiers could not be brought into play.

  Geshu Han was slightly shocked, astonished that Yang Guifei would say such a thing. He sent people out of the city to ambush and delay the rebel army's advance, buying time for the defenders to prepare, and also had Yang Guifei lead her own troops out of the city to set up an ambush. Geshu Han was somewhat suspicious that he might have misheard or mistaken the person.

  Is this really Yang Guozhong's son in front of me? Doesn't look like it at all!

  But upon closer inspection, there was no mistake. The young man in military uniform standing before him was indeed Yang Guozhong's youngest son, Yang Hui.

  After a long sigh, Ge Shuhan put away his shocked expression and nodded in agreement with Yang Hui's words: "Yang Bingma Shi, I agree with your proposal. We can dispatch several troops to set up ambushes at key locations outside the city to slow down the rebel army's attack speed! As for the corpses inside the Forbidden Ditch, I have already ordered the soldiers to clean them up, but there are too many bodies piled up inside, and it will take a lot of time to clear them all out. However, the rebels won't wait that long before attacking the city, so we can only clean up as much as possible!"

  "There are two ways to quickly clear the bodies in the trench," Yang said, holding up two fingers. "One is to flush with a large amount of water. If there is a lot of water that can be diverted, it will be possible to wash away the soldiers' bodies in the trench very quickly; another way is to burn them with fire, pour oil on them, pile dry wood on top, and set them ablaze! But both methods are extremely difficult, and there is no water nearby that can be diverted into the trench, unless it rains heavily; burning with fire may also cause the soldiers' hearts to change, after all, the bodies in the trench are those of our Great Tang soldiers, not rebels, many of whom were companions of the survivors. Burning their bodies to ashes may provoke anger among the soldiers and even lead to unrest!"

  "Hmm..." Ge Shuhan listened, with a thoughtful expression, just as he was about to say something, a sudden horseshoe sound came from outside, followed by a "report" and then two people flashed into the room one after another.

  It was none other than Pang Zhong and Li Fude, who had just been ordered to take control of the South Gate. After they took control of the South Gate with a fierce hand, they handed over the defense of the South Gate to their respective deputy generals and ran back to report to Geshu Han and Yang Hui, and accept new tasks.

  Yang Hui did not wait for Geshu Han's orders and immediately commanded Li Fude: "General Li, you immediately lead 500 cavalrymen out of the city, choose a strategic location outside the city to set up an ambush, delay the rebel army's pursuit speed, and buy time for our army to redeploy. Raise the banner of our troops! Note that you must not engage in a prolonged battle, after contacting and shooting a few rounds of arrows, retreat immediately, and order your deputy general to lead 1,000 soldiers to set up another ambush point at a distance from your location. Then, with a group of soldiers, set up a third ambush point further away, and have them drag tree branches with their horses' tails while running back, raising as much dust as possible! After several times, you can withdraw back into the city!"

  Li Fude and Pang Zhong looked puzzled, so Yang Kai patiently continued to explain the reason for his actions, which was to use a tactic similar to the Empty Fort Strategy used by Li Shimin when he led his army to lift the siege of Yongmen with a small force. The goal was to make the rebels believe that the imperial reinforcements had arrived at Tongguan and were bold enough to launch a surprise attack on the rebels outside the city, making them cautious and not daring to advance further.

  After Yang Guifei's explanation, Li Fude finally understood what was going on, but he still hesitated. It wasn't that he didn't respect Yang Guifei's orders, it was just that he was worried about Yang Guozhong's young son appearing unexpectedly in the city and didn't dare to agree immediately.

  For him, holding Tongguan was far less important than ensuring Yang Guifei's safety. Losing Tongguan would not bring him much blame, but if Yang Guifei were not protected and were taken as a hostage by Geshu Han and his men, the crime would be great, and how could Yang Guozhong possibly forgive him?

  Li Fude was puzzled and couldn't understand why Yang Hui would arrange things this way, completely disregarding his own safety.

  He and Liu Guangting's troops should be Yang Gui's most reliable force. After arriving at Tongguan, Yang Gui didn't consider this at all, but instead ordered them to execute tasks immediately. Just now, he ordered him to lead his army to capture the south gate of Tongguan, and now he ordered him to lead a group of soldiers out of the city to set up an ambush, slowing down the rebel army's advance speed, while Liu Guangting was collecting defeated soldiers outside Tongguan City.

  Send him and Liu Guangting out, who will be left in the city to lead the army and guard?

  Because of such concerns, after Yang Gui announced the order, Li Fude couldn't help but hesitate.

  Yang Kai saw Li Fude hesitating, and he couldn't help but get "greatly enraged". With a "clang", he drew out the sword at his waist and pointed it at Li Fude: "General Li, if you dare to disobey orders and show no respect, don't blame me for not showing mercy. Military law will be enforced!"

  "Yes, I will obey your orders!" Li Fude, startled, straightened his body and loudly acknowledged the command.

  "Remember, we can't win the war, but don't let the rebels see through our plan. We must think of every way to slow down their attack speed, or else General will also be punished!"

  "Yes, I will definitely complete the mission!" Li Fude bowed and then ran out in big strides to make arrangements.