Chapter 930 Overestimation
Su Sheng’s prestige in the army was already the highest under the Emperor. Even Zhou Liang, the founder of the Jiangdong Army, was probably far inferior to Su Sheng at this time.

After he gave the order, the Tang army outside Tongguan sent people to declare war on the same day.

The tone of the letter of challenge was very arrogant, directly asking Guanshu to surrender, otherwise after the royal army entered the pass, they would be killed without burying them.

Su Sheng did not really expect to be able to scare Tongguan open by intimidation when he issued this declaration of war.

But in fact, after his declaration of war entered Tongguan and was received by the Tongguan garrison, it immediately caused an uproar among the Tongguan garrison.

In fact, many Shuofang troops stationed in Tongguan really intended to open the city and surrender.

After all, Emperor Li had been on the throne for more than half a year. Even if the news in Guanzhong was blocked, the soldiers stationed in Tongguan had already known about it.

They also knew that the new court would attack Guanzhong sooner or later.

Under such circumstances, they have been in fear for more than half a year. Even if there is any disturbance outside Tongguan, they will be like a frightened bird.

Moreover, they have a consensus, that is…

The Shuofang Army could hardly be a match for the new imperial court.

The reason is very simple.

Guanzhong has been in chaos for years, and the Wei father and son do not know how to manage the 800-li Qinchuan area. For such a long time, the most basic farming has not been well restored. What’s worse is that Guanzhong lost the supplies from Jiannan Road not long ago.

The current Shuofang Army can hardly even maintain a force of 100,000.

Even a force of this size can only be sustained under high pressure, otherwise it will be even more difficult.

And how many military forces does the new court have?
Leaving aside some troops stationed in local areas, the new court was able to mobilize nearly 300,000 free troops at this time.

This is without forced conscription.

Although it was unlikely that the Tongguan defenders knew the number of troops of the new court, they could guess it to some extent.

At least what is certain is that there are far more than ours.

Once the new court attacks, it is unlikely that Guanzhong can be defended.

With this kind of cognition, the morale of the army would naturally be low. In addition, the declaration of war sent to Tongguan by Su Sheng at this time made the defenders of Tongguan even more panicked.

Many people really planned to surrender to the new dynasty and save their lives.

However, the Shuofang Army is a well-trained army after all. Up to now, the unit combat effectiveness of the Shuofang Army is still not inferior to that of the New Tang Army.

After receiving the declaration of war, no matter what the army discussed, the defender of Tongguan immediately sent the news to the capital of Guanzhong and requested support from General Wei.

Tongguan is not too far from the capital of Guanzhong. In less than a day, the letter of war was delivered to Major General Wei Yao.

After seeing the declaration of war, Wei Yao read it over and over again before getting up to look for his father.

At this time, Wei Quanzhong was playing with a group of beauties in the hot springs in the capital.

In fact, at Wei Quanzhong’s age, physical desires no longer particularly affect him. Even when he plays with these beauties, there is often no real physical contact.

More than that, it’s a feeling.

A psychological feeling.

This feeling of indulgence in sensual pleasures allows him to temporarily forget his worries, indulge in pleasure, and forget the difficulties that Guanzhong and the Shuofang Army are currently facing.

It was not until Wei Yao strode into the hot spring pool and scared away the beauties that General Wei stood up, put on his clothes, and looked at his son with some displeasure.

“Didn’t I leave everything to you? Why are you still bothering me?”

General Wei put his hands behind his back and frowned, “What? Now that you have power, you can’t even enjoy your father’s pleasure?”

The major general was very angry. He glared at his father and gritted his teeth, “Dad, ask yourself, if everything is fine with the Shuofang Army, would you allow me to be in charge?”

He took out the declaration of war from his arms, handed it to Wei Quanzhong, and said through gritted teeth: “Li Er finally couldn’t bear it anymore and wants to attack Guanzhong.”

“So fast?”

General Wei took the letter of challenge and said, “That kid is so patient. I thought he could continue to live happily in the capital for a year or two.”

After taking the letter of challenge and taking a look at it, General Wei stroked his beard and said, “If they come to attack Guanzhong at this time next year, we will go north directly and leave from Xiaoguan without any hesitation. However, the new dynasty has only been established for less than a year, and they have exempted half of the taxes. As of today, the first year’s autumn grain may not be harvested yet.”

“Even if they come to attack, they won’t last long.”

He handed the letter of challenge back to Wei Yao and said calmly, “Just deal with it normally.”

Wei Yao looked at his father seriously and said, “Dad, this is no longer a war issue.”

The major general took a deep breath and whispered, “The morale of the army is unsettled!”

“Someone from Xiaoguan has reported that they vaguely saw Li Tang’s army near Xiaoguan.”

“At this time, they are attacking Tongguan. How do we know that they will not attack Guanzhong from other places?”

At this point, Wei Yao took a deep breath and said, “Dad, I think we should leave Guanzhong and retreat back to Shuofang.” “It will be safe only if we return to Lingzhou.”

Lingzhou is located in the northwest, far away from the Central Plains Dynasty. Even if there is a separatist force there, as long as it nominally pays tribute to the Central Plains Dynasty, the Central Plains Dynasty will generally turn a blind eye.

Moreover, the main forces of the Shuofang Army were all from Shuofang, that is, soldiers from the area near Lingzhou. After returning to Lingzhou, they were familiar with the terrain, and secondly, after returning to their homeland, their fighting spirit would also be somewhat revived.

In short, as long as he returns to Lingzhou, Wei Yao will be able to deal with Li Tang’s army.

But in Guanzhong, he had no confidence at all.

General Wei frowned when he heard this: “We haven’t even started fighting yet, and the Su family’s youngsters scared my father and me away with just a piece of paper?”

“If this gets out, where will our dignity be?”

Wei Yao wanted to say something else, but was rejected by General Wei. He looked at Wei Yao and said in a deep voice, “If you don’t dare to fight, your father will fight. We have four passes, so we must fight first to know who will win.”

After saying this, General Wei hesitated for a moment, then looked at Wei Yao and asked, “How much of the good stuff from Guanzhong has been shipped out?”

Wei Yao whispered, “Thirty percent of the treasures in the capital have been shipped out, and one or two percent have been shipped to Lingzhou.”

“it is good.”

General Wei clapped his hands and laughed, “No matter how fierce Li Er is, at most you and I can hide back in Lingzhou. I don’t believe that the newly born Li Tang Dynasty has the ability to go to the northwest and fight with us.”

General Wei was somewhat happy when he thought of this. He smiled and said, “If we really fight a few battles in the northwest, we can show Li Er some strength. Then he might even hold his nose and make us a king.”

When Wei Yao heard this, his eyes flickered. He asked, “Dad, how are you going to fight?”

General Wei put his hands behind his back and said, “Three days later, I will lead my own troops to Tongguan to take a look for my father.”

“Take a look at the quality of Li Tang’s army.”

Wei Yao lowered his head immediately.

“Okay, I’ll get ready now.”

…………

Outside Tongguan.

Three days passed in a flash. On the morning of the fourth day, under the command of General Su, the soldiers outside Tongguan began to attack Tongguan.

But they were all relatively conventional attacks, using siege weapons such as catapults.

The intensity of the attack was not very fierce and could only be considered a conventional siege.

But even so, the Tongguan defenders still suffered a lot of casualties.

General Su had been watching the battle for a whole day and couldn’t help but frowning: “How come these Shuofang troops are defending so reluctantly?”

He pondered for a long time and finally made a decision.

“It’s probably a trick.”

Thinking of this, he called the officials from the Nine Departments who were accompanying the army and gave them orders.

“Please ask the Nine Departments to coordinate with General Li Hao’s troops.”

“And the troops of General Dachen of Jiannan Chen, talk to them.”

General Su put his hands behind his back and said slowly, “According to the agreement.”

The officials of the Ninth Department immediately bowed their heads and answered yes. Then the entire intelligence system of the Ninth Department immediately began to operate.

……

At this time, in the Tang army camp in Jiannan Road, Huang Chao, dressed in a civil servant’s robe, was confronting Chen Da in the commander’s tent.

He looked at Chen Da for a long time before he said, “General Chen, His Majesty once ordered the general to help this humble official.”

Chen Da glanced at him and said unhappily, “You killer, I’ve already given you almost two captain battalions, isn’t that considered helping you?”

Huang Chao bowed his head and begged, “General Chen.”

“Lend me another battalion of the Duwei. I will only lend it for one and a half months.”

Huang Chao raised his head and spoke slowly.

“In a month and a half, I will be able to pacify at least three more chieftains, and then we can handle the rest of Jiannan Road.”

“It’s much easier.”

Upon hearing this, Chen Da looked at Huang Chao and couldn’t help but retort.

“Is that Pingding?”

(End of this chapter)