Chapter 867 Eight Passes and Cities
Upon hearing Shang Ruyi's words, Yuwen Ye said nothing more, but his eyes slowly narrowed, revealing a hint of a smile.
Shang Ruyi then knew that she had guessed correctly.
So he said, "Speak quickly!"
Yuwen Ye smiled before saying, "He wasn't targeting Shen Tu Tai, so Shen Tu Tai didn't provoke him either, but he still sent someone to investigate. Xiao Yuan Sui led an army of 50,000 eastward and lingered near Hejian County."
"Hejian Prefecture?"
Shang Ruyi frowned, silently calculating in her mind, and said, "Neither his nor Liang Shide's forces had ever reached Hejian County before. Now he's leading 50,000 troops there. Does he want to take over that place?"
Yuwen Ye nodded: "It seems so."
Shang Ruyi immediately wanted to say something more, but stopped after thinking for a moment, and just stared at him and asked, "Anything else?"
"what else?"
"Stop pretending. I just saw it. Shen Tu Tai's letter was quite long. How could it possibly mention something like this? Besides, he occupied Song and Xu prefectures. It's not enough for him to just hold onto those two places, is it?"
Hearing her ask that, Yuwen Ye's smile deepened.
He stopped being coy and slowly said, "Besides finding out Xiao Yuansui's whereabouts, he also spent some time finding out about Liang Shide's troop deployment and arrangements near Luoyang."
"oh?"
Hearing this, Shang Ruyi was somewhat pleasantly surprised. You see, the reason Jiang Chongen was able to lure Yuwen Yuan to Longmen Ferry and almost succeed was because he presented half of the Luoyang city defense map and lied that he had the other half. Later, when the matter was exposed, he was arrested and thrown into the Dali Temple in Chang'an. He died after being tortured, all in order to obtain some definite information.
However, they also had their own calculations. Given Liang Shide's shrewdness, he might use Jiang Chongen to set up this scheme, but it was unlikely that he would actually let that incompetent person grasp such an important matter. If it were leaked, Luoyang would be in danger.
But now, Shen Tu Tai is taking the initiative to do this.
Once the information from both sides is compared, it becomes easier to distinguish which information is true and which is false.
Shang Ruyi hurriedly asked, "Has he found out anything?"
Yuwen Ye nodded, then suddenly looked down at Shang Ruyi's arms. It turned out that the little Yuanzi they had just taken in was probably a bit tired and had fallen asleep in his swaddling clothes. He smiled and reached out to take his chubby son from his wife's arms.
Shang Ruyi whispered, "What are you doing?"
"It's alright, the kid's asleep, he can't be woken up by thunder."
Sure enough, when he was picked up, there was a slight jolt, and Xiao Yuanzi frowned slightly, but he still didn't wake up. He just smacked his lips and fell asleep again. Yuwen Ye smiled and held the swaddled baby in his arms. After the little guy was completely asleep, he reached out and tapped his nose lightly: "For example, this is Luoyang."
Shang Ruyi was terrified and repeatedly said, "Be gentle!"
Yuwen Ye ignored him, his finger sliding down to the child's chubby chin, and said, "This is Yique Pass. Liang Shide has stationed 30,000 troops here."
Shang Ruyi frowned.
She hadn't forgotten that Yuwen Ye had taken her back to Chang'an from Jiangdu along the Yi River. At that time, Liang Shide, for various reasons, did not send a large army to pursue them, but this route could not be ignored. Longmen was the southern gateway to Luoyang, and with 30,000 troops stationed there, he could completely prevent attacks from the south.
As she thought to herself, Yuwen Ye's hand had already slid up her son's chin to his left cheek, and he said in succession, "This is Dagu Pass, garrisoned with 20,000 troops; this is Huanyuan Pass, garrisoned with 20,000 troops; this is..."
Finally, he moved to the left ear: "This is Hulao Pass, garrisoned with 50,000 troops."
Hulao Pass, which Yuwen Ye had mentioned before, was a pass that would impress him if Yuwen Cheng could conquer it during this campaign.
Shang Ruyi's gaze lingered heavily on her son's chubby earlobes, then she looked at the places Yuwen Ye had just pointed out on his face: Yique Pass, Huanyuan Pass, Dagu Pass, and so on—these were the eight most important passes and cities throughout history. It was clear that Liang Shide was extremely shrewd, deploying varying numbers of troops to these crucial passes according to their urgency, effectively surrounding Luoyang like an iron barrel.
This battle is indeed not going to be easy.
But--
She did a quick mental calculation, then suddenly looked up at Yuwen Ye: "How many troops are there in Luoyang?"
According to the rough estimate that Yuwen Ye just told her, Liang Shide has nearly 200,000 troops stationed in the eight passes of Luoyang and other places, such as Huiluocang—a granary city that is closer to Luoyang and smaller than Xingluocang.
When Liang Shide captured Luoyang, he commanded more than 100,000 troops. In recent years, Xiao Yuansui led the troops of Wanggangzhai to join him. After that, he successively recovered several rebel armies near Luoyang. Recently, the remnants of Wang Shaoqiu's troops also surrendered, greatly increasing his strength. But no matter how much he strengthens, he will not exceed 300,000 at most.
He already had nearly 200,000 troops stationed in various places, and Xiao Yuansui took another 50,000 with him. Wouldn't that mean that the situation in Luoyang was...?
Yuwen Ye said, "I estimate that the garrison in Luoyang will not exceed 30,000!"
Shang Ruyi took a deep breath.
The entire garrison of Luoyang City numbered no more than 30,000. This meant that Liang Shide had deployed a large number of troops to the outer perimeter. First, the outer defenses were strong, keeping any force attempting to attack Luoyang confined outside the eight passes. Second, even if someone managed to breach one of the passes and approach Luoyang City, the city's defenses were formidable and could not be breached in a short time. If he immediately issued a military order to mobilize the garrisons of the other passes to return and defend Luoyang, then any forces attacking Luoyang would be trapped.
In this way, anyone who wants to attack Luoyang will have to carefully consider their own fighting strength and the strength of the enemy.
This can be considered a foolproof plan.
Shang Ruyi said, "Liang Shide is indeed a master."
Yuwen Ye stared at his son's peaceful sleeping face and said calmly, "If he weren't a master, he wouldn't be worthy of confronting us at a time like this."
Shang Ruyi looked at him: "Then what's your idea?"
Since Yuwen Ye was certain that Yuwen Cheng wouldn't even be able to break through Hulao Pass, and had already decided to send troops himself in the future, he must have his own plans and military strategies.
Shang Ruyi said, "Since the King of Qi couldn't break through Hulao Pass, do you have any plans to get closer to Luoyang?"
"..."
Yuwen Ye did not answer her immediately. Instead, he slightly curled the corners of his lips and looked at her for a while with a half-smile, saying, "Give me the money first, and we'll talk after we've gathered enough for three thousand people."
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