Yang Guang retreated to the southwest of Shangdang with an erratic route. Li Shimin was anxious and personally led the 40,000 Xuanjia Army in his headquarters to bite it tightly. At this time, what he feared most was that he failed and allowed Yang Guang to successfully evacuate to Changping. So while he was biting Yang Guang tightly, he kept sending fast horses to urge other Tang army units to speed up.

...

Yang Guang rode his horse on the wilderness of the Jinxi Basin, and behind him was a two-mile formation. Soon, a pre-constructed camp faintly appeared on the horizon, but there were lonely hills on both sides of the village. Yang Guang looked at the camp with a thousand-mile mirror. This camp was built with a ready-made fort as the center, with two layers of trench barriers built around it. Between the defense line and the outer wall of the fort, there were red deer antlers everywhere, and there were many towers. In addition, the outer wall of the fort was also piled up with rammed earth layers of three battles to increase the outer wall to withstand the bombardment of catapults. This fort also has a name called Lion Fort, because there were two huge stone lions at the gate of the fort.

"Chen Guang really lives up to my expectations, and he completed the task so quickly." Yang Guang, who gave a smile on his lips, said to himself. This camp was built by Chen Guang's vanguard battalion in accordance with Yang Guang's edict, and it took more than 20 days to do this. The entire Shangdang and even the Tang army in Hedong counties were attracted by Yang Guang, and no one cared about the Sui army vanguard who broke into Shangdang more than a month ago.

Soon Yang Guang's men entered the camp, and Chen Guang, who had previously stationed in the camp, led his five thousand Fruit Army to quickly retreat to Shouyang Mountain five miles south. This Shouyang Mountain range is a branch mountain range lying across the Shangdang Basin and Changping. Of course, it does not have Taihang in the east, and the two mountains in Luliang in the west are as majestic as the mountains, but it is also a natural danger.

The five thousand soldiers of Shenguang stayed at a pass in the Shouyang Mountains. This was within a range of more than 200 miles east and west, and the only fortress that could lead to Changping in the south.

Yang Guang inspected the camp everywhere. The granaries in the fort were filled with food and grass, enough for nearly 10,000 soldiers to need nearly three months. In addition, there were a large number of arrows used by longbowmen. Thirty crossbows, as well as more than two thousand thunderbolts and fire bombs were left in the camp. These were hoarded in the past month from Changping controlled by the Sui army. There were also two wells with abundant water storage layers in the fort, which were enough for the Sui army's daily water use. Obviously, Yang Guang planned to defend this camp.

Half a day later, Li Shimin's army also drove to the vicinity of Lion Fort. He set up a temporary camp in the northeast of Lion Fort, and arrived at the forefront with all the generals, carefully observing the opponent's defense.

This Lion Fort is located between two unique ridges above Tanyuan. Except for the Shouyang Mountain and the East and West ridges five miles south, there are endless basin plains nearby. These two ridges are typical mountain shapes of the Luliang Mountains, like Mount Hua. The three sides of the mountain are covered with ochre rocks, and cliffs without any vegetation. They are like natural high walls that ordinary people cannot climb up with their bare hands. These two ridges extend for more than ten miles in the east and west direction.

Now, the camp built with Lion Fort as the center is just stuck between two ridges, and the only gentle slope that people can climb on these two ridges leads to Lion Fort. Therefore, the Tang army of Li Shimin's headquarters needs to go around dozens of miles to the south of the Lion Fort camp to surround Yang Guang.

For the Tang army, it does not require much force to surround the entire camp. However, to prevent the Sui army from falling from the cliffs of the mountain ridge, more forces are needed to guard and monitor. If the other Sui army are to be prevented from coming to rescue, it is necessary to deploy troops to attack aid around the encirclement including two mountain ridges, so that the Tang army will need at least 200,000 troops.

However, at this time, Li Shimin did not consider how to encircle and annihilate Yang Guang. What he is worried about now is that the cooked ducks are flying.

"Shouyang Mountain is less than a few miles away. If Yang Guang continues to flee south, he can pass through Shouyang Mountain and enter Changping in half a day. There are tens of thousands of elite Sui army soldiers there to support him. In addition, Duan Da's army on the eastern route may also pass through the Luliang Mountains and enter Changping at any time. If that happens, my plans will all be lost!" Li Shimin said to the generals around him.

After saying that, his face changed. He said sternly again: "Where are the troops of Changsun Wuji, Yuchi Gong, Fang Xuanling, and Hou Junji's troops now? Especially Hou Junji's troops, they should have arrived at the northern foot of Shouyang Mountain this morning. I have passed my edict that if they have not arrived at the designated location within an hour, so Yang Guang escaped, no matter who he was or how much credit he had in the past, they would be engaged in accordance with military laws and kill without mercy!"

While speaking, there were already orders to report that Fang Xuanling's 50,000 troops arrived at the west side of the Lion Fort and began to arrange military formations on the north and south sides of the mountain ridge to set up camp. Now Fang Xuanling himself is coming to meet Li Shimin.

Li Shimin nodded with satisfaction, and then said worriedly: "Hou Junji's army is the most critical. If he cannot reach the north of Shouyang Mountain within an hour, Yang Guang's army will probably evacuate south after lunch. At that time, I and Fang Xuanling have to launch an attack in advance. Even if they win, they will not be able to achieve the goal of completely annihilated the Sui army, and it is likely that Yang Guang will escape."

When Li Shimin said this, the 50,000 Tang troops led by Hou Junji were running desperately on the road. Everyone was sweating profusely and covered in dust. Hou Junji was also anxious. Li Shimin had already ordered the cavalry to urge him repeatedly. He had no doubt that if he delayed the military aircraft, Li Shimin would be chopped off his head. Therefore, in order to speed up, his 50,000 Tang troops threw away almost all the baggage that could be discarded, and even the iron pots and clay pots for cooking were thrown away on the side of the road.

Finally, when the sun was still hanging in the middle of the sky, he arrived at a narrow and flat area between Shouyang Mountain and Lion Fort. As soon as the team arrived and had time to rest, he followed Li Shimin's policy and asked 50,000 soldiers to line up the army and blocked the five-mile-wide area between Shouyang Mountain and Shouyang Mountain.

After Li Shimin received this news, he felt relieved. He said confidently to Fang Xuanling and Changsun Wuji who had just arrived: "Now, although Yang Guang cannot be said to be a turtle in a jar, he is already a fish in the net. The first thing we need to do is to tighten this net and make it tighter. Let Yang Guang become a turtle in a jar!"

After saying that, Li Shimin, Fang Xuanling, Changsun Wuji and several other generals rode their horses around the Lion Fort camp to patrol. They carefully observed the camp and made corresponding adjustments and deployments.
Chapter completed!