Li Mi's attitude towards Liu Heitai changed a lot. He spoke highly of Liu Heitai's intelligence and bravery, and also admitted that Liu Heitai sneaked into the junction of the Sui army camp and successfully deceived him. Chen Sangliang, the coach of the Sui Army, was a great encouragement to the morale of Zhai and Li's coalition army, and it was also a heavy blow to the morale of the officers and soldiers and Chen Sangliang's prestige. Then Li Mi also fulfilled his promise and rewarded Liu Heitai with a hundred dollars on the spot. Guan, ten taels of gold, is a reward for Liu Heita's courage and wit.
Out of various considerations, Li Mi did not mention Chen Sangliang's letter to solicit Liu Heita, but only asked Liu Heita if he would like to serve in his central army? Liu Heikai, who already knew the truth, didn't ask Chen Sangliang's letter, and then excused Hao Xiaode's kindness to him, and refused to leave Hao Xiaode's command. , so he stopped being reluctant, and asked Hao Xiaode to give Liu Heitai a promotion in person. It just so happened that Zhai sent an envoy to invite Li Mi to discuss matters with the camp, so Li Mi had to part with Hao Xiaode and others in a hurry.
Li Mi returned to Hulao in a hurry, and Liu Heita returned to his camp with Li Mi's reward. As soon as he returned to the camp, Liu Shishan and others who received the news immediately came up to thank Liu Heita and congratulated him with smiles on their faces. Liu Heitai got his wish and finally won the favor of Li Mi's reward, but Liu Heitai himself was not very happy. He just handed over the reward Li Mi gave him to Liu Shishan, and said: "Old rules, share it with brothers."
Historically, Liu Heitai, who used to grow vegetables for a living after retiring from Dou Jiande’s army, did not love money. Most of the rewards he got were given to his subordinates. All the soldiers under Liu Heitai knew this, so everyone just gave in. After a few words, he thanked Liu Heitai for his kindness with a happy smile, but his younger brother Liu Shishan saw that his elder brother was in a bad mood. As soon as he found a chance to talk to Liu Heitai alone, Liu Shishan asked Liu Heitai: "Brother, Wei Why don’t you seem to be happy about the reward you received from the Lord?”
"Bah! Big reward for bullshit!" Liu Heikai spat thick phlegm, cursed a curse, and said with a gloomy face: "If it weren't for that dog official Chen Yingliang to have eyes, he, Duke Wei, would still put me in his eyes? Reward? Dreaming!"
Of course Liu Shishan was amazed when he heard it, so he hurriedly asked for details. Of course Liu Heitai would not hide it from his younger brother, so he told about Chen Sangliang's letter to solicit him in a low voice. Liu Shishan was a little dumbfounded after hearing this, and asked in doubt He said: "Brother, so to speak, do you think that Duke Wei rewarded you because Officer Chen Yingliang admired you first, and then Duke Wei felt regretful and wanted to drag you to his side?"
"Isn't this nonsense?" Liu Heikai said angrily, "If that man surnamed Li is really so discerning, he can dismiss me like a dog yesterday? Damn, the letter written to me by the dog officer Chen Yingliang even I didn’t even mention it, because I was afraid that I would know about it.”
Liu Shishan nodded after listening, and agreed with Liu Heitai's opinion. He felt that if there was no letter from Chen Sangliang, Li Mi would still treat Liu Heitai with inferiority. But after further calculation, Liu Shishan persuaded: "Brother, the dog official Chen Yingliang wrote you a solicitation letter, but it's hard to say whether he is sincere or not. Is he trying to trick you like other dog officials? Buried alive, no one can guarantee. In my opinion, let’s stop this matter. Don’t expect too much from Chen Gouguan. After all, we are thieves and he is an official. King Hao or Duke Wei are better."
Liu Heikai nodded silently, and knew that it was difficult to prove Chen Sangliang's attitude towards him, let alone Chen Sangliang's real intention, with just a letter, so he didn't continue to waver on this matter. But in human nature, that letter, which had never been seen before, was still buried deep in Liu Heita's heart like a seed.
Zhai Rang went to Li Mi to discuss the matter, of course it was about how to capture the Luokou granary - Li Mi had a Liyang granary as a backing, which could afford it, but the Wagang Army, which relied on looting for supplies, could not afford it. And Li Mi also saw Zhai Rang's eagerness to win the Luokou warehouse for food, and encouraged him to talk like a tongue, and tried his best to persuade Zhai Rang to continue to launch a frontal attack, forcing Chen Sangliang, who was not many elites, to fight a war of attrition and use the sea of people The tactics completely drowned and exhausted Chen Sangliang. In the end, Zhai Rang was persuaded by Li Mi and agreed to launch a decisive battle again the next day. Regardless of the strong opposition of Zhai Hong and Zhai Mohou, he agreed that the powerful Wagang Army would be responsible for attacking the Sui army's south. Li Mijun took on the task of blocking the rescue camp of the Luokoucang defenders, as well as the auxiliary tasks of building pontoon bridges and destroying the fortifications of the Sui army.
In fact, Li Mi can barely be regarded as a big-bodied person. It is true that he intends to use the powerful Wagang Army to force his rival Chen Sangliang to fight a war of attrition, but he has no intention of taking advantage of the Wagang Army. The Wagang Army sent 20,000 troops to a decisive battle. Therefore, Li Mi dispatched a large number of double troops, 40,000 troops to fight hand in hand with the Wagang Army. At the same time, instead of sending cannon fodder second-line troops to deal with Zhai Rang, Hao Xiaode decided to send 20,000 troops. The army dispatched 5,000 elites, together with 15,000 cannon fodder, to fight the Sui army. After another day of careful preparation, it was very dark the next day, and the 60,000 troops of the Zhai Li coalition army jointly marched towards Luokoucang.
The scouts of the Sui Army reported the situation of the Zhai-Li coalition's dispatch to Chen Sangliang. When they learned that the Di-Li coalition was dispatching troops at Maoshi in the morning, they had enough combat time to attack Luokoucang. Chen Sangliang immediately understood what happened today. There must be another head-on fierce battle that he least wants to fight, but he can't change this situation. As a last resort, Chen Sangliang can only immediately start to deploy the defenses of Luokou Cangcheng and Nanying, determined to hold on to the end, and use the Defensive warfare minimizes casualties.
At the same time, Chen Sangliang concluded that the main target of the Zhai-Li Allied Forces must be the Sui Army's Southern Camp, which has relatively weak defenses, so Chen Sangliang came to the Southern Camp in advance to take command, and also brought the Kanling Army and the Baoguo Army to help out, leaving Liu Changgong behind. He led Ma Sanbao, Cheng Yaojin, Niu Jinda and other generals to guard Luokou Cangcheng, and specially explained that he was only allowed to defend the city and was not allowed to send aid. The battle of defending the city is still reluctant, but Chen Sangliang still has some confidence in him defending Cangcheng.
Just after that time, the mighty Zhai-Li coalition army successfully arrived at the east bank of the Shizi River. Li Mi's cannon fodder army immediately started to build a pontoon bridge under the cover of the Wagang Army, and at the same time sent a large number of scouts to scout the upper reaches of the Shizi River to prevent Chen Sangliang's old tricks. Re-executed another sneak attack from the upper reaches. Chen Sangliang knew very well that Li Mi would not be fooled again after suffering a loss once. He had no idea of splitting up his troops for a sneak attack. He just sent a large number of crossbowmen to delay the crossing of the Zhai-Li coalition army, consuming as much time as possible. Unfortunately, The Shizi River is not a big river, and shallow places can be crossed by walking and wading. With Wagang's fierce general Shan Xiongxin personally leading the army to cross the river, Chen Sangliang's crossbowmen were declared useless and could only be Obediently return to the camp to reduce consumption.
It took less than an hour for the well-prepared Zhai and Li allied forces to build ten pontoon bridges. Wagang's elite soldiers first crossed the Shizi River in an endless stream, followed by Li Mi's huge team crossing the river, and quickly set up a formation on the west bank of the Shizi River. Hao Xiaode led an army of 10,000 to cut off the road connection between Luokou Cangcheng and the Sui Army's southern camp. Li Wenxiang and Li Shicai each led 5,000 troops to line up outside the east and north gates of Luokou Cangcheng with flying ladders. Cang Shoujun can attack Luokou Cangcheng at any time. Li Mi was in charge of the central army, while Zhai Rang placed 20,000 troops outside the east gate of the Sui army's southern camp. The tactics of frontal assault were obvious.
After all the armies were deployed, the offensive and defensive battle of Luokou Cang officially started amid the sound of rumbling drums. The well-prepared Zhai and Li allied forces first set up temporary fortifications outside the Sui army camp with long shields, covered them with archers, and then dispatched a large number of toad carts Carrying soil and rocks to fill the triple guard trench of the Sui Army's southern camp—Chen Sangliang, who has a mean character, asked the Sui Army to dig a triple trench. Chen Sangliang ordered the crossbowmen to suppress with all their strength, desperately slowing down the attack speed of the Wagang army, and fought an orthodox offensive and defensive battle with the Zhai Li coalition army.
This was a tragic and unusual offensive and defensive battle. From the very beginning, both sides suffered constant casualties. The arrows of the offensive and defensive sides were like hail and raindrops, or like locusts and swarms of bees. They were always coming and going over the battlefield. The screams of the wounded and dying echoed endlessly on the battlefield. What made Chen Sangliang angry was that the several Wagang Army feather arrows that the soldiers were ordered to pick up for him to watch turned out to be the best spike arrows used by the regular army of the Sui Army—obviously, these arrows were all The good things that Pei Renji gave to the Wagang Army at Hulao Pass back then might even be the arrows given to the Wagang Army by the second-generation masters of the Invincible Camp. It is also difficult to heal quickly after an injury.
"Prodigal stuff!" After swearing, Chen Sangliang carefully observed the Wagang Army's lineup, and finally found Pei Renji's Pei character banner among the Wagang Army flags, and then thought of Pei Cuiyun, the junior who was locked in the sky prison , Chen Sangliang was even more angry. However, it was not only Pei Renji's flag that stimulated Chen Sangliang. He Yanyu next to him suddenly pointed to the formation of the Wagang Army and reminded: "Stay behind, look, Mulan is here too."
Looking in the direction guided by He Yanyu, beside Shan Xiongxin's flag, Chen Sangliang really saw Mulan's flowered flag. Connect with yourself? If it is said that Mulan had no channel to exchange information with him before, but now that he has sent someone to contact Mulan on his own initiative, and even used a spy insider who has been lurking inside the Wagang Army for more than half a year, why hasn't Mulan brought himself a sentence? A piece of paper? And even Zhang Kai, the former soldier of Qiao Peng who he sent to the Wagang Army as an undercover agent when Hulaoguan fell, has never been heard from
"Could it be that the little girl Mulan and Shan Yingying are addicted to playing Lily? After betraying me, I managed to be inserted into the Wagang Army's inside line?" Chen Sangliang even had such doubts for a while.
Chen Sangliang's worries seemed to have come true. At the same time, in the Wagang army flag formation, Mulan stood beside Shan Xiongxin with her sword pressed, watching the bloody Sui army camp battlefield, her face was expressionless, and her eyes were full of tears. It was completely indifferent, but Shan Xiongxin, Wang Dangren and other generals next to him continued to scold Chen Sangliang for being despicable and shameless. The speed of the army trench fortification is too slow. Mulan turned a deaf ear to these scolding, but slowly turned her gaze back to Shan Xiongxin's team with an indifferent expression, and found Zhang Kai who was lining up in Shan Xiongxin's army waiting for orders, and the muscles on his face twitched a few times.
After more than half an hour, Li Mijun's cannon fodder finally filled up a section of the Sui army's guard camp trench with blood, corpses, earth, rocks and vegetation after more than half an hour. Li Mijun's cannon fodder continued While filling the trench, Zhai Rang, who had been waiting impatiently for a long time, waved his big hand, and the vanguard of the Wagang Army immediately lined up, holding a long shield and slowly approaching the antler earth fortification behind the trench of the Sui Army, and crazily fired arrows to suppress the camp. The defenders of the Sui army, the generals and soldiers of the Sui army also desperately drew their bows and released arrows to defend the antler fortifications in front of the fence.
Probably because the attention of the Sui army had been attracted by the fence battle, while the flags of the Wagang army were waving, a Wagang army that had lined up in front of the gate of the Sui army camp suddenly shouted, and even raised a round shield to the Sui army. The gate of the barracks launched a quick charge, hitting the east gate of the Sui army camp head-on.
Seeing this scene, Zhai Rang stood up from his seat nervously, and all the generals of the Wagang Army watched the situation of the Sui Army's barracks nervously. Bian suddenly opened the gate of the camp by himself, but before the Wagang army could cheer, a thick and long giant arrow suddenly shot out from the gate of the Sui army's camp. The solid wood-covered iron shields guarded by the soldiers of the Gang army also became as fragile as paper paste, and were directly pierced by the giant arrow, and then the giant arrow continued to fly forward, piercing through the bodies of several Wagang soldiers with ease, and then released To the best of my ability.
"Winch crossbow!"
This terrible term flashed through the minds of the generals of the Wagang Army, but what made the Wagang Army even more unbelievable was that the bed crossbow of the Sui Army, which was supposed to be strung up by oxen, was able to fire continuously, and giant arrows shot out of the camp one after another. After shooting eight arrows in a row, it stopped, and then the gate of the Sui army's camp was closed immediately.
Eight huge arrows were shot out in succession in a violent storm. Wherever the ax-shaped arrows passed, the soldiers of the Wagang Army were flying with flesh and blood, and the corpses were scattered all over the ground. Here is the cheers and morale boosted. While the generals of the Wagang Army, Zhai Rang, and Li Mi exclaimed that there are continuous bed crossbows in the world, Chen Sangliang also shook his head and sighed in the Sui army camp, saying: "Cui Hongdan made it!" This kind of eight-shot bed crossbow is very powerful, but the loading speed of the arrows is too slow, and the ballista is too heavy to move. Otherwise, this battle would be much easier for us."
The eight-shot bed crossbow invented by the genius craftsman Cui Hongdan suddenly used it. Although the morale of the Wagang Army was frustrated, under the urging of the Wagang general, the infantry of the Wagang Army still did not give the Sui Army another chance to reload the arrows and shoot. Arriving at the gate of the Sui army camp, they swung knives and axes to chop down the gate of the Sui army camp, and stabbed the soldiers of the Sui army behind the gate with their guns and horses. A brutal and bloody melee battle at the gate of the camp.
The war of attrition that Chen Sangliang least wanted to fight began. The soldiers of the Wagang Army lined up to charge one after another, attacking the gates of the Sui Army's camp one after another, and constantly expanding the trenches and gaps in the Sui Army's camp. They took turns to fight against each other. When the training time and experience were not as good as that of the enemy, they fought against the Wagang Army. Many soldiers of the Sui Army who had the potential to become elite soldiers died in the battle, and many of them died for the first time. The soldiers of the Sui army who went to the battlefield retreated because of fear of blood and corpses, and died tragically under the knife of the Sui army's supervisory team. The Sui army's fence defense line was once in crisis, forcing Chen Sangliang to dispatch an elite reserve team to make up for the leak, consuming the already insufficient resources Elite soldiers. Chen Sangliang gritted his teeth with hatred for this, but there was nothing he could do.
At the same time, in view of the fact that the Sui army in Luokou Cangcheng could not hold on, in order to contain the new Sui army here and distract Chen Sangliang's energy and attention, Li Mijun's Li Wenxiang and Li Shicai also launched a two-step attack on Luokou Cangcheng. Although Ma Sanbao, Niu Jinda and others firmly defended the city wall of Cangcheng and did not give Li Mijun any chance, the scale of the battle was further expanded because of this.
Li Mi's anti-consumption tactics were very successful. Although Chen Yingliang was very unwilling, with the prolongation of the war and the expansion of the front line, the Wagang Army's offensive became more and more fierce, and the pressure from the Sui Army increased. Chen Sangliang was still forced to A reserve team composed of old people from Qi County was dispatched. As a result, although the Qi County reserve team with rich experience and reliable combat effectiveness effectively stabilized the fence line of defense, the casualties still increased needlessly. Chen Sangliang was very angry, but there was still nothing he could do.
Most of Qi County's reserve team went up, and the reserve team composed of veterans of Youwuwei was also fighting fires everywhere, but when the fierce battle reached around Shen time in the afternoon, the soldiers of the Sui army at the camp gate were a little bit impatient, and they were keenly aware of this situation. At one point, Zhai Rang, who had been on the battlefield for many years, immediately went into battle in person and led his troops to attack the gate of the Sui army's camp. The morale of the Wagang Army was greatly boosted by this, and Chen Sangliang couldn't help shouting to Kan Leng: "Kan Leng, go up and defend the camp!" Door!"
While agreeing loudly, Kan Ling led the army to attack on foot with the Mo Dao in hand. The Mo Dao team of the Sui Army formed with Chen Sangliang and Qiao Peng as the backbone advanced like a wall, quickly took over the battlefield at the gate of the camp, and stabbed the outside of the camp with the Chang Mo Dao. The enemy, and the Wagang Army also suffered from the Kan Leng Mo Dao team. Seeing Kan Leng's move, they were afraid and the offensive weakened, which basically offset the morale boosting effect brought by Zhai Rang's personal battle. The situation in the camp gate battlefield It also restored the balance of power.
Here I have to mention Liu Heitai's reaction. He followed Hao Xiaode at the junction of the Sui Army's camp and Cangcheng. Liu Heitai, who was bored, had been observing the battlefield situation. Standing at his own angle, Liu Heita of Li Mijun was once full of confidence that the Wagang Army had successfully broken through the gate of the Sui Army's barracks. He was very surprised, and after careful observation, Liu Heita asked his companion next to him: "Are the Mo Dao soldiers on the official army's side very powerful? Why are Wagang's side afraid of them?"
"Kan Leng, a son of a bitch, is doing his best to be a dog for Chen Gouguan." The boss Hao Xiaode personally answered Liu Heitai's question, saying: "The Mo Dao soldiers in the official army are very powerful. Du Fuwei's godson Kan Leng , is also a well-known fierce general, Mo Dao fell one after another, and once killed three people in a row. According to Wei Gong, quite a few of our Central Plains volunteers suffered big losses in front of Kan Leng, and the Wagang Army also suffered from him. Unfortunately, I was a little scared of him."
"Du Fuwei's godson, Kan Leng?" Liu Heita noticed another important situation, and hurriedly asked again: "Isn't Du Fuwei the rebel king in Huainan? How could his godson be given to Chen Gouguan?" Sell your life?"
"I heard that he was surrounded by Chen Gouguan. After he surrendered, he became a dog for Chen Gouguan." Hao Xiaode explained casually again, and then he didn't want to get entangled in this issue, and waved his hand: "Don't ask too much, be careful, the officer There is also a white-robed cavalry in the army, what is the Baoguo army, who are best at charging and assaulting on the battlefield, we are the first to bear the brunt, so be careful of them."
Liu Heikai forgot to agree, and was just thinking secretly, "Du Fuwei's godson surrendered to Chen Gouguan and was reused? Is Chen Gouguan really disregarding those who surrendered?"
At about the same time, in the Wagang Army formation, Shan Xiongxin was riding on Zhai Rang to care about the safety of Zhai Rang after he went into battle. Mulan hesitated again and again, but still pretended to be patrolling the army, and walked into Shan Xiongxin's army casually. In the middle, and then gradually came to Zhang Kai, first he found an excuse to call Zhang Kai out of the queue, and then asked Zhang Kai in a low voice: "What benefits did he give you? Let you betray Big Brother Shan and take the risk to come back to replace him Delivery?"
"He didn't do me any favors, and I didn't betray me." Zhang Kai replied in a low voice: "I was originally one of his people, and I was from Qiao County. It has been more than half a year."
Mulan's whole body was shocked, and she was stunned. Zhang Kai smiled slightly, and said in a low voice: "If General Hua still doesn't believe me, I can tell you directly that my boss is General He Erhe, and General Ma Sanbao was in Tongji. General He Erhe who was rescued by the bank."
Mulan was dumbfounded again, and then cursed in a low voice: "Traitor, it's really his style."