Known as the No. 1 Xing of the Taihang Eight Xings, Zhiguan Tianxian bought precious time for the reinforcements from the Eastern Capital. Li Yuan's rebel army, who had been smashing all the way, rushed into Hanoi County, and Wangwu County, west of Zhiguan, surrendered Li Yuan neatly. The rebels and the people of the royal family who could not bear the tyranny also joined Li Yuan's rebels in groups. In addition to the refugees who had been recruited on the road before, Duan Zhixuan's army had expanded from 30,000 troops at the time of departure to more than 40,000 troops. When Duan Zhixuan was about to win Zhiguan in one go, Hanoi Captain Dugu Wudu led the reinforcements to rush to Zhiguan first.
Dugu Wudu can barely be regarded as a competent official of the court. Although he only brought two thousand local soldiers, Zhiguan only has one school with two hundred defenders. The total force is far different from the mighty Li Yuan rebels , even though he had quietly planned to put down his weapons and surrender if the situation was wrong, Dugu Wudu resolutely rejected Duan Zhixuan's offer to surrender, gritted his teeth and said that he had to fight the rebels before saying anything. The salary that Emperor Yangdi gave him and the kindness that gave him the opportunity to take bribes.
The narrowest part is only eight meters wide. The natural barrier of Zhiguan gave Dugu Wudu a chance to repay the country's favor. The surging tide of rebels was limited by the terrain and could not give full play to their superiority in strength. They could only attack the pass with a small number of troops in turn. Forty Years ago, Zhiguan City, which was the border of Northern Qi Dynasty and Northern Zhou Dynasty, although the battle had been sparse for a long time, and the defensive equipment was seriously insufficient, the dilapidated Guancheng was still there. They also went to the front line to command the battle in person, knocked over the flying ladders with a small number of rebels with wood, and used knives to force their subordinates to desperately resist the rebel soldiers climbing and attacking the city. Finally, the first day's attack of the rebels was repelled.
The army was in a hurry all the way, somewhat exhausted, there was a serious shortage of siege weapons, the terrain was dangerous, and it was already dark. Taking these objective factors into consideration, Duan Zhixuan made a fatal mistake, instead of attacking the city overnight at any cost, he chose to accept the suggestion of his subordinate Zhang Daoyuan , Let the army sleep outside the pass overnight, and at the same time prepare the siege weapons, and launch the siege the next day, which is also August 19th.
At the same time, on the Dongdu side, after accepting Pei Xingfang's suggestion and deciding to send troops on August 17, Chen Sangliang ordered the army to prepare for the expedition that day, and immediately ordered Meng Jindu to prepare for the Dongdu reinforcements. Ferry, in the early morning of August 18th, two reinforcements led by Sui Army General Liu Changgong and Huang Taoshu set off at the same time. They crossed the Yellow River at noon that day, and then Huang Taoshu (don’t laugh, there is such a person) led 8,000 reinforcements to Linzhou. After clearing the customs, Liu Changgong headed straight to Zhiguan with the Zhao Yu Department of the Nationalist Army as the vanguard.
After nightfall that day, Liu Changgong planned to let the army camp to rest, but Pei Xingfang, who joined the army, pointed out that the military situation was on fire, and urged Liu Changgong to rush all night, and he would not rest until he arrived at Zhiguan. Although Liu Changgong is incompetent, because he has such a good relationship with Chen Sangliang that he almost wears a pair of trousers, he gave face to his friend's cousin and only allowed the army to stay for two hours before continuing to rush to Zhiguan. At the same time, Pei Xingfang found Zhao Yu and ordered him to go to Zhiguan for reinforcements the next day. He asked all the soldiers of the Nationalist Army to take off their conspicuous white robes and not reveal their identities for the time being. He also handed over a significant flag to Zhao Yu. Yu, whispered in Zhao Yu's ear for a long time.
Duan Zhixuan paid a huge price for his mistake. On August 19th, Li Yuan's rebel army, who had prepared a large number of flying ladders, launched a strong attack again. Tang Jian took the lead in attacking the city. A large number of people rushed to the bottom of the city, stepping on the rough flying ladder that didn't even have time to scrape off the bark, and used hoes and shovels to build the wall. Although Hanoi led by Dugu Wudu also mustered up the courage to resist, But they still couldn't stop the tide of offensive of the rebels, no matter how desperately they threw arrows and stones, they still couldn't stop the rebels from rushing up the wall.
At noon, when the first red and white rebel flag was planted on the top of the wall, the rebel team under the wall suddenly burst into cheers from landslides and tsunamis. Duan Zhixuan and Zhang Daoyuan also showed joy on both sides. Immediately, each of them stretched out their hands and clapped each other to celebrate, and laughed in unison: "The pass is broken!"
"Oh!" Countless boos suddenly sounded again. When Duan Zhixuan and Zhang Daoyuan looked at Zhiguan again in surprise, they saw that the flag of our own army had disappeared, and at the same time, the soldiers of our own army who had rushed up the wall of the pass were also rolling down like hailstones. You can also vaguely see many soldiers of the Sui army wearing Mingguang armor rushing up to the city wall, and are chasing away the soldiers from the army like ducks. The soldiers from the army seemed to have no resistance in front of them, and they were killed like flying ducks. There was no time to climb the ladder, so he jumped off the wall to escape. Seeing this scene, Duan Zhixuan and Zhang Daoyuan once again exclaimed in unison, "What happened? What kind of army is in the city? So powerful?"
"Duan Juntou! Look!" The exclamation sounded again, and when Duan Zhixuan and Zhang Daoyuan took a closer look, they were stunned to see that on the wall of Zhiguan, there was suddenly a red background with black characters. The handsome flag is just too far away, so I can't see whose flag it is for the time being.
"Military chief! Military chief! We made it! We made it!"
Duan Zhixuan and Zhang Daoyuan's questions were quickly answered. Tang Jian, who led the charge, rushed back and cheered from a long distance: "It's Chen Yingliang's Dongdu staying behind the banner! Chen Yingliang came in person! We successfully captured Chen Yingliang." attracted!"
Suddenly realized, Duan Zhixuan and Zhang Daoyuan finally understood why the Sui army in the city was so cruel—a commander would bring the most elite soldiers with him, and he immediately beamed with joy. Over there, Tang Jian asked again: "Mr. , Do you want to continue to attack? The officers and soldiers on the wall are very powerful, and those of us who rushed to the wall are already considered warriors, but we still can't beat them, and they all knocked down the wall with a single charge."
Taking a closer look at the Guanqiang battlefield, Duan Zhixuan found that the situation was just as Tang Jian said. The new soldiers from the Sui army had indeed knocked down all the soldiers from the self-armed army. The big wood hit the flying ladder from the army, and at the same time, the rocks falling on the wall suddenly became more violent, but Duan Zhixuan refused to give up, and said: "Although Chen Yingliang led the army here in person, the ones who are here must be the forwards, and the main force of the brigade must still be behind." , we still have one last chance to attack again! If we can break through the Zhi Pass before the official army arrives, maybe we can also take Chen Yingliang's head, then we will make a great contribution to the general !"
Duan Zhixuan is only twenty years old this year. Zhang Daoyuan and Tang Jian are both about the same age as him. They are both eager to make great achievements and gain prestige. After hearing what Duan Zhixuan said, they naturally all applauded. Charge, try to break through Zhiguan at all costs, and take advantage of the opportunity that the Sui Army brigade has not yet arrived, breaking Chen Sangliang's myth of invincibility.
Moths flew into the flames, and although there were only 211 soldiers who rushed to the Zhiguan battlefield first, the narrowest part of the terrain was only eight meters wide, but it was enough for the soldiers to guard the pass calmly. You can take turns to rest and take turns to deal with the incoming enemies. No matter how hard the rebel soldiers charge, there are always not many troops that can be used to attack each time. Finally, they rush to the city wall with feather arrows falling and stepping on the simple flying ladder, and they are immediately defeated. Faced with the besieging and beating of several soldiers of the Nationalist Army, no matter how desperately they fought, they still could not escape the end of being chopped into pieces with a grinning grin by the soldiers of the Nationalist Army. If you don't even see clearly, you've already been separated, or your heart has been pierced by an iron spear. The harder you charge, the greater the loss.
With the soldiers of the Baoguo Army at the front, the panic-stricken Sui Army in Hanoi also gradually began to play a role. They hit the enemy with sheep's head stones desperately, and concentrated their bows and arrows to cover the densely packed enemies on the pass, and achieved great results. The number of casualties of Li Yuan's rebels also climbed rapidly. Duan Zhixuan, Zhang Daoyuan and other generals each led their troops to charge once in turn. Not only did they fail, but they both lost one or two hundred troops.
Seeing that the situation was wrong, the scouts on the mountain flew to report that they saw the dust rising from the back of Zhiguan, which proved that the Sui army brigade was gradually approaching Zhiguan. There were also countless cheers immediately. Hearing the cheers, Duan Zhixuan didn't feel much annoyed, and even snorted disdainfully, and said, "Chen Gouguan, don't get too complacent, as long as I keep you here for more than ten days, I will consider it as the completion of the general's instructions." It's a mission!"
Hmph, Duan Zhixuan also spit thick phlegm heavily at Chen Sangliang's commander-in-chief, once again proving the low quality and non-hygienic style of the anti-Sui and anti-country Li Yuan rebel group.
After Shenshi that afternoon, Liu Changgong led 10,000 reinforcements to reach Zhiguan smoothly, and set up a camp outside the east gate of Zhiguan. During this period, Liu Changgong took Pei Xingfang, Liu Heita and other civil and military assistants to inspect Zhiguan in person, and saw the dangerous terrain of Zhiguan. Finally, Liu Changgong, who came here for the first time, laughed and said that this battle was too easy to fight. As long as the self-armed army guarded the pass, they didn't need to go out to fight, and they could kill the enemy. But Pei Xingfang and Liu Heitai refused to give up, and immediately began to ask about the progress of the battle, understand the enemy's situation, arrange scouts to scout the enemy's situation, draw geographical maps, and discuss strategies to defeat the enemy—one of these two masters is a new general One of them is not even twenty years old, but he is more eager to make great achievements and gain prestige than Duan Zhixuan and others.
"Seeing that the brother's banner has not retreated, he even launched three attacks. Our opponent this time is not small." Pei Xingfang said: "And he is very smart. Seeing our reinforcements coming, not only did not panic They immediately decided that our reinforcement brigade was still behind, and launched three more attacks in a hurry, not only to seize the last chance, but also to defeat or even kill my brother."
"There is a way. If it were me, I would seize the last chance to attack." Liu Heitai first nodded in agreement, and then said: "Brother Xingfang, the scouts here are too bad. Even the enemy's strength, I haven’t figured out how to station them, and as it was getting dark, I went to the enemy camp to find out the situation there, and then discuss how to deal with them.”
"Tomorrow. We only rested for two hours last night. You are too tired. The army hasn't set up camp yet. Let's talk about it after today." Pei Xingfang suggested, and then said: "Besides, it's too dark, and you never I’ve been here, and I can’t see the layout of the enemy camp clearly.”
Liu Heikai thought so, but he didn't insist. Pei Xingfang proposed to Liu Changgong and Dugu Wudu that the elites of the Eastern Capital and Hanoi township soldiers should join forces to build guard posts on both sides of the highlands, overlooking the battlefield from a high position. Liu Changgong agreed, Dugu Wudu, whose soldiers are too poor in quality, wanted nothing more than he wanted, and offered to change the defense completely, and the Sui Army of the Eastern Capital would completely take over Zhiguan, but Pei Xingfang did not agree due to special considerations. At present, while the Sui army sent people up the mountain to set up guard posts, they seized the time to build camps overnight.
The night passed quickly, and what made Liu Changgong, Pei Xingfang, Liu Heitai and others burst into laughter was that Li Yuan's rebel army, who had been camping until now, actually set up a camp on the east side of Qiziling, which clearly proved that the rebels The military division has already taken the middle plan, believing that Chen Sangliang came to the Zhiguan battlefield in person, so he seized the time to build a camp, prepared to defend himself, and confronted Chen Sangliang for a long time as a restraint. After laughing, Liu Heikai, who was already ready, immediately disguised himself as an ordinary citizen and lurked out of the customs. He sneaked into the enemy camp to do his homework to spy on the military situation. Liu Changgong and Pei Xingfang also deliberately continued to beat Chen Sangliang in the camp. Shuai Qi didn't mention it.
In the early morning of the next day, Liu Heitai returned to Zhiguan smoothly, and brought back an enemy horse and the head of an enemy general, followed by angry rebel cavalry, but it was a pity that Liu Heitai still laughed wildly After fleeing back to Guanzhong smoothly, the pursuers of the bandit army tried to take the opportunity to rush into the Guanzhong but failed, and were shot to death with bows and arrows by the defenders and wounded several people—the archery skills of the elite Dongdu were quite different from those of the soldiers in Hanoi. level. Liu Changgong and Pei Xingfang were overjoyed when they heard the news, and immediately welcomed Liu Heita into the camp, praised Liu Heita as a hero without reason, and regarded the enemy's mighty army as nothing.
"It's not difficult to deal with, but it can't be underestimated either."
This is Liu Heitai's evaluation of the rebel army's biased division, and then he introduced the enemy's situation he detected to Liu Changgong and Pei Xingfang, saying that although the enemy's army size is more than 40,000, at least 80% of them are new to the rebel army Ordinary people, with poor equipment and serious lack of training, belong to a typical cannon fodder army. On the battlefield, they also play the role of intimidating the enemy with some momentum. But the rebel army still has five or six thousand troops worth guarding against, mainly composed of Taiyuan Sui Army, Zuo Tunwei surrendered soldiers and Sui troops who surrendered from various places. A head-to-head confrontation should pose a certain threat to the Sui Army in the Eastern Capital, where 90% of them are recruits.
"There is one more thing to be wary of." Liu Heikai said again: "I heard those Taiyuan bandits brag that during the Huoyi War, Duan Zhixuan followed Li Yuan's second son and led the cavalry to attack the back of our Daxing army. He broke the Daxing army, and said that Duan Zhixuan killed dozens of people with his own hands in that battle. If this is true, this Duan Zhixuan should be very good at cavalry assault. When facing him, we must guard against him The cavalry rushed."
"Go ahead, brother Zhao Yu is here, let's see whose cavalry is better!" Liu Changgong shouted.
"Damn! Are you good at cavalry assault? How dare you claim to be good at cavalry assault in front of our national army?!" Zhao Yu also rolled up his sleeves and geared up, saying viciously, "Call him, let me tell him what a real cavalry assault is! "
Of course, Pei Xingfang, who attached great importance to the military strategy opinion even Chen Sangliang, didn't clamor, and asked again, "Second brother Liu, did you find out from the enemy camp that your brother didn't come here in person? ?”
"Not yet." Liu Heita immediately replied: "I have also paid attention to this matter, the bandit army did not find it, and many bandit generals clamored that they would capture Chen Liushou alive and dedicate it to old man Li Yuan."
"That's good." When Pei Xingfang was overjoyed, he hurriedly said to Liu Changgong: "Brother Liu, we should strengthen the city defense of Zhiguan immediately and prepare more defensive equipment. When the bandit army finds out that brother didn't come to Zhiguan in person, we must return it." To launch a breakthrough, we will first use the favorable terrain of Zhiguan to win a few battles to dampen the enemy's spirit, and then try to defeat the enemy."
Liu Changgong could still listen to good words, so he nodded in agreement immediately, and immediately arranged for his subordinates to strengthen and repair the city defense. Liu Heikai said to Pei Xingfang again: "Brother Xingfang, the enemy's main force is several times that of ours. If we want to defeat the enemy, it is best to consume part of the enemy's main force and weaken the enemy's combat power. What do you have to do?" There is no way?"
"Of course." Pei Xingfang said with a smile: "I have been with my brother for so long, and he has a belly full of bad water. I have to learn a little bit. I already figured out the way to lure the enemy the day before yesterday."
"What's a good idea?" Liu Heita asked quickly.
"General Dugu." Dugu Wudu, who was next to Pei Xing, pouted his mouth and said with a smile, "General Dugu and Li Yuan are somewhat related, and brother Liu is notoriously bad-tempered. Putting these two together, there is no way out." just come out?"
"No wonder brother you deliberately keep some Hanoi soldiers in Zhiguan City, high! High! It's really high!"
Liu Heikai laughed out loud immediately, and gave Pei Xingfang a thumbs up, even boasting that Pei Xingfang had indeed learned from Chen Sangliang's bad habits, but Liu Changgong and Dugu Wu over there looked at each other, and said at the same time: "What do you mean? Why can't I understand?"
The actions of the Sui army to strengthen the defenses of course aroused the suspicion of the rebels, but even if the Sui army did not take this action, Duan Zhixuan and others had vaguely sensed that something was wrong, because the rebel scouts had already found out that the strength of the Sui army in the eastern capital was only about 10,000. It is obviously not in line with Chen Sangliang's current status, and Chen Sangliang must be eager to relieve the crisis in Hanoi and withdraw to deal with the main force of Li Yuan's rebel army, but the Sui army in the eastern capital set up their camp outside the Zhiguan, which is easy to defend and difficult to attack. Dong, also quite unreasonable. Therefore, Li Yuan's rebels immediately began to investigate the real situation of the Sui army on the opposite side, especially paying attention to whether Chen Sangliang came to the Zhiguan battlefield in person.
Just like what Chen Sangliang said, the Sui army, which is not very popular among the people, does have countless channels for leaking secrets. In just over two days, Duan Zhixuan's army has detected the real situation of the Sui army from various channels. In fact, Chen Sangliang did not come, and the chief general of the Sui army was actually Liu Changgong. Duan Zhixuan, who was furious when he found out that he had fallen for the trick, immediately dispatched troops to continue attacking Zhiguan. However, it is a pity that not only has a large number of Dongdu regular troops stationed in Zhiguan, but the already easy-to-defend and difficult-to-attack Guancheng has also been captured. Repairing and strengthening, if Li Yuan's rebels wanted to capture this dangerous pass, of course they would have to pay several times the price.
Doomed to be useless, the offensive battle lasted for a full day. The rebel army launched more than a dozen attacks on Zhiguan, but they were all easily defeated by the Sui army in the eastern capital. Cheng did not rush up several times. Rebel generals such as Duan Zhixuan and Tang Jian were forced to change their strategy and led their troops to the pass to insult and fight, trying to lure the grumpy Liu Changgong out of the pass for a decisive battle and defeat the Sui army in the field.
It's still useless, Liu Changgong is indeed a bit irritable, but unfortunately there are two thick-skinned Pei Xingfang and Liu Heitai beside Liu Changgong, first they teamed up to arrest Liu Changgong who was about to go berserk, dragged him back to the camp to calm down, and then sent some cursers A master, eighteen generations of ancestors who climbed the wall and fought against Li Yuan's rebels, from Li Yuan's uncle to Duan Zhixuan's sister-in-law, Pei Xingfang, who learned a little from Chen Sangliang, even once went to the city himself, using the most intimate Greeted every female relative of Duan Zhixuan, Tang Jian, and Zhang Daoyuan in language, and assigned the three thieves on the spot to order the rotation of wives and mothers. The words were handed over to the soldiers of the Sui Army to humiliate in public.
Duan Zhixuan, who is a scoundrel, can still hold on when he meets a master of scolding and fighting like Pei Xingfang, but Tang Jian and Zhang Daoyuan, who come from a famous family, have pale faces and violent forehead veins. When the grass man with the word "Xiang" was riding on the wall in public, Tang Jian, who couldn't bear it anymore, led his soldiers to charge, and then quickly fled back with two feather arrows, and then Duan Zhixuan scolded Tang Jian for acting without authorization. , and finally retreated angrily.
Just as Duan Zhixuan and others were troubled by the fact that the Sui army was defending Zhiguan, on the night of the failure of the scolding war, a Hanoi soldier suddenly came to Zhiguan, claiming to be the confidant of Dugu Wudu, the captain of Hanoi, and had a letter To present to Duan Zhixuan. Duan Zhixuan, Zhang Daoyuan and others were overjoyed when they heard the news, and summoned them immediately. When they took a look at the letter, they saw that Dugu Wudu declared in the letter that today Liu Changgong returned to the camp after being humiliated at Zhiguan, got drunk and beat and kicked himself in every possible way. As a distant relative of Li Yuan, I couldn't bear such humiliation, and decided to lead my army to surrender to Li Yuan's rebels. I asked Li Yuan's army to send troops to attack Zhiguan at four o'clock the next night. Welcome the rebels to enter the customs.
Repeatedly reading Dugu Wudu's handwritten letter several times, Duan Zhixuan first looked suspiciously at him, then suddenly slammed the table and shouted: "Bold man! How dare you make a false letter of surrender to lure our army to send troops in the dark and fall into you?" The trap! Someone, drag this bastard out and kill him!"
"Wrong! Wrong! Wrong!"
The unlucky messenger hurriedly shouted for grievances, but Duan Zhixuan's personal soldiers didn't listen at all, they dragged him up and left, and as soon as the messenger left the account, Duan Zhixuan immediately gave Zhang Daoyuan a wink, Zhang Daoyuan understood, and immediately followed out, Observing the reaction of the unlucky messenger when he was tortured, Duan Zhixuan immediately smelled a stench again, and smiled secretly: "Okay, even the feces came out, it should be true."
Duan Zhixuan, who is only 20 years old, is indeed very talented. Unfortunately, his opponent, Pei Xingfang, who is one year younger than him, is not only more talented, but also received full advice from his cousin Yuanfang who is full of bad luck. Cousin Yuanfang once explained it to Pei Xingfang in detail A wicked and smoky military term—death!