I'd rather obey three buckets of green onions than bend over the edge! The rhetoric of the past has become a thing of the past, and the words "old and strong" cannot be applied to everyone. Today's famous general of the Sui Dynasty, Qu Tutong, has completely lost the bravery and fearlessness of the past. , except for Pei Renji, who was extremely sad, Qu Tutong had the worst record, avoiding the strong and bullying the weak, using troops more and more cautiously, and suppressing them more and more weakly. Although there has been no big defeat, there has been no dazzling After Li Yuan raised his troops, Qu Tutong's mentality of fear of war became more obvious.
The fighting spirit seemed to have left Qu Tutong's sixty-year-old body. Chen Shuda, Zanzhi of Jiangjun, vowed to defend the city to the death and asked him for help, but Qu Tutong did not dare to send troops; Dare not to send troops; Li Yuan's rebel army went south to capture Fenyin, and opened up contact with the rebels in the pass. It was less than sixty miles away from Hedong City, but Qu Tutong still didn't dare to send troops. He also sat and watched the garrisons in the Guannei city west of Fenyin surrender to the rebels one after another, and even the blind could see their cowardice.
Even Li Yuan didn't understand why Qu Tutong became so timid. For a while, he suspected that Qu Tutong wanted him to lure him into the army alone, and set up despicable traps like his nemesis Chen Sangliang, but Qu Tutong's Passive avoidance of war has always helped Li Yuan's rebels a lot. Seeing that Li Yuan's rebels were in such a difficult situation all the way, and seeing that Qu Tutong's tortoises could not defend, the rebels had not crossed the Yellow River, and the cities west of the Yellow River, such as Hancheng and Heyang, had surrendered one after another. There are thousands of people in the Kanto region of the army, thousands of them every day. Sun Hua, the biggest traitor in Guanzhong, even crossed the Yellow River in person.
What makes Li Yuan's family feel unbelievable is that the leader of the Li Niangzi Army who has suddenly risen in Guanzhong in recent days is actually Li Yuan's daughter and Chai Shao's wife Li Xiuning! Li Xiuning, who was separated from Chai Shao on the way to escape, did not know what tricks he used. First, he pulled up a rebel army of several hundred people, and then recruited and recruited Xiang Shanzhi, Li Zhongwen and Qiu Shili, who had become popular before. Waiting for several militias to change, the army quickly expanded to more than 50,000 people, second only to Sun Hua in Guanzhong. . And Li Yuan's cousin, Li Shentong, also pulled up a team of tens of thousands of people in the area of Hu County, and successfully occupied the city of Hu County. He also sent people to contact Li Yuan and voluntarily accepted Li Yuan's orders.
His relatives were upbeat, his daughter was even more upbeat, and his confidence was greatly increased. Li Yuan, who had hesitated for a while to cross the Yellow River before defeating Qu Tutong, finally made up his mind and sent generals Wang Changxie, Liu Wenjing, Ashina Danai and others to lead six thousand soldiers. The elite cavalry crossed the Yellow River in Fenyin to the west, joined forces with Sun Hua's more than 40,000 mutinous militiamen, and attacked Liu Changgong's hometown, Fengyi County. Chang Xie joined forces, and Li Yuan himself led the main force to go south to attack Puban City, the governor of Hedong County, and pulled out the last nail in the march into Daxing.
Boats are needed to cross the Yellow River, but what Li Yuan's rebels lack most is the Yellow River ferry. In fact, when Li Yuan's rebels first entered Longmen, the fishermen of the Yellow River who could not bear the tyranny had already joined the rebels in groups, bringing a lot of trouble to the rebels. With countless large and small boats, the partial division led by Wang Changxie only took half a day to cross the Yellow River with ease. It was also at this time that Li Yuan gave the secret order to Wang Changxie alone, and ordered: "After crossing the river, your first goal is the Pujin Bridge. If Qu Tutong leads the main force to cross the Yellow River to fight with you, you will defend yourself. , buy time for me to capture the east of the river. If Qu Tutong does not pass the Yellow River, you will take the Zhongdan City at the head of the Pujin Bridge and cut down the Pujin Bridge!"
"After cutting down the Pujin Bridge, no matter how many troops Qu Tutong has in his hands, he is no longer a big threat to you. You don't have to worry about the road ahead. Go south and take Tongguan straight away! Remember, yes Go straight to Tongguan! Judging from the information provided by our insiders, although it is unlikely that Tongguan guard Liu Gang will surrender to us, he is very mediocre and incompetent, and his soldiers have never been on the battlefield. Of course it would be best to force Liu Gang to surrender, if not, send troops to attack immediately, and take Tongguan for me at any cost!"
"What about Yongfeng Cang?" Wang Changxie asked: "Yongfeng Cang has more than 600 garrisons, and it is less than five miles away from Tongguan, and not very far from Huayin County. If Huayin Order Li Xiaochang refuses to surrender, When the last general is attacking Tongguan with all his strength, if Li Xiaochang takes the Huayin township soldiers and the Yongfeng warehouse garrison to take the opportunity to attack the back of the last general, even if the last general is not afraid of them, he will be restrained."
Li Yuan smiled happily, patted Wang Changxie on the shoulder and said with a smile: "Don't worry, Li Xiaochang will not become your enemy, on the contrary, he will become your comrade in arms. If there is a chance, he will even sneak in first." Tongguan, I will act as an internal response for you, and the internal response and the external cooperation will help you win Tongguan, do you understand?"
Wang Changxie suddenly realized, and hurriedly saluted Li Yuan, and said loudly: "The general understands, please rest assured, the general will definitely strive to win Tongguan as soon as possible!"
"It's not about fighting for it, it's for sure!" Li Yuan raised his voice a little bit, and said viciously: "Remember, no matter what, you must win the most important place in Guanzhong for me before the reinforcements from the Eastern Capital enter Tongguan! , once Tongguan is occupied by the Dongdu army, even if we take Yongfeng warehouse, Chen Yingliang can cut off our food road at any time, fight if he wants to fight, defend if he wants to, and completely control the initiative of the entire Guanzhong battlefield! We are completely passive Downwind, even if there is food from Yongfeng warehouse, it can't be transported to the front line of Daxing!"
Wang Changxie nodded in agreement and saluted Li Yuan solemnly before boarding the boat and crossing the river. Watching Wang Changxie's leaving back, Li Yuan asked Li Er next to him: "How is the situation in Daxing? Younger Yang You, old man Wei Xuan And Master Yinshi, have you asked Dongdu for help?"
"As of three days ago, not yet." Li Er replied: "Although Yin Shishi once proposed to ask for help from the east in the early court, our people all preached that Qu Tutong is enough to defeat our army, and there is no need to go east. They all asked for help, so Yang You decided to wait and see. In addition, the old man Wei Xuan was already terminally ill and unable to govern, and his deputy Yin Shishi, Gu Yihe and his colleagues were mostly at odds. favorable."
Li Yuan nodded and said: "The later Daxing asks Dongdu for help, the better. What I am most worried about right now is Chen Yingliang, this little man. I hope his movements can be slower, and I also hope that Duan Zhixuan can restrain him and leave me more time." Take some time."
"Father, don't worry. Chen Yingliang is staying behind in Dongdu. Without Yang Guang's order, he dare not leave Dongdu casually." Li Er replied with a smile: "Even if he has the guts to lead an army westward to rescue Daxing without an order, We also have to get Yang Tong's consent first, and when the court discusses matters early, our people in Dongdu will of course create some trouble for him, and try our best to buy us time."
On August 25th, Wang Changxie, Li Yuan's side division West Route Army formed by crossing again, successfully crossed the Yellow River and marched south to push Pujin Pass. Li Yuan also led the main force to go south to push Puban City, the governor of Hedong County, and stationed here. Qu Tutong, the great general of Marquis Zuowu, was confronted with the enemy, so he had no choice but to defend the city while sending generals Sang Xianhe and Yao Junsu to lead the army across the Pujin Bridge and go north to meet the rebel forces.
On the 26th, Sang Xian and his army and Wang Changxie, the rebel division, met in the north of Pujin Pass. The warriors raided Wang Changxie's camp, but their whereabouts were exposed. Wang Changxie immediately led his army to meet them. The two armies confronted each other at night. Sang Xianhe's army once had the upper hand and Wang Changxie retreated steadily. However, at dusk, Sun Hua, a giant in Guanzhong, and Ashina Danai, a remnant of the Western Turks, led cavalry in a detour, and suddenly appeared behind the Sui army, and jointly attacked the Sui army. Sang Xian and his army were defeated. Leading the whole army to launch a counterattack, taking advantage of the momentum to break through the Sui army camp, killing Yao Junsu in the chaos, Sang Xianhe retreated all the way to Pujin Pass, Qu Tutong ordered Sang Xianhe to stick to Pujin Pass, and prevented Wang Changxie from continuing to go south .
At the critical moment, scum appeared one after another within the Sui Army. Cao Jin Xiaomo, who had previously assisted in guarding Pujin Pass, secretly colluded with the rebels and secretly opened the door to welcome the rebels into the city on the night of the 29th. The sleeping Sui soldiers were caught off guard and killed. Many were captured. Sang Xianhe was assassinated by his subordinates Xue Zong and Li Chuke when he fled in a hurry, and his head was sent to Wang Changxie. . On the same day, the main force of the rebel army besieged Hedong City. Although Qu Tutong held on to the city, he had become a lone army.
Because of the distance of the roads and rampant rebellion, in fact, until the first day of September, the Daxing side had not had time to know the situation of the battle at Pujin Pass, so they did not send a request for help to the east. However, on this day, Feng Yi's prefect Xiao Zao chose to surrender to Li Yuan's rebel army. The main force of Sun Hua's rebel army also arrived in the middle lane as scheduled. On the same day, Li Yuan, who had confirmed that Dongdu had not yet sent troops, also sent an envoy across the river to deliver an order, asking Wang Changxie to hurry up and send troops as soon as possible, and take the throat of Tongguan at any cost!
On the second day of September, after rigorous preparations, Wang Changxie left Liu Wenjing to lead the army to guard the mid laner, and together with Sun Hua and Ashina Danai, led 10,000 troops to the south at high speed, rushed straight to Tongguan, and arrived at Weishui River at around Shen o'clock in the afternoon of the same day In the end, Wang Changxie and others were overjoyed that the bridges on the Weishui River were not damaged and demolished, on the contrary, three pontoon bridges were being built. Huayin Ling Li Xiaochang, who should have tried his best to prevent the rebels from going south, even came to the bridge to welcome the rebels. , Wang Changxie and others were overjoyed, and immediately crossed the river with Li Xiaochang as soon as they greeted each other, racing against time and trying not to leave Tongguan with contingency time.
While the army was crossing the river, Wang Changxie and others naturally asked about the situation of Yongfeng Cang and Tongguan. Li Xiaochang replied proudly: "Don't worry, Yongfeng Cang has already been arranged. Wang Tongjun, you just go to take over Cangcheng. As for Tongguan, Liu Gang didn't know that you were going south until two hours ago, and you are in a hurry to set up city defenses, and the chaos in the north and south of Tongguan is more lively than the market."
"Then is there any reinforcements coming from Dongdu?" Wang Changxie hurriedly asked again.
"Of course not." Li Xiaochang replied with a smile: "I have been paying attention to the situation of the post station. Daxing has not sent a messenger to Dongdu for help. Will Dongdu send reinforcements?"
As Li Xiaochang said, when the vanguard of the rebel army rushed all the way to the gate of Yongfeng warehouse, the garrison of Yongfeng warehouse did not resist, and opened the warehouse door to welcome the rebels. Wang Changxie was even more overjoyed when he heard the news. Before he could go into the warehouse to check how much food he had harvested, he immediately led his army east to attack Tongguan. In exchange for the flying ladder, Wang Changxie, Ashina Danai and others thanked him repeatedly, saying that Li Xiaochang should be the first to win the battle.
Tongguan in this era is located in the Valley of the Beast. Because of the terrain, there are two cities in the north and the south. The strength of the two cities is about 800 people, and the city defense facilities are relatively complete. However, because of the deep interior, the defenders have hardly ever been on the battlefield. On the contrary, they have all become experts in embezzling customs duties and blackmailing past merchants. The guard Liu Gang is notoriously greedy for money, lustful, mediocre and incompetent-that's why Yang Xuangan back then had the confidence to win Tongguan. However, mediocrity is mediocrity. One of Liu Gang's strengths is that he is good at flattering and flattering the powerful. Every time Emperor Yang of the Sui Dynasty traveled between Daxing and Luoyang, Liu Gang would present exquisite gifts to please Emperor Yang of Sui Dynasty and the accompanying officials. It was never replaced.
The mediocre general has become the most critical person at the critical moment. If Liu Gang can defend Tongguan, which is easy to defend and difficult to attack, and persist until the Sui army in the eastern capital comes to help, then Li Yuan's rebels will enter Guanzhong, or even defeat Daxing. The strategic initiative is still in the hands of the Sui army; and if Liu Gang can't hold on and let the rebels take Tongguan first, then not only the initiative in Guanzhong will change hands, but also the initiative in the Central Plains battlefield will belong to the rebels. The army can attack, retreat or defend, if you want to fight, you can defend if you want. You can kill Luoyang, the eastern capital, at any time. The strategic situation will be extremely unfavorable to Chen Sangliang, who is staying behind in the eastern capital!
—By the way, if Chen Sangliang didn't have so many enemies in the east, maybe it would be better. Unfortunately, Chen Sangliang has too many enemies. Once Tongguan is lost, he is almost doomed to be beaten to death !
The performance of the key figures was too disappointing. When Wang Changxie and others led the rebel army all the way to the Tongguan city, under the afterglow of the setting sun, the first thing they saw was that the north and south cities of Tongguan were in chaos. Hu Xiaoyao, rushing to deploy defenses in a hurry, so panicked that even the Yasha ring hanging on the city gate missed and fell to the ground. Wang Changxie and others laughed loudly. The city is also preparing torches for night battles.
Similar to Li Yuan's analysis before the rebellion, although Liu Gang, the general guard of Tongguan, was incompetent, he was very loyal to Emperor Yang of the Sui Dynasty. Facing the surrender of the rebel army, Liu Gang not only cursed, but also ordered the soldiers to shoot arrows to kill the rebel envoy, which is a pity The soldiers guarding the gate were too fleshy, and the arrows they released were powerless to fall halfway. The rebel envoys escaped smoothly. Guan Cheng is full of confidence.
At this time, the situation suddenly changed. Suddenly, some soldiers of the Sui army ran up to the wall, and some different flags appeared. When Wang Changxie was surprised and asked what was the situation, Li Xiaochang laughed and replied: "Union Don't worry, the army is from the township of Yan Township. A county magistrate was changed a few days ago in Yan Township. In order to guard against bandit chaos, some township soldiers were temporarily recruited to form an army. Yan Township is only five miles away from Tongguan. It’s urgent here, come and help.”
"Xiangbing? Or the newly formed Xiangbing?" Wang Changxie, Ashina Danai and others smiled.
At this time, the banner of the township soldiers from Yan Township also appeared on the north city of Tongguan, obviously there were also soldiers from the township to help defend the city. Seeing this situation, although Wang Changxie and others didn't take it seriously, they were unwilling to let the defenders continue to increase their strength, and immediately ordered an attack. First, the main attack was on the southern city. The famous fierce general Ashina Danai was the vanguard, leading a thousand elite The selected rebel soldiers attacked Nancheng. In order to boost morale, Wang Changxie also promised a heavy reward, promising that the first person to climb the city would be rewarded with ten taels of gold!
"Kill!"
Carrying the flying ladder provided by Li Xiaochang, the rebels rushed towards Tongguan shouting like a tidal wave. With a distance of two hundred steps, the soldiers of the Sui Army on the city were already frightened and immediately shot arrows indiscriminately. Fifty steps away, they landed one after another, causing Wang Changxie, Li Xiaochang and others to laugh again, but the smiles of Wang Changxie and others soon froze on their faces, because when the rebel soldiers rushed to a distance of a hundred steps Within a short time, a wave of feathered arrows was shot out of Tongguan City in a neat manner. The arrows pierced through the air and accurately covered the heads of the rebel soldiers along a parabola. More than a dozen rebel soldiers screamed and fell down on the spot.
Feathered arrows rose one after another, covering the heads of the rebels one after another. More rebel soldiers screamed and fell to the ground. The trench bridge continued to attack forward, but just after reaching the bottom of the city, countless sheep's head stones suddenly fell from the city, smashing one by one more accurately, and the rebel soldiers were crying and howling, basically even the flying ladder was difficult to put on the wall.
The war opportunity was fleeting. In order not to give the Sui army time to respond, the rebel vanguard still forcibly erected the ladder on the wall at any cost, and stepped on the ladder to attack the city. Many rebel soldiers still held their weapons and climbed directly. However, to the astonishment of Wang Changxie and other rebel generals, none of their soldiers even climbed to the top of the wall, and all of them were thrown down by sheep's head stones during the climb, screaming to death. Very miserable. Finally, a rebel warrior barely approached the arrow stack, but just touched the arrow stack, the palm of his hand was cut off with a knife, screamed and fell down the ladder, and died even more miserable.
The rebel soldiers who were still unwilling to give up continued to attack, and even strengthened the attack, and threw wood to attack and close the gate. However, the situation was exactly the same as before. The defenders calmly responded to the battle, condescendingly beating the rebels with all kinds of defensive weapons, killing the rebel soldiers howling ghosts and howling, causing heavy casualties. The rebel soldiers who rushed to the city were smashed to pieces by the Yaksha that fell from the sky without even hitting the city gate.
"How can Liu Gang, that idiot's subordinate, be so good at fighting? Why didn't I find out before?" Li Xiaochang screamed.
"No, it can't be the defenders of Tongguan!" Sun Hua shouted: "The soldiers on the pass are very experienced, they are veterans, they use strong bows, and they must be elite soldiers!"
"Magistrate Li, what is the name of the county magistrate of Yanxiang?" Wang Changxie finally remembered this important question.
"My name is Li Jing. I heard that he is a relative of Chen Yingliang who stayed behind in Hedongdu. After he came to Yan Township to take office, Liu Gang got along very well with him in order to flatter Chen Yingliang... ouch!"
Before Li Xiaochang finished his answer, Wang Changxie's big slap had already slapped him on the face, making him turn around on the spot, and then Wang Changxie's hysterical roar immediately reached Li Xiaochang's dizzy ears In the middle, "When did the county magistrate of Yanxiang be replaced by Li Jing? Li Jing is Chen Yingliang's relative, Chen Yingliang's closest relative in this world! Why didn't you report such an important situation to the general before?"
"It was the general who didn't want me to contact him." Li Xiaochang covered his face and said aggrievedly: "The general said that in order to reduce the possibility of leaking the news, it's not an urgent matter. There is no need to contact him. It's not a big deal. I Of course, I didn’t contact the general.”
"Too lazy to talk nonsense with you!" Wang Changxi yelled with a livid face, and asked again: "How many soldiers are there in Yan Township?"
"Three thousand." Li Xiaochang replied truthfully, and added: "By the way, Li Jing's assistant seems to be called Zhang Jixun, who is very young. I just noticed that Zhang Jixun's banner is in Beicheng."
"Three thousand?" Wang Changxie almost fainted, and roared, "How big is the township? Can it afford three thousand soldiers? You fucking brainless, don't you think about it?"
Li Xiaochang thinks about it carefully, his own Huayin County is several times larger than that of Yanxiang County, and the money and food situation is much better. Sun Hua next to him said with a livid face: "Wang Tongjun, it seems that Chen Yingliang has long been guarding against our surprise attack on Tongguan, so he ambushed an elite soldier in Yan Township, which is only five miles away from Tongguan. I'm afraid it will be difficult for us this time." We can win Tongguan!"
"If you can't take it, you have to take it. If you can't take Tongguan, even if we enter Guanzhong, we don't dare to sleep with our eyes closed!" Wang Changxie's forehead was twitching, and he pointed to the north city of Tongguan, and ordered: "General Sun, you go to attack the north city. A strong attack at any cost! I don't believe it, the Dongdu army can really defend Tongguan as impregnable as gold!"
Sun Hua agreed immediately, and immediately went to command the troops to attack the North City of Tongguan, but if Sun Hua knew Zhang Jixun's record of defending the city in history, he would definitely turn against Wang Changxie on the spot!
"Go fuck yourself! Li Mi has an army of 400,000, and he only has more than 400. If you can't attack this pervert for half a year, go attack it yourself!"