"Damn! These peasant soldiers in Yanxiang are also called peasant soldiers? The iron armor and helmets on their bodies, and the horizontal knives and crossbows in their hands are also equipped by peasant soldiers? If all peasant soldiers in the world are like these animals, then Why don't you set up the sixteen guards at all, and just ask the local soldiers to fight!"
The right time is not as good as the right place, and the right place is not as good as the harmony of people. A city within three miles and a country within seven miles can be conquered in circles. If we attack the husband's ring, we must have the right time, but the winner is not as good as the right place. The city is not too high, the pond is not too deep, the soldiers are not not strong and powerful, and the rice and millet are not too much.
The first insurance in Kinai! Four town throats! One hundred and two levels! These words are specially designed for Tongguan. It is a very painful thing to attack such an ancient pass. However, what is even more painful is that it is still a group of perverted animals guarding this pass. The equipment is better than ordinary regular troops. All of them are strong and experienced, and they are skilled in advancing and retreating in an orderly manner. Although the Weifu martial arts used are not very exquisite, they are very practical and fast. However, with the siege of this group of animals, coupled with the effective command of the generals and the proper application of tactics, Wang Changxie may not be able to win Tongguan even if he has 100,000 soldiers, let alone 10,000 rebels!
Under the night, the rebel soldiers lined up neatly, shouting with torches, repeatedly attacking the north and south cities of Tongguan again and again. Every time the vanguard, he must first be densely covered by strong bows and crossbows, and then he will be hit head-on by falling lime bottles. After stepping on the ladder and barely getting close to the top of the wall, they were either pierced through the door with a spear or spear, or their palms and heads were cut off by knives and axes, and they were repeatedly impacted more than ten times. Rush up the wall.
The corpses of the rebels under the wall gradually piled up, and the boiling blood on the rebel soldiers gradually turned cold. Although Wang Changxie, Sun Hua and other rebel generals were still encouraging the soldiers to charge bravely, the shouts of the rebel soldiers It is getting smaller and smaller, and the pace of the charge is getting slower and slower. It is almost equivalent to the fact that Li Yuan's rebels' signature siege and climbing siege tactics are becoming less and less, and eventually they simply disappear—the rebel soldiers are not fools, Guan The enemies on the wall are too powerful, and climbing the wall empty-handed with a weapon in hand is no longer called courage, but death.
Halfway through the third watch, the rebel soldiers were still stuck at the foot of the wall, unable to advance a foot and a half. The tired and hungry rebel soldiers couldn't bear it, and Sun Hua, who had just joined Li Yuan's rebel army, finally endured. Not going any further, I found Wang Changxie, the chief general appointed by Li Yuan, and said: "Wang Tongjun, it is useless to fight like this. Tongguan is already difficult to fight, and the officers and soldiers guarding the pass are elite and strong soldiers. If we continue to fight, we can only let the soldiers If you die in vain, there will be no gain, so it is better to retreat temporarily and find another way to break through."
"But the general told us that we should take Tongguan at any cost!" Wang Changxie replied with a hoarse voice, "If we can't take Tongguan, we will be too passive in the Guanzhong battlefield."
"The general has explained this before, but now even if we wipe out all the troops, it is impossible to win Tongguan, so what can we do?" Sun Hua said angrily: "Furthermore, I didn't say no more Tongguan, we need to take a break temporarily and find another way to attack the city."
Wang Changxie hesitated for a moment, then looked at the self-armed soldiers who were screaming under Tongguan City, and finally stabbed the horizontal knife in his hand heavily into the ground, three feet directly into the ground, and then shouted: "Send orders, retreat, Go back to Yongfeng Warehouse!"
On the second day of September in the thirteenth year of Daye, Huayin ordered Li Xiaochang to donate Huayin City and Yongfeng Cang to Li Yuan's rebels. To take precautions, dispatch a group of elite soldiers to lurk westward in advance, stationed in the most western part of the territory under their jurisdiction in the name of Yanxiang County soldiers, and rushed to Tongguan, which is only five miles away from the county seat, to assist in the defense. Li Yuan's rebels are unknown He attacked indiscriminately and was hit head-on by the Sui army in the eastern capital, with more than 2,000 casualties, and was forced to retreat to Yongfeng warehouse to station.
The scale of this battle is not too large, but the impact on the entire Guanzhong battlefield is extremely huge. The Sui army, which successfully defended the eastern capital of Tongguan, firmly occupied the initiative in the Guanzhong battlefield, threatening the eternal life of Li Yuan's largest food and grass supply ground. In Fengcang, Li Yuan's rebels were at a complete passive disadvantage in front of the Sui army in the eastern capital, so that when Li Yuan received the news at the foot of Hedong City the next day, he was so shocked that the official document in his hand fell to the ground on the spot, his face was as pale as paper, and he could not say a word for a long time In just one word, the second brother Li and the generals of the rebel army next to him were also ashen-faced and timid.
The house leak coincided with the continuous night rain, but at this time, the news of Li Yuan's rebel army's disastrous defeat of the East Route Army was also sent to Li Yuan, and along with it was sent to Li Yuan, as well as Sui's plan to defeat the rebel East Route Army. The military hero is the intelligence of Pei Xingfang, Chen Sangliang's cousin. It was also at this time that Li Yuan, who had been in a daze for a long time, finally yelled out a word, "Chen Yingliang! You little thief! This old man fucked your eighteen generations of ancestors! It's okay that you little thief almost ruined this old man, and your two lackey relatives I also fight against the old man everywhere, causing the old man to suffer heavy losses! What kind of grievances and enmity do I have with you? What kind of grievances and enmity are there?!"
No one said anything, but many people's eyes turned to Chai Shao's face quietly, and they all said that, General, this is the reason why you and Chen Yingliang had an enmity, and it was your son-in-law. Chai Shao noticed these strange eyes, and his face couldn't help turning green and white. After gritting his teeth, Chai Shao simply cupped his fists at Li Yuanji and said loudly: "General, the last general, Chai Shao, please lead an army to reinforce Wang Changxie." , to help him attack Tongguan, if he does not break through Tongguan, the general is willing to die to apologize."
Glancing at his son-in-law, Li Yuan pondered for a moment, then suddenly said, "I don't have any troops for you!"
"Father-in-law!" Chai Shao looked up in shock.
"Go to Zhongdan City and tell Liu Wenjing to cut down the Pujin Bridge, and then follow him to lead Wang Changxie's rear army to the south and join Wang Changxie in Yongfengcang to reinforce Wang Changxie's troops." Li Yuan He said coldly: "According to the schedule, the reinforcements led by Xiuning are coming soon. You husband and wife join hands to attack Tongguan together with Wang Changxie."
When Chai Shao was overjoyed, he immediately clasped his fists and sang promises, but Li Yuan shouted again: "Remember, no matter what method you use, you must win Tongguan for the old man! If you can't win Tongguan, you must follow the military law!"
Immediately crossing the Yellow River westward with a serious expression, Chai Shao first went to the middle lane to find Liu Wenjing to pass the order. Liu Wenjing also knew that the matter was serious, and immediately cut off the Pujin Bridge without hesitation, cutting off the fast passage for Qu Tu's army to cross westward. Then he and Chai Shao led the rear army of partial eclipse to the south, and arrived at Yongfengcang on the night of the third day of September, where they joined forces with Wang Changxie and gathered more than 35,000 troops. quantitative advantage. Wang Changxie, who was worried about the shortage of troops, was overjoyed and immediately started to build siege weapons, preparing to launch another frontal attack.
At the same time, seeing the arrival of the rebel brigade, Liu Gang, the official defender of Tongguan, was terrified and kept asking his colleague and friend Li Jingdong when the reinforcements would arrive. Li Jing comforted him, saying that he had already dispatched a fast horse to Dongdu, and the reinforcements from Dongdu would definitely arrive soon, but he had already started thinking about how to defeat the enemy, how to capture Yongfeng warehouse so that the rebels would have no food to eat, so they had to be forced to Forced to take food from the people and lose popular support. Zhang Jixun, the deputy that Chen Sangliang specially arranged for Li Jing, also smiled, excited at the enemy's continuous increase of troops to attack.
During the day of the same day, Daxing, which had been disturbed by internal traitors for many days, finally sent a request for help to Luoyang, the eastern capital, through the Guangtongqu waterway. Unfortunately, the rescue messenger sent by Daxing was intercepted and killed by the bandits as soon as it arrived in Xinfeng. However, Yin Shishi, who was on behalf of the left-behind affairs, could only send a fast horse to Luoshui, Luonan to Luoshui, and then through Luoshui to send a letter for help to Luoyang, the eastern capital, and at the same time send an emergency letter to Emperor Sui Yang who was far away in Jiangdu.
On the fourth day of September, the rebel Wang Changxie continued to make all kinds of weapons. At the same time, he couldn't wait to send a toad cart to fill up the moat. Hurry up and build a few trebuchets, and transport a large number of defense supplies from the township of Yan for backup—of course, these defense supplies were prepared in advance for his cousin Li Jing by Chen Sangliang, a filial branch. In the same night, as the scouts noticed that the rebels were frantically building siege weapons, Li Jing decided to lure the rebels into a plan to lure the enemy into a siege weapon in order to consume the enemy's strength and not give the enemy a chance to prepare enough to launch a siege and pose a huge threat to Tongguan. The siege was launched again under the condition of insufficient preparation.
A generation of military god Li Yuan used tricks, of course he would not use such shameless means as his nephew and nephew's cousin, such as feigning surrender, insulting or humiliating the enemy's relatives. Li Jing just asked Liu Gang to write a memorial to Daxing, falsely reporting During the war in Tongguan, Chen Sangliang deliberately leaked the false news that Chen Sangliang had already made arrangements. The reinforcements from the Eastern Capital would arrive in Tongguan on the day before the seventh day of September, and then sent genuine Tongguan defenders to leave the customs at night to the Eastern Capital. send a letter. As expected by Li Jing, the messenger was captured by the rebel patrol soldiers before he left the customs ten miles away, and the memorial written by Liu Gang also fell into the hands of the rebels as a matter of course.
Although it is doubtful that the reinforcements from the Eastern Capital will arrive at Tongguan before the seventh day of September, the lessons learned are not far away. No one can guarantee that Chen Sangliang, who is notoriously treacherous and vicious, can deploy Li Jing's surprise army in Yan Township. Another despicable arrangement is that reinforcements will arrive in Tongguan within three days. Forced by this sense of crisis that time is running out, Wang Changxie, Liu Wenjing and others who originally planned to build enough siege weapons and launch the siege dare not continue wasting time. That night, it was decided to launch an attack the next day, and take Tongguan City before the reinforcements of the Sui army arrived! —Tongguan is hard enough to fight now, and when the reinforcements from the Eastern Capital arrive in large numbers, will the rebels still have a chance to touch the city wall of Tongguan
If the preparations were seriously insufficient, they launched a strong attack on Tongguan, a famous pass through the ages. Of course, the rebels could only use soldiers to fill up the Tongguan moats that they failed to fill up with frog carts, even though the rebels had already built some bridge carts. , and also built a large number of flying ladders, but in the face of Tongguan Fortified City, which is known as the first pass in the world, how effective can these simple siege weapons be? In addition to sending the soldiers of our own army to the city to wait to die, and to be killed in mid-air on the city wall, how much threat can it pose to Tongguan
Amidst the sound of rumbling war drums, crowds of rebel soldiers lined up in dense formations, carrying simple siege weapons, rushed towards the strong city of Tongguan like moths to a flame. There are also boulders thrown by trebuchets falling, and when they are pushed to the bottom of the city, they are greeted with golden juice made of feces and horse urine. Rolling down the flying ladder that didn't even peel off the bark, the death could not be more miserable. The corpses of the rebel soldiers under the city wall were layer upon layer. Not only are there still almost no soldiers who can successfully ascend the city, but on the contrary, those genuine Tongguan defenders under Liu Gang have gained confidence and experience, and they can begin to share the pressure for the Sui army in the eastern capital, skillfully manipulate various defensive weapons, and give the rebel soldiers more confidence and experience. Cause more casualties.
Tongguan was stormed for two full days, and nearly 10,000 soldiers were killed and wounded. Until the seventh day of September, when the secret agents walked the small road outside the pass and brought news that there was no trace of reinforcements from the Eastern Capital, Wang Changxie, Liu Wenjing and others vaguely realized that they had been tricked. , did not let the soldiers go to the Tongguan city to die in vain, and when it was thoroughly confirmed in the evening that there were no bullshit reinforcements, Wang Changxie, Liu Wenjing and others realized that they had fallen into Li Jing's trick to lure the enemy. However, it was too late to find out. After two days of storming, it was completely equivalent to moths rushing to the flame. The rebel army's partial division was already full of wounded soldiers, and their morale was depressed. courage. —How can a defeated army be brave enough
At the same time, after several tentative attacks, the main force of the rebel army led by Li Yuan also confirmed that Qu Tutong's defense of Puban City was not so easy to win, but Li Yuan did not foolishly take people's lives to the city like Wang Changxie Instead, he gritted his teeth and made a decision under the suggestion of his precious son Li Er, leaving only a part of the division led by the general Lu Shaozong, stationed in Hedong to contain Qu Tutong, and personally leading the main force to cross the Yellow River on the eighth day of September, desperate He entered Guanzhong, and on the same day he entered the Changchun Palace of Emperor Sui Yang, proclaimed himself Taiwei, and added subordinate officials.
Li Yuan did not take down Tongguan, did not kill Qu Tutong, and directly crossed the Yellow River. Of course, it was very risky for Li Yuan to do so, but Li Yuan had no choice but to recruit and accept the rebels all the way. There are more than 10,000 soldiers, but most of these soldiers are the same as the soldiers under Yang Xuangan's command back then. They are typical mobs. They fight like a broken bamboo all the way. The mob may become more experienced and confident as they fight, and become truly elite soldiers, but If the battles are unfavorable one after another, morale is depressed, and the morale of the army is scattered, it is possible to be beaten to pieces by Chen Sangliang's charge, so Li Yuan has no choice but to march into the empty Guanzhong of the Sui army, and use more victories to boost the morale of the army. .
Desperate to cross the Yellow River, Li Yuan made adjustments to the Tongguan battlefield again. He sent his eldest son Li Jiancheng to take over the entire army and preside over the siege. It is used by the rebels to attack Daxing—this is also the most important point. Although the autumn harvest in Guanzhong is not long and the people store a lot of grain, if Li Yuan's rebels dare to grab a piece of grain from the people, the people in Guanzhong will be dispersed immediately!
It was also a coincidence that at the same time that Li Jiancheng rushed to the Tongguan battlefield, the 30,000 rebels led by Li Xiuning and the Hu thief He Panren also came to Yongfeng warehouse according to the order, and joined forces with Li Yuan's rebels. The rebels were overjoyed, and their strength skyrocketed , and the morale of the army was also revived. During this period, Li Xiuning and Chai Shao reunited after a long absence, so naturally they had to have a long talk late at night and love each other.
With the successful reunion of the Guanzhong rebels and Li Yuan's rebels, the pressure on Tongguan is naturally greater. On the wall, you can see the rebel camps like the ocean, and the rebel bonfires that are denser than the stars in the sky. Liu Gang, who was gradually gaining confidence, was of course frightened again. When he went to the city with Li Jing to visit the enemy, Liu Gang couldn't help but asked Li Jing: "Pharmacist, Chen Liushou sent us only 10,000 reinforcement vanguards, but the rebels have only 10,000 soldiers?" More than 30,000 people came at once, and we are outnumbered, can we hold Tongguan?"
"Don't worry, with the terrain of Tongguan, the rebels don't even think about stepping into Tongguan, let alone adding 30,000 or 300,000 troops." Li Jing smiled comfortingly, looked at the rebel camp and said, "When the reinforcements arrive, Not only can we defend Tongguan, but we can also recapture the Yongfeng warehouse, cut off the food and grass supply of the rebel main force, and make the rebel main force have no food to use in the pass."
Taking a timid glance at the huge rebel camp in the distance, Liu Gang had no confidence. At this moment, a soldier from the East Gate reported that Chen Yingliang had sent someone from the East Capital to send an urgent letter, and Li Jing hurriedly ordered The messenger was invited here, and when he took Chen Sangliang's letter and opened it for a look, Li Jing's expression quickly became extremely strange. Liu Gang hurriedly asked, "Pharmacist, what did Chen Liushou say in the letter?"
"He wants us to try to scout the internal situation of the enemy and find out who the commander of Li Niangzi's army who has recently become famous in Guanzhong is." Li Jing said with a strange expression: "My nephew suspects that the so-called Li Niangzi is probably the first of Li Yuan's rebels. The third daughter, Li Xiuning, also said that since we have confirmed that Chai Shao has come to the Tongguan battlefield, if this Lady Li is Li Xiuning, there is a 90% chance that Li Yuan will dispatch Li Lady's bandit army to Tongguan for reinforcements, so that Chai Shao and Li Xiuning can reunite."
"If such a situation really happens, I suggest that we find out the identity of Lady Li as soon as possible, and then we might as well make a fuss about the alliance between Li Xiuning and Hu thief He Panren, and also say that Chai Shao has a violent temper, and Hu thief He Panren may not really be right. The Li family is determined, if these things are used well, it will be a great opportunity to weaken the enemy and make the enemy chaos without fighting."
"What do you mean? Why can't I understand?" Liu Gang was confused.
The upright Li Jing didn't want to explain, but couldn't stand Liu Gang's repeated questioning, Li Jing said helplessly: "It's very simple, we just want us to spread rumors that Li Xiuning used her beauty to seduce He Panren, which made He Panren willing to serve Li Yuan's rebels. Therefore, there is an adulterous relationship between the two, Chai Shao is short-tempered, knowing that this matter is bound to cause trouble, and has conflicts with the thief He Panren, and then if He Panren is wronged, he will probably defect to the rebels, maybe There is also the possibility of surrendering to us."
"A great plan!" Liu Gang's eyes suddenly lit up, and he slapped his thigh and said, "The Guanzhong bandit army who came to reinforce Li Yuan's bandit army today happens to be the bandit army of Mrs. Li and the thief He Panren. Chen Liushou expected that Mrs. Li is Li Yuan's daughter and Chai Shao's wife, and if we spread such rumors, it would be a wonder if the rebels didn't fall out among themselves! No man can stand such a thing!"
"It's a clever plan, but it's a pity it's too base." Li Jing shook his head, put the letter back into his sleeve, and continued shaking his head, "This kind of plan to go down three routes is too despicable and base, we can't use it."
Li Jing, whose character is a hundred times stronger than his cousin's nephew, is really unwilling to accept such a thing, but it is a pity that beside Li Jing, there happens to be Liu Gang, who is as noble as Chen Sangliang, and after blinking Mung Bean's small eyes , Liu Gang suggested: "Pharmacist, should we try to capture a few prisoners to interrogate the confession, and learn more about the situation of the enemy's reinforcements, which will also be beneficial for us to fight against the enemy."
"That's exactly what I mean." Li Jing nodded, but he didn't notice at all that Liu Gang, who was absolutely the same as his cousin, had a vicious smirk quietly appearing at the corner of his mouth.