In AD 617, the thirteenth year of Sui Daxing, on the morning of September 27, the capital of the Sui Kingdom was Daxing.
The majestic Daxing Palace City, a symbol of the imperial power of the Sui Dynasty, is one of the most important cities in the world. However, at this moment, this palace city has turned into a huge military camp, where tens of thousands of soldiers of the Sui Dynasty lived. The major yamen in the palace city never take off their armor day and night. On the wall of the palace city, there is a post every three steps, and a sentry post every five steps.
There are more troops outside the palace city, but it is a pity that none of them are the official army of the Sui Dynasty with the red flag, but the rebel army holding the red and white army flag high. Lin, the Daxing Palace was completely surrounded, and the momentum was extremely frightening.
Li Yuan set up the podium on the widest Zhuque Street. Li Yuan sat in a handsome chair, surrounded by civil officials and military generals, majestic and high-spirited. Under the palace city, he explained that he attacked Daxing only to support the acting king Yang You and proclaim himself emperor, not to rebel against the Sui court. As long as the Daxing palace city surrendered in Kaesong, the rebels would not harm anyone in its custody, and the Daxing court would never be held accountable for digging it up. The ancestral grave of the old Li family and the killing of Li Yuan's youngest sons.
The rebel envoy's words were indeed eloquent, which can be regarded as hype, but it is a pity that the two left-behind Yin Shishi and Gu Yi, who are currently guarding Daxing, are all loyal lackeys of Emperor Sui Yang. After thinking about it, I was tired of hearing it, and Yin Shishi drew the bow himself, and shot the rebel lobbyist with his head in his arms and fled. Seeing this scene, Li Yuan was not angry, but smiled slightly, and said: "Sure enough, it is a stone from the latrine, it is smelly and hard."
"Father, we are all benevolent and righteous. Yin Shishi and Gu Yi are stubborn, so we have to fight." Li Er on the side suggested: "Father, please order the attack."
Li Yuan nodded and ordered: "Let's start, let the soldiers remember that as long as they surrender, they will not be killed. After the city is broken, His Royal Highness will never be hurt, and the Great Sui Ancestral Temple is not allowed to be destroyed. Anyone who violates the order will be executed." No mercy!"
All the rebel generals sang promises in unison, issued orders loudly, and launched an attack according to the established siege plan. Tens of thousands of rebel soldiers divided into seven groups and attacked the seven gates of Daxing Palace at the same time. The rebel soldiers stepped up the walls of the palace city, and the soldiers of the Sui army guarding the palace city also fought hard, fighting with the rebels inextricably. In addition, the rebels also dispatched siege weapons such as ladder vehicles and city crash vehicles, but these weapons were too bulky and slow-moving, and could not pose a fatal threat to Miyagi for a while.
The fight ahead was in full swing, but Li Yuan, the coach, was somewhat bored in the rear. In order to relieve the boredom and to show off his diligence and love for the people, Li Yuan simply asked his right-hand assistant Pei Ji about the opening of the warehouse to release relief. General, Daxing, Chang'an Old City and Acheng have all been ordered to open warehouses to release relief, and over the past three days, more than 100,000 people have received relief.
"Proclaim emperor?" Li Yuan laughed dumbfounded, pretending to be angry and said: "Nonsense! This great general raised troops to serve as king in order to support the new emperor on the throne and benefit the common people. When did he ever plan to become emperor himself? Tell the following, and we will discuss it in the future." And those who support me and proclaim the emperor will be severely punished."
Pei Ji respectfully agreed, and all the civil and military people around him praised Li Yuan, who admired Li Yuan's loyalty to the Sui court. Li Yuan was still tired of the flattery he had heard for a long time, so he simply changed the subject and asked Li Er next to him: "Erlang, where is the 200,000 shi army rations that He Panren escorted? It's already 20 today." It's seven, why hasn't it been delivered yet?"
"Father, I received the report last night that the military rations have arrived in Xinxiang." Li Er respectfully replied: "General He Panrenhe, please rest assured that father, although it is inconvenient to transport rations by land and boats, before thirty, he will definitely be able to arrive on time." Send the military rations to Daxing for use. Counting the distance, the military rations will be delivered by tomorrow evening at the latest."
"Okay, although there is no shortage of food in Daxing, the food is for the common people, so we can't mess around with it." Li Yuan nodded in satisfaction, then beckoned Li Er to him, and whispered in Li Er's ear: "He Panren Is there any change?"
"Father, I haven't found anything unusual about He Panren yet." Li Er replied in a low voice, "It's just that an eyeliner suddenly disappeared. Our people are investigating his whereabouts. There is no news yet."
"An eyeliner suddenly disappeared?"
Li Yuan frowned slightly, and was wondering if this was just an ordinary accident, when Fu Yin Kaishan suddenly came to the flag formation and reported that Du Ruhui had been invited after the famous family Li Yuan named, Li Yuan smiled, and immediately ordered an interview, and after a while After a while, Fang Xuanling's good friend Du Ruhui was brought to Li Yuan in front of him. Li Yuan laughed when he saw Du Ruhui, and said: "Mr. Keming, it's so hard to invite you. When the general entered Daxing, all the famous disciples in the city came to serve. Why did you only come to join me after you asked me to invite you several times?" Meet?"
"Reporting to the general, this junior has no intention of official career, and only wants to study behind closed doors, so I declined the invitation of the general several times. If I offend, the general wants to forgive me." Du Ruhui replied helplessly.
"You don't want to work for me at all, do you?" Li Yuan pointed out Du Ruhui's true intentions bluntly, and said with a smile: "You want to work for Chen Yingliang and Chen Liushou, right?"
Hearing Li Yuan's words, the surrounding rebels, civil and military, were all stunned except Li Er, but Du Ruhui was taken aback. He looked up at Li Yuan in surprise, and hesitated to speak. Seeing Du Ruhui's confusion, Li Yuan smiled and said, "It's very It’s strange why the old man knows about you and Chen Yingliang, right? You should take care of your servants. One of them knows that the old man has a deep hatred with the little thief Chen Yingliang. In order to ask for a reward, he wrote the letter to you from the little thief Chen Yingliang You stole it and presented it to the old man's second son. Only then did the old man know that the little thief Chen Yingliang has asked you to come out of the mountain to serve him several times. Before the old man entered Daxing, the last letter he gave you was to advise you to leave the city temporarily to avoid the flames of war. Meet you after he enters the customs."
Du Ruhui suddenly realized, shook his head and regretted that he was not strict with his command, Du Ruhui hurriedly cupped his hands and said: "General, this junior has indeed had many correspondence with Chen Yingliang and Chen Liushou, and Chen Liushou has indeed invited this junior to come out of the mountains several times to serve him. Xu Yi is a high-ranking official and a heavy duty, but the father of the younger generation is in the hall, and his wife and son are all in the family, so if he didn't want to leave his hometown, he declined."
"I know, I know, if you really wanted to work for that little thief, you would have gone to Dongdu a long time ago, so why wait until today?" Li Yuan smiled, and then said: "The little thief Chen Yingliang is good at knowing talents, and this old man has already learned that." From what I have heard, you are worthy of his concern for you because you are able to enter his eyes, so you are naturally talented, how about you, are you willing to work for this old man?"
"The general won the award, but the younger generation has little knowledge and talent, so I dare not take it as a comment." Du Ruhui said modestly: "The reason why Chen Liushou pays attention to the younger generation is also because the younger generation's friend Fang Xuanling fell in love with him wrongly and tried his best to recommend it to Chen Liushou. Chen Liushou also took a look at the errands for a while, and this is what happened before."
"Hugh be humble." Li Yuan said with a smile: "I have heard about you a lot, and I know that, in fact, as early as when Chen Yingliang first entered the official career, he became a good friend with you and had many contacts with you, often all night long. Talk. That little thief has a bad eye for picking his master. He followed that cruel official Fan Zigai, and he was determined to serve as a pawn for the corrupt officials in the court. He has a good eye for talents. He promoted and appointed many outstanding talents. Can you To get such praise from him is naturally not a thing in the pool."
Li Yuan's words touched Du Ruhui's mind, and Du Ruhui couldn't help but say: "General, you said that Chen Liushou is not good at choosing the master and serving him. This is a big mistake. You may not know something about it, General." Well, when Chen Liushou was still in his infancy, he was forced to have nowhere to go. Originally, he wanted to work under your command and asked someone to recommend him to you. It was only because of various mistakes that he couldn't do so that he was forced to go to Dongdu to serve as a Fan stays behind and works."
"What did you say?" Li Yuan was finally taken aback, and stood up straight away, blurting out, "Chen Yingliang wanted to work for the old man first? Is it true?"
Du Ruhui was about to explain the introduction, but suddenly there was a loud cheer coming from the front. Du Ruhui could only shut up, and when he turned back to follow Li Yuan and others to see the battlefield in the north, he saw a red and white military flag had already been planted in the Daxing Palace At the top of the city, it is obvious that some rebel soldiers have successfully rushed to the city wall. Seeing this scene, Li Yuan applauded and applauded with great joy, but the military flag fell to the ground in response, and more Sui military flags appeared instead. Li Yuan, who thought he could break the city, was disappointed, and cursed: "Master Yin Shi!" Pilgrim, after breaking the city, I will definitely kill your whole family!"
"Father, there is no need to worry." Li Er said with a confident smile: "We still have plenty of time. It is already very good to be able to charge up the city wall for the first time. The death knell has sounded."
Li Yuan nodded, and observed the main battlefield of Suzakumen, and saw that the soldiers of the self-army were full of energy and rotated in an orderly manner, and there was no need to adjust, so he sat back in the handsome chair and asked Du Ruhui: "Keming, what did you just say? You said that Chen Yingliang first wanted to join the old man, and asked someone to recommend him to him? Is this really the case? Since he has this intention, why did he go to Dongdu again?"
"That's a long story." Du Ruhui smiled bitterly, and said, "At the beginning, Chen Liushou wanted to serve you, General, but later changed his mind because of..."
Du Ruhui's words had just begun, and he couldn't continue immediately, because Du Ruhui, who was facing north and south, was suddenly stunned to see that the most important person involved in this matter was being held by several rebel soldiers covered in dust and blood. Stumbling towards Li Yuan's flag formation. Noticing the difference in Du Ruhui's expression, Li Yuan was stunned for a moment, then quickly turned his head to look, then Li Yuan's eyes were dumbfounded, and he blurted out, "Chai Shao, why are you here?"
Chai Shao didn't answer, but staggered towards Li Yuan, knelt down on his knees with a plop, raised his blood-stained face to look at Li Yuanjian, just as his lips moved, two lines of tears had already welled out of his eyes, and he couldn't help crying.
Seeing this scene, even though Chai Shao never said a word, the faces of all the civil and military rebels have changed drastically. Knowing that a major change must have taken place on the Tongguan battlefield, Li Er, who is extremely deep in the city, also turned pale, and Li Yuan even more. He was so anxious that he simply got up and grabbed Chai Shao's collar, angrily said: "Why are you crying? What happened? Tell me, what happened?"
"The morning before yesterday, Chen Yingliang sent troops to attack our army camp..." Chai Shao finally spoke, his voice hoarse and choked, and sobbing, "My son-in-law and Xiu Ning led the army to defend the camp, who knows that Chen Yingliang, the little thief, only took more than one At Shichen, from the front..., successively broke through our army's internal and external camps, our army suffered..., a disastrous defeat, and suffered heavy losses."
"What about Yongfeng warehouse?" Li Yuan turned pale with anxiety, shook Chai Shao and roared, "What happened to Yongfeng warehouse? Is it still in our hands?"
Chai Shao nodded, choked up and said: "Still, Dalang sent cavalry to rescue us. After being defeated by the white-robed soldiers, he never dared to open Cangcheng to attack. Xiuning also fled in with a part of the defeated army."
All the civil and military members of the rebel army breathed a sigh of relief, Li Er's expression returned to normal, and Li Yuan was also relieved, nodding repeatedly and saying that it would be good if the Yongfeng warehouse was still in his hands, then Li Yuan was furious again, and asked: "Then you come back What are you doing? Send someone back to report the news. Why don’t you stay in Yongfengcang to defend the city? Also, Chen Yingliang took just over an hour to attack your camp head-on. use?!"
"The officers and soldiers are too powerful. There are fierce generals and elite soldiers like clouds. Our people are no match at all. My son-in-law is incompetent and can't resist." Chai Shao replied with tears, and explained: "Xiu Ning asked me to come back. They all fled to Yongfeng Cangcheng, if there is no time to close the gate, the officers and soldiers may take the opportunity to enter Cangcheng just like the Huoyi War, so I stayed in the rear."
"Xiu Ning said to me again, if it is too late to return to the city, I will come to Daxing in the west and report to you, and also report to He Panren, who is escorting the grain and grass westward, so that He Panren and I can send the grain and grass to Daxing as soon as possible, otherwise The cavalry of the official army may catch up with our grain team. The official army has taken down our camp outside the city and must immediately surround Yongfeng warehouse. The 200,000 shi of grain in He Panren's hand is very important. To Daxing..."
Speaking of this sobbing, Chai Shao couldn't help but burst into tears again, but Li Yuan felt a big stone in his heart, and sighed: "Xiu Ning is still thoughtful, yes, before our main force counterattacks Tongguan, Yongfeng Warehouse is not Maybe they will send us more food, and only with the 200,000 shi army food, we will have enough food and grass to counterattack Tongguan and reopen the food road."
"Father, we should send an army to meet He Panren." Li Er suggested: "Xinfeng is only two hundred and ten miles away from Tongguan. If the officers and soldiers charge lightly, they may catch up with our grain team."
"That's right." Li Yuan nodded, and ordered: "Erlang, you take the troops and ask He Panren to speed up and transport the grain overnight. Before tomorrow morning, the grain must be sent to Daxing. If the officers and soldiers attack, you will fight. Let He Panren transport food."
When Li Yuan and his son were answering, Chai Shao was crying all the time. He wanted to speak several times, but he couldn't make a sound. It wasn't until Li Er clasped his fists and sang promises, and turned to lead the troops to attack, that Chai Shao grabbed Li. Two, wept and said, "Erlang, don't go, it's too late."
"What do you mean?" Li Er asked back in surprise.
Chai Shao's tears flowed even more, and the muscles on his face twisted for a long time before he said with difficulty: "He..., He Panren has already rebelled, set fire to the food, and then fled to Tongguan to join Chen Yingliang."
With a bang, Li Yuan kicked his son-in-law a big somersault, and then Li Yuan rushed up and grabbed Chai Shao, hoarse and roared with a ferocious expression: "He Panren rebelled? Burned the food? True or false? Dare to say? A lie, the old man will kill you!"
Chai Shao nodded with a painful expression, and said even more painfully: "He Panren still wanted to capture my son-in-law alive and dedicate it to Chen Yingliang's dog thief. Fortunately, the soldiers under his command found out in time, but when my son-in-law and He Panren met, there were only less than a hundred cavalry around him. , can't stop him from burning food, can only take the road and escape..."
As if Li Yuan was struck by lightning, he slowly let go of Chai Shao's hand, allowing Chai Shao to fall on the ground and cry helplessly. Dare to say, "It's over, even if we capture Daxing Miyagi, it will still be a rabbit's tail, and it won't grow any longer."
The battlefield on the city wall in the distance is still shouting and screaming, and the drums are like thunder, but there is no sound in the flag formation of the rebels. After a long time, Li Yuan was the first to come back to his senses. He took a few breaths, forced himself to calm down, and then ordered in a calm tone: "Temporarily block the news, so that no more people will know. Hurry up and attack the city, do a good job." Prepare for the night battle, if you don’t take Daxing Miyagi today, you will never withdraw your troops!”
The generals of the rebel army sang promises, Li Yuan turned to Pei Ji again, and ordered: "Xuanzhen, order the government warehouses in various places to stop the distribution of relief immediately, so all the food will be stored in the warehouses and kept tightly, no one is allowed to move a grain of food without my order! "
Pei Ji agreed, and asked tremblingly: "General, how do you explain it to the people? There are still many people in Guanzhong who are waiting for us to release food for relief."
"You can find any excuse to fool them." Li Yuan said expressionlessly: "It's only been a few days since the autumn harvest, and there is still plenty of food for the people. I will fool all these greedy and unscrupulous people away. Also, send an army Go to Xinfeng, see if there is any unburned food there, and if there is any, bring it back."
The ration road was cut off, and the follow-up rations that were already close at hand were burned by the shameless traitor He Panren. He spared no effort to attack Miyagi to gain time and save food consumption. Come on, it caused another small chain reaction...
As the offensive of the rebels continued to intensify, the already low morale of the Daxing Sui Army could no longer hold on. Rebel soldiers continued to attack the city wall, and the defense line of the city wall was crumbling. This thought also came to mind, "Will you listen to Chen Liushou's suggestion, if the city is broken, please ask His Royal Highness to escape in disguise?"
After thinking about it for a long time, Yin Shishi decided to ask Dai Wang Yang You for his own choice, and told his cronies: "You go to see His Royal Highness Dai Wang immediately, and tell him that the situation is critical. If he doesn't want to fall into the hands of traitors, just Please prepare a set of servant clothes, and when the time comes, I will take him out of the city and flee for his life."
The confidant agreed, but Yin Shishi hesitated for a moment, and then ordered: "By the way, send a letter to my sons, and ask them to prepare soldier clothes for the older ones, and servant clothes for the younger ones, and palace maid clothes for my daughter Yue'e." , and wait for my news."