There was a faint smell of medicine in the military tent, his face was a little unnaturally pale, his hands were trembling even to hold a teacup, he pretended to be calm but he didn't have enough strength to speak loudly and coherently, so he had to rely on the help of the accomplices next to him to finish the sentence. Then the old Li family, who has always been lucky, must think that they have had good luck again. Just before the battle, the enemy coach suddenly fell ill. But this time, hehe, because the enemy coach this time is notoriously devoid of conscience, the old Li family has to weigh it carefully.
Of course, this possibility is not absolutely impossible. Chen Sangliang’s health is not very good. The old Li’s family has long been aware of this. They know that during the Eastern Capital War four years ago, Chen Sangliang, who was frail, had a sudden illness due to heavy rain. I also saw with my own eyes that Chen Sangliang fainted in front of Emperor Yang of the Sui Dynasty. In the first half of this year, Chen Sangliang was sick again and stayed at the post in Dongdu. The old Li family also received a secret report about this matter. There is a precedent for this time, and it is not uncommon for Chen Sangliang to fall ill suddenly, and it is quite not small.
"Father, be cautious. If Chen Yingliang is pretending to be sick, his purpose must be to lure our army out of the city to fight in the field." Perhaps Li Er would not dare to be fooled casually, and pointed out to Li Yuan: "Although our army is numerous, it is brave. Not as good as the enemy's army. Although the enemy's army is excellent, it is not as good as our army. Field warfare is beneficial to the enemy army, and fighting in the city is beneficial to our army. Chen Yingliang is good at using troops. , this may be more likely than him suddenly falling ill, for the sake of caution, we'd better be cautious."
Li Jiancheng, Pei Ji and the others all agreed with Li Er's opinion, and they also felt that it was best not to take the risk of fighting. Li Yuan also nodded in approval, but after approving his precious son's suggestion, Li Yuan frowned and said: "The old man also knows that Chen Yingliang is pretending to be sick." The possibility is very high, but what does Yuan Tiangang, that old man pretending to be a ghost, mean by saying that in front of Liu Shilong on purpose? Three days later, it will snow heavily, and the moat will freeze and you can pass through directly. Hurry up and build siege weapons? The thief Chen Yingliang did this What is the purpose?"
"It's just a bluff." Li Er said contemptuously: "It's nothing more than to let us know that the officers and soldiers will launch an attack on the city in three days. I feel that just defending the city is not the answer, and I have the idea of a decisive battle in the wild, or just let us take it lightly. Launching a sneak attack within a day is an old trick of Chen Yingliang's little thief."
The rebels Wen and Wu agreed again. Although Li Yuan also nodded, he still said secretly in his heart: "Threatening to attack the city in three days to lure us out of the city for a decisive battle, Erlang's opinion is a bit far-fetched. Even if the moat is not frozen, the little thief Chen Yingliang can There is no need to make a fuss about filling the river with toad carts. Chen Yingliang, the thief, may have other reasons for doing this besides the possibility of launching a sneak attack within three days."
Although I don't fully agree with the baby son's opinion, but for the sake of caution, Li Yuan has not wavered in the strategy of defending the enemy. In addition to letting the army continue to strictly guard the city, there is also a sentence of sending more scouts to closely monitor the main force of the Sui army. One move, to keep the communication with Xinfeng's partial division unblocked, and there is no other new action, and the main force of the Sui army is only to strengthen the camp with all its strength, and make long-term preparations for deep ditches and high fortifications, and does not invest a single soldier to launch an attack. The first day after the main force of the Sui army arrived at the city of Dongdu, both sides also maintained restraint and calmness.
The next day, October 13th, Daye Thirteenth Year, in the morning, Li Yuan, who had been working hard for days, just got up to work. Before he finished the first official document, Li Jiancheng and Li Er brothers rushed into the hall nervously. , Li Yuan hurriedly asked what happened, did the Sui army launch a siege? Li Jiancheng and Li Er shook their heads in denial, and then said in unison: "Father, something strange has happened! Our army's scouts reported that the little thief Chen Yingliang even arranged for another division to leave the camp, threatening to attack Shiping and Meixian in the west. , plan ahead and cut off our escape route to the west!"
"The little thief Chen Yingliang has divided his troops again?" Li Yuan jumped up in surprise, and exclaimed in disbelief: "Is he crazy? His strength is only one-third of ours, and he dares to divide his troops to go west? Isn't it? Did the scout make a mistake?"
"It's absolutely true." Li Jiancheng replied hastily: "The children have seen Chen Yingliang's partial teacher leave the camp with their own eyes on the tower, carrying a large amount of food and grass, and it looks like they are preparing to launch a western expedition!"
Li Yuan was dumbfounded. When he came back to his senses, without saying a word, he immediately led his two sons out of the living room, rode his horse and went straight to the Chunming Gate, which was the closest to the Sui army camp. Finally, he climbed up to the top of the tower and walked in the direction of the Sui army camp. When he saw it, Li Yuan couldn't help being stunned again—there was indeed a considerable number of troops out of the Sui army's camp, and they had already moved westward with a large number of baggage vehicles. The rebel scouts were running back and forth in the wilderness, rushing back to the city and loudly reporting the changes in the enemy's situation, and soon found out that the Sui army's partial division had a strength of about 10,000 people, and the main general was Lao Chai Jiabai who sent it to Chen Sangliang Ma Sanbao, the deputy general, was He Panren, who had beaten the main force of the rebel army a lot.
Unbelievable, he rode his horse to the southeast corner of the outer city of Daxing. Li Yuan finally believed that the Sui army's division of troops was indeed true until he saw the Sui army bypassing Daxing city and advancing directly westward. After recovering, Li Yuan Immediately, his chest was filled with anger, and he yelled loudly: "Chen Yingliang, you arrogant kid, how dare you despise this old man! The army is far inferior to this old man, and you dare to divide your troops again and again just before the battle. You simply don't take this old man seriously." !"
The faces of Li Jiancheng, Li Er, and the civil and military members of the rebel army are also very ugly, because Chen Sangliang is really deceiving people too much. Obviously, the strength of the rebel army is only one-third of that of the rebel army, and he dares to be under the nose of the main force of the rebel army The ostentatious division of troops simply despised the main force of the rebel army to the extreme. And Chen Sangliang is also very good at adding fuel to the fire. At this time, another rebel soldier rushed over and presented Li Yuan with an arrow book that had just been shot into the city. When Li Yuan took the arrow book and looked at it carefully, his forehead The blue veins on his chest couldn't help but twitched again.
The content of the letter is of course provocative and humiliating, mocking Li Yuan for being as cowardly as a mouse and not daring to fight. Li Yuan, who is old in the city, is not an impulsive person. After seeing Chen Sangliang's arrogant and mean provocative letter on Li Yuan's face, Li Yuan really had the desire to lead his army out of the city for a decisive battle for the first time. Fortunately, Li Yuan quickly calmed down again, knowing that raising troops in anger must be in the hands of Chen Sangliang, and the chances of winning are not high, and he may be severely injured again.
After obtaining Li Yuan's consent, Pei Ji, Li Jiancheng and the others passed around Chen Sangliang's provocative letters for a while, and all of them were gloomy because of the content of the letter, and they gritted their teeth quietly, but Li Er remained calm all the time, and sneered after reading the letter, I wanted to hand it back to Li Yuan, but in the middle of handing it in, I suddenly remembered an important event, and quickly picked up the letter to read it carefully, especially paying attention to Chen Sangliang's autograph, and then soon, Li Er suddenly blurted out: "wrong!"
"What's wrong?" Li Yuan asked his son sideways.
"Chen Yingliang's autograph." Li Er pointed to the signature on the letter and said: "Chen Yingliang's handwriting is not strong enough, and the ink marks are a little messy. When he wrote the pen, he must have insufficient wrist strength, and his hands are probably trembling a little!"
Li Yuan's eyes lit up immediately, and he quickly took the letter to look carefully at Chen Sangliang's handwriting, and found that although Chen Sangliang's regular script was fairly neat, the writing strength was obviously lacking, and the ink marks on the brush strokes were also a little disordered. Elephant's wrist was shaking as he signed. Li Jiancheng and Pei Ji on the other side also did some research on this aspect. After a closer look, they were surprised and said: "Really, Chen Yingliang's handwriting is indeed a bit disordered. It should be that his hands were shaking when he wrote the pen."
"Could it be that little thief Chen Yingliang is really sick?" Hope lit up in Li Yuan's heart, and he blurted out and asked, "Can you tell if it's a fake or not? Did little thief Chen's handwriting pretend to be like this on purpose? Or was it an accidental exposure?"
Li Jiancheng, Pei Ji and the others all shook their heads, admitting that their calligraphy attainments have not yet reached this level, and Li Er's research in this area is not very deep, but he just planned to propose a possibility, saying: "Father, is there such a possibility? The little thief Chen Yingliang is really sick, and he is still very sick. He is afraid that we will find out and take advantage of the fire, so he deliberately divides his troops, bluffs, and deliberately selects his archery to show his strength, so that we dare not go out of the city to fight. He can take the opportunity to recuperate , wait for the body to recover before launching a war."
Li Yuan thought about not saying a word, and Li Er went on to say: "If this is the case, then what Yuan Tiangang deliberately said to Liu Shilong yesterday was probably Chen's bluff, let us just beware of his sneak attack and frontal attack. The city, don't think about leaving the city to fight. If Chen Yingliang's thief really has this purpose, then this is indeed a bluff."
"It's possible." Li Yuan nodded, and then said calmly, "But it's more likely that he was playing hard to get. He wanted to lure our army out of the city for a decisive battle, but he knew that the old man would not be easily fooled, so he desperately arranged The false appearance of bluff, showing strength on the surface is actually showing weakness, the ultimate goal is still to lure the old man out of the city for a decisive battle, if the old man falls into the trick and leaves the city, it will be in his hands."
Li Er nodded in the same way, and admitted that there was indeed a possibility, and then Li Er said: "Father, why don't you let the child lead a partial army out of the city to fight the little thief Chen Yingliang, and try his real situation again. "
"Do you want to suffer another defeat and blow our morale again?" Li Yuan asked with a sneer, and then said: "The little thief Chen Yingliang has many elites under his command, and his morale is high after winning consecutive battles. Fighting him with a side division will only give him an outlet for his high morale. Even if the little thief Chen Yingliang doesn't have to lead the army to fight in person, he can defeat our side division head-on with just a fierce general, so that we can neither test his reality nor test his reality. It will shake the morale of the army even more!"
Li Er, who had seen the elite under Chen Sangliang's command, shut up, but Li Yuan said: "If you want to go out of the city to fight, there is only one way, and that is for the old man to lead the main force out of the city and fight him to the death! But this is only the last choice, and it is very important It may be in the hands of the little thief Chen Yingliang, and I will never consider it until the last moment!"
After all, Li Yuan lifted his legs and left, and he ordered while returning to the city: "Go back to the Wude Palace, and continue to closely monitor every move of the officer's camp. By the way, pay attention to keep the communication with Xinfeng open. The specific battle situation there."
…
Chen Yingliang was also concerned about the battle situation of Xinfeng. In order to meet the needs of the main battlefield of Daxing, Chen Sangliang ordered the partial division to launch a strong attack on Xinfeng City. Although he was psychologically prepared for the partial division to suffer a lot of losses, it was still a habit I was worried that the soldiers of the partial division would suffer heavy casualties, but fortunately, several orderlies reported to Chen Sangliang that the Xinfeng battlefield was progressing smoothly. At noon, the partial division of the Sui Army had basically filled up the moat at the south gate of Xinfeng. Qu Tutong, who had fought a mess on the Hedong battlefield before, was anxious to save face and atone for his sins, and took the initiative to shoulder the heavy task of attacking the city, reaching the road below the city As soon as it was opened, he volunteered to personally lead the army to launch a siege, which not only caused a real threat to the Xinfeng defenders, but also made Chen Sangliang not worry about the casualties of his direct descendants in the Eastern Capital.
Ma Sanbao's side is also progressing smoothly. In order to prevent the rebels from going out of the city to intercept Ma Sanbao, Chen Sangliang also arranged for cavalry to wait for orders. It turned out that Chen Sangliang was just worrying about this in vain, fearing that this was a rebellion by Chen Sangliang's lure plan. The main force of the army has been huddling in the city, watching the Sui army's partial division go away, and when the Sui army's partial division successfully crossed the treacherous water, Chen Sangliang basically didn't have to worry about Ma Sanbao anymore.
For Chen Sangliang, time passed both slowly and quickly. While waiting for the main force of the rebel army to react in pain, time crawled as slowly as a snail, and when he was thinking about how much time he had left for a decisive battle, time passed as quickly as lightning. , in the blink of an eye, it was already halfway through the afternoon, and the second day was about to pass. After confirming once again that the main force of the rebel army was still hiding in Daxing City, Chen Sangliang couldn't help sighing: "Today is hopeless, we can only wait for tomorrow. Tomorrow will determine the future fate of the entire Guanzhong battlefield. If the main force goes out of the city for a decisive battle, then there is hope that the battle in Guanzhong will end soon. If the main force of the bandit army still hides in the city and does not move, it will snow heavily the day after tomorrow, and the end of the Guanzhong battle will be far away.”
"Don't worry, brother, even if we can't break the main force of the bandit army tomorrow, we will still have the upper hand." Fang Xuanling comforted: "Tongguan and Yongfeng warehouse are in our hands, and our food, grass and military supplies are worry-free. On the other hand, the food and grass consumption is reduced day by day, and the time is spent, and the odds of winning are still in the hands of our army."
"Of course I know this." Chen Sangliang nodded, then frowned and said: "We are still sure about winning food and grass, but if the time is too long, there will be too many variables, and accidents may arise if we are not careful. the rear of… ”
Speaking of this, Chen Sangliang shook his head, trying to make himself temporarily forget the hidden worries in the rear, and after thinking for a while, Chen Sangliang gritted his teeth again, and said viciously: "Anyway, there is only the last day left, why don't you just give it to Mr. Li Yuan?" The thief is serious, let him go out of the city tomorrow and fight us!"
"What do you plan to do?" Fang Xuanling hurriedly asked.
"Use Du Fuwei's method." Chen Sangliang gritted his teeth and replied: "Send someone into the city, give the old thief Li Yuan a set of clothes worn by an old woman, give him a nickname, Grandma Li, and ask him to go out of the city tomorrow for a decisive battle." !"
After careful consideration, Fang Xuanling nodded, and said: "It's a way, and it can also echo our previous arrangements, so that the old fox Li Yuan thinks that we are still bluffing. Since time is short, then we will be dead horses. Doctor, try one last time."
After all, Fang Xuanling immediately ordered someone to prepare the woman's clothes, and immediately wrote a letter to Chen Sangliang to humiliate Li Yuan, while Chen Sangliang continued to grit his teeth, and secretly said: "Yu'er, please pray for God's blessing with me, bless you!" I was able to successfully lead Li Yuan to a decisive battle this time, and only with this success can we hope to meet as soon as possible."
While he was gnashing his teeth, Yuan Tiangang hurried in from outside the tent suddenly, holding a military intelligence pond newspaper with chicken feathers in his hand, he looked anxious but didn't dare to speak loudly, and deliberately lowered his voice, saying: "Stay behind, the East Capital Bian just sent the emergency report with five hundred miles, and Li Mi's rebellious bandits attacked east and west, pretending to invade Hanoi County on a large scale, and tricked General Wang Shichong into crossing the Yellow River to join the Wagang bandit army. , and took Hulao Pass in one fell swoop!"
With a soft bang, the writing brush in Fang Xuanling's hand fell to the ground, and the whole person fell into a state of stupor. Chen Sangliang was even more stunned than Fang Xuanling, and murmured: "How is it possible? Li Mi is a traitor, how could it be so easy?" Just took down Hulao Pass? Our Hulao Pass guards have a scum like Pei Renji again?"
"No, it's not a scum, it's..."
Yuan Tiangang just wanted to introduce, but Chen Sangliang interrupted him, saying: "Don't rush to say, let me guess, I guess how Li Mi won Hulao Pass."
Shaking his head and talking, Chen Sangliang tried his best to use his head, planning to analyze why Li Mi, another deadly enemy, was able to achieve astonishing results so quickly. After recalling the process of Zhai and Li's bandit army abandoning the customs, Chen Sangliang suddenly remembered a big event. He blurted out: "True! At that time, after our army regained Hulao Pass, we didn't carefully check whether the enemy had left behind in the pass. Zhai let the old man and Li Mi's traitors occupy Hulao Pass for nearly half a year, so there was plenty of time to dig a way out. The tunnel outside the pass, the traitor Li Mi was able to take Hulao Pass so quickly, did he use this tunnel?"
"Staying behind is a clever plan, ghosts and gods are unpredictable." Yuan Tiangang replied with a wry smile: "You guessed it right, yes, Li Mi's bandit army entered Hulao Pass through the tunnel left in advance, and suddenly launched an attack at night and killed one of our defenders. I was caught off guard and took Hulao Pass easily."
Chen Sangliang beat his chest and stamped his feet, scolding himself for being negligent. After recovering from Hulao Pass, he forgot to check the ground in Guanzhong carefully, which gave his old opponent Li Mi a chance to counterattack. After finally calming down, Chen Sangliang, in addition to ordering the news to be strictly sealed, immediately turned to Fang Xuanling and said, "Brother, what are you still doing? Why don't you write a letter to the old thief Li Yuan for me? This time our time is really serious." There is only the last day left, and tomorrow we won't be able to defeat the old thief Li Yuan, we can't consume him even if we want to."