Desperately looking at the scene outside the city, Li Jiancheng couldn't believe his eyes, couldn't believe that all this could be true. The 70,000 troops who had just assembled outside Chunming at the right time, less than an hour later, unexpectedly They have already been defeated and fled back. They were defeated so miserably and fled in such a panic. They cried and shouted and hated their parents for giving them two legs. , Flags and weapons were thrown all over the mountains and plains, and they were chased and killed by the Sui army soldiers like ducks. They were so panicked that there was not even a formed rear army.
The Daxing civil and military officials and the representatives of the powerful families who came to see Li Yuan off before were also lost. They also couldn't believe that everything in front of them was true. The main force of the 70,000 rebels, who could not see the end, fled back after being defeated in such a short period of time, and was chased back by the soldiers of the Sui Army like machetes cutting vegetables. They didn't know the difference in combat effectiveness between the rebel army and the Sui army, but only knew that the rebel army had more than three times the strength of the Sui army. After seeing all this, the shock and blow they received was naturally greater and heavier.
Moving mechanically among the defeated rebels, Chai Shao was more distraught than everyone else. He still doesn't understand how the 70,000 rebels were defeated. He only remembers being dragged from the ground by a few soldiers After getting up, the Yanyue formation of the rebel army has turned into a scattered sand formation, and the father-in-law I respect and admire has disappeared, and the generals and ordinary soldiers are already running for their lives. The casualties of the soldiers, try to use the sudden artillery to destroy the morale of the rebels, and the general attack order was issued later, and Chai Shao didn't even have a chance to escape into his own army.
It is useless to escape back to the brigade. Out of the instinct of duty, Chai Shao originally wanted to take up the heavy responsibility of the rear and lead the army to resist the Sui army's pursuit. However, no matter how he shouted and ordered, no general and soldier was willing to stand shoulder to shoulder with him. , everyone up and down were crying and yelling to escape to the rear, for fear that if they escaped too slowly, they would lose their chance of survival. When Chen Sangliang ordered the general attack with beating drums, Chai Shao could only join the escape team with his tail between his legs, panicked. No one even had time to tell Chai Shao that the rebel command had suffered heavy casualties under the artillery cover of the Sui army, and Chai Shao's beloved father-in-law had also been seriously injured.
Li Er's handsome face has always been ashen-blue. After Li Yuan gave the order to retreat and passed out, Li Er also wanted to organize the army to be in the rear. However, none of the rebel generals were willing to obey his order, and they all pretended not to hear the order. The army fled for their lives, but Li Er couldn't stop his defeated troops from retreating like a tide even beheading two generals with his own hands. Later, when Li Er thought of organizing the cavalry to counterattack, the rebel cavalry, which was not covered by the artillery, was already captured by the Sui infantry. He was overwhelmed by the Sui army's footsteps and cavalry. Li Er, who was not a traverser, did not know that Liu Heitai, the general of the Sui army he was famous for, was the nemesis of his old Li family. Li Er just Feeling deeply humiliated and unconvinced, I kept gnashing my teeth in my heart, "This battle is lost because of my command. If I command the whole army instead, our army will not lose!"
No matter how unconvinced, it is useless. In front of the epoch-making artillery of the Sui Army, the rebels have been frightened, and their souls have been blown away. The noise, and I don’t understand why those big iron bullets falling from the sky have such great power. If they hit people, they will not die, but they will be injured. If they hit the ground, they will jump up and continue to hurt people and kill people. There was no fighting spirit in front of the terrifying weapons, and the coach Li Yuan was seriously injured and comatose. The rebels who had lost their command had no fighting spirit anymore. The strength of the generals and soldiers of the Sui army who raped their chrysanthemums behind them was less than half of their strength.
Fortunately for the rebels, the battlefield of the decisive battle was less than ten miles away from Daxing City, and it didn't take long for the rebels to flee to Chunming's sect where they had set out before. The solid stone bridge can pass through directly, but after fleeing to the bottom of the city gate, the rebels on the city dare not open the city gate at all-there are too many rebel soldiers outside the city, and the Sui army is chasing too closely. At the city gate, the rebel army swarmed into the city, and the gate soldiers could be pushed into the city or trampled to death in the blink of an eye, without any chance to close the city gate.
Unable to do so, Li Jiancheng could only give orders loudly, ordering the rebel soldiers to flee to Yanxing Gate and Tonghua Gate on both sides of the north and south, and then enter the city from there, and ordered the garrisons of Yanxing Gate and Tonghua Gate to dispatch urgently to guard the stone bridge to cover The defeated soldiers entered the city, and at the same time, Li Jiancheng ordered the soldiers to prepare rope baskets to meet the senior rebel generals and enter the city directly.
Li Jiancheng's calm decision temporarily saved the outer city of Daxing, and did not give the soldiers of the Sui army a chance to directly enter the outer city of Daxing. He also rescued his father Li Yuan, who was seriously injured, with a hanging basket. The Chunming Gate, which is very close, cannot be entered. They can only escape to the north and south along the narrow road between the moat and the city wall. Many died and drowned. Countless soldiers were pushed down and then trampled into meat paste. They died terribly. The Sui army kept chasing and killing them behind the scenes, forcing the rebel soldiers to fall into the moat. The river was quickly filled up, and the rebel soldiers under the city were continuously shot and killed with strong bows and crossbows.
The soldiers of the Sui army with high morale tried their best to take advantage of the momentum to enter the city, and launched a strong attack on the two gates of Yanxing and Tonghua, which were opened in the city gate. When the soldiers wanted to take the opportunity to enter the city, Xu Shixu, the guard of the Yanxing Gate, ordered a large number of arrows and stones to be thrown, and he set down the yaksha ring to bombard the soldiers of the two armies below the city indiscriminately. However, the rebel gate soldiers took advantage of the mechanism to go to the city gate, allowing the still very large number of rebel soldiers to cry and beg outside the city, and would never open the city gate again. The rebel soldiers were helpless, and most of them turned to the Sui soldiers Kneeling and surrendering, a small number continued to head south, fleeing to the south to find a way back to the city.
The Tonghua Gate in the north is similar to the situation. The Sui army had just defeated the rebel army guarding the bridge across the river. Although Jiang Baoyi, the guard of the Tonghua Gate, was a little soft-hearted and did not immediately order an indiscriminate attack, the rebel general Li Xiaogong who fled into the city from here was Without mercy, he immediately led his troops to slash and kill his own defeated soldiers, covering the gates and closing the city gates. After all, he closed the city gates before the Sui army entered the city. Fortunately, the Sui army soldiers did not take the opportunity to enter the city.
Seeing that the situation was not good, many rebel soldiers entered the city through the three east gates of Daxing, who did not dare to open the gate, and fled to other directions in advance to find a way out. Li Er was one of them, and fled to the north ahead of time by relying on his horse. Chai Shao was lucky enough to get a rope under the Chunming Gate. Although he was shot in the back by the arrows of the Sui army, he managed to climb the city wall. Many rebel soldiers fled to Mingde, Qixia and other gates in the south, and were lucky enough to escape into the city.
After all, there were only a few rebel soldiers who could escape into the city. Most of the rebel soldiers were still blocked outside the city. The Sui Army coach Chen Sangliang met for the first time had his conscience not eaten by dogs. Seeing that the rebels closed the city gates and had no hope of entering the city, in order to reduce the casualties of the Sui Army soldiers, he decisively ordered the slogan "Surrender, not kill." Only then did the sergeants kneel down and surrender in large numbers, and quite a few of the rebel generals surrendered directly with their subordinates. The soldiers of the Sui army were too busy just to accept the surrender, and they had no time to launch a siege.
At the same time, Dou Cong, the rebel division who received the news, also quickly withdrew to the Yanping Gate in the west to enter the city. Outside the city, nearly half of the rebel forces were defeated and more than 3,000 prisoners were taken, but a considerable number of rebel forces fled into the city.
The rebels suffered heavy casualties, and the Sui army won a complete victory. However, in the face of such a result, Chen Sangliang was not happy at all, because Chen Sangliang's friend Li Jiancheng made the decisive choice too correctly, sacrificing the casualties of the rebels outside the city. More than half of them refused to open the city gate to let the defeated soldiers back to the city, and did not give the Sui army a chance to enter Daxing City. However, in front of the towering city wall of Daxing, Chen Sangliang, who had never liked to attack directly, was a little hesitant. I can't decide whether to take advantage of the victory to launch a strong attack, or to accept it as soon as it is good, and wait until the soldiers and horses are rectified and the cannon fodder of the surrendered army is collected before launching the siege.
The unexpected good news solved Chen Sangliang's worries. A group of Mo Dao soldiers under Kan Leng's command suddenly brought several rebel prisoners to Chen Sangliang. One of the rebel prisoners was holding a broken leg in his hand. With a flattering face, he reported to Chen Sangliang the good news that Li Yuan's thigh was broken by the artillery bombardment of the Sui army. Li Yuan's thigh was broken by the artillery bombardment of the Sui army. After picking up Li Yuan's broken leg, he wanted to go back to the city with the army. He didn't want to be blocked outside the city and could not enter the city, so he brought Li Yuan's broken leg to surrender to Chen Sangliang.
Of course, these soldiers of Li Yuan didn't speak so directly. They had to say very euphemistically that although they were forced to rebel with Li Yuan from the bandits, they always had a heart for the Sui Dynasty, but they were always oppressed by the bandits and couldn't act. Resolutely abandoning the dark and turning to the bright, carrying the thief's head back to the broad and warm embrace of the Sui court with the body and limbs - in fact, the rebel generals who surrendered with their subordinates and the representatives of the aristocratic families who had contacted Chen Sangliang before said almost the same of.
It doesn't matter whether Li Yuan's soldiers were forced to surrender from the bandit or not, what matters is Li Yuan's life and injury. Before, more than a hundred meters away, Chen Sangliang only saw Li Yuan fell to the ground and didn't see how he was injured. What kind of a broken leg is suspected to be a part of Li Yuan's body? Of course, Chen Sangliang has to carefully investigate the authenticity, but fortunately, among the rebel prisoners captured by the Sui Army, quite a few prisoners have seen it with their own eyes. The condition of Li Yuan's injury was compared to the position of Li Yuan's broken leg - Li Yuan's third leg could be injured just a little bit.
After repeatedly confirming that Li Yuan's broken leg was true, combined with the signs of the rapid collapse of the rebel army, Chen Sangliang quickly came to the conclusion that Li Yuan could not live for a few more days. After confirming this point, Chen Sangliang made some calculations, and immediately made up his mind, saying firmly: "We will not attack the city today! When the old thief Li Yuan dies from serious injuries and the morale of the bandit army completely collapses, then we wait for our attack." The Pianshi arrived and recruited the surrendered troops to supplement our insufficient strength, and then it will not be too late to launch the siege!"
After all, Chen Sangliang immediately sent someone to send Li Yuan's broken leg to the Xinfeng battlefield, and asked Li Jing and Qu Tutong to show it in public, to attack the morale of the rebels on the Xinfeng battlefield. At the same time, he wrote a letter to Li Yuan's son-in-law Duan Lun promised to keep him alive and persuade him to surrender. In addition, Chen Sangliang sent people to order Ma Sanbao to continue marching westward to ensure that the rebels would be cut off from fleeing to the middle of Sichuan, and the rebels would not be given a chance to escape into Sichuan. The leading party responded and let Li Jiancheng or Li Er escape in, and it would be much more troublesome to clean up.
After arranging everything, cleaning the battlefield, and gathering more than 27,000 captives, Chen Sangliang ordered lightly: "Retreat, let the captives build their own camps, reorganize overnight, and prepare more firewood. He stayed overnight, it will snow heavily tomorrow."
"Brother, you have to be ready to welcome the guests." Fang Xuanling suggested with a smile: "If there is no accident, representatives of countless bandit generals and powerful families will come to ask to see you again tonight. "
Chen Sangliang smiled and said, "I'll leave this to you, I didn't have a good rest last night, so I have to sleep well tonight."
…
In fact, Li Yuan's injury was more serious than Chen Sangliang expected. After being rescued back to the city, although the rebels immediately found the best wound doctor in Daxing City to treat Li Yuan, in this era without blood vessel suture technology, No matter how good the doctor was, he couldn't stop the bleeding from Li Yuan's broken leg. He could only tie the broken leg tightly with ropes to temporarily extend Li Yuan's life. Li Yuan, who had lost a lot of blood, was still unconscious. It is possible to die.
Chen Sangliang's generous withdrawal of troops and the postponement of the siege gave the Li Jiancheng brothers, the rebel Zhu Wenwu and Li Yuan a chance to meet each other for the last time. When he was injured, the pale Li Yuan miraculously woke up for a moment. However, to the surprise of the Li Jiancheng brothers and the rebel generals, Li Yuan only asked about the situation of the battle. After learning that Chen Sangliang did not immediately attack the city, Without asking about the casualties of the rebels or his own injuries, he suddenly said in a weak voice: "Dalang, Erlang, I want to see that Du Ruhui, call him here."
Li Jiancheng and Li Er looked at each other, wondering why Li Yuan suddenly asked to see Du Ruhui, but seeing that Li Yuan passed out again and his condition was getting worse, out of filial piety, Li Jiancheng immediately sent someone to bring Du Ruhui here, waiting for Li Yuan to wake up again and meet with him again. He meets.
Half an hour later, Du Ruhui, who had been under surveillance by rebel soldiers, was escorted to Li Yuan's hospital bed. Under the tearful call of Li Jiancheng's brother and rebel Zhu Wenwu, Li Yuan finally woke up again, and saw the man pushed in front of him. Du Ruhui, Li Yuan smiled with difficulty, and then said in a weaker voice: "Mr. Du, I remember you said before that Chen Yingliang wanted to join me at first. Is this true? You didn't finish what you said at the time. Tell me, the more detailed the better."
"It's true." Du Ruhui nodded solemnly, and out of sympathy for the dying, Du Ruhui said truthfully: "It was Fang Qiaosong who told me about this. Back then, senior, your beloved son-in-law, Mr. Chai Shaochai, came to withdraw the engagement. He quarreled and was beaten by him. Afterwards, Chen Yingliang agreed to resign and begged Fang Qiaosong to recommend him to serve under your command. After Chen Yingliang knew that Mr. Chai was your son-in-law, senior, he gave up this idea. "
"Why?" Li Yuan asked in surprise, "Why did Chen Yingliang think of working for me?"
"Chen Liushou heard that you are a hero, you are thirsty for talents, and you only value talent and not family status." Du Ruhui replied truthfully: "He thinks that under your command, he will have the opportunity to show his talents and have more opportunities to stand out. , That's why I had the idea of wanting to join you, and directly stated that I don't care about the position, as long as I have the opportunity to let him show his talents. It's just that he just had an enmity with your son-in-law, senior, and he knew that even if he was under your command, he would It was very difficult to have another chance, so I gave up this plan again.”
Li Yuan was silent, but Chai Shao, who was also present, was struck by lightning, and a sudden thought came to his mind, "Could it be that father-in-law is today because of my enmity with Chen Yingliang?"
"Hehe." Li Yuan laughed suddenly, his face became more rosy, and his voice suddenly became louder, and he said with a smile: "I see, I finally understand, I finally understand, the old man's defeat today was not due to others, not I lost to Chen Yingliang, not to Shao'er, but to God's will! I was defeated to God's will!"
"God! You are the one who doomed me to fail!"
He raised his head and yelled these words, Li Yuan lay back on the pillow heavily, everyone was shocked, and rushed forward to greet him, but Li Yuan raised his hand with difficulty, gently pressed the back of Li Jiancheng's hand, who was crying bitterly, and said weakly: " The old man is dead, for the continuation of my Li family's bloodline, and to leave a way of life for you old people who joined the old man's army, after the old man dies, you can't rush to mourn, our army will... "
"Father, don't worry!" Li Er's eyes were sharp, he grabbed Li Yuan's hand, and said quickly: "My child will definitely inherit your will, lead our army to continue the bloody battle with Chen Yingliang's little thief, avenge you, and establish my Longxi Li. A foundation that will last forever!"
"you… !"
Li Yuan was furious, and wanted to reprimand his unfilial son, but before he could make a sound, his head tilted and he lost his breath. A generation of heroes died with their eyes open before they could even finish their last words. In the room, the sound of crying and crying suddenly sounded, and Li Er deliberately suppressed the crying of everyone, "Father! Father! Father, don't worry, the child will definitely inherit your legacy and avenge you. The child must Cut the little thief Chen Yingliang into pieces and execute him Ling Chi! Let you rest in peace! Father!"
The only one in the room who didn't cry was Du Ruhui. Looking at Li Jiancheng and Li's two brothers who were lying on the corpse and crying bitterly, Du Ruhui shook his head lightly, thinking to himself: "No wonder Brother Yingliang didn't attack the city immediately. With such a son, Daxing Do you still need to fight? You can break it yourself without hitting."
It can't be said that Li Er is just for power and disregarding the consequences. In fact, Li Er is very aware of the consequences of his actions, but Li Er also has no choice but to crawl on Li Yuan's body. Li Er pretends to cry loudly, He said in his heart: "Father, don't blame the child for being unfilial. There is nothing you can do about it. With my brother's weak personality, he will either lead the army to abandon the city and let us waste all our previous efforts, or lead the army to surrender to the little thief Chen Yingliang. When the time comes He can survive, baby, what should I do? In order to save my brother, Chen Yingliang, the little thief didn't push me out as a scapegoat for killing Yang You!"