Of course, the messenger sent to contact Zhu Can did not reply, but the good news came from the Xinfeng battlefield. After learning the news of Li Yuan's serious injury, Duan Lun, the leader of the Xinfeng rebel army, was hesitant, but Qiu Shili and Qiu Xinggong were hesitant. Unable to bear it anymore, he resolutely launched a mutiny on the night of October 15th to welcome the Li Jing and Qu Tutong troops of the Sui Army into the city.
The Qiu family brothers are not fools. It can be seen that Li Yuan wants to use the Xinfeng rebel army as an abandoned child. If the main force of the rebel army can defeat the main force of the Sui army, Li Yuan will return to rescue Xinfeng, but if the main force of the rebel army fights If Chen Sangliang is not gone, Li Yuan will definitely not let the rebel army abandon the city and retreat, but only let the rebel army carry on for as long as possible, and Li Yuan will not feel bad if the rebel army is dead. Knowing this, they received the news that the main force of the rebel army was defeated in a decisive battle, and finally saw Li Yuan's broken leg. Although they couldn't tell if it was true or not, the Qiu family brothers made up their minds to surrender.
Before Kaicheng, the Qiu family brothers of course sent someone to contact Li Jing and Qu Tutong. The older and weaker Qu Tutong once suspected that there was a fraud, but Li Jing chose to believe it based on the analysis of various situations. The identity promised to pardon and reuse the Qiu family brothers, and they successfully entered Xinfeng City that night. The demoralized rebel soldiers surrendered one after another, but Duan Lun feared that his status as Li Yuan's son-in-law would not be pardoned by Emperor Sui Yang, so he brought a little The cronies fled back to Daxing by night, and the Sui army took Xinfeng City in one fell swoop, and immediately sent envoys to report victory to Chen Sangliang.
It was only a matter of time before Xinfeng, which had become an isolated city, was rewarded. Chen Sangliang was not surprised when he received the report. The surrender of Qiu Shili and Qiu Xinggong brothers, who were regarded as a pair of fierce generals, made Chen Sangliang a little overjoyed, and immediately ordered the Qiu brothers to surrender. Not to mention the rewards for being appointed officials, Chen Sangliang also promised that when the Qiu family brothers, Li Jing and others came to the main battlefield of Daxing, he would personally lead the army and Chinese soldiers out of the camp to greet him just like he did to Liu Heitai. At the same time, Chen Sangliang naturally had to publicize the news of Xinfeng City's destruction, so that the main force of the rebel army in Daxing City would also know the good news, and continue to hit the enemy's morale.
Xinfeng's fall was also expected by the rebels. The Li brothers and Pei Ji, who were fighting for power, were not surprised when they learned of this situation. They immediately declared that the Xinfeng rebels had severely damaged the Sui army's partial division in the battle of defending the city. In order to stabilize the proposal, Pei Shufang, the envoy of Li Mijun who was also trapped in the city, came forward, claiming that Zhai Li's bandit army had captured Hulao Pass and Luokou Cang and surrounded Luoyang, the eastern capital, and that Chen Sangliang was about to withdraw his troops, encouraging the rebel soldiers Resolutely defend the city and wait for a turning point.
The second brother Li and Pei Ji's real greatest hope is not the Zhai Li coalition army thousands of miles away, but the Bai Yu Po's bandit army running around in the northwest of Daxing, and Xue Ju's bandit army in Tianshui to the west, only Bai Yu, who is tens of thousands of mobs It's all right with the bandit army, but Xue Ju is a real ruthless character. When he captured Tianshui County three months ago, his army strength had reached more than 130,000. There are tens of thousands of cavalry, the number of cavalry is still higher than the main force of the Sui army in the Eastern Capital, and their combat effectiveness is quite good. At the same time, the main force of Xue Ju's army is not far from the Daxing battlefield, so rescue is very convenient.
What's even better is that Xue Ju, who has already claimed to be the Emperor of Qin and established his capital in Tianshui County, is absolutely impossible to accept Chen Sangliang's consolation. If the Li brothers and Pei Ji can pull Xue Jujun into the water to fight against Sui Yang Chen Sangliang, the running dog, would not only get a firm ally immediately, but also immediately reverse the gap in overall strength. So as early as Li Yuan received the news of Yongfeng warehouse, Li Yuan immediately accepted Pei Ji's suggestion, sent his confidant Wen Daya as an envoy, and rushed to Tianshui with a heavy gift to meet Xue Ju, asking for an alliance to fight against Chen Sangliang, and promised After success, please ask Yang You to officially recognize Xue Ju as the Emperor of Qin, divide the territory with Qin State, and form an alliance forever. —Of course, Chen Sangliang was really beaten away, and whether these promises will be fulfilled can be discussed again.
The Li family brothers and Pei Ji didn't know that happiness had come. In fact, Wen Daya, the emissary of Li Yuan's rebel army, had already arrived in Tianshui on the tenth day of October, and by bribing Xue Ju's subordinates, they were able to meet him the next day. Xue Ju himself. In the end, although Xue Ju felt that there was no need to form an alliance with Li Yuan's rebels, let alone the Daxing court recognize him as the Emperor of Qin, Xue Ju's brains, Hao Yuan, felt that this was a good opportunity to win the whole of Guanzhong, and urged Xue Ju to accept it. The alliance, taking the opportunity to enter Guanzhong and take advantage of the fire, first let Li Yuan and Chen Sangliang fight a lose-lose, and then take action to kill the exhausted Li Yuan and Chen Sangliang, and annex Guanzhong in one fell swoop-although the specific operation is a bit difficult, it is still possible.
Xue Ju accepted Hao Yuan's proposal, agreed to form an alliance with the rebels and send troops to help, and immediately sent his eldest son Xue Renguo to lead 20,000 cavalry as the vanguard, and went west to help Li Yuan's rebels—don't ask whether Fufeng County between Tianshui and Daxing is It is possible to stop Xue Jujun. Fufeng prefect Dou Jing is the nephew of Dou Cong, an important rebel minister, and is also a relative of Li Yuan. Chen Sangliang sent Ma Sanbao to Mei County to prevent the Great Xiao and the rebels from fleeing west. I'm preventing this old man from messing around.
Unlucky for the rebels, Wen Daya, who successfully completed the mission, sent someone back to Daxing to announce the good news. As a result, the envoy was intercepted and captured by the Ma Sanbao Department of the Sui Army's side division just after arriving near Shiping, and the letter written by Wen Daya and Xue Ju to Li Yuan was seized. In the letter, after asking about the situation, Ma Sanbao didn't dare to be negligent, so he quickly sent someone to send the rebel envoy with the letter back to Daxing and hand it over to Chen Sangliang. On the afternoon of October 16th, Chen Sangliang was the first to know Xue Give the news that troops have been dispatched.
Knowing this situation, Chen Sangliang, who was already in a hurry at the rear, was of course very depressed and depressed. What he gritted his teeth was just scolding Li Yuan for being shameless and despicable. , it is simply Qin Hui's reincarnation of Wang Jingwei - although the timing is slightly wrong. Fang Xuanling, Yuan Tiangang, Wei Zheng and other staff members were also worried, for fear that Xue Jujun would rush to join the battlefield before Daxing City was broken, reversing the current situation on the Daxing battlefield.
After sighing for a while, Fang Xuanling pointed out two key points to Chen Sangliang, saying: "My dear brother, we still have two advantages right now. One is that the communication letter between Xue Ju's army and Li Yuan's army was intercepted by us." However, the bandit army in Daxing City did not know that Xue Ju had dispatched troops, and their morale was still relatively low. With the main force participating in the battle, we still have some time to respond. Combine these two advantages, if we operate well, we still have a chance to defeat the two bandits, Li Yuan and Xue Ju."
"If we want to defeat each of them, we have to seize the time to take Daxing City first." Wei Zheng said: "The lower official suggested that we might as well order General Ma Sanbao and Xue Renguo to confront the wall if we stay behind, and only defend without fighting to buy time for our main force. We must launch the siege as soon as possible, quickly gain a foothold in Daxing, and then wait for work to meet the main force of Xue Ju's army."
Chen Sangliang didn't say a word. This time, Chen Sangliang really wasn't afraid of attacking the fortress and didn't want to attack head-on. It wasn't that he thought Fang Xuanling and Wei Zheng's proposal wasn't correct. It was that Chen Sangliang thought a little further and felt that Daxing City was too strong. It is difficult to fight, even if the self-army takes Daxing by force, it will definitely lose a lot, no matter how hard it is to calmly meet Xue Ju's main force, and at the same time, Ma Sanbao can capture the first Xue Jujun messenger who contacted Li Yuan's rebels, but he will definitely not be able to. Stop all Xue Jujun's follow-up messengers, as long as one messenger gets into Daxing City by chance, the rebels will definitely stick to it to the end, even if they stick to it one by one from the outer city to the imperial city and then to the palace city, they will definitely stick to it until the end At that time, the Sui army will not only pay more casualties, but may also fail to achieve the tactical goal of capturing the entire city of Daxing before Xue Ju's main force arrives.
After expressing his concerns to several staff members, Chen Sangliang frowned and concluded: "It is our best choice to take Daxing as soon as possible and wait for work, but we have to be cautious about how to take it, and it must not be taken by the city. , the army has also been disabled, so how can we meet the main force of Xue Ju's army whose strength cannot be underestimated? So I still think we should take advantage of it and minimize our losses as much as possible."
They all nodded in agreement with Chen Sangliang's analysis, and then Fang Xuanling, who was in charge of receiving guests for Chen Sangliang, regretted: "It's a pity that although there are many powerful families who have contacted us in private, none of them dared to organize an army in the city to launch a campaign. Internal response, let us enter the city, otherwise, this is a good opportunity to quickly break through the city with less loss."
"It would be great if those scumbags had such guts." Chen Sangliang snorted coldly: "They and old thief Li Yuan were already a family, and they bowed to me because old thief Li Yuan couldn't beat me, so they hedged their bets to save their own money." A back road, most of their hearts are still towards the old thief Li Yuan who wears the same trousers with them. When they know that Xue Ju has sent troops, they will definitely go to hug the old thief Li Yuan's remaining stinky foot and help the old thief Li Yuan. The thieves will fight us to the death."
When Li Yuan was mentioned, of course Chen Sangliang immediately remembered Li Yuan's current life and death situation, and then remembered Zhu Can, who had regained contact with Li Yuan yesterday. It is very clear that with the abilities of the Li family father and son, it is definitely not so easy for Zhu Can to initiate an internal response. In addition, considering Zhu Can's capricious character, Chen Sangliang immediately gave up this idea-death of Zhu Can is still a trivial matter, If Zhu Can's trick or the Li family's father and son took the opportunity to lose him and pay for an elite army to launch a surprise attack, then it's no wonder Chen Sangliang didn't feel sorry for him to death.
After racking his brains and thinking, Chen Sangliang walked to the Daxing City sand table made by Yuan Tiangang himself with his hands behind his back. On the high-precision sand table, Daxing City was as solid and complete as an iron tortoise. Break through the gap hole. Gently shaking his head, Chen Sangliang's treacherous gaze once again fixed on the Xuanwu Gate, the main north gate of Daxing City, and began to think about whether he could open a breakthrough here.
Chen Sangliang's idea of attacking Xuanwu Gate was not once or twice. If the Sui army could break through Xuanwu Gate and directly enter the palace city, then the twenty-two gates of the palace city, imperial city, and outer city in Daxing would all be captured. The inner door bolts were exposed to the swords of the Sui army soldiers. The Sui army officers and soldiers opened it when they wanted, closed it when they wanted to, fought when they wanted to, and defended it when they wanted to. They fully grasped the initiative of the battlefield in the city. Combat strength, it can definitely be said that as long as the Sui Army of the Eastern Capital wins the Xuanwu Gate, it is equivalent to winning the whole city of Daxing.
It's a pity that this important city gate is too strong. Chen Sangliang once secretly went to Xuanwu Gate to investigate and found it himself. , gate tower, archery tower, main tower, turret, enemy tower, parapet, crenel and a series of military facilities should be complete. The city wall is more than four feet high and more than three feet thick. It is as strong as it is, and it is more difficult to dig through than to reach the sky. If there is a frontal attack, there is almost no possibility for the Sui army in the Eastern Capital to break through the gate directly.
The terrain outside the city is also troublesome. The north and west sides of Xuanwu Gate surrounded by Longshou Mountain are mountainous. Under the cover of the long-range weapons of the rebels, the rebels can stand on the city wall and easily shoot and kill the soldiers of the Sui army under the city. Under normal circumstances, as long as they are normal-minded commanders, they will not have the idea of storming this gate. Chen Sangliang's head Although it is full of bad water, it is still normal, and of course it will not go crazy.
"Can you launch a surprise attack and take down the Xuanwu Gate?"
I don't know how many times Chen Sangliang has considered this issue, and once considered taking the risk of bombarding the city gate with artillery, but the heavy artillery movement will definitely be discovered by the rebels, and Li Yuan and his son, who have already suffered a big loss, will definitely not take it lightly. It was impossible for the Sui Army to blast open the Xuanwu Gate with a round of bombardment. Li Yuan and his son, who were definitely not idiots, just needed to block the passageway of the gate of Xuanwu Gate with sandbags of earth and rocks. When thinking about this tactic again, a goal-breaking tactic that Chen Sangliang had considered but not used, could not help but float into Chen Sangliang's mind...
"Who knows how thick the Xuanwu Gate is?" Chen Sangliang asked suddenly.
Several staff members looked at each other, and then Fang Xuanling replied with a wry smile: "My dear brother, you are asking Yu Blind. It is the first time for Mr. Yuan and Mr. Wei to come to Daxing. How could they know this question? You and I I’m from Daxing, but my highest official position in Daxing is to serve as a censor in the palace, and I’ve never been to Xuanwu Gate, so how could I know how thick the city gate is? You’ve been the right deputy of the crown prince, so you might know the answer.”
"I haven't been to Xuanwu Gate either." Chen Sangliang replied very depressed, and then Chen Sangliang asked Yuan Tiangang: "How much gunpowder do we have left?"
"One thousand three hundred and sixty-three catties and nine taels." Yuan Tiangang replied quickly.
"You can try it." Chen Sangliang gritted his teeth and said, "Dug a hole in the city gate of Xuanwu Gate and stuff a coffin filled with gunpowder into it. We may be able to blow open the city gate!"
"This... is not possible, is it?" Yuan Tiangang said hesitantly: "We don't know how thick the Xuanwu Gate is, but it must not be too thin, and it is covered with iron sheets and copper nails. It is definitely not that easy to dig open. When the guards in the ward hear the alarm, our surprise attack will be over immediately."
"Try it, don't count on it." Chen Sangliang gritted his teeth and said: "We must have no hope for a frontal attack. We can only try a dead horse as a living horse doctor. If we are lucky and successful, we will take Daxing City easily. gone."
They have all studied the countless benefits of taking down the Xuanwu Gate for their own army, and know that even if the sneak attack fails, they will only lose a coffin of gunpowder and a small number of soldiers. Fang Xuanling, Wei Zheng and others agreed to give it a try. After waiting for a long time, he also nodded and said: "We can try it. We can prepare gunpowder for two coffins. It is of course best if the door can be successfully chiseled. If not, we can detonate the first coffin. Maybe the position of the second coffin can be blown up. The military is slow to react, and we may have time to detonate a second time."
"Then do this." Chen Sangliang nodded, and said viciously: "Anyway, at most it will only lose two coffins of gunpowder. Send soldiers who know carpentry to do it, and tell them that if they succeed, their whole family will have enough food and clothing for the rest of their lives. If they die for the country, I will support their whole family for the rest of their lives!"
Yuan Tiangang agreed to go down to make arrangements immediately, while Fang Xuanling over there hurriedly said: "Don't worry, brother, in my opinion, we'd better wait for our rear army to arrive and prepare to attack the city before attacking, so it will be considered a failure." , It can also lead the main force of the bandit army to the Daxing Palace City, so that when we are forced to launch a frontal attack, we can relax."
Chen Sangliang nodded, and ordered: "Give my cousin and Qu Tutong the order to come and join us as soon as possible. Then give Ma Sanbao an order to let him meet the forward of Xue Ju's bandit army and then go to the wall. Hold off, buy us time."
Fang Xuanling and the others agreed, and quickly drew up a pen to draw up an order, while Chen Sangliang slammed his fist on the side of the sand table, and cursed viciously: "Thieves killed Xue Ju's dog thief, I can easily take down Daxing now, you run out What are you making trouble for? Did I dig your ancestral grave, or rape your sister? When I destroy you in the future, I must dig your ancestral grave with my own hands, and sleep with your unmarried sister and daughter. Let’s see if you dare to marry me in your next life. Do it right!"
Chen Sangliang underestimated Zhu Can a little. In fact, Zhu Can did not lack the guts to initiate an internal response to the Sui army's entry into the city. The surrendered rebel soldiers not only engaged in bloody terror, but also took advantage of the opportunity of monitoring Miao Haichao to secretly talk with their natural ally Miao Haichao in private, and quickly concluded a dirty agreement...
Chen Sangliang also underestimated the children of the powerful families in Daxing City. Most of the children of the powerful families and the rich and powerful are indeed sitting on the fence and watching the wind, and they are more inclined to the Li Yuan rebels who are like-minded, holding the idea of watching the wind They were unwilling and did not dare to organize manpower to welcome the Sui army into the city, but there were also a few of them who were different, but they were more towards Chen Sangliang, and were planning to open the city gate to welcome Chen Sangliang into the city. And what Chen Sangliang couldn't even imagine in his dreams was that one of these alternatives was still closely related to the old Li's family. He was named Daxingling by Li Yuan and held a lot of power in the rebel army—Dugu Huai'en !
"The fact that my cousin has died is currently only known to a very small number of people, and I only want to tell you two of my best brothers." Dugu Huai'en asked in a low voice viciously: "Dare to do it? Brother Yingliang The relationship with us is good in the first place, if we succeed, even if we don’t want glory and wealth, we can’t turn it away, the opportunity is here, it depends on whether you have the guts!”
"Why don't you dare?" Li Yangcheng and Yuan Qi nodded at the same time, and said in a low voice in unison: "He has a scar the size of a bowl on his head, this is done, look at those old people in our family who dare to call us useless!"