After chasing and biting Li Er for hundreds of miles like a mad dog, Chen Sangliang suddenly stopped in Linfen City and did not move for two days. But he immediately guessed the plan of stealing his wife and rival in love, knowing that Chen Sangliang wanted to wait for the army to catch up, concentrate his efforts to take down the strategically important city of Huoyi, and also easily kill himself, his old enemy who had been entangled with him for many years.
There is no way to understand the plan of the rival in love. Chen Sangliang's crazy pursuit did not give Li Er any chance to readjust and protect the tactical space. Now Li Er is facing the Queshu Valley to the north, the Luliang Mountains to the west, and the Taiyue Mountains to the east. Li Er had no other choice unless he crossed Luliang Mountain to sleep in a cave in the remote Longquan County, or withdrew through Queshu Valley and returned to Taiyuan to see his brother's face.
Of course, Li Er didn't want to go to Longquan County, which is full of lofty mountains. The road traffic in that ghost place is either up or down, the land is barren and the population is sparse, and the money and food that can be collected are pitifully small. A mountain king can't afford big storms. The Jinzhong Plain is a good place, but unfortunately the area is too small to accommodate the two brothers Li Da and Li Er, let alone Li Er's ambition.
Only Jinnan is Li Er's ideal choice. Linfen, Jiangjun, and Hedong all have open plains, thousands of miles of fertile fields, dense water networks, convenient transportation, and Yuncheng Salt Lake, the largest salt-producing area in the Central Plains. The second master flexes his muscles, defending Huo Yi is tantamount to defending the opportunity to counterattack the Jinnan Plain, and giving up Huo Yi is tantamount to giving up the hope of re-entering Guanzhong and fighting for world hegemony, so even if Li Er understands that Chen Sangliang wants to fight against Huo Yi Huo Yi launched a strong attack, Li Er could only bite the bullet and choose to stick to Huo Yi, guarding his only hope of returning to Guanzhong.
Fortunately, at present, whether it is tactics or strategy, it is very good for Li Er. Chen Sangliang's full-speed advance at any cost has already greatly lengthened the supply road. Over time, there will definitely be problems with food and grass. At the same time, Chen Sangliang's rear is also seriously unstable, and there are many hidden dangers. Chen Sangliang will never dare to delay the sun and the moon under Huoyi City. In addition, Chen Sangliang's weakness of fear of attacking fortifications is also a major advantage of Li Er, so Li Er only needs to do If there are no internal problems and the time is delayed as much as possible, there is great hope that Chen Sangliang will be forced to retreat.
"Soldiers, soldiers of the Sui Dynasty! My father was determined to support the new emperor for the country and society of the Sui Dynasty. Unfortunately, he was killed by the traitor and cruel official Chen Yingliang, and his bones were not left! Now the new emperor ascends the throne. He understands our difficulties and understands our difficulties. The loyalty of the emperor, promulgated the imperial decree to restore our status as subjects of the Great Sui Dynasty, but the traitor Chen Yingliang disrespected His Majesty and set up a false emperor, deceived the emperor, was cruel and ruthless, and killed hundreds of thousands of our soldiers of the Great Sui Dynasty. Accumulation! Now this traitorous minister is pressing us every step of the way, spying on my Huoyi city, threatening to break through the city, slaughter all the living things in the city, and take all the riches and women in the city!"
"You said, do we agree or not? Yes! No! Fight with Chen Yingliang, the traitor! Avenge our fellow righteous soldiers who died in the Guanzhong River East! Avenge our brothers and sisters! Huoyi city is alive, the city is dead God bless Da Sui, God bless me Da Sui Zhongliang! Da Sui will win! Da Sui righteous men will win! Chen bandits will lose!"
Li Er had to say similar words several times a day in Huoyi City. When it came to the emotional part, there was never a time when he was choked up with tears, and there was never a time when he burst into anger and gritted his teeth to pieces! Many Li Erjun soldiers were so moved that they cried bitterly on the spot, full of hatred for Chen Sangliang! And under the encouragement of Li Er, and under the urging of Li Er's generals at all levels, the soldiers and civilians in the whole city of Huoyi were mobilized, with tears of gratitude to the Li family volunteers and hatred for the traitor Chen Sangliang. , Enthusiastically devoted himself to the work of repairing city defense fortifications.
The already strong rammed-earth city wall has been reinforced and heightened again, with the thickest part as wide as two feet and the highest point as high as three and a half feet, which is as strong as the outer city of Daxing; Due to the danger of flooding, Fenshui running water was introduced, and the water was surging, making it difficult to fill and cross. At the same time, in order to prevent the Sui army from filling the moat smoothly, Li Er, who was well versed in military law, ordered a sheep and horse wall to be built under the city, so that the guards could hide behind the sheep and horse wall and shoot arrows and crossbows, increasing Chen Sangliang's filling. river difficulty. (There are details mentioned in the Zizhi Tongjian. In the Sui Dynasty, Huoyi City had only moats and no moats.)
Ordinary people outside Huoyi City also supported Li Erjun very much. Whether they wanted to or not, they happily lived in Huoyi City with their wives, children, livestock and food under the protection of Li Erjun's soldiers. During the battle of defending the city, he carried earth and rocks to help Li's second army defend the city. The small county of Fenxi in the northwest of Huoyi is a model of the Great Sui City. In order to prevent Li Erjun from worrying about food, all the autumn grain in stock this year was transported to Huoyi and dedicated to Li Erjun. The young and strong in the city also happily brought farm tools Sticks, led by the soldiers of Li's Second Army, came to Huoyi City to participate in the defense of the city.
In order not to cause trouble to the soldiers of the Second Li Army, these Fenxi young men who voluntarily went to Huoyi to defend the city kept urinating and urinating on the way - they did not bother the soldiers of the Second Li Army to untie the ropes on their hands.
All the trees on the outskirts of Huoyi were cut down, and all the wood was transported into the city to make siege weapons. Vehicles loaded with large and small stones kept coming into the city from morning to night, and the ecological environment of Huoyi, a beautiful city, was greatly damaged. But this is not Li Erjun's fault, it is Chen Sangliang's sin, it is Chen Sangliang who wants to attack Huoyi City, and Huoyi's soldiers and civilians are forced to do so.
Chen Sangliang's rear army, which was advancing too slowly, gave Li Erjun ample time to prepare, and also gave Li Dali and Li Jiancheng in the north time to respond. As Li Er expected, he received a letter of plea for help sent by Li Er's fast horse day and night. Finally, Li Jiancheng, who was in a heart-to-heart battle with Liu Wuzhou, only thought about it for less than ten minutes, and immediately decided to send 10,000 troops to the south to help Li Er, and also decided to send Li Er a large amount of food, grass and military equipment. Keep Huoyi City, a strategically important place, from being blocked by Chen Sangliang to the north of Queshu Valley.
What should come will always come. Ten days later, the rear army led by Yuan Tiangang finally came to the city of Linfen with food and supplies. He was as majestic as a snake spirit, but he didn't make any mistakes. The marching speed took two days less than Chen Sangliang expected. The military deputy that Chen Sangliang arranged for Yuan Tiangang was Qiu Shili who was transferred back from the Fufeng West Front. The honorary second in command Pang Yu also behaved very honestly, which made Chen Sangliang feel more at ease with him. Still somewhat worried that Pang Yu would still be loyal to the Sui court.
There is also Liu Heitai who also killed Li Shenfu and came to the front to help in the battle. Chen Sangliang's front army, Yuan Tiangang's rear army, and some of the east side division brought by Liu Heitai, the total number of troops exceeded 53,000. In terms of military strength, it has formed an overwhelming advantage over Li Erjun, and the number of elite soldiers is five or six times that of Li Erjun. No matter how good Li Er is in fighting, as long as he has the courage to go out to fight in the city, Chen Sangliang is also confident that he can be defeated in the field.
At this point in the war, Li Er would only go out of the city to fight with Chen Sangliang when he was crazy, so there was no way, Chen Sangliang could only honestly lead the army northward, and work hard to make trouble for Li Er , and because they were carrying heavy food and supplies, Chen Sangliang's army walked for three full days during the two-day journey, and Li Erbai chose another day to continue to strengthen the city defense.
Huoyi City’s ruggedness and steepness surprised many Sui soldiers who came to Huoyi for the first time. It’s a small county town with high moats and deep trenches that chase the outer city of Daxing East Capital. It is also protected by Fenshui and Shushui In the north of the city, there are so many mountains that it is impossible to deploy troops, and in the west of the city is the surging Fenshui River, so there is no way to use troops. Only the east and south of the city are relatively open, but they can only be used for combat and cannot be used for camping. If the Sui army wanted to take Huoyi, they had to set up camp in the south of Shushui. When attacking, they crossed Shushui and then attacked the city, which was troublesome and time-consuming.
Chen Sangliang very calmly ordered the camp to be established ten miles southeast of Huoyi, and the camp was set up near the Shushui River in the north, and then a bridge was built to facilitate crossing the river. Going to set up a camp, he was in charge to block Li Erjun's escape route to the north, and also to prevent Li Da from suddenly sending troops south to cause trouble for himself.
Of course, Li Er has been observing Chen Sangliang's movements on the city wall. When he saw Liu Heitai leading the army to garrison at the mouth of Queshu Valley, Li Er was quite surprised, because according to the principles of military strategists, Chen Sangliang should be Let go of Taniguchi to let Huoyi's defenders see the hope of escape, and don't force Huoyi's defenders to a dead end. Even if they really want to block Li Er, they should do something in the depths of the valley, but now Chen Sangliang Li Er couldn't see through Liu Heitai's direct deployment of troops at Gukou in a big way.
There is another point that Li Er can't see through. While setting up camp, Chen Sangliang brought some troops to survey the terrain in person according to the rules, but Li Er, who has both eyesight of 1.5, vaguely noticed that Chen Sangliang seemed to be He didn't pay much attention to the height of the terrain and the fortifications of the city, but was very interested in the soil quality outside the city. Once he got off his horse, he personally poked the soil with a spear to confirm the hardness of the land.
"Want to attack the city in an authentic way? It's strange. The loess in Huoyi is relatively easy to dig, but it's close to Fenshui River, so there are many underground water veins?" When Li Er had this doubt, Chen Sangliang had already remounted and led the army. Went to explore the water source entrance of the moat of Huoyi City.
In the next two days, the Sui army never launched a siege. Apart from building a strong camp, they also desperately felled trees to make siege weapons. They even rarely fought against Li Erjun in scouting battles, and did not use Chen Sangliang's usual expertise. He used a divisive and provocative plan to lure Li's second army out of the city for a decisive battle. Although Li Er, who needed to delay the time, wished for it, he was still uneasy, unable to guess what the rival Chen Sangliang was planning.
On the third day after setting up camp, the Sui army began to move. Under the cover of long shields and archers, a large group of infantry pushed forward with a toad cart full of earth and rocks to fill in. Li's second army finally widened and deepened. Li Erjun immediately dispatched infantry out of the city, and shot arrows behind the sheep and horse wall under the city wall to stop them. At the same time, they continued to shoot arrows on the city wall to suppress it.
The tactics of the Sui army were nothing subtle and brilliant, they just filled up the moat at any cost and opened the road leading directly to the city. For this reason, the losses in the process of filling the river were not small. The Sui army suffered many casualties, and morale, which had been depressed before, began to rebound. But Li Er became more and more suspicious and nervous, because the scouts of Li Erjun vaguely saw on the high ground that the Sui army did not build large-scale siege weapons such as rushing vehicles, city crash vehicles and ladder vehicles in the rear camp, but replaced them with The other opponent Li Er must think that the enemy underestimates the enemy and wants to attack the city with light weapons such as flying ladders, but when he meets a despicable opponent like Chen Sangliang who has a reputation for treachery, Li Er does not believe it.
If you don’t believe me, there is nothing you can do. The Sui army did nothing but fill the river, and there were many elite soldiers of the Sui army behind them. Bows and arrows shoot at each other, and the battle is so dull that it makes people yawn. However, after three days of hard work, the only moat at the east gate of Huoyi that could be used as the main battlefield was also filled up by the Sui army for a little bit, opening up many roads that could go directly to the city of Huoyi.
On the same day, a flying pigeon flew into Huoyi City with good news. Duan Lun arrived in Jiexiu with the 10,000 reinforcements sent by Li Jiancheng, only a hundred miles away from the Huoyi battlefield. Even though he knew that Liu Heikai was guarding the mouth of Queshu Valley and it would be difficult for Duan Lun's reinforcements to enter the city to assist the defense, Li Er announced the good news with great fanfare in order to boost the morale of the army. Many officers and men of the Second Li Army who were worried about it were determined and cheered for it.
Li Erjun was only happy for one night. In the early morning of the next day, the alarm gong in the city suddenly rang continuously. The main force of the Sui army, who had been resting peacefully before, suddenly made a big move and crossed the water to kill Huoyi's east gate. Li Er did not dare to neglect the report. Immediately organize the army to go to the city to prepare for battle, and personally board the east gate tower, and go to the front line to command the battle.
Looking down from a high position, the soldiers of the Sui army with red flags were like a torrent of water, constantly rushing towards the east gate of Huoyi, stopped only two miles away from the east gate of Huoyi, and then spread out to the left and right, and the red flag quickly flooded the east of Huoyi The fields and hills in the suburbs are very impressive.
Chen Sangliang arranged an army in the southeastern suburb of Huoyi to monitor the south gate of Huoyi, and arranged the command flag array on a dirt hill in the eastern suburb of Huoyi. The formation of the Sui army was basically completed, and the Sui army who worried Huoyi's defenders most The siege weapons finally came out, and to the delight of the generals of Li's Second Army, the Sui Army indeed only dispatched a large number of light ladders, together with more than 50 trench bridge vehicles, and none of them faced the city wall. Li Er secretly rejoiced at the threatening ladder car, city crash car or hook car, knowing that as long as Chen Sangliang didn't play new unexpected tricks today, his own army would undoubtedly win.
An envoy of the Sui army with a white flag in his hand went out first, rode his horse and ran to the city of Huoyi to shout, demanding that the defenders of Huoyi open the city and surrender. If one is not killed, all of them can be saved! Li Er replied to the Sui army envoy with the order to release arrows. Zhu Can also drew his strong bow and shot the Sui army envoy, thanking Chen Sangliang for his great love.
Next, of course, was the rhythmic beating of the Sui army's war drums, and the siege officially began. What made Li Erjun confused was that the Sui army did not have orthodox siege tactics. Temporary fortifications were arranged under the city to cover the archers shooting arrows to suppress the defenders above the city—first, twelve strange and heavy vehicles were pushed forward. And when they saw the specific appearance of those strange cars, the faces of Li Er, Zhu Can, Li Shentong and others immediately changed, and they yelled in unison: "Cannon?!"
Yes, it was the murderer who killed Li Er's father, the eternal pain in the old Li's family, and the biggest secret of Chen Sangliang's army, the artillery! After suffering a great loss from artillery outside Daxing City, Li Er spent countless painstaking efforts to collect information about the artillery of the Sui Army, and wanted to find a way to imitate this weapon, but no one, including the Eastern Capital court, knew about it. When and where did Chen Sangliang create this terrifying weapon, and he couldn't find any patterns, characters, or molds about the cannon, and he couldn't even find a Dongdu craftsman who knew about this weapon, so no matter Neither Li Er, Li Mi, nor Wang Shichong, who is currently in charge of the Eastern Capital, can imitate this terrifying weapon. They are drooling over this terrifying weapon that killed half of Li Yuan's rebel command, but there is nothing they can do.
Even Li Erjun didn't even know how powerful the Sui Army's artillery was. Since the Daxing War, this terrifying weapon had mysteriously disappeared on the battlefield and never appeared again. The only thing Li Erjun knew was this weapon The range is very long and the power is astonishing, but Li Erjun has no idea how powerful it is. And now this terrifying weapon suddenly appeared under the city of Huoyi. Of course, everyone in the Li family who had suffered a lot was terrified, and the bold Li Er was also a little nervous, knowing that today's battle was definitely not as easy as expected.
Having learned his father's lesson, while remaining calm on the surface, Li Er pretended to check the situation of the city defense, but quietly moved away from the Huoyi city tower where his handsome flag was planted. Li Shentong, Zhu Can and others did the same, tacitly.
Twelve cannons were lined up at a distance from the east gate of Huoyi. Under the cover of the elite soldiers led by Luo Shixin, the ammunition was loaded and the fuses were placed in public. The flag was waved, and twelve gunners of the Sui Army with torches strode forward, and simultaneously lit the fuse. The fuse coated with nitrate powder danced happily, and quickly entered the barrel with a squeaking sound. Then, naturally, there was an earth-shattering thunder Exploding sound.
For the soldiers of the Second Army of Li who had gradually become accustomed to the sound of exploding gunpowder bottles, the roar of the artillery was not so terrible, but the shells fired by the bronze smoothbore guns made the soldiers of the Second Army Li's soul fly away. In the first round of volley, eight shells accurately hit Huoyi's east gate tower with Li Ershuai's flag planted. He took away Li Er's handsome flag.
One shell flew directly into the city, smashed through the roof of a private house, and made the city jump. The other three shells all hit the city wall, and two of them left two deep holes on the rammed earth wall. The earth pit, the last one hit the arrow stack, smashing the unlucky arrow stack to pieces and disappearing, and smashing the brains of an even more unlucky Li Erjun soldier behind the arrow stack. , took away the lives of two Li Erjun soldiers, and wounded three Li Erjun soldiers-this can only be blamed on Li Er, he deployed too many troops on the city wall, and the soldiers were too dense.
Seeing this scene, the Sui Army's formation naturally erupted in cheers, and Li Er's army was also in an uproar. The faces of countless soldiers turned ashen, and Li Er's face turned pale. Finally, he understood why Chen Sangliang didn't prepare heavy offensive vehicles such as ladder trucks and hook trucks. City weapons - no need to prepare at all! The destructive power of shells on rammed earth walls is greater than that of a hook cart pulled by ten oxen!
I kept thinking about how to deal with the Sui army's artillery. I don't know how much time passed. Li Er suddenly thought of a possibility, and his face became paler. Another volley, Li Er, who has good eyesight, also clearly saw that the direction of the twelve cannons aimed at this time was the most vulnerable city gate of Huoyi City.
Bang bang loud noises sounded under the city one after another. The towering suspension bridge was the first to bear the brunt and was shattered on the spot. But it was as if it was made of paper, six or seven washbasin holes were smashed out on the spot, and one of the shells happened to hit the door latch, and the door latch, which could only be lifted by several people, broke with a sound.
"The city is broken!"
From the first round of shelling by the Sui army, less than ten minutes after the official start of the battle, the soldiers of Li's second army guarding the city gate had already let out such heart-piercing screams.