"God help me too!" This was the cheers from the Li family brothers in unison, because they were extremely pleasantly surprised to learn that Dou Jiande had once again sent additional troops to the Linfen battlefield. You must also obey the orders of Cao Dan, the coach of the new reinforcements!
"Is the sky going to kill our army?!" This is Wang Fubao's own lament after learning about the incident, and he was depressed because of this, without a smile all day long.
Wang Fubao's pessimism is certainly not without reason. In fact, with the stalemate in the Linfen war and the growing greed of the Li family brothers, the conflict between Wang Fubao and the Li family brothers has become more and more acute, and the interests have also become greater. However, the Li family brothers, who only wanted to take advantage of it, desperately wanted to drag Dou Jiande's army into the quagmire of the tough battle, while Wang Fubao, who did not want to let his soldiers sacrifice in vain, tried his best to avoid the tough battle. Since the army's losses have been reduced to the lowest point, and they have repeatedly rejected the bribes of the Li family brothers, the Li family brothers who hate their teeth itching have not yet strangled Wang Fubao to death, but they just dare not tear themselves apart with Wang Fubao for the time being. .
Moreover, on the first day after receiving the news of Cao Dan's dispatch of troops, Wang Fubao had another serious disagreement with the Taiyuan army. There is a certain hope of winning the frontal assault. At the same time, the Fanghuang Department of the Sui Army stationed in Jiangjun had to use a large number of troops to guard against Huaji brothers in Hanoi. They could not use all their strength to defend the northern front. The Linfen Sui Army sent the Taiyuan Army Yin Kaishan to attack Taiping Pass in the south. If it succeeded, Dou and Li's allied forces could take the opportunity to attack Taiping County to obtain money and food supplies. Strain time.
The Taiyuan army will go to Taiping Pass if they are stupid! Not to mention that the Sui army in Jiangjun had already been waiting at Taiping Pass, and the attack was uncertain. Even if the Taiyuan army could win Taiping Pass, it would only stretch the already long front of the own army again, and stationed in Xiangxiang for nothing. Wang Fubao of the Mausoleum, when the main force of the Sui army comes from the south, Wang Fubao can calmly retreat to Yueyang to protect himself, but the Taiyuan army stationed at Taiping Pass will be flanked by the main force of the Sui army and the Sui army in Linfen. The end of the annihilation of the army! When did the Taiyuan army do such a foolish thing
Therefore, Yin Kaishan angrily rejected Wang Fubao's suggestion without asking the Li brothers for instructions, and in turn asked Wang Fubao to attack Linfen City head-on. , and immediately sent his deputy Dong Kangmai to lead an army of 4,000 to attack Taiping Pass. Yin Kaishan reported the news to the Li family brothers. I don't want to suffer at all if I take advantage of it! —Although the Li family brothers also knew very well that Wang Fubao sent troops to attack Taiping Pass on his own, which could also buy time for their partial division Yin Kaishan to respond.
But fortunately, the good news of Cao Dan's dispatch of troops was received not long after the table was lifted. Naturally, the Li brothers immediately turned their anger into joy, and then the Li brothers did not even bat an eyelid, and immediately sent Ren Yu to carry Chongli first went east to meet Cao Dan and Cao Da's brother-in-law. While seeking friendship, he complained to Cao Dan and pleaded with Cao Da's brother-in-law to give Wang Fubao an order in the name of the commander of the West Expedition Army, forcing Wang Fubao to withdraw the troops who attacked Taiping Pass and concentrate on attacking Linfen City.
Our brother-in-law Cao is also a very capable brother-in-law. He accepted the heavy gift from Ren Yu with a smile on his face. Brother-in-law Cao, who was still on the way to the west, didn't even bat an eyelid, and immediately gave Wang Fubao an order, ordering Wang Fubao to immediately Withdrew the army attacking Taiping Pass, immediately marched to attack Linfen City, and wiped out the outer fortifications of Linfen City, so that Brother-in-law Cao could immediately find the siege when he arrived at the battlefield.
Brother-in-law Cao’s order was sent to Xiangling City on April 11th, when it began to drizzle, Wang Fubao also stood there in a slump for more than half an hour in the drizzle, and then sent a hoarse voice. Someone bought a decree for Dong Kang, ordering him to return to the division to join him immediately, and at the same time ordered the army to prepare to set off, move camp to Linfen and prepare to attack the city.
In this regard, Yin Kaishan, who was stationed in Xiangling with Wang Fubao, was of course overjoyed, but Dong Kangmai, who had already prepared the weapons to attack the fortress, was confused and asked Wang Fubao's messenger repeatedly, "Are you sure you did not send the wrong order? The terrain around Taiping Pass is flat, which is good for attacking. If we attack head-on, there is hope to win this pass? Could it be that Wang Fubao is afraid that I will steal his limelight by making meritorious deeds? He doesn't seem to have such problems other than being annoying. ?”
The Sui army is also confused and inexplicable. Given that the terrain of Taipingguan is not very conducive to long-term defense, and at the same time, they dare not deploy too much troops to go north. The secret order asked the Taiping Pass guards to abandon the pass and retreat to Taiping County if the situation was wrong, giving priority to securing the city and abandoning the pass. Dou Jiande's army, who was already preparing to attack the pass, suddenly retreated. Fang Huang and the Taiping Pass guards couldn't understand Wang Fubao What kind of medicine is sold in the gourd.
Even more confused is Qin Qiong, Huo Shiju, Wei Ziqi and others in Linfen City. As early as when the main force of the Taiyuan army went south and arrived at Queshu Valley, Huo Shiju and Wei Ziqi had already done their best to repair it at the request of Liu Heitai just in case. After more than a month of efforts to defend the fortifications and protect the mountains of food, grass and military supplies in the city, Linfen City can't be said to be impenetrable or impenetrable, at least it has become a solid fortress with thorns all over its body. Difficult to capture. But now that the main force of the Sui army could send troops to the north at any time, Wang Fubao actually came to attack Linfen City again. If the casualties were too large in the battle, what would Wang Fubao do to resist the counterattack of the main force of the Sui army
Under suspicion, Qin Qiong, Huo Shiju and others once misunderstood Wang Fubao, thinking that Wang Fubao must have won two victories by luck in the field and ignored the Sui army, thinking that the Linfen Sui army could only be defeated in one battle. Regarding this, Qin Qiong and others also gritted their teeth and said: "You man! How dare you despise us so much! Our army is only unwilling to fight you in a full-scale decisive battle to secure food, grass and military supplies. Since you are looking for death yourself, then we will fulfill you ! Wait and see in the city defense battle!"
The Sui army in Linfen, who shared the same hatred against the enemy, did what it said. In the battle of defending the city, Dou Jiande's army, who was forced to attack the fortifications, suffered a lot. Relying on the fortifications, the generals resisted tenaciously, fought flexibly, and matched their weapons from far and near. They killed the Dou Li coalition army who attacked the fortifications of the Sui army, howling ghosts and wolves, and their corpses littered the ground. On the first day of the siege, none of the soldiers of the Dou Li coalition could break through the moat of Linfen.
The Linfen garrison who cheered for victory still underestimated some Wang Fubao. Seeing that the Sui army dared to go out of the city to fight by relying on fortifications on the first day of the battle, Wang Fubao predicted that the Sui army would have to go out of the city on the second day, so he selected a hundred elite soldiers The warriors ordered them to lurk under the city of Linfen at night, using corpses, soil, trenches and the remains of siege weapons to hide in the trenches of the outer fortifications of the Sui Army. Peripheral fortifications.
The Sui army was really fooled. Unwilling to let Qin Qiong be beautiful, Huo Shiju sent his subordinate Pei Hailiang to lead a thousand troops out of the city, following Qin Qiong's example of relying on the fortifications to fight. Unexpectedly, as soon as the Sui army arrived at the outskirts of the fortifications, Wang Fubao's ambush soldiers suddenly broke out and hacked Pei Hailiang to death on the spot. The Sui army was defeated in chaos, Wang Fubao took the opportunity to cover up the killing, and destroyed the Sui army's three antler trench defense lines outside the moat in one fell swoop. The soldiers of the Sui army quickly closed the city gates. Many soldiers of the Sui army were killed and more than 80 people were captured before returning to the city.
Wang Fubao's next move made Huo Shiju, Qin Qiong and others a little stunned. After capturing more than 80 Sui army prisoners, Wang Fubao only confiscated their weapons and armor, released them back to the city on the spot, and asked them to take Pei Hailiang's The corpses were also brought back to the city, and these Sui army captives were asked to act as free propagandists, saying that as long as the Sui army soldiers who surrendered in the battle would not be killed by the own army, they would be released on the spot, so as to defeat the determination of the Sui army in Linfen to resist. While Huo Shiju, Qin Qiong and others scolded Wang Fubao for being despicable, it was inevitable that they admired Wang Fubao's courage and courage.
Wang Fubao's brilliance ends here, even if the Sui army's outer fortifications outside the moat are successfully destroyed, the deep and wide moat and the towering city wall will always be a nightmare for the siege army, even if Wang Fubao follows Dou Jiande all the year round Relying on siege and plundering land to eat, has rich experience in siege warfare, and it will not play much role. Huo Shiju, who is not considered a famous general, is a well-qualified and qualified general. Qin Qiong, who has become famous in later generations, suffered losses in front of Wang Fubao one after another because of his underestimation of the enemy and lack of strength. Facing the difficult terrain, Wang Fubao no longer had any opportunities for opportunism and surprises to win. He could only honestly fill the river with frog carts and bombard the defenders with trebuchets.
To make matters worse, when Wang Fubao led his soldiers to fill up a short section of the moat with great difficulty, on April 18th, Uncle Cao also brought the rear army to the Linfen battlefield. After joining forces with the front army, The first thing Brother-in-law Cao did was confiscating most of Wang Fubao's military power, showing Dou Jiande's warrant to let Dong Kangmai and other generals directly obey him, and appointing Wang Fubao as the vanguard. In fact, he only let Wang Fubao command more than 2,000 troops. The younger brother-in-law was inserted into Wang Fubao's camp as a supervisor, and closely monitored Wang Fubao's every move.
Dong Kangmai and other ministries were temporarily listening to Wang Fubao's order. Dou Jiande asked Brother-in-law Cao to take back the military power. Wang Fubao couldn't stand the point of launching an ant-attached siege the next day, and protested: "Marshal Cao, our army has just filled up the moat less than ten feet away. It is still difficult for weapons to get close to Linfen City, launching an ant-attached siege at this time is just playing with the lives of soldiers!"
"Without ladder carts and city-charging carts, wouldn't it be possible to attack the city?" Brother-in-law Cao asked with a sneer, "When you attacked Changle City, the capital of Xindu County, General Wang, not only did you not have time to fill up the moat, but even the flying ladders were only a dozen or so. Didn't they take down Changle City anyway? It's okay to fight Changle, but why can't you fight Linfen?"
"The battle in Changle was because the enemy had not yet had time to deploy a tight defense, and even the defenders had not had time to enter the city." Wang Fubao explained: "I saw an opportunity to take advantage of it, so I took the risk of attacking Changle City. I was lucky enough to take Changle City. Now Chen The bandit army has already set up a tight defense in Linfen, and the army is guarding the city wall day and night. It is impossible to win by surprise. We can only take one step at a time. First, we will completely open the way for our army's siege weapons to reach the city, and destroy the enemy's antlers, sheep and horses inside the moat. The wall, and then we launch a frontal attack, only then can we hope to break through the city!"
With a bang, Uncle Cao slapped the table in front of him heavily, and roared, "One step at a time? Do we still have time? The main force of the Chen bandits may send troops to Linfen at any time, and they may send reinforcements to the north first. How much time do you have to prepare for the siege? Besides, if you hadn’t resisted King Jun’s decree, wouldn’t we have already completely filled up the moat of Linfen? Why don’t we wait until now?”
Roaring, Uncle Cao slapped the table in front of him again, and roared, "Tomorrow the ants will attack the city! This is a military order, and anyone who violates the order will be punished immediately!"
Reluctantly lowered his head, unable to withstand the repeated persecution of his brother-in-law Cao, Wang Fubao could only obediently embrace his orders, bid farewell and went down to prepare for the battle. Seeing the decadent appearance of Wang Fubao's sad departure, even Yin Kaishan, the general of the Taiyuan Army who came to greet Cao Dajiu's brother-in-law with injuries, couldn't bear it, but Yin Kaishan couldn't defend Wang Fubao for a single word because it was related to the survival of the army. According to the instructions of the Li family brothers, uncle Cao was invited to the camp to have a banquet, warmly entertained brother-in-law Cao with delicious food and wine, and summoned a beautiful maid to accompany brother-in-law Cao to drink, eat and sleep.
In the early morning of the next day, when they saw Dou and Li's allied forces coming to attack the city carrying lightweight flying ladders, Qin Qiong, Huo Shiju and the other generals couldn't believe their eyes at all. He also clapped hands with Qin Qiong to celebrate, laughed loudly together, and then couldn't wait to command the army to defend the city, condescendingly attacking the Dou Li coalition army head-on with ample supplies for defending the city.
It is pure moths to the flames, rushing up the rough and simple flying ladder, first being covered and suppressed by feather arrows, and then being densely packed by various long-range weapons on the river crossing road that is only more than 20 meters wide To attack, you have to attack the city against the rolling stones and wood ants that are dense like hail and raindrops. No matter how brave and skilled Wang Fubao's descendants are, they will seek their own death. Brothers who have been brothers for many years rolled down the city wall and fell down the flying ladder. The soldiers of the Sui army laughed on the city, but Wang Fubao and his soldiers were crying in their hearts.
The Taiyuan army who assisted in the siege was beaten away by Sui soldiers with bows and crossbows before they could build the floating bridge across the river, but Wang Fubao's army was still forced to stand in the front by the supervisor team directly subordinated to Brother-in-law Cao. Seeing such a situation, Qin Qiong, Huo Shiju and other generals of the Sui Army inevitably peeked at each other again. I really don't understand how Wang Fubao, who was brave and resourceful before, became stupider than a pig? Yin Kaishan, who went into battle with injuries, couldn't help but secretly asked General Dou Jun if Brother-in-law Cao had a grudge against Wang Fubao? In the end, the answer was, "General Wang and General Cao are more than enmity? Because General Wang reported to the king that General Cao had embezzled the booty and insulted the women of the people, General Cao was whipped fifty times by our king himself, and lay on the bed for more than an hour. moon!"
In the end, it was Yin Kaishan who couldn't stand it anymore and pleaded for mercy, so brother-in-law Cao asked Wang Fubao to withdraw for a while to rest, and rotated an army to continue to attack the city, and then less than half an hour later, Wang Fubao's army was forced by brother-in-law Cao again. On the battlefield, Wang Fubao, who was so angry, couldn't bear it anymore, so he personally led the death squad to attack the city, but he was shot by the arrow when he rushed to the edge of the moat. The arrow pierced his armor and went straight into his chest. Wang Fubao was injured more severely than Yin Kaishan, so the brother-in-law Cao who was so happy did not continue to force Wang Fubao to attack the city, but said in his heart: "Everyone, wait! This is just the beginning!"
Of course, Uncle Cao’s ant-attached siege launched by his head into the water was easily repelled by the Sui army. As a result, two soldiers of Wang Fubao’s men who fell unconscious on the ground were rescued while cleaning the battlefield. Only then did Qin Qiong, Huo Shiju and others understand Dou Li. The reason why the coalition forces went mad to attack the city today is that they also knew that Wang Fubao had been taken away from the army and was forced to attack the city by his brother-in-law Cao. While applauding each other, Qin Qiong and Huo Shiju both felt a little sorry for Wang Fubao and felt that this was an opportunity. Then he released the two captives out of the city, and asked them to bring letters back to the camp to hand over to Wang Fubao, persuading Wang Fubao to surrender.
Although the two soldiers with the letter were lucky, they were not discovered by the brother-in-law's supervising army sent by brother-in-law Cao, but they were ordered to be slapped by Wang Fubao who was lying on the bed, and the surrender letter jointly signed by Qin Qiong and others was also burned by Wang Fubao, vowing never to betray Dou Jiande. The left and right subordinates reminded Wang Fubao that his brother-in-law Cao would not give up. Wang Fubao was silent for a moment, then patted his chest that was still bleeding, and replied: "It's okay, I was injured so badly, General Cao will not force me to attack by force again." the city."
Wang Fubao really underestimated Brother-in-law Cao. In the following three days, Brother-in-law Cao did not order to launch a siege, and continued Wang Fubao's previous tactics. Some progress has indeed been made, and the siege road leading directly to the city has been somewhat widened. However, three days later, on the morning of April 23rd, our brother-in-law Cao once again raised his account and decided to launch another siege, and asked Wang Fubao by name to be the vanguard, and let Wang Fubao be responsible for the frighteningly high death rate. Ant attached to the siege of the city.
Clay figurines also have an earthy temperament. Facing Brother-in-law Cao who repeatedly bullied each other, Wang Fubao couldn't bear it completely. He tore off his shirt to reveal the wound, and asked Brother-in-law Cao how he could go to battle with his current injury. But Uncle Cao rolled Danfeng's eyes and said with a sneer, "This is a military order, you never follow it?"
"No!" Wang Fubao yelled and replied, "I'm so injured! I can't fight! I don't follow this military order!"
"Very good." Brother-in-law Cao was waiting for Wang Fubao's words, and asked everyone with a grim smile: "Generals, what kind of crime is it for disobeying orders?"
No one said anything, Wang Fubao, who was too upright and too stealthy, had no popularity in Dou Jiande's army, so no one pleaded for Wang Fubao's defense. Uncle Cao nodded in satisfaction, smiled again, and suddenly shouted: "Come here!"
"General Cao! General Cao!"
The sudden anxious call saved Wang Fubao's life. Before Brother-in-law Cao had prepared the knife and axe to agree, the representative of the Taiyuan Army, who was so close to Brother-in-law Cao these days, rushed forward quickly. Come in, panting and said to Uncle Cao: "General Cao, we can't attack the city anymore, we can't attack Linfen City anymore!"
"Why?" Uncle Cao asked doubtfully.
"The main force of the thief Chen is here!" Ren Yu's words made Uncle Cao's face completely changed, and Ren Yu said with a pale face: "Our army made a careful report. On April 17, Mr. Chen Yingliang personally led the 80,000 main force. Starting from Daxing, with Cheng Yaojin and Xue Renguo as the vanguard, we are heading towards Linfen!"
"April 17th? The main force of the Chen thieves has already dispatched troops six days ago?" Uncle Cao was stunned for a moment, then exclaimed and asked, "Why do you only receive the news now? The 80,000 army of the Chen thieves went to the north, so big Action, didn't you notice it in advance because of your subtle work?"
"Chen's army is very strict on the checkpoints along the way, and our secret agents can't send the news directly." Ren Yu replied in a helpless tone: "This news was sent by our secret agents by detouring Longquan, or it was sent to Huo Huo first." The battlefield of Yiyi, and then sent to Linfen. Our left and right commanders estimate that Chen Bandit's vanguard will reach Taiping Pass in three days at the earliest, and no more than five days at the latest!"
Uncle Cao was completely tongue-tied, and Ren Yu turned to Wang Fubao again, and said apologetically, "General Wang, I'm really sorry, and our army also regrets that we didn't listen to your suggestion and send troops to seize Taiping Pass in advance. Otherwise, we wouldn't So passive. General, you are familiar with the situation at Taiping Pass, tell me, is it too late for us to attack Taiping Pass now?"