While the three generals Cheng Yaojin, Xue Renguo and Wang Fubao led the reinforcements to move north quickly, Li Jiancheng also quickly arranged the deployment of troops on the Queshu Valley defense line. Li Er and Duan Lun led 15,000 troops to garrison Lingshi, and continued to let Li Er accept Duan Lun's orders, while Li Jiancheng personally led the rest of the army to retreat to Jiexiu, and fortified the northern section of Queshu Valley. , to resist the Sui army's attack.
It's fine in normal times, but now that the battle is imminent and a strong enemy is at hand, Li Jiancheng is still so suspicious and wary. No matter how deep Li Ercheng's mansion is, it is inevitable that he will be a little bit impatient. Regardless of Duan Lun's presence at the scene, he confronted Li Jiancheng and asked: "Brother , I am the governor of the right, and you are brothers of the same mother and compatriot, and my brother-in-law is just a manager.
"Duan Lun is your brother-in-law, and you are his brother-in-law. Parents and children are orderly." Li Jiancheng replied calmly: "Besides, Duan Lun has always been the manager of the southern line, and he is more familiar with the situation in Queshugu than you. He should continue to command you."
"But what about the achievements?" Li Er said angrily, "Since my father led us to rise up from Taiyuan, how much merit have I made for the Taiyuan Rebel Army? How much has my brother-in-law contributed?"
"This is also what I'm most worried about." Li Jiancheng replied seriously: "Erlang, you have made a lot of contributions to the Taiyuan Rebel Army, but didn't you win the battlefield by taking risks? Didn't you put all your eggs in one basket at that time? ? Your tactics are okay for mediocre opponents. You can win if you are lucky when you encounter stronger opponents, but this time you are Chen Yingliang! It is Chen Yingliang who has never lost a battle since his debut and has never made mistakes on the battlefield. Even you admit that Chen Yingliangzheng and Qisheng's military style is exactly your nemesis. He uses troops to seek undefeated first and then win, so that you have no chance to take risks and be surprised by him at any time A counterattack!"
Blocking Li Er's mouth with Li Er's own words, Li Jiancheng paused for a while, calmed down a little, and said: "Second brother, it's normal, it's other opponents, you want to lead the army alone It's not like I don't think about it alone. But this time it won't work. Chen Yingliang personally led 80,000 main forces to kill him. Together with the former army, the strength exceeds 100,000. The overall strength is several times that of our army. It may lead to unexpected consequences! At the critical moment of life and death, what our army needs is your brother-in-law's stability, not your rashness!"
Li Er was speechless, and his face became more gloomy. Li Jiancheng knew what his younger brother was thinking, so he said again: "If you really don't want to be ordered by your brother-in-law, that's fine. You can follow me back to Jiexiu, and Zhang Lun or Yin Kaishan will give you a hand." Duan Lun is the deputy."
Li Er hesitated for a moment, considering that following Li Jiancheng back to Jiexiu would be more restrained, and he would not have the opportunity to lead the army alone. Li Er swallowed his anger and changed his words, expressing his willingness to accept Li Jiancheng's arrangement, and immediately apologized to Duan Lun, asking Duan Lun to forgive his youthful impulsiveness. Duan Lun is a big-bellied person like Li Jiancheng. Although he was somewhat unhappy, seeing that Li Er had voluntarily admitted his mistake, Duan Lun also graciously helped Li Er, saying: "Erlang doesn't need to be like this, who Have you ever been young and energetic? Don't worry, you and I will guard Lingshi City hand in hand, and as long as the opportunity arises, I can also let you lead the army to attack, and I will not completely tie your hands and feet, and will not give you a chance to make meritorious deeds. "
Li Er thanked him, but Li Jiancheng over there interrupted and said, "Brother-in-law, second brother, you must attack carefully! Chen Yingliang is not an ordinary person, and all the fighters he sees in front of him are probably his tricks to lure the enemy. Don’t forget the lesson of my father going out of the city and fighting him. The most important thing is to defend the city, the food and grass in Lingshi City can last for four months, as long as you can persist until the Fenshui flood season comes in July, we will have hope.”
Li Er and Duan Lun agreed together, and then Duan Lun also said: "Brother, don't worry, as soon as Chen Yingliang's main force arrives, I will immediately block the gates of the Lingshi. I will not give him a chance to opportunistically, and his artillery will not be able to directly bombard you." Open the city gate. I don't believe it, the gunpowder in Chen Yingliang's hands is enough to completely blow down the Lingshi city wall!"
"That's right." Li Jiancheng nodded in satisfaction, and then casually ordered: "At that time, not only will the city gate be blocked, but also a dam must be built in the city gate corridor to prepare for waterproofing."
"Why?" Duan Lun was startled for a moment, then suddenly remembered something, and asked in shock, "Brother, do you want to use that trick?"
Seeing Li Jiancheng nodding with a gloomy face, Duan Lun was even more shocked, but Li Er was also surprised and said: "Impossible? The upstream of Jiexiu is Lize Lake, and there is no way to dam the Fen River there...? Wait!"
Surprised Speaking of this, Li Er's eyes suddenly lit up, and he said in surprise: "Wen Shui! Wen Shui flows into Fen Shui next to Jiexiu. There is room to build a dam to store water upstream, and it is not easy to be noticed by Chen's army at the rear. We built a dam on the upper reaches of the Wenshui River, and when the main force of Chen Yingliang's bandit army went deep into the Queshu Valley and suddenly dug the dam, even if we couldn't drown Chen Yingliang himself, we would still be able to seriously damage his main force!"
"Water attack is not that easy." Li Jiancheng first gestured for Li Er to speak in a low voice, and then said in a low voice: "Now is the dry season, and no matter how much water is stored in the tributaries of Wenshui, it is doomed to be unable to create enough water to destroy the enemy in Queshu Valley." Besides, Chen Yingliang is well versed in the art of war and personally led the main force to come. Needless to say, he is stationed on the high wall or the Dusuoyuan plateau. Small-scale mountain torrents have almost no effect on him. If you want to attack him with water, unless you can If it is delayed until the Fenshui flood season, then it is possible to find a fighter, otherwise, even if I dig a dike to release water in the upper reaches of Wenshui, it will only anger Chen Yingliang more, and it will have no effect."
"Brother, don't worry, my younger brother will definitely persist until the Fenshui flood season." Duan Lun said gloomyly.
"Strive for it with all your strength." Li Jiancheng nodded, and said in a low voice: "Keep it secret, even our soldiers can't let them know that building a dam in the corridor of the city gate can only be said to be used to resist the artillery of the bandits, not to say It's for flood protection."
Duan Lun and Li Er quickly agreed, Li Jiancheng nodded again, and then said: "I will bring the army back to Jiexiu tomorrow, and I will leave Lingshi to you. Liu Heita will definitely make trouble for you at any cost. There is no need to waste energy in building strong fortifications in the road, and the branch army fights against him, trying to repair the city defense with all its strength, and buy time for me to build fortifications in the northern section of Queshu Valley."
After instructing these essentials, he gave his younger brother and brother-in-law a reassurance. Li Jiancheng led the main force northward with a heavy heart, while Li Er led the army to catch Liu Heitai, and used the narrow terrain to fight Liu Heitai. Given Liu Heita's opportunity to quickly approach Lingshi City, Duan Lun also ordered the army to strengthen Lingshi City with all their strength, dig trenches and build walls, and they were all busy with their own tasks.
During this period, Liu Heikai attacked Li Er's position many times, but Li Er was both able to fight and defend. Liu Heikai continued to attack fiercely at any cost. The Huoyi Sui Army who had fought for more than two months But it was difficult to drive Li Er away and approach Lingshi City. On the contrary, he still consumed a lot of physical strength and lost a lot of troops in the offensive battle, and his fatigue gradually appeared.
Liu Heitai's hard work was by no means fruitless. Huo Yi's Sui army was exhausted and suffered heavy casualties, and Li's second army was also exhausted and suffered a lot of casualties. It also consumed a lot of vigor and morale, so Cheng Yaojin, Xue Renguo and Wang Fubao's three great generals When he arrived at the battlefield with 11,000 rear troops and replaced Liu Heitai's exhausted army, Li's second army lost the courage to continue. Li, who knew how fierce Cheng Yaojin, Xue Renguo and others were, The second one didn't dare to be negligent, and he didn't even dare to fight a tentative contact war. He hurriedly scolded Wang Fubao's traitor, Qiu Rong, and led his army to retreat, and fled to Lingshi City in a hurry.
Seeing Li Er abandoning the camp and retreating, Cheng Yaojin and Xue Renguo, who were eager to make contributions, of course immediately ordered the pursuit. Xue Renguo once again volunteered to be the pursuit arrow. Jin begged: "General Cheng, please let the last general be the vanguard to pursue."
"You are injured, let General Xue chase first." Cheng Yaojin kindly persuaded, and Xue Renguo over there also expressed his opinion, persuading Wang Fubao to rest and let himself pursue.
"Please let the last general chase after you first." Wang Fubao insisted, then turned to Xue Renguo and said, "General Xue, the road here is narrow, and our army has no chance to outflank. Even if you catch up with the Taiyuan bandits, you won't be able to gain much To win, it is better to reserve your physical strength and let the last general chase first, so that the last general can take the opportunity to make some preparations."
Looking at the cliffs and the surging Fen River on both sides, Xue Renguo, who felt that Wang Fubao was not talking nonsense, then closed his mouth and turned his eyes to Cheng Yaojin. Cheng Yaojin hesitated for a moment, then nodded and agreed to Wang Fubao's request. Wang Fubao was overjoyed , Immediately led his more than 1,000 soldiers of the headquarters to go forward immediately, acting as arrows to pursue Li Er, Cheng Yaojin and Xue Renguo led the army to follow closely behind, and kept a distance from Wang Fubao very carefully, lest Wang Fubao would turn against him and suddenly give his own army Come on.
Wang Fubao, who acted as the arrow first, rushed very fast at one point, and it didn't take long to catch up with Li Er's rear army. When Gao Fengliang retreated, Li Er, who was at the end of the team when he retreated, was furious. He reined in his horse and turned around to curse, "Wang Fubao! You ungrateful, heartless and unrighteous rat, you still have the face to pursue our army! Have you forgotten Dou Jiande's knowledge and support for you?!"
Not to mention, Li Er's scolding really had an effect. After hearing the scolding, Wang Fubao, who led the army to the front, seemed ashamed. Li Erdu, who originally wanted to provoke Wang Fubao to wait for the opportunity to release the arrow, had already quietly held the bow and arrow in his hand. After seeing Wang Fubao's expression and reaction, he couldn't help being stunned, and thought to himself: "Could it be that this Wang Fubao still has the possibility of abandoning the dark and turning to the bright?"
Wang Fubao felt ashamed in his heart, but those Qiuba uncles under his command would not show mercy, and continued to rush up to chop Li Er. Li Er hurriedly shot down one of them with arrows, and then led the army to retreat in a hurry. Wang Fubao's army continued to chase after him. Li Er was a little secretly pleased to find out that since then, Wang Fubao never rushed out to the front, and kept hiding behind as if he was ashamed to meet Li Er. Li Er was more happy in his heart, but he didn't dare to take it lightly. He led the army all the way back to Lingshi. After receiving the news, Duan Lun immediately sent troops to respond, and caught Wang Fubao with a strong bow to help Li Er in the loss. Withdrew to Lingshi City under minor circumstances.
After returning to the city, Li Er naturally had to tell Duan Lun about Wang Fubao's strange performance on the battlefield. Duan Lun was also a little surprised when he heard it, and then said happily: "Could it be that Wang Fubao may return anyway?"
"I had this suspicion before, but when I thought about it carefully, I felt that it might be very small." Just as Chen Sangliang was worried, Li Er did not believe Wang Fubao's performance. How much sincerity and kindness is Chen Yingliang throwing away his main force for hundreds of miles to surrender himself? Can Wang Fubao not be grateful? How likely is it that he will betray Chen Yingliang's army again?"
"Not necessarily, our army has already reported that Wang Fubao is loyal to Dou Jiande. As long as no one is slandering, Dou Jiande is okay with Wang Fubao." Duan Lun retorted, and said: "Besides, Wang Fubao's performance in the battle today , Once someone tells Chen Yingliang, will Chen Yingliang not have doubts about him? Will the other generals under Chen Yingliang not have suspicions about him? Wang Fubao was wronged in Chen Yingliang's army, can he not think otherwise?"
Li Er hesitated for a moment, only to realize that this was a possibility. Once Wang Fubao's performance in the battle was reported, he would be suspected no matter what. But still the same sentence, Brother Li is by no means a person who is easily deceived, he just wavered a little, then calmed down immediately, shook his head and said: "Be careful, even if there is hope, we can't take the initiative to take action on this matter Well, if Wang Fubao really wants to do anything anyway, he will definitely contact us, and then we will carefully identify the authenticity and then decide how to proceed."
Duan Lun nodded in agreement, and then asked: "Erlang, what should we do next? The vanguard Chen came sooner than we expected. Although we can continue to build the fortifications of the city, there is no way to build the fortifications outside the city." Moreover, there is not enough timber in the city, if we close the city, the long defense of the city will be very unfavorable to us in the future.”
"It depends on whether you have the courage, brother-in-law." Li Er asked with a sneer, and said: "Cheng Yaojin and Xue Renguo and others came all the way from Guanzhong. Tired, the bandit army is at the end of its strength, and it is difficult to break through, brother-in-law, if you have the courage to hand over the new force to me and let me lead the army out of the city to fight, even if we can't break the bandit army, we can give them a head-on blow!"
Duan Lun looked troubled, and said hesitantly: "Da Lang gave an explanation before he left, saying that he should play cautiously..."
"Brother-in-law, if you must be cautious to this point, then I have no choice." Li Er spread his hands and said, "If you don't seize the opportunity of the bandit army's exhaustion, then we can only watch helplessly. The thieves set up strong camps in Gaobi or Suoduyuan, eat and drink enough to rest, and then come to stop us from building fortifications, harass and slaughter our soldiers who leave the city!"
"This..." Duan Lun hesitated, and said after a long while: "It can be considered, but let me think about it overnight and make a decision tomorrow morning. You are tired, go and rest."
Li Er agreed, and then warned: "Brother, the war opportunity is fleeting, and it will never come again! Don't forget that Liu Heitai, Cheng Yaojin and Xue Renguo are all famous generals in the world. If we don't seize this opportunity, Once we let them catch their breath, these few people alone will be enough to beat us without any power to fight back!"
Duan Lun was even more shaken, hesitated again, and replied: "Hurry up and rest, and come see me tomorrow morning."
Li Er smiled, and then he bowed his hands and left, thinking to himself: "If you are smart, I will agree. If you win the battle with the new force and build up your prestige, the Lingshi garrison will gradually stop my words."
…
At the same time, Wang Fubao returned to Cheng Yaojin, Xue Renguo, and Liu Heitai under the suspicious eyes of everyone. Although Cheng Yaojin and others did not ask about what happened on the battlefield, Wang Fubao frankly took the initiative to put himself on the battlefield. I told a few new colleagues about the weak demeanor, and then said directly: "Generals, please believe me, I will definitely pay off if I do this. I can be sure that the Taiyuan bandit army must have doubts. They began to doubt whether I might rebel, and they had this idea, so my next job will be easy."
"Of course we believe you." Cheng Yaojin smiled reluctantly, and then asked: "But General Wang, His Highness Tang Wang told you repeatedly when he was in Taipingguan, saying that you can't play tricks on Li Erlang, why do you Also... what if Li Erlang finds out?"
"The last general didn't use tricks against Li Erlang, but just borrowed Li Erlang's words to tell Duan Lun, the leader of the bandit army." Wang Fubao replied in a deep voice: "Li Erlang is not easy to fall for tricks, but it doesn't mean that he will be suspicious. If you become suspicious, you will definitely report the situation to Duan Lun or even Li Jiancheng, and if Duan Lun knows about this situation, the opportunity for the last general will come."
After exchanging suspicious glances, Cheng Yaojin reluctantly nodded again, and then asked, "General Wang, what are you going to do next? When will you cheat the enemy?"
"Tomorrow. The last general will cheat the enemy tomorrow and cooperate with you to take down Lingshi City."
Wang Fubao's calm answer made Cheng Yaojin and others almost jump up, and then Liu Heita hurriedly said: "General Wang, do you want to wait a while and make some preparations? Our soldiers are very tired and need to rest. It is best It is not too late to wait a few more days, let our soldiers rest for a while, and build a strong camp before starting."
"Director Liu, the general knows that your army is exhausted, and that General Cheng and General Xue's army is also exhausted." Wang Fubao cupped his hands and saluted, and said in a deep voice: "But the Taiyuan bandits also know this, so they absolutely expected We would not have cheated the enemy until tomorrow, and we would never have imagined that we would enter Lingshi City tomorrow! Take Lingshi City!"
Looking around at Cheng Yaojin, Xue Renguo and others who were stunned, Wang Fubao said solemnly: "Generals, the last general was poor when he was young, and he never read books, let alone learned the art of war. Later, the last general followed Dou Jiande to study after raising troops. In the book of war, the first sentence I learned was to be caught by surprise and attack by surprise! The general has always followed this sentence on the battlefield and used troops to fight. He was lucky enough to win many battles, so the general believes that tomorrow's deceitful surprise attack will definitely be To be able to kill the thief army by surprise, and take down Lingshi City in one fell swoop!"
Liu Heitai, Cheng Yaojin and the others were silent. They first exchanged glances with each other, and then discussed in a low voice, and then Liu Heitai said: "General Wang, tell us your plan. If it is reasonable, we can consider it."