The battle drums were beating rhythmically, and the toad cart, which could only be pushed by thirty people, was pushed by the soldiers of the Sui army, and slowly approached the moat of Lengquan Pass, and the wall of the pass was riddled with holes by the artillery bombardment. The arrows fell like rain, nailing the fenders of the toad cart and the shields held high by the left hands of the Sui army soldiers. During this period, the Sui army soldiers were hit by arrows one after another, and the painful muffled groans were heard one after another. The Sui army soldiers who were slightly injured Gritting his teeth, after the seriously injured and dead Sui soldier fell down, another companion holding a shield rushed up to fill his position. Together with other cart companions, they pushed the toad cart full of earth and rocks, slowly and firmly. Move forward slowly.
On the edge of the moat, behind the six temporary fortifications formed by the soldiers of the Sui army with long shields, the archers of the Sui army were also struggling to pull their strong bows, throwing blind shots at the wall, trying their best to suppress the defenders, and for the shrimp The Toad team shared the pressure. Arrows and arrows in the sky come and go like locusts. Occasionally, some large stones thrown by the remaining catapults used by the guards of Cold Spring Pass will fall. On the ground, the dead bodies of Sui soldiers are scattered everywhere. One strand, straight into the sky.
The soldiers of the Sui Army fought very hard, but compared to the pressure suffered by other troops in the attack, the soldiers of the Sui Army were definitely extremely lucky, because the artillery of the Sui Army had completely destroyed the gate tower of Lengquan Pass The archery tower completely wiped out the bed crossbows of the defenders on the wall of the pass, and blasted the fortifications of the defenders on the high ground on both sides of the cold spring pass to pieces, destroying at least 60% of the defense force of the defenders of the cold spring pass, resulting in a three-dimensional The strike power was seriously insufficient, and the threat to the soldiers of the Sui army was greatly reduced. Otherwise, the Sui army's battle would only be several times or even ten times more difficult.
The toad cart of the Sui army was only fifty steps away from the moat. When the clapper rang on the wall, a Taiyuan army archer was suddenly lowered by a rope on the wall, and quickly hid behind the sheep and horse wall where arrows could be avoided. They drew their bows and released their arrows, cross-shooting the soldiers of the Sui army behind the toad chariot, but the Sui army's toad chariot had already been prepared, with long shields raised in their hands to protect the wings, blocking most of the cross-shot feather arrows. At the same time, the dozen or so catapults remaining in Lengquan Pass were also desperately pulling and throwing stones, covering the Sui army's toad convoy as much as possible.
A big rock happened to hit the head of the Sui army's toad convoy, and a poor Sui army soldier was hit straight on the ground. Before he could even scream, he was smashed by Lian Shield and others. However, before closing the gate and the defenders cheering, the Sui army's artillery more than a mile away suddenly fired again, throwing even more powerful heavy shells into Lengquan Pass, and the sound of cracking wood and screams of soldiers came from inside the pass.
As you come and go, the toad cart of the Sui army finally came to the edge of the moat. The soldiers of the Sui army pulled up the baffle and raised the body with all their strength. The heavy earth and stone slid into the ditch by gravity, and it was filled up in a blink of an eye. After clearing a trench, the soldiers of the Sui army immediately cheered and fled back with their trailers, and quickly withdrew out of the coverage of the bows and arrows of the defenders of Cold Spring Pass. Pushing forward, he was already slowly moving towards Lengquanguan, and the artillery of the Sui army also adjusted their targets immediately, and seized the time to attack the Taiyuan army archers hiding behind the sheep and horse wall with all their strength.
Li Jing used the most formal and slowest siege tactics, but the slower and more formal the siege tactics, the more the Cold Spring Pass guards could not find a way to restrain them, because this regular siege tactic was adopted by the troops of all ethnic groups in the Central Plains. I don’t know how many times the wisdom crystallization of actual battles has been tempered and tempered. It is slow and correct, without opportunism, and does not give the enemy any chance to opportunistic. Therefore, although the guards at Cold Spring Gate jumped in anxiety and tried their best to stop the destruction, they still couldn’t stop it. The toad carts of the Sui army gradually filled the trenches they had dug hard, and gradually opened and widened the road for the soldiers of the Sui army to reach the pass.
Although the Sui army did not show any signs of launching an ant-attached siege, just seeing the moats that were gradually filled up, an atmosphere of despair had already shrouded the heads of the guards at Cold Spring Pass, because the guards at Cold Spring Pass were everywhere. It is very clear that the enemy did this not because they were afraid of the ants attacking the city, but because they sharpened their knives so that they would not mistakenly chop firewood. Morale, which had already been severely damaged by the artillery of the Sui army, declined further. Many Taiyuan army officers and soldiers were already thinking secretly, how to avoid the sharp axes of the supervising team and surrender to the enemy on the opposite side when the cold spring gate could not be held.
The Sui army's trench filling operation lasted for a full day, and it was not until dusk that the troops returned to the camp. By the time the Sui army soldiers withdrew, more than 70% of the moat outside the cold spring pass had been filled. The Taiyuan army was unable to dig out the soil filled by the Sui army in a short time. Frustrated expressions were written on the faces of every Taiyuan Army soldier. While tidily packing up the defensive equipment, the Taiyuan Army soldiers were discussing whether the enemy would launch an attack the next day.
Some soldiers of the Taiyuan Army were whimsical, knelt down and prayed to the sky for heavy rain the next day, so that the enemy could not launch an ant attack the next day, but the stars and moons gradually filling the night sky not only told him that this was just wishful thinking, but also had experience Fu Fu's companion sneered and said: "When fighting against the Chen bandit army, can you expect good weather that will be beneficial to us? Have you never heard of it? Yuan Tiangang in the Chen bandit army can call the wind and rain, and it will rain when it rains. Let the sky be sunny, when we were in Yanmen, our general suffered a lot from him in this regard!"
During the discussion, Li Jiancheng's messengers came to Lengquan Pass suddenly, and announced to the Lengquan Pass guards on behalf of Li Jiancheng that the officers and men of the Cold Spring Pass guards had made great achievements in defending the pass today, so Li Jiancheng decided to reward the Lengquan Pass guards with wine and meat, and also rewarded everyone with a piece of cloth. However, it is a pity that rewarding this tactic is of little use to the low morale of the cold spring guards. There are very few cheers among the cold spring guards. Have a dinner? If Chen’s bandits attack the city tomorrow, how many of us will be left to eat tomorrow’s dinner?”
Aware of the low morale of his subordinates, after arranging the night defense, Zhang Lun took the time to go back to the main camp of the Taiyuan Army. He used up a lot of physical strength in the long-range weapon battle, and if this continues, it may not be good for the battle. I implore Li Jiancheng to send another general to lead the army to take over Cold Spring Pass, and replace his army with low morale and heavy casualties.
Li Jiancheng refused Zhang Lun's request to switch defenses without hesitation, and said: "Director Zhang, I understand your difficulties, but the new army is not familiar with the terrain and does not understand the defense situation in a hasty switch, it will only be more disadvantageous in the battle, and now there is a big battle coming. So I can't take the risk of switching defenses. But don't worry, as long as you withstand the frontal attack of Chen's army once, I will immediately switch defenses for you and let your army retreat to rest."
"Then what if the Chen bandit army continues to attack day and night?" Zhang Lun asked, and then said: "Looking at the posture of the Chen bandit army, they will definitely launch an attack tomorrow, and it is very likely that they will continue to attack day and night. By the time… ."
"If this is the case, then I will add a thousand new troops to you tomorrow evening." Li Jiancheng interrupted Zhang Lun, and said, "The morning after tomorrow, the morning after tomorrow I will send someone to lead an army to replace your army."
Li Jiancheng had already talked to this point, and Zhang Lun couldn't say much, so he could only respectfully leave and leave. As a result, as soon as Zhang Lun left, Li Jiancheng immediately asked Zhang Daoyuan next to him: "Taiyuan's grain transportation?" How is the team? Have you got in touch?"
"We got in touch." Zhang Daoyuan replied in a low voice: "According to Zuo Dudu's order, Shen Shu'an has led the food transportation team to turn around and return to Taiyuan City."
Li Jiancheng nodded and stopped talking, but Yin Kaishan asked in a low voice: "Commander Zuo, the grain and grass in our barracks are only enough for ten days, and you still ordered the grain transportation team to send the grain and grass back to Taiyuan. Can't hold it for ten days?"
"I'm thankful for being able to hold on for five days." Li Jiancheng sighed softly, and said in a low voice, "I also saw the power of Yingliang's cannon with my own eyes yesterday, and I thought it was too simple. In fact, even if our water attack strategy is not exposed, we will definitely not persist until the flood season comes. Brother Yingliang's artillery is too powerful, and it can smash an arrow stack at a distance of one mile. I can continue to kill and hurt people, if I hadn’t seen it with my own eyes, I would never have believed that such a sharp weapon could exist in this world, and Lengquan Xiaoguan would not be able to last long in front of such a sharp weapon.”
Zhang Daoyuan nodded, and then asked in a low voice: "Captain Zuo, if Lengquan Pass suddenly falls, how can we resist the bandit army's pursuit? Can Fan Botong, who is guarding Jiexiu, temporarily hold back the bandit army's main force for us?"
"Don't worry, I have made arrangements." Li Jiancheng replied calmly, then lowered his head slightly, sighed, and said, "I just hope that Zhang Lun can persist for a day and a night, so that we can relax a little."
As Zhang Lun expected, the next morning, the Sui Army came to Lengquan Pass again, and brought several ladder vehicles and a large number of flying ladders built for Lengquan Pass. The indiscriminate bombing on the city of Lengquanguan was so bombarded that the defenders dared not raise their heads. Zhang Lun saw that the Sui army's approach was not good, organized the army to defend with all its strength, and at the same time sent a fast horse to warn Li Jiancheng, reporting that the Sui army was about to launch an ant attack, but the answer he got was, "Stay with all your strength!"
When the Sui army officially launched the ant attack, Li Jiancheng also issued a new order to the main force of the Taiyuan army, saying that this attack by the Sui army must continue day and night and last for a very long time, so he asked the army to make fire and cook food for everyone A soldier is equipped with five days of dry food to carry with him, and at the same time prepares a large number of torches, so that each army and battalion can go to the battlefield at any time without worrying about running out of food or torches. As a result, after this order was sent to Li Er, Li Er immediately sneered and said, "It's not stupid, I know I'm going to run away."
After the sneer was over, Li Er did not hesitate to order the people in the headquarters to act according to the order. It is a pity that there are only less than 3,000 soldiers left in Li Er's headquarters from about 6,000 troops who went south from Taiyuan during the war. , and the number of wounded soldiers is nearly half, and many of them are seriously difficult. Although Li Er didn't regret this, he couldn't help secretly hating Liu Heita for being treacherous, biting his own army to kill him, and even hating his brother for being vicious and never replenishing his troops, causing his direct descendants to fight less and less. The fight became weaker and weaker, but when Li Er quietly hated him, Li Jiancheng, who had a quarrel with Li Erda the day before yesterday, sent a person to order Li Er to visit the Chinese army tent.
Guessing that his elder brother would not dare to kill him at this critical moment, Li Er confidently came to the Chinese military tent to meet Li Jiancheng. After the meeting, the first thing Li Jiancheng did was to leave the rest of the tent aside, and then directly He said to Li Er: "Second Brother, if Lengquanguan is breached by the enemy, the main force of our army will immediately retreat to Taiyuan, and then you will lead the headquarters to be in charge of the rear."
"What? My queen?!" Li Eryi jumped three feet high.
"I'll add one thousand troops to you." Li Jiancheng went straight ahead and said, "After you have withdrawn to Taiyuan, no matter how many soldiers and horses you have left, I will replenish you with another five thousand troops! We will provide you with enough weapons and equipment, and another You have six hundred war horses!"
Li Er was stunned, rolling his eyes and thinking for a moment, Li Er said: "I have one more condition. When the cold spring can't be guarded, you must immediately order Wenshui to dig the dam and release the flood! Somehow stop Chen The main force of the thief!"
"You don't need to teach me about this." Li Jiancheng replied calmly, "To tell you the truth, I have already set up a beacon tower ten miles to the northwest. If Lengquan Pass can't hold on here, I will immediately send a fast horse to order there to light the beacon fire. When we get to Langyan, my uncle will immediately dig the embankment and release the water. Also, I have already gone to order my uncle to make him ready to dig the embankment at any time."
"Brother is really hiding something." Li Er smiled and said, "Okay, I'm the queen."
Li Jiancheng also smiled, and then called five school lieutenants who had been listening to orders outside the tent, and asked them to lead their headquarters to move to Li Er's camp, and accept Li Er's orders from now on. After Li Erhuan happily left with five lieutenants, Fan Botong, the guard of Jiexiu, also came to Li Jiancheng to give the order, but Li Jiancheng's attitude towards Fan Botong was far more kind than that of his younger brother, and he held Fan Botong's hand and said a lot After thinking about his own words, he gave Fan Botong a dangerous order with tears in his eyes, requiring Fan Botong to stand firm for ten days after the fall of Lengquanguan. to blame.
Li Jiancheng is also very accurate in seeing people. Hearing Li Jiancheng's thoughtful cry, Fan Botong couldn't help but shed tears, choked up and promised Li Jiancheng that he would defend the city for more than ten days, and promised that if he could not break through, he would defend the city to the end. Now, if the city is dead and people are dead, if possible, we must persist until Li Jiancheng wins the Taiyuan Defense War and returns to rescue the small city of Jiexiu. Li Jiancheng cried when he heard this, and cried with Fan Botong.
While weeping, Li Jiancheng had been paying attention to the faint shouts of killing coming from the cold spring pass in the south, and thought to himself: "General Zhang Lun, I'm really sorry, for the safety of the main force, I have to lie to you once. Don't worry if I don't , I don’t want you to watch until tomorrow morning, as long as you watch until tonight.”
The fighting at Lengquan Pass was far more difficult than Li Jiancheng imagined. After the shelling ceased near noon, the Sui army's ants attached to the city had not stopped. Each battalion and school of the Sui army took turns to fight, carrying flying ladders to continuously attack the narrow and short The cold spring pass wall, which lost the ability to strike immediately, was unable to effectively suppress the charge of the Sui army. They could only barely resist the Sui army's offensive by relying on the final advantage of being condescending. Every time the soldiers of the Sui army rushed to the top of the pass wall , Usually it can bring several times the casualties to the guards of Cold Spring Pass. Zhang Lun led the death squads to fight the fire around, killing even the knives. It was only after Shenshi in the afternoon that the battle was fierce. The number of Taiyuan army deserters.
The soldiers of the Sui army who dug the city had already dug a deep pit that could accommodate people on the wall of the rammed earth pass. The infantry of the Sui army had also seized the mountain highlands to the east of the cold spring pass, and began to throw stones and arrows at the pass, but the guards of the cold spring pass still remained. Standing on the wall was not out of loyalty, but because Zhang Lun personally told Li Jiancheng, a soldier guarding the pass, that he would have new troops to replenish him until dark, and he would be able to switch defenses and retreat to the camp to rest until the next morning. However, the defenders of Cold Spring Pass also rely on this hope to have the will to continue, but they don't know that their main force is already planning to retreat, and it is absolutely impossible to send them reinforcements.
When the sun was gradually slanting to the west, the aggressive Sui army officers and soldiers had successfully seized a closed wall position, and the follow-up troops were able to continue to go to the pass. Zhang Lun personally led the death squads to compete with the Sui army officers and soldiers for the closed wall position inch by inch. , while dispatching a fast horse to Li Jiancheng for emergency. However, when the soldiers sent by Zhang Lun rushed back to the Taiyuan Army camp in the northeast of Jiexiu with sweat and blood all over their faces, they were shocked to see that the main force of the Taiyuan Army was already heading north, and then he himself was detained by Li Jiancheng. Don't let him bring back the news that the Taiyuan Army's main force has begun to retreat back to Lengquanguan to shake the morale of the army.
It was also when it was getting dark and all the main forces of the Taiyuan army left the camp and hurried northward, Li Jiancheng sent someone to send an order to Zhang Lun, asking Zhang Lun to abandon his troops and leave Lengquan Pass immediately, and go north with him back to Taiyuan City. After receiving this order, Zhang Lun finally understood that Li Jiancheng had already planned to abandon Lengquanguan. In his rage, he almost wanted to lead his army to surrender to the Sui army. However, Zhang Lun quietly left Lengquanguan with tears in his eyes, leaving a group of cadres to continue to fight bloody battles with Sui soldiers on the wall of Lengquanguan.
When it was completely dark, Lengquan Pass, without the command of the general, was finally breached by the soldiers of the Sui Army. However, when the soldiers of the Sui Army planted the flag on the wall and cheered, Wenshui from the northwest merged into the mouth of Fenshui, but Suddenly there was the sound of water flowing like thunder, and the torrent of Wenshui, which had accumulated for more than ten days, rushed into the Fenshui River. Queshu Valley flooded many sections of Queshu Valley roads located in low places one after another. Although the Sui army had been prepared to quickly withdraw to the high ground, the flood was not too large and it was destined not to endanger the safety of the Sui army's camps, but it also gave the Sui army Cheng Yaojin and Qin Qiong, two cavalrymen sent by Chen Sangliang to pursue the Taiyuan Army, were also blocked by the sudden flood, and had no choice but to temporarily rein in their horses.
"At least one night must be delayed." This is what Li Jing said helplessly to Yuan Tiangang, saying: "I also underestimated Li Jiancheng, who has always been known for his loyalty, and I never thought that he would deliberately let the cold spring guards die in vain, so as to buy him time to retreat , Still retreating while decisively releasing water, this time we want to annihilate his main brigade outside Taiyuan City, but there is little hope."
Unlike Li Jing who was quite disappointed, after receiving the news of Lengquanguan, Chen Sangliang did not have the slightest regret or disappointment, and said: "Send a fast horse to Qin Qiong and Cheng Yaojin, and tell them that there is no need to work hard to outflank them." Cut off the Taiyuan bandit army's retreat. If the infantry can't keep up with them, no matter how much they outflank and turn around, it won't help much. Just let them fight in pursuit and cause the enemy to disperse as much as possible. Also, give me all I can to get Li Erlang's head! As long as they can Taking Li Erlang's head in the pursuit battle, even if the main force of the bandit army fled back to Taiyuan City, I will give them a great credit!"