It is not uncommon among the members of the Li clan to suggest that Li Jiancheng should also be dragged into the water, and let Li Jiancheng take the Li clan to Chen Sangliang's command to become Murongchui, but this proposal was firmly opposed by the two brothers Li Er and Li Yuan. The second said that he didn't want to be manipulated by his elder brother anymore, but Li Jiancheng was following the lead, and was restrained by the bird's anger; The elders of the Li family, such as Shentong and Li Shuliang, were also worried that Li Jiancheng was stubborn and refused to accept this humiliating Li family revival plan, so the Li clan finally unanimously decided to kick Li Jiancheng out of the game and surrender the city by themselves.
But the surrender of Xiancheng is definitely not something that can be done just by saying it. The reason is that Li Jiancheng used his foreign surname to alienate his relatives, and the military power in Taiyuan was completely controlled by Li Jiancheng. Zhu Can was the last member of Li Er's lineage that was hit hard. The Li clan had no soldiers, no rights, and could not even get out of Taiyuan City without Li Jiancheng's permission. Why dedicate the city to Chen Sangliang for credit? If you are not careful, the possibility of your head falling to the ground is very high.
But it's not bad, the Li family is not completely without capital, at least Li Yuanji still has some old direct descendants in the Taiyuan garrison that can be contacted and bought, especially Liu Dewei, one of the thirteen generals of the Taiyuan Army, was strongly recommended by Li Yuanji For Li Jiancheng's old confidant, the soldiers and horses under his command remained intact in Taiyuan, and they were stationed in the most important west city of Taiyuan. Basically, as long as Liu Dewei agreed to cooperate, the Li clan's plan to dedicate the city would be more than half successful. So when discussing how to proceed, Li Yuanji first proposed to bring Liu Dewei into the water to act together.
Li Er also strongly objected to pinning all hopes on Liu Dewei. The reason was that Liu Dewei's impression of Li Yuanji was too deep, and there must be Li Jiancheng's eyeliner around him. If the military power is handed over to Li Yuanji's direct descendant, Liu Dewei, he must be sure of it. Pulling Liu Dewei into the water first and then doing it will most likely lead to bad things. Therefore, Li Er proposed to capture the thief first and capture the king first, and then asked Liu Dewei to do something after Li Jiancheng was taken down. In this way, even if Liu Dewei refused to agree, the Li clan would not have to worry about being chopped into pieces by Li Jiancheng's subordinates if they had hostages in their hands. Mushed meat, and hope of escape.
Li Shentong and Li Shuliang and other old slickers certainly agreed with Li Er's prudent strategy. After some discussions and discussions, a plan to capture Li Jiancheng and offer the city was quickly released, and Chen Sangliang was contacted in advance to let the main force of the Sui army prepare in advance. This important event has become the top priority of the Li clan...
In this way, the night passed quickly, and when the samurai Xun who had been drunk at Li Yuanji's home all night returned to Li Jiancheng, the situation outside the city also changed. Under the supervision and drive of the Sui Army soldiers, all the tens of thousands of Ding Yang Army prisoners captured by the Sui Army were dispatched to build a dam at the narrowest point between Longshan and Dongshan in the south of Taiyuan City. At the same time, the Sui Army soldiers also used He promised to pay wages after the city was broken, and half-lured and half-forced the people outside the city to participate in the construction of the Fenshui Dam. In the south of the Fenshui Bridge, the heads of people were like ants, and the people carrying earth and wood were kept coming and going. A dam prototype was built between the two mountains.
At the same time, the upper reaches of Fenshui also began to receive more rainfall, and the surface of the Fenshui River began to rise gradually. In this regard, the helpless Li Jiancheng was worried, and had to seriously consider adopting Li Er's suggestion. In the end, he decided to send a few elite soldiers out of the city at night to attack and harass the Sui army's dam construction site, delaying the Sui army's dam-building progress and Strive for a few victories to boost morale.
However, it is a pity that the action of Li Er and Li Jiancheng was already expected by the Sui army. That night, more than a hundred Taiyuan army soldiers wearing Sui army uniforms had just approached the embankment, and they were immediately attacked by the Sui army because they could not answer the night password. The random arrows of the army guarding the dam were entertained, and then a Sui army soldier with a special logo went out to fight. Even at night, he could clearly distinguish the enemy from himself, and killed the Taiyuan army's night attack army with heavy casualties. , Fleeing back into the city in embarrassment, the Sui army took advantage of the momentum to chase and kill them under the city of Taiyuan, almost annihilating the soldiers of the Taiyuan army who had left the city. Of the 100 soldiers of the Taiyuan army who left the city, only less than ten of them fled back to the city by rope.
Upon receiving this news, Li Er also ran to Li Jiancheng again to offer advice, proposing to launch another night attack, but to arrange an ambush behind the army that went out of the city to attack at night, so that the former army would feign defeat and lead the Sui army into an ambush circle to attack . However, Li Jiancheng was afraid that the soldiers of the Sui army were still prepared, so he dared not agree. Li Er repeatedly persuaded him, and expressed his willingness to lead the army to take on the task of luring the enemy himself. Still nodded in agreement with Li Er's volunteering, decided to try his luck again, and agreed that Li Er would recruit soldiers to form a death squad to attack.
On the second night, Li Er really led the death squad out of the city to lure the enemy, but it was still a pity. Although Li Er successfully lured the Sui army dam guards away from the position and launched a pursuit, the Sui army soldiers were very cunning and only pursued them as far as Taiyuan. The Yurang bridge crossing Zhiboqu in the west of the city stopped. Li Jiancheng's ambushes carefully arranged in the north of Zhiboqu had worked hard in vain. More than 20 people were killed and disappeared. Li Er felt extremely ashamed and ran to Li Jiancheng to plead guilty, and Li Jiancheng was even more helpless to completely dispel his daydream of attacking and harassing the Sui army by a small group of elites.
Of course, Li Er did not work hard in vain. Relying on this opportunity to go out of the city, a soldier of the Taiyuan Army chosen by Li Er took the opportunity to leave the team and ran to the Sui army guarding the dam to surrender. A letter of request signed jointly by the clan was delivered to Chen Sangliang. However, after seeing the letter written by more than a dozen Li clans, Chen Sangliang not only did not show much joy, on the contrary he looked embarrassed and fell into deep thought.
After discussing for a while with Chen Sangliang's other aides in a low voice, the authenticity of the Li clan's surrender and dedication to the city, Li Jing found out that Chen Sangliang's expression was not good, so he carefully asked Chen Sangliang: "Your Highness, Li Shentong and Li Yuanji Waiting for the Li clan to send a letter requesting surrender, why are you frowning? Don’t you suspect that the Li clan’s request for surrender is fake?"
"The possibility of false surrender is not very high." Chen Sangliang shook his head and said: "Our detailed work has already detected that the Li clan is indeed in a bad situation under Li Jiancheng's command. Li Jiancheng neither trusts them nor appoints them. They treat Li Jiancheng Dissatisfaction is definitely true. Now that our army has begun to build dams to store water, and Taiyuan City is about to be destroyed, it is not surprising that these grasshoppers surrendered the city for their lives and wealth, so the possibility of them falsely surrendering is very small. And even if they It's a false surrender, as long as we use our troops carefully, we have nothing to be afraid of."
"I think so too." Qu Tutong agreed, saying: "The Li clan made it very clear in the letter that they are going to contact the generals in the city to offer the city to surrender, and when the time comes, they will have to capture the thief first and then the king if they refuse to surrender. Li Jiancheng won, and we just need to prevent them from setting up ambushes and Qianjin gates in the city when we march in. Even if there is a fraud, we won't suffer much. But Your Highness, why don't you look pretty when you have such a good opportunity in front of you? "
"I'm worried about Li Jiancheng." Chen Sangliang said truthfully: "Li Jiancheng is soft on the outside and strong on the inside. If he is really captured by the Li clan, he will probably rather die than surrender, and would rather lose his life than submit to his gang. Shameless relatives bowed their heads and gave their lives for nothing."
Qu Tutong, Feng Deyi and the others laughed heartlessly, and said: "Your Highness, this is an anecdote in the world. In this world, there are still things that worry about the life and safety of the enemy's coach?"
"Li Jiancheng doesn't owe me anything, but I owe Li Jiancheng a lot." Chen Sangliang said sullenly: "I lied to Li Jiancheng when we first met, and then he not only didn't care about it, but also tried his best to prevent his father and brother from plotting to harm him." Me, gave me a gift to see me off. During the Yanmen War, I had already taken down his father, and he also tried his best to help me win the Yanmen War. He has always been very worthy of me, but I still I never gave him anything in return, so I always feel like I owe him something."
Only then did Qu Tutong, Feng Deyi and the others shut their mouths, but Li Jing said with a smile: "Your Highness and Li Jiancheng's friendship between gentlemen is indeed admirable, but your Highness, you can't just miss this quick time for nothing because of your personal friendship with Li Jiancheng." Is it a good chance to attack Taiyuan City?"
"Of course not." Chen Sangliang said in a very depressed tone: "Although I am very concerned about Li Jiancheng's safety, I must be responsible for the lives of the soldiers under my command and the people of the whole world. The city can reduce the casualties of countless soldiers of our army, save countless food and military supplies, reduce the burden of the people in Guanzhong and East River, and speed up the end of this troubled world to benefit the people of the world. For these, I can't bear it, I can only feel wronged brother Jiancheng. "
"Your Highness is right. We should clearly distinguish which is more important." Li Jing nodded, and then asked: "Your Highness, what should we do? Should we send a signal to let the Li clan in Taiyuan know that we accept them?" Please surrender, let them feel at ease?"
"Let's send out a signal." Chen Sangliang sighed, and said, "Li Yuanji and Li Shentong's group can rest assured by lighting the beacon on the top of Longshan Mountain. But the dam building cannot be stopped. We have to be prepared. It is of course best to be able to break through the city quickly by relying on the interior, if not, we can break through the city with water according to the original plan, take Taiyuan as soon as possible and return to the Central Plains battlefield."
In this way, although he couldn't bear it in his heart, in order to reduce the casualties of soldiers and reduce the expenditure of food and grass, Chen Sangliang ordered to light the beacon fire on the top of Longshan as agreed, so that the members of the Li clan in the city could feel at ease. An additional army was stationed, led by Li Jing, who was ready to enter the city at any time with the support of the Li clan. And after seeing the smoke rising from the top of Longshan Mountain as they wished, the Li clan was elated, and immediately started to arrange the coup plan and put it into practice.
Paper can't hold fire, Li Jiancheng is just a relatively kind personality, but the scheming city is definitely not under Li Er, and he has found that his relatives and brothers have been coming and going too frequently these days, and the frequency of gatherings is too high, which has increased somewhat Some vigilance. However, the samurai Xun who was ordered to spy on the Li clan reported to Li Jiancheng that although the Li clan gatherings were indeed discussing the current Taiyuan war one after another, they were discussing how to defend the city and what to do if the city was lost. Xiang Loufan and Mayi retreated to break through, so Li Jiancheng didn't care too much, and just let the warrior Xun continue to closely monitor the matter.
As a result, Li Jiancheng naturally failed to find out that Li Yuanji sent someone to contact Liu Dewei, the old department in private, and he also didn't find out that the eyeliner he had placed in Li Yuanji's house had already been secretly screened out by the shrewd Li Er. Li Shentong secretly found out the rotation plan of each department of the Taiyuan City Defenders, and he did not find a net against him that was quietly opening...
Two days later, on the seventh day of the seventh lunar month, Taiyuan experienced the first heavy rain after the flood season. Although the resulting rise in the Fenshui River facilitated the Sui Army’s plan to divert water to fill the city, it also limited the Sui Army’s siege weapons. The movement advances and restricts the power of bows and arrows. Relatively speaking, the possibility of the Sui army launching a siege is relatively small. Therefore, after inspecting the city defenses and finding no abnormalities, Li Jiancheng ordered to reward the defenders and let his soldiers Have a good house opening festival—also called Qiqiao Festival in this era, so as to boost the morale of the army. However, after the rain stopped in the middle of the afternoon, Li Yuanji's family suddenly came to Li Jiancheng's headquarters in Jinyang Palace to ask for an interview, and they brought bad news to Li Jiancheng nervously—Li Yuanji suddenly fell ill. , the condition is still very critical!
"What's wrong with fourth brother? Have you asked the doctor? What did the doctor say?" Li Jiancheng asked nervously after hearing the news.
"I'm reporting to Governor Zuo, my Duke Qi suffered from unbearable abdominal pain, and he was sweating all over his body. He consulted a doctor, who said it was intestinal ulcer (acute appendicitis)." Li Yuanji's family replied, "The doctor also said, The illness of your father is fast and severe, and I am afraid that his life may be in danger, so my wife sent a young man to ask Zuo Dudu to go and have a look, otherwise it may be too late."
"It's raining all night! How could the fourth brother have such an emergency at this time?" Li Jiancheng complained loudly, got up quickly, and ordered: "Hurry up, prepare the horse for me! I want to visit the fourth brother right away."
The guard agreed, but Feng Li, Li Jiancheng's most trusted confidant, hurriedly persuaded him: "Commander Zuo, bandit soldiers are besieging the city. Commander, you are the fate of the whole city of Taiyuan. It is best not to leave the important place of Jinyang Palace lightly, just in case."
"It's okay, I'll come as soon as I go, just keep an eye on Jinyang Palace for me." Li Jiancheng shook his head and refused, and said: "Intestinal carbuncle emergency, it is very likely to kill someone, my fourth brother handed over the military power of Taiyuan to me, I I owe him a lot, and I have to visit him in person."
Feng Li had no choice but to change his words and said, "Captain Zuo, then you should bring more guards with you."
"Captain Zuo, please let the general take two hundred guards with you." The warrior Xun also stood up and volunteered.
Li Jiancheng didn't think too much, and immediately accepted the kindness of Feng Li and the warrior Xun. Li Jiancheng hurried out to mount his horse, and the warrior Xun also hurriedly led two hundred soldiers to follow Li Jiancheng to leave Jinyang Palace, all the way to Li Jiancheng in the southwest corner of Taiyuan West City. Yuanji Mansion came. But after getting outside the gate of Li Yuanji's mansion, Li Jiancheng rushed directly into the gate of Li Yuanji's mansion as soon as he got off his horse, but the warrior Xun ordered the accompanying guards to wait in line outside the gate, and only led four guards to follow Li Jiancheng to the entrance.
Li Yuanji's sudden illness this time is indeed a serious one. The servants who come and go in the front yard and the back garden, more than half of the members of the Li clan including Li Shentong and Li Shuliang, are all guarding outside Li Yuanji's bedroom door. Come in and salute quickly, Li Jiancheng waved everyone away, and asked anxiously: "How is the fourth brother's illness? Do you want..., huh? Liu Dewei, you are not on duty in the city, what are you doing here?"
"Report to Commander Zuo, the General has received news that the Duke of Qi is suddenly ill, so hurry up and take a look." Liu Dewei, who happened to be in charge of the army on the city today, hurriedly handed over his hands, and said helplessly, "The General did not dare to leave his post without permission, but The people sent by Qi Guogong said that Qi Guogong was seriously ill, and he must come to see him, and he had to entrust the funeral to the general. The general had no choice, so he hurried over to have a look. The general left the post without authorization, please Governor Zuo forgives the crime."
"Go back to the city immediately!" Li Jiancheng was furious, and roared: "Today, the troops on duty in the west city of Taiyuan are all your subordinates. If you leave the city wall without permission, what if...?"
"Ah! It hurts me to death! Brother! Brother! It hurts me to death! Dulwich, Dulwich! Come in! I can't do it, I'm going to do it!"
The sudden scream of Li Yuanji from inside the room interrupted Li Jiancheng's roar. Hearing Li Yuanji's scream was more horrific than killing a pig, Li Jiancheng didn't care to pursue Liu Dewei's crime of leaving without authorization, so he could only hurry Rushing into Li Yuanji's ward, as a result, as soon as he entered the door, Li Jiancheng saw his precious fourth brother rolling back and forth on the bed, the screams were earth-shattering, Li Jiancheng was in a hurry, rushed forward to hold Li Yuanji, and asked anxiously Said: "Fourth brother, fourth brother, how are you? Does it matter? It's okay, I'm here, big brother, haven't you...?"
Li Jiancheng couldn't continue what he said here, because a dagger suddenly appeared in Li Yuanji's hand, and it had already pointed at his heart. Yuan Ji suddenly strangled Li Jiancheng's neck again, and said viciously, "Don't move! Otherwise, I'll kill you!"
"Qi Gong, what are you doing?" Liu Dewei who followed into the door turned pale with shock, but before he finished speaking, Li Er rushed out from behind the door, and also put a knife on his neck, ordering him not to move around. He quickly grabbed his hands back.
At the same time, the members of the Li clan outside the door also showed their weapons, and the servants of the Li family who were busy in the courtyard also suddenly showed their weapons, and quickly surrounded the four guards of the warrior Xun and Li Jiancheng. Li Shentong personally came forward and shouted, : "Put down your weapons, don't shout or move around, or you will die!"
The incident happened so suddenly that all four of Li Jiancheng's guards were stunned. After recovering, one of the guards opened his mouth and was about to yell. Who would have thought that the samurai Xun suddenly slashed at his neck, killing him on the spot? He cut it down, and then shouted to the remaining three guards: "Put down your weapon, don't shout, or he will be your fate!"
It was the turn of Li Shentong, Li Shuliang and the others to be overwhelmed with surprise. After recovering, everyone in the Li family stepped forward. With the help of Li Yuanji's family soldiers, they quickly disarmed the three guards of Li Jiancheng, gagged their mouths and tied them up. The warrior Xun also turned the hilt of the knife upside down, cupped his hands to Li Shentong and the others, and said, "Generals, I will talk about other things later. In short, I will go with you. Don't worry about Li Jiancheng's guards outside the door. I will temporarily stabilize them for you!"
At the same time when Li Shentong, Li Shuliang and others were overjoyed, the back door of Li Yuanji's ward also opened suddenly. Li Fengci, Li Boyi and other younger members of the Li family rushed into the room with rope weapons in their hands. Covered Li Jiancheng's mouth until Li Fengci and others tied Li Jiancheng firmly, then Li Fengci and others quickly tied Li Jiancheng's mouth with a rope, so that he could make some noise, but he could not speak or shout loudly .
The speed of Li Yuanji, Li Fengci and others was so fast that it was dizzying, so that Li Jiancheng's mouth was tied with a rope, and Liu Dewei, who was restrained by Li Er, finally came back to his senses and asked in surprise: "Qi Gong, the right governor!" , what are you guys doing? Why are you capturing Zuo Dudu?"
"Why? Of course it's to save Taiyuan, but also to save you!" The beheading plan progressed more smoothly than expected. He smiled at Liu Dewei and said, "Dewey, do you know why we chose to fight today? It's because we know that today is your team's duty, and your subordinates are the most fully prepared for the battle. They are all armed and ready to fight at any time! See? If you help me dedicate Taiyuan City to His Highness Tang Wang, you will be a great hero to His Highness Tang Wang, with glory, wealth, official titles, and whatever you want!"
Liu Dewei was even more tongue-tied, but Li Jiancheng, whose mouth was tied by a rope, yelled indistinctly, "Dewei! Don't listen to them, tell Feng Li right away, let him lead the army to rescue me! We can't surrender! We can't surrender!"