Watching Zheng Guanyin's mother and son walk into the east city of Taiyuan from a distance, Chen Sangliang, who was feeling the impermanence of fate, was shaking his head and sighing, when an urgent pond newspaper with chicken feathers was suddenly rushed to him by his own soldiers, Chen Sangliang once thought that It was the pond newspaper of the left-wing war, and he asked casually, "Is it Liu Heita's pond newspaper? Did you take down Lishi?"
"To the king of the Tang Dynasty, it's not Mr. Liu who is in charge of the pond newspaper, but the pond newspaper of Old General Yun." The soldiers hurriedly corrected it and reported: "It was the pond newspaper sent from Xin'an by old general Yun Ding Xingyun in an expedited five hundred miles. "
"Five hundred li urgently? Something happened to Dongdu!"
Chen Sangliang was stunned, and quickly took the Tang newspaper and opened it to watch the content. The Sui army civil and military officers present also guessed that a major change must have taken place in Luoyang, the eastern capital, and they all nervously observed Chen Sangliang's reaction. It turned out that Chen Sangliang first He was obviously taken aback, then frowned again, with a worried look on his face, and didn't say a word for a long time. Qu Tutong couldn't hold back his curiosity, so he asked cautiously: "Your Highness, what happened?"
"Li Mi lost." Chen Sangliang frowned and replied: "The defeat was very tragic. The main force west of Hulao Pass was almost lost, and the Luokou warehouse was also taken away by Wang Shichong. According to the confirmed news, Li Mi may have been seriously injured in the battle, unable to command the defenders of Hulao Gate to launch a counterattack to retake Luokou Cang, and fled eastward to Baima."
"Li Mi lost so badly?" Qu Tutong was a little surprised, and said puzzledly: "Is this impossible? Even if Wang Shichong is not easy to deal with, Li Mi's strength is also higher than Wang Shichong, even if he accidentally suffers a defeat , it’s impossible to lose so badly?”
"Li Mi committed the problem of underestimating the enemy, and the internal conflicts accumulated in the internal strife with Zhai Rang before broke out at critical moments. The loss is a bit wrong, but it is not wrong." Chen Sangliang sighed, and then handed the pond newspaper to A group of accomplices and lackeys watched, Yuan Tiangang and others hurried forward to watch with Qu Tutong, only then did they understand why Chen Sangliang said that Li Mi was wronged but not wronged.
Li Mi's disastrous defeat this time was completely self-inflicted. After confirming that Chen Sangliang personally led the Guanzhong Sui Army to the Northern Expedition to Taiyuan, Li Mi, who felt that he was strong, ignored the fact that his main soldiers were fighting against the Xiaoguo Army. The reality of the greatest loss and the most casualties in the decisive battle hastily launched a frontal attack on Luoyang Jiancheng, in an attempt to seize the time to eliminate Wang Shichong and dominate the Central Plains. As a result, this fell into Wang Shichong's hands. When the food shortage situation was alleviated and his strength was supplemented to a certain extent, the treacherous and treacherous Wang Shichong not only did not rush to launch a decisive battle, but also deliberately showed weakness and abandoned the outer city of the eastern capital. The imperial city of the capital consumes Li Mi's strength and morale by relying on the stronger imperial city and palace city.
Li Mi, who had successfully captured the outer city, was caught in the trap. Regardless of the casualties and the cost, Wang Shichong's army suddenly became very strong because of the sharp shrinkage of its position. Each army went to the city in turn to fight. , In the battle of defending the city, a large amount of Li Mijun's strength was consumed at a relatively small price, which also made Li Mijun's old master tired and morale plummeted after attacking the fortified city for a long time. Unprepared for the defeat, Li Mi regained the outer city of the Eastern Capital in one fell swoop, and then took advantage of the victory to attack Li Mi's defeated army with all his strength, and in turn wanted to eat Li Mi's army in one bite.
At a critical moment, internal conflicts broke out in Li Mi's army. Pei Renji, a professional cheater, was dissatisfied with Li Mi's refusal to adopt his suggestion of trying to lure the enemy into a decisive battle in the field. When he was defeated and fled, his head was flooded again, and he refused to perform the mission of the rear, leading his army to flee to Huiluo City. Leaving from the main brigade, Li Mijun's morale was severely damaged again; then Zhang Tong'er, the surrendered general of the Xiaoguo Army who succeeded Pei Renji's palace, turned his back on the water again and led his army to surrender to Wang Shichong. Cangqian was defeated again, and then Zhai Rang, the old guard of Luokou Cang, Bing Yuanzhen gave Li Mi another fatal blow, opened the gate of Cangcheng and surrendered to Wang Shichong. Yang Jishan, who led the Hulao Pass defenders to aid the west, was also defeated by Wang Shichong's army, which was full of morale. Seeing that the situation was over, Li Mi had to lead a small number of cronies to escape into Hulao Pass. Wang Shichong successfully captured the Luokou warehouse, completely solving the food shortage problem .
By the way, Pei Renji, a professional cheater, was afraid that Li Mi would hold him accountable for leading his army to leave the battlefield. As soon as he received the news of the fall of Luokoucang, he took the initiative to ask Wang Shichong to surrender, and immediately ran to Heyang to defeat Yu. Wenhuaji's advance team crossing the river burned down the Heyang Bridge and destroyed Yuwenhuaji's dream of taking advantage of the fire to rob. Zhai Rang's other two lieutenants, Shan Xiongxin and Xu Shiji, also surrendered to Wang Shichong in the fierce battle. A small group of remnants of the defeated generals lingered on the east of Hulao Pass.
After carefully reading Yun Dingxing's painstakingly collected Dongdu war report, Qu Tutong, Yuan Tiangang and others were astounded by Wang Shichong's black eight miracle and Li Mi's collapse, and inevitably asked Chen Sangliang strangely: "Your Highness, Li Mi is a strong enemy of our army. His disastrous defeat is a great thing for our army anyway. Why are you so worried? Are you worried that Wang Shichong's victory will cause huge damage to our Guanzhong hinterland?" threaten?"
Chen Sangliang shook his head, and said in a heavy tone: "Wang Shichong will pose some threats to us after he wins a big victory, but his foundation and moral character are there, even if he is a little threat to us, it is not a big threat to us. I will not let it go." In my eyes. I am not happy because I am worried about a few friends, and I don’t know if they have been hurt in this war, and what is the situation now.”
"Your Highness, your friend?" Qu Tutong was taken aback, and hurriedly said: "Your Highness, since you have friends who have been affected by this war and are worried about their situation, then you should send someone to contact Wang Shichong and ask Wang Shichong to help find them. Whereabouts? Wang Shichong and you are relatives of Weng-in-law, so you can help me with this little favor, right?"
Chen Sangliang smiled, thinking that it was so easy? But after thinking about it for a while, Chen Sangliang said again: "It is unnecessary to ask Wang Shichong to help find someone, but reciprocity is indispensable. Fu Jia, you write a letter to my father-in-law Wang Shichong in my private honor, to his east. Du Dajie congratulated him and expressed my willingness to get along with him in a friendly manner. We haven't taken all of Taiyuan yet, so we have to be humble."
Sun Fujia sang promises, and promised to write the book immediately after returning the account. Chen Sangliang nodded, looked at the east city of Taiyuan for a while, and ordered: "Transport the eighteen cannons to the west city of Taiyuan, together with the two guns that were sent there before. Two cannons, twenty cannons were set up on the top of the west city, and when they found a suitable target, they fired and bombarded the east city of Taiyuan, making Li Jiancheng difficult to live day and night, forcing him to make a choice!"
Yuan Tiangang, who was in charge of weapons, sang a promise, and asked Chen Sangliang, "Your Highness, do you want to continue building the dam?"
"No more." Chen Sangliang replied: "There is not much food in the east city of Taiyuan, and the scale of the city is much smaller than that of the west city. It can be taken down by force. Building dams will only waste time and make Li Jiancheng want to escape. There is no way to escape, prepare siege weapons and attack the city with force, the sooner you can win the east city of Taiyuan, the better. Wang Shichong has already won a decisive battle, so we should move faster."
Because of Chen Sangliang's order, although the innocent soldiers and civilians in Taiyuan escaped from the flood, from that night onwards, the poor soldiers and civilians in the east city of Taiyuan fell into constant fear. On the city wall of the west city of Taiyuan, which is only two hundred steps away from the east city, a round of salvos first blasted the west gate tower of the east city into rubble for demonstrations, and then they shot cold shots there when they saw a lot of people there. Qian Xiangmin, who is very talented in mathematics, commanded the artillery team of the Sui army, and fired one or two cannonballs into the east city of Taiyuan at irregular intervals, blasting the guards of the Taiyuan army on the wall of the east city to howl like ghosts and wolves. , Casualties continued, forced to squat, crawl and walk, and also smashed the slightly decent buildings in Dongcheng to pieces, and collapsed one after another. The poor Dongcheng defenders and the people were yelling and screaming in the city, running back and forth to avoid artillery, living in fear all the time, and their morale and fighting spirit were greatly affected.
At the same time, in addition to sending a toad cart to fill up the moat of the east city, Chen Sangliang also sent Liu Dewei and the samurai Xun to the city to shout for surrender, let the Taiyuan defenders know the Sui army's captive policy, and encouraged the Taiyuan defenders to leave the city and surrender. A blow to the confidence and morale of the Taiyuan Army. As a result, some results were achieved. On the night of the ninth day of July, more than a dozen soldiers of the Taiyuan army slipped down the city wall and surrendered, bringing a lot of important information to Chen Sangliang and the main force of the Sui army.
Among the information provided by Jiang Bing, what Chen Sangliang was most concerned about was of course the psychological impact of killing the Li clan on the Dongcheng defenders. As a result, Chen Sangliang was deeply moved that Li Jiancheng did not use this opportunity to intimidate and force the Dongcheng defenders. The army fought to the end, gave up the opportunity to coerce the entire city's soldiers and civilians to be buried with him, and let the Taiyuan army officers and soldiers listen to Feng Li and Liu Dewei's explanation of Chen Sangliang's execution of the Li family. He was killed by himself, not by Chen Sangliang's dishonesty. The civil and military members of the Sui army were also very happy about this, saying that Li Jiancheng had already been moved by Chen Sangliang's sincerity, and there was hope for the peaceful liberation of the eastern city of Taiyuan.
It was precisely because of this hope that Feng Deyi suggested that Chen Sangliang come to the city again to recruit Li Jiancheng. However, Chen Sangliang shook his head and refused after thinking about it for a while, saying: "There is no need to waste your energy, Li Jiancheng is not so easy to submit , as long as he has made up his mind, he will not be shaken even if I say Po Datian, let's attack the city by force according to the original plan, and we can no longer pin our hopes on the enemy's self-surrender."
After more than eight days of careful preparations, and repeated heart-to-heart battles in which soldiers were sent to the city to shout for surrender, on July 17, under the personal command of Chen Sangliang, the main force of the Sui army officially marched towards the city. The east city of Taiyuan launched a frontal attack, and ten artillery pieces blasted the east gate tower of the east city into ruins in a short while. More than 500 trebuchets were kept non-stop, throwing stone bullets weighing tens of kilograms onto the city wall, The earthen city wall was smashed and riddled with holes, hundreds of bed crossbows were fired one after another, and the thick arrow shafts were inserted all over the city wall. There are also tens of thousands of Sui army archers pouring feather arrows at the city, and the arrow feathers flying around the city are like hedgehog hairs, as if they are covered with reeds.
The west city was also pouring artillery fire on the east city like crazy, so that the Taiyuan army reserve team could not gather in the middle of the city at all, they could only get as close to the east wall as possible. Continuously shooting and hitting these reserve teams, the soldiers of the Taiyuan Army were attacked from left and right, suffering terribly.
After noon, the Sui army's ant-attached siege officially began, and the attacking queue was as turbulent as the waves. In the first wave of attack, hundreds of light ladders were built on the city wall, and the soldiers of the Sui army stepped on the ladder. Shouting up, stepping on the arrow shaft of the bed crossbow to climb upwards, at the same time there are more than 20 ladder vehicles and the same number of crashing vehicles slowly approaching the city wall driven by the soldiers of the Sui army. The goal of the crashing vehicles is of course In this era, there are not very strong rammed earth walls, and as long as one of the ladder carts is on the wall, it will immediately become the biggest nightmare for the defenders on the city.
Under Li Jiancheng's personal command, the Taiyuan army also showed admirable courage and will to resist the Sui army's attack tenaciously, and used various defensive weapons to attack the Sui army soldiers head-on, but the disparity in strength was too great. The most important long-range weapons have a huge generation gap of hundreds of years, so no matter how bravely the soldiers of the Taiyuan Army resisted, they still could not completely kill the soldiers of the Sui Army. The soldiers of the Sui army who were ahead of the Taiyuan army rushed up the city wall one after another. The Taiyuan army could only stop the soldiers of the Sui army from expanding their positions at the top of the city with their lives filled.
Feathered arrows are constantly coming and going in the sky, but the shafts of these feathered arrows all bear the stamp marks of the Taiyuan Army, and the Sui Army's ladder carts and crane carts are also constantly burning under the attack of swallowtail torches and fire oil pots. However, it is very regrettable for the Taiyuan defenders that most of their fire oil reserves are in the west city, and they have already fallen into the hands of the main force of the Sui army. Because even the weapons supply officer has shamelessly surrendered to Chen Sangliang, their weakness has long been understood by the main forces of the Sui army, so even though they burned ten or hundreds of Sui army ladder vehicles and crash vehicles, they still have more Many heavy siege weapons slowly approached their positions.
When the sun was setting, there was a loud bang at the bottom of the city wall that was riddled with holes by the rammed vehicles and the Sui Army infantry, and a section of the rammed-earth city wall at least four feet wide collapsed. After a suitable cave was found, a coffin filled with gunpowder was stuffed into the cave and ignited and detonated. The soldiers of the Taiyuan Army, who could not accumulate similar experience in this era, were unable to cope. They were successfully blasted by the soldiers of the Sui Army. More than ten soldiers in the city exploded The city wall fell with a sound and was buried alive with rammed earth, and a gap was exposed on the city wall.
Fortunately, a similar situation occurred in the previous cold weapon war. The soldiers of the Taiyuan Army who had been prepared for a long time immediately pushed the saber cart into the gap, and at the same time quickly built wooden fences to repair the gap. However, it is a pity that such a contingency strategy Although the cold weapon war was too correct, the poor soldiers of the Taiyuan army encountered the main force of the Sui army equipped with quite advanced gunpowder weapons—ten cannons fired only one salvo and blasted the Saimen knife cart into pieces. The state of the parts was destroyed, and the fence built by the soldiers of the Taiyuan Army was smashed into sawdust. The generals and soldiers of the Sui army shouted forward, and rushed into the city from the gap.
Looking desperately at the fatal gap, Li Jiancheng ordered the army to launch a counterattack as if dying, trying to drive the soldiers of the Sui Army out of the city again. It was extremely fierce, but the difference in strength meant that it would be difficult for Li Jiancheng to get his wish. During the continuation of the war, there was another explosion of gunpowder under another section of the city wall, and another section of the city wall more than two feet long collapsed again.
By the way, the reason why Chen Sangliang dared to squander so much precious gunpowder in the first full-scale attack was thanks to the blessings of Li Jiancheng and Li Er. Li Jiancheng, who attached great importance to war preparations, spent a lot of money and food to produce a large amount of gunpowder. Unfortunately, most of these gunpowder were stored in the Xicheng Arsenal.
Chen Sangliang didn't like frontal battles that cost a lot of money in all aspects. This was the greatest confidence that Li Jiancheng, Yin Kaishan and other Taiyuan Army soldiers dared to fight in the east. He Yin Kaishan and other talents discovered that Chen Sangliang's attack methods were more powerful than they had imagined, and they were so powerful that they could not resist them at all. Looking dumbfounded at the continuous stream of soldiers of the Sui army entering the city through two gaps, Li Jiancheng, Yin Kaishan and others couldn't help feeling completely desperate, and murmured together: "Is it necessary to continue this battle?" ?”
At the same time, the civil and military officials of the Sui Army around Chen Sangliang were ecstatic, dancing and congratulating Chen Sangliang one after another: "Your Highness is mighty, invincible and invincible! It took only one day to break through the Taiyuan Fortress." City, it is really unheard of, if I hadn't seen it with my own eyes, I would never believe that His Highness's divine power can be so sharp!"
"Is it sharp?" Chen Sangliang sneered, and said to himself: "The cost of a feather arrow is more than 30 yuan. So far, we have used more than 500,000 pieces, more than 1,500 yuan. More than 15,000 guan has already been spilled. Timber, gunpowder and weapons are just consumption. Today, our military expenditure is at least more than 30,000 guan. This is the hard-earned money of the common people. Hard-earned money that can’t be earned without eating or drinking. In addition, our soldiers have suffered more than 1,800 casualties, and more than 1,800 lives have been lost. Nearly 2,000 pairs of gray-haired parents have died. Never seeing their son again. I'd rather not have that sharpness."
Civil and military officers of the Sui army shut their mouths, and only then did they understand the real reason why Chen Sangliang, who was actually very good at fighting tough battles, didn't like to fight frontal tough battles. Freed from the heartache, he said comfortingly: "But it's worth it, Li Jiancheng is too stubborn, if you don't beat him at any cost, subdue him, his stubbornness will only bring us more casualties. Send the order, continue to attack, before dawn, you must take Taiyuan East City for me!"
With the Sui Army's onslaught again, the Taiyuan Army finally couldn't stand it anymore. When it was completely dark, Yang Wen, the cadre of the Taiyuan Army who blocked the gap, collapsed first, was killed by the Sui Army, and was forced to flee into the In the depths of the city, the soldiers of the Sui Army marched triumphantly and continued to advance towards the city. The Taiyuan Army was forced to start street fighting with the soldiers of the Sui Army. Seeing that the situation was extreme, Li Jiancheng had no choice but to order to abandon the city to break through, and decided to lead the remnant army to flee to Mayi to join Liu Wuzhou's two brothers-in-law Song Jingang and Yuan Junzhang, Yin Kaishan and Shi Wanbao. It is very clear that there is no hope of revival after fleeing to Mayi, but he still gritted his teeth and accepted the order, and immediately set about arranging for the army to break through and retreat.
This time Li Jiancheng finally did not forget his wife and children. While the soldiers under his command were still fighting in the street to resist, Li Jiancheng hurried back to his temporary residence in Dongcheng with his own soldiers, and asked Zheng Guanyin to take his children and walk out of the city by the north gate immediately. Zheng Guanyin agreed without hesitation, but then said to Li Jiancheng: "Da Lang, you can leave with me, but you must leave one of your two sons here and let someone hand him over to your uncle."
"Why?" Li Jiancheng was taken aback.
"Because Uncle has expected that you will run to Mayi Mobei, so he has already explained to the slave's family that you must leave one of your sons to him, and let him raise the child for you. You pass on the family line and inherit the incense." Zheng Guanyin replied calmly.
"When did this happen? When did he explain this to you?" Li Jiancheng was shocked, and Zheng Guanyin told Li Jiancheng the last confession Chen Sangliang gave her when he sent her out of the camp. Li Jiancheng Hearing this, he was even more shocked, and hurriedly asked: "Then why didn't you tell me earlier?"
"I told you a few days ago, is it useful? Will you agree?" Zheng Guanyin asked back.
Li Jiancheng was completely stunned, but Zheng Guanyin said calmly again: "Da Lang, you never forget the revenge of killing your father. You must fight to the death with your good brother, Uncle Ying Liang, who is closer than your own brother. I don't blame you. But you Have you ever thought about how many people your father-in-law killed on the battlefield, and those sons who were killed by your father-in-law on the battlefield, should their sons also ask us to avenge their father? I lost my uncle, and my uncle's son has grown up. Shouldn't he also find his father-in-law to avenge his father's death? There are no eyes on the battlefield, and the father-in-law died on the battlefield fighting with his uncle. Can it be blamed that the uncle did not show mercy to his father-in-law? It wasn't my uncle who rescued me, my father-in-law would have died in the sky prison in the eleventh year of the great cause, right?"
The shouts of killing in the city became more and more intense, and they were getting closer. The soldiers outside kept urging Li Jiancheng to leave quickly, but Li Jiancheng sat down instead, and lowered his head in deep thought. Zheng Guanyin saw her husband's wavering, so she said again: "Da Lang, your real brother is as cruel as a jackal, but your brother with a different surname is as close as a brother to you. Your vicious brothers are already dead. Do you still want to fight with you?" Brothers with other surnames who are like brothers and sisters will continue to be hostile forever, and will always be a lonely family?"
"If you decide to go to Mobei to eat wind and drink sand, I will accompany you." Zheng Guanyin said again: "But I must beg you for the children, and also for the ancestors of your Li family. I beg you, keep one of your sons and save some incense for your Li family."
Li Jiancheng didn't say a word, but the corners of his eyes were filled with tears, and he remained motionless. I don't know how long it took, Yin Kaishan and Shi Wanbao both broke in suddenly, shouting in unison: "Captain Zuo, hurry up! The bandit army has already killed nearby, if you don't leave, it will be too late!"
"Dalang, let's go." Zheng Guanyin stood up and asked Li Jiancheng, "Do you think we should keep Chengzong or Chengdao?"
Li Jiancheng continued to hang his head still, and after a long time, he choked up and said, "No, I'm not leaving, we..., stay here."