Considering the exhaustion of the soldiers and the heavy burden on the common people—Chen Sangliang had the food left by Emperor Wen of Sui Dynasty and Emperor Yang of Sui Dynasty to squander, but other military supplies had to be searched from the common people, so Chen Sangliang had no plan before Entering the Central Plains so quickly, I once planned to send some help to Liu Changgong and Pei Xingfang, let them kill Xiao Xian who is easier to deal with first, let the main force take more rest and expand the southern territory.
The three accomplices Fang Xuanling, Du Ruhui, and Wei Zheng all strongly opposed Chen Sangliang's doing so, and pointed out: "Your Highness, our main force is exhausted from fighting for years, but Wang Shichong's army is a hundred times more exhausted than ours! If we say that the main force of our army is now If only 80% of the combat power is left, then Wang Shichong's bandit army is only half left! Now that we send troops, our confidence in suppressing Wang Shichong will be even greater!"
"Your Highness, I know that you are sympathetic to the people, and you don't want to increase the burden on the people by launching frequent wars." Fang Xuanling pointed out: "But don't forget, Your Highness, if our army doesn't hurry up and send troops to put down Wang Shichong, it will give him breathing space." If there is an opportunity, then he can integrate the local forces in the Central Plains that surrendered to him after Li Mi's defeat, gather sand into a tower, and build a powerful force that can compete head-on with our army. Not only will the resistance he faces increase several times, but the burden on the people will also be several times, ten times, or even dozens of times!"
"So, it's better to send troops to the Eastern Capital sooner rather than later!" Speaking of this, Fang Xuanling, who has always been gentle, waved his hand vigorously and said loudly: "I would rather be a dog of peace than a person in troubled times! The people of the world have suffered from wars and chaos for a long time. Your Highness, you send troops to conquer Wang Shichong at this time, and restore peace to the Central Plains, and respond to the people. You don’t have to suffer from the chaos of war! Your Highness, why don’t you do it?”
I felt that the words of the accomplices were reasonable, and considering that long-term pain is worse than short-term pain, Li Jing also wrote a letter from Taiyuan to suggest that Chen Sangliang send troops to the Central Plains as soon as possible, so as not to give Wang Shichong a chance to breathe and consolidate the rule of the newly descended counties. Tiangang also pointed out that Luoyang's climate this year is spring and summer with little rain, which is suitable for military use. Chen Sangliang hesitated again and again, but finally gritted his teeth and made up his mind. He decided to lead the main force to conquer Luoyang in person again, and adopted Wei Zheng's suggestion. Wang Xiwen directly stated that it created an atmosphere of panic for the puppet Zheng court, and also demonstrated Chen Sangliang's arrogance and boosted the morale of the soldiers of the Sui army.
Chen Sangliang's action did achieve satisfactory results. After the Wang Xiwen was passed to Luoyang, the puppet Zheng court with serious internal problems immediately panicked. A large number of military fortifications. The already overworked soldiers of the Zheng army became even more tired and exhausted. Apart from continuing to work for the Zheng army for free, the people of Dongdu also had to bear the risk of delaying the farming season. Therefore, the phenomenon of young men fleeing was very serious. However, the puppet Zheng court, which was not very popular with the people, had to order to hunt down and kill the fugitives, and forced innocent people to give up spring plowing and work hard for the army with knives, guns and whips, and the people complained.
This proclamation also brought a negative effect to Chen Sangliang, that is, what you say must be true. It happened that there was heavy rain in Daxing on the eighth day of February, so it was not suitable for the swearing-in. But in order to fulfill the promise, Chen Sangliang, who was not in good health, still presided over the expedition ceremony in the rain, and led the army to march eastward in the wind and rain. In addition, after returning to Daxing, he worked too hard on a group of beautiful wives and concubines, and it turned out that night At that time, Chen Sangliang developed a high fever, and his condition was quite serious. He had to lie down in the carriage to lead the army eastward with his illness, and he suffered some living crimes.
It stands to reason that the commander of the army suddenly fell ill just after departure, which should be very detrimental to the morale of the army. However, Chen Sangliang's reputation in this regard is too bad. It is said that he suddenly fell ill during the expedition, not to mention Chen Sangliang Liang's enemies didn't believe it, even the generals of the Sui Army refused to believe it. They all believed that this was another clever trick by Chen Sangliang to deceive the enemy. Not only did morale not be affected in the slightest, but on the contrary, it improved a little. Xue Renguo, a general of the Sui Army who had suffered a great loss from Chen Sangliang in this regard, complained openly: "Why is your Highness doing this again? Can you change it to something new? How many people has he deceived by pretending to be sick? Wang Shichong The old man is not a fool, how could he be fooled again?"
Only Fang Xuanling, Yuan Tiangang, Yuchi Jingde and a few cronies and accomplices knew that Chen Sangliang was really sick this time. After hearing the rumors in the army, Fang Xuanling, Yuan Tiangang and others simply suggested that Chen Sangliang treat himself as sick. The matter of Chen Sangliang was widely publicized, and Zheng Jun, who was hidden among the people, was deliberately made aware of this matter. While setting up a maze to make the enemy unclear about Chen Sangliang's reality, he took the opportunity to slow down the marching speed and reduce the daily marching distance. Let Chen Sangliang recuperate in a slightly relaxed environment.
Chen Sangliang, who was really seriously ill, accepted the kindness of Fang Xuanling and others, and after ordering to follow the plan, he smiled and said: "I didn't expect that there are such benefits in deceiving people a lot. I used to pretend to be sick and cheat People, the enemy has suffered a lot. When I was really sick, the enemy dared not believe anything casually. I guess my father-in-law must have shouted like Xue Renguo after hearing the news—you still Go lie to others, this old man is not a fool! I won't be fooled!"
Fang Xuanling and others laughed, saying that Wang Shichong must have reacted in this way, and Chen Sangliang also laughed at himself, then suddenly sighed softly, and said, "It's just that this will delay my important event."
"What important event did His Highness delay?" Fang Xuanling asked in surprise.
"Take the Luokou Warehouse." Chen Sangliang said calmly: "The eastern capital city is solid, and the imperial city and the palace city are both brick-covered and rammed earth structures. Our artillery siege tactics and gunpowder blasting tactics are all against this kind of city wall." It is not very effective, and Wang Shichong's military style is known for his tenacity. It is easy to defeat him but it is extremely difficult to defeat him. We must face a long and hard battle when we attack Luoyang, the eastern capital. But the fatal weakness of Luoyang, the eastern capital, is that the granary is far away from the city. There is not enough grain in the city, so I originally planned to advance to the city of Luoyang as soon as possible, not to give Wang Shichong a chance to transport a large amount of grain from the Luokou warehouse to Luoyang for hoarding, and immediately divide the troops to take the Luokou warehouse and completely cut off Wang Shichong’s grain supply.”
Speaking of this, Chen Sangliang couldn't help but sighed again, and said: "It's just that I didn't expect that I fell ill suddenly on the night of the Eastern Expedition. This time, it can only be an opportunity for Wang Shichong to seize the opportunity to grab food and grass."
Everyone was silent, and then Sun Fujia cautiously suggested: "Your Highness, since you think it is beneficial for our army to take Luokou Cang sooner, why don't you order General Liu Heita to attack Luokou Cang first? Or send a The former army will go first and attack Luokou Cang first?"
Chen Sangliang smiled, and said with a smile: "Is that so easy? Not to mention that Liu Heitai is fighting head-on with the main force of Wang Shichong's bandit army, and he can't get away at all. Even if I can send a partial division to go first, or order Liu Heitai Give up the task of frontal containment and take a detour to attack Luokou Cang. Luokou Cang is not so easy to win. Luokou Cang is Wang Shichong's lifeblood, and there must be a large number of troops stationed for protection. Needless to say, it is only 30 The Hulaoguan bandit army here will definitely send troops to reinforce Luokou Cang as soon as possible. Unless our main force is dispatched, there is absolutely no hope of taking Luokou Cang with just one or two partial divisions. It would be a death in vain."
Sun Fujia shut up, but Fang Xuanling, who accompanied Chen Sangliang on the expedition for the first time, hesitated to speak. After careful consideration for a while, Fang Xuanling still said: "Your Highness, I don't have much military experience. I don’t know much about Zhenzhen, but I still feel that you seem to be negligent.”
"I neglected that point?" Chen Sangliang asked in a daze.
"The timing of grain and grass transportation." Fang Xuanling said hesitantly: "The time spent on grain and grass transportation on the road is far longer than that of the army. Even if it is only a hundred miles from Luokou warehouse to Luoyang, whether it is by land vehicle It is absolutely impossible to transport them in one day, whether by boats upstream along the Luoshui River. In this case, if our army's partial division can take the first fortress between Luokoucang and Luoyang, and strangle Wang Shichong If we don’t want to use the food road for the army, then we can send troops to cut off the food road of Wang Shichong’s bandit army at any time? In this way, wouldn’t Wang Shichong’s bandit army have no way to hoard a large amount of grain and grass in Luoyang City first?”
Before Fang Xuanling finished speaking, Chen Sangliang sat up from the hospital bed, and said angrily, "Why did I get into a dead end? Our army's partial division has no way to take the Luokou warehouse first, but we can seize other cities and cut off Wang Shichong But the grain road is very possible? After succeeding, it will either prevent Wang Shichong from transporting grain from Luokou warehouse to Luoyang, or force Wang Shichong to send a large number of troops to counterattack our army and clear the grain road. Both points are very beneficial to our army. It can be done!"
"Your Highness, what do you think should be taken first?" Fang Xuanling asked quickly.
"Yanshi!" Chen Sangliang replied without thinking: "The Jiushan trail cannot transport grain, and Wang Shichong's bandit army wants to transport grain from the Luokou warehouse. Whether it is by land or water, they have to pass under the city of Yanshi and take down Yanshi. Master, it is tantamount to cutting off Wang Shichong's way of food!"
"Then, what does Your Highness think, should we separate a partial division from our main force to take Yanshi first? Or let General Liu Heita go first to fight Yanshi?" Fang Xuanling hurriedly asked again.
Playing with the quilt and calculating for a long time, Chen Sangliang suddenly smiled, and said with a smile: "Brother Qiao Song, this time it's your turn to be a wise man. How could you forget? On the Luoyang battlefield, we still have Have an idle army?"
"An idle army?" Fang Xuanling was stunned for a moment, then suddenly came to his senses, and said joyfully, "Mr. Li Ke! General Li Ke's Yiyang Army is now idle!"
"Yes, it's him, he has recruited Hao Xiaode, and Fang Huang's new force is available, and the strength is barely enough." Chen Sangliang nodded, and quickly instructed Sun Fujia: "Vojia, prepare a pen and paper to write letters for me .This time, whether I can beat Wang Shichong's grain path depends on my cousin bird thief."
…
"Sick on the road? Little thief Chen is not tired, and he used this trick to deceive people? Is he as stupid as an old man like Li Yuan? Is he as stupid as Xue Ju Xue Renguo and his son? Still believe him?"
As expected by Chen Yingliang, Fang Xuanling and others, when he received the news that Chen Sangliang suddenly fell ill on the night of his dispatch, Wang Shichong's first reaction was that the unscrupulous son-in-law had come to fool him again, and he did not want to believe himself from the bottom of his heart. It's such a good luck, it's a great thing to meet the enemy's commander who suddenly fell ill on the day he dispatched troops. After laughing at the unfilial son-in-law Jiang Lang had exhausted his talents, Wang Shichong ordered the whole army to step up vigilance to prevent the unfilial son-in-law from showing up as a surprise soldier. Prepare for a standoff.
In the evening of the same day when I received this so-called good news, there was also an unexpected news from Yiyang. Mr. Li Ke, who was bullied by Pei Renji before and dared not even leave the city, beat Pei Renji away by chance. Qiandongjin, and threatened to go north from Jiuqu City to the Xin'an battlefield, and join hands with Liu Heitai to recover Xin'an, and open up the road for the main force of the Sui army to reach the Luoyang city.
In this regard, although some generals of the Zheng army volunteered to lead their troops to fight, drove Li Keshi back to Yiyang and asked the shameless traitor Hao Xiaode to settle the score, after careful consideration, Wang Shichong still shook his head and said: "Don't worry about it, let him fight with you." It's time for Liu Heikai to join forces, and Gao Bi can stop them. If you send troops to fight at this time, maybe you will be like that traitor Pei Renji, who was led to Yiyang City by the bird thief, where the Xiong'er Mountain path It is the place where Chen Xiaozei is good at highlighting surprise soldiers, so we must prevent him from deliberately luring the enemy."
Facts have proved that Li Bird's army is indeed luring the enemy. After waiting for a day in the small fort of Jiuqu City, Wang Shichong did not send troops to fight. And once again let out wild words, saying that he wanted to win Luoyang Nancheng to show Wang Shichong a little color. As a result, after Zheng Jun carefully brought the news back to Luoyang, the civil and military officials of the pseudo-government court almost burst out laughing, and Wang Shichong laughed loudly, saying: "Want my Luoyang South City? Just come! I'm afraid of you Don't dare to come!"
Not to mention, Li Bird Thief is really a daring master. After marching for a day, he really led the army to the outside of Luoyang City, and set up a temporary camp ten miles south of Luoyang South City. Actively ask for a battle, scrambling to lead troops to fight. Wang Shichong refused to miss this golden opportunity to completely annihilate the Sui army in Yiyang, and flatly rejected the request to fight immediately. He just arranged for his nephew Wang Renze to lead 5,000 elite soldiers out of the city at night, and rushed to the official road in the southwest to intercept , blocking the way for Li Keshi to escape back to Yiyang.
Wang Renze led the army out of the city at night to block Li Keshi's return, and he did not hide from the eyes of the Sui army's scouts. After receiving this scout, Li Keshi, who was so nervous that he didn't sleep all night, heaved a sigh of relief and sighed. Said: "As I expected, the old man Wang Shichong really suspected that our army was luring the enemy, so he went to cut off our return first. Whether it succeeds or not depends on tomorrow. If it succeeds, we will make great achievements. If it fails, we will Of these 8,000 troops, I don’t know how many of them will be able to escape back to Xin’an.”
Wang Shichong's greed helped Li Keshi a lot. In the early morning of the next day, Wang Shichong sent Wang Shiyun to lead an army of 20,000 troops out of the city to meet the enemy. Sent troops out of the door and once again blocked Li Keshi's westward escape to Xin'an. Li Keshi pretended to be defeated, and immediately led his army to escape to the east. Hearing the news, he was overjoyed and immediately asked Wang Shiyun to launch a pursuit, demanding that Li Ke's army should be wiped out no matter what.
Next, of course, Li Keshi led the soldiers of the Sui Army to flee eastward along Luoshui, running faster than rabbits. Wang Shiyun also led the army to chase after him, but because there was only a dead end ahead, Zheng The soldiers of the army pursued at a leisurely pace, even if they were successfully pulled away by Li Keshi for a distance of more than ten miles, they were not at all anxious. Anyway, it was a dead end. Unless Li Keshi flew back to Xin'an with long wings, no matter whether the Sui army directly Returning to the division, or crossing Luoshui to return to the west, must be stopped by Zheng Jun in power.
Because of this, Li Ke's army also quickly extended the distance from the pursuers to more than 20 miles in the escape battle, and the distance was also about 20 miles. When the Sui army was only 20 miles away from Yanshi At that time, a pontoon bridge that had just been erected suddenly appeared on the Luoshui River. The soldiers of the Zheng army who erected the pontoon bridge were not only not a little nervous when they saw the arrival of the Sui army, but they immediately ran up to salute Li Keshi. Li Kemaster hurriedly asked : "How is it? Have you been discovered by the enemy?"
"Two scouts from Yanshi asked." The Sui soldier who pretended to be a Zheng soldier who built the bridge replied, "We followed the general's order and claimed that Xu Shiji ordered the bridge to be built. A lot of internal military information about Wang Shichong's bandit army, they just left, there should be no suspicion. There are also a few fishing boats trying to pass here, but we also chased away by pretending to be bandit soldiers."
"God help me too! Thanks to the soldiers brought by General Hao like you, otherwise we might not be able to succeed!"
Master Li called a fluke, and ordered the army to cross the river immediately without hesitation. All the soldiers of the Sui army walked quickly across the river on the simple pontoon bridge, and then immediately destroyed the pontoon bridge, not giving Wang Shiyun behind him a chance to borrow the bridge to cross the river. And when Wang Shiyun heard that a pontoon bridge suddenly appeared in front of him, although he knew it was not good, he hurriedly urged the army to move forward, but it was still too late. Turned into a pile of ashes.
When Wang Shiyun was in a daze in front of the wreckage of the Luoshui pontoon bridge, not understanding what Li Keshi was going to do, Li Keshi had already brought the Sui army soldiers to the dilapidated city of Yanshi, facing the gods and heaven. The sudden appearance of the Sui army, the Yanshi defenders were of course in a panic. While hurriedly closing the city gates to prepare for the battle, they sent people to Luokoucang and Luoyang for emergency. Li Keshi ordered the troops to line up immediately, and then shouted loudly in front of the formation: "Soldiers, you are very clear about the current situation! We have penetrated deep into the enemy's hinterland, and there is no way to retreat, and there is no reinforcements to help us." If you want to survive, take this Yanshi City for me! Go into the city to survive! Our life and death, we will fight here! Kill!"
"Kill!" In the neat roar, the generals and soldiers of the Sui army, who didn't even have a flying ladder, rushed to the small city of Yanshi crazily, imitating the Li Tang army in history, climbing the city wall with their weapons in their hands and attacking the city upwards. The soldiers crazily smashed stones and ash bottles, and the soldiers of the Sui army fell down the city wall one after another. But one soldier of the Sui army fell off the city wall, but immediately two soldiers of the Sui army climbed up the city wall, one after another, repeating endlessly. And as long as a soldier of the Sui army rushed to the top of the city, what he would bring to the Yanshi defenders would be a storm of slashing and shouting of surrender.
After all, Yanshi is a small city, located in the hinterland controlled by Zheng Jun. The defenders are only a few hundred people, and they are caught off guard in a hasty battle. It's really impossible to think about being crazy and ferocious. Therefore, in less than an hour, the soldiers of the Sui army who were devastated had already entered the city of Yanshi, opened the west gate of Yanshi to welcome the main force into the city, and the defenders of Zheng Jun and Yanshi fled out of the east gate in embarrassment with the remnants of the defeated generals. Quickly took over the city defense and successfully seized this small but geographically important Yanshi city. When Wang Shiyun hastily erected the pontoon bridge and rushed to Yanshi for reinforcements, the flags of the Sui army had already covered the four gates of Yanshi.
After receiving the news that Li Keshi had seized Yanshi, Wang Shichong slumped on his dragon chair. After finally recovering, the first thing Wang Shichong did was to kick the heavy dragon case in front of him. , shouted frantically: "Tell Wang Shiyun, give him three days! Within three days, you must bring Yanshi back to me no matter what! Otherwise, I will peel his skin with my own hands!"