Wang Xuanying, who was educated by his powerful father to be lacking in opinions, also helped Chen Sangliang a lot. When the Sui army was actually quite exhausted in the Eastern Expedition, generals such as Chen Zhilue and Guo Shizhu suggested several times that Wang Xuanying should attack appropriately. The purpose is not to win any battles, just use a small number of troops to frequently harass the Sui army in the Eastern Expedition, and not give the Sui Army a chance to calmly prepare to attack Hulao Pass. However, Wang Xuanying kept in mind his father Wang Shichong's order not to fight, and flatly refused every time, watching the Sui army quickly prepare for the siege.
In this way, two nights and two days passed quickly, and on the evening of the third day, when the Sui army had never launched a frontal attack on the Eastern Expedition, Yang Gongqing, an experienced general of the Zheng army on the battlefield, also paid more and more attention to night defense. A special military meeting was held to strengthen the night watch force, and the troops were divided into three teams, led by myself, Wang Xingben, and Pei Xiaoda respectively. Each team took turns to watch the night, and asked General Pei Xiaoda, who was on duty at night, to live in the west gate of Hulao Pass On the city tower, urge the soldiers to be on guard at night, and strictly prohibit any soldiers on night duty from sleeping and napping at night.
Such an arrangement would of course have a major impact on the physical strength of the defenders. Generals of the Zheng army, such as Pei Xiaoda and Zhang Gongjin, also questioned Yang Gongqing because of this. Then he told them bluntly, "Our army absolutely does not have to be afraid of the frontal attack of the bandits. Although there are less than 13,000 defenders in Hulao Pass, the length of the wall from north to south is only four miles. A deployment of 2,000 troops is enough to block the frontal attack of the bandit army, and will not give the bandit army any chance to break through the city quickly!"
"Only the night battle is what we need to worry about the most." Yang Gongqing pointed out: "In the dark night, we can't see clearly, and the weather is a little bad. It's hard for us to see how many enemies are at the foot of the city wall. It's the time when the enemy wins by surprise. Thief The army did not bring much food and grass here, so they must try to break through the city by tricks. At the same time, the bandit army is good at night warfare. The possibility of the city is even greater! If we don’t strengthen our night defenses, once the bandits attack us suddenly, if we are caught off guard, the consequences will be disastrous!”
Emphasizing that the Sui army in the Eastern Expedition is most likely to attack Guancheng at night, Yang Gongqing also ordered: "Remember, sentries must be placed behind the wall of sheep and horses under the city, and every half an hour use ropes to go down to the city to check the situation of the sentries. Give the enemy any chance to get under the city at night. More torches should be lit at the winch of the suspension bridge, and no one is allowed to approach the winch at will. Anyone who tries to touch the winch without permission, no matter who it is, will be killed immediately!"
Pei Xiaoda and his deputy Zhang Gongjin reluctantly agreed, but Yang Gongqing still refused to rest assured, and ordered the gate officials of the east and west gates to hand over the keys and keep them personally. Night watch. In the end, Yang Gongqing discussed with Wang Xingben and decided to use the middle of the night as the boundary, to be on duty in the first half of the night and the second half of the night respectively, and patrol the situation of the troops on duty at night at any time to prevent slack in the unsupervised troops on duty at night.
Originally, out of respect for Wang Xingben's identity, Yang Gongqing suggested that Wang Xingben be on duty in the relatively relaxed first half of the night, and Wang Xingben also planned to agree, but the soldier Shen Yue, who was trusted by Yang and Wang, interjected, "His Royal Highness Jing, let Yang General, let's watch for the first half of the night. After the first half of the night, you can rest assured. This is easier for General Yang. He is our chief general, and we have to count on him to be the leader during the day. How about you, Your Highness, to watch the second half of the night?"
Of course, Wang Xingben was a little reluctant to get up in the middle of the night when he was on duty, but considering that the battle at Hulao Pass really depended on the experienced Yang Gongqing to take the lead, Wang Xingben nodded in agreement with this suggestion. Yang Gongqing, who was indeed having a hard time, knew that it was Wang Xingben and Shen Yue's good intentions, so he didn't insist on it, and also nodded to accept the suggestion.
The hard night duty has begun. When most of the soldiers and civilians in Hulaoguan are sleeping soundly, one-third of the soldiers of the Zheng army have to struggle against sleepiness while forcibly cheering up and always beware of sneak attacks from the darkness. At the beginning, the generals of the Zheng army were able to hold on, but as the night deepened and time passed, the generals of the Zheng army on duty at night inevitably fell asleep due to exhaustion, and many soldiers began to secretly lean on the arrow stacks. Dozed off in the morning, the guard post on duty behind the sheep and horse wall under the city lacked supervision, and some soldiers even sat directly behind the wall and fell asleep.
It would be fine if such lazy soldiers were only caught by Pei Xiaoda, Zhang Gongjin and others, at most they would be scolded and slapped, but it was bad luck for those caught by Yang Gongqing. No one begged for help. Before the third watch, there were more than a dozen unlucky people who were beaten with such military sticks. One unlucky guy who was lying in bed in the city was beaten twice because he couldn't even wake up. The forty military sticks beat her buttocks to a bloody mess, and she had to be carried back to her room to rest on her stomach.
It was obvious that Yang Gongqing was wasting his energy by doing this. In fact, until halfway through the third watch, there was no sign of a Sui soldier in the city. Instead, Wang Xingben and Shen Yue came to Yang Gongqing to exchange night duty tasks while yawning. The serious Yang Gongqing repeatedly told Wang Xingben to be careful before going back to his room to rest, but as soon as Yang Gongqing left, Wang Xingben immediately sat down and pulled a quilt to cover him, and said to Shen Yue: "Si Bing Shen, four Call me at the first moment, and we will go patrol the city together."
Shen Yue respectfully agreed, and asked Congren to bring another food box, took out two bowls of chicken soup from the food box, held one of the bowls in front of Wang Xingben and said with a smile: "Your Highness, eat the supper before going to bed, the next official knows You worked hard at night, so I specially prepared two bowls of ginseng chicken soup, do you want to use one bowl first?"
Wang Xingben, who was not as careful as Shen Yue, got up in the middle of the night already a little hungry, and smelled the smell of chicken soup, so he was not polite. He picked up his chopsticks and ate meat and soup. Although Wang Xingben also found that the chicken soup was a bit bitter, it still tasted like ginseng and medicine, so he didn’t do anything else Thinking, just eat up a bowl of chicken soup including meat and soup, and then fall asleep next to the table and cover the quilt, but Shen Yue ate very slowly, and did not put down the chopsticks until she confirmed that Wang Xingben was completely asleep, with a face on her face. Also full of ferocious smiles.
After laughing grimly, Shen Yue hurriedly got up and went out. First, she ordered Wang Xingben's personal soldiers not to enter the room to disturb her, and then she went to the city to patrol the city on the pretext of representing Wang Xingben, and left the headquarters with her own entourage. Close the city wall at the west gate, and carefully inspect the situation on the city—but what no one noticed was that three of Shen Yue's entourage fired red lanterns, and several times at the same time, they protruded three red lanterns out of the city wall to shine on the city. The sentry situation behind the sheep and horse wall.
Unfortunately, tonight is cloudy, the night is too dark, it is difficult to see the situation below the city clearly, so our serious and responsible Shen Sibing went down to the pass with a dozen entourages, and came to the gate of the city, pretending to be the king of Xingben. He was ordered to go out of the city to check the situation of the guard post outside the city. As a result, the city gate officer replied with a wry smile: "Shen Sibing, it's not because of his humble position that he refuses to take orders. It's because General Yang has already taken away the key. The lower officials can't open the city?"
"Does His Highness King Jing know that you don't have a key?" Shen Yue took out a secret key from her bosom with a smile, unlocked it by herself, and said with a smile: "General Yang and His Highness King Jing exchanged keys." When on duty, he gave the key to His Highness, and His Highness gave it to me, but no one is allowed to touch this key except this officer."
Saying that, Shen Yue had already opened the door lock, and even took off the door lock with his own hands. The city gate officer believed it was true, and hurriedly ordered the gate guards to remove the heavy door bolt, and opened a city gate to let Shen Yue go out to check the sentry. As a result, Shen Yue only took The three attendants with red lanterns went out of the city, pretending to be sentinels, and deliberately raised the red lanterns several times over the chest-high wall of sheep and horses.
As a result, the accident that should have happened naturally happened naturally. Under the cover of night, a trench bridge car suddenly appeared beside the moat, forty or fifty sneaky black shadows quickly entered the water, a small amount of The shadow helped the trench bridge car to the other side of the moat, and a large number of black shadows went straight across the river and climbed the antlers on the river bank. As a result, when these sneaky black shadows sneaked over the antlers of the horses, the Zheng Jun sentry behind the sheep and horse wall came out. Seeing their phantoms, they hurriedly shouted to warn, "Enemy attack! Enemy attack! Beat the gong!"
"There is an enemy attack! Shen Sibing, come back quickly!"
At the same time as the gong sounded to call the police, the kind-hearted city gate officer hurriedly shouted for Shen Yue to return to the city quickly, but Shen Yue really rushed back to the gate with a knife in hand, and the city gate officer hurriedly ordered the guards to close the gate and bolt it At that moment, the knife in Shen Yue's hand flickered, cut half of the neck of the kind city gate official, and fell beside the door with an indistinct groan and blood all over his body. At the same time, a dozen or so attendants headed by Shen Jian also immediately showed their weapons. They raised their knives and scattered the unprepared gate soldiers. At the same time, they quickly opened the two city gates. Ying also rushed to the gate one after another, and joined forces with Shen Yue and others to control the gate.
At this time, the sound of gongs and drums in the upper and lower walls of Hulao Pass woke up countless soldiers of the Zheng Army who were dozing off, and also the reserve troops of the Zheng Army who were sleeping in the barracks in the city. Pei Xiaoda, who lived in the tower, immediately commanded the troops. To face the battle, Zhang Gongjin also immediately ordered the reserve team to assemble immediately. However, Zheng Jun moved quickly, and the Sui Army soldiers who were more prepared moved even faster. The first trench bridge car had just been set up, and immediately there were Sui Army swordsmen and axes rushing up to chop the antlers, opening the way forward. Many trench bridges rushed to the edge of the moat to build more bridges across the river.
A slow step is equal to a slow step. When the Zheng army on the city panicked and threw the first wave of arrows down the city, at least six trench bridge vehicles had already built a temporary bridge on the moat, and a large number of Sui soldiers charged with their shields Crossing the river, chopping antlers frantically to prevent horses from opening the road, and at the position of the first trench bridge car, the soldiers of the Sui army have already cut a half-foot-wide opening, and the soldiers of the Sui army rushed across the river with shields in hand. , Flying over the sheep and horse wall, rushed to the city gate to protect the road into the city. Pei Xiaoda howled and urged the soldiers to shoot arrows to suppress them, but they still couldn't stop the progress of the soldiers of the Sui Army who were racing against time.
When Zhang Gongjin rushed to the city with more than a thousand Zheng Army reserve troops under his command, Zhang Gongjin immediately turned pale as paper when he saw the opened city gate. doorway. However, it is a pity that although Zhang Gongjin, who left his name in Lingyan Pavilion, is famous for his infinite strength, he was extremely unlucky this time when he ran into Wang Fubao, who was best at assault warfare under Chen Sangliang's command, and the former army immediately launched a counterattack to block it. Zhang Gongjin approached the city gate, and fought fiercely with Zhang Gongjin in the middle of the corridor, and then Wang Fubao personally led the army to enter the gate, so although Zhang Gongjin was extremely brave and killed several Sui soldiers in a row to gain a certain advantage, he met Wang Fubao in person and fought fiercely with him At that time, Zhang Gongjin's advance steps immediately stopped, and he fought fiercely with Wang Fubao for a long time. The pressure firmly controlled the small half of the city gate corridor.
Explosions continued in the corridors of the city gates, and the city walls were also shouting to kill and shake the sky. The well-prepared generals of the Zheng army desperately drew their bows and fired arrows, and kept throwing feather arrows down the city. However, the Zheng army was well prepared, and the Sui army was even more prepared. Sufficient, well aware that there is no such shop after passing this village, the soldiers of the Sui Army continued to charge forward, building bridges while clearing the way forward. The hit rate of the arrows was extremely low, and they could not stop the charging pace of the soldiers of the Sui army at all. Multiple sections of horse antlers were destroyed one after another.
In fact, the Zheng army still has a chance. Due to the constraints of the terrain and fortifications, no matter how fierce the Sui army rushed, they could not effectively invest a large number of troops on the other side of the moat. As long as the 3,000 Hulao Pass defenders launch a counterattack in time, there is still a great hope to drive the Sui army out of the city and keep Hulao Pass. But what none of the generals of Zheng Jun thought was that even Shen Yue, the commander of Zheng Jun who shamelessly offered his family, didn't know beforehand that it happened that at this time, fire broke out in the city of Hulaoguan, and it was subordinate to the surrendered general Zhang Sheng. While setting fires everywhere, the generals of the Zheng army rushed towards the city gate shouting slogans, "The city is broken! Run! Brothers, the city is broken! Run!"
In the chaos, such slogans are the worst. Hearing the cries that the city has been broken, the morale of Zheng Jun's soldiers is of course down, and the people are panicked, but the more vicious ones are still behind. Without hesitation, they waved their knives at the friendly army inside the door, and kept shouting slogans that caused confusion among the enemy, "The bandit army has entered the city, kill the bandits quickly! Don't fight, we are our own people! I am our own people!"
Zhang Sheng’s subordinates who belonged to him all had white cloths tied on his left arm to identify the enemy and himself, but Zhang Gongjin, who was not his own, was difficult to distinguish between himself and the enemy. When he was dizzy, he was either hacked to death and stabbed by his own people, or he was forced to slash and kill the real own people. , During the chaos of the rear army, the front army was also quickly affected, including Zhang Gongjin who had to take time to look back to check the situation in the city, while Wang Fubao's army took the opportunity to rush and attack, quickly opened up space, and covered more rear troops entering the safe city gate corridor.
Pei Xiaoda and Zhang Gongjin were relatively good, but the most flustered ones were Yang Gongqing and the main force of the Hulao Gate Guards. The sleeping soldiers hurriedly got up and put on their armor. Needless to say, Yang Gongqing rushed out the door before he even had time to put on his shoes. After checking the situation, when he heard the sound of killing and explosions at the city gate, Yang Gongqing complained, and had no choice but to quickly send people to contact the generals at all levels, and gather the main force to launch a counterattack—although Yang Gongqing knew very well that he did so. It is difficult to catch up, and it is absolutely impossible for the main force to launch a counterattack in a moment.
Even more flustered were Wang Xingben's soldiers, who rushed into the door no matter how much they yelled and shook, they couldn't wake Wang Xingben up. In the end, they used a bucket full of water to wake up Wang Xingben, who was sleeping like a dead pig. He woke up, but Wang Xingben was still dizzy, "What happened? Why is it raining so much?"
At this time, the main force of the Sui army, who had opened up many roads, had already launched an ant-attached siege. Shi Wanbao, a newcomer to the Sui army who volunteered to take on this difficult task, was the first to climb up on a flying ladder in order to please his new master Chen Sangliang. Dozens of flying ladders climbed up the city wall one after another. The soldiers of the Sui Army who bit their weapons used their hands and feet to climb quickly against the rain of arrows and stones. They continued to climb the bloody flying ladder, and many soldiers of the Sui Army climbed the wall empty-handed. It was also because of this indomitable courage that in the first wave of ants attacking the city, no less than 20 Sui soldiers took the lead. On the top of the city.
At the same time as the fierce battle at the top of the city began, Zhang Gongjin's army finally couldn't stop Wang Fubao and Zhang Shengjun's flanking attacks. Fleeing into the depths of the city, Wang Fubao's army took the opportunity to enter the city and completely controlled the entire road into the city. Sui soldiers entered the city in an endless stream. Then Wang Fuma, who was familiar with this situation, didn't stop, and led his soldiers to rush to the steps of the upper city to meet Shi Wanbao's ant-attached army and kill them on the top of the city.
Although Yang Gongqing was also very decisive and ordered all the generals under his command to rush to the west gate for reinforcements as long as those who assembled into the army did not need to ask for orders, it was too late to do so. When the first main force rushed to the vicinity of the west gate, the soldiers of the Sui army It has already occupied a considerable space in the west gate. Unwilling to give up, the main force of the Zheng army launched a charge in an attempt to recapture the city gate. The generals of the Sui army gritted their teeth and stood firm. There were screams of killing both inside and outside the city. dull.
It was not until Wang Fubao's army successfully seized the winch, smashed the winch and let the suspension bridge fall to the ground, that the third wave of Sui troops led by Luo Shixin was able to directly enter the city. The heart in the throat was put back into the stomach again, knowing that the self-armed army had already secured victory in this battle, and it was only a matter of time before they captured Hulao Pass. However, after letting go of this heart for a while, Chen Sangliang quickly turned to Feng Deyi who was next to him and asked, "How is it? Is there any movement at the Luokou warehouse in the west?"
"Don't worry, Your Highness, according to the news just received, there was still no movement at the Luokou warehouse until half an hour ago." Feng Deyi replied with a smile.
"It's fine if there's no movement." Chen Sangliang breathed a sigh of relief again, and said with a smile, "The speed of response is slower than this king hoped. Even if you have already reacted at this time, it's too late."
After proudly speaking, Chen Sangliang immediately sent someone to send an order to Yin Kaishan and the Baoguo Army, telling them that the main force had successfully captured the west gate of Hulao Pass, so that they could meet the reinforcements at Luokoucang without worrying about the situation on the main force's side.
According to Chen Sangliang's crow's words, in fact, it was only when the suspension bridge at the west gate of Hulao Pass landed that Luokou Cang received the news that Hulao Pass was in an emergency. Wang Xuanying was shocked and immediately dispatched Chen Zhilue to lead the The cavalry marched eastward to reinforce Hulao Pass, but it was still much, much later. Chen Zhilue led 4,000 cavalry in a hurry to the east and had just walked ten miles away when he was stopped by the infantry of the Sui army led by Yin Kaishan in a relatively narrow place. Heading eastward to the more open place in the south, they also plunged into the cavalry trap jointly constructed by Yin Kaishan and the Baoguo Army.
In the twilight, the white robes of the Baoguo Army, which was dispatched in full force, suddenly rushed out from the southeast of the Yin Kaishan Army and stopped Chen Zhilue head-on. The combat power has long been unable to compare with the cavalry of the Xiaoguo Army back then, and they are all light cavalry, but they are no match for the heavy cavalry of the Baoguo Army in close combat. After the attack, Zheng Jun's cavalry was attacked from head to toe, unable to exert their mobility, and they couldn't stand the battle until it was dawn, so they were forced to flee west and return to Luokou Cang, reporting to the national army to pursue them with all their strength. Not letting him go, Guo Feng, the leader of the Baoguo Army, cut Chen Zhilue off his horse in the battle. Zheng Jun's cavalry was defeated, and there were many casualties and surrenders. Only half of the cavalry fled back to Luokou Cang in embarrassment to report.
After receiving the news of Chen Zhilue's defeat and death, Wang Xuanying collapsed on the ground and was picked up by others, and yelled that he wanted to send troops to rescue Hulaoguan. After being stopped by Guo Shizhu and others, Wang Xuanying couldn't help crying Crying, "What should I do? What should I do? Hulao is lost, how can I explain to my father? How can Dou Jiande's reinforcements arrive at Luoyang City to rescue my father?"
At the same time when Wang Xuanying was crying, several counterattacks failed to take back the western city wall, and he couldn't stand the tide of the Sui army's offensive, so Yang Gongqing had no choice but to open the east gate and lead the defeated army. Fleeing to Niuzhukou, the Sui army took the opportunity to pursue and kill them, and made a lot of gains under the east gate of Hulao Pass. They captured many generals and soldiers of the Zheng army, including Zhang Gongjin, and successfully captured the entire city of Hulao Pass before noon.
It was the first time that he took down Hulao Pass by force, but Chen Sangliang was not very happy. After entering the city, he walked directly through the streets in the city full of bloody corpses, boarded the east gate wall of Hulao Pass, and stood There are also many blood-stained corpses looking at the north from the east gate, full of emotion, and murmured, "Dou Jiande, come quickly, Hulao Pass and Linqing Pass are in my hands, you just bring your soldiers of the whole country , I’m not afraid anymore. You’d better bring all the soldiers of your country. This chaotic world at the end of the Sui Dynasty is too cruel and lasted too long. It’s time to end it. Come and end this cruel chaotic world with me. .”