Outside the county of Hongnong County, the military camp stretched for dozens of miles, and Li Shimin was sitting in the big tent of the Chinese army, discussing the battle of Luoyang with a cadre of civil and military personnel. This time, he led 180,000 elite soldiers to attack Luoyang, which was bound to win, but the abnormal movements of the Sui army made him worried.

Just as the Sui army received the information that Li Tang attacked Wang Shichong, Li Shimin also received the news that Yang Tong led his army south, and he immediately realized that this battle of Luoyang would be a big melee.

Li Shimin looked at the map of Hanoi County, north of the Yellow River, from which Yang Dong most likely crossed the Yellow River.

"Your Highness, if Weichen didn't guess wrong, Yang Tong should be in Xingyang at this time."

Behind Li Shimin, Liu Wenjing said in a deep voice.

This Eastern Expedition was Li Shimin's special request for Li Yuan to make him a military advisor, and having this mastermind in charge gave the Northern Expedition a little more certainty of victory.

Li Shimin nodded, "I also think that Yang Tong is in Xingyang, and he is not supporting Wang Shichong, I suspect that he himself also wants to capture Luoyang, but he just happened to get together with us." Did Liu Xiangguo think my idea was correct? ”

"After Yang Tong's expedition to the Western Turks ended, he deployed his heavy troops to the south, which was of course to defend against my Tang Dynasty and Wang Shichong, Li Mi, and Dou Jiande, but more to prepare for the southward trip to the Central Plains, after more than a year of recuperation, he didn't want to delay the war. I don't think His Highness's inference is wrong, that is, this battle of Luoyang was actually another confrontation between the Sui and Tang dynasties. ”

This is Gao Shilian also walked over and said on the side: "If Yang Tong is planning to go south, then how will he deal with Li Mi's Wei army?" ”

Li Shimin picked up the wooden pole and pointed to Liang Jun: "I think once the war starts." The Sui army would move south to Liang County and threaten Li Mi's capital from the northwest, preventing Li Mi from participating in the Battle of Luoyang. ”

Speaking of this, Li Shimin glanced at Liu Wenjing, and saw that he was silent, obviously retaining a certain opinion, Li Shimin couldn't help but be stunned, "Xiangguo thinks I'm not right?" ”

"His Royal Highness is right, but he underestimated Yang Tong's ambitions." Liu Wenjing took the wooden pole, pointed to the land of Jianghuai, and said, "If you guess correctly, Yang Tong has already made an alliance with Du Fuwei, and Du Fuwei will contain Li Mi from the south." In this way, even if Li Mi wants to help our army, he will not do his best, coupled with the containment of the Sui army in Xingyang, he will only send troops symbolically at most, so don't have too much hope for Li Mi. ”

Li Shimin nodded silently, the Li Tang Dynasty had expected that the Sui Dynasty would send troops to interfere in the Eastern Crusade, so he formed an alliance with Li Mi to deal with the Sui army, but the alliance between Yang Tong and Du Fuwei was unexpected. In this way, Zhi could no longer have hope for Li Mi, who was attacked from the north and south.

Li Shimin sighed and said: "We should not have Li Mi as a foreign aid and fight the Sui army alone." ”

Liu Wenjing said: "In addition, you can't just look at this battle. ”

"Xiangguo is saying that the Sui Dynasty is not only fighting for Luoyang with us?" Li Shimin was shocked.

Liu Wenjing said solemnly: "After so many years of fighting in the Sui Dynasty, I found that Yang Tong has never been limited to the present. Take the Battle of Bingzhou as an example, Pei Lin only focused on Taiyuan, the land of Longxing, in fact, the Sparrow Mouse Valley was the key to victory; When it came to the battle of Guanzhong, we mistakenly thought that Yang Tong's main attack direction was Guanzhong and Chang'an, what is the truth? The main battlefield is the Hehuang region where His Highness is located. This time... What will happen? ”

Li Shimin, who had suffered a big loss, said in a cold sweat: "Xiangyang, where the army is empty!" ”

"It may be Xiangyang, it may be Bashu, it may be the king of Zhaojun and the king of Rencheng in Xiangcheng, and it is more likely that it is our 180,000 army!" Liu Wenjing glanced at Li Shimin and said: "If our army can't capture Luoyang for a long time, the Sui army can completely go out of Hanchuan and attack Xicheng County, and after Xiyang or Fangling, that is, Xiangyang, then the Holy Lord will definitely transfer our army to rescue Xiangyang." At that time, Xue Wanjun, who was sitting in Shangluo, could completely break through the Waiwu Pass and occupy the Hongnong Zhuyang Pass, so as to cut off the back road and grain and grass of our army with the Yellow River, Tongguan and Zhuyang Pass. Therefore, the minister suggested that His Royal Highness do two things, one is to send reliable and capable generals to sit in Zhuyang Pass, and the other is to quickly notify the Holy Lord, strictly guard Wuguan, Xicheng Shiquan and Ankang City, and prepare for a full-scale war with the Sui Dynasty. ”

"Makes sense." Li Shimin immediately assigned a task, let Li Xizhi lead an army of 20,000 to sit in Zhuyang Pass, and at the same time let the messenger send a letter to Xiangyang. After arranging everything, he asked, "What should our army do next?" ”

Liu Wenjing said: "In order to avoid long nights and dreams, we should solve it quickly." At the same time, Li Mi was urged to send troops. ”

"Okay."

A day later, the 160,000 Tang army set off for the east, marching towards the direction of Hongnong Danshan, in order to cope with this campaign, Li Tang allocated millions of stone grain from Xiangyang for military rations, and mobilized 300,000 people in Xiangyang, Nanyang, and Xiyang for logistics transportation, Li Tang in order to conquer the strong city of Luoyang, also carried a large number of siege equipment and military supplies, hundreds of thousands of troops in sight, stretching for dozens of miles.

。。。。。。。。。。。。。。

At the side of the bridge in Xinzhong, Luoyang, there was already a crying sound at this moment, a merchant who was depressed, begged in pain, and screamed and abused, was pushed to the bank of the Luoshui River, Wang Xuanqiong, who was in charge of the execution, waved the order flag indifferently, and rows of heads were cut off to the ground, and some heads rolled down into Luoshui. The clear Luo water changed color, and the blood stained the river red.

The knife and axe hand killed the heads rolling to the ground, and they had already been numb to killing, and in this day, just because of Wang Shichong's words, thousands of heads of merchants in Beishi alone fell to the ground; In the entire Luoyang City, there were as many as 40,000 innocent traders and clansmen who were killed, and some people came to drag the corpses away, pile them together, and burn them together after the execution.

In Luoyang City, the crying of innocent people who have lost their families permeates the entire city, and the soldiers who walk on the road to patrol the city can intuitively feel the eyes of the people full of anger and hatred.

That night, more than 100 soldiers patrolling the city disappeared for no reason during the patrol, and finally found their bodies in some remote places, so that the patrol soldiers had to go together to relieve themselves.

Wang Shichong didn't feel the slightest inappropriateness, or rather, Wang Shichong at this time didn't have the heart to know these things at all, and Wang Xuanying's several requests to see him were blocked by Wang Shichong's guards.

In fact, this is not the first time this kind of thing has been done, when he was ordered by Yang Guang to quell the rebellion, his Jianghuai army was well-trained and well-equipped, and won great victories with the rebels many times, Wang Shichong then used trickery to trick tens of thousands of rebels into surrendering, and in a blink of an eye, Wang Shichong violated the agreement and killed all these tens of thousands of people. In the subsequent counterinsurgency, in order to satisfy the desires of himself and the army, he killed good people at every turn, and he slaughtered countless counties. It used to be like this, but now it is a matter of life and death for a family, and it is even more unceremonious for him to kill people.

Among the three sons, the eldest son Wang Xuanying and the second son Wang Xuanshu were of good character, and only Wang Xuanqiong inherited his violent heart.

"Tell my father that Li Shimin has entered Henan County and will arrive in Luoyang in the near future, if my father doesn't come out again, then this Luoyang will be over!" Wang Xuanying stared at the several guards at the door, he had lost his patience, if these guards continued to obstruct, he would directly lead people to break in.

"This ......" Facing the unkind gaze of Wang Xuanying, Wang Xuanshu and Wang Renze, several guards looked at each other, the stakes were very high, and they didn't dare to stop it as before, after hesitating for a moment, one of the guards arched his hand and said, "Your Royal Highness, wait a while." ”

Looking at the guards who rushed to inform Wang Shichong, Wang Xuanying's mood could not calm down, since the beginning of the slaughter of traders, there were many complaints in Luoyang City, not to mention that the enemy army was approaching, just in the past few days, there were many people who killed officials and rebelled.

It's okay to complain, but the massacre of soldiers and officials touched Wang Xuanying's sensitive nerves, and it was not until this time that Wang Xuanying, Wang Xuanshu, Wang Renze and other people of insight noticed that something was wrong, and Wang Xuanying regretted that he did not resolutely stop his father at the beginning, which caused a catastrophe.

Although those peddlers and pawns are not much compared with the people of Luoyang, the impact is beyond imagination, and in recent days, some people have continued to add fuel to the fire, using the old things of Wang Shichong's slaughter of the city to ruin Wang Shichong's reputation, in fact, there is no need to corrupt, with the death of those innocent peddlers and pawns, Wang Shichong's reputation among the people has only been infamy, but these people's promotion has directly caused the mob in the city to rise.

What's even more terrifying is that Li Shimin, who has stopped for several days, chose to send troops in an all-round way at this time, and hundreds of thousands of troops will arrive in Luoyang in a few days, even if Wang Shichong cheers up, I am afraid it will be difficult to block Li Tang's troops.

Wang Xuanying suddenly felt how ridiculous his efforts over the years were, and the third brother Wang Xuanqiong and Yun Dingxing had an excuse that might not exist, so that the original much more restrained father and emperor's nature was revealed, and a decision made Luoyang fall into an absolutely passive situation.

Before the battle began, half of the walls of Luoyang City collapsed, and as for the remaining half, Wang Xuanying was not very optimistic.

"You mean... The Don Army has already sent troops? A quarter of an hour later, Wang Shichong summoned his two sons and one nephew, and said Sen Ran.

"King Cai Wang Qianshou died in the battle of Danshan, the Tang army marched east along Luoshui, Changyuan has been lost, according to the information just obtained, the Tang army forward led by Hou Junji, has entered Henan County, Xiong'er County, Yiyang County county officials have opened the city and surrendered." Wang Ren said very sadly, the brothers in the clan can fight with him as the leader, followed by King Cai Wang Qianshou, King Wei Wang Honglie, King Jing Wang Xingben, and King Song Wang Tai, now that it is calculated, there are only two people left in the Wang family who can fight.

"Bastard!"

Wang Shichong was furious, "Is it because my Yulu is not high enough? I still don't care enough about them, I have prescribed four times as much as Li Tang's, and I don't ask you to kill and sacrifice your life for righteousness, but you must at least pretend to guard it for two days! If you can't hold it, you can surrender under the pretext that you can't bear to see the whole city slaughtered. In this way, you have all the face, and you can get a name of benevolence and righteousness, and maybe you can soar. And I have at least a little time to prepare, so wouldn't everyone be happy? All right. These soft-boned bastards actually went ten miles out of the city to surrender, where did they put my face? Are you really taken seriously? Stupid, stupid. ”

Wang Shichong scolded the officials who surrendered for being stupid, and the three people in the hall did not dare to speak.

After a long time, Wang Shichong took a deep breath and said to Wang Renze: "Imperial nephew, you came just in time, and I also want to discuss the military situation with you, I want to know if Hongnong County is all gone?" ”

Wang Ren nodded silently, "Shengshang, not only the entire county of Hongnong County has been lost, but the Tang army has also divided its troops into two routes, one route is led by Liu Hongji with 10,000 people, and it has arrived at Hangu Pass; The main force was spearheaded by the general Hou Junji, and occupied Xiong'er County and Yiyang County of Henan County along the Luoshui Valley Road, and the front was less than 200 miles away from Luoyang. ”

Speaking of this, Wang Ren glanced at Wang Shichong cautiously, and saw that although his face was quite ugly, he was not angry, and his hanging heart fell slightly, as long as the saint was not angry, then the next thing would be easy to say.

He continued: "Shengshang, Weichen estimates that the Tang Army's vanguard will arrive in Luoyang around the day after tomorrow. ”

Wang Shichong has also calmed down from his anger, he realizes that anger will not solve the problem, since the Tang army is now attacking in a big way, it must be actively dealt with in order to escape.

Wang Shichong saw that Wang Ren had something to say, so he asked: "It's all at this point, there is something to say." ”

Wang Ren bowed down and said, "Holy Lord, our army is now scattered in defense, and it is extremely easy to be broken one by one. The minister implored the Holy Admiral to concentrate his army in Luoyang. ”

"Do you mean to give up Hangu Pass, Tiger Prison Pass, as well as Michi, Xingtai and other counties?" Wang Shichong understood what he said.

"Exactly." Wang Ren hurriedly said: "Li Shimin divided the Tang army into two routes, and went all the way to Hangu Pass, which was their deliberate dispersion of our troops in order to attack Luoyang; The minister thought that after the main force of the Tang army advanced eastward from the Luoshui River Valley, Hangu Pass, Yique Pass and Mianchi counties no longer had any defensive significance, and instead of letting the Tang army annihilate them one by one, it was better to concentrate the vitality in one and focus on defending Luoyang City. Similarly, the Sui army had also taken Yangcheng, and the Tiger Prison Pass had also promoted the value of defense. ”

Wang Shichong took a few steps, this is a matter of strategic decision-making, either to take the outer defense route, or to take the isolated city defense route, after all, the Tang army only has more than 200,000 people, and the troops are not necessarily sufficient. If you keep to the great changes in the world, you may not have the opportunity to make a comeback.

After pondering for a long time, he finally nodded, using the strong city to defend the enemy, they would have a geographical advantage, and the army of sixty or seventy thousand was enough to deal with the two hundred thousand Tang army besieging the city.

"This strategy is feasible, I immediately sent a messenger to recall Luoyang, and at the same time asked them to transport the grain from the official warehouses of each county back to Luoyang."

"Holy Wisdom!" Wang Ren was overjoyed, and his biggest fear of insufficient military strength was finally solved

Wang Shichong asked: "How many soldiers are there in Luoyang now?" ”

"At present, there are still 50,000 soldiers and horses in the city that can be mobilized, but we still have to divide troops to suppress the people in the city, and the actual number of soldiers and horses that can be mobilized is probably only 30,000!" Wang Ren said astringently.

"Why do you want to suppress the people?" Wang Shichong was slightly stunned.

"Just because my father ordered the slaughter of the traders, the families of these traders were angry with my father, and they resisted quite fiercely in the past few days, and hundreds of soldiers have been secretly killed by the people." Wang Xuanying smiled bitterly.

Wang Shichong was furious: "Why don't you check? ”

"There is nothing to find out at all, and there have even been deserters since yesterday." Wang Xuanying said: "Father, such a big enemy can only appease the people, not too intense, otherwise, not only the people's grievances will not be eliminated, but the soldiers in the army will also be resentful, most of the soldiers in the army are from the people in the city, and the killing of the traders has made many soldiers resentful." ”

Wang Shichong looked at Wang Xuanying in a daze, and also wanted to understand the cause and effect, patted the handrail fiercely, and scolded loudly: "Xuanqiong and Yun Dingxing have made a lot of mistakes. ”

At this time, it is not the time to shirk and hold accountable, otherwise it will only add chaos to chaos, Wang Xuanying bowed down and said: "Father, at this moment, we should focus on appeasing the interior of our army, and we should not repeat twists and turns, and we will make a decision after the enemy army retreats." ”

When Wang Shichong heard this, although he was angry in his heart, he could only suppress it, and nodded angrily: "Gather your troops as soon as possible, and at the same time send people to hold the outer fortresses to protect the evacuated troops." ”

"Whoa!" Wang Ren sighed secretly, bowed down and took the order, leaving only Wang Shichong, father and son, sitting on the top of the hall, looking out blankly.

Wang Xuanying said: "Father, Qianjin Fort and Jin Yong City are important defenses of Luoyang Ziwei Palace, and Erchen thinks that he needs to send credible people to guard it, and Erchen is willing to sit in Qianjin Castle." ”

In addition to relying on the tall and strong city walls of Luoyang City, Wang Shichong also established large and small military facilities around Luoyang, not only the city is tall and strong, but also has sufficient grain and grass to serve as a bridgehead in Luoyang. Among them, the Qianjin Fort, which protects the Ziwei Palace in the north of Luoyang, is the largest and strongest fortification built outside the city. In addition to the high walls and thick walls, the fortress was equipped with a large number of long-range bed crossbows.

"Father, it's better for your sons to go! The city is inseparable from the big brother. "Wang Xuanshu pleaded.

"It's good!" Wang Shichong thought for a while and said, "Erlang is in Kim Yong City, and King Yue is in Qianjin Castle." ”

"Whoa."

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