Early the next morning, Bai Zhizhen, the envoy of the Shence Army, was appointed as a recruiting envoy to recruit brave warriors for the powerful and wealthy families in Chang'an.

If you don't want to go to the battlefield, you can use the method of paying for redemption, 30,000 yuan for your son-in-law and 10,000 yuan for your concubine, and in just three days, they forcibly raised 4 million yuan, which solved the shortage of troops on the Eastern Front at once.

For a time, the magnates of Chang'an were full of complaints, eager to eat Bai Zhizhen's flesh and sleep Bai Zhizhen's skin, although everyone knew that this was the order of the Son of Heaven, but no one dared to point the finger at the Son of Heaven.

However, another problem has arisen, how to transport the money to the front line, which is also a difficult problem.

At this time, the battle on the battlefield of Qizhou was extremely fierce, the battle for the head of the city became a meat grinder, a large number of corpses were piled up under the city wall, the blood dyed the entire moat crimson, a large number of mosquitoes and flies multiplied, and the corpses began to rot in summer, and the stench was disgusting.

Li Mian was extremely worried about the outbreak of the epidemic, and he wanted to withdraw his troops for a hundred miles first, giving Li Na a chance to burn and bury the body, but at this time, the Son of Heaven issued seven holy decrees in a row, urging them to attack, and issued a death order, Licheng County must be taken before the end of the month, otherwise Lang will be beheaded.

That night, in the big tent of the Chinese army, the supervising army Song Chaofeng roared like thunder with the sword of Shang Fang in his hand, "Why do you want to rest, there are only five days left until the end of the month, if you don't fight tomorrow, I will deal with it by military law!" ”

Li Mian held back his anger and said: "The soldiers have been attacking the city for ten consecutive days, and they really can't move, and now the casualties are getting bigger and bigger day by day, and the corpses under the city are stinking, that is their brother, their best friend, our military spirit has collapsed, didn't you see the siege in the afternoon?" More than 2,000 people died before we even hit the moat, and if we continue to fight like this, we will destroy the whole army. ”

Song Chaofeng was unmoved, and said viciously: "The sluggish morale of the army has nothing to do with me, that's your business, I just have to carry out the will of the saint, I must take Licheng County within five days, and if you can't take it, you will judge and apologize." ”

At this moment, there was a sudden commotion outside, Li Mian didn't care about arguing with Song Chaofeng, turned around and walked out of the big tent, and asked sharply, "What happened?" ”

At this time, a Cang Cao came to join the military, bowed down and said: "Qi Yu envoy, a large group of generals forcibly broke into the warehouse tent, and their humble duties can't stop them!" ”

Li Mian secretly shouted that it was not good, I was afraid that something was going to happen.

Sure enough, I saw hundreds of low-level generals rushing towards them angrily, and when they saw Li Mian, they immediately surrounded them and asked, "Envoy, where are our soldiers?" ”

"It's been three months, I haven't seen a penny, we are desperate here, but my parents, wife and children are starving, I want to support my family!"

The crowd shouted angrily, "If we don't do it again, we won't do it." ”

Li Mian wanted Song Chaofeng to come out and say a few words, but as soon as he turned around, Song Chaofeng was gone, and a pro-soldier said: "The prison army said that he still has something to do, so go first!" ”

Li Mian gritted his teeth with hatred, and when it was time for him to come forward, he ran away.

Helpless, Li Mian had to explain: "The imperial court must be rich, just because there is a war going on in Bianzhou, the military salaries can't be transported, everyone works hard for the imperial court, how can the imperial court not give everyone military salaries, there must be, and it's double, in fact, even if you send it now, you can't send it to your family, and then the imperial court will send it to your family together." ”

He casually took out a letter from his bosom and coaxed everyone: "This is the edict given to me by the Son of Heaven, the Son of Heaven promises, starting from February, double the salary, double the pension, I, Li Mian, promise everyone that every penny will be sent to everyone's family, one penny less, take me and ask!" ”

Li Mian's lips were foaming at the explanation, and it was easy to calm everyone down, he was so tired that he was exhausted, and the whole army had to rest for a day tomorrow.

.........

In Licheng County, 20,000 elite soldiers have been assembled at the west gate, these soldiers are recruited people, trained for four months, and gradually trained them into an elite army, the soldiers are high morale, full of spirit, they did not participate in the defense of the city, have been recuperating, just waiting for this moment tonight.

Li Na personally led 3,000 cavalry in front and infantry behind, and he shouted to all the soldiers: "Success or failure depends on this move, protect our parents, wives and children, and kill the enemy army!" ”

The soldiers raised their arms and shouted, "Kill them all!" ”

Li Na waved his horse lance and ordered sharply: "Open the city gate!" ”

The city gate slowly opened, the drawbridge was slowly lowered, and Li Na rushed out with a column of war horses, followed by 3,000 cavalry, followed by 20,000 infantry.

Under the cover of night, they slaughtered the Tang army camp two miles away, and it was not until fifty paces away that the sleepy sentry spotted them and sounded the alarm urgently, 'Dang! While! While! ’

But it was too late, Li Na roared, rushed towards the camp gate with three thousand cavalry, and rushed into the Tang army camp in an instant.

"Kill!" 20,000 Qi troops followed the commander into the Tang army camp.

Li Mian had not yet fallen asleep, he was awakened by the shouts of killing in all directions, he ran out of the big tent with his sword in his hand, and his own soldiers shouted: "Tens of thousands of enemy troops have entered the camp, and the brothers have collapsed, so let's go!" ”

Li Mian sighed, this battle is completely over, where do you still have the face to meet the Son of Heaven.

He walked briskly back to the tent and stared at the map for a moment, then gritted his teeth and killed himself with his sword.

In this sneak attack battle, the Tang army completely collapsed, and after ten days of siege, the Tang soldiers were so tired that they didn't even have the physical strength to flee for their lives, and desperately knelt on the ground and begged for mercy.

Li Na then ordered that those who surrendered should be spared death, and he needed these soldiers to replenish his strength.

The 40,000 Tang army was annihilated, more than 30,000 surrendered, and the rest were all killed by the enemy.

Li Na then led his army to take advantage of the victory to recover the five prefectures of Yun, Yan, Ji, Pu and Yi, and occupied Xuzhou, cutting off Caoyun, and the momentum grew rapidly, and the world shook.

........

The news of the defeat of the Tang army reached Chang'an, and the Chang'an government and the opposition were shocked, and then set off a strong storm of public opinion, requiring the imperial court to severely punish the decision-makers, and even requiring the imperial court to urgently send troops.

During this time, Lu Qi was a little anxious, and many ministers aimed the contradiction at him, and it was he who strongly opposed the first attack on Li Xilie, and resolutely advocated the destruction of Li Na first, which led to a series of vicious consequences, Li Xilie rebelled, ravaging the southern part of the Central Plains, and Li Na turned the tide of the war, and the 60,000 Tang Army was wiped out.

In the past two days, Lu Qi was very low-key, and generally hid in the official room and did not dare to go out, before he sold the artifacts of the Zuo Zang Treasury, raised a sum of money, paid the officials for two months, and paid the craftsmen owed by the Ordnance Prison, and after the two million yuan was spent cleanly, and now some ministers accused him of selling the heavy weapons of the imperial court cheaply, resulting in serious losses for the imperial court, making Lu Qi not a person inside and outside.

Although Lu Qi had a hard time, he still had to go to the imperial study to be reprimanded by the Son of Heaven.

Li Shi had just received the news from the Tibetan Sword Pavilion that Li Na's army had expanded rapidly, exceeding 100,000 people, and the forward forces had entered Bianzhou, making Liu Qia and Ge Shuyao's army threaten to be attacked by the enemy, and Li Xilie's army had been compressed to the Huai River line, once the Ziqing army attacked Liu Qia and Ge Shuyao's army from behind, it was likely to lead to the defeat of Li Xilie.

In the imperial study, Li Mi suggested: "Weichen transferred Li Sheng's army south to the Central Plains to block the westward expansion of the Ziqing army, and Weichen considered transferring the southern army to the east to kill Li Xilie's lair......."

Without waiting for Li Yu to finish speaking, Lu Qi objected: "The Jiannan army can't move, beware that Tubo will take advantage of the weakness, Weichen suggested that Chen Shaoyou's Huainan army move westward and attack Li Xilie's lair." ”

Li Shi pondered for a moment and said: "Actually, I am considering transferring the Fengxiang army and the Jingyuan army east into the Central Plains to participate in the war against Li Na, and it is better for Li Sheng's army not to move to prevent Zhu Tao from entering Hedong again." ”

Li Mi nodded, "This plan is also fine, but the soldiers of the Fengxiang Army and the Jingyuan Army have not been paid for several months, so they have to be appeased appropriately." ”

Lu Qi glared at Li Yu angrily and said, "Where is the extra money in the imperial court?" You don't have a backache when you stand and talk by yourself, you take out the money and show it to me! ”

Li Shi was also very dissatisfied with Li Mi's proposal, "When it comes to fighting, you have to take money, what do you do to support them in peacetime, you should contribute when they should contribute, how can there be so much bargaining?" ”

Li Mi had no choice but to say: "At least Your Majesty must promise to give them a promotion after the war, and always give them a little hope, otherwise they will not work hard to fight at all." ”

"I know!"

Li Shi immediately issued an order, ordering Huainan Jiedu to make Chen Shaoyou send troops to attack Huaixi, Li Xilie's lair, in addition, 20,000 troops from Fengxiang Jiedu Mansion and 30,000 troops from Jingyuan Jiedu Mansion rushed to the Central Plains to fight!