Yanmen.

This city has been struggling to survive in blood and fire for half a month.

At this time, less than half of the 100,000 soldiers of the Xiaoguo Fourth Army who accompanied Yang Guang remained. Although they were also very brave and strong, they attacked again and again, killing 50,000 or 60,000 Turks, but they still suffered heavy casualties.

Especially in the back, I didn't see reinforcements for a long time, so Yanmen City had to continuously reduce the food supply, and the soldiers could only eat two thin meals a day, as for the people in the city, they had already run out of food, and even the food of the powerful officials in the city was taken away as military food.

The people had to catch mice and birds, and even killed all the cats and dogs in the house.

Some people had even begun to eat grass root bark, but there was only so much grass root bark in the city, so many people's hungry eyes lit up.

Some people even secretly dug up the buried corpses and ate them, and some even sacrificed their lives for the country.

The city is running out of arrows.

For this reason, in the face of the offensive of the Turks, who still refused to retreat, they could only rely on the rolling stones obtained from the demolition of the houses, collect the dung to boil the gold juice, and collect the oil in the city to boil the oil to splash the enemy.

The Xiaoguo army must not go out of the city again and again to kill the enemy, but every time they go out of the city, they will suffer most casualties.

The morale of the military is very weak.

More and more people are starting to despair.

They don't think they can hold it.

Every day people are looking south and yelling frantically, and they go crazy.

The emperor now only knows to lie in the basement with his nine-year-old son Yang Gao in his arms every day, because there is no safe place in the city, and from time to time there will be stone throwers throwing stones and fireballs into the city.

However, the twelve-year-old imperial grandson Yang Qi was calmer, and he took the place of the imperial grandfather every day in the temporary palace in the center of the city to discuss countermeasures with the prime minister and ministers.

The emperor's grandson even ignored the opposition of the ministers several times, and personally climbed the city wall after the war to comfort the soldiers who defended the city, so that the already low morale finally recovered a little.

Basement.

The emperor looked at the bronze mirror and looked at his decadent self.

He touched his head and said to his youngest son, King Zhao, "I have such a good head, and I don't know who will cut it off." ”

"Your Majesty, please don't say such frustrating things. The army of King Qin will definitely arrive soon! ”

The Empress appeased the Emperor.

But the emperor did not have such confidence.

It's been fifteen days, and he doesn't know how these fifteen days have passed.

Every day there is a fierce battle, and countless soldiers die every day.

The blood is surging to the sky, and the stench of corpses is pervasive.

If this continues, there will be a plague in Yanmen City.

The prime ministers reported that many hungry people had begun to dig up the bodies of buried fallen soldiers and cook them, and Yang Guang vomited after hearing this, he did not expect such a thing to happen.

Su Wei proposed that the war dead be burned.

This will not only prevent the corpses from decomposing and causing the plague, but also prevent these people who have sacrificed their lives for the country from being eaten by the hungry.

Yang Guang agreed.

However, there was not enough firewood in the city to cremate the corpses of the soldiers, so they had to bury them.

But everyone has long been hungry, and they don't even have the strength to dig a pit.

Many of the people who were responsible for burying the corpses just threw the corpses into a corner, threw them casually, and sprinkled some soil.

Then at night, there are always those who dare to steal corpses.

Even there has been an underground black market in Yanmen City, where some people are quietly selling the meat of dead bodies that have just died, and they are still very expensive.

A thigh can be exchanged for ten taels of gold.

The situation has slowly become uncontrollable.

Reinforcements were delayed.

He even wondered if the generals and ministers had abandoned him, so he would not save him.

"Your Majesty, reinforcements will come."

The Emperor was already in despair.

He put his arms around King Zhao and looked at the queen.

"Empress, if the city of Yanmen is broken, I will never be a prisoner of the Turks. I've prepared a bottle of poison and I'll kill myself by then, what about you? ”

The empress shuddered, and she saw disillusionment in the emperor's eyes.

"The concubine will also accompany His Majesty."

The Emperor smiled.

"Okay, let's go together, it's just poor King Zhao, he's still so young."

·······

Taiyuan County North, Xinkou.

Yang Yichen, the pacification envoy of Hedong, Li Jing, the pacification envoy of Hebei, Yin Xue Shixiong of Fanyang Prefecture, and Duguyu, the governor of Beiping.

The four of them were the closest to Yanmen, and they were the first to receive King Qin's order, and they all mobilized their troops as soon as possible.

In Taiyuan, several soldiers and horses converged, and there were 50,000 troops at this time.

The 50,000 army left Taiyuan, but it was blocked at Xinkou on the border between Taiyuan and Yanmen.

Xinkou is located in the broken place of Xinkou Mountain, known as the gateway of Taiyuan to the north of Shanxi.

When Liu Bangping, the ancestor of the Han Dynasty, lifted the siege, he led the army to return and pass by here, and was very happy, so he named this place Xinkou, and since then he has built the city and set up dangers, and has become an important place for military defense.

Previously, the Turks suddenly marched south, breaking through dozens of cities in Mayi and Yanmen along the way.

At that time, the pacification of Hedong made Yang Yichen lead his troops to hold Xinkou City in time, and Fang stopped the Turkic iron cavalry's plan to continue to move south and seize Taiyuan.

But at that time, there were few soldiers in Xinkou City, and they could only defend it by relying on the pass.

It was not until the urgent recruitment of soldiers and horses from all over Hedong and the arrival of reinforcements from Hebei that Yang Yichen dared to lead the army out of the customs.

At this time, outside Xinkou, there were 30,000 Turkic troops intercepting.

Li Jing, Yang Yichen, and Xue Shixiong fought with the Turks more than ten times here, and the two sides won and lost each other, but it was difficult to completely defeat the opponent.

Although the Turkic soldiers are few, they are all light cavalry.

Although the three generals were numerous, they also arrived one after another, and they did not have a numerical advantage at once, and many government soldiers and county soldiers were together, and they were mainly infantry.

"I can't wait any longer, I have to kill it in one fell swoop, and drag it out again, I'm afraid that Yanmen City won't be able to hold it."

Li Jing said to the two generals, "Now we have gathered 50,000 troops, which is quite a lot, and we can give it a go." ”

August 27.

The four generals led an army of 50,000 out of Xinkou Pass, and set up a position with the Turks on the plain under Xinkou Mountain.

Yang Yichen was the front army, Li Jing was the rear army, and Xue Shixiong and Dugu usurped around the rear with light horses, interspersed with the back of the Turks in a roundabout way.

The battle began in the morning.

From the beginning, the Turks relied on light cavalry and rushed into formation.

They galloped and shot, and they rode and shot.

The Sui army formed a phalanx with shields and spears, and then used archers to shoot the enemy.

The battle lasted until noon.

Yang Yichen's front army suffered heavy losses and began to be unable to resist the retreat.

At this time, Li Jing, who had been recuperating for a long time, led the Hebei army to rush out, and Li Jing personally jumped on his horse and charged forward, stubbornly resisting the offensive of the Turks.

At this time, Xue Shixiong with thousands of cavalry finally interspersed back behind the Turks and launched a fierce attack.

The Turks were caught off guard and turned back to fight, and Li Jing and Yang Yichen led the whole army to cover the killing, so the 30,000 Turkic army was defeated.

Chased and killed twenty miles, and killed more than 10,000 people.

The first day of September.

Li Jing, Yang Yichen, Xue Shixiong and Dugu Usur led the remaining 40,000 Hedong Hebei Qinwang troops to the city of Laoxian, only a hundred miles away from Yanmen.

But in front of them, outside of Lao County, there were still seventy or eighty thousand Turkic troops around.

The 20,000 Turkic troops who had fled from Xinshan came to Laoxian before them and joined the army of Lifushe, who was besieging Laoxian again.

"Raise the flag!"

Yang Yichen looked at the city of Laoxian, where the red flag of the Sui army was still standing, and couldn't help laughing.

"I can't imagine that General Luo Siye is so brave and strong, with a small army, he has stuck to the small town of Laoxian until now."

"Raise all our flags, blow the horn, and tell Luo Siye that King Qin's army has arrived!" Li Jing also shouted happily!