In the second year of Xuande, in mid-May, the emperor officially issued an edict to decide to personally conquer Huainan, appointing Xuanhui Southern Yuan Envoy and Zhen'an Jiedu Envoy Xiang Xun to stay in Tokyo, and let Duan Ming Hall Scholar Wang Pu assist Xiang Xun work, in addition to Zhangxin Jie Du made Han Tongquan serve as the inspection guard department, responsible for patrols and inspections inside and outside the city of Daliang. Heyang Jiedu made Li Chongba lead 3,000 soldiers and horses to camp on Yingshang.

At this time, Li Gu's army, which was deployed as the former army capital of Huainan, went south to build a pontoon bridge over the Huai River and crossed the Huai River from Zhengyang in the west of Shouzhou. The soldiers pointed directly at Shouzhou City.

Shouzhou (located in present-day Huainan, Anhui), a major military town in Huainan region, a place where soldiers of all dynasties must fight!

Most ancient Chinese cities were built at the confluence of rivers, and Shouzhou was no exception, which is located at the confluence of the West River (the water is divided into two branches, one flows northwest and one flows southeast) and the Huai River.

At the end of May, Emperor Lu Rong listened to the report of Li Gu, the former army of Huainan, and said that on the 20th of that month, the deputy general Wang Yanchao defeated the Southern Tang army of more than 2,000 people under the city of Shouzhou; On the 25th of the same month, the guards and the pro-army Ma Jun commanded Lin Zhaoyuan to defeat the Southern Tang troops of more than 1,000 people in Shankou Town, and the former army has successfully entered the siege of Shouzhou.

Although the Wei army led by Li Gu repeatedly defeated reinforcements from other parts of the Southern Tang Dynasty, it did not have any results in attacking Shouzhou.

At this time, the emperor had already led the army of the palace to set off from Daliang, and the Great Wei forbidden army went south along the Cai Shui, and then entered the Southern Tang Huai River valley from the West Weishui, which was also the marching route of the Huainan front army of the Wei Dynasty before.

The emperor issued an edict ordering the guards to command Li Wenzhao to lead the army to Zhengyang, and the southern part of the border near Huainan sent troops to assist, and ordered all prefectures and counties to mobilize people to assist in logistics work.

Under the city of Shouzhou, the former army camp of Huainan.

Li Gu looked at the casualty information on the reports of the various armies below, shook his head, and closed the intelligence documents heavily, the casualties generated in the siege battles in the past few days were much greater than the casualties of the Southern Tang army in the head-on duel.

No matter how brave the warriors on the battlefield are, in the face of the towering and solid Shouzhou city wall, they can only sigh helplessly.

Li Gu walked out of the big tent, looking at the towering and still solid Shouzhou City in the distance, depressed, the city was in front of him, but he couldn't go south for a while, as if there was a piece of cake in front of him, but there was a layer of glass windows in the middle that he couldn't eat it, and he was very aggrieved.

Not far away, a huge trebuchet, "click" sound, several warriors pulled the rod together, a burst of drinking, the huge winch force will be the heavy huge stone on it, thrown high in the air, fly to the city wall of Shouzhou, the stone smashed on the top and shattered, the bed crossbow shot out of the thick crossbow arrow, galloping and shooting, straight to the city.

Frightened, the Southern Tang defenders didn't dare to poke their heads out at all, because as soon as they came out, they might be shot through the head by crossbow arrows, and some unlucky people had already died on this.

The people sent by the neighboring prefectures and counties rushed to the moat under Shouzhou City with arrows, shields in one hand and sandbags in the other, trying to fill it with sandbags and fill the road for the army behind.

The war swept in, and the thick black smoke filled with Shouzhou City as the center, and the billowing black smoke went straight into the sky, as if there were ancient demonic beasts raging.

Shouzhou City is an important town in the Southern Tang Dynasty, the city is strong, the economy is prosperous, and a large amount of grain is stored in the city, if there is no special reason, such as the defenders are running out of ammunition and food, they are in a desperate situation, or the outhouse reinforcements, the defenders are losing their fighting spirit, the Wei army wants to lay down, gnaw this hard bone, it is not so easy, the besieging side has to pay a greater price than the defending side.

This is also Sun Wu in ancient times, in the art of war, it is said, "Therefore, the army is strategic, the second is to fight, the second is to attack the army, and the next is to attack the city." ”

Before the invention of high-powered artillery, siege warfare was called the most difficult battle.

Come to Far Town.

Liu Yanzhen rode on a tall horse, looking at the mighty, seemingly boundless army, suddenly full of pride, with 20,000 troops in his hands, who can't be defeated, what things can't be bulldozed, this time the Wei people attacked Huainan, many people in the imperial court were afraid of war, and the emperor was also lacking in confidence, if I defeated the Wei army, I would definitely become a hero of the Tang Dynasty, that was not a lot of rewards, he didn't put the Wei army in his eyes at all in his heart, they were all a head and shoulders, no matter how strong they were, how strong could they be!

An adjutant general asked sullenly: "General, we are not going to Shouzhou to support, then we should hurry, why are you still staying here?"

When Liu Yanzhen heard this, she laughed: "Shilang, although the Wei army under the city of Shouzhou is gathered, Shouzhou is not so easy to fight, and the Wei army has only been fighting for a few days?" Now a large number of people and horses of the Wei army are gathered in Shouzhou, but there are not too many people in Zhengyang, I have specially ordered people to mobilize warships from nearby, and they will arrive soon, let's go to Zhengyang to cut off the back road of the Wei people, wouldn't it be a great achievement! ”

The Wei army built a pontoon bridge on the Huai River and descended from Zhengyang to the city of Shouzhou.

This lieutenant's name is Xianshilang, and after listening to it, he suddenly realized, stroked his belly, laughed heartily, and said: "The general is really a genius in the sky!" The subordinates are stupid and can't think of such a wonderful attention. ”

Sure enough, it didn't take long for hundreds of battlefields to rush to the river, and the Southern Tang soldiers jumped on the boats, turned around, and marched towards Zhengyang.

"What? Most of the men and horses of the Southern Tang Army marched in the direction of Zhengyang! Li Gu was greatly surprised after listening to the scout's military intelligence report.

Most of the soldiers of the Wei army were people from the north, and they were not good at water warfare, and if the pontoon bridge was cut off, they might be attacked by the enemy, and once the Southern Tang army succeeded, the front army would fall into a very passive situation.

Li Gu hurriedly ordered someone to summon the staff and staff of the army to discuss the next battle and whether it was necessary to withdraw from Zhengyang.

……

And Liu Yanzhen's general, Xian Shilang and others, were all a group of brave and unscrupulous people, who were overjoyed after seeing Li Gu lead his troops to retreat, and decided to directly lead his troops to attack Zhengyang, and the entire marching team plus the burden of the army was hundreds of miles.

Seeing this, Shouzhou Guard General Liu Renzhen and Chizhou Assassin Shi Zhang Quanyu hurriedly stopped it, and sent a messenger to inform them in a very tactful tone, but after Liu Yanzhen used the strategy of attacking the east and attacking the west to scare away the Wei army, his self-confidence was already bursting, and he was already very arrogant, and he despised the Wei army even more, and felt that the Wei people did not want to be as strong as the rumors, and they couldn't listen to the opinions of their colleagues, and didn't accept it at all, thinking that Liu and Zhang were jealous of their performance and didn't want him to achieve greater military achievements, so they went straight to Zhengyang and took the city regardless of it!

After Liu Yanzhen's troops left, Liu Renzhen concluded that Liu Yanzhen was guilty of arrogance and arrogance, and the Southern Tang army would be defeated in this battle, so he immediately strengthened the defense of the city wall.

Li Wenzhao crossed the Huai River at this time, met the Southern Tang troops on the east side of Zhengyang and defeated them, Liu Yanzhen was beheaded, Xian Shilang and others were captured alive, the Southern Tang army was killed tens of thousands of people, and the thirty miles of land were all the corpses of the soldiers of the Southern Tang Army. The Wei army captured more than 300,000 military equipment in this battle.

At this time, Lu Rong had already arrived in Yongning Town, and he would be able to rush to Shouzhou in a few days.