Zheng Guo and his ministers could not see hope, and they wrote to resign; Wang Shichong's eyes were fierce and vicious, staring at the imperial historian Zheng Tingye who was kneeling on the ground.

Zheng Tingye, who used to be the long history of Li Mi, the Duke of Wei, was now forced to be an official under Wang Shichong, and he was depressed in his heart. He took the opportunity to say to Wang Shichong: "The minister is dull and unworthy to serve Your Majesty; But it is a privilege to be called by the Buddha. The ministers are willing to abandon the official and cut their hair, enter the Shamen, practice the teachings diligently, surpass all sentient beings, and let more people know His Majesty's divine martial arts. ”

"You are a high-ranking official of the imperial court, and you have a lot of prestige." Wang Shichong reluctantly comforted, "Once you take refuge in Buddhism, I'm afraid it will cause everyone to be frustrated." When the war is over, it's up to you to do it. ”

Zheng Tingye repeatedly asked Wang Shichong to allow him to become a monk, but Wang Shichong just didn't agree.

After returning home after the dispersal of the dynasty, Zheng Tingye made his own decisions, cut his hair and put on monk's clothes, and went to the White Horse Temple to become a monk.

When Wang Shichong heard about it early the next morning, he scolded angrily: "Do you think I will fail and want to change my way to survive?" If I don't kill you, how can I subdue the people! So he dragged Zheng Tingye to the market and killed him. Zheng Tingye talked and laughed freely before he died, and many people who watched the excitement shed tears for his heroism and serenity.

At noon on this day, Li Shimin, the king of Qin, led the Tang army to launch a large-scale attack on the eastern capital.

Amid the rumbling drums of war, groups of Tang sergeants carried bags of soil on their shoulders and erected hills dozens of zhang away in front of the high city walls of the Eastern Capital, and then the crossbowmen hid behind the hills one by one.

After a burst of war drums, crossbowmen and arrows rained down, suppressing the head of Luoyang City. Immediately after that, thousands of Tang soldiers drilled out of the battle formation behind, and under the cover of the shield soldiers, they carried the ladder and bent down to the root of the city wall.

Wang Shichong personally commanded the battle on the city tower, he ordered the city to start firing flying arrows, the long arrows on the crossbow of the eight bulls were as dense as the spokes of the car, the arrows were as big as a giant axe, only to hear a heavy sound, the long arrows with a strange wind, whirring out, piercing through the shield of the Tang army three or four hundred steps away, penetrating the shield soldiers as chests, and shooting through the belly of the sergeant carrying the ladder behind him, flowing out of the colorful intestines. The ladder suddenly collapsed to the ground.

The sound of war drums urged, Tang Jun didn't care to look at him, the cloud ladder behind him quickly crossed it, continued to rush forward, and when it reached a place one or two hundred steps away from the city wall, the trebuchet on the city hit a flying stone weighing fifty catties and fell down in the air, smashing the cloud ladder to pieces. The soldiers turned and ran back in the smoke and dust.

Li Shimin waved the order flag, and the catapult of the Tang army came up; Huge stone projectiles rose into the air and went straight to the place where the enemy catapult had been fired.

"Boom!" After a loud bang, sawdust flew everywhere, and Zheng Jun's catapult was destroyed a lot, and then the stone bullets were replaced by fire bullets, and continued to fly towards the city. "Boom! Bang! "A sea of fire burned out at the head of the city.

The Tang army shouted loudly when it saw it, and took advantage of the situation to carry a ladder and began to attack the city. The Zheng army in the city returned fierce fire with bows and arrows, rolling logs and stones, and swords and guns. This battle was fought until the evening, when the Tang army lost thousands of men and still did not take the city of Luoyang.

At night, the Tang army attacked the city in the dark, and clusters of torches were lit on the city wall, illuminating the sky red. Braving the rain of arrows and rolling wood and stones, the Tang army reached the city wall one after another, and the daredevils climbed up the ladder at high speed.

Helplessly, the city wall is too high, and the ladder has to be built as high, and the daredevils often have not climbed halfway, so they are caught by the flying crossbow and crossbow with the big shield of the Zheng army in the city, and quickly step forward to knock down the cloud ladder with a thick wooden pole, and the daredevils fall heavily to the ground, and the people in the city drop big stones and smash them on them.

The tragic defeat inspired Li Shimin's thunderous anger, and he ordered the Tang army to attack the city day and night, and in this way it continued to attack for ten days, and more than 10,000 people were killed and wounded and could not climb the city wall.

The Tang army used building carts and punch rods to transport the soldiers up, but they were quickly extinguished by Wang Shichong's swimming fruit.

Due to the large casualties, under the persuasion of Cheng Zhijie, Qu Tutong, Yin Kaishan, Yu Wenshi and others, Li Shimin had no choice but to order a suspension of the siege.

The continuous siege made the soldiers physically and mentally exhausted, lost confidence in the capture of the eastern capital, and wanted to return to Guanzhong. The generals recommended Liu Hongji, who was an old qualifier, and suggested to Li Shimin that the class teacher return to Beijing.

Li Shimin was furious when he heard this: "Our army is coming in a big way this time, and Wang Shichong should be solved once and for all." Now that all the states and counties under Wang Shichong have surrendered, and only Luoyang is left as a lonely city, how long can he hold on? Why give it up and go back when you are about to win the final victory? What a ridiculous way you think! ”

He summoned Fang Xuanling to immediately draft a military law and ordered the army: "Luoyang is not broken, the division will not be returned, after the order is issued, those who dare to speak out in the army will be killed!" ”

The faces of the people who were reprimanded were red-faced, and no one dared to say more.

Li Shimin sat alone in the military tent, feeling depressed; At this moment, the curtain was raised, and a burly figure walked in from outside.

"Fifth brother, why are you here? Isn't there a good way to break the city and teach me? ”

Cheng Zhijie smiled and said, "I don't have such a big ability. King Qin, you are too anxious and distraught; How about we go out for a walk? ”

"Fifth brother invited, dare I disobey?" Li Shimin nodded and stood up, and the two of them got on their war horses and slowly walked out of the camp.

Li Shimin took a deep breath of cold air, and the irritability in his heart seemed to have suddenly decreased a lot; The mind is also clearer.

"Fifth brother, I made a big mistake today. Successive sieges were a bad decision. I was red-eyed for a while. The Art of War? "Plotting to attack" said that if you have been trapped under the fortified city for a long time, you will be overwhelmed by its anger and the ants will be attached to it, and those who kill one-third of the soldiers and the city will not be able to pull out, and this attack will also be a disaster!

The art of war has long pointed out the danger of reckless fighting, but I lost control on the spot. This is a painful lesson. The ranks suffered five or six thousand casualties, and their morale was especially bruised; I should have stopped in time; It's because I was so smooth in the past that I underestimated Wang Shichong. I'm going to apologize to the generals. ”

Cheng Zhijie shook his head lightly and said, "King Qin, I think you did the right thing today. We've reached this point, and we can't retreat. It's not you who are messed up today, it's the generals who are panicking.

They have been on the battlefield for a long time, they are used to seeing difficulties and dangers, and they should not have panicked, but they panicked. But you can't mess with yourself; In times of panic, the manager must be the mainstay and must be as steady as Mount Tai.

Since they have not given sufficient reasons to refute you, but have only reflected their weakness and short-sightedness, you must lead them with strength and foresight, and force them to continue fighting with you, and their task is to obey.

King Qin, although you are usually close to them like brothers, there are no brothers in military affairs, only commanders and generals, and only military law. Whoever dares not to obey, you will behead whomever you want. Thou art Lord of hosts, and thou shalt not say a word; If you say a word, it is like thunder.

This matter has a bearing on the great cause of pacifying the world, and if we are soft-hearted, we will only drag on the war for a longer period of time, and will only cause more officers, men, and civilians to die in the flames of war.

There is not so much time to be entangled and wasted in the hosts, and no one is allowed to challenge the authority of the commander at will, they must develop the habit of being willing to obey, and do not act like a person who has no discipline to be aggrieved and awkward. They are soldiers, and the first duty of a soldier is obedience, the second is obedience, and the third is still obedience! ”

Li Shimin was a little shocked when he heard this, and after a while, he hesitated slightly and said, "I understand what to do." Thank you, Fifth Brother! I will appease the generals, unify their minds, and continue the fight with one goal in mind. ”

Cheng Zhijie laughed and said, "That's good!" King Qin, I know a little bit about the military; But I don't know about the things in the court. We're blocked here, and there must be people making waves in the court, so you have to be prepared. ”

Li Shimin shook his head painfully and said, "Fifth brother, did you expect this situation to occur a long time ago?" Our brothers have been very affectionate since childhood. I didn't expect it to be more and more incompatible now.

His father blindly protected his eldest brother, and when Taiyuan raised troops, he said that the first person to enter Chang'an was the prince; As a result, I went to Chang'an first, but my eldest brother was named the crown prince.

The eldest brother is benevolent, perhaps more suitable than me; But later Liu Wuzhou, Xue Ju and others were killed; My father also promised me that I would inherit the great unification of the world; But when he turned around, he was silent and silent.

Later, the more credit I made, the more suspicion I received, and the relationship between father and son and brother became weaker and weaker. Liu Wenjing was an old minister who followed his father from Taiyuan; On the merits of the ministers first! But because he complained a few words to Pei Lian. thought that Pei Lian's credit was not as good as his own and he was not worthy of being above himself, so he was ordered to be executed by his father.

I know that Uncle Jing is because of his support for me, and his father thinks that I instructed him to insinuate and ask for credit. Killing Uncle Jing is actually warning me! ”

Cheng Zhijie sighed and said, "Providence makes people, what should I do?" Please take note of King Qin himself! ”

"I know what to do, please rest assured, Fifth Brother! We've been out for a long time, so let's go back! ”

The two parted ways when they returned to the camp; Li Shimin was going to call Yu Wenshi and ask him to go back and report the situation here. But after thinking about it, I decided to send Feng Deli forward.

Feng Deli was sleek, and he had been attached to Yu Shinan in the Sui Dynasty, giving advice to Yu Shinan, which made Yu Shiji's favor deepened day by day by Emperor Yang of the Sui Dynasty, and the national politics of the Sui Dynasty were gradually corrupted. After the Jiangdu Incident, he surrendered to Yu Wenhua and was the first to stand up and list Yang Guang's 10 major crimes.

Later, he went north with Yu Wenhua, and saw that his army was decreasing on the way, so he defected to Li Yuan with Yu Wenshi. At first, Li Yuan thought that Feng Deyi was an old minister of the Sui Dynasty, flattering and disloyal, and severely reprimanded him, dismissed the official and repatriated.