In the earth-shattering war drums, the battering rams came out, these are three battering rams made of thousand-year-old giant trees, the hammer head is equipped with pig iron, the hammer body is equipped with dense handles, weighing 10,000 catties, carried by 200 soldiers, 100 people on each side of the gavel, and 300 people each raise their shields to cover. Pen & Fun & Pavilion www.biquge.info

The huge battering ram was like a black centipede, walking slowly along the pine road towards the city gate, and behind them, Li Shimin personally led 20,000 cavalry to line up, waiting for the city gate to break open and enter the city.

At this time, the Tang army's heavy crossbows had suppressed the enemy, and a round of long crossbow arrows shot at the city, the sound of clanging bells came and went, and the gravel on the battlements was splashed everywhere.

The main general Lei Shimeng was so anxious that he saw the battering ram slowly approaching the city gate from the gap in the battlements, but his soldiers were so pressed by the powerful crossbow arrows of the Tang army that they couldn't raise their heads, and he was so anxious that he shouted: "Prepare to roll the wood and stones!" ”

Hundreds of soldiers bent their waists and piled up three-foot-long logs and dozens of pounds of stones on the top of the city, and they did not dare to raise their heads, so they could only throw the rolling logs and stones down the city.

Most of the suspension bridge was split into five or six pieces and lay down on the soil, the fire had been extinguished, but the suspension bridge that could be burned to carbon was still dotted with sparks, and the dark red fire was extinguished from time to time, and dozens of Tang soldiers rushed up and picked up the big axe and slashed violently, completely smashing the suspension bridge.

At this moment, the rolling wood and stones at the head of the city fell like raindrops, and dozens of Tang soldiers were caught off guard, hit by stones and wood, and fell to the ground screaming.

The lieutenant who commanded the crash was furious and yelled, "Hit the wood!" ”

Two hundred soldiers suddenly accelerated, carrying battering rams towards the city gate, 'Boom! There was an earth-shattering bang, and the city gate shook violently, and the sand and stones fell from the city, and many soldiers on the city fell to the ground in pain, and the huge impact force when they hit the city almost broke their hearts.

A feeling of despair spread in the city, many soldiers realized that the city general could not hold it, without heavy weapons to defend the city, the city gate would be broken sooner or later, and this was Li Shimin personally led the army to attack the city, the military spirit began to collapse, many soldiers took advantage of the chaos in the city, took off their armor and ran to the city.

More and more soldiers fled, and the soldiers frantically rushed down the city, shouting: "The city is going to be broken, the city is going to be broken!" ”

Lei Shimeng was no longer able to stop the soldiers from fleeing, and there were only more than 300 people left in the city of 4,000 people, Lei Shimeng shouted in despair: "Throw down with stones!" ”

Dozens of soldiers around him carried stones and smashed them downward, at this time, another round of thousands of crossbow arrows came, dozens of soldiers were shot to the ground, Lei Shimeng was also shot in the left shoulder by an arrow, the huge arrow force knocked him to the ground, the tip of the arrow leaked out of his back, and the pain in his heart made him almost faint.

In a chorus of shouts, the battering ram hit the city gate again, and the gate could not support it again, and was smashed open, and hundreds of Tang troops rushed into the city with the battering ram.

Li Shimin saw that the city gate had been opened, he waved his sword, and ordered sharply: "Kill in, and those who resist will be killed!" ”

20,000 cavalry suddenly launched, the war horses galloped, shouted to kill the sky, brandished their swords to kill the city, and the cavalry rushed into the city like a stream of iron.

Lei Shimeng sighed, turned his long sword and killed himself.

.......

In the palace, Xiao Mo was dressed in filial piety clothes, kowtowing to the ancestors in the temple to apologize, at this time, the Chinese scholar Lang Cen Wenwen rushed to the scene, and shouted in panic: "The lord is leaving, the city is about to be breached!" ”

Xiao Mo was very calm, and put three incense sticks on the ancestors, and then walked out of the hall, and said to Cen Wenwen, "Although the sky does not bless the Liang Dynasty, it will also not bless the Tang Dynasty, although Zhang Xuan bears me, but he is the only one who wins the world, you can take advantage of the city to go to Zhongdu to defect, Ming Gong has the talent of the prime minister, I believe Zhang Xuan will be reused." ”

Cen Wenwen cried: "Please go out of the city with the lord!" ”

Xiao Mo shook his head, "There are fugitive ministers in the world, and there is no fugitive monarch, Ming Gong go quickly!" ”

Cen Wenwen saw that the lord was resolute not to leave, he couldn't help crying and knelt down and kowtowed three times, turned around and left the palace, he hid in a relative's house, ten days later, Cen Wenwen pretended to be a scholar and left Jiangling, hired a passenger boat with ten taels of gold, and took the boat to Jiangdu.

The city was already in chaos, the people cried for their fathers and mothers, scattered and fled, the iron horses were rolling on the streets, many people could not hide, and were killed by the Tang cavalry on the side of the road, and many people were killed.

Li Shimin led 3,000 cavalry to the front of the palace, at this time, the palace gate opened, Xiao Mo walked out alone, he shouted to Li Shimin: "The only one who should die is Xiao Miao, the people are not guilty, please Qin King Anmin, don't kill them!" ”

Someone who knew Xiao Mo told Li Shimin that this person was the traitor Xiao Miao, Li Shimin also admired his courage, and turned around and shouted: "Order the whole army to stop killing, the military discipline soldiers enter the city, and the cavalry retreats to assemble outside the city." ”

Li Shimin waved his hand, and a cage carriage slowly drove forward, and Li Shimin said sharply: "I will treat him with courtesy, please!" ”

Xiao Mo took one last look at the palace Taimiao, tears flowed from his eyes, he gritted his teeth, walked into the carriage quickly, the iron gate was locked, and five hundred cavalry escorted the carriage to the camp outside the city.

Caught Xiao Miao, Li Shimin's heart finally fell, and then ordered the whole city to be under martial law, the army took over Jiangling City, and appointed Zhou Faming as the Taishou of Nanjun, and ordered Lei Shimeng's body to be buried with generous gifts, leaving 5,000 troops to temporarily guard Jiangling City, and he himself led the army to the north to escort Xiao Mo and his daughter Xiao Yuexian back to Chang'an City.

......

On the fifth day of the fifth month of the fifth month, Wen Yanbo, an envoy sent by the Ziwei Pavilion of the Northern Sui Dynasty, and Ling Jing, a deputy envoy, also arrived in Guanzhong, preparing to negotiate with the Tang Dynasty on the aftermath of the war.

Hundreds of Sui cavalry escorted the envoy's carriage through the Pujin Pass and entered the territory of Guanzhong, although this was Wen Boyan's second envoy to Chang'an, but unlike the first envoy to negotiate, he had no bottom on this mission, and his heart was really uneasy.

In fact, not only did he have no bottom, but even the Xiangguo of Ziwei Pavilion didn't know how to negotiate with the Tang Dynasty, they only had a letter from the lord brought back by Ling Jing, and there were some details in the letter that were not explained, which made the Xiangguo really embarrassed, and finally they unanimously decided to let Ling Jing, who knew a little about the situation, be the deputy envoy and accompany Wen Yanbo to Chang'an.

Wen Yanbo dealt with Ling Jing when he was in Youzhou, and Ling Jing was still Dou Jiande's mastermind at that time, but the two did not intersect after returning to the Northern Sui, Ling Jing was in the military, and Wen Yanbo was a waiter in the Ministry of Rites, and the two had no chance to deal with each other.

This time they went to Chang'an together, they talked all the way, both of them were erudite people, they talked very speculatively, and the relationship became very harmonious.

Wen Yanbo looked at the scenery outside the car window, sighed and said: "There are still two days away from Chang'an, to be honest, I really don't know what His Highness needs us to talk about, just give them the loot directly, if they don't want it, they will pull it down, does this kind of thing still need to be negotiated?" ”

Ling Jing smiled slightly: "Actually, I didn't figure it out at first, but when I crossed the Yellow River at noon, I just woke up a little. ”

Wen Yanbo was overjoyed, and hurriedly said, "Brother Ling, say quickly, don't play dumb riddles." ”

"When I left Jingle County, His Royal Highness the King of Qi also led the army to Hetao, although Hetao is not the territory of the Tang Dynasty, and it is not against the agreement between the two sides that we seize it, but I heard Xuan Ling say that Zhang Changxun has secretly surrendered to the Tang Dynasty, and Wuyuan County and Yulin County actually belong to the Tang Dynasty, presumably Li Yuan also knows about this and is furious.

Moreover, the strategy of seizing the Hetao is to point the sword at Guanlong, Li Yuanyan can not know, there are also the iron mines in Diaoyin County, Song Jingang in Yan'an County, and there are too many troubles in the Tang Dynasty, and they also need to negotiate with us, and implore us not to continue south.

Then the question comes, we want to destroy Liang Shidu, we want to destroy Song Jingang, this is a righteous and bright thing, you want us not to interfere Obviously, it doesn't make sense, so the two sides need to negotiate, who will destroy Liang Shidu, who will destroy Song Jingang? What if it can't be extinguished? I think His Royal Highness asked us to send an envoy to Chang'an to discuss this matter with the Tang Dynasty, and it is by no means as simple as dividing the spoils. ”

Wen Yanbo was like an enlightenment, and immediately understood, he immediately thought of the last negotiation, and said with a smile: "I understand, it should be related to the last negotiation, the last negotiation has already talked about how to divide Xiao Miao's territory, what if the Tang Army is not trustworthy?" Therefore, the Hetao battle situation forced the Tang army to keep its promise and hand over the counties that belonged to us, otherwise the Sui army directly entered Diaoyin County and Yan'an County, destroyed Song Jingang, and the Northern Sui soldiers arrived in Shangjun, which also requires us and Li Yuan to make it clear face to face, Brother Ling said right? ”

Ling Jing smiled: "I think the two of us are guessing what we want. ”

The two laughed together, wasn't that true? The two envoys didn't even have a direction, and they were confused, so they sat in the carriage and thought wildly, self-righteous.

Wen Yanbo was also a little worried that they were really guessing their intentions, what if His Royal Highness King Qi didn't mean this at all?

At this time, Ling Jing realized something and said with a smile: "This time I really understand, I want to divide the troops into two ways, I will get off the carriage first and go alone, and the virtuous brother will go to Chang'an alone, and then we will meet in Chang'an." ”

Wen Yanbo's mind changed for a moment, and he immediately understood, "Brother Ling means that His Royal Highness King Qi will have specific instructions to the Chang'an Intelligence Agency?" ”

Ling Jing nodded, "Because Wuyuan County has not been taken at that time, there are some things that Your Highness is not good to say early, I believe that now that it has been taken, then Your Highness will definitely send an eagle letter to inform the Chang'an Intelligence Agency, and let them convey the content of this negotiation." ”

"Brother Ling is right, this makes sense." (To be continued.) )