The time gradually came to the third watch, Cheng Yanjin, who went to deliver the wine, did not have any news, the night was deep, and he couldn't see his five fingers in the dark night, only a torch on the head of the city was particularly bright in the night. Pen ~ fun ~ pavilion www.biquge.info

In front of the window, Wang Xiao's neck was stretched and sore, and he still couldn't see Cheng Yanjin's figure, he saw that it was about to reach the third watch, so he had to walk quickly to the inn, and more than 100 Sui army scouts were already lined up, led by a captain.

Wang Xiao sighed, stepped forward and said to the captain: "Captain Yang, there is still no news of General Cheng, the time is coming soon, let's attack!" ”

The captain nodded, turned back to the soldiers, and said, "Even if you die in battle tonight, you will capture the south city gate, and those who escape from the battle will be punished by military law!" ”

The soldiers were silent, at this time, Wang Xiao opened the door of the shop, looked at it, turned around and shook his head, and the captain walked out of the inn with the soldiers, and walked towards the city gate in two teams.

The inn is about thirty steps away from the city gate, basically about twenty steps away from the city gate will be discovered, the Sui soldiers do not know tonight's password, once asked, in addition to delaying the answer as much as possible, only forcibly attacked.

But the strange thing is that they are only ten steps away from the city gate, and still no one asks them, only faintly see a few soldiers lying at the city gate, the soldiers speed up and run over, only to see more than a dozen soldiers in the city gate cave are drunk to the ground, full of alcohol, Captain Yang made a look, several soldiers rushed up, stabbed in the heart of each Tang soldier, and killed them all.

Although they occupied the city gate, the city gate had to be opened in the city tower, and the drawbridge had to be lowered, all of which had to be operated at the city head, and the Sui soldiers had experience, and there would not be many soldiers in the city gate hole, and the defending soldiers were mainly concentrated at the city head.

"The first group guards the city gates, and the rest of the brothers come with me!"

The captain of the Sui military colonel left ten soldiers to stand guard in the city cave, and the remaining 100 soldiers followed him along the road to the city.

To everyone's surprise, the city was as deserted, there was not a single defender, the winch that opened the gate and lowered the drawbridge was by the female wall, and there were no soldiers guarding it, and all the soldiers looked at each other.

Captain Sui left fifty soldiers to open the city gate and lower the drawbridge, and he led the rest of the soldiers to the city tower, where the soldiers rested, and there was a faint light inside, but when it was close to the door, there was a strong smell of wine.

The door of the tower was open, and everyone cautiously leaned up, only to hear the familiar gong-like voice from inside, "The last one, bet!" Bet! The front is big.,I guess this is small.,I want to turn over.,This is the last chance.,Bet big and lose.,Don't blame Lao Tzu for not reminding! ”

Everyone probed in, and couldn't help but be a little stunned, only to see that the ground was full of drunken soldiers, and there were seven or eight people around a table in the middle, everyone was red from loss, and there was a person sitting above them, with copper coins piled up in front of him, and he was smiling and letting everyone bet, this person was their main general Cheng Biting Jin.

There were only seven or eight sergeants in the tower, and the Sui army rushed in and stabbed the drunk soldiers to death, and several soldiers who were gambling finally reacted and knelt on their knees and begged for mercy in fright.

At this time, the captain stepped forward and said to Cheng Jinshili: "General Qiyu, the time has come, and we have captured the city tower!" ”

Several Tang Army soldiers were stunned, they looked at each other, as if they had heard the most incredible thing, this guy who was drinking and gambling with them was actually the general of the Sui Army?

Cheng Yanjin hadn't had such good luck for a long time, he stood up contentedly, patted off a few chicken bones on his body and said with a smile: "Then act according to the original plan!" ”

He pointed to the seven or eight soldiers who had already been stupid and smiled: "Since these people have surrendered, don't kill them, if you win money, you have to kill people, don't follow the rules, spare their lives!" ”

"Obey the order!"

The lieutenant turned around and shouted, "Send a signal!" ”

The city gate slowly opened, the drawbridge was lowered, and a pile of fire was lit at the head of the southern city, which was a signal to the Sui army ambush outside the city, and Han Tianding, the general of the Sui army who was ambushed hundreds of steps away, yelled, "Kill me!" ”

A thousand soldiers followed him out of the woods and rushed towards the south gate two hundred steps away, at this time, the main force of the Sui army several miles away also saw the fire on the city, and Laihu'er knew that Cheng Yanjin had succeeded, and immediately shouted: "The whole army will enter the city and annihilate the Tang army in the city." ”

20,000 Sui troops rushed across the wooden bridge and slaughtered the south city gate three miles away, at this time, the Tang army sentry outside the city also found the abnormality and lit fires to warn, but at this time it was no longer meaningful to issue an alarm, and Han Tianding's 1,000 soldiers had taken the lead in the city to completely control the south city gate.

A hurried siren has sounded above the city. While! While! \'Chaos began to rise in the city. Lai Hu'er led the army into Baling County.

......

Baling County was the logistics center of the Tang Army's Eastern Expedition, and all the grain and materials were stored here, and the Sui army's capture of Baling County was tantamount to drawing wages from the bottom of the kettle, which made the Tang Army immediately fall into a situation of losing power.

Even if they can get a little food from Poyang and Yuzhang counties, so that the Tang army will not run out of food immediately, but without the supply of food and materials in logistics, no army can last, and the Eastern Crusade obviously cannot continue, but even if they want to retreat, it seems that it is not so easy.

The news of the loss of Baling County has not reached Li Xiaogong's ears so quickly for the time being, but coincidentally, at the same time that the Sui army's naval division conquered Baling County and drew the Tang army from the east, the Tang army in Yiling County was also attacked by an unexpected sneak attack.

Yiling County was the last line of defense for the Tang army to protect Bashu, because of the emptiness of Bashu, the Tang army gathered 50,000 heavy troops in Yiling County, and also moored hundreds of warships captured from Xiao Miao's army, commanded by Liu Hongji, the general of the right Xiaowei.

The Sui army that attacked Yiling County was a 3,000 internal guard army, led by Liu Lancheng, the chief general of the internal guard, Liu Lancheng pretended to be Han Huang and killed Du Fuwei, and then pretended to be Du Fuwei to lead the army to run around the Jianghuai counties, creating a great momentum, and then announced to the outside that they had gone up to Siding Mountain, in fact, they had secretly withdrawn from Lujiang County.

Liu Lancheng received a new task from the commander Zhang Xuan, he led 3,000 cavalry through the sparsely populated Yong'an County, Anlu County and Jingling County, from the area of Dangyang County in the north of Nanjun County into Yiling County, along Jingshan Mountain, directly to Yidao County.

Liu Lancheng had rushed thousands of miles to block Li Xiaogong's 50,000 troops in the Three Gorges Road the year before last, and this time he still marched west along the original road, which can be described as a familiar road, and on the other hand, because the Tang army's eastward expedition evacuated all the troops of the secondary counties, resulting in no garrison in the hinterland of Jingzhou, Liu Lancheng's 3,000 cavalry did not encounter any obstruction and killed all the way to Yiling County.

Liu Lancheng's sneak attack on Yiling County was an important part of Zhang Xuan's strategic goal, the main purpose was to open the hole in the Tang army's defense in Jingzhou, and force the Tang army in Jiangxia County to withdraw west to the hinterland of Jingzhou, so as to reduce the resistance of the Sui army to attack Jiangxia, and at the same time to break the Tang army scattered in each county.

Another purpose of Zhang Xuan was to destroy the naval army that the Tang Army had just established and ensure the absolute control of the Yangtze River waterway by the Northern Sui Water Division.

Liu Lancheng's goal was Yidao County, which is today's Yidu County in Hubei Province, located at the confluence of the Qingjiang and Yangtze rivers.

At the same time, it is also the intersection of two routes into Shu, one is the Three Gorges Road, the other is the Qingjiang Road, due to the geographical location of Yidao County is extremely important, the Tang army deployed 20,000 troops here, and hundreds of warships are also moored on the Yangtze River outside Yidao City.

Yidao County is located on the south bank of the Yangtze River, but the Tang army camp is on the north bank of the Yangtze River, and there is also a part of the Tang army stationed on the south bank of the Yangtze River, whose mission is to protect the hundreds of warships moored on the docks.

However, Yiling County is still very far away from the Sui army, and the Tang army of the Eastern Expedition has captured Poyang County, which is thousands of miles away, and Du Fuwei rebelled again in Jianghuai, disturbing the Northern Sui, but the main force of the Sui army is far away in Hebei.

Whether in reality or in theory, Yiling County is in a state of absolute security, and the tens of thousands of Tang troops stationed here never dreamed that the cavalry of the Northern Sui Army would rush thousands of miles and kill them by surprise. (To be continued.) )