The 20,000 Tang troops were blocked in the dam for three whole days, they had no armor and shields, no bows and arrows and spears, and each carried only a saber, a water bottle, a backpack, a roll of blankets and a bag of dry food, but even the dry food was almost exhausted. Pen @ fun @ pavilion wWw. ｂｉｑUｇE。 ｉｎｆｏ

In the past three days, the morale of the army was low, the morale of the people was weakened, and no one was willing to attack the Zhou army to die, and everyone wrapped themselves in their own blankets and suffered bitterly, waiting for the final result.

On the third night, Li Shenfu drank the last sip of wine in the jug, and he let out a long sigh and asked, "How much dry food is there?" ”

A pro-soldier whispered, "Lord Wang, we still have three days of dry food. ”

"What about the soldiers?"

"I guess there's only one day left until tomorrow."

Li Shenfu smiled bitterly: "Do you still want to go to Hanzhong?" This bit of food can't even go to the Sword Gate. ”

At this time, the pro-soldier captain stepped forward and said in a low voice: "Lord Wang, tonight is the last chance, if the Lord wants to leave, make up your mind!" ”

Li Shenfu bit his lip and said, "I'm afraid that I will be seen and cause the army to mutiny, but I will be killed." ”

"The humble post is ready, let a brother change clothes with the prince, and the prince will dress up as a soldier to negotiate with Zhou Jun, which is not easy to recognize at night."

Li Shenfu had already wanted to leave, he lowered his head and thought about it: "But what if there is not enough food?" ”

"Don't worry about this prince, since the other party promised to let the prince go back to Hanzhong, there will be no problem with food."

Li Shenfu was heartbroken, "Okay! If you don't leave tonight, you won't have a chance. ”

The pro-soldiers immediately took action, found a pro-soldier with a slightly similar figure and appearance, put on the crown of Li Shenfu, put on gold armor, tied a big hat, and rode on a war horse with a lively spirit, it was difficult to see that he was pretending to be Li Shenfu, and more than 100 personal soldiers surrounded him to inspect the army.

And Li Shenfu changed into the clothes of a small soldier, his face was blackened, and he carried the Wang Yin in his arms, he followed the captain and the other two people towards the mountain road, and when they approached the mountain road, more than a dozen Tang soldiers stopped them, "The prince has an order, and you are not allowed to go up the mountain without a military order!" ”

The captain raised the arrow and said in a loud voice: "I am ordered by the prince to negotiate with the Zhou army, and get out of the way quickly!" ”

The sentries immediately got out of the way, and the lieutenant walked briskly up the hill with a few of his men, shouting from afar: "We are ordered to come to negotiate, please don't let go of the arrows!" ”

The four of them shouted and walked, and gradually disappeared on the mountain road.

Liu Lancheng was patrolling the mountain road at this time, he was extremely vigilant tonight, it had been three days, and he was almost at the limit of his endurance, he knew that the Tang Army would definitely move tonight.

At this time, a soldier rushed up and whispered: "General, there are four Tang Army soldiers below, one of the soldiers claims to be Li Shenfu, hoping that the general will keep his word and let him go north to Hanzhong." ”

"Does he have any evidence?"

Several soldiers escorted the Tang military captain up, and the captain raised a bag with both hands, "This is the Wang Yin and Wang Jian of the prince of my family, under Liu Song, he is the captain of the prince's own soldiers, and there is also a lowly military card in the bag, which the general can verify." ”

Li Keshi next to him said with a smile: "I think it should be Li Shenfu, this is his style, betraying the army and escaping by himself." ”

Liu Lancheng pinched the Wang Yin in the bag and said with a smile: "Of course I won't miss the appointment, I can let you go." ”

The captain hesitated for a moment, and then said: "We are running out of food, and we can't get to the Sword Gate, can you implore the general to provide some food." ”

Liu Lancheng simply snatched the bag, looked at the Wang Yin and a golden short sword inlaid with precious stones, he nodded and said: "It's okay to make a deal, Wang Yin and Wang Jian stay, I will give you four mules and four bags of dry food, you can go!" ”

The captain was overjoyed, with mules and food, they could go north, he hurriedly clenched his fists, "Thank you, General!" ”

Liu Lancheng immediately asked people to bring four mules, and prepared four bags of dry food, and ordered the soldiers to send them to Jianmen Pass.

The four of them rode away in embarrassment, and Li Keshi looked at Li Shenfu's thin back and asked puzzledly: "After all, he is the king of the county!" Why didn't the general just arrest him? ”

Liu Lancheng smiled and said: "This is General Xu's order, let me let Li Shenfu return to the north, but I also think that this kind of person is not successful enough, more than defeated, it is a cancer within the Tang Dynasty, and it will be more effective to let him go back." ”

Li Keshi gave a thumbs up and praised: "General Gaojian! ”

As soon as the words fell, a shout came from the dam at the bottom of the mountain, and the Tang army seemed to have moved.

Liu Lancheng immediately shouted: "The whole army is ready to intercept and prevent the enemy from impacting!" ”

Thousands of soldiers of the Zhou army raised their bows and crossbows and aimed at the narrow mountain road, only to see countless people running towards the mountain road in the dark, they did not attack the mountain road, but knelt in front of the mountain road and raised their hands and shouted: "We surrender!" We are willing to surrender! ”

Liu Lancheng was surprised and ordered: "Let the two brothers go and see, what happened?" ”

A Zhou army commander ran down with a few soldiers, and after a while, he ran back and reported: "General Qiyu, the generals of the Tang Army found out that it was Li Shenfu who was pretending to be his own soldiers, and they killed the fake king in anger and asked to surrender. ”

Liu Lancheng smiled dumbly, and said: "Go and tell the soldiers under the mountain that those who want to surrender can put down their weapons, raise their hands and line up to go up the mountain, and those who don't raise their hands will be killed!" ”

Dozens of Tang generals looked for Li Shenfu to discuss, but found that Li Shenfu had been out of the shell, they killed all Li Shenfu's personal soldiers in anger, and unanimously agreed to surrender to the Zhou army, that night, 20,000 Tang soldiers put down their weapons, raised their hands and surrendered Liu Lancheng's army.

At this point, the tens of thousands of troops of the Tang army in Bashu were all wiped out, and even the horse Chai Shao also fell into the hands of the Zhou army, when Liu Lancheng's general Zhang Li led 3,000 troops to occupy the Longmen Pass at the junction of Bashu and Hanzhong, which meant that the 32 counties of Liangchuan were officially incorporated into the territory of the Great Zhou Empire.

........

In Taiyuan, the confrontation is still continuing, the humiliation of the opposing general's general has disappeared, and the two sides have changed to another method of boosting morale, that is, the competition of drums, the attacking and defending sides each rushed to make leather drums, and the earth-shattering drums were beaten at the head of the city and in front of the formation, and they all tried to suppress each other with deafening drums.

The drums of both sides are getting bigger and bigger, and the soldiers are more and more, under the clear sky, thousands of war drums are beating at the same time, and the drums are like muffled thunder in the heaven and earth, from morning to night, the soldiers take turns to fight, although this way of competing drums is a bit funny, but it is indeed a good way to relieve the boredom of the soldiers.

However, the long-term drum sound also has a great impact on people's hearing, many soldiers are deaf because of this, and after three days of drum competition, both sides invariably stopped, but the confrontation between the two armies is most afraid of dullness, which is like a chronic poison, gradually eroding morale, disintegrating the morale of the army, and it is difficult to recover, so the commanders of both sides will do everything possible to boost morale and find something for the soldiers to do.

Qu Tutong soon thought of another way to maintain morale, that is, simulated siege, he used a warehouse city in the city, the army was organized into both offensive and defensive sides, regardless of day and night to simulate siege and defend the city, and took out 100,000 yuan from the warehouse as a reward, the soldiers who successfully defended the city or successfully sieged the city were rewarded, this way not only exercised the soldiers' offensive and defensive level, but also rewarded, so that the soldiers were willing to participate, every day in the city drums loudly, shouting and killing, the atmosphere was very active.

Wei Chigong also held a martial arts competition in the barracks, organizing soldiers and generals to conduct competitions such as foot bow, riding bow, weightlifting, heads-up competition, formation combat, etc., so that all soldiers participated, and those who performed well were given heavy rewards, which also made the soldiers of the Zhou army full of interest and effectively mobilized the enthusiasm of the soldiers.

Although both armies were very active, the city of Taiyuan was very quiet, hundreds of thousands of people lived in fear, more and more shops were closed one after another, except for some shops selling necessities of life, other shops were deserted, and had to close their doors to reduce losses.

Not only the business withered, the street is also sparsely populated, only when the government began to give porridge at noon, there will be children of poor families from all directions to gather at the soup kitchen point to line up to receive porridge, this is also the most lively moment in Taiyuan City every day, but after this point in time, the city has returned to the silence of death, although Qu Tutong did not implement curfew and martial law, but hundreds of thousands of people in Taiyuan City seem to disappear from the sky.

In the evening of this day, a carriage slowly stopped in front of a high-gate mansion, which is the mansion of the head of the Taiyuan Wang family, which is currently the residence of Wang Shou, covering an area of 40 acres, the pavilions and pavilions in the house, the rockery pond fish, extraordinarily elegant and exquisite.

The carriage stopped in front of the steps, the door opened, and out of the carriage came a middle-aged official, about forty years old, tall and thin, with a clear face, and looked quite shrewd and capable.

This person is Taiyuan County Cheng Wang Yuanji, but also Wang Shou's cousin, he is the second year of the great cause of the scholar, initially in Dali Temple as the chief bookkeeper, after Yu Shiji's favor turned into Jinyang County Order, a few years later and promoted to Taiyuan County Cheng, before and after Taiyuan County for eight years.

Wang Yuanji picked up his robe and walked quickly to the door, and the housekeeper greeted him and bowed, "It turns out that the seventh master is here, please come in quickly!" ”

"Is my eldest brother here?"

"In the study, I am waiting for the Seventh Master, please come with me."

Wang Yuanji nodded, followed the housekeeper and walked quickly to the study of the inner house, and after a while, he came to Wang Shou's study, and the housekeeper reported at the door: "Master Qiqi, the seventh master has arrived." ”

"Let him in!"

Wang Yuanji walked into the study quickly, and saw a person sitting in front of the desk, it was the eldest brother Wang Shou, he hurriedly stepped forward and saluted, "The eldest brother is well!" ”