The confrontation between the two armies of Sui and Tang has reached the fifth day in Shallow Water Plain, but the unfavorable news of Tongguandao came, so that the battle situation began to change subtly, and the Tang army was obviously unable to continue the confrontation, and the pressure of the final decisive battle was heavily pressed on the Tang army, and they became passive.

For Li Shimin, it was not only the grim battle situation on the battlefield, but also an even more severe crisis occurred in Chang'an City, when Li Yuanji, the king of Qi, unexpectedly seized the command of the 40,000 defenders of Chang'an.

Tang Feng sent an urgent report that the King of Qi had raised more than 2,000 dead soldiers, and he was secretly transferring to the Qi Palaces in the city in batches in the past few days.

All the information points to the fact that the King of Qi is likely to be planning a major operation, and Li Shimin knows very well in his heart that this so-called major action can only be one, and the King of Qi wants to seize the throne and ascend the throne.

In the big tent, Li Shimin was reading a piece of information that Zhang Gongjin had just sent, and the prince sent Zhan Shi Wang Gui to find Zhang Gongjin, hoping that the East Palace and the Qin Wangfu would join forces to deal with the King of Qi.

The continuous deterioration of the situation in Chang'an made Li Shimin worried, but he had to cheer up and deal with the current situation, his opponent was Yang Yuanqing, with elite troops and nearly twice as many people as him.

The danger of the war situation forced Li Shimin to fight, and the fear of defeat made him unable to make up his mind, and he was in an extremely painful dilemma.

At this time, Fang Xuanling walked in slowly with his hands behind his back, he didn't need to report when he entered Li Shimin's big tent, he walked not far from Li Shimin, and looked at Li Shimin with pity, this young coach hadn't slept for two days, and he really didn't want to give him worse news.

Li Shimin was holding his forehead and pondering, suddenly feeling something, when he looked up, he saw Fang Xuanling, and asked in a hoarse voice: "Is there something wrong with Mr." ”

Fang Xuanling stared at Li Shimin's eyes that were red from insomnia, and he sighed low and said, "Doesn't Your Highness care about the Sui Army in Tongguan Road?" ”

Li Shimin shook his head, "How can I not care, it's just that the crisis of Tongguandao is still within my bearability, after all, they only have 10,000 troops, and they are led by Cheng Yanjin, I think he shouldn't dare to attack Chang'an, at most he will show off his might in Guanzhong, as long as we block the news, morale will not be affected." ”

Fang Xuanling bit his lip, "I advise Your Highness to launch an offensive!" Don't wait any longer. ”

Li Shimin was taken aback, he felt a little uncomfortable, Fang Xuanling would never speak like this, what was going on? He stared into Fang Xuanling's eyes and asked slowly, "What happened?" ”

Fang Xuanling sighed slightly, "I just received the latest news that Shi Wanbao Xiantongguan has surrendered to the Sui army." ”

Li Shimin only felt that his eyes were dark, his body shook, and he almost fainted, Fang Xuanling hurriedly stepped forward to support him, "Your Highness!" ”

Li Shimin pushed his hand away and shook his head, "I'm fine!" ”

He took a deep breath, what he was most worried about finally happened, the Eastern Front was lost, the general trend of Guanzhong had gone, were they really finished?

Li Shimin raised his head and looked at Fang Xuanling, "Sir, what should I do now?" ”

Fang Xuanling sighed in his heart, in fact, he persuaded Li Shimin a few days ago to make a desperate bet and fight a decisive battle with the Sui army, if he can win, then after defeating the main force of the Sui army, he immediately rushed to support the Eastern Front, maybe there is still a glimmer of hope, but Li Shimin did not adopt his own plan, now that the Eastern Front has been lost, the overall situation is almost decided, and their hope is already minimal.

But Fang Xuanling couldn't bear to make Li Shimin desperate, and he asked in a deep voice: "Is Your Highness willing to accept my plan?" ”

Li Shimin nodded, "This time I will definitely follow Mr. 's advice." ”

"Well, I have two strategies, Your Highness can choose one of them, Your Highness will immediately fight a decisive battle with the Sui army, at all costs, as long as we can defeat the Sui army, we can also go back to the capital to collect 40,000 troops, and then launch an offensive against the Sui army on the eastern front, maybe we still have a glimmer of hope, this is the offensive strategy; Secondly, His Highness withdrew to Chang'an, concentrated his forces to defend the city, and could defend it for a day, hoping that the Sui army would retreat by itself, this is a defensive strategy, attack or defend, His Highness decides! ”

Li Shimin nodded slowly, he knew that he couldn't choose a defensive strategy.

"Pass my orders, beat the drums and gather the generals!" ……

In the camp of the Sui army, Yang Yuanqing stood on the sentry tower and looked at the camp of the Tang army, he got the news that Cheng Yanjin broke through Tongguan Road and entered the pass, and also got the latest information on the surrender of Tongguan, he knew that Li Shimin was about to take it anymore, either today or tomorrow, the Tang army would inevitably attack him in a big way.

Behind him, tens of thousands of Sui soldiers were already ready, waiting for the order to fight, and Luo Shixin next to him was even more grinding his fists and eager to try, he was too eager for this hard-fought war.

At this moment, the earth-shaking drum sound suddenly came from the Tang army camp opposite, 'Knock-knock-knock!' The drum beat was long, this was the order for the army to assemble, Yang Yuanqing's eyes narrowed, and sure enough, it came.

"Your Highness, send troops to line up!" Luo Shixin shouted excitedly.

Yang Yuanqing looked at the sky, it was just after noon, he slowly shook his head, "Pass my order, stick to the camp, and don't go to battle!" ”

Luo Shixin was stunned for a moment, he didn't come to his senses for a long time, Yang Yuanqing patted him on the shoulder, and said seriously: "The more anxious the Tang army is, the less anxious we are, our purpose is victory, not a temporary gain or loss." ”

Luo Shixin nodded slowly, he understood what Yang Yuanqing meant.

The door of the Tang army camp was wide open, leaving only a few thousand troops to defend the camp, and the remaining 40,000 troops were pressed on the whole line, and the army came out of the camp one by one, and the black pressure was laid out on the field.

The board wall of the Sui army camp is ten miles long, the Tang army is divided into three points to attack the enemy camp, Li Shimin led 20,000 troops to attack the west gate of the Sui army, Wei Chigong led 10,000 troops to attack the northern line, Hou Junji led 10,000 troops to attack the southern line, the three armies are separated by two miles, and they can attack in separate points, and they can also gather quickly.

Li Shimin was dressed in golden helmets and armor, holding a war sword, and his eyes were sharply looking at the Sui army camp, the situation was developing towards the most unfavorable side, and Yang Yuanqing really did not fight, which showed that he probably knew about the breakthrough of the Sui army on the Eastern Front.

Li Shimin sighed secretly, he had no choice, the sword was swung out, and Li Shimin shouted: "Beat the drum to attack!" ”

"Boom! Boom! Boom! The war drums were beating, the drums were dense, and tens of thousands of Tang troops were launched, shouting and rushing towards the Sui army camp, like a rolling black wave, murderous.

The board wall of the Sui army is two zhang high, divided into two layers, there is a thick wooden board in the middle, there are shooting holes on the upper and lower floors, 30,000 soldiers of the Sui army stand on the upper and lower floors, holding the crossbow in their hands and waiting for the battle.

There are 4,000 strong crossbowmen deployed at the west gate, which is also one of the killing weapons of the Sui army against the cavalry, and the six-stone strong crossbow operated by the two people is replaced by ordinary arrows, and the effective killing range can reach 250 steps, which is twice the normal two-stone crossbow.

In the middle of the camp, there is a wooden tower as high as five zhang, which is the command tower of the Sui army, from the tower you can see all the directions of the camp, at this time Yang Yuanqing is standing on the tower, watching the Tang army overwhelmingly killing.

As the commander-in-chief, Yang Yuanqing did not directly interfere in specific operations, he was only in charge of the coordinated operations between the armies, although Yang Yuanqing made careful arrangements for the large-scale offensive of the Tang army, but at this time he seemed very relaxed, he knew in his heart that it was not difficult to defeat the Tang army.

He has 80,000 elite Sui troops in his hands, while the Tang army only has more than 40,000 people, the Sui army is almost twice as large as the enemy army, regardless of the time and place, the Sui army has the absolute upper hand, if in this case if you can't defeat the Tang army, it is really a miracle in the world, and more importantly, the eastern front has been broken through, and the general trend of the world has been decided.

The overwhelming Tang army is getting closer and closer, they are carrying thousands of ladders and rushing towards the Sui army camp, the infantry is in front, the cavalry is behind, getting closer and closer, three hundred steps and two hundred and fifty steps, has entered the range of strong crossbow bows, but the Tang soldiers did not realize that they entered the range of being hunted, did not raise their shields, and generally did not defend against enemy bows and arrows until one hundred and fifty steps.

The commander of the Sui army in the middle line was Niu Jinda, who stared closely at the Tang army entering the range of the giant crossbow, and shouted, "Shoot!" ”

Two thousand powerful crossbows were fired at the same time, and instead of iron arrows, they used ordinary crossbow arrows, with a range of up to three hundred paces and a killing distance of two hundred and fifty paces. There was a sound of crossbow machines, and two thousand crossbow arrows rose into the air, dense as rain, and shot towards the oncoming Tang soldiers.

The army sounded a miserable scream, like a line swept by, more than 700 people fell to the ground, and Li Xianjun, the leading general, suddenly realized and shouted: "Raise your shield to fight!" ”

Thousands of Tang soldiers raised their shields, and the speed of running began to slow down, and soon, the Sui army began to shoot in full force, and the rain of arrows shot by the 30,000 Sui army was so dense that the sky was obscured, like a swarm of locusts flying in the sky.

Although the Tang soldiers raised their shields to greet each other, the casualties were still getting bigger and bigger, increasing by the order of thousands, and the field was full of Tang soldiers who had been hit by arrows.

Li Xianjun saw that the Tang army had suffered heavy casualties, and he couldn't help but fly to Li Shimin and shouted: "Your Highness, the brothers have suffered heavy casualties, let's withdraw first!" ”

Li Shimin gritted his teeth, "Whoever dares to retreat, behead!" ”

Li Shimin personally raised the drumsticks, and beat the war drums hard, the drums of the attack resounded throughout the earth, and after paying seven or eight thousand casualties, the Tang army finally rushed to the front of the Sui army camp, laid wooden planks on the trench, leaped over, and a wooden ladder set up the board wall, and the Tang soldiers began to climb the wall bravely.

Commanding the battle flag waving on the high platform, changing the deployment of the army, the defense of the Sui army began to change, the lower level was still the crossbowmen, from the arrow hole to the outward arrows, and the upper crossbowmen have withdrawn, standing dozens of steps away to release arrows, nearly 20,000 pikemen rushed to the upper part of the wall, and the Tang soldiers who rushed up to fight, the two armies launched a bloody battle inside and outside the wall.

Li Xuanba and Hou Junji were in charge of attacking the southern front, and they also faced strong fire from Sui crossbowmen and suffered heavy casualties, but soon, the Tang soldiers also rushed to the wall and fought fiercely with the Sui army defending the camp.

"Get out of the way for me!"

Li Xuanba has been so angry by the war drums of the attack that he couldn't restrain himself, he had been looking forward to this day for a long time, he swung the sledgehammer and rushed forward frantically, smashing the hammer violently, smashing the slam on the board wall twice, knocking two muffled sounds, the board wall was smashed out of two big holes, several Sui soldiers in the wall were smashed and flew out, the board wall was smashed violently shaking, and mud fell downward.

Li Xuanba was overjoyed, he smashed hundreds of Tang soldiers in Zhou to support him with his hammer, and used arrows to shoot intensively at the Sui army on the wall, suppressing them from attacking Li Xuanba.

In fact, the board wall around Li Xuanba could no longer stand, and the violent shaking made the board wall crumble, and in Li Xuanba's series of attacks, the board wall in front of him finally collapsed, opening a gap about two zhang wide.

Li Xuanba roared, swinged the sledgehammer, and took the lead in rushing into the Sui army camp, hundreds of Tang army soldiers surging in, at this time, just fifty steps away, Luo Shixin held a big iron spear in his hand, and looked at Li Xuanba coldly, he had been waiting for him for a long time.

(To be continued)

(No pop-up novel network) k