Luoyang City was in the early hours of the morning after a day of calm...... The surrender of the famous general Wang Shichong broke the three-day stalemate.

In Li Shimin's big tent, a general in armor knelt on one knee in front of Li Shimin, the general was about thirty years old, tall and strong, with a thin horse face, and his eyes were full of grief and tears.

"Our brother worked for him, but he imprisoned our father in the palace, saying that he was taking him hostage, but he only gave him one meal a day, but we were poor for our father's old and frailty, and we just got the news that my father had died of hunger in the palace last night."

This general's name is Li Junmu, a scout general under Wang Shichong, just an ordinary general, but Li Shimin is very interested in his brother Li Junxian, Li Junxian is extremely strong in martial arts, known as the first fierce general of the Zheng army, and is now Wang Shichong's hussar general.

Li Junxian's brothers were originally Wagang Army, because Li Mi moved south to the south of the Yangtze River, they were unwilling to follow the south, so they broke away from Li Mi and surrendered to Wang Shichong, but this time the Tang army attacked Luoyang, Wang Shichong was afraid that the soldiers would flee, so they took all their families in the palace as hostages.

The father of Li Junxian's brother was also imprisoned in the palace and could not be contacted until noon today, when Li Junxian bought off the guards, only to know that their father had died of illness and starvation last night, which made the two brothers extremely sad and angry, and decided to surrender to the Tang army.

This news made Li Shimin extremely excited, which means that the city is about to be broken, but there is also another possibility, Wang Shichong sent the Li brothers to surrender by fraud, and Li Shimin also had to guard against it, he asked silently: "Wang Shichong is so well defended, how did General Li get out of the city?" ”

Li Junmu realized that Li Shimin still didn't trust him very much, and he hurriedly explained: "This is because Yang Yuanqing and Wang Shichong have a five-rì covenant, Yang Yuanqing asked Wang Shichong to stick to the five-rì, he will come to the rescue, today is the sixth day, but the Sui army has never arrived, Wang Shichong was anxious, so he ordered the humble post to go down to the city at night to go to the area of Mengjindu to listen to the news of the Sui army......"

Although Li Shimin's doubts in his heart did not disappear, Li Junmu's explanation was also reasonable, so Li Shimin temporarily suppressed the doubts in his heart, stepped forward to help Li Junmu, and said with a smile: "I have heard of the prestige of your two brothers, if you are willing to surrender to the Tang Army, I will never treat you badly."

Li Junmu was overjoyed, and hurriedly said: "Back to His Royal Highness, the hearts of the people in Luoyang have collapsed, Wang Shichong has betrayed his relatives and left, and now it is time to break the city, my brother is in charge of Luoshui defense, and he is willing to sacrifice the city to Tang tonight!" ”

Li Shimin nodded: "I'll arrange it and then talk to you in detail." ”

Li Shimin ordered someone to send Li Junmu down to rest, and then he turned around and asked Fang Xuanling, who had been smiling and silent, "Sir, does you think their surrender is true or false?" ”

Fang Xuanling smiled slightly, "Your Highness thinks that the situation has reached this point, are the two brothers still willing to surrender for Wang Shichong?" I also have to pay for my net worth. ”

Fang Xuanling's words made Li Shimin suddenly realize that Wang Shichong's brothers and nephews may have the possibility of surrendering by fraud, but it has been less than a year since the Li brothers surrendered to Wang Shitu, and it is impossible for Wang Shichong to let their brothers surrender by fraud.

Li Shimin's eyes couldn't help but be excited, then tonight will be the time when Luoyang City is broken, and he has been waiting for a long time at this moment, and at this moment, there are soldiers outside the door who urgently report: "Your Highness, there is an urgent eagle letter from Chang'an again." ”

Li Shimin looked at each other with Fang Xuanling, from the night before to now, this is already the ninth urgent letter, Li Shimin should immediately order: "Take the letter in!" ”

A pro-soldier walked into the big tent quickly, knelt down on one knee and saluted, and presented a tube of eagle letters, Li Shimin took the letterbox, took out a thin silk from it, shook it open and looked at it, and a wry smile appeared on his face, which was a very helpless expression.

"Urging His Highness to return to the army again?" Fang Xuanling looked at Li Shimin's expression and asked.

Li Shimin nodded and handed him the silk, "My father's handwritten edict said that Yang Yuanqing might attack Chang'an at night, and ordered me to immediately return to support Guanzhong." ”

Fang Xuanling looked at the oracle and persuaded him: "Your Highness, this is already the ninth edict, if Your Highness ignores it and arouses the suspicion of the saints, it will be worth the loss." ”

"But I've sent 10,000 troops, do you think they're too few?"

Fang Xuanling sighed, "Your Highness, this is actually a matter of attitude, if the crown prince personally led 50,000 troops back to Guanzhong, and His Highness only sent 10,000 troops to rescue, such an obvious contrast will make the Holy Lord think of His Highness, at least it shows that His Royal Highness does not care about the safety of the Holy Lord, Your Highness, with all due respect, it is better not to send 10,000 troops back to support." ”

Li Shimin paced back and forth in the big tent with his hands behind his back, which made it difficult for him to do, his father ordered him to send 50,000 troops back to help Guanzhong, but if 50,000 troops went back, the troops in his hands would be overstretched, not to mention the capture of the Central Plains, I am afraid that even the difficulty of capturing Luoyang, Li Shimin also had to admit that Wang Shichong fought hard, and withstood the three-day siege of the Tang army's 200,000 army with only tens of thousands of troops.

"If we really send 50,000 troops back to support according to my father's wishes, then our plan to seize the Central Plains is over, and in the end we will only have a ruined Luoyang City, what is the difference between this battle and the previous Central Plains War."

Li Shimin sighed deeply, his eyes revealed an unconcealable worry, he was indeed very worried, the first Central Plains War was his strong advocacy, but he returned with a fiasco, this time he tried his best to instigate his father, and even did not hesitate to use Tang Feng to monitor the tip of Concubine Yin De to hit the crown prince.

If he returns without success this time, it will seriously affect his status in his father's heart, and even affect his military power, and Li Shimin is in a dilemma.

Fang Xuanling can also understand Li Shimin's helplessness, but weighing the pros and cons, he believes that it is still necessary to return to Guanzhong in time, which involves an attitude issue and is very important to Li Shimin's future.

"Your Highness, not being able to take the Central Plains is just to disappoint the Shengshang, but refusing to rescue Guanzhong will make the Shengshang suspicious, which of the two is more important, Your Highness should understand that we will prevent this matter from being used by the prince, so after taking Luoyang tonight, we will immediately add 40,000 reinforcements, and wait for the danger in Guanzhong to be lifted, and then look at the situation in the Central Plains, if the conditions allow, it will not be too late for us to fight the Central Plains."

Li Shimin pondered for a long time, and finally nodded, "Just according to Mr.'s words!" ”

……

Night fell, Wang Shichong finally despaired, Yang Yuanqing's promise was not fulfilled, six days have passed, the Sui Dynasty reinforcements still did not come, from hope, disappointment to despair, Wang Shichong's last trace of imperial dream was finally shattered, his Zheng dynasty was about to fall, and he would not have a chance to make a comeback.

"Words are not true, Yang Yuanqing, what qualifications do you have to compete in the world!"

In the inner palace, Wang Shichong sat on the ivory dragon couch with a sword in one hand and an amber agate wine bottle in the other hand and drank a big drink, he was already drunk and smoky, he drank while scolding Yang Yuanqing, "Hypocrite, use the Tang Dynasty to kill me, will you come to take Luoyang again?" Yang Yuanqing, you are a despicable and shameless villain. ”

Five or six palace maids in the inner hall hid behind the screen, trembling in fright, and no one dared to pour wine for Wang Shichong, only one of Wang Shichong's confidants and eunuchs stood aside, and from time to time brought up a wine jug to fill his bottle.

"You say!"

Wang Shichong's eyes were red and he stared at his confidant eunuch, "Why did Yang Yuanqing not believe in his words and deceive me?" ”

The henchman eunuch was also so frightened that his legs weakened, "Maybe...... His army has already come to the periphery and has not yet been contacted by His Majesty. ”

"How do you know?"

Wang Shichong grabbed the eunuch's shirt and stared at him viciously, "Are you a spy of the Sui army!" ”

"I'm not...... Sui Army Scout, I'm ...... Guessed. The eunuch trembled with fear.

Wang Shichong was furious, "You dare to fool me? ”

He drew his sword, raised his sword and fell, and cut off the head of the eunuch, and the palace maids who were hiding around were frightened and screamed, and ran in all directions, Wang Shichong laughed, and picked up the wine bottle and drank bitterly.

……

Luoyang City is tall and strong, no less than Chang'an City, but Luoyang City also has a defensive weakness, that is, Luoshui, Luoshui passes through the city, dividing Luoyang into two, in the Chūn autumn season, Luoshui is surging, and you need to rely on warships to enter the city, but Luoyang City has extremely strict defenses against warships, and there are special water villages in the upstream and downstream, and it is difficult for warships to get close to Luoyang City.

But in winter, Luoshui froze, and pedestrians could be on the river, which made Luoshui a shortcut to attack Luoyang, Wang Shichong also realized this weakness, he specially built fortifications with wood, poured ice water, and built a long ice wall on the river, and deployed 5,000 crossbowmen on the east and west sides respectively, lying behind the ice wall to block the Tang army from entering the river.

The two sides also experienced three days of fierce fighting on the river, with thousands of dead and wounded, and the Tang army was never able to attack Luoyang City from the river.

On the river surface of the western front, the general in charge of going to the palace is Li Junxian, the brother of Li Junmu who surrendered to the Tang army in the early morning, Li Junxian is about 30 years old, and he also has a slender face, he is also burly, strong in martial arts, so that a tenon of 120 pounds of iron halberd, has the courage of ten thousand people.

When he was in Wagangzhai, he was known as the second good man in Wagang, second only to Shan Xiongxin, in Luoyang, he was known as the first fierce general of the Zheng Dynasty, and was very famous in the Central Plains.

Li Junxian looked at the river in the distance with complicated eyes, and the river was full of corpses of the Tang army, which had been frozen into ice corpses, which made him feel a little uneasy, after he descended to the Tang Dynasty, could Li Shimin tolerate him.

Suddenly, a soldier pointed into the distance and shouted: "General, there is a Tang army killed!" ”

I saw a black crowd on the ice, which was particularly clear under the starlight, and there were as many as 10,000 people, and the soldiers suddenly became nervous, and they all opened their arrows, but Li Junxian shouted: "Everyone must not act rashly!" ”

More than a dozen of his henchmen stopped the soldiers, and at this time, a Tang cavalry rushed and asked loudly, "Where is General Li Junxian?" ”

Li Junxian urged him to step forward and said, "I am Li Junxian!" ”

The cavalry of the Tang Army said in a loud voice: "His Royal Highness the King of Qin has an order, immediately put down his weapons and pardon General Li for his innocence!" ”

This moment finally came, Li Junxian took a deep breath, turned his horse's head and shouted to the soldiers: "Immediately put down your weapons and withdraw to the shore!" ”

At this time, the hearts of the people were broken, and no one was willing to die for Wang Shichong anymore, the main general gave the order, and the soldiers put down their bows and arrows one after another, and ran to the shore, and in a moment, there was no defender on the river.

In the distance, Li Shimin was overjoyed and immediately ordered: "Kill into Luoyang!" ”

With a shout, the 20,000 Tang troops rushed from the ice to the city, and in a moment, they rushed through the defensive line on the river and entered Luoyang City......