Not no one among the members of the Li clan proposed to pull Li Jiancheng into the water and let Li Jiancheng take the Li clan to Chen Fuliang's command as Murong Chui, but this proposal was resolutely opposed by the two brothers Li Er and Li Yuan, because Li Er said that he did not want to be at the mercy of his brother anymore, but Li Jiancheng's horse was the first to look forward, and he was still tied by the bird's anger; Li Yuanji was worried that Li Jiancheng would snatch his first merit in the city, and he would not be able to show off in front of Chen Fuliang; There are also Li Shentong and Li Shuliang and other Li elders who are also worried that Li Jiancheng will be stubborn and unwilling to accept this Li family's revival plan that endures humiliation and burden, so the Li clan finally unanimously decided to kick Li Jiancheng out of the game and surrender the city on their own.

But the surrender of the city is definitely not something that can be done by saying it, the reason is that Li Jiancheng reuses his foreign surname to alienate his relatives, and the military power of Taiyuan is all in the hands of Li Jiancheng's henchmen, Li Shentong, the only person in charge of the Li clan, is already a bare-pole commander, and the Li Eryan lineage, who was hit by the Sui army, has only the last person left in Zhu Cang, the Li clan has no soldiers, no rights, and Li Jiancheng can't even get out of Taiyuan City without Li Jiancheng's permission, what can I do to dedicate the city to Chen Fuliang for credit? If you are not careful, the possibility of your head hitting the ground is very large.

But it's not bad, the Li clan is not completely without capital, at least Li Yuanji still has some descendants in the Taiyuan garrison who can contact and buy, especially Liu Dewei, one of the thirteen commanders of the Taiyuan Army, or Li Yuanji forcibly recommended to Li Jiancheng's henchmen and old department, has been staying in Taiyuan The soldiers and horses are intact, and they are stationed in the most important Taiyuan Xicheng, basically as long as Liu Dewei agrees to cooperate, the Li clan's plan to dedicate the city is more than half successful. Therefore, when discussing how to act, Li Yuanji first proposed to pull Liu Dewei into the water to act together.

Li Er strongly objected to pinning all his hopes on Liu Dewei, on the grounds that Liu Dewei's Li Yuanji imprint was too deep, and Li Jiancheng's eyeliner surveillance was indispensable around him, and at the same time, Li Jiancheng was also a ruthless character who pretended to be a pig and ate a tiger in this regard, and Liu Dewei, who dared to hand over the military power to Li Yuanji's descendant, must have his certainty, and it would be bad to pull Liu Dewei into the water first and then do it. Therefore, Li Er proposed to capture the king first, and at the same time design to take Li Jiancheng down, and then ask Liu Dewei to act, so that even if Liu Dewei refuses to agree, the Li clan has hostages in his hands, and he does not have to worry about being chopped into meat by Li Jiancheng's subordinates immediately, and there is still hope of getting out.

Li Shentong and Li Shuliang and other old slippery heads of course agreed with Li Er's prudent strategy!, after some deliberation and discussion, a plan to capture Li Jiancheng and sacrifice the city was quickly released, and contacting Chen Fuliang in advance to let the main force of the Sui army prepare in advance This important matter has become a top priority for the Li clan............

In this way, the night passed quickly, and when the samurai Tong, who had been drunk and lying in Li Yuanji's house all night, returned to Li Jiancheng's side, the situation outside the city also changed in a new way. Under the supervision and drive of the Sui soldiers of the brigade, the tens of thousands of prisoners of war captured by the Sui army before the Dingyang army were all dispatched, and began to build a dam in the narrowest area between Longshan and Dongshan in the south of Taiyuan City.

At the same time, rainfall began to increase in the upper reaches of Fenshui, and the level of the Fenshui River began to rise gradually. In this regard, Li Jiancheng, who was helpless, was not only worried, but also had to seriously consider adopting Li Er's suggestion, and finally decided to send a few elite soldiers out of the city at night to attack and harass the Sui army's dam construction site, delay the Sui army's dam construction progress and strive to win a few battles to boost morale.

However, it is a pity that Li Er and Li Jiancheng's hand was expected by the Sui army as early as that night, more than 100 Taiyuan soldiers wearing Sui army uniforms had just approached the embankment, and immediately because they could not answer the night password, they were entertained by the Sui army's dam guarding army, and then there was a special Sui army soldiers wearing special signs to engage in battle, even at night they could clearly distinguish between friend and foe, and they killed the Taiyuan army's night attack army with heavy casualties and fled back to the city in embarrassment. Almost all the soldiers of the Taiyuan army out of the city were annihilated, and less than ten of the 100 soldiers of the Taiyuan army who went out of the city finally escaped back to the city by ropes.

After receiving this news, Li Er also ran to Li Jiancheng again to offer a plan, proposing to launch a night attack again, but arrange an ambush behind the army that went out of the city to attack at night, so that the front army could defeat and lead the Sui army into an ambush circle to attack. However, Li Jiancheng was afraid that the soldiers of the Sui army were still prepared, and did not dare to agree, Li Er repeatedly persuaded and expressed his willingness to personally lead the army to take on the task of luring the enemy, and suggested that the ambush position be arranged in the northwest corner of the relatively safe Taiyuan City.

On the night of the second day, Li Er really led the death squad out of the city to lure the enemy, but it was still a great pity, although Li Er successfully lured the Sui army to lure the dam guards away from the position to launch a pursuit, but the Sui soldiers were very cunning and only pursued to the west of Taiyuan City on the Yurang Bridge that collapsed the Zhibo Canal and stopped, Li Jiancheng carefully arranged the ambush soldiers in the north of the Zhibo Canal worked hard in vain, and at the same time Li Er also stole chickens and rice, and brought out of the city 100 death squads with missing losses of more than 20 people. Li Er was extremely ashamed and ran to Li Jiancheng to ask for guilt, and Li Jiancheng was even more helpless to completely dispel the daydream of relying on a small elite attack to harass the Sui army.

Of course, Li Er's efforts were not in vain, relying on this hard-won opportunity to get out of the city, a soldier of the Taiyuan Army selected by Li Er took the opportunity to leave the team, took the initiative to run to the Sui army to surrender in front of the dam guarding the army, and also sent a letter of surrender jointly signed by the Li clan to Chen Fuliang. However, after seeing this letter with more than a dozen Li clan handwritings, Chen Fuliang not only did not have much joy, but on the contrary, he looked embarrassed and fell into deep thought.

After discussing in a low voice with Chen Fuliang's other staff members about the truth of the Li clan's surrender and dedication to the city, Li Jing found that Chen Fuliang's expression was not good, so he carefully asked Chen Fuliang: "Your Highness, Li Shentong and Li Yuanji and other Li clans sent letters to ask for surrender, why are you worried?" Do you doubt that the Li clan is on leave? ”

"It's not very likely." Chen Fuliang shook his head and said: "Our fine work has already been reported, the Li clan is indeed in a bad situation under Li Jiancheng's command, Li Jiancheng does not trust and does not appoint them, they are definitely dissatisfied with Li Jiancheng, and now our army has begun to build a dam to store water, Taiyuan City is about to be broken, and it is not surprising that these wall grasses are surrendering for the sake of their lives and glory, so the possibility of them surrendering is very small." And even if they surrender, as long as we use our troops carefully, there is not much to fear. ”

"Your Majesty thinks so too." Qu Tutong echoed and said: "The Li clan made it very clear in the letter, they are preparing to contact the generals in the city to surrender the city, and when the time comes, they will capture the thief and capture the king first to take down Li Jiancheng who refuses to surrender. But Your Highness, with such a good opportunity in front of you, why don't you look very good-looking? ”

"I'm worried about Li Jiancheng." Chen Fuliang said truthfully: "Li Jiancheng is a soft on the outside and rigid on the inside, if he is really taken down by the Li clan, he is likely to rather die than give in, and would rather lose his life than bow to his shameless relatives, and give his life in vain." ”

Qu Tutong, Feng Deyi and the others all smiled heartlessly, and said: "Your Highness, this is a strange news in the world, in this world, there is still something to worry about the life and safety of the enemy commander?" ”

"Li Jiancheng doesn't owe me anything, but I owe Li Jiancheng a lot." Chen Fuliang said sullenly: "I lied to Li Jiancheng when I first met, and then he not only didn't care, but also tried his best to prevent his father and brother from planning to harm me, and gave me gifts to see me off. He's always been very kind to me, but I've never given him anything in return, so I always feel like I owe him something. ”

Qu Tutong, Feng Deyi and the others closed their mouths at this time, but Li Jing smiled and said: "The gentleman's friendship between His Royal Highness and Li Jiancheng is indeed admirable, but Your Highness, you can't miss this good opportunity to quickly break through Taiyuan City for the sake of your personal relationship with Li Jiancheng, right?" ”

"Of course not." Chen Fuliang said in a very depressed tone: "Although I am very concerned about Li Jiancheng's safety, I must be responsible for the lives of the soldiers under my command, and I must also be responsible for the people of the whole world. For these reasons, no matter how unbearable I am, I can only be wronged and become a brother. ”

"Your Highness is right, we should distinguish which is more important and which is more important." Li Jing nodded, and then asked, "Your Highness, what should we do then?" Do you send a signal to let the Li clan in Taiyuan City know that we accept their invitation to surrender, so that they can rest assured? ”

"Give the signal." Chen Fuliang sighed and said, "Light wolf smoke on the top of Longshan Mountain, and let Li Yuanji and Li Shentong rest assured." However, the matter of building the dam cannot be stopped, we must be prepared with both hands, and it is of course best to be able to quickly break the city by relying on the inside, if not, we will attack the city with water according to the original plan, and take Taiyuan as soon as possible to turn back to solve the Central Plains battlefield. ”

In this way, although he was very unbearable, in order to reduce the casualties of soldiers and reduce the cost of food and grass, Chen Fuliang still ordered to light wolf smoke on the top of Longshan Mountain as agreed, so that the members of the Li clan in the city could do it with confidence, and at the same time stationed additional troops on the west bank of Fenshui, led by Li Jing, ready to rely on the Li clan to fight into the city at any time. After seeing the wolf smoke rising from the top of Longshan Mountain as they wished, the Li clan was overjoyed, and immediately began to arrange a coup plan and put it into practice.

The paper can't hold the fire, Li Jiancheng is just a relatively kind-hearted personality, but the scheming city government is definitely not under Li Er, and he has already found that his group of relatives and brothers have been coming and going too closely in the past few days, and the frequency of gatherings is a little too high, and he has also raised some vigilance. However, Wu Shi Tong, who was ordered to secretly monitor the Li clan, reported to Li Jiancheng, saying that although the Li clan gathering was indeed discussing the current Taiyuan war one after another, what they discussed was how to defend the city, and how to retreat to Lou Fu and Ma Yi to break through once the city was not protected, so Li Jiancheng didn't care too much, and just let Wu Shi Tong continue to monitor things closely.

As a result, Li Jiancheng naturally failed to find out that Li Yuanji privately sent someone to contact Liu Dewei of the old department, nor did he find that the eyeliner he had planted in Li Yuanji's house had already been secretly screened by the shrewd Li Er, and he also did not find that the rotation plan of the various departments of the Taiyuan City garrison he had formulated was secretly probed by Li Shentong, let alone that a net against him was being quietly opened in secret............

Two days later, on the day of the seventh day of the seventh month of July, the first heavy rain fell in Taiyuan, although the resulting rise in Fenshui facilitated the Sui army's plan to divert water to irrigate the city, but also limited the movement of the Sui army's siege weapons and restricted the power of bows and arrows, relatively speaking, the Sui army was relatively small to launch a siege, so after inspecting the city defense and finding no abnormality, in the case of abundant grain and grass, Li Jiancheng ordered to reward the defenders, so that the soldiers under his command could have a good life of the opening festival - in this era, it is also called the begging festival, Take this to boost the morale of the army. However, after the rain stopped in the afternoon, Li Yuanji's family suddenly came to Li Jiancheng's headquarters in Jinyang Palace to ask for a meeting, and they also brought bad news to Li Jiancheng with a nervous expression - Li Yuanji suddenly fell ill and lay down, and his condition was still very critical!

"What disease does the fourth brother have? Did you ask a doctor? What do doctors say? Li Jiancheng, who heard the news, asked nervously.

"Governor of the Left, my family Qi Gong has unbearable abdominal pain, sweating all over his body, and he asked a doctor, and the doctor said that it was an intestinal carbuncle (acute appendicitis)." Li Yuanji's family replied: "The doctor also said that Qi Gong's illness came quickly and severely, and I am afraid that his life will be in danger, so my wife sent a little one to ask Zuo Dudu to take a look quickly, otherwise it may be too late." ”

"The house leak happened to rain overnight! How could the fourth brother get such an emergency at this time? Li Jiancheng shouted loudly, and quickly got up and ordered: "Quick, prepare a horse for me!" I'm going to visit my fourth brother right away. ”

The guards agreed, but Li Jiancheng's most trusted henchman Feng Li hurriedly persuaded: "Zuo Dudu, the thieves are besieging the city, and the Dudu Governor, you are the fate of the whole city of Taiyuan, it is best not to leave the Jinyang Palace lightly, just in case." ”

"It's okay, I'll come when I go, you just keep an eye on Jinyang Palace for me." Li Jiancheng shook his head and refused, and said: "Intestinal carbuncle emergency, it is very likely to give people their lives, the fourth brother handed over the Taiyuan military power to me, I owe him a lot, I can't help but visit him in person." ”

Feng Li was helpless, so he could only change his words and say, "Governor Zuo, then you bring more guards." ”

"Governor Zuo, please let the last general bring two hundred guards with you." Samurai also stood up and volunteered.

Li Jiancheng didn't think much about it, and immediately accepted the kindness of Feng Li and Wu Shi Tong, and at that moment Li Jiancheng hurriedly went out and got on the horse, Wu Shi Tong also quickly led two hundred soldiers to follow Li Jiancheng out of Jinyang Palace, all the way to Li Yuanji's mansion in the southwest corner of Taiyuan West City. And after arriving at the gate of Li Yuanji's mansion, Li Jiancheng rushed directly into the gate of Li Yuanji's mansion as soon as he threw off his horse and dismounted, but Wu Shitong ordered the accompanying guards to wait in line outside the door, and only led four guards to follow Li Jiancheng to the entrance.

Li Yuanji's sudden illness this time is indeed a bit extraordinary, the front yard and the back garden are all servants who come and go, Li Shentong and Li Shuliang and other members of the Li clan have also reached more than half, all of them are guarding outside Li Yuanji's bedroom door, and they hurried when they saw Li Jiancheng coming in