After learning the news of Li Yuan's serious injury, Duan Lun, the chief general of the Xinfeng rebel army, hesitated, but the generals Qiu Shili and Qiu Xinggong could not bear it anymore, and resolutely launched a mutiny on the night of October 15 to meet the Sui army's partial division Li Jingbu and Qu Tutong's troops into the city.

The Qiu brothers are not fools, it can be seen that Li Yuan wants to use the Xinfeng rebels as an outcast, if the main force of the rebels can repel the main force of the Sui army, Li Yuan will return to the army to save Xinfeng, but if the main force of the rebels can't beat Chen Fuliang, Li Yuan will definitely live or die and will not let the rebels abandon the city and retreat, but will only let the rebels carry the rebels for as long as they can, and Li Yuan will not feel distressed if the rebels are dead. Understanding this truth, and receiving the news of the fiasco of the decisive battle of the main force of the rebels, and finally seeing Li Yuan's broken leg, although they could not know whether it was true or false, the Qiu family brothers still made up their minds to open the city and surrender.

Before the opening of the city, of course, the Qiu brothers sent people to contact Li Jing and Qu Tutong, and the older and weaker Qu Tutong once suspected that there was fraud, Li Jing chose to believe it in combination with the analysis of various situations, and promised to pardon and reuse the Qiu brothers as Chen Fuliang's cousin, and Shun lì entered Xinfeng City that night, and the demoralized rebel soldiers surrendered one after another, but Duan Lun was afraid that his identity as Li Yuan's son-in-law would not be pardoned by Emperor Yang of Sui, so he fled back to Daxing by night with a few cronies, and the Sui army took Xinfeng City in one fell swoop. Immediately send an envoy to report to Chen Fuliang.

It was only a matter of time before Xinfeng was taken into the isolated city, and there was no surprise when Chen Fuliang received the report, but the surrender of the brothers Qiu Shili and Qiu Xinggong, who were considered a pair of fierce generals, made Chen Fuliang a little overjoyed, and immediately ordered to give the Qiu family brothers a reward for being crowned officials, not to mention it, Chen Fuliang also promised that after the Qiu family brothers and Li Jing and others came to the main battlefield of Daxing, he would personally lead the army Chinese out of the camp to greet him, just as he had done with Liu Heimin. At the same time, Chen Fuliang naturally had to hype up the news of the destruction of Xinfeng City, so that the main force of the rebels in Daxing City also knew the good news and continued to hit the enemy's morale.

The loss of Xinfeng was also expected by the rebels, and it was not surprising that the Li brothers and Pei Lian, who were fighting for power, learned of this situation, and immediately claimed that the Xinfeng rebels had severely damaged the Sui army's partial division in the battle to defend the city, so as to stabilize the city, and let Pei Shufang, the envoy of Li Mi's army, who was also trapped in the city, come forward, claiming that the Zhai and Li thief army had taken the Tiger Prison Pass and Luokoucang and surrounded the eastern capital Luoyang, Chen Fuliang was about to withdraw his troops, and encouraged the rebel soldiers to resolutely defend the city and wait for a turnaround.

The second brother Li and Pei Lian's real greatest hope is not the Zhai Li coalition army thousands of miles away, but the Bai Yu Po thief army flowing in the northwest of Daxing, as well as the Xue Ju thief army in Tianshui in the west, and the Bai Yu Po thief army with only tens of thousands of rabble, Xue Ju is a real ruthless character, when he captured Tianshui County three months ago, the strength had reached more than 130,000, and he occupied the Longxi horse farm of the Great Sui court, obtained a large number of war horses and established tens of thousands of cavalry, and the number of cavalry was still above the main force of the Sui army in the eastern capital, and the combat effectiveness was quite good. At the same time, the main station of Xue Jujun's army was not very far from the Daxing battlefield, and the rescue was very convenient.

What's even better is that Xue Ju, who has already claimed to be the capital of Emperor Qin and the capital of Tianshui County, is still a commodity who is absolutely impossible to accept Chen Fuliang's appeasement, if the Li family brothers and Pei Lin can pull Xue Jujun into the water to fight against Emperor Yang of Sui's lackey Chen Fuliang, then not only can he immediately gain a firm ally, but he will also be able to reverse the gap in overall strength immediately. Therefore, as early as after Li Yuan received the news of Yongfengcang before his death, Li Yuan immediately accepted Pei Lian's Jianyi, sent his henchman Wen Daya as an envoy, and rushed to Tianshui to meet Xue Ju with heavy gifts, asking for an alliance to fight against Chen Fuliang, and promised that after success, he asked Yang Yu to officially recognize Xue Ju as the emperor of Qin, divide the territory with Qin, and form an alliance forever. - Of course, if Chen Fuliang is really beaten away, whether these promises will be fulfilled can be discussed.

The Li brothers and Pei Lin did not know that happiness had come, in fact, on the tenth day of the tenth month of October, Wen Daya, the envoy of Li Yuan's rebels, had already arrived in Tianshui along the way, and bribed Xue Ju's subordinates through guò, so that he could meet Xue Ju himself the next day. As a result, although Xue Ju felt that there was no need to form an alliance with Li Yuan's rebels, let alone the Daxing Imperial Court to recognize him as the Emperor of Great Qin, Xue Ju's think tank Hao Ying felt that this was a good opportunity to take the entire territory of Guanzhong, and strongly persuaded Xue Ju to accept the alliance, take the opportunity to enter the army and take advantage of the fire to rob, first let Li Yuan and Chen Fuliang fight a lose-lose battle, and then take out the exhausted Li Yuan and Chen Fuliang, and annex Guanzhong in one fell swoop - although the specific operation is a little more difficult, but there is really this possibility.

Xue Ju accepted Hao Ming's suggestion, promised to form an alliance with the rebels and send troops to help, and immediately sent his eldest son Xue Renguo to lead 20,000 foot cavalry as the vanguard, and came in west first to help Li Yuan's rebels - don't ask if it is possible for Fufeng County between Tianshui and Daxing to stop Xue Jujun, Fufeng Taishou Dou Jin is the nephew of Dou Cong, a rebel minister, and is also a relative of Li Yuan.

It was very unlucky for the rebels, and Wen Daya, who had completed the task, sent people back to Daxing to report the good news, but the envoy had just arrived near Shiping and was intercepted and captured by the Sui army's partial division Ma Sanbao, and captured the letter written by Wen Daya and Xue Ju to Li Yuan, asking about the situation, Ma Sanbao did not dare to slack off, and quickly sent someone to send the rebel envoy back to Daxing with the letter to Chen Fuliang, and on the afternoon of October 16, Chen Fuliang also knew the news that Xue Ju had sent troops.

Knowing this situation, Chen Fuliang, who was already gradually anxious in the rear, was of course depressed and depressed, and gritted his teeth and just scolded Li Yuan for being shameless and despicable, and if he couldn't beat himself, he would pull outsiders to help him, and he dared to sell anything, which was simply the reincarnation of Qin Hui and Wang Jingwei - although the time was a little wrong. Fang Xuanling, Yuan Tiangang, Wei Zheng and other staff members were also worried, for fear that Xue Jujun would join the battlefield before the Daxing City was broken, reversing the current situation on the Daxing battlefield.

After sighing, Fang Xuanling pointed out two keys to Chen Fuliang, and said: "Brother Xian, we still have two advantages at the moment, one is that the correspondence between Xue Ju's thief army and Li Yuan's thief army was intercepted by us, and the thief army in Daxing City still doesn't know that Xue Ju has sent troops, and the morale is still relatively low, and the generals don't know if they can wait for reinforcements to arrive; The second is that Xue Ju has only sent 20,000 forwards to the west, and has not yet dispatched the main force on a large scale to participate in the battle, and we still have some time to respond. These two advantages are combined, if the operation is done well, we still have a chance to defeat the two thief armies of Li Yuan and Xue Ju. ”

"If we want to break each one, we have to hurry up and take Daxing City first." Wei Zheng said: "Xiaguan mentions, if you stay behind, you might as well order General Ma Sanbao to confront Xue Renguo's strong wall, only defend without fighting to buy time for our main force, and at the same time, we have to do our best to launch an attack on the city, quickly take Daxing to gain a foothold, and then meet the main force of Xue Ju's thief army with leisure." ”

Chen Fuliang was silent, this time Chen Fuliang was really not afraid of attacking and didn't want to attack head-on, not to mention that Fang Xuanling and Wei Zheng's mention was not correct enough, but Chen Fuliang thought about it further, and felt that Daxing City was too strong and difficult to fight, even if the army forcibly took Daxing, it would definitely lose a lot, and it would be difficult to have the spare strength to calmly meet Xue Ju's main force, and at the same time, Ma Sanbao was able to get away with capturing the first Xue Jujun messenger who contacted Li Yuan's rebels, but he definitely couldn't stop all the follow-up messengers of Xue Jujun, As long as there is a messenger who is lucky enough to get into Daxing City, the rebels will definitely defend to the end, even if they are held one by one from the outer city to the imperial city and then to the palace city, they will definitely defend to the end, and the Sui army will not only pay greater casualties, but also may not be able to achieve the tactical goal of capturing the entire city of Daxing before Xue Ju's main force arrives.

After telling a few of his staff members about his worries, Chen Fuliang frowned and concluded: "It is our best choice to take Daxing and wait for work, but how to take us have to act cautiously, we must not take the city down, and the army is also disabled, so how can we meet the main force of the Xue Ju thief army, whose strength should not be underestimated?" So I still think that we should be clever and minimize our losses. ”

They all nodded in approval of Chen Fuliang's analysis, and then Fang Xuanling, who was in charge of receiving guests for Chen Fuliang, said regretfully: "It's a pity that although there are many gate valve families who have contacted us in private, there is no gate valve who dares to organize an army in the city to initiate an internal response and accept us into the city, otherwise, this is a good opportunity to reduce losses and quickly break the city." ”

"If only those wallgrasses had the guts to do that." Chen Fuliang snorted coldly: "They and the old thief Li Yuan were originally a family, and they bent their knees to me completely because the old thief Li Yuan couldn't beat me, and they bet on both sides to leave a way back for their own family, and most of their hearts are still towards the old thief Li Yuan who wears a pair of pants with them." When they know the news that Xue Ju has sent troops, they will definitely go to hug the stinky feet left by the old thief Li Yuan immediately, and help the old thief Li Yuan fight to the death with us to the end. ”

mentioned Li Yuan, of course, Chen Fuliang immediately remembered Li Yuan's current life and death situation, and then remembered that he contacted Zhu Cang yesterday because of Li Yuanhui's contact, and once gave birth to the idea of ordering Zhu Cang to initiate an internal response to meet the army entering the city, but Chen Fuliang knew very well that with the ability of the Li family's father and son, it was definitely not so easy for Zhu Cang to initiate internal response, and considering Zhu Cang's capricious character, Chen Fuliang immediately gave up this idea - it is still a trivial matter to die a Zhu Can, if Zhu Cang is yin or the Li family father and son take the opportunity to yin, to lose an elite army that launched a surprise attack, it is strange that Chen Fuliang is not distressed to death.

Racking his brains, Chen Fuliang walked to the Daxing City sand table made by Yuan Tiangang with his hands behind his back, on the sand table with high precision, Daxing City was as solid and complete as an iron turtle, and he couldn't find any gaps and loopholes that could be easily broken through. Shaking his head slightly, Chen Fuliang's treacherous gaze was once again fixed on the Xuanwu Gate, the main gate in the north of Daxing City, and he began to think about whether he could open a breakthrough here.

If the Sui army can break through the Xuanwu Gate and directly enter the palace city, then the 22 gates of the palace city, the imperial city and the outer city of Daxing will all expose the inner door latch under the sword of the Sui army, and the Sui army soldiers will open it if they want to, close it if they want to, fight if they want to, and defend it if they want to, and completely control the initiative on the battlefield in the city, coupled with the high morale and strong combat effectiveness of the Sui army soldiers, it can definitely be said that as long as the Sui army in the eastern capital takes the Xuanwu Gate, it is equivalent to taking the whole city of Daxing.

It's a pity, this important city gate is too strong, Chen Fuliang once secretly went to Xuanwu Gate to personally explore and found that the Xuanwu Gate's strict garrison, perfect fortifications, can definitely be said to be the crown of the 23 gates inside and outside Daxing, moats, sluice towers, arrow towers, main buildings, corner towers, enemy towers, daughter walls, battlements and a series of military facilities should be complete, the city wall is as high as more than four zhang, more than three zhang thick, the city wall of the special blue brick package special rammed earth is as solid as concrete, and it is more difficult to dig through than to ascend to the sky. In the case of a frontal assault, there is almost no possibility that the Sui army in the eastern capital will directly break through this city gate.

The trouble is also the terrain outside the city, the north and west of the Xuanwu Gate surrounded by the oblique shape of Longshou Mountain are mountainous areas, the plain outside the city is quite narrow, the Sui army's strength cannot be deployed at all, and if the formation is forcibly deployed, it will only be directly exposed to the long-range weapons of the rebels, so that the rebels can easily shoot the Sui soldiers under the city while standing on the city wall, under normal circumstances, as long as the commander is in his right mind, he will not fight the idea of storming this gate, although Chen Fuliang's head is full of bad water, but it is also normal, of course he will not go crazy.

"Can you launch a surprise attack and take the Xuanwu Gate?"

Chen Fuliang didn't know how many times he had considered this issue, and he had also considered taking the risk of bombarding the city gate with artillery, but the too heavy artillery movement would definitely be discovered by the rebels, and Li Yuan's father and son, who had already suffered a big loss, would definitely not take it lightly, and the Sui army could not blast open the Xuanwu Gate with a round of shelling, and Li Yuan, who was definitely not stupid, as long as he quickly blocked the city gate of the Xuanwu Gate with sandbags, earth and stones, no matter how much the Sui army's artillery bombardment, it would only waste gunpowder shells in vain. And when thinking about this tactic again, a goal-breaking tactic that had been considered by Chen Fuliang but not used couldn't help but float into Chen Fuliang's mind............

"Does anyone know how thick the gates of Xuanwu Gate are?" Chen Fuliang asked suddenly.

Several staff members looked at each other, and then Fang Xuanling replied with a wry smile: "Brother Xian, you are asking Yu Blind, Mr. Yuan and Mr. Wei are both coming to Daxing for the first time, how can they know this problem?" You and I are from Daxing, but my highest official position in Daxing is only to serve the imperial history in the palace, and I have never been to Xuanwu Gate, how can I know how thick the city gate is? But you used to be the right deputy of the crown prince, so you may know the answer. ”

"I've never been to Xuanwu Gate either." Chen Fuliang replied extremely depressed, and then Chen Fuliang asked Yuan Tiangang again: "How much gunpowder do we have left?" ”

"One thousand three hundred and sixty-three pounds and nine taels." Yuan Tiangang replied quickly.

"You can give it a try." Chen Fuliang gritted his teeth and said: "Dig a hole in the gate of Xuanwu Gate and stuff a coffin full of gunpowder into it, we may be able to blow open the city gate!" ”

"It's ......, it's unlikely, right?" Yuan Tiangang said with some hesitation: "We don't know how thick the Xuanwu Gate is, but it is definitely not too thin, and it is covered with iron and copper nails, it is definitely not so easy to chisel it, and the gate soldiers in the city heard the alarm, and our surprise attack will be over immediately." ”

"Give it a try, not exactly counting on it." Chen Fuliang gritted his teeth and said: "Frontal attack, we definitely have no hope, we can only try it as a dead horse doctor, if we are lucky and successful, it will be easy for us to take Daxing City." ”

They have all studied the countless advantages of taking the Xuanwu Gate to the army, and know that even if the sneak attack fails, it will only lose a coffin of gunpowder and a small number of soldiers, Fang Xuanling, Wei Zheng and others have agreed to give it a try, Yuan Tiangang After thinking for a long time, he also nodded and said: "You can try, we can prepare two coffins of gunpowder, of course it is best if the door can be successful, if you can't, you can detonate the first coffin, maybe you can blow up the location of the second coffin, the thief army reacts slowly at night, we may have time to detonate it a second time." ”

"That's it." Chen Fuliang nodded, and said viciously: "Anyway, at most, it is only to lose two coffins of gunpowder, send soldiers who know carpenters to do it, and tell them, if they can succeed, their whole family will not have to worry about food and clothing for the rest of their lives, if they are martyred, I will support their whole family for a lifetime!" ”

Yuan Tiangang agreed, and immediately went down to make arrangements, and Fang Xuanling over there hurriedly said: "Don't worry, Brother Xian, in my opinion, it is better to wait for our rear army to arrive and prepare for the siege before starting, so that even if it fails, we can lead the main force of the thief army to Daxing Palace, and when we are forced to launch a frontal attack, it will be easier." ”

Chen Fuliang nodded and ordered: "Give my cousin and Qu Tutong an order, and let them come and meet us as much as possible." Then give Ma Sanbao an order, let him meet the front of Xue Ju's thief army and confront each other on the back wall, so as to buy us time. ”

Fang Xuanling and the others agreed, and hurriedly put pen to paper, but Chen Fuliang smashed his fist next to the sand table, and scolded viciously: "The thief killed Xue Ju and the dog thief, Lao Tzu can calmly take down Daxing, what are you doing when you run out to make trouble?" Did I dig up your ancestral grave, or did I rape your sister? When I destroy you in the future, I must dig your ancestral grave with my own hands, and sleep with your unmarried sister and daughter in person, and see if you dare to go against me in the next life! ”

In fact, Zhu Cang was not without the courage to initiate an internal response to receive the Sui army into the city, taking advantage of the opportunity of concurrently serving as the judge of the Third Army of the rebel army's right flank, Zhu Cang not only wantonly arrested those rebel soldiers who discussed the war and surrender in private, but also took advantage of the opportunity to monitor Miao Haichao, quietly talked with his natural ally Miao Haichao in private, and quickly signed a dirty agreement......

Chen Fuliang also underestimated the children of the gate valve family in Daxing City, most of the children of the gate valve family and the powerful sons were indeed riding the wall to watch the wind, and their hearts were more towards the Li Yuan rebels who were in the same spirit, and they refused and did not dare to organize people to accept the Sui army into the city with the intention of looking at the direction of the wind, but there were also a few alternatives, but they were more towards Chen Fuliang, and they were planning to open the city gate to receive Chen Fuliang into the city. And what Chen Fuliang couldn't even dream of was that one of these alternatives was still very close to the old Li family, and was named Daxing Order by Li Yuan, and held a lot of power in the rebels - Dugu Huaien!

"Only a few people know about my cousin's death, and I will only whisper about you two of my best brothers." Dugu Huaien asked in a vicious whisper, "Do you dare to do it?" The relationship between Brother Yingliang and us is good, if it is done, we just don't want glory and wealth and can't push it away, the opportunity is here, it depends on whether you have the guts! ”

"Why don't you dare?" Li Yangcheng and Yuan Qi nodded at the same time, and whispered in unison: "The head has a scar the size of a bowl, this thing is done, look at the old immortals in our family who dare to scold us for not being successful!" Taking advantage of the opportunity of concurrently serving as the military judge of the Third Army of the rebel army's right wing, Zhu Cang not only wantonly arrested those rebel soldiers who were discussing the war and surrendering in private, but also took advantage of the opportunity to monitor Miao Haichao, quietly talked with his natural ally Miao Haichao in private, and quickly signed a dirty agreement......

Chen Fuliang also underestimated the children of the gate valve family in Daxing City, most of the children of the gate valve family and the powerful sons were indeed riding the wall to watch the wind, and their hearts were more towards the Li Yuan rebels who were in the same spirit, and they refused and did not dare to organize people to accept the Sui army into the city with the intention of looking at the direction of the wind, but there were also a few alternatives, but they were more towards Chen Fuliang, and they were planning to open the city gate to receive Chen Fuliang into the city. And what Chen Fuliang couldn't even dream of was that one of these alternatives was still very close to the old Li family, and was named Daxing Order by Li Yuan, and held a lot of power in the rebels - Dugu Huaien!

"Only a few people know about my cousin's death, and I will only whisper about you two of my best brothers." Dugu Huaien asked in a vicious whisper, "Do you dare to do it?" The relationship between Brother Yingliang and us is good, if it is done, we just don't want glory and wealth and can't push it away, the opportunity is here, it depends on whether you have the guts! ”

"Why don't you dare?" Li Yangcheng and Yuan Qi nodded at the same time, and whispered in unison: "The head has a scar the size of a bowl, this thing is done, look at the old immortals in our family who dare to scold us for not being successful!" ”