Jingyang is the name of the belly of the middle. Li Chongjiu marched north from the east of Chang'an. The purpose is obvious, that is, to pass through the surroundings of Chang'an, pull out several cities near Chang'an, annihilate the living forces of the Tang army, and then return to the division to attack Chang'an.

In Li Chongjiu's words, attacking Chang'an was like cutting down trees, first removing its branches and leaves, and then cutting down its trunks, step by step.

Otherwise, the situation is not very clear now, and the Zhao army rashly attacked Chang'an, and it will not take a few days for Li Shimin's main force Tang Army to rush back to Chang'an from Fufeng. Li Chongjiu was faced with the danger of soldiers approaching the city and suffering from the enemy on his back, and Chang'an could not be captured at that time, and it was not easy to retreat from the siege, so it was called passive.

After Li Chongjiu led his army to the north, the defenders in Chang'an City did not dare to send troops to pursue them in the face of the Zhao army's withdrawal from under their noses. Wugunai, Xue Wanjun won a big victory, won more with less, and broke the few Tang army field legions in Chang'an City.

The generals of the Tang Army in the city had lost the courage to go out of the city to fight, so Fang Xuanling, who was sitting in Chang'an, only dared to send more than 100 cavalry to follow more than ten miles away from the rear guard of the Zhao army when he saw the Zhao army advancing north. At the same time, Fang Xuanling was anxious to the main force of the 100,000 Tang Army led by Li Shimin, who was rushing from Fufeng.

Fang Xuanling wrote in the letter that the Zhao thief wanted to pass through Jingyang and seize the granary in the north of Chang'an.

Now near Jingyang, Li Chongjiu's main army is arriving in a steady stream.

Jingyang City, famous for the flow of Jing water, when the Korean craftsman Zheng Guo was the two tributaries of the Wei River, Jing Shui, Beiluo Water two ways, into the construction of Zheng Guo Canal. 40,000 hectares of irrigated fields have become the first water conservancy project in Guanzhong.

After Li Chongjiu personally led the army to leave Chang'an. From Weishui to the north, and to Jingshui. The Weishui seen along the way is clear. The water is turbid, and the confluence of the two rivers is muddy and clear, which is also the origin of the allusion to the clear distinction between Jing and Wei. But in fact, because of the storage of Zhengguo Canal, the surrounding area of Jingshui is the main grain field irrigation area in Chang'an, and Chang'an has a folk proverb, Jingshui is a stone, its mud is several buckets, and irrigation and dung. Grow me with corn. Food and clothing, the mouth of billions.

Li Chongjiu led the army to Jingyang, also for the purpose of predation, to seize the granary in the north of Chang'an, and to supply grain for the Tang army on the front line.

The general who was ordered to attack Jingyang, Xue Wanche also knew the truth that eating the enemy for one bell should be my twenty bells. So he knew the importance of this battle of Jingyang for the next battle of Chang'an.

Under the city of Jingyang, Xue Wanche has 30,000 horses, and the city is already surrounded by water. Xue Wanche also knew that Li Shimin was leading the army. Arrived day and night to reinforce Jingyang City. Therefore, in the face of Jingyang City, he had to take it before Li Shimin's reinforcements arrived.

The defender of Jingyang City is Wang Renshi, the general of the Tang Army, and the circumference of Jingyang City in front of him is three miles and twenty steps. The walls were seven feet wide and three feet high.

After arriving at the city, Xue Wanche ordered all the people in the tent. Then he ordered the sergeant to lay out a basket of gold. Place on the ground. When the soldiers had seen so much gold, they all looked straight at it.

Xue Wanche first hugged his fists to the soldiers and said, "Brothers. Li Shimin said that he defeated the 200,000 army of our western road, he was bragging, a certain one didn't believe it, if it was true, I cut off his head to him. ”

When Xue Wanche said this, all the soldiers laughed. The whole army also did not believe it, Wang Junkuo was famous in Mobei, Li Shimin defeated him in a battle, and the sergeants and soldiers also thought that Li Shimin was bragging.

Xue Wanche paused and said: "Here is a thousand taels of gold, which is the result of a certain battle for many years, the achievements of the war, as well as the gift of His Majesty, and the accumulation of ordinary money, which are all placed here now." It was divided among the brethren. ”

"General, you keep this gold, and we'll take the city for you tomorrow." Everyone spoke.

"Hmph, what's polite to me, take it, capture Jingyang City, Your Majesty will reward you, and I will also reward you with money, tomorrow in a battle, only success is allowed not to fail!"

Hearing Xue Wanche say this, all the soldiers looked excited.

Before the Battle of Jingyang, Xue Wanche scattered all his wealth and inspired the army.

The next day, Xue Wanche led an army of 30,000 to storm Jingyang City from the north and south.

Wang Renshi, the general of the Tang Army who defended the city, had never seen such a fierce offensive, and the charge of the Zhao army under the city was like a huge wave after wave, so that the defenders were not breathless at all.

The soldiers of Zhao who attacked the city were even more fearless of death, and fought with the Tang army at every cityhead.

The fierce battle lasted from sunrise until noon, and from noon to evening.

At night, the Zhao army was not tired of offensive, and Xue Wanche ordered people to light the lights on the city and continue the attack. The Tang army in the city was also very tenacious, and before they defended the city, Li Shimin sent messengers to break into the city before the Zhao army surrounded them, telling the defenders that they must defend to the death no matter what. Therefore, the defenders did not retreat.

Seeing that the Tang army resisted stubbornly and could not take it for a while, Xue Wanche also changed his tactics and divided the men and horses into five routes, every two hours, sent one line of soldiers and horses to attack, and the other four roads rested. The Tang army at the head of the city fought fiercely for two days and one night, almost blind, exhausted and exhausted.

Xue Wanche pressed his sword to supervise the battle under the city, and at this time, the information came that Li Shimin had led reinforcements and horses to a place less than fifty miles away from Jingyang.

Li Chongjiu ordered Zhang Xuansu to ride to Xue Wanche's army to give an order that he would not interfere in the siege battle, and whether the army continued to attack the city or retreated was up to Xue Wanche himself.

Xue Wanche couldn't help it at the moment, and immediately personally held a knife and led more than 100 guards to attack the city!

Even Xue Wanche's main general was dispatched, and the morale of the Wuwei army besieging the city was high, and when the fierce battle lasted until midnight, black smoke and fire suddenly ignited in the city. It turned out that Wang Renshi, the general of the Tang Army, knew that the city could not be defended, so he immediately ordered his soldiers to pour oil and burn the army rations.

Moments later, the southern part of the city was breached.

Qin Qiong, the general under the command of Xue Wanche, personally led 300 cavalry to seize the road into the city and went to the granary to seize grain.

Qin Qiong fought with Tang general Wang Renshi, personally beheaded the other party under the horse, led men and horses to extinguish the fire, and rescued the army food. Seven or eight out of ten of the food hoarded in the city were recovered. The sporadic fierce fighting in the city continued until dawn, and the 3,000 Tang troops in Jingyang City, as well as the 5,000 people, were all annihilated by the Zhao army.

In the early morning, the cavalry from the west rushed to the front, led by Zhang Shigui, the head of the Tang Army's horse army, and the three hundred cavalry under his command.

Zhang Shigui rode on the edge of the Jing River, watching the black smoke in Jingyang City rushing into the sky, knowing that he was one step late, and Jingyang City was still broken by the Zhao army. Zhang Shigui was speechless for a long time, and sighed.

Then the smoke and dust billowed behind him, the general Qu Tutong, and the general Sun Wuji led the elite 10,000 soldiers and horses of the Tang army to arrive, seeing that Jingyang City was breached, he immediately led the army to retreat and camp for several miles.

A day later, Li Shimin led the main force of the Tang army returning from Hexi to Liquan County, west of Jingyang, and stationed there.

Suddenly, on both sides of Jingshui and Weishui, more than 200,000 troops of the Tang and Zhao armies gathered, and a major battle was about to break out. (To be continued......)