Fang Xuanling has not followed Li Shimin for too long, but he knows the young coach better than anyone else, Fang Xuanling can understand the helplessness and worry in his heart, he knows that Li Shimin is unwilling to fight on two fronts and wants to give up Hedong, but Li Yuan refuses, this is actually a kind of pain for the general, and he is forced to do it knowing that he can't do it.

"You have to think about this from your father's point of view, doesn't he know the difficulty of fighting on two fronts? He also knows, but he wants to seek the overall situation, his eyes are on the world, if he loses the barrier of Hedong, it will put Guan Long in a threat, especially a strong hero like Yang Yuanqing, Hedong is your father's starting place, it is the foundation of the emperor, it is like your father's child, no matter what, he is reluctant to give up. ”

Li Shimin sighed, "I know he is reluctant, but we have paid too much price for this reluctance, my uncle was killed, 20,000 elite soldiers were lost, I estimate that Taiyuan's 50,000 troops are also finished, and the 70,000 troops in my hands, how much can I keep in the end?" We can't ruin our dreams of the world for the sake of reluctance. ”

"But if you don't fight, and you don't have the slightest gesture of rescuing your brother, how can you explain to your father?" Fang Xuanling's words hit the roots.

Li Shimin looked at the sky outside the tent, he slowly stood up and gave an order: "Pass my order, order Wei Chi Gong to be the main general, and lead 20,000 troops to attack Huoyi County." ”

"Boom! Boom! Boom" The war drums sounded, the horns whimpered, and the 20,000 Tang troops carried dozens of siege ladders to Huoyi City.

Huoyi City is three zhang high, made of huge rocks, the front of the wall is very smooth, the big stones are densely built, there is no joint that can be climbed by foothold, the top of the high wall is convex, like a cliff washed by the waves, the city wall is very wide, enough to walk three carriages side by side.

The 5,000-mile-long Fengzhou Sui army was deployed on the two-mile-long city wall, and they were well prepared, not only with hundreds of thousands of arrows, but also with thousands of barrels of fire oil, and 300 bed crossbows, which could shoot three-foot-long arrows hundreds of steps away, which could be controlled by only three soldiers.

The east city of Huoyi County is close to the cliff, there is no way to stand, the west city is a hundred steps away is the surging Fen water, the city is rocky and rugged, and it is impossible to organize the siege, only due south and due north have open areas.

Cui Pojun knew very well that the enemy army could not be killed from the north, and only more than 300 vigilant soldiers were deployed on his north city wall, and the remaining 5,000 people were defending in the southern city, Huoyi County itself had no moat, but in order to protect the city gate, just a few days ago, the Sui army dug a dry ditch two zhang wide and one zhang deep in front of the city wall, which was full of sharp spears, and pulled up a high suspension bridge.

"Bed crossbow quasi-brake ......"

Cui Pojun saw that the enemy's advance had rushed to five hundred paces away, he gave an order, three hundred bed crossbows twisted the bowstring at the same time, a thumb thick, three feet long arrow quickly put into the arrow slot, the arrow soldier held a hanging knife in his hand and waited for the order to shoot.

The bed crossbow was not placed on the battlements, but at the back end of the city wall built three hundred six-foot high city platforms, which was actually used to place the trebuchet reserved platform, but the trebuchet did not have time to transport from Toyosu, so it was used to place three hundred bed crossbows, the bed crossbow was seven feet long, four feet wide, the huge lead arm was eight feet long, it must be wound with a double winch, two soldiers were responsible for twisting the strings, and a soldier was responsible for releasing arrows and firing, this kind of bed crossbow was improved by the Toyosu Ordnance Department, and could shoot three large soldier arrows at the same time, which was a sharp weapon for defending the city.

Cui Pojun's eyes were firmly fixed on the surging enemy army, and the dense siege soldiers were overwhelming, like a huge black carpet spread in the wilderness.

At this time, the enemy army had rushed to three hundred paces away, and had already entered the effective killing range of the bed crossbow, Cui Pojun shouted, "Fire!" ”

The drums at the head of the city sounded loudly, three hundred bed crossbows were fired at the same time, nearly a thousand large arrows shot at the enemy fiercely, the powerful penetrating power of the arrows shot through the shields and armor, the blood mist was puffed up, and the screams rang out, nearly a thousand people fell to the ground, and many arrows even shot through two people.

When the besieging Tang army rushed to two hundred paces, the second round of arrows from the bed crossbow was fired again, and the large arrows were fired into the dense crowd, and the soldiers fell down in wail.

Wei Chi Gong saw that more than 1,500 people were killed in the first two rounds of arrows in the city, his eyes were red, and he waved his knife and shouted: "Duke Qin has an order, and those who rush to the head of the city will be promoted to one level and rewarded with a thousand hangings!" ”

Eighteen thousand Tang troops finally rushed to the front of the city wall, the bow and arrow battle broke out suddenly, the dense arrows above and below the city formed a huge arrow net, covering the sky, and there were soldiers in the city who were constantly hit by arrows, screaming and falling down the city, and the city was full of dead bodies.

A siege ladder set up the head of the city, a group of soldiers climbed to the head of the city to attack, the arrows on both sides were like a torrential rain, shooting at the enemy on the ladder from both sides, but the siege ladder was as wide as six feet, three people climbed the city at the same time, the people on both sides used shields to protect the flanks, and the middle one also used a shield to resist the front, and the boulder fell, and the people in front rolled and fell to the next city, and the people behind rushed up immediately.

Cui Pojun saw that the enemy army was stubborn in attacking the city and refused to retreat, so he ordered: "Burn the ladder with fire oil!" ”

When the order was given, barrels of fire oil were poured head-on, and the fire burned to the ground, and the tongue of fire spread rapidly down the siege ladder, and the soldiers on the city ladder also burned, and they screamed loudly in terror, and jumped desperately to the city, and many people fell directly into the dry ditch and were pierced by sharp spears......

On a mound in the distance, Li Shimin watched the battle with dozens of generals, looking at the sea of fire on the city wall and under the city, the eyes of the generals were full of shock, they were all witnessing the fire battle of the Fengzhou army for the first time.

Li Shimin was silent, but he regretted it in his heart, this is all his elite army, but in order to give his father an explanation to send him to death, what if he captured Huoyi County, did he really want to counterattack Taiyuan? He finally sighed and ordered: "Collect the troops!" ”

"When! While! While!.

The bell rang to collect the troops, and the remaining more than 16,000 soldiers retreated like a tide, and Wei Chigong was full of shame, and knelt down on one knee to ask for guilt, "Humble duty and loss of soldiers, can not capture the city, please punish the commander!" ”

Li Shimin shook his head, "It's not your fault, collect the troops and return to the camp!" ”

The army withdrew to the camp, only two hours of siege battle, more than 4,000 people were killed and wounded, this loss made Li Shimin sullen, just arrived at the Chinese army tent, there were personal soldiers to report, "Report to the marshal, Hedong County urgent letter!" ”

Li Shimin's spirits perked up, and he turned around and asked urgently: "Where is the letter?" ”

A personal soldier sent a quick letter, Li Shimin opened the fast letter and read it hurriedly, and couldn't help but be shocked and angry, his brother Wuji had fled to Wencheng County in the west to Hedong County, Taiyuan City was lost before the third visit, what made him even more angry was that Wuji didn't send someone to tell him that he was still here desperately attacking Huoyi County to go to Taiyuan to save him.

Li Shimin pondered for a moment and resolutely made a decision: "Pass my order, and the army will withdraw to Linfen County." ”

At the same time that Li Shimin led the army to retreat south to Linfen County, the Fengzhou Army also made strategic arrangements, Yang Yuanqing ordered Xu Shishao to be the governor of the left army, and Luo Shixin to be the deputy general, leading an army of 30,000 to seize Longquan County; He also ordered Li Jing to be the governor of the right army, and Su Dingfang to be the deputy general, and also led an army of 30,000 to seize Shangdang County;

Yang Yuanqing personally led 30,000 elite soldiers south to Huoyi County and confronted Li Shimin's army, and at the same time, he ordered Pei Xingyan to lead 10,000 cavalry to kill back to Guannei and run back to Yan'an County.

In Taiyuan City, 30,000 elite soldiers have been assembled, waiting for the order to set off, just when the commander Yang Yuanqing is about to leave, Shi Du Ruhui, the governor of Fengzhou, rushed to Taiyuan City from Fengzhou.

"I didn't think I'd come here so soon!" Du Ruhui laughed and said, he was followed by Hu Cao to participate in the military Wei Zheng.

Yang Yuanqing gave him a punch in the shoulder socket, and said with a smile: "I only sent someone to Fengzhou yesterday to report the good news, you came here today, I thought you flew over with wings, what are you doing in such a hurry?" ”

Du Ruhui smiled, "You guys are fighting and making a fortune here, but you left me in Fengzhou, I don't want to suffer this loss, I have oil and water to share equally, and if you don't come here, I'm afraid there won't even be soup left." ”

Everyone laughed, and Yang Yuanqing also found that Du Ruhui gradually became cheerful and humorous, and was no longer as taciturn as before, which was a good change.

Yang Yuanqing blinked and smiled: "Since you want to divide the oil and water, I'll take you to the warehouse to see what you can share?" ”

He said to Wei Zheng again: "Wei joined the army just in time, and it will be your business to take care of the family's wealth in the future, let's go together!" ”

Yang Yuanqing also postponed his departure for the time being, and took Du Ruhui and others to Taiyuan City.

Taiyuan City is also the same as Yulin City, specially built a warehouse city, Cangcheng is in Taiyuan City, located in the northeast corner of the city, covers an area of hundreds of acres, there are hundreds of large and small warehouses, also build a water gate, an artificial trough canal leads to the Fen River, all the materials are transported by boat.

Most of the materials piled up in Cangcheng were transferred from Jinyang Palace, when Liu Wuzhou's 150,000 army attacked Taiyuan in a big way, and Li Yuan urgently ordered Li Wuji to transfer all the materials from Jinyang Palace into Taiyuan City.

At this time, Cangcheng was garrisoned by 3,000 troops, heavily guarded, on the way, Yang Yuanqing briefly introduced the situation of attacking Taiyuan City to Du Ruhui, and the group walked into Cangcheng, and everyone's attention shifted from attacking Taiyuan City to the warehouse materials.

At this time, Du Ruhui suddenly remembered something, took out a letter from the horse bag and handed it to Yang Yuanqing, and said apologetically: "I forgot, this is the letter that Mrs. Pei entrusted me to bring to you." ”

Yang Yuanqing took it and looked at it, it was a letter from his wife to him, he was not in a hurry to read it, he put the letter into his arms, Du Ruhui smiled again: "I want to congratulate you." ”

Yang Yuanqing knew that he was referring to the fact that his second wife Chuchen gave birth to a son, and he had known about it for a long time, not long after his crusade, Chuchen gave birth to a son, who was his third son, named Zhi, not only that, not long ago, the concubine Green Tea also gave birth to a daughter, named Yang Xin, so far, he has three sons and three daughters, and has a big family.

"Let's take a look at the warehouse first, do you know how many armors Li Yuan left us? It's sure to surprise you at noon! ”