The sky is getting colder and colder, and the snow is getting heavier and heavier, and the dense snowflakes are scattered with the wind, enveloping the heavens, the earth, mountains and rivers, even if you stand on the city wall and look up, you can't see ten steps away, you can only see the snowflakes flying all over the sky, and the dark wilderness that hides endless horrors.

In the middle of the night, the main gate of Daxing East City, Chunming Gate, was wide open, a few days ago for the Sui soldiers outside the city, such a situation was a good thing that they had dreamed of, but today it really appeared, but there was no one outside the city to see half of the Sui army soldiers at all, and no one crossed the moat and entered the city.

Even if the weather is not so cold that it turns into ice, the rebel civil and military forces such as Pei Lin and Zhu Cang on the city wall have cold sweat rolling on their foreheads, they all know that something is wrong, but they don't know that there is a problem there, Li Jiancheng and Li Er, who are waiting in the city, are also confused, and they don't understand what happened, why haven't they seen the Sui soldiers enter the city to sneak attack?

After waiting for a long half a pillar of incense, Pei Lin finally determined that it was impossible for the Sui army to launch a sneak attack again, and the arrangement of the self-army today was already in vain. Did you play some tricks? Informed the officers and soldiers with a code that there was an ambush here? ”

"Wronged, Pei Changshi, you have wronged the last general." Zhu Cang hurriedly shouted injustice, twisted his body and said: "Pei Changshi, you see, my hands and feet are tied by you, what do you use to send a code outside the city?" Besides, my current life is pinched by you, where do I still have the courage to play tricks again? ”

"Then why didn't Chen Yingliang's dog thief come?" Pei asked angrily.

"How do I know?" Zhu Cang cried and mourned, and analyzed: "It may be that he has been recognized by the surname Chen, Pei Changshi, you also know that the dog thief surnamed Chen is more slippery than a loach, and it is more difficult than anything to let him be fooled." Also, it is also possible that your subordinates have a problem and secretly told him the secret, you know, now your military spirit is unstable, and there are quite a few people who have quietly contacted the surname Chen privately ....... ”

"Fuck you!" Pei Lian, who had always been elegant, was also a little unbearable, raised his leg and kicked Zhu Cang on the city wall, and shouted: "Close the city gate!" Send someone to contact the left and right governors and ask them to come here immediately! ”

The rebel soldiers next to him agreed, and while rushing down to close the city gate, he went to invite Li Da and Li Er to go to the city to discuss matters, but when the city gate was slowly closed, the drum gong outside the city suddenly shook the sky, and the horn sounded, which scared the rebel soldiers who were closing the gate to the point of urine, and Pei Lin suddenly fell into a dilemma, I don't know whether to continue to close the gate, or open the city gate again to continue to lure the Sui army into the city. Considering that the rebels were well prepared in the city, and the narrow city gate and corridor did not allow the Sui army to enter the city quickly and in large numbers, Pei Lin gritted his teeth and shouted: "Reopen the door, send people to rule the left and right governors, and let them wait!" ”

The city gate was reopened, but calm soon regained outside the city, and there was still not a single soldier of the Sui army entering the city, and after wasting a lot of precious time again, Pei Lin realized that he was being played by the bluffing Sui army drum and bugle team, so he could only order the city gate to be closed again in a fit of anger, no longer paying attention to the Sui army's gongs, drums and horns sounding outside the city again, and at the same time sending people to ask Li Jiancheng and Li Er to go to the city immediately to discuss matters.

Li Jiancheng and Li Er also noticed that the situation was not good, and as soon as they received Pei Lian's invitation, they immediately flew to the city and came to the city to meet Pei Lian, Pei Lian also quickly told the Li brothers about the situation, Li Jiancheng was furious when he heard it, and immediately picked up Zhu Cang and asked him if he also used a code to notify the Sui army outside the city that there was an ambush in the city, Zhu Cang cried and continued to shout grievances with a sad face, but Li Er was extremely calm, and shouted after a little calculation: "It can't be Zhu Cang's code, it's Chen Yingliang's dog thief who has long known that Chunmingmen is a trap, otherwise, It is impossible for the Chen dog thief to arrange a drum and bugle corps to play us! ”

"The second son is reasonable, that's the truth." Pei Lin also came to his senses, and then wondered again, and said, "Then why didn't Chen Yingliang's dog thief plan and calculate, this is not his style of using soldiers?" ”

If you don't plan to turn against the Yin rebels, this is indeed not Chen Fuliang's despicable style, Li Er was also puzzled by this, at this time, the answer finally came out, and a sharp-eyed rebel soldier suddenly pointed to the northwest and shouted: "Look, the palace city and the imperial city are there, the fire is not right!" It's much brighter than just now! ”

The rebel trio quickly turned their heads to look at the northwest direction, and saw that the firelight around the palace city and the imperial city in the northwest was indeed very wrong, much brighter than just now, and the brightness was still increasing rapidly, but it was too far away, and the sound of killing had not yet been heard. But this is enough, it is enough to make the rebel trio numb in their hands and feet and a chill on their backs, and they all said in their hearts: "Don't have an accident at Xuanwumen!" ”

A fast horse shouted a slogan of 100,000 urgently, rushed directly from the ramp of the upper city to the city wall, and as soon as he saw the rebel trio, he shouted before he got off the horse: "Left and right governors, Pei Changshi, something happened in Miyagi!" It seems that an official army entered the palace city from the Xuanwu Gate, we asked the defenders of Zhaoyang Gate what happened, they didn't know, they only heard the Xuanwu Gate there were shouts and fires, but they didn't receive the order to join the battle from the head of the firewood, so they didn't dare to leave their posts without permission! ”

Hearing this report, Pei Lian sat directly on the city wall, his whole body trembling like a swing, but Li Er did not hesitate, and immediately shouted: "Uncle Pei, please ask you here in Chunmingmen for the time being, if the official army attacks the city, go all out to meet it!" Brother, you and I hurry up and lead the army back to the palace! ”

After that, Li Er immediately got on his horse and galloped down the city, his face was so gloomy that he was almost dripping, and he was also thinking quickly in his heart, and said secretly: "How did Chen Yingliang's dog thief enter the Xuanwu Gate?" Why didn't Chai Shao order the army to reinforce Xuanwumen? Why didn't you ask us for help? Could it be that there was a traitor in Miyagi, killed Chai Shao and opened the Xuanwu Gate? Or....... ”

Thinking of a certain possibility, Li Er subconsciously shivered, and was so frightened that he didn't dare to analyze it, but he quickly led the rebel cavalry who were waiting in the capital city, and rushed all the way back to the imperial city from the Suzaku directly into the imperial city, and then went straight to the south three gates of the palace city, and when he went straight to the vicinity of the palace city, there was already a sea of torches under the south three gates of the palace city, and countless rebel soldiers gathered under the palace gate under the leadership of the imperial city guard Li Shentong, but the south three gates of the palace city were still closed, and the rebel soldiers could not enter the city for reinforcements, Rebel soldiers can be seen carrying logs and banging on doors.

When the sound of shouting and killing had already come from the wall of the south gate of the palace city, Li Er came to his cousin Li Shentong, and as soon as they met, Li Shentong said with a sweat: "Erlang, the keys to Zhaoyang Gate, Yong'an Gate, and Changle Gate were all taken away by Chai Shao, Chai Shao disappeared, and the officers and soldiers were killed in the city gate. ”

"Use the ladder to go up to the city, first defend the city wall!" Li Er yelled.

Li Shentong, who had not turned his head before, came back to his senses, and quickly ordered the rebel soldiers to go up to the city with a human ladder, a large number of rebel soldiers hurriedly formed a human ladder to climb up, and some rebel soldiers who were good at climbing also bit their weapons and climbed the wall with their bare hands, but it was too late to do so, the city wall was already full of fire, knives and guns collided endlessly, and the slogan of surrender and non-killing could be faintly heard, and the corpses of rebel soldiers began to fall off the city wall.

Finally, the first corpse full of sharp yaksha roared down and smashed into the dense crowd of rebels, smashing several rebel soldiers directly into meat sauce on the spot, followed by hail of sheep's head stones, ash bottles and rolling logs, mixed with rebel soldiers and lit gunpowder bottles, smashing the rebel soldiers are ghosts crying wolf, screaming continuously, a gunpowder bottle also fell to the rebel ladder and exploded, and the rebel ladder was suddenly blown up, and the rebel soldiers on the top also screamed and fell to the ground one after another.

Previously, in order to keep the last hiding place of the palace city, the rebels prepared a very sufficient city defense materials on the palace wall, but at this moment, these city defense materials have in turn become the best weapons to kill the rebel soldiers, Li Er and Li Shentong and other rebel generals are of course very terrifying, but in order to fight for the last chance to counterattack, Li Er and Li Shentong still continue to urge the rebel soldiers to continue to step forward, and strive to storm the three gates of the palace city, complementing each other, played a symphony of Li Yuan's rebels' dying struggles.

No matter how dying and struggling it is, it is useless, the soldiers of the Sui army have obviously controlled the city gate and the city gate, and resisted the city gate to buy time for the battle, no matter how the rebel soldiers hit the palace gate, it is useless, and at the same time, in the case of no siege equipment at all, the rebel soldiers who only climbed the city with their bare hands can not quickly and effectively rush to the city wall to help the battle. And with the rapid passage of time, the shouts and the sound of swords and guns on the city wall became less and less, replaced by more dense falling sheep's head stones and rolling logs, and at the same time feather arrows began to fall on the city wall, it was obvious that the Sui army soldiers had gradually freed their hands, and the complete destruction of the rebels in the city was only a matter of moments.

When Li Jiancheng rushed to the gate of the palace with the infantry brigade, it was already too late, the rebel soldiers on the palace had been completely annihilated, either killed or captured, and the Sui soldiers who were completely free used the rebels' various weapons to defend the city to attack the rebels head-on, and smashed the rebel soldiers who carried the big wood into the city to death, and shot the corpses of the rebel soldiers all over the ground with strong bows and crossbows, and kept retreating to escape, including Li Er and Li Shentong were forced to retreat a hundred steps away to avoid arrows. At the same time, the interior of Miyagi was densely lit, and there were already hints of the Sui army soldiers gathering to counterattack.

"It's impossible for Daxing to hold on." This was the first sentence of Li Er and Li Jiancheng when they met, and then Li Er said: "Chen Yingliang's dog thief has seized the palace, and our backbone is all exposed in front of him, he can fight as much as he wants." Now we only have two choices, one is to fight with Chen Yingliang in a street battle and hold one or two squares and other reinforcements, and the other is to abandon the city quickly, preserve our strength and transfer to other places, and wait for the opportunity to make a comeback. ”

"What are you going to choose?" Li Jiancheng asked rhetorically.

Li Er didn't answer with a gloomy face, and asked rhetorically: "Do you think, do you have any hope that we will hold out until the reinforcements arrive?" ”

"There is little hope." Li Jiancheng replied: "Our morale is not high, the people's square is not strong enough, the possibility of holding it for a long time is very small, and Xue Ju's side may not be reliable, even if we can arrive in time, it is impossible to fight for us and the official army." ”

Li Er nodded, and it was rare to agree with his brother's opinion, while Li Shentong next to him was anxious, and hurriedly said: "Then let's quickly abandon the city, take the soldiers and horses to the west, go to Dou Jin, vote for Xue Ju, or go to Sanguan to meet Uncle Xiao Guo, and go there to make a comeback!" ”

In the current situation, it is undoubtedly the best choice for the rebels to go west and join many allies over there, but Li Jiancheng, the hidden prince, and Li Er, Taizong of the Tang Dynasty, have a longer view than Li Shentong, and after glancing at each other, Li Jiancheng first said: "I don't think we can go west, Dou Jin and Xiao Yu are our allies, but their strength is too weak to keep us, Xue Ju has already called the emperor, and the alliance with us is clearly to covet Guanzhong, we are in a hurry to vote, not only can we not get his respect, if we don't surrender to him, There will also be life-threatening dangers. ”

"Not bad." Li Er nodded and said: "Chen Yingliang sent Ma Sanbao to the west before, it was clear that he was preventing us from going west, Li Jing and Qu Tutong in the south of Daxing City have not moved, it is likely that they are waiting for us in the west, we rush west, not only will we be attacked head-on, Chen Yingliang will definitely chase and kill to the end, and will not give us a chance to escape." ”

"And." Li Er added: "Things have come to this point, Xiao Yu and Dou Jin are probably unreliable, they didn't have Yi Qi to make an incident, and when they see Chen Yingliang's soldiers coming to the city, maybe they may even use our heads to show loyalty to Chen Yingliang in exchange for their glory and wealth." ”

"Go back to Taiyuan!" Li Jiancheng immediately made a decision, gritted his teeth and said: "Our army is mainly composed of soldiers from Jinzhong and Jinnan, and we will go back with them, they will not have too many deserters in order to go home, and they will also surrender to us in honor along the way, and the resistance is relatively small." If we take them to the west, the officers and soldiers will chase after us, and we will fall apart without fighting. ”

Li Er nodded, and after glancing at Li Jiancheng, the brothers said in unison: "Retreat to the northwest, bypass Longshou Mountain and take the Weishui Bridge to the north, take the road of Jingyang Sanyuan to the north to Shangjun, and cross the Yellow River in Wencheng back to Taiyuan!" ”

After saying in unison the retreat plan that had been brewing in his heart for a long time, Li Er added, "Let His Royal Highness Li Xiaogong die, His Royal Highness the Acting King died in his hands, and it is impossible for him to surrender!" ”

At this moment of life and death, Li Jiancheng and the two brothers Li no longer cared about who should be the commander and who should listen to whose orders, and quickly just sent herald soldiers to their own team to organize various armies to retreat outside the city, and at the same time coincidentally organized soldiers to set fire to the south three gates of the palace city, temporarily blocking the counterattack of the Sui army with the flames, and trying their best to buy time for the army to abandon the city and retreat.

Chen Fuliang's reaction was also very fast, receiving a report that the rebels set fire outside the palace gate, and Chen Fuliang immediately guessed that the Li brothers planned to save their strength and abandon the city and retreat, but it was very regrettable that Chen Fuliang made a wrong judgment at this critical moment, and did not prevent the Li family brothers from retreating to Taiyuan, but sent fast horses to Li Jing and Qu Tutong to give orders, so that they could stick to the rebels' road to the west of Fufeng County, and not give the rebel main force any chance to advance westward.

In fact, this is not a misjudgment, and it is not that Chen Fuliang deliberately released water to leave a way for his good friend Li Jiancheng to live, but after the Li brothers fled into Sichuan, which is currently very empty and extremely rich, it is too difficult to quickly exterminate them, and the luck is a little bad, and the Li brothers will have this possibility in the future to establish a country and become the emperor in Shu, so Chen Fuliang has no choice but to give priority to blocking the Li brothers' road to Shu. ——In order to prevent the Li brothers from taking the dangerous road of Meridian Valley into Sichuan, Chen Fuliang still asked his cousin to allocate more than 1,000 troops to guard the Meridian Pass on Li Jing's order.

Although the gates of the outer city were still under control, and the Sui army had not yet launched an attack from the outside to the inside, the fire hastily lit by the rebels still did not buy much time, and the condescending Sui soldiers quickly extinguished the fire outside the Zhaoyang Gate by pouring stones with water, and launched an attack on the rebels who were still retreating from the inside out, and a completely one-sided battle in the city began.

The so-called street fighting, in fact, is a massacre, the panicked rebel soldiers only care about fleeing for their lives, completely unintentional to fight, even if they are caught up by the Sui army, they are a little touched and collapsed, a strong just fleeing for their lives, without the slightest love of war, the local soldiers in Daxing and Guanzhong are even more scrambling to kneel and surrender, neither want to be martyred for Li Yuan, nor refuse to escape out of the city with the rebels, the rebels of each gate have also opened the city gate and fled out, and the Sui army outside the city also took the opportunity to attack, desperately weakening the rebels' ability to fight again, Inside and outside Daxing City, there were shouts of killing and shaking, torches everywhere, and rebel soldiers fleeing for their lives with large bags and small bags.

The Li brothers who went directly to the northeast of Daxing to open a far gate and fled out of the city relied on the initiative to escape from Daxing City very smoothly, and Li Jing and Qu Tutong, who were ordered to block, were leading the army to desperately seize their westward road, and they did not notice at all in the dark that they went directly to Weishui Bridge to the north, and the main force under Chen Fuliang was blocked by Longshou Mountain, and he did not immediately notice this situation. And when the scouts of the Sui army reported the movements of the main force of the rebel army to Chen Fuliang, Chen Fuliang was too late to send troops to stop him, so he could only urge the army to pursue in great depression, but he was also mentally prepared to not be able to kill his rival Li Er in Daxing.

When the sky was light, the soldiers of the Sui army had basically controlled the inner and outer cities of Daxing, but the pursuit battle outside the city was still continuing, and there were still many rebel soldiers hiding in the city. And it was also at this time that Chai Shao, the greatest contributor to the Sui army's recovery of the Daxing capital, was finally led to Chen Fuliang by Kan Liang, and Chen Fuliang and Chai Shao, who almost became the relatives of Uncle Lang, also met for the first time when both sides were friendly.

Chai Shao's expression was still a little embarrassed and shy, and Dugu Huaien, another great hero, had already prostrate in front of Chen Fuliang to flatter and flatter, but Chai Shao still hesitated and did not kneel down, and none of the Sui soldiers next to him blamed and urged him, all of them knew that he did have something unspeakable. In the end, it was Chen Fuliang who took the initiative to greet Chai Shao after picking up Lonely Huai'en with his own hands, and said with a smile: "Brother Sichang, hard work, I have to thank you more this time, you have saved at least tens of thousands of lives, and you have made great contributions." Don't worry, I will immediately play His Majesty the Ming Emperor and His Royal Highness the King of Yue, and I will reward you for your merits. ”

Gritting his teeth, Chai Shao finally knelt down to Chen Fuliang, and for the first time he willingly knelt down to Chen Fuliang, and said: "The sinner Chai Shao didn't dare to take credit for receiving the reward, the sinner had offended the stayer before, but he didn't care about the revenge ...... the stay." ”

"It's all in the past, what are you talking about him?" Chen Fuliang interrupted, picked up Chai Shao with his own hands, and said very sincerely: "Brother Sichang, you used to do something wrong, but you also thought about your sister's lifelong happiness, this is human nature, if it were me, maybe I would do the same as you." ”

"Brother Sichang, in fact, I want to thank you." Chen Fuliang said: "Two years ago, without you, I would not have had such a brilliant victory in Yanmen, and today without you, I will not only not be able to win Daxing, but also may suffer heavy losses." You have done a lot of things for me, let him pass the past, we are originally world friends, from now on, we will be world brothers again, Brother Chai. ”

"Stay behind, you ......."

Chai Shao's snort was interrupted by Chen Fuliang, and Chen Fuliang solemnly shouted: "Brother Chai Shi." ”

"...... virtuous, virtuous brother." Chai Shao finally called out this title with a red face, Chen Fuliang smiled and shook Chai Shao's hand, Chai Shao also shook Chen Fuliang's hand, and the four hands were tightly clasped together for the first time. After going north from the Weishui Bridge, the main force under Chen Fuliang was blocked by Longshou Mountain, and he did not immediately notice the situation. And when the scouts of the Sui army reported the movements of the main force of the rebel army to Chen Fuliang, Chen Fuliang was too late to send troops to stop him, so he could only urge the army to pursue in great depression, but he was also mentally prepared to not be able to kill his rival Li Er in Daxing.

When the sky was light, the soldiers of the Sui army had basically controlled the inner and outer cities of Daxing, but the pursuit battle outside the city was still continuing, and there were still many rebel soldiers hiding in the city. And it was also at this time that Chai Shao, the greatest contributor to the Sui army's recovery of the Daxing capital, was finally led to Chen Fuliang by Kan Liang, and Chen Fuliang and Chai Shao, who almost became the relatives of Uncle Lang, also met for the first time when both sides were friendly.

Chai Shao's expression was still a little embarrassed and shy, and Dugu Huaien, another great hero, had already prostrate in front of Chen Fuliang to flatter and flatter, but Chai Shao still hesitated and did not kneel down, and none of the Sui soldiers next to him blamed and urged him, all of them knew that he did have something unspeakable. In the end, it was Chen Fuliang who took the initiative to greet Chai Shao after picking up Lonely Huai'en with his own hands, and said with a smile: "Brother Sichang, hard work, I have to thank you more this time, you have saved at least tens of thousands of lives, and you have made great contributions." Don't worry, I will immediately play His Majesty the Ming Emperor and His Royal Highness the King of Yue, and I will reward you for your merits. ”

Gritting his teeth, Chai Shao finally knelt down to Chen Fuliang, and for the first time he willingly knelt down to Chen Fuliang, and said: "The sinner Chai Shao didn't dare to take credit for receiving the reward, the sinner had offended the stayer before, but he didn't care about the revenge ...... the stay." ”

"It's all in the past, what are you talking about him?" Chen Fuliang interrupted, picked up Chai Shao with his own hands, and said very sincerely: "Brother Sichang, you used to do something wrong, but you also thought about your sister's lifelong happiness, this is human nature, if it were me, maybe I would do the same as you." ”

"Brother Sichang, in fact, I want to thank you." Chen Fuliang said: "Two years ago, without you, I would not have had such a brilliant victory in Yanmen, and today without you, I will not only not be able to win Daxing, but also may suffer heavy losses." You have done a lot of things for me, let him pass the past, we are originally world friends, from now on, we will be world brothers again, Brother Chai. ”

"Stay behind, you ......."

Chai Shao's snort was interrupted by Chen Fuliang, and Chen Fuliang solemnly shouted: "Brother Chai Shi." ”

"...... virtuous, virtuous brother." Chai Shao finally called out this title with a red face, Chen Fuliang smiled and shook Chai Shao's hand, Chai Shao also shook Chen Fuliang's hand, and the four hands were tightly clasped together for the first time.