After chasing Li Er like a mad dog for hundreds of miles, Chen Fuliang suddenly stopped in Linfen City, and did not move for two consecutive days, and the frightened civil and military officials of Li Erjun were a little puzzled by this, but Li Er immediately guessed the plan to rob his wife's rival, and knew that Chen Fuliang wanted to wait for the rear army to catch up, concentrate on taking the strategic Huoyi City, and also kill himself, an old enemy who had been entangled with him for many years.

There is no way to understand the plan of the rival in love, Chen Fuliang's crazy pursuit before did not give Li Er any opportunity to readjust the tactical space of protection, now Li Er is the Bird Mouse Valley to the north, the Luliang Mountains to the west, and the Taiyue Mountains to the east, unless Li Er crosses the Luliang Mountain to sleep in the cave of Longquan County in the poor countryside, or retreats to the Bird Mouse Valley and returns to Taiyuan to see his brother's face, Li Er no longer has any choice.

Of course Li Er doesn't want to go to Longquan County, which is full of lofty mountains and mountains, the road traffic in that ghost place is not only up the mountain but also down the mountain, the land is barren and the population is sparse, and the money and food that can be collected are pitiful. The Jinzhong Plain is a good place, but unfortunately the area is too small to accommodate the two brothers Li Da and Li Er, let alone Li Er's ambitions.

Only Jinnan is Li Er's ideal choice, Linfen, Jiangxian and Hedong all have open plains, fertile fields for thousands of miles, ↙ dense water networks, convenient transportation, and the largest salt-producing area in the Central Plains, Yuncheng Salt Lake, grain production and taxes are enough for Li Er to show his strength, holding Huoyi is equivalent to holding the opportunity to counterattack the Jinnan Plain, giving up Huoyi is equivalent to giving up the hope of re-entering Guanzhong and fighting for hegemony in the world, so even if Li Er understands that Chen Fuliang wants to launch a strong attack on Huoyi, Li Er can only choose to stick to Huoyi. Hold on to your only hope of returning to Guanzhong.

Fortunately, at present, whether it is tactically or strategically, it is very good for Li Er, Chen Fuliang is advancing at full speed at any cost this time, which has greatly lengthened the supply road, and there will definitely be problems with grain and grass after a long time, and at the same time, Chen Fuliang's rear is also strictly unstable, and there are many hidden dangers, Chen Fuliang will never dare to move the sun and moon under Huoyi City, in addition, Chen Fuliang's fear of attacking this weakness is also a major advantage of Li Er, so Li Er only needs to do two points of internal problems and delay time as much as possible, There is great hope that Chen Fuliang will survive until Chen Fuliang is forced to withdraw from the army.

"Soldiers, soldiers of the Great Sui! My father was determined to support the new emperor for the sake of the Great Sui Dynasty, but unfortunately he was killed by the traitorous and cool official Chen Yingliang, and his bones are gone! Now that the new emperor has ascended the throne, he has experienced our hardships, known our loyalty, and issued a holy decree to restore our status as subjects of the Great Sui, but Chen Yingliang is a traitor who does not respect His Majesty and sets up a false emperor, deceives the king, and kills millions of my Great Sui soldiers, mutilates living beings, and is full of crimes! Now this rebellious minister and thief is pressing us step by step, peeking at my Huoyi city, threatening to break through this city, slaughter all the creatures in the city, and take all the goods and women in the city! ”

"Do you say, 'Do we agree?' Right! Don't say yes! Fight with him Chen Yingliang traitor! Avenge our righteous compatriots who died in the east of the Guanzhong River! For our brothers! Huoyi City is in the city, and the city is dead! God bless the Great Sui, God bless me the Great Sui Zhongliang! The Great Sui will win! The righteous men of the Great Sui will win! The thief will be defeated! ”

Similar words, Li Er has to say them several times a day in Huoyi City, and when it comes to emotion, there is not a single time when he is not choked with tears, nor is there a time when he is angry and gritted his teeth! was so moved that many officers and soldiers of Li Erjun cried bitterly on the spot, and their hearts were full of hatred for Chen Fuliang! Under the encouragement of Li Er, and under the supervision of the generals at all levels of Li Erjun, the military and civilians of Huoyi were mobilized, and with gratitude to the Li family's righteous teacher, and also with bitter hatred for the rebellious minister and thief Chen Fuliang, they enthusiastically devoted themselves to the work of repairing the city fortifications.

The rammed earth city wall, which was already very strong, was once again strengthened and heightened, the thickest part was as wide as two zhang, and the highest point was as high as three and a half zhang. The moat was also deepened and widened, and in disregard of the danger of possible flooding, the Fenshui living water was introduced, which was surging and difficult to fill. At the same time, in order to prevent the Sui army from filling the moat, Li Er, who was well versed in military law, also ordered a circle of sheep and horse walls to be built under the city, so that the soldiers defending the city could hide behind the sheep and horse walls and shoot arrows and crossbows, increasing the difficulty of Chen Fuliang's river reclamation. (It is mentioned in detail in the Zizhi Tongjian that during the Sui Dynasty, Huoyi City only had a moat and no moat.) ）

The ordinary people outside Huoyi City also supported Li Erjun very much, whether they wanted to or not, they all happily lived in Huoyi City with their wives and children, livestock and food under the protection of Li Erjun's soldiers, and very voluntarily accepted the command of Li Erjun, ready to carry soil and stones during the defense of the city, and help Li Erjun defend the city. In order not to let Li Erjun worry about food, all the autumn grain of this year's stock was transported to Huoyi to be dedicated to Li Erjun, and the young and strong people in the city also happily brought farm tools and sticks, and under the guidance of Li Erjun's soldiers, they came to Huoyi City to participate in the defense of the city.

In order not to cause trouble to the officers and men of Li Erjun, these young men in Fenxi, who volunteered to defend the city in Huoyi, still held their urine and urine on the road - they did not bother the officers and soldiers of Li Erjun to untie the ropes on their hands.

The trees on the outskirts of Huoyi City were cut down, and all the timber was transported into the city to build siege weapons, and there was an endless stream of vehicles loaded with large and small stones, which continued to enter the city from morning to night, and the ecological environment of Huoyi in the beautiful city was greatly damaged, but this was not Li Erjun's fault, it was Chen Fuliang's sin, and it was Chen Fuliang who wanted to attack Huoyi City, and the people of Huoyi were forced to do so.

As Li Er expected, after receiving the letter for help sent by Li Er's fast horse day and night, Li Jiancheng, who was fighting with Liu Wuzhou, only thought about it for less than ten minutes, and immediately decided to send 10,000 troops south to help Li Er, and also decided to send a large amount of grain, grass and ordnance to Li Er, if nothing else, in order to keep Huoyi City, a strategic place, not to be blocked by Chen Fuliang in the north of the Bird Mouse Valley.

Ten days later, the rear army led by Yuan Tiangang finally came to Linfen City with grain and grass, and the new Ministry of Industry Shangshu Yuan Tiangang, who led the troops for the first time as the main general, was quite good, although the rear army was not as majestic as the snake spirit, but there was no mistake, and the marching speed was two days less than Chen Fuliang expected. The military deputy that Chen Fuliang arranged for Yuan Tiangang was Qiu Shili, who was transferred back from the Fufeng Western Front, and Pang Yu, the second-in-command in honor, was also very honest, which made Chen Fuliang feel much more at ease about him - Chen Fuliang was still somewhat worried that Pang Yu was still loyal to the Great Sui Imperial Court.

and Liu Heimin also came to the front line to help the battle after killing Li Shenfu, Chen Fuliang's front army, Yuan Tiangang's rear army, plus some of the Hedong divisions brought by Liu Heimin, the combined army exceeded 53,000, forming an overwhelming advantage over Li Erjun in terms of strength, and the number of elite soldiers was five or six times that of Li Erjun. Li Er is no longer able to fight well, as long as he has the courage to go out of the city to fight, Chen Fuliang is also confident that he will be defeated in the field.

The war has reached this point, Li Er will probably only go out of the city to fight a field battle with Chen Fuliang when he is crazy, so there is no way, Chen Fuliang can only honestly lead the army to the north, and work hard to find trouble for Li Er, and because of the heavy grain and grass he carries, Chen Fuliang's army walked for three days on a two-day journey, and let Li Erbai choose a day to continue to strengthen the city defense.

Huoyi City's sturdiness and steepness surprised many Sui soldiers who came to Huoyi for the first time, a small county town, the city is high and deep and goes straight to the outer city of Daxing Dongdu, even if it is protected by Fenshui and Bishui on both sides, the north of the city is a lofty mountain and cannot arrange troops, and the west of the city is a surging Fenshui and there is no way to use troops, only the terrain in the east and south of the city is relatively open, but it can only be used for fighting, and can not place camps. If the Sui army wanted to take Huoyi, it could only set up camp south of the river, and then attack the city after crossing the river, which was troublesome and a waste of time.

Chen Fuliang very calmly ordered the camp to be set up ten miles southeast of Huoyi, set up camp in the north by the water, and then build a bridge to facilitate crossing the river, and at the same time ordered Liu Heimin to lead the soldiers and horses of his headquarters to cross the river first, and set up a camp at the mouth of the valley of the Bird Mouse Valley.

Of course, Li Er has been observing Chen Fuliang's movements on the city wall, and when he saw Liu Heimin leading the army to garrison the valley mouth of the Bird Mouse Valley, Li Er was quite surprised, because according to the righteousness of the soldiers, Chen Fuliang should let go of the valley mouth so that the Huoyi defenders could see the hope of escape, and not force the Huoyi defenders to a dead end, even if they really wanted to block Li Er, they should be doing tricks and feet in the depths of the valley, but now Chen Fuliang let Liu Heimin directly garrison the valley mouth, which made Li Er a little unable to see through.

There is another point that Li Er can't see through, while setting up camp, Chen Fuliang brought some troops to personally explore the terrain according to the rules, but Li Er, who has a vision of 1.5 in both eyes, vaguely found that Chen Fuliang did not seem to pay much attention to the terrain and the fortifications of the city, but was very interested in the ground and soil outside the city.

"Want to storm the city through tunnels? Strange, the loess in this area of Huoyi is relatively easy to excavate, but it is close to Fenshui, and there are many underground water veins? When Li Ersheng had this suspicion, Chen Fuliang had already remounted his horse and led the army to explore the entrance of the moat water source of Huoyi City.

In the next two days, the Sui army never launched a siege, in addition to building a strong camp, and then there was desperate logging to build siege weapons, and even scout battles rarely fought with Li Erjun, let alone Chen Fuliang's long-standing discordant provocation strategy, opportunistically luring Li Erjun out of the city for a decisive battle. Although Li Er, who needed to delay time, couldn't ask for this, he was still uneasy in his heart, and he couldn't guess what his rival Chen Fuliang was fighting in the end.

On the third day after the camp, the Sui army began to move, and the infantry of the brigade strode forward with a shrimp and toad cart full of earth and stones under the cover of long shield men and archers, to fill the moat that Li Erjun had finally widened and deepened.

The tactics of the Sui army were not exquisite or wonderful, that is, to fill the moat at any cost and open the road to the city, for which the losses in the process of filling the river were quite large, and Li Erjun used long-range weapons to cause many casualties to the Sui army without many casualties, and the previously depressed morale began to stop falling and rebound. But Li Er became more and more suspicious and nervous, because Li Erjun's scouts vaguely saw on the high ground that the Sui army did not build large-scale siege weapons such as rushing cars, city crashing vehicles and ladder vehicles in the rear camp, and replaced them with other opponents Li Er definitely thought that the enemy was light and wanted to attack the city with light weapons such as flying ladders, but when he encountered a despicable opponent like Chen Fuliang who was known as a treacherous and notorious, Li Er did not believe it.

If you don't believe it, there is no way, the Sui army has no superfluous actions except for filling the river is filling the river, and there are many elite and strong soldiers of the Sui army in the back, and Li Erjun did not dare to go out of the city to cross the river to fight, but only shot each other with bows and arrows with the Sui army, and the battle was so dull that people yawned. However, after three days of hard work, the moat of the east gate of Huoyi, which was the only one that could be used as the main battlefield, was also filled in by half by the Sui army, opening up a number of roads that could reach the city of Huoyi.

On the same day, a flying pigeon flew into Huoyi City with good news, and Duan Lun and Li Jiancheng sent 10,000 reinforcements had arrived in Jiexiu, which was only a hundred miles away from the Huoyi battlefield. Although he knew that Liu Heimin had defended the valley entrance of the Bird Mouse Valley, it would be difficult for Duan Lun's reinforcements to enter the city to help defend it, but in order to boost the morale of the army, Li Er still announced the good news with great fanfare, and the result was quite good, which really made many Li Erjun soldiers who were thinking about it feel relieved and cheered.

Li Erjun was only happy for one night, the next morning, the city alarm gong suddenly kept ringing, the main force of the Sui army, which had been resting at ease, suddenly moved out in a big way, crossed the water to the east gate of Huoyi to kill, Li Erwen did not dare to slack off, immediately organized the army to go to the city to prepare for battle, and personally climbed the east gate tower, to the front line to command the battle.

Looking down condescendingly, the soldiers of the Sui army with red flags were like a torrent tide, constantly surging towards the east gate of Huoyi, stopping only two miles away from the east gate of Huoyi, and then opening up left and right to arrange the formation, and the red banner quickly flooded the fields and hills in the eastern suburbs of Huoyi, and the momentum was very amazing.

After Chen Fuliang arranged an army to monitor the south gate of Huoyi in the southeastern suburbs of Huoyi, and arranged the command flag array on a dirt mountain in the eastern suburbs of Huoyi, the formation of the Sui army was basically arranged, and the siege weapons of the Sui army, which the Huoyi defenders were most worried about, finally came out of the battle. Knowing that as long as Chen Fuliang doesn't play new unexpected tricks today, his army will already win.

An envoy of the Sui army with a white flag in his hand took the lead in the battle, rode his horse and ran to the city of Huoyi to shout, demanding that the defenders of Huoyi open the city and surrender, and promised on behalf of Chen Fuliang that after the city was broken, except for Li Er and Zhu Cang, they would guarantee that if they were not killed, they could all get their lives! Li Er replied to the envoy of the Sui army with the order to release the arrow, and Zhu Cang also personally pulled out the strong bow, shot and wounded the envoy of the Sui army, and thanked Chen Fuliang for his great love for him.

Next, of course, the Sui army's war drums sounded rhythmically, and the siege officially began, but what puzzled Li Erjun was that the Sui army did not have orthodox siege tactics, and first sent long shield men to cover the archers forward, and arranged temporary fortifications under the city to cover the archers to suppress the defenders of the city - it was to launch twelve strange heavy vehicles to step forward first. And when they saw the specific appearance of those strange cars, Li Er, Zhu Cang, Li Shentong and others immediately changed their faces, and shouted in unison: "Artillery?!" ”

Yes, it is the murderer of Li Er's father, the eternal pain in the heart of the old Li family, and the biggest secret of Chen Fuliangjun, artillery! After suffering a big loss of artillery outside Daxing City, Li Er had spent countless painstaking efforts to collect information about the Sui army's artillery, and wanted to find a way to imitate this weapon, but including the Eastern Capital Imperial Court, they didn't know when and where Chen Fuliang made this terrifying weapon, let alone any patterns, words and molds about artillery, and even the craftsmen of the Eastern Capital who knew about this weapon could not find one, so whether it was Li Er, Li Mi or Wang Shichong, who was currently in charge of the Eastern Capital, they could not imitate this terrifying weapon. He drooled over this kind of terrifying weapon that killed half of Li Yuan's rebel command, but there was nothing he could do.

Even the Sui army's artillery did not know how powerful Li Erjun was, since the Daxing War, this kind of terrifying weapon has mysteriously disappeared on the battlefield, and has not appeared again, the only thing Li Erjun knows, that is, this weapon has a long range and is very powerful, but Li Erjun does not know anything about how powerful it is. And now that this kind of terrifying weapon suddenly appeared under Huoyi City, the people of the Li family, who had suffered a lot, were of course frightened, and the bold Li Er was inevitably a little worried, knowing that today's battle was definitely not as easy to fight as expected.

After learning the lesson of his father, while still calm on the surface, Li Er pretended to check the situation of defending the city, and quietly stayed away from the Huoyi City Tower with his handsome flag, and the same was true for Li Shentong and Zhu Cang and others, tacitly.

Twelve artillery pieces lined up in a row from the east gate of Huoyi, under the cover of the elite soldiers led by Luo Shixin, loaded ammunition in public, placed the lead, and then Yuan Tiangang, the secretary of the dignified Ministry of Engineering, personally went out to aim and correct the elevation angle, after the arrangement, the flag waved, and the twelve Sui gunners holding torches strode forward, and at the same time lit the fuse, the fuse coated with nitrate powder beat happily, and quickly drilled into the barrel with a squeak, and then, naturally, it was the earth-shattering sound of huge thunder.

For the officers and men of Li Erjun, who had gradually become accustomed to the explosion of gunpowder bottles, the roar of artillery was no longer so terrifying, but the shells fired by the bronze smoothbore cannon made the soldiers of Li Erjun scatter. In the first round of salvo fire, eight cannonballs accurately hit the Huoyi East Gate City Tower with Li Er's Shuai Banner, and the civil structure of the city tower was broken by the door flying pillars, the earth burst into pieces, and it collapsed in half on the spot, and one of the shells also took away Li Er's Shuai Banner.

A cannonball flew directly into the city, smashed through the roof of a private house, making the city a burst of chickens and dogs, and the other three cannonballs all smashed onto the city wall, two of which left two deep pits on the rammed earth city wall, and the last one smashed on the arrow battlement, and immediately smashed the unlucky arrow battlement to smash and disappear, not to mention, but also smashed a more unlucky Li Second Army soldier behind the arrow battlement to the point of bursting brains, the cannonball castrated and continued to move forward, taking the lives of two Li Second Army soldiers, and wounding three Li Second Army soldiers - this can only be blamed on Li Er, He placed too many troops on the city walls and too many soldiers.

Seeing this scene, the Sui army was naturally full of cheers, and of course there was a big uproar from top to bottom of Li Erjun, countless soldiers suddenly turned pale as dirt, and Li Er's face suddenly turned pale, and finally understood why Chen Fuliang didn't prepare heavy siege weapons such as ladder trucks and hook trucks - there was no need to prepare at all! The damage to a rammed earth wall by a cannonball is greater than that of a hook cart pulled by ten oxen!

I kept thinking about how to deal with the Sui army's artillery, I don't know how much time passed, Li Er suddenly thought of a possibility, and suddenly his face became even paler, and when he subconsciously opened his mouth to order, Li Er's pupils suddenly contracted violently, because the Sui army's artillery had already fired a salvo again, and Li Er, who had good eyesight, also clearly saw that the direction that the twelve artillery pieces were aiming at this time was the most vulnerable gate of Huoyi's city defense.

Loud bangs sounded one after another under the city, the towering drawbridge bore the brunt of it, shattered on the spot, and then the cannonballs went castrated, and smashed heavily on the city gates, the thick wooden city gates covered with copper skin were indestructible in front of swords, guns and clubs, but in front of the cannonballs were like paper paste and mud, and six or seven large basin holes were smashed on the spot, and one of the cannonballs happened to hit the door latch, and the door latch that several people could lift was broken in response.

"The city is broken!"

From the beginning of the first round of artillery bombardment by the Sui army, less than ten minutes after the official start of the battle, the soldiers of Li Er's Army guarding the city gate had already let out this heart-rending scream. Father's lesson, while still calm on the surface, Li Er pretended to check the situation of defending the city, and quietly stayed away from the Huoyi City Tower with his handsome flag, and the same was true of Li Shentong and Zhu Cang and others, tacitly.

Twelve artillery pieces lined up in a row from the east gate of Huoyi, under the cover of the elite soldiers led by Luo Shixin, loaded ammunition in public, placed the lead, and then Yuan Tiangang, the secretary of the dignified Ministry of Engineering, personally went out to aim and correct the elevation angle, after the arrangement, the flag waved, and the twelve Sui gunners holding torches strode forward, and at the same time lit the fuse, the fuse coated with nitrate powder beat happily, and quickly drilled into the barrel with a squeak, and then, naturally, it was the earth-shattering sound of huge thunder.

For the officers and men of Li Erjun, who had gradually become accustomed to the explosion of gunpowder bottles, the roar of artillery was no longer so terrifying, but the shells fired by the bronze smoothbore cannon made the soldiers of Li Erjun scatter. In the first round of salvo fire, eight cannonballs accurately hit the Huoyi East Gate City Tower with Li Er's Shuai Banner, and the civil structure of the city tower was broken by the door flying pillars, the earth burst into pieces, and it collapsed in half on the spot, and one of the shells also took away Li Er's Shuai Banner.

A cannonball flew directly into the city, smashed through the roof of a private house, making the city a burst of chickens and dogs, and the other three cannonballs all smashed onto the city wall, two of which left two deep pits on the rammed earth city wall, and the last one smashed on the arrow battlement, and immediately smashed the unlucky arrow battlement to smash and disappear, not to mention, but also smashed a more unlucky Li Second Army soldier behind the arrow battlement to the point of bursting brains, the cannonball castrated and continued to move forward, taking the lives of two Li Second Army soldiers, and wounding three Li Second Army soldiers - this can only be blamed on Li Er, He placed too many troops on the city walls and too many soldiers.

Seeing this scene, the Sui army was naturally full of cheers, and of course there was a big uproar from top to bottom of Li Erjun, countless soldiers suddenly turned pale as dirt, and Li Er's face suddenly turned pale, and finally understood why Chen Fuliang didn't prepare heavy siege weapons such as ladder trucks and hook trucks - there was no need to prepare at all! The damage to a rammed earth wall by a cannonball is greater than that of a hook cart pulled by ten oxen!

I kept thinking about how to deal with the Sui army's artillery, I don't know how much time passed, Li Er suddenly thought of a possibility, and suddenly his face became even paler, and when he subconsciously opened his mouth to order, Li Er's pupils suddenly contracted violently, because the Sui army's artillery had already fired a salvo again, and Li Er, who had good eyesight, also clearly saw that the direction that the twelve artillery pieces were aiming at this time was the most vulnerable gate of Huoyi's city defense.

Loud bangs sounded one after another under the city, the towering drawbridge bore the brunt of it, shattered on the spot, and then the cannonballs went castrated, and smashed heavily on the city gates, the thick wooden city gates covered with copper skin were indestructible in front of swords, guns and clubs, but in front of the cannonballs were like paper paste and mud, and six or seven large basin holes were smashed on the spot, and one of the cannonballs happened to hit the door latch, and the door latch that several people could lift was broken in response.

"The city is broken!"

From the beginning of the first round of artillery bombardment by the Sui army, less than ten minutes after the official start of the battle, the soldiers of Li Er's Army guarding the city gate had already let out this heart-rending scream.