Li Jing is not his unscrupulous cousin Chen Fuliang, who met Xiongguan Jiancheng? In order to have more famous cities in the Central Plains and Xiongguan outside the Saiwai in the future, Li Jing knew that Lengquan Pass was not easy to fight but still rose to the challenge, and after careful preparations, on May 30, the officers and men of the Sui army finally launched a frontal attack on Lengquan Pass.

The biggest difficulty in attacking Lengquan Pass is that the road is narrow, the troops cannot be deployed, and it is more difficult for large-scale offensive weapons to get close to the wall, and the soldiers of the Sui army can only attack the gate in small quantities and in batches to invest troops, and the most hated tactics of the soldiers are to add oil, and the Taiyuan army can occupy a local advantage in strength by virtue of the top of the wall, the sheep and horse wall, the gate tower and the high ground on both sides, and give the Sui army a three-dimensional blow from far and near. Under normal circumstances, as long as the defenders do not make mistakes and there are no problems in the internal rear, no matter which Sui general is replaced to command this battle, he will have to be as miserable and humiliating as the Persian boss Xerxes I in Hot Springs.

Fortunately, Li Jing is destined to become an unlucky guy like Xerxes, not to mention the huge gap in command art, the development and progress of weapons and equipment also determines that the Taiyuan Army cannot reproduce the glory of the Spartan 300 warriors.

It must be admitted that the Li brothers and the Taiyuan army are also very good at drawing lessons and lessons, knowing that the Sui army's artillery is powerful, not only prepared a large number of sacks of earth in the pass to block the gate at any time, but also spent great efforts to strengthen the wall and tower, and at the same time, the narrow terrain south of Lengquan Pass is also where the Taiyuan army's confidence in dealing with the Sui army's artillery lies -- in order to show off his might, Chen Fuliang used artillery against the Taiyuan army twice, and the twelve artillery pieces were lined up, occupying a width of more than 20 zhang. Therefore, the Taiyuan army has always believed that the Sui army's artillery can only exert its power if it is lined up, otherwise the shells fired from behind will definitely hit the artillery in front.

Li Jiancheng's henchman Zhang Lun, who was guarding Lengquan Pass, was soon dumbfounded, the twenty artillery pieces brought by the Sui army could not be lined up in the valley road, and it was not false that at most three guns could be lined up horizontally in the valley road, but the Sui army officers and soldiers under the command of Yuan Tiangang arranged fifteen artillery pieces on a relatively open gentle slope in the southeast of Lengquan Pass. The other five artillery pieces were arranged by the Sui soldiers on the bank of the Fenshui River in the southwest of Lengquan Pass, forming a cross-covering angle of fire covering Lengquan Pass, and none of the artillery pieces were directly arranged in front of the gate of Lengquan Pass as usual, and the front space was also given up for the Sui soldiers to line up to protect the artillery array.

What made Zhang Lun and the officers and soldiers of the Taiyuan Army even more stunned was that the distance between the Sui army's artillery and Lengquan Pass, the nearest one was also one mile away, and the farthest one was more than one and a half miles, such a distance was not only far away from the range of the Leng Quanguan defenders' trebuchets and strong bows and crossbows, even if the bed crossbow on the wall of Lengquan Pass could shoot five hundred steps, it could only barely hit the nearest Sui army artillery at most. Seeing this scene, Zhang Lun couldn't help but scream in a desperate tone, "Can the thief artillery shoot so far?" How is this possible?! ”

In order to suppress the Sui army's formation and boost morale, Zhang Lun decisively ordered the Taiyuan army's twenty bed crossbows to be fired first, shooting the nearest Sui artillery, but the giant arrows shaped like axes at the front end barely shot a distance of more than a mile, but most of them were already very far off, only five or six arrows barely shot close to the Sui artillery, and also luckily shot and injured a Sui gunner who could not dodge.

Everyone knows how slow the winding speed of the bed crossbow is, before the Taiyuan army shoots the second wave of giant arrows, the Sui army's artillery has been arranged in place, and then the Sui army gunner, who was personally trained by Yuan Tiangang, quickly calculated the shooting height and aimed at the target, Yuan Tiangang waved the flag, and the Sui army's artillery immediately began to roar, and the Taiyuan army's bed crossbow array will never have the opportunity to fire together.

The target of Li Jing's artillery attack was not the Lengquan Pass Wall, which had been repeatedly reinforced, let alone the gate that would definitely be blocked, but the bed crossbow on the Taiyuan Army and the trebuchet in the Pass, as well as the fence and earth fortifications built by the Taiyuan Army on the high ground on both sides of Lengquan Pass, and the first round of salvo was all to bombard the top of the Lengquan Pass Wall. The heavy solid iron bullet smashed into the wall with a loud roar, and three expensive and time-consuming Taiyuan Army bed crossbows were scrapped on the spot, and more than 30 Taiyuan Army soldiers were killed. A shell crossed the wall and hit the pass directly, smashing another Taiyuan army trebuchet.

In the screams and screams of the officers and men of the Taiyuan Army, the artillery of the Sui Army continued to roar like thunder, and the solid shells continued to smash into the inside and outside of the wall, leaving deep craters on the wall, and the explosion on the arrow stacks choked snuff dust, and smashed to the top of the wall with the lives of the soldiers of the Taiyuan Army, and the sawdust tiles that hit the tower of the Guan, and the ones that bombarded into the pass were to see those Taiyuan soldiers who were unlucky, or that trebuchet suffered. The deafening roar of artillery continued to echo in the valley road, and the officers and men of the Taiyuan Army lay on the wall and shivered, constantly praying that the Sui army's shells would not hit them.

Zhang Lun was also forcibly pressed to the shooting corner behind the arrow stack by his own soldiers, watching the soldiers of the self-army running and screaming in front of the constantly bouncing shells, dead and wounded, and seeing that the repeatedly reinforced Guanlou still could not resist the Sui army's artillery, still vulnerable in front of the shells, constantly becoming full of holes, and seeing the self-army spend a lot of money to build the bed crossbow one after another into parts sawdust state, Zhang Lun's heart was at a loss, and he didn't know how to crack the Sui army's artillery tactics. He didn't know how to restore the confidence and fighting spirit of his soldiers in the face of these terrible weapons, and the only thing Zhang Lun could do was to pray that the Sui army's artillery shells and gunpowder would run out as soon as possible, or stop the artillery bombardment as soon as possible, and quickly send the army up to fight with real swords and guns.

Of course, Li Jing will not let Zhang Lun get his wish, not to mention that the Sui army's ammunition is quite sufficient, and the Sui army's next attack pressure is actually not very large, after taking Lengquan Pass, if the main force of the Taiyuan army chooses to hold on to other small cities, then the Sui army does not need to use too much ammunition to hope to break the city, and it doesn't matter if the main force of the Taiyuan army fully retreats to the old nest Taiyuan City, Taiyuan City is a city with high moats and deep trenches and is extremely strong, but the valley terrain of three mountains and two rivers where Taiyuan City is located is destined to the Sui army can take the city without relying on artillery. Therefore, the artillery of the Sui army has always been roaring, and Li Jing has never planned to stop the artillery tactics from the slightest.

At the same time that the defenders of Lengquan Pass were trembling under the cover of the Sui army's artillery, Li Jiancheng and the two Li brothers also came to the north of Lengquan Pass with a first army to watch the battle, but their eardrums were not only trembling by the roar of the Sui army's artillery, but also before they had time to approach the north gate of Lengquan for half a mile, they were blocked by the loyal Taiyuan army officers and soldiers, and reminded them: "The two governors, you can't go any further, the shells of the Chen thief army sometimes cross the gate city and hit the front, and just now a brother was almost hit." ”

"Can the thief artillery shoot so far?"

Li Jiancheng looked up in surprise, and it was a coincidence that a Sui army shell just crossed the Lengquan Pass and directly hit more than 100 steps in front of Li Jiancheng's side. Seeing this scene, Li Jiancheng and Li Er couldn't help but glance at each other, and they both saw the shocked expressions on each other's faces.

After a long time, Li Jiancheng said to himself amid the continuous sound of cannons: "I can't imagine that Brother Ying Liangxian's artillery is so powerful, it seems that even if he doesn't know our water attack tactics, it will be difficult for us to hold on until the flood season of Fenwen Ershui comes." ”

"Brother, in fact, you and I both know very well in our hearts that Lengquan Pass is unreliable, Lengquan Pass is a pass, not a city, it is impossible to station too many troops, and there is no way to effectively rotate the army to assist in defense, and it is impossible to withstand the frontal attack of the Chen thief army at any cost." Li Er sneered and said, "If you want to guard the Bird Mouse Valley, first guard the Spirit Stone City!" The loss of Lingshi City is equivalent to the loss of more than half of the Heavenly Danger of the Sparrow Mouse Valley, how long can the remaining Cold Spring Pass stop the thief army? The overall strength of the thief army is far above our army, even if our army still has a rest to defend after losing Lengquan Pass, the thief army can calmly besiege the city and divide troops to fight Taiyuan City, even if the thief army refuses to divide the troops, how long can a small city of Jiexiu be held? ”

"Of course I know this, the only thing I miscalculated was the treacherous plan of your brother-in-law's brother-in-law Wang Fubao, who lost the vital Spirit Stone City early." Li Jiancheng frankly admitted that the second brother was not wrong, and then said: "But your tactics against the enemy also have weaknesses, first of all, the number of our cavalry is pitiful, and there is no chance of winning a guerrilla war with an enemy with many cavalry. The second is the congenital weakness of Taiyuan City, you also know, as long as the enemy comes to divert water to irrigate the city, we will immediately have nothing to do, we can only be captured. ”

"Soldiers are not expensive!" Li Er said confidently: "As long as you dare to trust me, brother, you can rest assured that all the cavalry will be handed over to me, and I will keep it so that the back road of the grain road of the Chen thief's army will not be peaceful day and night!" Under the command of Chen Thief? I don't care about a few cavalry generals! ”

"As for diverting water to irrigate the city, it doesn't matter." Li Er sneered again and said: "Not to mention that Chen Thief is a fake benevolence and a hypocrisy of the people, and he refuses to use this poisonous trick, even if he really diverts water to irrigate the city, what does it matter?" In the Spring and Autumn Period, Zhibo colluded with Han Kangzi and Wei Huanzi to attack Jinyang City, leading the Jin River to flood the city, and Zhao Xiangzi, who defended the city, led the army to live in a nest, and drank from the cauldron in a hanging kettle, and still held on for three whole years, and finally won the opportunity to turn defeat into victory! Chen Thief really wants to divert water to irrigate the city, so it's great that we can follow Zhao Xiangzi's example. ”

"What about the people?" Li Jiancheng asked rhetorically: "The main force of our army retreated to Taiyuan, and the flames of war burned into the hinterland of our army's controlled area, wouldn't the people under our army's rule be devastated and poisoned by the war?" Besides, in the Spring and Autumn Period, Jinyang City was sparsely populated, Zhao Xiangzi could live in a nest and drink in a cauldron and drink, and now Taiyuan City has a population of more than 100,000 people, do you call these hundreds of thousands of people to live in a nest with us and drink in a cauldron and drink? ”

"Brother, younger brother really doesn't understand, are you really a bodhisattva? Or is it the kindness of a woman? Li Er sneered and said, "Brother, if you love the people so much, then what did you do when you followed your father to raise troops?" Even if you govern the army strictly and Yu Minqiu does not commit any crimes, the enemy soldiers you kill on the battlefield are not human lives? Aren't they ordinary people when they are young and when they are old? ”

"You live and die on the battlefield, and I kill people for self-defense." Li Jiancheng replied coldly: "I'm not like you, do you dare to say that your father didn't instigate the war when he raised troops?" On the battlefield, in addition to not taking the lives of the enemy as human lives, you do not regard the lives of our soldiers as human lives! When did you think about the lives and safety of the soldiers, and when did you think about how to minimize the casualties of the soldiers under your command? ”

The words are not speculative, Li Er was indignant and ready to refute, but the sound of the Sui army's artillery in front suddenly stopped, and the earth, which had been trembling for a long time by the roar of the artillery, suddenly returned to calm, Li Jiancheng and Li Er knew that there would be an accident ahead, so they hurriedly beat their horses and went straight to Lengquan Pass, rushing into the Lengquan Pass, which had been bombarded by the Sui army's artillery, and then went up to the north gate of Lengquan Pass, which was already full of corpses and even the building had completely collapsed, Li Jiancheng and Li Er first saw that a Sui army envoy with a white flag in his hand was shouting loudly to surrender under the pass, However, the officers and soldiers of the Taiyuan army were silent, and no one scolded and refused to surrender, and the guard general Zhang Lun also looked cold, and did not refuse the surrender of the Sui army envoy word by word.

Seeing this situation, Li Er, who knew that his morale was depressed, didn't even blink his eyelids, and immediately pulled his bow and shot an arrow, and the Sui army envoy who was waving the white flag in the middle faced the door, and the Sui army envoy fell to the ground with a scream, and a roar suddenly sounded on the Sui army position in the distance.

The incident happened suddenly, not only Zhang Lun and the other defenders of Lengquan Pass screamed, but Li Jiancheng was also taken aback, and then immediately turned to Li Er and roared: "Who told you to release arrows?" The two countries are fighting, and if they don't kill them, the enemy's envoy is waving a white flag, why do you still release arrows?! Aren't you afraid that the enemy will take revenge on our messenger in the future? ”

"Of course I'm afraid, but what I'm afraid of is that the military's morale will be shaken." Li Er replied with a sneer, and then gently pouted Zhang Lun in the distance, and said in a low voice, "Didn't you see it?" Even Zhang Lun was already a little shaken, if he didn't do this, Lengquan Pass would not be able to hold it! ”

Li Jiancheng gritted his teeth, and Zhang Lun also hurriedly came to the front of the Li family brothers, and hurriedly explained while saluting: "The two governors, the last general just wanted to drive him away after listening to the words of the Chen thief's envoy, but I didn't expect you to come before I could speak." By the way, please go down, it's dangerous here, and the thieves may be firing again. ”

Before the words fell, the Sui army was already artillery again, and there were shells blasting towards the head of Lengquan Pass, and the soldiers were afraid that Li Jiancheng would lose, so they hurriedly pulled Li Jiancheng down the wall, and Li Er also hurriedly went down the wall, leaving Zhang Lun to lead the officers and soldiers of the Taiyuan Army to continue to support on the wall of Lengquan Pass, which was full of holes. And after withdrawing from Lengquan Pass and returning to safety, Li Er smiled and said to Li Jiancheng: "Brother, how is it?" It's time to make up your mind, right? Now it should be too late to adopt the younger brother's strategy to defend against the enemy! ”

"Don't you think about it!"

Li Jiancheng's answer surprised Li Er, and at the same time, Li Er clearly saw that Li Jiancheng's eyes were still blood-red, and the muscles on his face twitched and said, "You don't think that I will hand over the military power to you!" Your heart is too vicious, if I give you the military power, I don't know how many of our soldiers will die for nothing because of you! I don't know how many innocent people will be implicated and killed by you! I can't take away the military power in your hands, but if you want me to give you the army again, dream! ”

Li Er was intimidated by his brother's momentum for the first time, and was a little timid for a while, but after coming back to his senses, Li Er also gritted his teeth and said, "Brother, so you are the younger brother, and I led the soldiers and horses of my headquarters to leave here?" ”

"If you want to be a rogue, go to the fence, I won't keep it." Li Jiancheng's expression was extremely hideous, and he said with a smile: "But don't think you can go back to Taiyuan City!" Don't think that if you join forces with the fourth brother, you can control the entire Taiyuan City, the four old directors of the fourth brother have already been brought by me, and the remaining two directors, do you think they are really just obedient to the fourth brother?! I left them in Taiyuan City, didn't I think that they might help the fourth brother launch a mutiny and snatch control of Taiyuan City? You walk on the front foot, and I will give them orders on the back foot to do what they have to do! ”

After sneering, Li Jiancheng sneered and said, "Also, you secretly gave Feng Li a jewelry beauty, do you think I really don't know?" I'll tell you the truth, I know the list of gifts and the names of the beauties you gave him, or Feng Li took the initiative to tell me, if you think you have bought him over, you can go back to Taiyuan City! ”

Li Er rarely opened his mouth and stammered, looking at his brother with an angry face as if he didn't know him, but Li Jiancheng said again: "I have made up my mind!" Regardless of whether the cold spring pass can be defended or not, I will try my best! If it really comes to the point where I can't hold it, I will consider retreating to Taiyuan City! If you want to go to the grass and vote for someone else, I won't keep it! ”

After that, Li Jiancheng angrily beat the horse and left, leaving Li Er sweating like pulp in place, several times wanted to break with his brother and lead the army away, but he understood that the army lacked food and clothing, and his morale was low, and he really wanted to break with his brother, and there would definitely not be a few people who would really go with him, and then he would not only be like a lost dog, it would be difficult to have a chance to make a comeback, and he could die at any time, or even freeze to death or starve to death!

When Li Er was worried, the artillery of the Sui army also roared outside Lengquan Pass for a whole day, until the evening when the troops were collected and returned to the camp, and although Li Jing did not launch an ant-attached attack, the Sui army's artillery still easily destroyed most of the Lengquan Pass fortifications, and at the same time, the Taiyuan army was beaten to the point that it had no temper, and did not even appear to counterattack out of the pass. Therefore, on the way back to the camp, Li Jing also told the generals of the Sui army very confidently, saying: "The morale of the enemy army has been depressed, and our army can dispatch shrimp and toad carts to fill the trenches starting tomorrow, and the day after tomorrow can tackle the key problems!" ”

There is another evidence that the morale of the Taiyuan army has declined, that night, a soldier of the Taiyuan army quietly went out of the pass and came to the Sui army patrol sentry, pleading for Li Jing's reception on behalf of the Lengquan Pass defenders. After the meeting, the soldiers of the Taiyuan Army truthfully reported that they were Zhang Lun's personal soldiers of Lengquan Pass, and stated to Li Jing on behalf of Zhang Lun that today's killing was not the intention of the Lengquan Pass defenders, but that Li Er, the right governor, personally shot them with arrows, and implored Li Jing to understand the difficulties of the Lengquan Pass defenders, and not to abuse and kill the Lengquan Pass defenders who were unfortunately captured on the battlefield.

Li Jing readily accepted the plea of Zhang Lun's personal soldiers, saying that he would never kill Zhang Lun and the defenders of Lengquan Pass, and then he wanted to write a letter to ask the personal soldiers to take him back, but the Zhang Lun personal soldiers said: "General Li, the villain can't go back, there is a supervising team sent by the Governor of Zuo Du to monitor the pass, and the small one still risks killing his head when he goes down, and he will definitely be found when he goes back." General Zhang, he didn't expect the villain to go back, just let the little one bring the words. ”

"Then you stay." Li Jing was not reluctant, and arranged for someone to entertain Zhang Lun's personal soldier who took the initiative to surrender, and said in his heart: "You can write a letter to your nephew, so that he can prepare to enter the army and pursue." If we can catch Li Jiancheng in the pursuit battle, maybe we don't need to launch a water attack in the Taiyuan War. ”