Looking at the scene outside the city in despair, Li Jiancheng couldn't believe his eyes, he couldn't believe that the qiē in front of him would be true, the 70,000 troops who had just assembled outside the Chunming Dynasty at the right time had been defeated and fled back in less than an hour, the defeat was so miserable, the escape was so panicked, crying and shouting, he hated his father and mother for giving them two legs, the foot and the horse were mixed, you pushed me, trampled on each other, and threw the discarded armor, flags and weapons all over the mountains, They were chased and killed by the Sui soldiers like ducks, and they were so panicked that they didn't even have a formed army behind the palace.

The representatives of the Daxing civil and military officials and the gate lord family who came to see off Li Yuan before were also lost in their souls, and they also couldn't believe that the qiē in front of them was true, the main force of the rebel army with bright armor and a banner covering the sky when they set off, and the main force of the 70,000 rebels who could not see the end at a glance on the city wall, had already fled back in such a short period of time, and was chased and cut back by the soldiers of the Sui army like machetes and cutting vegetables. I don't know the difference between the combat effectiveness of the rebels and the Sui army, but they only know that the number of rebels is more than three times that of the Sui army.

The mechanical pace was mixed in the crowd of defeated rebels, Chai Shao was more lost than everyone else, and he still didn't understand how the 70,000 rebels were defeated, but he only remembered that after he was dragged up from the ground by a few personal soldiers, the rebels' glaive array had become a scattered sand formation, and his beloved and admired father-in-law had disappeared, and the generals and ordinary soldiers had already fled for their lives. The order for the general attack was given a little later, and Chai Shao did not even have a chance to escape into the self-army brigade.

It was useless to flee back to the brigade, out of the instinct of duty, Chai Shao wanted to shoulder the heavy responsibility of the palace, and led the army to desperately resist the pursuit of the Sui army, but no matter how he shouted and ordered, none of the generals and soldiers were willing to stand side by side with him behind the palace, and all the people up and down were crying and shouting to flee to the rear, for fear that if they escaped slowly, they would have no chance to live, and then when Chen Fuliang ordered the drum to attack, Chai Shao could only join the escape team with his tail between his legs, and no one was so flustered that no one could even have time to tell Chai Shao, The rebel command had already suffered heavy casualties under the cover of Sui artillery, and Chai Shao's beloved father-in-law had also been seriously wounded.

Li Er's handsome face has always remained iron blue, after Li Yuan gave the order to retreat and fainted, Li Er also wanted to organize the army after the palace, but none of his orders were willing to obey any rebel generals, all pretending not to hear the army to flee for their lives, Li Er personally couldn't even kill two generals to stop his own defeated army from retreating, and then Li Er thought of organizing a cavalry counterattack, but the rebel cavalry that was not covered by artillery had been crushed by the Sui infantry, and was rushed by the Sui army with infantry and cavalry. Li Er, who was not a traverser, didn't know that Liu Heimin, the general of the Sui army who broke down his fame, was the nemesis of his old Li family, Li Er just felt deeply humiliated and unconvinced, and kept gritting his teeth in his heart, "This battle is lost because I am not in command, if I am in command of the whole army, our army will not be able to lose!" ”

No matter how unconvinced you are, it's useless, in front of the epoch-making Sui army artillery, the rebels have been frightened and blown away, and they don't understand why those strange iron cars in front of the Sui army can make such a huge noise, and they don't understand why those big iron bullets that fall from the sky have such a huge power, if they hit people, they will not die or be injured, and they will jump up and continue to hurt and kill people when they hit the ground, and they have no fighting spirit in front of this terrifying weapon that they have never seen or even heard of, plus the coach Li Yuan was seriously injured and unconscious, The rebels who lost their command no longer had the will to fight, and they just hugged their heads and ran around, exposing their buttocks and letting the Sui soldiers behind them kick and chop, completely ignoring the Sui generals who were beating them behind them were less than half of their strength.

Fortunately for the rebels, the battlefield of the decisive battle was less than ten miles away from Daxing City, and the rebels did not take much time to flee to the Chunming Gate where they had set off before, but what made the rebels desperate was that although the moat of Daxing had a strong stone bridge that could be directly passed, but after escaping to the city gate, the rebels in the city did not dare to open the city gate at all - there were too many rebel soldiers outside the city, and the Sui army chased too closely. In the blink of an eye, the gates can be pushed into the city or trampled to death, without any chance to close the gates.

Li Jiancheng could only give a loud order, ordering the rebel soldiers to flee to Yanxingmen and Tonghuamen on the north and south sides, and enter the city there, and let the garrisons of Yanxingmen and Tonghuamen urgently dispatch to guard the stone bridge to cover the defeat into the city, and at the same time Li Jiancheng ordered the soldiers to prepare rope hanging baskets to receive the senior generals of the rebel army to enter the city directly.

Li Jiancheng's calm decision temporarily saved the outer city of Daxing, did not give the soldiers of the Sui army the opportunity to directly enter the outer city of Daxing, and also used the hanging basket to save his father Li Yuan, who had been seriously injured, but it suffered the poor rebel soldiers, the Chunming Gate close at hand could not enter, and could only run along the narrow road between the moat and the city wall to the north and south. The death was extremely miserable, the Sui army continued to expel and slash behind the back, forcing the rebel soldiers to constantly fall down the moat, the drowning people were layered in the river, quickly filling the river, and constantly shooting the rebel soldiers under the city with strong bows and crossbows, the rebel soldiers cried and shook the sky, countless dead and wounded, and countless kneeling surrendered.

The morale of the Sui army soldiers is like a rainbow to try to take advantage of the momentum to enter the city, to the city gate opened Yanxing Tonghua two gates to launch a strong attack, the more open south Yanxing Gate bridge on the defenders were first defeated by the Sui soldiers, but just as the Sui soldiers wanted to take the opportunity to kill into the city, Yanxing Gate guard Xu Shixu ordered a large number of arrows and stones, and put down the yaksha to bombard the soldiers of the two armies under the city indiscriminately, a large number of rebel soldiers and a small number of Sui soldiers who were silted in front of the gate suffered heavy casualties, and the rebel soldiers took the machine to the city gate, Allowing the still large number of rebel soldiers to cry and beg outside the city, refusing to open the city gates again, the rebel soldiers had no choice but to surrender to the Sui soldiers on their knees, while a few continued to flee south to the south to find a way back to the city.

The Tonghua Gate in the north is almost the same situation, the Sui army has just defeated the rebel team guarding the bridge across the river, although the Tonghua Gate guard Jiang Baoyi is a little soft-hearted, and did not immediately order an indiscriminate attack, the rebel general Li Xiaogong, who fled into the city from here, was ruthless, and immediately led the troops to violently slash and kill his own defeated soldiers, covering the gate soldiers to close the city gate, after all, he still closed the city gate before the Sui army entered the city, and luckily did not let the Sui soldiers take the opportunity to kill into the city.

There are also many rebel soldiers who saw that the situation was not good, and did not only take the Daxing East Third Gate that did not dare to open the door at all to enter the city, and fled to other directions in advance to find a way out, Li Er was one of them, relying on the horse to flee to the Zhide Gate in the north in advance, and fled directly into the Daxing Palace City with a rope, Chai Shao was very lucky to pull a rope under the Chunming Gate, although he was injured in the back by the Sui army's stray arrows, but he still managed to climb the city wall. There were also many rebel soldiers who fled to Mingde, Qixia and other gates in the south, and were lucky enough to escape into the city.

After all, there are only a few rebel soldiers who can escape into the city, and the vast majority of the rebel soldiers are still blocked outside the city, there is no way to go to the sky, there is no way to go to the ground, crying endlessly but never find a way out, fortunately, the conscience of the Sui army commander Chen Fuliang that they met this time has not been eaten up by dogs, and seeing that the rebels are closed to the city gate and have no hope of entering the city, in order to reduce the casualties of the Sui soldiers, they decisively ordered the slogan of surrender without killing to surrender, and the rebel soldiers were able to surrender on their knees in large areas, among which there were quite a few rebel generals who surrendered directly with their subordinates, the soldiers of the Sui army were so busy just that they surrendered that they could not spare their hands to launch a siege.

At the same time, the rebel division Dou Cong who received the news also quickly withdrew to the Yanping Gate in the west to enter the city, and the cavalry of the Sui army Cheng Biting Jin raided in a roundabout way, and the action was still a little slower, and failed to block all the rebel divisions outside the city, but only defeated nearly half of the rebel divisions and captured more than 3,000 prisoners, but a considerable part of the rebels fled into the city.

The rebels suffered heavy casualties, and the Sui army won a complete victory, but in the face of such a result, Chen Fuliang was not happy at all, because Chen Fuliang's friend Li Jiancheng's choice was too correct, and he refused to open the city gate to let the defeated soldiers return to the city despite more than half of the casualties of the rebels outside the city, and did not give the Sui army the slightest chance to enter the city of Daxing, and in front of the towering city wall of Daxing, Chen Fuliang, who had never liked to attack head-on, was a little hesitant, and he couldn't decide whether to take advantage of the victory to launch a strong attack, or accept it when he saw it. Wait until the soldiers and horses are reorganized and the cannon fodder is collected, and then the siege will be launched.

The unexpected good news solved Chen Fuliang's troubles, a team of Mo knife soldiers under Kan Liang's command suddenly brought several rebel prisoners to Chen Fuliang, one of the rebel prisoners was still holding a broken leg in his hand, and reported to Chen Fuliang with a flattering face that Li Yuan was bombarded by the Sui army's artillery The good news that Chen Fuliang's joy was not trivial, and he hurriedly asked for details, and the captives reported that they were Li Yuan's own soldiers, and they saw Li Yuan's thigh broken by the Sui army's artillery, and wanted to return to the city with the army after picking Li Yuan's broken leg, didn't want to be blocked outside the city and couldn't enter the city, so he took Li Yuan's broken leg to surrender to Chen Fuliang and offer treasure.

Of course, these Li Yuan's personal soldiers did not say it so directly, and they had to say it very euphemistically, although they were forced to follow Li Yuan from the thieves to rebel, but they have always had the Great Sui Imperial Court in their hearts, but they have always been oppressed by the thief army and unable to act.

It doesn't matter whether Li Yuan's personal soldiers were forced to surrender from the thieves or not, the important thing is Li Yuan's life and injury, more than a hundred meters before, Chen Fuliang only saw Li Yuan fall to the ground and didn't see what his injuries became, which would get a broken leg suspected of being part of Li Yuan's body, of course Chen Fuliang had to carefully investigate the truth or falsehood, but fortunately, among the rebel prisoners captured by the Sui army, quite a few prisoners had seen Li Yuan's injuries with their own eyes, and they also drew the location of Li Yuan's broken leg- It was only a little bit close to injuring Li Yuan's third leg.

Repeatedly confirming that Li Yuan's broken leg was true, combined with the rapid collapse of the rebels, Chen Fuliang quickly concluded that Li Yuan would not live for a few days - that his thigh was almost broken at the root, and that there was no way to treat it in this era. After concluding this, Chen Fuliang made a little calculation, and immediately made up his mind and said categorically: "I won't attack the city today!" Wait for Li Yuan's old thief to die of serious injuries and the morale of the thief army completely collapse, and then wait for our partial division to arrive and collect the surrendered troops, replenish our insufficient troops, and then launch a siege of the city! ”

After that, Chen Fuliang immediately sent someone to send Li Yuan's broken leg to the Xinfeng battlefield, and asked Li Jing and Qu Tutong to show it in public to hit the morale of the rebels on the Xinfeng battlefield, and at the same time wrote a letter to Li Yuan's son-in-law Duan Lun, promising to protect him from death and persuade him to surrender. In addition, Chen Fuliang sent someone to order Ma Sanbao to continue to march westward to ensure that the rebels were cut off from the way to flee to Shuzhong, and not to give the rebels a chance to escape into Sichuan - the Sui army in Shuzhong was too weak, and there was Uncle Da Xiao, the leading party, to take over, so that Li Jiancheng or Li Er escaped in, and it would be much more troublesome to clean up.

After arranging all this qiē, cleaning the battlefield, and concentrating more than 27,000 prisoners, Chen Fuliang gave a faint order: "Withdraw the troops, let the prisoners build their own camps, reorganize them overnight, prepare more firewood and grass for the night, it will snow heavily tomorrow." ”

"Brother Xian, you have to be ready to welcome guests." Fang Xuanling smiled and said, "If nothing else, there should be countless representatives of the generals of the thief army and representatives of the gate lord family coming to see you again tonight." ”

Chen Fuliang smiled and said, "I'll leave this matter to you, I didn't rest well last night, I have to sleep well tonight." ”

…………

In fact, Li Yuan's injuries were more serious than Chen Fuliang expected, and after being rescued back into the city, although the rebels immediately found the best wounded doctor in Daxing City to treat Li Yuan, but in this era without vascular suturing technology, no matter how good the doctor was, he could not stop the bleeding of Li Yuan's broken leg, and could only tie the broken leg tightly with a rope to temporarily extend Li Yuan's life.

Chen Fuliang's generous withdrawal of troops to postpone the siege of the city, gave Li Jiancheng's brothers, rebel Zhu Wenwu and Li Yuan a chance to see each other for the last time, at the end of the evening, when Li Jiancheng's brothers and rebel Zhu Wenwu came to the palace in a hurry to visit Li Yuan's injury, the pale-faced Li Yuan miraculously woke up for a moment, but to the surprise of Li Jiancheng's brothers and the rebel generals, Li Yuan only asked about the situation of the war, and learned that Chen Fuliang did not immediately launch a siege of the city, nor did he ask about the casualties of the rebels and his own injuries, The voice was faint and suddenly said: "Da Lang, Erlang, I want to see that Du Ruhui and call him." ”

Li Jiancheng and Li looked at each other, I don't know why Li Yuan suddenly asked to see Du Ruhui, but seeing that Li Yuan was in a coma again and the situation was getting worse and worse, out of filial piety, Li Jiancheng immediately sent someone to bring Du Ruhui here, waiting for Li Yuan to wake up and meet him again.

Half an hour later, Du Ruhui, who had been under residential surveillance by rebel soldiers, was escorted to Li Yuan's hospital bed, under the call of Li Jiancheng's brothers and rebel Zhu Wenwu with tears in his eyes, Li Yuan finally woke up again, and saw Du Ruhui who was pushed in front of him, Li Yuan smiled with difficulty, and then said in a weaker voice: "Mr. Du, I remember that you said before that Chen Yingliang originally wanted to defect to me, is this true?" You didn't finish talking at the time, but now tell me the details, the more detailed the better. ”

"It's true." Du Ruhui nodded solemnly, out of sympathy for the dying man, Du Ruhui said truthfully: "It was Fang Qiaosong who told me about this, when your predecessor your beloved son-in-law Chai Shaochai Gongzi came to the door to withdraw from the marriage, Chen Yingliang had a quarrel with him and was beaten by him, and then Chen Yingliang agreed to withdraw from the marriage, and begged Fang Qiaosong to recommend him on his behalf and let him serve under your command, and then Chen Yingliang knew that Chai Gongzi was your son-in-law of the senior, so he dispelled this idea. ”

"Why?" Li Yuan was surprised and asked with difficulty: "Why did Chen Yingliang think of working for me?" ”

"Chen Liushou heard that you are a hero, you are thirsty for talent, and you only pay attention to employing people and not the family." Du Ruhui replied truthfully: "He felt that under your command, he had the opportunity to show his strength and have more opportunities to get ahead, so he had the idea of wanting to defect to you, and directly explained that he could not care about the position, as long as he had the opportunity to show his talents." It's just that at that time, he had just made a feud with your son-in-law, and knew that even if he was under your command, it would be difficult to have another chance, so he gave up this plan again. ”

Li Yuan was silent, but Chai Shao, who was also present, was struck by lightning, and a thought suddenly came to his heart, "Could it be that my father-in-law has today, all because I had a feud with Chen Yingliang at that time?" ”

"Huh." Li Yuan suddenly smiled, his face was a little ruddy, his voice was suddenly much louder, and he said with a smile: "I understand, I finally understand, the old man finally knows, the old man's defeat today is not defeated by others, not by Chen Yingliang, nor by Shao'er, I am defeated by Providence!" I was defeated by the will of God! ”

"Oh God! You're dooming me to failure! ”

Raised his head and shouted out this sentence, Li Yuan lay back on the pillow, everyone was shocked, and hurriedly stepped forward to greet him, but Li Yuan raised his hand with difficulty, gently pressed the back of Li Jiancheng's hand, who was crying bitterly, and said weakly: "The old man is no longer done, for the continuation of my Li family's bloodline, and in order to leave a way for you old people who raised troops with the old man, after the old man died, you can't be in a hurry to mourn, our army will ......." ”

"Father, don't worry!" Li Eryan was quick, grabbed Li Yuan's hand, and said quickly: "The child will definitely inherit your legacy, lead our army to continue to fight with Chen Yingliang's thief to the end, avenge your hatred, and establish my Longxi Li family's hard-won foundation!" ”

"You're ......!"

Li Yuan was furious, and he opened his mouth to angrily reprimand the unfilial son, but he didn't have time to speak, but his head was crooked, and he didn't have time to finish his last words. In the room, the cry of pain suddenly sounded, and Li Er's cry deliberately suppressed everyone, "Father! Father! Father, don't worry, the child will definitely inherit your will and avenge you, and the child must cut Chen Yingliang's thief with a thousand knives and execute Ling Chi! Let you look at the nine springs! Father————! ”

The only one in the room who didn't cry was Du Ruhui, looking at Li Jiancheng and the two brothers Li who were crying bitterly, Du Ruhui also shook his head gently, and said secretly in his heart: "No wonder Brother Ying Liangxian didn't immediately launch an attack on the city, with such a son, does Daxing still need to fight?" You don't have to fight to break it yourself. ”

It can't be said that Li Er is just for the sake of power and reckless of the consequences, in fact, Li Er is also very clear in his heart about the consequences of doing this, but Li Er also has no choice, prostrate on Li Yuan's corpse, Li Er pretended to cry, and said in his heart: "Father, don't blame the child for being unfilial, the child can't help it, with the weak character of the elder brother, either abandon the city with the army, let us abandon our previous achievements, or take the army to surrender to Chen Yingliang's thief, when the time comes, he can live, what should I do, child?" In order to save his brother, Chen Yingliang's thief didn't push me out as a scapegoat for killing Yang Yu! "Liang, it's not that I'm defeated by Shao'er, I'm defeated by Providence! I was defeated by the will of God! ”

"Oh God! You're dooming me to failure! ”

Raised his head and shouted out this sentence, Li Yuan lay back on the pillow, everyone was shocked, and hurriedly stepped forward to greet him, but Li Yuan raised his hand with difficulty, gently pressed the back of Li Jiancheng's hand, who was crying bitterly, and said weakly: "The old man is no longer done, for the continuation of my Li family's bloodline, and in order to leave a way for you old people who raised troops with the old man, after the old man died, you can't be in a hurry to mourn, our army will ......." ”

"Father, don't worry!" Li Eryan was quick, grabbed Li Yuan's hand, and said quickly: "The child will definitely inherit your legacy, lead our army to continue to fight with Chen Yingliang's thief to the end, avenge your hatred, and establish my Longxi Li family's hard-won foundation!" ”

"You're ......!"

Li Yuan was furious, and he opened his mouth to angrily reprimand the unfilial son, but he didn't have time to speak, but his head was crooked, and he didn't have time to finish his last words. In the room, the cry of pain suddenly sounded, and Li Er's cry deliberately suppressed everyone, "Father! Father! Father, don't worry, the child will definitely inherit your will and avenge you, and the child must cut Chen Yingliang's thief with a thousand knives and execute Ling Chi! Let you look at the nine springs! Father————! ”

The only one in the room who didn't cry was Du Ruhui, looking at Li Jiancheng and the two brothers Li who were crying bitterly, Du Ruhui also shook his head gently, and said secretly in his heart: "No wonder Brother Ying Liangxian didn't immediately launch an attack on the city, with such a son, does Daxing still need to fight?" You don't have to fight to break it yourself. ”

It can't be said that Li Er is just for the sake of power and reckless of the consequences, in fact, Li Er is also very clear in his heart about the consequences of doing this, but Li Er also has no choice, prostrate on Li Yuan's corpse, Li Er pretended to cry, and said in his heart: "Father, don't blame the child for being unfilial, the child can't help it, with the weak character of the elder brother, either abandon the city with the army, let us abandon our previous achievements, or take the army to surrender to Chen Yingliang's thief, when the time comes, he can live, what should I do, child?" In order to save his brother, Chen Yingliang's thief didn't push me out as a scapegoat for killing Yang Yu! ”