The situation that Fan Zigai and Chen Yingliang feared the most finally did not happen, and the old general Tuo Li ignored the blessing of the scout war, and the defenders of Luoyang, who were once beaten by the rebel scout and could not raise their heads, began to detect some valuable enemy movements, and basically found out that the main force of the rebels was still in the camp of Kim Yong City, and found that the rebel team was cutting tall timber everywhere and transporting it to the camp, which confirmed from the side that the main force of the rebels was frantically rushing to build siege weapons, and still set Luoyang Jiancheng as the first target.

In addition to repeatedly reconnoitring and confirming this situation, Fan Zigai and Huangfu Wuyi, who had already suffered many times as scouts and lied about big losses, also expanded the scope of reconnaissance to the rebels' only way to enter the Guanzhong, and at the same time Fan Zigai adopted Chen Yingliang's Jianyi, taking advantage of Yang Xuangan's habit of recruiting and accepting rebels and the weakness of the complicated team, and arranged some relatively reliable soldiers to disguise themselves as ordinary people to defect to Yang Xuangan's rebels, and took the opportunity to spy on the various movements of the rebels' main force.

Fortunately, the scouts in the eastern capital, who have gradually been tempered and improved in actual combat, finally did not disappoint Fan Zigai and others, and through various means and channels of reconnaissance and spying, Fan Zigai and others can basically confirm that the main force of the rebels has not moved westward, and is still stationed in the camp of Kim Yong City, and at the same time, the scouts sent to reconnoiter in Kui Han Road also kept coming in the news, confirming that they did not find that the main force of the rebels penetrated deep into Kui Han Dao, Fan Zigai and Chen Yingliang were a little relieved, believing that the forced version of the bitter meat trick they used had worked.

At the same time, there was also good news from the Daxing reinforcements, Wei Xuan's army, which was almost wiped out, gradually gathered the remnants of the defeated soldiers after stabilizing its foothold in Michi, and had re-raised the team of more than 6,000 people. said that he planned to come east again to seek revenge on the rebels, and join forces with his old friend Fan Zigai to quell the rebellion.

Old friend Wei Wensheng is really righteous, and he didn't forget to help him after a few defeats, but unfortunately Fan Zigai didn't dare to accept the kindness of his old friend anymore this time, and hurriedly sent Pang Yu, who Chen Yingliang rescued from the rebels, and asked him to rush to Mianchi with his own handwritten letter, asking - this time it was a direct request - asking Wei Xuan to never go out of the Cuihan Road, and honestly stay in the Cuihan Road, which is easy to defend and difficult to attack, to block and delay the westward movement that the main force of the rebels may launch. The task of confronting the main force of the rebels head-on was undertaken by the Eastern Capital Army alone, and how to completely exterminate the Yang Xuangan rebels was to wait for the main force of the Sui Army to return from the battlefield in Liaodong.

So far, the situation on the battlefield of Luoyang is roughly as follows, more than 20,000 defenders of the eastern capital are guarding the fortified city of Luoyang, and more than 6,000 remnants of the Daxing reinforcements are holding the small city of Michi in the Cuihan Road, and the troops are at an absolute disadvantage, but they are all in an absolute advantage in terms of geographical advantages. The main force of the rebel army is nearly 100,000 people, entrenched in the area of Kim Yong City, eighteen miles northwest of Luoyang, and there are several rebel divisions, respectively occupying Citong Road, Yique Road and Tiger Prison Pass, and a partial division is attacking Xingyang City under the leadership of Han Shixu, the strength is in an absolute advantage, but the geographical aspect is very unfavorable, there is a strong city in front of the road, and there is a threat from the main force of the Sui army that quickly returned to help, on the surface it seems to be in the limelight, but in fact it is full of dangers, and the undercurrent is surging.

If the battle situation continues to be so stalemate, then as long as the main force of the Sui army arrives at the Luoyang battlefield, Fan Zigai and Chen Yingliang can sit down with a cup of fragrant tea and watch how Yang Xuangan's rabble has been completely destroyed, but unfortunately, such a good thing can only be encountered in dreams. On the afternoon of the tenth day after the failure of General Li Zixiong's first siege, after nine days of intense preparations, under the personal leadership of Yang Xuangan and General Li, a team of 60,000 rebels once again approached the city of Luoyang, and once again launched an attack on the defenders of Luoyang, who had repeatedly disgusted the main force of the rebels.

In addition to arranging the main force on the main battlefield Shangchun Gate, General Li Lao deployed 5,000 siege troops outside Anxi Gate and Hui'an Gate to distract the defenders' attention and strength, forcing the defenders not to dare to deploy all mobile forces in Shangchun Gate, and at the same time striving for a miracle to break through the other city gates of Luoyang by partial divisions.

In addition, in order to make up for the lack of bows and arrows, the rebel team prepared more than 60 trebuchets alone, of which as many as 50 trebuchets were deployed on the main battlefield on the Chunmen, which proved in disguise how much Yang Xuangan and General Li hated this Shangchunmen, in addition, the rebels also prepared a large number of ladder vehicles, siege vehicles, trench bridge vehicles and a variety of siege weapons, lined up in front of the two armies, densely packed, spectacular, and the posture of Luoyang City was fully demonstrated.

After receiving the alarm from the city gate, Fan Zigai and Huangfu Wuyi also understood that the rebel team that had been prepared for many days to attack the city must be extraordinary, and quickly dispatched troops and arranged the reserves, the sick Huangfu Wuyi stayed in the imperial city to take care of Yang Tong, the king of Yue, Fan Zigai led some Luoyang civil and military personnel to Shangchunmen in person, to boost the morale of the defenders of Shangchunmen on the main battlefield, observe the enemy situation by the way, and preside over and arrange logistics affairs.

"Brothers, do you see? Yang rebel is dying and struggling, he knows that our main force of the Great Sui is about to come to Luoyang City, and he knows that he is a rabbit's tail that can't grow, so he came to the dying struggle, and brought so many wooden shelves for us to light a fire and make a barbecue, as long as we repel this attack of Yang rebels, we can sit on the city wall and watch how Yang rebels are wiped out! This is the last battle of our Luoyang army, and if we win this battle, we will have no more problems! The Great Sui will win! Luoyang will win! We will win! ”

As soon as he went to the city wall, Fan Zigai saw Chen Yingliang in a white robe shouting on the city wall with his teeth and claws, cheering for the defenders, Pei Hongce and Xie Zichong, the two leaders of the civil and military forces in Shangchunmen, followed behind Chen Yingliang one left and one right, constantly setting up a platform for Chen Yingliang to help him, encouraging the morale and fighting spirit of the defenders, and Chen Yingliang shouted more and more excited, "Brothers! Soldiers! This is our last battle, and after repelling the traitors' attack, we can go back to our families! ”

"For the sake of our gray-haired parents, for the sake of our wives and children, in this battle, we must crush the shameless ambition of Yang's traitors! Victory is at hand! His Royal Highness the King of Yue is watching us, hundreds of thousands of people in Luoyang City are looking at us, the emperor is looking at us, and the entire Great Sui world is looking at us! The Great Sui is undefeated! East is undefeated! We are undefeated! ”

Chen Yingliang's enthusiastic speech still played a role, at least the defenders of Shangchunmen showed that they were getting better and better, while orderly and quickly deploying in place, inspecting weapons and defending materials, and on the other hand, they also learned to serve the country like the soldiers of the army, and constantly shouted the slogan of killing thieves and counterinsurgency, and serving the country with loyalty, and the morale and fighting spirit compared with the rebel team when the rebel army attacked the city for the first time more than a month ago, it can be said that it is like two armies. Loyal to the country", the military appearance team has a new look.

Seeing such a scene, Fan Zigai was not satisfied, it was simply Alzheimer's, and after stopping Chen Yingliang and Pei Hongce and others from saluting, Fan Zigai said quickly: "Don't talk nonsense, the traitor army is just around the corner, take advantage of the fact that there is still a little time, what else do you want, say it quickly, the old man will try his best to meet it." ”

Pei Hongce and Xie Zichong both turned their eyes to Chen Yingliang, but Chen Yingliang didn't even blink his eyelids, and immediately said: "Three requirements, first, please prepare enough fire oil and torches for us, and second, please immediately order the left-behind adults to raise the fire to make rice, prepare dry food such as rice balls and steamed buns for us, and have enough water bags and water hyacinths, so that our soldiers can eat and drink water whenever they have the opportunity." Today is a cloudy day, and the traitors have arrived at the city of Luoyang at noon, and it is obvious that they have made up their minds to attack the city overnight, and we must be prepared to fight all night. ”

"Okay, the old man will arrange it immediately." Fan Zigai nodded, and quickly asked, "What is the third requirement?" ”

"Left-behind adults forgive sins, what the third requirement is, you can only know." Chen Yingliang replied in a deep voice.

Fan Zigai, who had long been accustomed to Chen Yingliang pretending to be a ghost, did not hesitate, and pulled Chen Yingliang up and walked in a remote place, and none of the Dongdu Wenwu and Pei Hongce and others dared to follow. Feeling that others should not be able to hear it, Chen Yingliang leaned into Fan Zigai's ear and whispered: "Fan stays behind, the traitors are well prepared for the siege of the city this time, the cruelty and hardship of this battle must be extraordinary, if you find that we can't hold on, you can immediately send someone to rush to the city wall to give an order, announcing that our reinforcements have arrived, boosting our morale, and can play a role in turning things around." ”

"Stinky boy, even our own army lied, it's really smart!" Fan Zigai smiled approvingly, and said in a low voice: "Okay, don't worry, when you can't support it anymore, I will send someone to the city to defraud our army." ”

Chen Yingliang was overjoyed, hurriedly thanked him, and was about to return to Pei Hongce and others with Fan Zigai, but Fan Zigai grabbed Chen Yingliang, and also came to Chen Yingliang's ear, and lowered his voice and said: "Listen, the old man has to give you an order, once the Shangchun Gate is broken by traitors, or you feel hopeless, you can immediately lead the **** to retreat to the imperial city, the old man and Huangfu Wuyi have secretly hoarded a large number of food and city defense weapons in the imperial city, we can rely on the city defense to make the imperial city more solid and perfect, Continue to wrestle with the ranks of traitors. ”

Chen Yingliang was stunned for a moment, and said in a low voice: "The soldiers and people in the outer city? ”

"For the sake of the Great Sui, the old man must make a choice." Fan Zigai said in a cold whisper: "By the way, I will tell you again, the old man and Huangfu Wuyi's family don't know about this." Your uncle Pei Hongce is the Duke of Li Guo, and he is not qualified to know about this. ”

Chen Yingliang was stunned for a while, and finally understood why Emperor Yang of Sui appointed Fan Zigai, a grumpy old stubborn, to stay in the eastern capital, and why he let the sick Emperor Fu Wuyi lead the Luoyang army. Moved, Chen Yingliang didn't say much, knelt down on his knees and saluted Fan Zigai, then got up and strode back to the defenders of Shangchunmen, and continued to work hard to boost the morale and fighting spirit of the defenders.

Chen Yingliang and Fan Zigai were so worried that they even arranged in advance to prevent what happened, of course, it was not untargeted, Yang Xuangan's rebels were originally dragged by the defenders of the Eastern Capital, and the rebels' onslaught on Luoyang City was also caused by Fan Zigai and Chen Yingliang's joint efforts, Yang Xuangan, who had a deep enmity with the defenders of Luoyang, was going to do his best to attack the city this time, and he would not give up until he reached his goal, and saw the huge lineup of the rebel team and the mountains of siege weapons, of course Fan Zigai and Chen Yingliang had to be careful in case - after all, the Luoyang defenders were only second-line troops, The opponent is the veteran general Li Zixiong, who has incomparably rich experience in the battlefield, and no one dares to guarantee whether the defenders of Luoyang can withstand the rebel team's crazy siege at any cost.

Sure enough, Fan Zigai and other civil and military forces in the eastern capital condoled the defenders of Shangchunmen had just removed the city wall, and the cruel and bloody Luoyang offensive and defensive battle had been launched in the rumble of the rebel war drums, first the long shield and the shrimp toad cart stepped forward to form a temporary fortification, covering the rebel archers to release arrows on the city wall, interfering with and suppressing the defenders on the city, and then fifty trebuchets approached under the protection of the rebels' heavy soldiers, and lined up with the feather arrows fired by the defenders' archers, loaded and threw stones, smashed stone bullets of different sizes on the city wall, and bombarded the defenders on the city wall. The defenders could not place the rope-length trebuchets on top of the relatively narrow city walls, and could not effectively suppress the rebel trebuchets, so they could only desperately cover the rebel trebuchet team with bows and arrows, and fight against the enemy for courage and human life.

Feather arrows and stone bullets in the sky came and went like rain, from time to time there were rebel soldiers who were shot by feather arrows, and from time to time there were defender soldiers who were hit by stone bullets thrown by the rebels, both sides were wounded soldiers gritting their teeth and stiffening, waiting for the opportunity to bandage their wounds again, and the dead soldiers were dragged away by their companions, and the vacancies they left were quickly filled by other companions, and in less than a moment, the deaths of both sides had reached dozens of people.

No one dared to retreat, because the generals on both sides knew that this battle was very important, and they all arranged a large number of supervision teams behind the combat team, and the swords and axes of the supervision team were sharpened, and whoever dared to retreat would seek death by himself.

Chen Yingliang, who once again took over the command from his distant uncle Pei Hongce, was extremely glad that the bed crossbow system was difficult, and he didn't have half a year to succeed, so the rebel team was not equipped with a bed crossbow, otherwise, Chen Yingliang really didn't know what to do with the bed crossbow with a range of 900 steps. At the same time, Chen Yingliang also wanted to temporarily withdraw the defenders of the city who were bombarded indiscriminately by the rebel trebuchet, leaving only the archers to reduce casualties, but Chen Yingliang did not dare to do so, because the experienced Li Zixiong did not give Chen Yingliang this opportunity at all, and as soon as the trebuchet attacked, the rebels' siege ant team had already gone out.

The siege team of the rebels is huge and well-layered, all kinds of light and heavy siege weapons are reasonably equipped and clearly organized, the offensive queue is as turbulent as a sea wave, Chen Yingliang plans according to the situation, calmly commands the defender team to resist the strong enemy by various means, the war drums above and below the city are beating, the sound of killing is shocking, the stones pierce the air, and the flying arrows draw a terrible arc to and fro, constantly taking away the lives of the soldiers on both sides of the attack and defense.

Countless light ladders set up the city wall, the rebel soldiers stepped on the ladder, the number was so large that from a distance, the city wall of the eastern capital was simply like a piece of sugar cubes crawling with ants, from time to time there were rebel soldiers falling from a height, with a beautiful scream, falling into the dense own team, one after another, a rebel soldier fell, and immediately two or even three rebel soldiers stepped on the ladder, the huge advantage of the rebel team in terms of strength and manpower was revealed at this moment.

One after another, the ladder trucks ignited a sky-high fire, but more and more huge ladder trucks were still rumbling towards the city walls, heavy and slow but unshakable approaching the walls of the eastern capital. It was also at this time that Chen Yingliang vaguely found that he might have fallen into Li Zixiong's da, and the rebel ladder trucks in front of him seemed to be some cannon fodder made of shoddy wood, relatively light and fast, but they successfully misled Chen Yingliang to waste a large number of valuable rockets on these cannon fodder ladder trucks.

Two expensive hook carts also joined the battlefield, and the heavy and huge iron hooks fell from the sky and smashed heavily on the front of the city wall, smashing the walls and smashing the city bricks, which also forced Chen Yingliang to use more precious dovetail torches and fire oil in advance, and intensively threw them to burn the hook cart, and started a firefighting and arson battle with the rebel team protecting the hook cart -- the city wall of the eastern capital was built by Chen Yingliang's distant uncle Pei Hongce himself, and Chen Yingliang certainly did not dare to guarantee how strong the wall built by the uncle of the big corrupt official could be -- in case he was as unlucky as Zhu Wenzheng, When guarding Hongdu, the tofu scum of the city wall reached the point where it could be cut down by a knife and axe, and Chen Yingliang couldn't cry anymore.

Relying on the huge strength and material advantage, the rebel soldiers who were attached to the siege began to rush up the city wall one after another, and at the same time, the rebel siege vehicles that were really strong and usable, and had also done a certain amount of fire treatment, had also begun to approach the city wall one after another, in such a critical situation, if it were not for the fact that the defenders had already brushed up a lot of experience points and had some experience, they might have already begun to collapse.

Chen Yingliang did not dare to take risks, and did not hesitate to mobilize the housekeeper to report the **** to the city to help the battle, and the two regiments of the national army rushed to the city wall under the leadership of Chen Zhihong and Zhao Yu, and helped the gradually loosening friendly team to re-stabilize the position, fiercely wielding knives, guns and iron axes, cutting down one enemy after another and stabbing down the city wall.

The Anximen side in the northwest was already killing like thunder, and Hui'anmen was too far away to hear the sound, but Chen Yingliang understood that the war over there was definitely not easy, and at the same time, Chen Yingliang couldn't go to Anximen and Hui'anmen's friendly troops to provide reinforcements that were even a soldier, so he could only secretly pray that the defenders over there could fight for strength, and don't show their flaws and be created by the rebels.

Chen Yingliang has a way to retreat, and the imperial city of the eastern capital, where the city defense is stronger, is the retreat left by Fan Zigai for Chen Yingliang, but as a modern person who has been completely brainwashed by modern education, Chen Yingliang can't bear to let these Sui soldiers who fought side by side die in vain, and bear the sky-high anger of Yang Xuangan's rebels for himself.

The sky is getting dark, the defenders of Shangchun Gate have repelled the rebels' three rounds of attacks, but the experienced veteran general Li Zixiong commanded effectively, each time is skillfully pinched the time, the previous wave of troops just retreated, the latter wave of siege rebels immediately pounced, there is almost no gap between the rotations, the defenders do not say that they are resting and eating, they just want to drink saliva to moisten the hoarse neck, it is also an extremely difficult thing.

The rebel brigade lit torches, and the mountains were densely packed, denser than the stars in the sky, and the plan for wheel warfare and night battle was directly told to the defenders of Shangchunmen.

"Summons to report to **** ......."

Chen Yingliang originally wanted to order the exhausted Zhao Yu and Chen Zhihong's team to be replaced to rest, but when the words came to his mouth, Chen Yingliang suddenly stopped, and at the same time, Chen Yingliang's pupils also contracted suddenly, because Chen Yingliang suddenly saw that another huge rebel team came out of the battle and began to charge towards the southern section of Shangchun Gate, where the moat had not been filled, and at the same time, by the last light before the night, Chen Yingliang also clearly saw that the rebel team carried a large number of trench and bridge vehicles, which could allow them to cross the river directly!

"it! Old fox! After scolding the treachery of the old general Li Zixiong, Chen Yingliang, who really didn't expect the enemy to have such a trick, had no choice but to change his words and ordered: "Order Zhao Yu and Chen Zhihong's team to go to the southern section to help defend, and Guo Feng and Chen Ci's team to go to the city to reinforce the main battlefield in the northern section." ”

With the strong organizational discipline trained by his own hands, Chen Yingliang's orders were quickly executed, and the tired Chen Zhihong and Zhao Yu's team moved to the relatively relaxed southern section of the battlefield, resting while helping friendly troops resist the enemy's attack, while Guo Feng and Chen Ci's fresh forces joined the main battlefield. But in this way, Chen Yingliang no longer had a reserve available in his hands, and in desperation, Chen Yingliang had no choice but to order Xie Zichong: "General Xie, send someone to contact General Liu Changgong and ask him to send a thousand reserves over and wait for orders under the city." ”

"Okay." Xie Zichong, who was already trembling all over, nodded hurriedly, and quickly arranged for the captain of the pro-soldier to contact Liu Changgong, and then trembled Chen Yingliang and asked, "Brother Yingliang, the traitor attacks so fiercely, can we defend it?" ”

"Hold it, of course you can keep it." Chen Yingliang replied with a confident smile: "I still have a killer move that is useless, and it can turn things around." ”

"Killer? What's the killer feature? Xie Zichong was stunned and hurriedly asked, "Brother Yingliang, why don't you use it now?" Use your killer weapon to fight off the traitors, and at least let our brothers rest for a while, eat and drink. ”

"It's not the time yet." Chen Yingliang shook his head, naturally he didn't dare to tell Xie Zichong that his killer weapon was actually just a trick to deceive the soldiers of the army.

"Reinforcements are coming! Our reinforcements are coming! ”

Before Chen Yingliang's words were finished, there was a sudden chaotic shouting on the side of the road in the upper city, and then a large group of civil and military officials in the eastern capital wearing court clothes rushed to the city wall in a mess under the personal leadership of Fan Zigai, and shouted behind the defenders, "Reinforcements are coming!" Our reinforcements are coming! Soldiers, hold on! Our reinforcements have arrived! Our reinforcements have arrived! ”

shouted, and many of the civil and military forces in the eastern capital also cried.

"Soldiers, kill the enemy!" Fan Zigai, who was tall and tall, roared the loudest, and also roared out a cry, "Soldiers, fight bravely to kill the enemy!" Our reinforcements have arrived! ”

"Fan Liushou, why are you here now?" Chen Yingliang was taken aback, hurriedly stepped forward and grabbed Fan Zigai, and reminded nervously: "Fan stays behind, it's not time yet, we can still hold on, this trick is useless if it is used once, it can only be used at a critical moment!" ”

"It's not a trick! Not a trick! ”

Fan Zigai hugged Chen Yingliang, and directly lifted the thin Chen Yingliang up, laughing and crying vigorously and shaking desperately, crying with old tears, "Silly boy! This is not a trick! It's our reinforcements that have really arrived! Right Wuhou General Qu Tutong! has already taken the elite main force of Youwuhou to the Luoyang battlefield! ”

"Really? Are our reinforcements really arriving? Chen Yingliang was stunned, so surprised that he didn't even hear the rebel arrows whistling in his ears, and after a long time, Chen Yingliang, who had been under great pressure, also oozed two tears from the corners of his eyes.

By the way, the rebel army's arrows should have hit Chen Yingliang's face, but Fan Zigai held Chen Yingliang and shook it indiscriminately, driving Chen Yingliang's little head to move, and the arrows that could have changed the course of history flew past Chen Yingliang's ears.

The sky has no eyes!