Liaodong City is like a stone in a latrine, black and stench.

The long war has stained the walls of this lonely city with human blood, and black flies and mosquitoes are looking for food on the black blood stains. Whenever a stone or crossbow bolt fell, the bloodthirsty insects "coaxed" and flew into the sky like smoke and dust, and together with the flying gravel and dirt, obscured the pale sun.

This is by no means a comfortable view, but Li Xu has to face it every day. Now, he is the commander of a battalion, with 10,000 soldiers and more than 2,000 auxiliaries under his command, and he can no longer sneak back to his camp to sleep if he feels bored like in the initial stage of the last Liaodong War.

But on the battlefield, he did have nothing to do. The Goguryeo people blocked all the gates of Liaodong City with stones and mud, and the Great Sui soldiers did not need to be alert to a possible enemy attack. But they could not attack the city of Liaodong, although outside the city there was a Yuliang Avenue built by soldiers with mud and sand, along which you could walk step by step to the city wall. But the Goguryeo people defended it smartly, and they divided the city wall into small sections with wooden fences and sandbags, and the Sui army that attacked the city either stood on the city and endured the blows of feathered arrows from the enemy towers on both sides, or continued to move forward and jumped off the wall of more than two zhang. If you want to expand the results on both sides of the city, you can't.

In the inner part of the city near the city walls, the Goguryeo people dug numerous trenches and demolished all the houses near the city walls. Those who dare to jump into the city will be chopped to pieces, if not immediately to death, by the enemy who swarm them. Therefore, in the face of the black Liaodong City, the soldiers and horses of the Great Sui were still at a loss after the arrival of the new army.

Five days ago, when the Xiaoguo camp first arrived at Goguryeo, several Lang generals were arguing to join the first wave of siege. Lord Yeluhu, the squire of the military department who came to introduce the battle situation, said that the Goguryeo soldiers in the city have become the last of the strong crossbows. As long as my Great Sui warriors launch another wave of charges, they can take the entire city.

"The first achievement, upgrade to three levels, reward 10,000 households!" There is no one who is not red-eyed under the huge reward. Except for a general surnamed Pei and General Li Lang, who has no foundation, the remaining eight Lang generals will compete for this first merit. General Pei does not fight for merit because he has a prominent family background, and he already has the title of Doctor Guanglu in his body, so he can't compete with the juniors. As for the reason why Li Lang will not fight, it is because he is self-aware. Countless children of famous families have not yet taken their turn, how can he, a rootless newcomer, have the opportunity to show his eyes?

The narrow Yuliang Road could not accommodate too many soldiers and horses to attack at the same time, so after the coordination of the Ministry of War, the warriors of the eight battalions who were actively engaged in the battle were divided into eight shifts, and each squad attacked for one day. If the offensive of any battalion could not last a whole day, it was up to the next general to lead the troops on top.

On the first day, the Zhechong Xiaoguo Battalion, led by a Lang general from the Tianshui Zhao clan, took the lead in attacking the city. The offensive lasted from noon to midnight, and more than 3,000 Xiaoguo were killed on both sides of Yuliang Avenue, and could not add another half a point to the gap in the city. After midnight, Zhao surnamed Lang will hide his face and cry, admit defeat, and tie himself to the Chinese army to plead guilty. His Majesty the Emperor smiled and relieved him, and ordered the three armies to rest and fight again tomorrow.

The next day, Guo Yilang led Yuan Wei under the cover of a strong bow and crossbow to lead his corporal to the city, trying to pile up a road down the city on the other side of the city wall. The soldiers were exhausted after a busy day, and all the dirt bags thrown into the city were pushed away by the Goguryeo people in the city with wheelbarrows. Before it got dark, Yuan Wei admitted that he was defeated and took the initiative to ask the Chinese army to plead guilty. Yang Guang saw the face of the late Neishi Ling Yuanshou and forgave him.

Lang Jiang, who was drawn to the third round of attack, is named Yu Shize, and is a cousin of Yu Shiji, the current waiter of the Inner History. With the siege lessons of the first two generals, he did not dare to underestimate the enemy anymore, and on the one hand asked the commander to suppress the Goguryeo army near Yuliang Avenue with crossbows and stone cannons, and on the other hand, he sent dead soldiers to rush to the city with a ladder. However, the length of the ladder could not reach the ground inside the city, and Goguryeo dug the vicinity of the city wall much lower than the outside of the city. Yu Shi had no choice but to attack the obstacles erected by the Goguryeo people on the city wall, and after a day of bloody fighting, he destroyed twelve fences and demolished three sand barriers, but in the evening he was shot by a poisoned arrow at the front gate and died on the spot.

The Xiaoguo, who had not undergone strict training, retreated in a panic after the death of the main general, and there were more than 200 people who fell off Yuliang Road and were squeezed off the city wall by their own people.

Immediately after that, the fourth and fifth rounds of attacks returned in vain, and once the heroes who came with the heart of meritorious service found that the credit was not as easy as they thought, their morale dropped at a very fast speed. Today, less than an hour after the sixth round of the offensive was launched, Li Xu, who was watching the battle on the side, had already expected the failure of the offensive.

"We shouldn't just attack that. The more single the point of attack, the more beneficial it is for the defender. Instead of leaving hundreds of thousands of troops under the city, it is better to use the Yuliang Road to attract the attention of the defenders and send surprise soldiers to attack the city from other directions. Or build a few more fish beams, and kill in the city in several directions at the same time! Li Xu muttered in a low voice to several low-level generals under his command.

The art of war is cloudy, and ten rules surround it. Considering the current difference in the number of soldiers between the enemy and the enemy, the most appropriate offensive strategy is to besiege the city rather than storm it. However, the weather suitable for fighting in the eastern Liaodong region was too short, and once the fighting continued into August, the sudden heavy snow was not a catastrophe for the soldiers of the Central Plains. Therefore, His Majesty the Emperor's choice of the strategy of storming Liaodong City is not necessarily wrong, but the means of storming are too simple.

"Your Excellency is very true, but no one will listen to us!" Murong Luo, the commander of the Xiongwu Battalion, responded in a low voice. He is a veteran with nearly 20 years of military experience, and since the expedition to Liao during the reign of the emperor, he has been wandering around the military rank of Liupin. Murong is a surname Hu, and the ancestors killed too much, so this surname has never been accepted by the families of the Central Plains. And Murong Luo himself has nothing to do with the Yuwen family, a dignitary in the army, so he is only a lieutenant after nearly ten years, and he can't enter the Sixth Army of the Son of Heaven, which has more opportunities for promotion. When Li Xu came to take up his new post in the Xiongwu Xiaoguo Battalion, the low-level generals who had been assigned to the camp tried to dismount the new commander. Murong Luo didn't dare to participate because he had no background. In the end, it was a blessing in disguise, and the people who took the lead in making trouble were all taken down by Li Xu's hot hands, but he and another Li Anyuan, who was from a relatively humble background, were promoted because of their low-key behavior.

Li Xu smiled helplessly, he knew that Murong Luo had a point. Although the time to squeeze into the sequence of the Great Sui generals was very short, Xu Zi had already felt the invisible wall around him. "Who is that kid who has shit luck, what great achievements has his father made, and what famous people have his ancestors produced?" Every morning, when he went to the Chinese army, the whispers of others made him uncomfortable. Although his identity as a descendant of the flying general Li Guang is genuine, one of the two Li surnames recognized by the Great Sui is the Li family of Zhaojun, and the other is the Li family of Langyou, which can be regarded as the same clan as the Li family in Shanggu, but they have had no contact for hundreds of years.

Gopinlang will be a "six-counselor" and will only have the opportunity to participate in the court meeting six times a month. And every morning when the army routinely counts, they can only stand in the penultimate position on the west side of the ranks of military generals. The penultimate is the place where the captains on duty in the Sixth Army of the Son of Heaven stand, and those captains of the inner government often disdain the generals of the outer government who are more than three levels higher than themselves.

There was no one to recommend him, and it was difficult for Li Xu to get the attention of His Majesty the Emperor when he was in the morning. Standing so far away that he often couldn't even hear what His Majesty the Emperor was saying. Therefore, he can't compete for credit and limelight, and it is not his turn to make suggestions.

"The cost of a multi-way assault is too great, and in the past two days, I have seen other soldiers and horses from all walks of life, all of whom are the children of good families who were temporarily recruited from the local area. Few people have ever been soldiers, and with such a high city wall, the opposing guard is a ruthless character who can fight habitually, and rushing up is also sent to death. Besides, now our morale is so low, there are few people who are really willing to step forward and work hard! Zhao Ziming, the chief of the Xiongwu Battalion, whispered to his own commander for analysis. He was recommended to Xuzi by General Xue Shixiong, and he looked like a tuberculosis ghost, but he had a lot of experience in officialdom and battlefield. When he first arrived at the city of Liaodong, the reason why Li Xu did not rush to grab the military order recklessly was thanks to the Bapin Record plot recommended by him and another Li family.

"Actually, it's okay, we won't get the opportunity to receive awards for meritorious service, at least there are no mistakes to make!" Zhang Xiu, the fifth baby, said with a smile. This kid is now Li Xu's chief of guard, although the number of people under his command is small, but his rank is a six-rank official recognized by the imperial court. Every year, there is a fixed salary to take, and the captains and soldiers of the same level in the army must also look up to it. So he's so satisfied with the current situation that he doesn't want to think about anything more at all.

"That's not possible, we can't talk to each other as a family now!" Don't look around Murong Luo and whisper. "The Xiaoguo battalion was formed temporarily, and it had to be disbanded after the pacification of Liaodong. If we don't have some actual credit, we will only have an official title left, and it will be difficult to make up for the real shortage in the internal and external governments in the future. After this battle, those foreign soldiers also had to be disarmed and returned to the fields in large numbers, and there were many generals who had nowhere to take office. Unless you have a big backer in the court, or you are willing to make money......"

"I'll try my best!" Li Xu looked at the people who were full of longing in his eyes and comforted him in a low voice. "Everyone has a dream of being out of the ordinary, sitting in this position, you must know what the people below need, and try not to disappoint them......" Before taking up his new post, Liu Hongji's advice was still echoing in his ears. Xuzi was a little melancholy, looking at the dark and foul-smelling Liaodong City, he had nothing to do.

"General Lee!" Murong Luo suddenly pushed him on the shoulder and called in a low voice.

Li Xu withdrew his gaze from a distance and saw several palace guards striding towards him. Those people were all of noble births, and they never wanted to associate with a poor child like Xuzi.

"The emperor ordered you to go to the Chinese army as soon as possible!" One of the guards in front said coldly.

"The last general obeys!" Li Xu stood solemnly, clenched his fists, and responded in a low voice. Changshi Zhao Ziming let out a light cough, and Zhang Xiu, the chief of the guard, hurriedly led someone to rush up, and grabbed the arm of the guard in front with a smile.

"A few generals are in a hurry to go back to reply to their orders, our family will ...... who has never seen the emperor before," Zhang Xiu smiled flatteringly, and stuffed a small ingot of yellow things into the palm of the guard's hand.

"Your Jialang will be young and promising" A smile immediately appeared on the face of the leading guard, and he clenched his hand, and with his good intuition of yellow and white things, he made an evaluation of Li Xu, "Actually, this is very simple, let's walk slowly, and I will explain to your Jialang at the same time......."

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