On the second day, the wind blew so violently that even the flags rattled, and the Yongjun array retreated three hundred steps away from the Xiangyang city wall, when suddenly the shield array of the front army opened to both sides, making way for people to walk.

The atmosphere suddenly became very solid, Li Siye rode on a horse and high-fived, and a trembling old woman walked out of the army with a crutch, and slowly walked to the city wall and stood still.

The Tang soldiers on the city wall were still wondering what it meant by the enemy army sending an old woman, and the guard general Zhang Xun suddenly became nervous, leaned on the wall battlements and looked carefully, and shouted loudly in surprise: "Mother! ”

"Mother! The child is unfilial, and you are trapped in the enemy camp. ”

The old woman staggered to the city wall, her figure staggered more and more, Zhang Xun's eyes were like bricks, and he swung his fist hatefully and smashed it on the battlement.

Guo Ziyi said in annoyance: "Next! Even as hostile sides, they can't do such a thing, Li Siye disregards human morality, and can be described as a beast! ”

The servant behind him, Gu Huaien, snorted and said, "What is a traitor who is not a brute? ”

The old lady's thin body stood between the two armies, and took on the mission that she shouldn't have undertaken, and said in a hoarse voice: "Son, my mother shouldn't have come to this place at this time, but the people of our Zhang family in Puzhou were all tied up by Li Siye to Xiangyang City, and their lives were threatened to persuade your mother to surrender, and my mother had no choice." ”

After she said this, there was a deathly silence in the entire Xiangyang City, and someone quietly turned their eyes to Zhang Xun, and Guo Ziyi also glanced at Zhang Xun gloomily. He wasn't worried that Zhang Xun would really surrender to Li Siye for the sake of the clan. Before deciding to call Zhang Xun to guard Xiangyang, Guo Ziyi had already learned all of his personal experiences, and it could also be concluded that this person was a man who was loyal and righteous and would never turn his back on the imperial court.

But this kind of behavior will have a disgusting impact on the morale of the army, making the officers and soldiers of the army worry that Zhang Xun will not sell them to save their families' lives.

"Mother, loyalty and filial piety can't be both, and sons can't ......"

The old lady suddenly spoke: "How can my mother not know the truth that loyalty and filial piety cannot be both, whether it is my crippled body or the Zhang clan, how can I compare with the Tang Sheji?" But if my mother does not take advantage of this opportunity to come, how can I see that you are safe and sound, and I can see my son, I will be satisfied. ”

"Although my mother is old and dizzy, how can I not know the righteousness, my son is loyal to defend the city for the country and resist rebellion, and I can't drag you back."

The old woman's heart was crossed, and she suddenly pulled out the step on her bun and was about to poke it at the neck, but the two soldiers standing behind her were startled and hurriedly went up and grabbed her arm. It was also because she was really old, she was slow and no longer agile, and they grabbed her arm and took away the hairpin.

"Hurry!" Li Siye hurriedly shouted to stop: "Don't let her commit suicide, bring the old lady back." ”

The two soldiers helped the old lady back to the military formation, and Zhang Xun looked at his mother's emaciated back, and his heart was so uncomfortable that he was about to be broken.

Li Siye's method of using his relatives to coerce Zhang Xun failed, not only could he not hold the other party hostage, but made Zhang Xun hate him even more and strengthened his determination to defend the city.

He had to stop today's siege and ordered someone to send the clansmen of the Zhang clan in Puzhou and Zhang's mother to escort them back to the north.

Of course, Li Siye's methods are not the only ones, he played Guo Xi's card in front of Xiangyang City, and asked Guo Xi to go out to persuade him to surrender as a doctor of imperial history.

Today's Guo Xi is no longer the young man he was at the beginning, and he has no original spirit, not afraid of life and death. At the beginning, he was bent on dying after being captured, but after being escorted to Chang'an by Li Siye, the other party did not mean to kill him, but gave him a high-ranking official Houlu, and at the same time built a high-rise mansion for him, and selected beauties from all over the country to fill it.

Guo Xi insisted on not accepting it at first, but the warbler Yanyan in front of him was fascinated by the flowers, and the beauties sent by Li Siye tried every means to get close to him, and finally Guo Sangongzi abandoned the bottom line and began to enjoy it under the double blow of extravagant life and carnal desire, and he himself also compromised with Li Siye, which was finally corrupted and degenerated.

As the saying goes, after the surrender, Guo Xi had to write to his father Guo Ziyi according to Li Siye's request, and implicitly persuaded him to surrender in his words, but Guo Ziyi replied and reprimanded him.

Of course, Li Siye's requirements for him were more than that, and this time he led his troops south to bring Guo Xi with him and ordered him to persuade his father Guo Ziyi to surrender.

He rode alone to the city and cried out to the city, "Father! The imperial court has never trusted you, and has secretly hindered you many times, otherwise how could you have been defeated to this point. King Yong respects your father very much, and only by abandoning the darkness and turning to the light can my Guo family carry it forward. ”

"Shut up!"

Guo Ziyi was so angry that his beard trembled, slapped his palm on the city wall, and the horse Guo Yu untied the longbow from his back, and shot at Guo Xi under the city with both hands: "Phew, shameless traitor!" You have disgraced your ancestors and fathers and thrown them home! I really want to slaughter you brute with one sword, so as not to let you continue to discredit the Guo family. ”

Guo Xi was full of shame, so he could only lead the horse back, came to Li Siye and said: "Lord, Guo Ziyi and Guo Yu have very hard scalps, and they refuse to give in, and they are really powerless to do anything about their humble duties. ”

Li Siye glanced at him coldly and waved his hand to let him step back.

They continued to attack Xiangyang with artillery, the city wall was crumbling in the artillery fire, and the fort tower that was destroyed by artillery fire during the day was organized by Zhang Xun to work overtime to build the wall at night. In the later stages of the siege, the supplies in the city became more and more barren, and they could not find glutinous rice to fill the gaps in the green bricks.

After three months of siege, Li Siye found that it was unlikely that he would be able to capture Xiangyang in a short period of time, and that he might fall into a protracted siege, and I was afraid that the siege was the only way to take Luoyang.

Jingmen Pass in the rear of Xiangyang is secretly providing Xiangyang with grain, grass, bricks and stones, and other materials, and in order to take Xiangyang, it is necessary to completely cut off the traffic around him, making it truly an isolated city.

He ordered Li Huaixian to lead 50,000 troops to bypass Xiangyang and attack Jingmen. Guo Ziyi got the news in advance and ordered Fugu Huaien to lead his troops to guard Jingmen to protect Xiangyang and the material passage in the rear, and prepare to go out of the city to fight to deal a brutal blow to the Yong army.

Li Siye further gathered troops around Xiangyang City, and the total strength had expanded to about 300,000 people.

Li Huaixian led only one of them, and he mobilized most of the Xuanwu artillery battalion to shell the city wall of Jingmen Pass. Because Jingmen was not prepared for war and the city wall was not repaired, it was quickly broken by Li Siye, and the passage from Jingzhou and Jiangcheng to Xiangyang was blocked, and Xiangyang became a lonely city completely.

Li Siye decided to leave Tian Chengsi, Duan Xiushi and Li Huaixian near Xiangyang, leaving 150,000 troops, and ordered the three of them to besiege Xiangyang City and not allow a single grain to enter the city. He scattered the rest of his forces along the Jiangbei coast and returned to Chang'an.

There are many reasons for Li Siye's return to Chang'an, but the most important thing is that his rule in the north is not yet stable, especially in the Central Plains, many officials still miss the Southern Tang Dynasty, new and old officials are mixed, and the big surnames of Shandong are dormant in the wilderness, and they are unwilling to go out of the mountains to wait and see.

At this juncture, the various knots assigned to the frontier are easily co-opted by some people, and there are still many undercurrents hidden under his seemingly imminent and stable regime.