On the fourth watch, Tao Ai's hanging basket went down.

Li Zheng was camped several miles away, and he had to run all the way to it, and he was exhausted and out of breath after running for less than two miles.

Tao Aizhi supported his knees with both hands, bent over and gasped for breath, slowed down and continued to run.

"Ugh!"

Suddenly, Tao Aizhi was tripped up, and when he tried to get up again, he was already holding a knife against his throat.

The secret sentry of the Datong army has been hiding in the grass.

Tao Aizhi hurriedly said: "Take me to see the commander of your army, there is an urgent military situation to tell!" ”

As soon as these words came out, the dark sentry did not dare to delay, immediately searched Tao Aizhi's weapon, and then ran to his own camp with him.

Knowing Tao Aizhi's identity, Li Zheng was quite surprised, and couldn't help laughing: "You actually dare to go out of the city, aren't you afraid that the governor will kill your brothers?" ”

"Huhuhuhuhu......"

Tao Aizhi is almost tired, although he is young and strong, but after all, he is a literati, and he has long exceeded the limit of his physical fitness after running for several miles.

After entering the camp, Tao Aizhi changed to walk slowly, and walked into the handsome tent still panting. He relieved himself for a while, calmed down a little, and arched his hand: "I lied and surrendered, made an appointment with the governor, and lured the general to attack the city in three days." ”

Li Zheng asked, "Then when do you think you should attack the city?" ”

"Please send troops immediately, tonight the fifth watch day to attack the city, the governor will never think of it!" Tao Aizhi said.

Tao Aizhi left the city at half past two at night, running and stopping all the way, and when he met Li Zheng, it was almost 3 o'clock. He asked Li Zheng to attack the city on the fifth watch, which was equivalent to the Datong army gathering at night, carrying the siege ladder and running for several miles, which must take about two hours in total.

"Tonight?" Li Zheng didn't dare to gamble, he didn't know much about Tao Aizhi, and he didn't know much about the situation in the city.

The most important thing is that Tao Aizhi took his whole family into the city in order to gain the governor's trust, and Li Zheng had no hostages in his hands at all.

Time was pressing, Tao Aizhi said anxiously: "General, don't hesitate, quickly tie me up, I will be a hostage myself." If it fails, kill me. Tonight is a great opportunity, the governor knows that I will go out of the city on the fourth watch, and he will never think that the general will attack the city on the fifth watch! ”

Tao Aizhi was willing to be a hostage himself, Li Zheng was finally moved when he heard it, and asked, "Tell me about your strategy." ”

Tao Aizhi quickly explained: "Governor Wang Zhiliang is very cautious, and the more than 11,000 defenders in the city are divided into three groups to defend the city in turn, and the guards are changed every morning and evening. Moreover, it is only two quarters of an hour before the change of defense that it is known which team is practicing which defense where. There were no gates of the urn city, and they were all blocked by him. The gates of the city were guarded by the soldiers he brought with him. ”

"It's a guy who can defend the city, no wonder you haven't done it." Li Zheng nodded.

Tao Aizhi continued: "Tonight, my second brother guards one place in the south city, the third brother guards one place in the north city, and the fourth brother rests in the military camp in the city. I have already ordered that three torches will be lit on the southern city wall on the fifth watch. As long as the general attacks the southern city, the fourth brother will set fire to the city, the second brother will meet the general in the southern city, and the third brother will wait for an opportunity to disrupt the situation in the northern city. ”

"Who else knows about this besides you four brothers?" Li Zheng asked.

"Only a few henchmen and house slaves know, the general can rest assured, they will definitely not leak secrets." Tao Aizhi said very firmly.

Twenty years ago, there were only four men left in the Tao family, and one of them was an old man who was dying.

The tens of thousands of acres of land of the Tao family are all supported by henchmen and slaves. They were afraid of the domestic slaves and tenants making trouble, so they treated people very leniently, and the monthly money of the domestic slaves and the land rent of the tenants were the best for a radius of tens of miles.

Moreover, the few henchmen in the army, Tao Aizhi promised a long time ago. As long as they help the Datong army to seize Changsha, and return them to their freedom afterwards, the mood of these domestic slaves is more urgent than Tao Aizhi.

"Assemble the point army, don't bring baggage, only the siege ladder, and set off immediately after the assembly!"

After Li Zheng made up his mind, he immediately took action.

He didn't tie Tao Aizhi either, he just threw him in the camp and let the grain transport team take care of it.

In fact, there are not many soldiers in Li Zheng's hands, only 1,500 regular soldiers, 1,500 peasant soldiers, and the rest are all people's grain transportation teams. Originally, there were 2,000 regular soldiers and peasant soldiers, but each divided 500 to go south to help Huang Mi attack Xiangtan.

There were only 3,000 soldiers left, but 11,000 defenders were so frightened that they did not dare to come out.

Because Wang Zhiliang, Wang Qisheng and others did not think that there were only 3,000 thieves. They also counted Li Zheng's grain transportation team, and in general there were nearly 10,000 troops.

It can indeed be calculated that Li Zheng's grain transportation team is estimated to be more powerful than the newly formed regimental courage in the city after entering the battle, at least the combat enthusiasm is much higher.

Three thousand soldiers, assembled at night, brought up the ladder, it took a total of 30 minutes, and there was still an hour and a half left.

Li Zheng personally led the troops, not hurrying or slow, moving forward quickly, and there was no need to run.

It's only a few miles, and it takes an hour and a half to arrive, which is more than enough time.

There is a small river to cross in the middle, and there are dozens of Li Zheng's small boats by the river.

These boats, assembled at night at Xiaohe, were not far from Li Zheng's camp. During the day, they dispersed the Liuyang River and Xiangjiang River as sentinel boats to investigate the news movements in various places.

The more than 7,000 regiments that were attacked and routed by Hu Dinggui at night practiced and spent most of the day crossing a small river.

And Li Zheng's 3,000 people crossed the river at night in only 40 minutes.

came to the ambush outside the city, and it was not yet five watches, Li Zheng asked all his soldiers to lie on the ground, but the mosquito bite at night made people upset.

Li Zheng took out a clairvoyant mirror to observe, waited for a long time, and finally saw the direction of the south city wall, and lit three torches as a signal.

"Quick!"

All the soldiers, with bamboo slices in their mouths, silently followed Li Zheng to trot and charge.

Before he could reach the moat, he was spotted by the defenders who were on guard.

"Dangdang, dang, dang!"

A gong sounded on the tower, and a sentry shouted in terror: "The thieves are coming, the thieves are coming!" ”

The defenders in the city panicked, but they were much better than the Xiangtan side, and they did not collapse and flee directly. The main thing is the conscience of the king, the city defense matters are well arranged, and the regimental training gentry are also taught various ways to deal with it.

Wang Zhiliang ate and lived on the city tower, and after he was awakened, he saw the chaos everywhere, and immediately ordered: "It's too late to heat the oil and gold juice, and prepare to throw stones and rolling wood." Also, all the soldiers in the city who are resting in turn are called to defend the city! ”

These orders were conveyed by Wang Zhiliang's henchmen, and the defenders of the nearby city walls gradually settled down.

But there was chaos in the city, and Tuan Yong, who was resting in turn, was almost blown up by the sound of the city. The prefect Wang Qisheng and the prefect Yang Guanji each took officials to pacify, and at the same time organized officials to carry out various auxiliary work.

Changsha City is very lucky, the governor, the prefect, and the prefect of the county are all officials who can do things and dare to do things.

At this moment, a fire suddenly broke out in the city, which made the rest of the group Yong, who had not yet assembled, chaotic again in the city, and the prefect and the prefect could only lead people to extinguish the fire first.

Wang Zhiliang felt that something was wrong, and all kinds of signs indicated that there must be thieves in the city.

He subconsciously thought of Tao Aizhi, but he couldn't believe it.

Because the Tuan Yong raised by the Tao family accounts for forty percent of the total number of defenders in the city, once the Tao family is a thief, how can Changsha City be able to hold it?

Moreover, the Tao family is a local family, with tens of thousands of acres of land, how can they risk being a thief?

What's more, Tao Aizhi went out on the fourth watch, and the thieves came on the fifth watch. This kind of night march without prior preparation, and it has to be carried out so quickly, Wang Zhiliang asked himself if he couldn't do it, how highly disciplined those soldiers were!

Wang Zhiliang walked towards the section of the city wall of the Tao family's army, and was immediately furious: "The thief dares!" ”

All sections of the city wall have been lit one after another, but the section of the Tao family army is darker. None of the braziers were lit, but three torches were erected, apparently to give signals.

500 peasant soldiers made a feint attack on another section of the city wall, and the remaining 2,500 Datong troops all rushed to the place where there was a torch signal.

Tao Weizhi didn't pretend anymore, and shouted hard: "Sons, follow me to kill officials and rebel." ”

"Kill, the young master has already taken refuge in King Zhao!" A few henchmen shouted that they belonged to the grassroots commanders.

The Tao family army was originally dazed and frightened, but under the shouts of the domestic slaves, they quickly reacted that the thieves attacking the city were their own people. The 1,000 Tao family troops here quickly killed the friendly troops next to them, and suddenly caught the friendly troops off guard.

said that we would defend the city together, how did you become thieves?

The gentry surnamed Zhang, who was further away, quickly understood what was happening. He felt that the officers and soldiers would be defeated, and in order to save the family, he hurriedly shouted: "Sons, follow me to Zhao Tianwang!" Kill! ”

The Tao army had 1,000 men, and the Zhang army had 500 men, flanking the friendly troops in the middle.

The leader of the Tuanyong in the middle is surnamed Li, who was brought by the governor Wang Zhiliang, and the main purpose is to separate the local Tuanyong, but now he is facing an inexplicable attack. The group warriors only resisted a little, and then they knelt on the ground and surrendered, and a few were killed in a hurry and jumped directly off the wall, and if they fell down, they would at least break their legs.

Wan Sitong, Hu Dinggui, and Chen Fugui have successfully landed in the city, and the addition of Datong's soldiers has completely lost the suspense of the battle.

At this moment, the fire in the city has not been extinguished, and most of the regimental warriors who are on rest are in chaos, most of them run to fight the fire, a small number go to the city tower to help the battle, and some escape into the houses to hide.

Wang Zhiliang wanted to gather troops to resist, but Tao Yunfeng suddenly rebelled in Beicheng.

The fire and chaos in the city, the battle on the north wall, the battle on the south wall, created the illusion that there were anti-thieves everywhere. The regimental warriors, who had not been trained for a few days at all, were so frightened that they fled one by one, and they left the city walls, trying to run to open the city gates.

The city gate defenders, although they were all brought by Wang Zhiliang, also belonged to the regimental courage that was temporarily arranged. Instead of preventing the opening of the city, they took the initiative to open the gates of the city and desert it in the darkness.

"Surrender, we surrender!"

The Datong soldiers, with the Tao family army and the Zhang family army, defeated two groups of enemies in the south city wall one after another. The rest will not fight, flee if they can, and surrender and beg for mercy if they can't.

Wang Zhiliang was preparing to fight desperately, and the soldiers around him fled one after another, and a few black-hearted people simply pressed Wang Zhiliang to the ground.

"Surrender, we surrender, we have captured the governor!"

Li Zheng glanced at the city and said to Tao Weizhi: "You take people to put out the fire, and all the officers and soldiers who surrendered will also go to fight the fire!" ”

Wang Zhiliang stopped struggling, closed his eyes and waited for death, he felt that he was finally free.