As soon as Li Zhiyun walked into the front yard of the palace, he saw Princess Bohai walking over with the help of two guards. The princess wore an emerald green undergarment and a lake-colored eight-panel dress. She was already frightened, her hair was messy, her hairpin was crooked, her flowers were discolored, and her red lips trembled. The princess was carried to Li Zhiyun, and only shouted "cousin", and couldn't say anything.

Li Zhiyun said: "Sister-in-law, don't worry, you will be safe when you come to me." At this time, Wei Xiaobao and several princesses also rushed over when they heard the news. Li Zhiyun said to Wei Xiaobao: "Hurry up and arrange a room so that the princess can have a good rest." ”

"No need." The fifth sister stepped forward as she spoke, "There are many people here and there are few houses, so let the princess live with me." As she spoke, she called for a maid, and the two of them helped Princess Bohai to leave.

As night fell, Li Zhiyun convened the generals in the hall to discuss the military situation, and after everyone discussed tomorrow's plan to resist the enemy, Li Zhiyun said to Wei Xiaobao: "How long is there enough food in the palace?" ”

"Back to the prince, the food in the Chu Palace's mansion was originally enough to eat for three months, but now so many people have come at once, and the food consumption is extremely high. However, with the grain rushed from the camp of the New Army and some miscellaneous grains, it is estimated that it should not be a big problem to eat for another five or six days. ”

Li Zhiyun listened, nodded, and said, "How about sending people out of the city to ask for help?" ”

"None of the people sent out made it out of the city." Wei Xiaobao said, "The twelve gates of Chang'an City are occupied by the rebels, and they are also afraid that we will send people out of the city to ask for help, so the blockade is extremely strict, and everyone is not allowed to go out of the city." ”

Li Zhiyun couldn't help frowning when he heard this. Within a radius of hundreds of miles around Chang'an City, there were more than 100,000 Tang troops stationed, and as long as the reinforcements could arrive in time, Li Mi would become a turtle in an urn. But now that the news can't be delivered, what should I do?

At this time, Cai Hu spoke: "Let me go." Li Zhiyun looked at him and said, "Can you go out of the city?" Cai Hu's face was resolute: "Even if it is an iron wall, you can't stop me!" Li Zhiyun nodded and said, "Okay, go and come back quickly!" ”

Cai Hu returned to his residence, changed into a tight-fitting robe, then took a suspension rope and wrapped it around his waist, and left the house with a sword in his hand. When he came to the edge of the trench, he saw that the soldiers on both sides had lit bonfires, and the soldiers standing guard watched each other's every move with vigilance.

Cai Hu picked a place where the bonfire couldn't shine, and bowed quickly through the middle ground. A few feet away, a group of rebel soldiers was sitting around a campfire. A soldier turned his head and saw a black shadow flashing, and hurriedly shouted, "Someone! The other soldiers looked back, but saw nothing. The soldier rubbed his eyes, looked at them carefully, and laughed at himself: "Maybe it's my eyes." ”

Cai Hu walked through the rebel camp and along the street. The streets were empty, and there was not a single figure. The last quarter moon hangs like a rusty hook in the western sky. The doors of the houses on both sides of the street were closed, and there was no light in the windows of every house, and the huge city of Chang'an seemed to be an uninhabited dead city.

Cai Hu walked for a while and ran into a group of rebels patrolling the night. He hurriedly hid in a dark corner next to him, and waited for the rebel soldiers to walk past before continuing on. He came to the city wall, untied the sling that was tied to his waist, and threw it upwards with all his might. The iron claws of the suspension hooked the stomping moat in the city, and he pulled hard, then climbed up the rope.

Cai Hu climbed up to the top of the city, climbed over the city wall, and was just about to put away the suspension rope, when a group of patrolling rebels at the head of the city found him, and five or six soldiers rushed towards him with spears, Cai Hu hurriedly drew his sword to meet him. A soldier stabbed at him, Cai Hu quickly avoided the blade, and used the Wudang Taiji swordsmanship, a "Qiankun transfer", and the sword stabbed the soldier in the chest. Then, another "civet pounced on the mouse" and stabbed another soldier.

Cai Hu was like a ghost, his figure was erratic, and a soldier clearly saw him in front, and he was about to stab him, but there was no figure, and he was about to turn around to look for it, but a sword was cut on his neck. In this way, Cai Hu opened his bow left and right, and a ball of sword flowers knocked down those soldiers.

Cai Hu picked up the suspension rope and walked forward, but the fight just now had already alarmed the rebels in the city, and a large number of rebel soldiers rushed towards this side at both ends. Cai Hu hurriedly hung the battlements on the outer edge of the city wall with his iron claws, grabbed the rope and slid down. By the time he had slipped two feet above the ground, the rebels had rushed to him, and one of the soldiers had slashed the rope with a sword. Cai Hu felt that the suspension rope had lost its strength, and hurriedly kicked the city wall with both feet, and his body drew a graceful arc in the air, landing steadily on the ground.

The rebels at the head of the city began to release arrows, and Cai Hu retreated while swinging his sword to block the arrows. He retreated to the moat, turned and jumped into the river, and swam across the ditch. He climbed onto the opposite bank, wrung out his wet clothes, and continued on his way.

The night was dark, there was silence all around, and two shrill howls of night owls could be heard in the distance. Cai Hu walked a hundred or ten steps, suddenly heard a rapid sound of horses' hooves, turned his head and saw that a group of rebel cavalry galloped over, about a dozen cavalry.

Cai Hu hid behind a big tree, and the cavalry galloped past the tree. When the last cavalryman passed, he dodged from behind the tree, leaped into the air, kicked the enemy off his horse, sat firmly on his horse, and then pulled the reins, turned his horse's head and galloped away. When the rebel cavalry found that their companions' horses had been robbed and wanted to chase after them, Cai Hu had already galloped a hundred feet away.

Cai Hu grasped the reins with both hands, clamped the horse's belly with his legs, drove the horse to gallop wildly, and galloped towards Huazhou in the vast night.

Li Zhiyun stayed awake all night, and in the early morning, he went to the terrace and used binoculars to observe the movements of the rebels around him. The sun was up, and the rebels were slow to attack. Li Zhiyun estimated that the rebels suffered heavy losses yesterday and had to act cautiously today. Throughout the morning, the rebels launched only three attacks, all of which were easily repulsed by the Forces nouvelles. The rebels' offensive became weaker and weaker each time, and in the end they simply stopped moving, and the whole battlefield fell silent.

Li Zhiyun pointed the telescope in the direction of the palace, unlike the palace of Chu, the battle on the side of the palace has not stopped, and the two sides have been fighting at night, shouting and killing all night. The rebels gathered a large number of troops and horses and attacked the palace day and night, trying to seize it in one fell swoop.

The imperial palace consists of two parts, one is the palace city, the other is the imperial city, the palace city is the place where the emperor carries out government activities and holds banquets, the imperial city is the place where the emperor and his concubines live, commonly known as the "harem", and the imperial city and the palace city are collectively called the "imperial palace".

Li Zhiyun saw that the rebels not only attacked the city with a ladder, but also brought in a crash and violently stormed the Suzaku Gate. As the Praetorian Guard of the Imperial Palace, the Shence Army did not expect the Imperial Palace to be attacked so fiercely, so they did not have much equipment to defend the city in normal times, and could only rely on bows and crossbows and broadswords and spears. The walls of the imperial palace were not as tall as the walls of Chang'an, only two zhang high, and many rebel soldiers climbed the walls and engaged in hand-to-hand combat with the Shence army at the head of the city.

In the afternoon, the rebels' attack became even more frenzied, Li Zhiyun saw in the telescope that the flags were waving in front of the Suzaku Gate, and the rebels not only used the crash, but also set fire to the gate, and the city gate was already full of holes and became precarious. This situation made Li Zhiyun uneasy. He is no longer worried about the Chu Palace, and now he is most worried about the palace, Abba and Aunt are all in the palace, so the palace must not be lost. He put down the binoculars and said to Scarface, "Let's go, let's go to the headquarters to discuss." ”

Several people walked down the terrace and into the hall. Li Zhiyun asked Li Tieniu and several other generals to be called over, and everyone sat around a desk with a map of Chang'an City on it. Li Zhiyun got straight to the point: "According to the scouts, the rebels attacked the Chu Wangfu with 10,000 people and attacked the palace with 30,000 people. Fearing the firearms of the new army, I estimate that they will adopt a strategy of encircling but not attacking the palace of the Chu king, and instead concentrate their forces to attack the palace. The enemy has changed and we have changed, we cannot passively defend, we must take the initiative to attack. ”

When Li Tieniu heard this, he shouted happily: "Lord Wang, you are so right, we should have killed it a long time ago, so that we can be happy!" Other generals also agreed.

"However, there can be no mistakes in the Chu Palace." Li Zhiyun said, "Therefore, this king decided to leave three battalions to guard the palace and arsenal of the king of Chu, and the remaining one regiment plus one battalion to attack in the northwest direction. ”

"Lord Wang, are we going to relieve the siege of the palace?" A general asked.

Li Zhiyun shook his head and said, "With the amount of strength we have, we can't do this. However, the Little Wild Goose Pagoda must be captured. As he spoke, he pointed to the map with his hand, "The Little Wild Goose Pagoda is located between the Chu Palace's palace and the imperial palace, and if we occupy the Little Wild Goose Pagoda, we can set up artillery positions and support the palace with artillery fire." Let's go back and get ready and start tomorrow morning. ”

As soon as Li Zhiyun finished deploying, a guard ran in in a panic to report: "Lord Wang, Zhu Cuimen has been lost." When Li Zhiyun heard this, he was shocked, and hurriedly said to Zhang Zheng: "Let's go, let's go and have a look!" With that, he walked out of the hall and went to the terrace with the guard.

They climbed onto the terrace, and Li Zhiyun raised his binoculars to look in the direction of the palace, only to see that the Suzaku Gate had been smashed open, and the rebels poured in like a tide. The loss of Suzaku Gate means that the palace city has fallen, and only the imperial city remains. If the Chengtian Gate of the Imperial City is lost again, the situation will be unimaginable.

Li Zhiyun was very anxious, and the pressure in his heart was as heavy as a mountain. Coming down from the terrace, he and Zhang Zheng were going to check the readiness of the battalions. The two walked on the corridor of the garden and happened to meet the fifth sister. The fifth sister was in a hurry, looking around, as if she was looking for someone, and when she saw him, she said, "Zhiyun, I have found you." I heard that Miyagi fell, what happened to Abba and Grandma? ”

"They're okay for the time being, the Imperial City is still in our hands."

"And what about the loss of the Imperial City? Zhiyun, you have to think of a way! ”

"Sister, don't worry, I'm thinking of a way. Go back to the house, I've got something to do. Li Zhiyun said and hurriedly walked forward.

The fifth sister shouted behind him with a crying voice: "Zhiyun, you must save Abba and Grandma!" ”

"Got it".