When he arrived at the camp for wounded soldiers, Abba led the way into the tent, only to see many wounded soldiers lying on the wooden beds on both sides of the aisle. Grandma and some concubines and palace maids are bandaging the wounded soldiers. The queen passed away half a year ago, and Grandma is now the master of the harem. In order to motivate the fighting spirit of the soldiers, she led her concubines and palace maids to come over to assist the imperial doctor in caring for the wounded.

When Grandma saw Abba, she hurriedly walked over, and after saluting, she said, "Your Majesty, you see, so many people are injured. Can we hold the Imperial City? Abba said with a solemn face: "I don't know if I can defend it, but I will fight to the last breath!" ”

At this time, there was a rumbling sound in the distance, which was dull but clear. Everyone listened for a while, and Pei Lin said, "It's thunder, right?" Liu Wenjing rolled her eyes and said, "On a sunny day, what kind of thunder?" ”

"Then you say, what is this sound?"

"How do I know?"

The eldest brother said: "It seems to be coming from outside the imperial city." Abba waved his hand: "Let's go, go to the city." Grandma hurriedly said: "Your Majesty, the concubines also want to go." ”

"Okay".

Everyone re-ascended to the top of the city, and Abba raised his eyes to look into the distance, only to see in the direction of the Little Wild Goose Pagoda, clouds of blue smoke drifting in the air, and from time to time there were dots of firelight flashing. Outside the Imperial City, columns of smoke rose from time to time, and the air waves from the explosion threw the shattered limbs into the air. The rebel soldiers panicked and scurried, and many of the soldiers who were climbing the ladder jumped and fled for their lives.

Grandma stood beside Abba and was surprised: "Your Majesty, what's going on?" Abba looked at it for a while, and said in an affirmative tone: "This is the cannon of Zhiyun's new army." ”

Cannon? Grandma heard Li Zhiyun mention it, and I only saw it with my own eyes today, which is really an eye-opener! Abba had a long-lost smile on his face, and he said confidently: "With the support of artillery, we will definitely be able to hold the imperial city!" ”

Huazhou, Xiaoji Camp. The gloomy sky was dotted with stars and moons, and there was silence in the barracks. At this moment a group of soldiers on night patrol approached, and the rustling of footsteps broke the silence, and the sound of a horse's sneeze or two in the distant stables sounded very clear.

In the Chinese military tent, Yong'an King Li Xiaoji is studying the "Spring and Autumn Period", in front of the black and shiny lacquer table, placed the four treasures of the study, the left corner of the table is erected purple wood arrow box, inserted in the twenty fire card arrows, on the right corner of the table, inserted two thumb-thick gold and red candles.

The curtain was lifted, and a night breeze blew the candle flame a few times, and after a while, it burned steadily again. It was a young general who came in, he walked to the desk, hugged his fists and said, "Lord Wang, someone from Chang'an is here." Li Xiaoji put down the book in his hand and said, "Please." The general turned his head and shouted outside, "Come in." ”

After a while, Cai Hu was helped in by a soldier. One hundred and eighty miles from Chang'an to Huazhou, he didn't stop all the way, the horses were tired to death in the middle of the road, and in the last thirty miles, he could only walk. Cai Hu staggered to the table, pushed away the soldiers, knelt down in his clothes, and said with his fists clenched: "Cai Hu, the advisor of the Chu Palace, joins the army, see the king of Yong'an County." Li Xiaoji hurriedly stood up, walked around the wide table to Cai Hu, helped him up, and said: "Cai joins the army, please get up, this king knows you, last time this king was captured in Xia County, you saved this king with Zhiyun." Cai Hu nodded and said, "Lord Wang, Li Mi rebelled and invaded Chang'an City, and the King of Chu sent a humble post to ask for help. ”

Yes? When Li Xiaoji heard this, he was taken aback and said, "No wonder this king sent several groups of scouts, and he didn't find out the whereabouts of the Wagang rebels, it turned out that they went to Chang'an." He pondered for a moment and said, "Don't worry, Cai joins the army, this king will immediately send troops to reinforce Chang'an." ”

"Thank you, Lord Xie, then I will resign from my humble position."

"Where are you going?"

"Jingzhou."

Li Xiaoji hurriedly said: "Cai joins the army, you are tired, let this king send someone to Jingzhou to deliver the letter for you." Cai Hu shook his head and said, "No, the humble body can still withstand it." It's just that the lowly horse ran away and died on the road, so I asked the prince to borrow a horse. ”

"What's so hard about that?" Li Xiaoji turned his head to the general and said, "Go, let people bring this king's jade unicorn." The general said yes and went out.

Li Xiaoji sent Cai Hu outside the tent, and a soldier brought a horse. Cai Hu took the reins and stepped on the stirrup on the horse, hugged his fist at Li Xiaoji and said, "Lord Wang, resign!" With that, he turned his horse's head and galloped out of the barracks.

Li Xiaoji turned around and said to the young general: "Immediately beat the drum to gather the generals and send troops to Chang'an!" ”

"Yes!"

Because of the interference of the artillery of the new army, the rebels did not capture the imperial city for a long time. Li Mi was annoyed and angry, and gathered a large number of men and horses to attack the Little Wild Goose Pagoda, in a vain attempt to destroy those cannons in one fell swoop. Li Zhiyun ordered the New Army to set up a tight defensive line around the artillery position, and repelled several attacks by the rebels.

Li Mi's Chinese army tent was set up in the Xingqing Palace next to the Chunming Gate in the east of Chang'an City, and the war was not going well, and he walked back and forth in the palace like a sleepy beast. At this time, Wang Bodang walked in and reported: "My lord, the last general has just learned a bad news, Li Xiaoji led more than 10,000 people and horses to reinforce, and now there are only twenty miles left from Chang'an. ”

When Li Mi heard this, he was taken aback, although he expected that the Tang troops around Chang'an would come to reinforcements, he didn't expect them to come so quickly. He was stunned for a moment, and pointed with his hand: "You quickly lead the army to intercept them, and you must not let them get close to Chang'an City." Uncle Wang said "obey" and turned around and went out.

Wang Bodang gathered his men and horses, went out of the city from the Tonghua Gate in the east of Chang'an, and just walked five or six miles when he met the Tang army. Wang Bodang ordered the army to set up a formation and wait for it.

Wang Bodang drove his horse to the front of the formation, raised his eyes and looked at the opposite side, only to see the Tang army with a banner waving, the helmet was bright, there were several generals wearing armor and stepping off the war horse in front of the array, they were surrounded by a person like the stars holding the moon, this person was sitting firmly on a tall horse, he was wearing a golden helmet, wearing silver armor, holding a spear, looking more than forty years old, with a round face, and a slightly rich body.

Wang Bodang said loudly: "The person on the other side is the king of Yong'an? ”

"It's this king," Lee Hyo-gi said, "who are you?" ”

"I am Wang Bodang, the general of Zuo Wuwei."

"It turned out to be General Wang. The emperor treats you well, why do you want to raise troops to rebel? ”

Wang Bodang sneered and said: "We came to the Tang Dynasty to seek common causes, but you Datang people have never regarded the Wagang Army as their own brothers. Those officials in power are not only arrogant and rude, but also often ask for bribes and extortion, which is really deceitful! My Wagang brothers are all hot-blooded men, how can they endure and retreat? So rise up and resist! ”

"If you have any grievances, you can appeal to the emperor, and you should never raise an army to rebel. However, it is not too late to repent. General Wang, if you dismount and surrender, this king may intercede with the emperor and pardon your sin of rebellion. ”

"My king is a well-known man, how can he turn his back on the Lord to survive? You and I will see you on the battlefield! ”

"General Wang is obsessed, then Hugh blames this king for being unkind," Li Xiaoji said, turned back to several generals and ordered, "Beat the drum and cheer, and kill with this king!" ”

When Wang Bodang saw the Tang army on the opposite side rushing over, he hurriedly led the army to meet him. The two sides will fight against generals, soldiers against soldiers, catch and kill, and for a time the sky is dark, and the sun and moon are dark.

In the next few days, the reinforced Tang army arrived one after another, and Li Mi saw that the situation was not good, and ordered the army to withdraw from Chang'an City. However, it was too late for him to escape, the Tang army had already surrounded Chang'an City on all sides, and the rebels were embattled. Gao Jifu and Li Yude were defeated and captured, and only Wang Bodang led a few thousand men and horses, desperately protecting Li Mi to break out of the encirclement and flee to the northeast.

Li Mi, Wang Bodang and others escaped from Tongguan and traveled three or four hundred miles all the way to the east, getting rid of the pursuers, and then they breathed a sigh of relief.

At dusk, they settled down in a small village. The soldiers were hungry and tired, and there were only a dozen families in this village, and they robbed the people of all their food, and they only ate half full.

After inspecting the defense of the camp, Wang Bodang came to Li Mi's residence. As soon as I entered the house, I saw Li Mi and Lonely Chunyan sitting face to face at a broken table, drinking wine from nowhere. Li Mi saw him enter the house and beckoned, "Bodang, come and have a drink?" ”

"No, I don't want to drink it." Wang Bodang said, took a bench and sat down next to him.

When Wang Bodang saw that Lonely Chunyan could still drink with peace of mind, he was very unhappy, thinking that it was this woman's bad idea that things would get to such a point. But if you think about it carefully, you can't blame her alone, didn't she also try her best to persuade Li Mi to raise troops at the beginning? Looking at Li Mi again, he also looked calm and calm.

"Lord, what should we do next?" Wang Bodang couldn't help but ask.

Li Mi put down the wine and said, "I've thought about it, let's go to Yizhou." I have already sent Jia Jifu to Yizhou, and asked him to order Zhang Shanxiang to send troops to meet us. After a pause, he frowned and said, "It's just that there is another question, this place is hundreds of miles away from Yizhou, how can the army march without food?" ”

"Isn't that easy?" Lonely Chunyan said, "In front of Taolin County, the county seat has been laid, and there is a lot of grain in the county granary, so you can take as much as you want." ”

Li Mi listened, nodded, and said to Wang Bodang: "Just do what Madame says!" ”

"Yes!"

The next morning, Wang Bodang ordered the soldiers to snatch more than a dozen sets of women's clothes from the homes of ordinary people in the village. He selected a dozen warrior soldiers, dressed in women's clothing, wore face masks, and hid their knives under their skirts. These soldiers came to Taolin County (now the north old city of Lingbao City, Henan) and mingled with the common people who entered the city. When they crossed the gate, they took out their swords and seized the gate in one fell swoop. Then, Wang Bodang led a large army of men and horses into the city, attacked the county government, and looted the grain in the granary.