A thousand soldiers are getting closer and closer to the city gate, the sound of clicking footsteps is particularly neat on the wooden planks of the drawbridge, and at the head of the city, the soldiers hidden behind the battlements are so frightened that their legs are weak, and many people fall directly to the ground, unable to get up at all, at this moment of war, the weak humanity is exposed.

Di Yan was also so nervous that her legs were shaking, she kept encouraging herself, and couldn't help but wait for everyone to enter the city, but at this moment, an accident still happened, and the two archers were so frightened that they finally collapsed, shouted, stood up and ran towards the city.

This shout alarmed the rebels who were walking into the urn city, and the chief general was stunned for a moment, waved his hand, and "stop advancing"

He looked at the city in surprise, Di Yan hated so much that she wanted to hack the fleeing person to death, but at this time she didn't care about holding her responsible, the footsteps under the city had disappeared, and she immediately shouted in a low voice: "Knock on the bangzi"

Several bangers knocked on the bamboo bang together, bangbang, the crisp bangzi sound suddenly resounded through the city, three thousand archers appeared at the same time, pulled the bow together and released arrows into the urn city, suddenly the arrows rained, and the dense arrows shot at the rebels in the urn city, the rebels were caught off guard, and a large number of people were shot over.

Although the rebels are wearing the leather armor of the regular army, almost all the arrows shot at the head of the city are soldiers' arrows, this kind of arrows are heavy, the tips of the arrows are slender and sharp, coupled with the gravity from top to bottom, making it extremely lethal, becoming the famous armor-piercing arrows, except for the strongest Mingguang armor, the general leather armor can not resist the attack of this arrow.

The rebels suffered heavy casualties suddenly, and even the Lang general who was the leader was shot like a hedgehog by the arrows and the horses, and died tragically on the spot, and the soldiers in the urn city howled and rushed out to flee for their lives, trampling each other, and making a mess, Di Yan suddenly thought of something, and shouted: "The southern archers shoot arrows outside the city"

She drew her sword and rushed to pull the soldiers, pointing her sword at the battlements and shouting: "Go over there, go and shoot arrows out of the city"

Groups of soldiers rushed to the battlements, and did not need to aim, Zhang Gong shot arrows at the front and back of the drawbridge outside the city, hundreds of rebel soldiers outside the city rushed across the drawbridge and fled south, but the arrows shot from the city knocked countless people to the ground, at this time the drums on the city head were loud, the battle flag was waved, and the successful ambush of the archers encouraged all the soldiers, they were so excited that they shouted and pointed at Li Yuanjia and cursed.

Li Yuanjia was stunned, he never dreamed that there would be so many soldiers in the city, there were thousands of people in the black press, and there were soldiers who fled back screaming, many of them had arrow wounds, Li Yuanjia's heart was a little shaken.

At this time, Li Chen ran up and said loudly: "Father, there will not be so many troops in Yangzhou, this must be the people they temporarily recruited, and the state soldiers are more than 1,000 people at most."

A sentence reminded Li Yuanjia that he could not give up Yangzhou because of this small setback, his plan would be all over, at this time, the vanguard soldiers all fled back, a thousand people lost nearly half, the gate of Yangzhou was closed with a bang, the drawbridge also creaked up, the drums and gongs sounded loudly on the city, and the cheers resounded throughout the city, as if Li Yuanjia's army had been defeated on all fronts,

Li Yuanjia's army came in a hurry, did not carry siege weapons, not even tents, in the face of the wide moat and towering city walls, Li Yuanjia had to order a detour to the north gate, invade the houses outside the north gate as a temporary camp, and he sent more than 1,000 people to the nearby woods to cut down trees, ready to make a simple siege ladder.

Night has gradually fallen, the large number of houses outside the north gate has been occupied by Li Yuanjia's thousands of troops, the property has been looted, the brightly lit wine shop from time to time can be heard the laughter of the officers, dozens of young women who did not flee were caught by the rebels, stripped of their clothes and locked up in several large rooms, groups of soldiers kept entering, and the cries of women could be faintly heard.

But this kind of unscrupulous behavior did not make Li Yuanjia feel inappropriate, he knew that the soldiers were very depressed in their hearts, and they needed to indulge their bestiality in order to let them continue to work for themselves.

Li Yuanjia stood in front of the table with his hands in his hands, staring at the map of Yangzhou on the table for a long time, he had been in Yangzhou for ten years, and he knew the city of Yangzhou well, he knew where the loopholes in Yangzhou's city defense were?

That is, Yangzhou City is too big, without more than 30,000 troops, it is impossible to hold the city at all, no matter how many people Lin Qing recruits, there will inevitably be city defense loopholes, which requires him to look patiently, as long as he finds loopholes, he can attack the city in one fell swoop, the waiting time is very long, but taking Yangzhou City is in the blink of an eye.

At this time, the eldest son Li Xun丨 rushed in angrily, "Father, you can't indulge the soldiers like this, they are actually in the women, you must stop them, this will lose the hearts of the people." ”

"But if we stop them, we will lose the morale of the army"

Li Yuanjia said coldly: "Why do you think these soldiers are selling their lives to us, aren't they just to get rich and for women? If you give them sweetness, they will maintain their morale, otherwise they will run out in one night, understand?"

"But how can such an army command the world?"

Li Xun丨 couldn't accept his father's indulgence, he blushed and argued with his father: "If you want to get rich, you can just give them the world in the future, not now, now we must maintain military discipline, and Yangzhou people will obey our call in order to recruit more soldiers." ”

"As long as there is enough money and food, recruiting soldiers will not be a problem, and my son is worried. ”

"Father, it's not like this, the people's heart"

"Enough"

Li Yuanjia finally became angry, and interrupted Li Xun with an angry shout!

Li Xun丨 knelt down and wept and said: "If the father is unwilling to accept the child's advice, let the child go back to Jiangyang to defend the city, at least the child can hold Jiangyang, we still have a way out." ”

Li Xun's retreat, two words reminded Li Yuanjia, if Yangzhou City can't be taken, what should he do?

When Li Jingye raised troops in Yangzhou, he first crossed the river to the other side of the Yangtze River and captured Runzhou, but at that time, Li Jingye was bent on the Northern Expedition and did not listen to the strategy of King Luo Bin, so he first seized Suzhou and Yuezhou to establish a foundation for secession, but was wiped out by Li Xiaoyi in a battle.

If you can't take Yangzhou, you can also retreat to Runzhou, and after the troops, go south to seize Suzhou and Yuezhou, establish a foundation in the south of the Yangtze River, and avoid following the mistakes of Li Jingye back then, thinking of this, Li Yuanjia nodded, "Since you want to go back to Jiangyang, then I can give you 1,500 troops, but not back to Jiangyang County, but to occupy Jiangyang Wharf and protect the ferry, if the situation in Yangzhou is not good, we will immediately cross the river to Runzhou." ”

Li Xun kowtowed and said: "The child obeys the order"

Li Yuanjia handed him a golden arrow, "Take three battalions and go south immediately."

Li Xun丨 took the order and hurried away, and not long after Li Xunyun left, the third son Li Chen rushed in and said hurriedly: "Father, why did you let the eldest brother lead the troops away?"

"There is no space in Jiangyang, especially our ferry is moored on the pier, if we don't protect it, we have no way back. ”

"But...... Our army is already small in number, and if we divide part of the army, how can we capture Yangzhou?"

"The defenders of Yangzhou are just recruited rabble, really fighting, they will collapse at the touch of a button, and tomorrow we will burn down the house in the north of the city, and then I will feign to withdraw the army, you lead hundreds of elites to ambush outside the city, once the city gate is opened, you go to seize the city, I will kill back to meet you, in short, tomorrow if we can't take Yangzhou, we will cross the river to Runzhou. ”

Li Yuanjia saw that his son still wanted to oppose it again, so he no longer gave him a chance to speak, and said coldly: "I have already decided"

Li Yuanjia's eldest son Li Xun丨 Although he is weak, it does not mean that Li Yuanjia is also as reckless and unwise as his youngest son Li Chen, if he is not carried away by the ambition of being the emperor, he may not raise troops, of course he knows that Yangzhou has been prepared, and the chance of capturing the city is not high, and it is the best policy to turn his head and attack the defenseless Runzhou.

If he hadn't been unwilling to give up Yangzhou, he might have crossed the river directly to Runzhou tonight, Li Chen saw his father's resolute attitude, he was disappointed in his heart, so he had to retreat silently.

The rebels seized hundreds of houses outside the northern city, Li Chen was in charge of the front army, with 1,000 people, his father Li Yuanjia sat in the Chinese army, with more than 2,000 people, and the rear army of 1,500 people was brought back to Jiangyang by the eldest son Li Xun丨, and the rebels were only 3,000 people left at this time.

In a small house, Jiu Zhi is sitting alone at the table drinking, he alias Jiu Zhuang, became Li Chen's account under the cangcao to join the army, in charge of military supplies, but in fact, the army does not have any materials for him to manage, he only hangs a vacant position, Jiu Zhi is very good at interacting with people, he belittles himself, exalts others, is bold, and speaks well, in just half a day, he knows all the officers under Li Chen's account, and everyone is hot.

At this time, if he hadn't been waiting for Li Zhen's news, he would have gone to the wine shop to drink flower wine with everyone.

At this time, there was a knock on the door outside the house, "Who is it?" Jiu Zhi asked in a muffled voice,

"It's me, Chung Soon A"

Zhong Shun'er also blended into Li Chen's team with Jiuzhi, and he and several other internal guard warriors pretended to be Jiuzhi's men, and because of their tall and strong stature, Li Chen was selected by Li Chen as his personal guard.

"Come in"

The door opened, and two people flashed in from the outside, the one in front was Zhong Shun'er, and the one in the back was an unfamiliar face, Jiuzhi was slightly stunned, "Who is he?"

The person behind stepped forward and bowed, "Humble Ma Song see lieutenant"

Zhong Shun'er introduced with a smile: "He is the head of the state army, his name is Ma Song, a local, and the commander asked him to send a letter to the lieutenant." ”

Ma Song took out a letter from his arms and presented it to Jiuzhi with both hands, Jiuzhi opened the letter, read it, and jumped up in shock, "What time is it?"

"Second Lieutenant Qiyu, now there are less than two more. ”

Jiuzhi breathed a sigh of relief, Li Zhen said in the letter that he would launch an attack during the third watch and let him do a good job of internal response, but he didn't say how to do internal response, but just let him act at the opportunity.

Jiuzhi asked again, "Does the Commander have any other message to tell me?"

Ma Song shook his head, "Just this letter, nothing else." ”

"I know, you go back and tell the commander that I can't guarantee the third watch, so let's prepare early, and use the fire as the signal"

Ma Song turned around and left, Jiuzhi paced back and forth in the room worriedly, what should he do?