The third emperor of the Sui Dynasty

Chapter 989 Great plan, destroyed under the wooden door

When Li Yuan was still in Xiangyang, he saw that the war situation was repeatedly unfavorable to the Tang Dynasty, so he planned to move his capital to Shu. When he tried it in the name of visiting Bashu in the west, he was strongly opposed by the two factions of the Guanlong nobles. They were worried about the flames of war. Rolled to the back garden of their own homes, more than a hundred ministers resigned en masse the next day.

It is normal for a minister to resign in this era, and the king will also try to persuade him to stay. If he really can't keep him, he will reward him with a sum of money and allow him to retire and return home.However, the act of more than a hundred ministers resigning at the same time and paralyzing the court was undoubtedly a naked threat to the emperor. Although Li Yuan later compromised, he also completely broke with the Guanlong nobles.When he was plotting to deal with the nobles of Guanlong, he ordered his confidants to go to Shu to prepare for moving the capital.At the same time, passes and military cities were built in some dangerous and necessary places to defend against the Sui army.

There are two military towns in Ziyang County, one is Chefangjun Town, which has been occupied by the Sui army, and the other is located in Longshuitun to the west of Ziyang County.

Longshuitun is a military garrison with a perimeter of about four miles. There are only two gates in the east and west. At its peak, there were 2000 people here. To the west is Longshan County, where Zhai Changsun is in charge, and to the north is Ziyang City, where Han Liang is in charge. So the garrison in Longshui was reduced to 500, and Lang Jiang Liu Yijie was the guard.

The city gate of Longshui Tun under the cover of night had already been closed, and the torches lit on the city made the night of Longshui Tun extraordinarily clear. Twenty Tang army sentries patrolled back and forth, watching the movement outside the gate.

Liu Yijie's defense focused on the west city, while only one brigade of soldiers was deployed at the east gate facing Hou Junji's camp. That's twenty soldiers.But he never dreamed that the Sui army's scouts avoided the west city, but touched the east city where he thought there would be no trace of the enemy.

In a forest five miles east of Longshuitun, thousands of Sui army scouts were resting in the forest. The soldiers fell asleep with bread in their mouths, while thousands of war horses leisurely chewed the hay on the ground.

The leader of this army is General Huben Zhang Sheng. He and five lieutenants under his command are looking at Longshuitun in the distance from a big rock.

Zhang Sheng was originally a reckless rogue in troubled times, but was subdued by Yang Guang and Yang Yichen later, and became a general of the Taihe Army. Until Shen Guang appeared, he changed from the Taihe Army to the court's partial division, because the Taihe Army was burning Li Yuan into the Shu ship. In the first battle of the army, he made great achievements in battle. Zhang Sheng has been promoted from General Yingyang to General Huben, officially becoming a general of the Sui Dynasty.

This time he was ordered by Shen Guang to lead troops to investigate the terrain and deploy the Tang army. Unexpectedly, he received an emergency mission to capture Longshuitun. As long as he sticks to it for one day, he will be rewarded heavily.

To be honest, Zhang Sheng and others had followed Yang Guang as bandits for many years, even the soldiers were rich, and they didn't think too much about the imperial court's financial rewards.

The problem is that Emperor Shengwu not only personally ordered this task, but also said that he would personally award them in Chengdu after the war, which made Zhang Sheng and his soldiers unable to carry it all at once.They have heard too many legends about Yang Tong from Shen Guang and members of the Military Affairs Department, and everyone regards him as a god; if he is received by the emperor and awarded honors in front of hundreds of thousands of troops, it will undoubtedly be something that future generations can brag about of supreme glory.So after they received the order, they drove a long distance, and it took only more than three hours to rush from Longshan Shijian County, more than 200 miles away, to Longshuitun. The main force of the Tang army went north.

The soldiers were hurrying to rest at this time, while Zhang Sheng was discussing with the five school lieutenants a plan to capture Longshuitun. After discussing, they chose a sneak attack with few casualties and large profits.

"The problem of seizing the city is not a big one, the difficulty lies in how to stick to it for a day." Zhang Sheng said confidently: "Longshuitun is the only way from Ziyang County to Longshan County. If the streams and rivers of water freeze in winter, you can walk on the river, but today there was a heavy rainstorm, and the streams and rivers are so fast that even rafts are easy to overturn. The road is close to the north city wall, so you can block it if you hold the city head road, so only Longshui City is in hand to march westward, and half of the east city is a slope, and this side is not easy to attack. Once we occupy the city, the Tang army can only attack from the west and north. And the two-foot-high city wall is all It was built with rocks from the nearby mountains, which is very strong and strong enough to withstand the blows of catapults. The terrain in front of the city is not wide. Even if the Tang army has millions of troops, there is no terrain for them to set up formation. All in all, one day We can totally hold on."

After being with Yang Guang and Yang Yichen for five or six years, what Zhang Sheng gained was not only wealth, but also a wealth of military skills. Otherwise, how could he be the third person in the Taihe Army?
These words not only analyzed the offensive and defensive sides in place, but also greatly increased the confidence of the five captains under his command.

"General, the scouts are back!" At this moment, the guards came quickly with a scout disguised as a woodcutter.

The scout cupped his hands and said, "General, I have returned from my humble post."

Zhang Sheng asked, "How is the situation in the city?"

"General, Longshuitun is a pure military settlement. There are no residential buildings or people living in it. There are barracks, warehouses, defensive weapons, and fortifications. There are about [-] defenders. The humble officer has already drawn a sketch." The scout finished speaking. , and handed a sketch to Zhang Sheng.

Zhang Sheng took the sketch and took the five lieutenants back to a wooden shed made of tree branches. The wooden shed was airtight and served as their temporary command center. Once inside, Zhang Sheng looked at it with a torch for a while, then asked Said: "How is the defense of the defenders in the city?"

"Returning to the general, they are mainly concentrated in the west city and the north city, and there are 100 people in the east. Only the south city has no defenders, and the defense is relatively strict."

"It is estimated that Hou Junji is coming soon. We can't delay it too late. If the main force of the Tang army arrives at night, it will be troublesome. Let's act now." Zhang Sheng pondered for a while, and then asked: "According to the posture of the Tang army Look, if we attack the east city, we will also alarm the Tang army on the north city, which also turns the sneak attack into a strong attack. For the current plan, we can only attack from the south city at night. How wide is the outside of the south city?"

"Report to the general, about two feet or so." The scout hurriedly said.

"Two feet is enough for a foothold." Zhang Sheng ordered the five school captains: "I will lead a hundred brothers to the south city. When a war breaks out in the east city, you will immediately go to the city from the east. There is no room for error!"

"The last will obey!"

Zhang Sheng immediately led a hundred soldiers to touch the south under the cover of the terrain.

Because there is a cliff as high as ten feet to the south, and there is a rushing river below. Fortunately, the people who built the city may have considered the possibility of landslides, so the wall was not built close to the cliff, but separated by a distance of about three feet, otherwise It is impossible to gain a foothold outside the city.

Although it is impossible to set up a ladder at this distance, for these agile scouts, there is no need for a ladder at all.When they reached the bottom of the city, they set up a human ladder, sent a few thin soldiers up first, and let them lower the rope from above.Zhang Sheng grabbed a rope and climbed up. When he found that there were no guards on the city, he asked the soldiers below to climb up one after another.

When the last person came up, they ran towards the east city with cats on their backs. When they went all the way south and rushed to the east corner, they saw a group of soldiers from the Tang army patrolling, talking and laughing. Before the soldiers could respond, They rushed forward and killed this group of Tang soldiers with one knife.But here is the east wall with bright torches, so they were still discovered by another team of sentries, and Tang Jun shouted: "There is an enemy situation!"

"Kill!" Zhang Sheng rushed over first, and fiercely hacked the group of soldiers to the ground. When he killed the enemy, the soldiers had already thrown down several rope ladders, and shouted to the soldiers below the city: "Come to the city! "

At this time, Zhang Sheng had already rushed down the city with a group of soldiers along the east corridor. The twenty soldiers of the Tang army who were resting below saw their murderous look, and they ran away in fright and shouted: "The enemy is coming, the enemy is here!" Come to the city!"

A group of soldiers rushed out of the barracks upon hearing the news, and the leader was the general Liu Yijie. Zhang Sheng yelled, "Shoot him to death!"

Dozens of soldiers fired their crossbows at the same time, and the dense arrows shot away. The soldiers of the Tang army fell to the ground one after another. Liu Yijie, who bore the brunt of the arrows, was killed on the spot by more than a dozen arrows.

Zhang Sheng led the soldiers into the enemy's barracks and shouted: "Those who surrender will not be killed, and those who resist will be killed without mercy!"

The Tang army was defeated once, and there was no such thing as a hundred-fighter. Those who could barely count as elite soldiers were all dragged to Panshi City by Hou Junji, so the five hundred soldiers sent to defend the city basically had no combat effectiveness.This also made the battle come suddenly and end quickly. Except for Liu Yijie, his personal soldiers, and more than 20 Tang troops in the city who were killed in battle, the remaining 360 people all surrendered.

Zhang Sheng gathered his troops in front of the blazing military camp. He stood condescendingly on the commanding platform and said loudly: "I am Zhang Sheng, General Huben of the Great Sui Dynasty. , as long as the reinforcements are defended, each of us will be rewarded with two hundred silver coins, which means 200 taels of silver and 20 taels of gold, and if someone is unfortunately killed in battle, the reward will be doubled to his family."

The surrendered soldiers looked at each other in blank dismay when they heard this, and they were even more envious. The heavy reward of 20 taels of gold was enough for them to live a prosperous life for a lifetime.

Seeing the soldiers whispering, Zhang Sheng said, "You lost Longshuitun. Even if Hou Junji takes the city again, you will be punished severely, so you have no way out in the Tang Dynasty. Yes. If we defend the city with me, the imperial court will not only save you from the crime of anti-Sui, but also get the same reward as us, why don't you?"

Faced with this huge temptation, some people couldn't bear it at first, and one person asked loudly: "General Zhang, I want to ask, where did the reinforcements come from? What exactly?"

"[-] cavalrymen set off from Ziyang City three hours ago." In order to confuse these surrendered troops to assist in defending the city, Zhang Sheng changed the full [-] to [-], "The distance from Ziyang City to here is faster than mine." Be clearer. Who will come out and tell me how long it will take for this fast-moving cavalry to reach Longshuitun."

"It will definitely be there before dusk tomorrow." One person stood up and said.

"That is to say, we only need to wait for half a day at most. If Hou Junji's speed is slow, the reinforcements may even arrive here earlier than him, but what I want to tell you is: No matter what happens, the reward from the Holy Majesty will not change. When Zhang Sheng saw someone getting excited, he smiled and said, "How about it? If you're interested, come and do it with us."

"I would like to work with the general."

In an instant, dozens of soldiers took the lead in waving their arms and shouting.

The others were also moved by what Zhang Sheng said, and when they saw someone start, they raised their hands and shouted: "I am willing to defend the city too!"

"You are welcome to abandon the darkness and turn to the light." Zhang Sheng said happily, and then dispersed the surrendered army and reorganized them into the tenth brigade, increasing his soldiers to the thirteenth brigade with more than 300 soldiers.

Just as everyone seized the time to reorganize, a brigade marshal of the Tang Army stepped forward and said: "General Zhang, I have a suggestion from my humble post, I don't know if it should be said or not."

"Speak up, very well." Zhang Sheng smiled and said, "You guys are more familiar with this place than I am. As long as your suggestion is reasonable, I will listen to you."

"Thank you, General, for your trust." Zhang Sheng's statement made the brigade commander more honorable. He bowed excitedly and said, "General, ten miles to the southeast of us, there is a mountain pass called Wolongao. The terrain is rather dangerous, and my cousin led a hundred soldiers to stand there, and I have the confidence to persuade him to surrender to the Sui Dynasty. If he also surrenders, Longshuitun will have an additional peripheral defense, which can buy us more time."

"But how is the relationship with your cousins?"

"Beizhi and him have been playing together since childhood, and they are like brothers."

"What position do you hold in Tang Jun?"

"The humble job is also the commander of the brigade!"

"Your suggestion is very good, I decided to adopt your method." Zhang Sheng said with a smile: "As long as you win Wolongao, I will promote you to the captain, and the reward after the battle will be doubled!"

The brigade commander said happily: "Thank you, General Zhang, for your support!"

Zhang Sheng then appointed the school lieutenant Zhou Yong to be in charge of counting the supplies in the city, and personally led [-] cavalry to capture Wolongao with the brigade commander.

Wolong'ao is located in the lower reaches of Longshuitun. The terrain is exactly the same as Longshuitun. One side is a cliff and the other is a canyon. However, it is relatively narrow here and cannot be built on a large scale. Therefore, the Tang army built a city wall here that spans the official road. The height of the city wall is as high as They are all three feet wide, and apart from the city gates that pass through, an up and down corridor has been built on the side near Longshuitun.The main function of this single city gate that exists alone is to buy time for the deployment of Longshuitun in the back. If the army comes, it can only hold on for two hours at most.

"General, please wait for a while, I will go to my cousin." When they arrived at Wolong'ao, the brigade commander clasped his fists and said, "We are from Ba County, our parents, wives and children are all citizens of the Sui Dynasty. To deceive the general."

Zhang Sheng saw that the corridor of the upper city was on this side, and even if he dared to deceive himself, he could easily take it away, so he smiled generously and said, "I believe in you, otherwise I wouldn't have come with you."

"Thank you, General, for your trust." The brigade commander saluted very gratefully, and urged his horse to run towards Guancheng.

After about a minute or so, he brought his cousins ​​to surrender. They were just ordinary people in Berkshire. When the Tang Dynasty expanded its army, they were arrested. They didn't have much sense of belonging to the Tang Dynasty. Now the Tang Dynasty The general situation is over, and the relatives are all on the side of the Sui Dynasty. Naturally, he does not want to continue to work for the Tang Dynasty. Finally, there is an opportunity to take the blame and perform meritorious deeds and receive rewards for his deeds.

Zhang Sheng comforted their brothers a few words, and then the deputy general Guo Ming led four hundred horses to guard the pass, and emphatically told Guo Ming not to waste troops here, if the pass could not be defended, he would abandon the pass and flee back to Longshuitun on horseback. Good defense.He returned to Longshuitun with the soldiers of the Tang army who had surrendered.

After returning to Longshuitun, he immediately appointed the brigade commander as the school lieutenant according to the agreement. Seeing that this man had a lot of knowledge, he let him follow him. As for his cousin, he was sent to another school lieutenant to take orders. Using them separately also means being hostage to each other, which greatly reduces the possibility of them turning back again.

Zhou Yong waited for him to make arrangements, and then came to report the situation in the city: "General, there are [-] spears, [-] arrows, and [-] rolling logs and stones in the city, but the food can only last for five days."

"Enough is enough. Is there anything else you want to say?" Zhang Sheng nodded with a smile. They could stick to it for two days at most, but there is five days' food here, which is indeed enough.

"Other brothers and I observed the terrain here and came up with two suggestions." Zhou Yong said: "First of all, Longshuitun has a relatively high terrain. I think we can place some flammable objects on the slope and wait for the enemy to attack. , we can set fire to deter the enemy."

"Sulphur, kerosene is scarce, so it can't be wasted like this, and there is still time to spill it at critical moments. Let me talk about another suggestion."

Fire oil is now one of the standard equipment for Sui army scouts. Everyone prepares a bag of fire oil before taking action. If there is a good opportunity, they can burn the enemy's food and supplies, effectively hitting the enemy's morale, but they are not The harassment of leaving after the first battle, but sticking to the city, naturally can't squander the precious fire oil like before, so Zhang Sheng vetoed Zhou Yong's suggestion.

"The other thing is the hills in the distance." Zhou Yong pointed to the majestic hills two hundred steps away, and said, "If the Tang army used catapults to throw stones from above, we would definitely suffer heavy casualties."

"Didn't you just say to use fire? Let's just set fire to the mountain to prevent the Tang army from going up the mountain." Speaking of this, Zhang Sheng's eyes suddenly lit up, and he slapped his head excitedly: "Our task now is to fight for the army to annihilate the Tang army. Time, instead of fighting the Tang army head-on, why are you stupidly huddling in the city and waiting for the Tang army to attack the city? We can fully use our scouts to set up various traps and obstacles on the official road ahead. The most effective means Even if the official road is full of trees, if a big fire starts, it will be able to block the enemy for at least a few hours."

"That's right, we are bandits, and destruction is what we are best at. Why have we forgotten our old profession?" Zhou Yong said regretfully and joyfully, "It's not too late, I'll take you with me now." Hundreds of brothers went logging."

"Just understand." Zhang Sheng nodded with a smile, and added: "You don't have to go far to fight, just cut along the sides of the official road all the way to the east, and let the trees fall on the official road by themselves. How much can you cut?" How much is it? When you see the beacon fire at Wolong'ao lit, return immediately."

"The last general obeys the order!" The suddenly enlightened Zhou Yong responded excitedly, and immediately led four hundred soldiers up the mountain. They started cutting from two miles away. on the road.

On Zhang Sheng's side, he ordered dozens of other soldiers to take kerosene and go to the hill with dense pine trees two hundred steps away to prepare for the burning of the mountain.

When it was almost dawn, a beacon fire was lit in Wolongao, ten miles away, and three thick smoke shot straight into the sky.This means that the main force of the Tang army has arrived.

The Sui troops from all walks of life outside the city immediately stopped their banners and drums, because Wolong'ao could buy them two hours, so after running back to the city, they all fell asleep with Jia Jia.

. . . . . .

The first Tang army to rush to Wolong'ao was a cavalry army of [-] led by Zhang Gongjin, but he did not expect that he would be blocked by an army of unknown origin. Guo Xiaoke rushed to the front to watch.

Since Panshi City was still defended by troops, they withdrew neatly overnight. After Li Jing occupied Panshi City, he did not rush forward overnight to avoid being ambushed by the Tang army in the dark.But after Zhang Shigui's defeat and the fall of Ziyang City, Hou Junji and Zhang Gongjin sent scouts widely. If Xue Wanjun went south, he would not be able to hide the truth from the Tang army's scouts.

So, what is the origin of this army blocking their way?
"General Zhang." Guo Xiaoke stepped forward immediately, and said to Zhang Gongjin: "It doesn't matter where the opponent came from. The most urgent thing is to annihilate him and clear the way for the army to advance."

Zhang Gongjin nodded, and immediately ordered: "The whole army dismounts and makes battering rams!"

It takes too long to make a siege ladder, and it is undoubtedly faster to cut down a big tree to make a battering ram.As soon as the order was issued, a group of soldiers went up the mountain to cut down trees.

"General, there is no need to be so troublesome." Guo Xiaoke saw that the gate of Wolong'ao was made of wood, so he got off his horse and chopped down a locust tree, whittled it into a big wooden hammer, grabbed a rattan shield, and rushed to the city without saying a word. Door.

Zhang Gongjin ordered: "The archers step forward and press down on the top of the city!"

A thousand crossbowmen rushed forward quickly, but Guo Xiaoke had already reached the range of the crossbow, and hundreds of crossbow arrows were fired at him at once. On the vine shield, occasionally a stray arrow was shot at him, and it was also bounced off by the bright light armor on his body.

At this time, a thousand crossbowmen had already pressed up. Since the road was relatively narrow, they lined up in ten rows and shot arrows at the top of the city. The dense arrows flew towards the top of the city, immediately suppressing the soldiers of the Sui army on the city.

With the cover of crossbowmen, Guo Xiaoke, who was on foot, quickly rushed to the bottom of the city and slammed the gate of the city frantically with a pagoda tree hammer.With a muffled sound of 'dong dong', the dust on the city gate fell down, and he had already entered the dead corner of the defenders on the city, and the arrows on the city could not reach it, so he simply threw away the vine shield. With both hands together, he smashed more than a dozen hammers in a row, and a door bolt inside made a "click" sound of breaking.

"Lieutenant, one of the door bolts has been broken." A soldier at the top of the city shouted.

"Damn it, if I knew this gate wasn't made of iron, I should have blocked the city gate." Guo Ming cursed angrily, but the situation was extremely critical. If the Tang army flooded into the city, they wouldn't have enough people to kill them. Ordered: "Retreat to Longshuitun."

"Here." The soldiers descended from the corridor one after another, found the horses parked behind, got on the horses and ran towards Longshuitun. Wolongao fell.

"Dong dong dong dong" Guo Xiaoke slammed it again, the door bolt finally broke, and the two doors swung open.Soldiers of the Tang army followed Guo Xiaoke and rushed into the city like a tide.

"The whole army pursues and kills."

After Zhang Gongjin entered the city, he saw a group of cavalry fleeing forward, and immediately gave an order for the whole army to pursue.

"Here." Following the order, the cavalry of the Tang army chased and killed them.

(End of this chapter)