Late Tang

Standing in the twilight before dawn, Li Jing looked at the snow-white wild horse king that Zhao Jiang brought him. After Li Jing tamed it, he directly named him the wild horse king.Teams of soldiers are gathering at the pier. In addition to the 5000 soldiers drawn from the battalions in Shamen Town, there are also [-] troops from eight other Dengzhou troops.A flag was flying on the pier, and various flags and flags were flying.

Seeing the noisy and chaotic soldiers and horses boarding the ship, Li Jing had a headache.

Up to now, he still can't believe that Li Lingfu, the hero, is actually dead.

Li Zijun, the tenth general of Flying Eagle Battalion, rode his horse and galloped towards him. He got off his horse, and before he could catch his breath, he said loudly, "General, we have found out that Li Lingfu is indeed dead."

"What's the specific situation?" There was a shock once, but this time Li Jing's reaction was much better, but it still felt unreal.

Li Wei reported the results of the investigation in detail, and Li Jing could only sigh after hearing this.But it was said that after Li Jing and Li Lingfu made an appointment to raise troops, Li Lingfu also controlled his anger at first, and did not recklessly insist on sending troops alone.Instead, he immediately sent multiple envoys to the many Tang people who had good relations with him in southern Liaoning, and invited them to send troops with great gifts.Each family received Li Lingfu's gift, and saw that Duli Town was defeated by Qingnipu and Shamen Town first.Now I heard Li Lingfu say that Li Jing is contacting the various departments of the Pinglu Army in Ziqing Town to make an appointment to attack Duli Town together, so I can't help being moved.All families agreed to send troops, and even Li Lingfu successfully invited three or two small tribes of Khitan and Xi people to send troops together, and several major nobles of Goguryeo in Liaodong agreed to participate in this hunting meeting.There are more than [-] soldiers and horses from each family.

And Beisha City, after receiving the letter of truce and strike from Li Lingfu, they quickly agreed and voluntarily withdrew their troops.

Li Lingfu's preparations are progressing smoothly, and he originally planned to send troops together after Li Jing's troops arrived.

But at this moment, something happened that made this hero lose his mind.

Just two days ago, Wang Pu of Duli Town gave the second daughter of Li Lingfu, who was only seven days old, to the four house slaves who led the horses and took turns spoiling her overnight, and then threw her into the military prostitute camp. In the middle, it was ordered that it should be provided free of charge to the sergeants.In just one day, more than 30 men took turns for a day, and finally suffered all kinds of abuse and died.After his death, Wang Pu refused to let him go. He ordered the corpse to be stripped naked, pierced through the body with a picket, and erected on the wharf of Duli Town, showing the corpse to the public!And also engraved the handwriting of Li Lingfu's daughter on the corpse with a knife.

The news spread to Qingnipu and reported to Li Lingfu.Li Lingfu was furious, "Old thief Wang Pu, you bullied me too much!" He smashed the old case with a sword on the spot.When the generals who led their troops heard what happened, they couldn't help being filled with righteous indignation, and they all said that they should kill and rush to Duli Town immediately.

The chief manager, Li Meng, was prudent, and advised Li Lingfu to appease his anger for the time being, and to contact Li Jing immediately. After Li Jing led his troops to arrive, more than [-] troops from the alliance of various families will jointly attack Duli Town, and things will be safe.

So Li Lingfu immediately sent someone to Wuhu Island to deliver the letter, and the people who received the letter were gathering at the Nutao Camp and Zhenhai Camp on Wuhu Island, as well as the yellow beard and Megan.Huang Huzi and others teamed up with Li Lingfu to wipe out the Duli Township fleet last time. Later, when Li Lingfu was in Shamen Town, they often drank together, so they had a good relationship.Hearing the messenger's explanation of the purpose of coming, Yellow Beard was also very impressed. Immediately, regardless of Megan's persuasion, he led [-] soldiers from the Raging Wave Battalion and [-] old pirates to Qingnipu.

Megan sent an envoy to send a letter to Shamen Town, but the envoy only said that Li Lingfu urged the troops to be dispatched, and did not explain that Li Lingfu's daughter suffered all kinds of misfortunes in Duli Town.This made Li Jing not pay too much attention to it at the time, but replied that he had contacted the various ministries in Dengzhou, and that he would lead [-] troops from each ministry to Qingnipu soon, and asked Li Lingfu to wait for a while.On the one hand, he immediately sent a letter to Wang Pu of Duli Town, sternly warning Wang Pu of Duli Town, asking him to pay compensation to Li Lingfu immediately and give him a reward, otherwise, he will unite all kinds of soldiers and horses to attack Duli together. town.

Li Jing's reply made Li Lingfu very dissatisfied, and he didn't want to wait for a moment.But at this time, the Khitan and other coalition forces believed that their strength was enough to take Duli Town, so they didn't want to wait for Li Jing to lead his troops to avoid taking too many spoils.One of the Khitan generals who led the army was the son of the patriarch of a small tribe. Their entire tribe had no more than 1 tents. There are only five hundred fighters, and there are more than a thousand men who can control strings.This time he directly brought 800 people with the idea of ​​going south to make a fortune.

"There are two fearsome things in Duli Town. One is the United Fleet, but now the United Fleet has been destroyed by City Lord Li. The other is its fortified city, but there is a saying that there is no fortress that cannot be broken. No matter how strong a city is, it also has weaknesses. Today I have a plan to break the city. In the town of Duli, there is currently a merchant group from my tribe in the city, with about [-] people. These are all warriors from our tribe. I Now we can immediately send people to find them in secret and let them act as internal support for us. At that time, my army secretly sneaked under the city of Duli Town, and then they opened the city gate for us in the city. In this way, once the city gate is opened, we will enter in one fell swoop. , Duli Town will be destroyed."

Li Lingfu was overjoyed, but at this time someone reported that Li Jing had secretly exchanged letters with Duli Town.Coupled with Li Jing's previous reply that he would not arrive until three days later, he couldn't help but feel unhappy.Counting the current soldiers and horses, there are already nearly 4 people from all ministries and Qingnipu, and the Yellow Beards and others led [-] sailors to come, and the number of soldiers and horses exceeded [-].However, there are only more than ten thousand soldiers in the town of Duli, and there are only more than [-] soldiers in the surrounding areas. Li Lingfu immediately refused to wait for Li Jing. At night, only three thousand old and weak stayed at home, and the rest of the troops were divided into two groups. road.All the way, I personally led the army, which was composed of the Crane Control Army and the Khitan, Xi, and Goguryeo noble soldiers and horses.The other was led by the second son and the third son, mainly the Qingnipu fleet and the yellow bearded fleet, plus several other forces in southern Liaoning that united with the forces of the Tang Dynasty.[-] by water and [-] by land, including [-] cavalry and [-] infantry, quietly went straight to Duli Town.

At the second watch of the night, land and water moved forward at the same time, and dived directly to the city of Duli Town.

When it was four o'clock, the sky was about to dawn, but there was still no movement in the city, and Li Lingfu was feeling a little anxious.Suddenly seeing a few torches shaking on the top of the city, the head of the Khitan tribe's Da Ge young patriarch rejoiced: "Master Li, my people have been captured, let's go."

Li Lingfu rejoiced and said: "Okay, let's remember the first meritorious service of Young Master Da. After the city is broken, I will definitely thank you and kill him!"

The coalition forces rushed to the bottom of the city, and sure enough, the city gate had been opened, and the battle seemed to be still going on inside the city gate, and the sound of gold and iron continued.And in the light of the fire, one can vaguely see the sound of rumbling footsteps approaching the city, as if more defenders are coming.

How could Li Lingfu miss such an opportunity, and immediately shouted to charge, and rushed in with the crane-controlling cavalry first.

Things went smoother than he expected. When they rushed into the city, the city's garrison barely arrived.However, under the charge of Li Lingfu's cavalry and the cavalry of the Khitan, Jixi, and Goguryeo tribes, the opponent retreated steadily.They took advantage of the situation to hunt down and completely captured the north gate of Duli Town.

Li Lingfu left the follow-up infantry to use this gate as a base, and he led the cavalry to charge into the city, and then sent people to attack the water gate and let the waterway soldiers and horses enter the city.

Not long after, the outer city of less than half of Duli Town has been captured, and the water has also been captured.Li Lingfu was overjoyed and dispatched troops to storm the inner city.

But at this moment, suddenly, there were continuous thunderclaps from all over Duli Town, like nine days of violent thunder.The north gate and the water gate that the coalition forces took down made violent noises and vibrations, and then burst into flames.Immediately afterwards, the infantry general Fei Fei, who was staying at the north gate, sent an envoy to report that there was a sudden explosion near the gate of the north gate. Amidst the flames and ringing, the ground collapsed, and the entire north gate collapsed. The entire north gate was completely blocked by masonry Hundreds of soldiers were killed and wounded.

The first courier had just finished reporting, and another courier flew over. In the residential shops at the north gate of the big newspaper, countless soldiers and horses suddenly poured out, with strong bows and crossbows, and arrows rained down.The guns were like Lilin, and the shield was like an iron wall. The left-behind infantry of the coalition forces who had just been hit by the explosion and were in chaos were suddenly attacked and had already collapsed.

Just at this time, the messenger from the south water gate also reported that the navy's troops had just rushed into the city through the opened water gate, and the water gate behind it exploded and collapsed. With strong bows and crossbows, heavy crossbows and heavy artillery ambushed the brothers of the navy.

Li Lingfu's complexion turned gray and defeated in an instant, and he was tricked.

He turned to look at Da Ge, but he didn't know when it started, Da Ge had already moved his [-] horses towards him.And according to the arrangement just now, he should lead people to the left to wipe out the remnants of Duli Town.

"Brother Da, you betrayed me!" Li Lingfu was furious.

Da Ge rode on the horse, raised his bow and shot at Li Lingfu, snorted coldly and said: "Sorry, General Zhongmou, Lord Wang Pu is more generous than you, he offered me a big price of 20 guan to help me deal with you. And you , but not as generous as City Lord Wang. I will help whoever pays a high price. If you want to blame, I can only blame you for being too stingy."

Everything was a well-set trap. When Li Lingfu contacted all parties and pulled them into the alliance, Duli Town did not watch.Wang Pu sent someone to find the greedy Khitan thorns, the young patriarch Da Dage, and directly offered a high price of 20 guan to let him pretend to join Li Lingfu's coalition army to find out information for him.And find a way to make Li Lingfu jump into the trap they dug long ago.

Da Ge led [-] Khitan cavalry to charge towards Li Lingfu. Arrows rained down like rain. Li Lingfu was caught off guard by the sudden attack from behind, and countless people fell down from the arrows.When the various ministries that were attacking the city found out that they were coming to help, Brother Da had already stuck to Li Lingfu tightly.Just at this time, countless drumming sounds came, and suddenly countless soldiers and horses rushed from all directions.Rush left and right, like entering no man's land.Under the city, suddenly countless strong bows and crossbows threw cannons to help.

Li Lingfu's retreat was blocked, and in front of him was the tall inner city wall. Although there were 2 troops at the time, they were divided among the streets and alleys of Duli Town.Duli Town had already made preparations, not only mobilizing more than [-] soldiers and horses in the city, but also withdrawing all the more than [-] soldiers and horses outside the city into the city.He even summoned all the young and strong men in the city and distributed weapons.Add up, there are more than [-] soldiers and horses in Duli Town, and another [-] to [-] young and strong.

If it was a field battle, they would definitely not be Li Lingfu's opponents, but right now Li Lingfu was trapped in the city, and the strong soldiers of Duli Town occupied favorable positions such as roofs and city walls.The coalition forces are constantly divided and surrounded. What's more terrible is that among the 4 coalition forces, Brother Da is not the only spy who has been bought long ago.

Almost all of the soldiers and horses of the Khitan and Xi tribes were bought by Duli Town.These people broke out from within, killing left and right, completely disrupting the army formation in Qingnipu.

Attacking from all sides, cooperating from inside to outside, Li Lingfu was defeated. Not long after the battle, he was surrounded by Da Ge's cavalry, and the horse fell to the ground with three arrows in a row. On the ground, the Khitan cavalry who arrived afterward fired their arrows in unison and shot Li Lingfu into a hedgehog.

Except for the more than 5000 soldiers who stayed on the ship at sea, nearly [-] people who entered the city were completely trapped in the town of Duli, and were divided and killed one by one.The battle lasted from before dawn until dusk the next day before it was completely subsided.[-] troops came to attack, of which more than [-] warships stayed behind and the soldiers fled, and there were [-] Khitan and Xi soldiers who were actually secretly bought by Duli Town, and the remaining nearly [-] troops, in the end there were only about three thousand troops. Thousands of people broke out a bloody road, covering Li Juyi and Li Juli brothers to break out of the encirclement and break out of the city.

There were more than [-] people killed in battle, and as many as [-] captured and surrendered.In this battle, not only did Qingnipu suffer huge losses, but also the Goguryeo nobles and the Tang people in southern Liaonan suffered heavy losses.The situation in the whole of southern Liaoning has changed again, and that's not all.

At the same time as the battle in Duli Town, Beisha City, which was supposed to have withdrawn, suddenly reappeared. They took advantage of the night to raid Qingni City, where only [-] old and weak were left behind.Li Lingfu's eldest son, Li Juren, Li Meng and others desperately resisted, but the outer city still fell before dawn, and finally had to retreat into the inner city to defend.Li Juren had just sent dozens of dead men to break through the siege, and asked for help from his father in Duli Town and Li Jing from Shamen Town, but he got the news that his father died in an ambush in Duli Town, and the coalition forces were almost gone.

In the evening, Li Juyi and his brothers fled back to the vicinity of Qingnipu with several thousand remnants of soldiers, but they were ambushed by Beisha City again, losing nearly half of their horses, and finally were besieged in a small valley.

Qingni City was at stake, and the thousands of remnants of Li Juyi's brothers might not be able to hold on at any time. Now they were all waiting for Li Jing's rescue.

(To be continued)