Li Shimin, one emperor through the ages

Chapter 30 Attacking Luoyang (3)
Seeing Hou Junji's resolute attitude, Li Shimin nodded and said, "All right, Shan Xiongxin jumped the wall in a hurry, you have to be very careful."

Watching Hou Junji nod his head and leave, Li Shimin lifted the tent, held the long sword, and walked towards the place where the shouts were loudest.Before he had gone a few steps, he saw a red-haired Lingguan, with a golden nailed Zaoyang lance in his hand, stepping down a lightning oolong horse.It was too late to explain, but soon, Shan Xiongxin rushed to his side in the blink of an eye.Seeing Li Shimin, he glared at him, then laughed loudly and said:
"Heaven has eyes, come and help me."

After all, he raised the Zaoyang spear, and it hit Li Shimin like a thunderbolt.Li Shimin didn't panic, he showed his long sword, and raised the lance.Who would have thought that lance had the strength of a thousand averages, smashing the sword almost to the ground.Li Shimin was startled at this moment, he jumped up, stepped back a few steps, and was about to stabilize his body.Unexpectedly, Shan Xiongxin's horse was too fast, Li Shimin's feet had not yet stabilized, and Shan Xiongxin's second spear fell down like a mountain.

Li Shimin had no choice but to take another leap and retreat a few steps.Seeing Shan Xiongxin, he was secretly happy.Clamping the dragon colt with both feet, he arrived in front of Li Shimin like lightning.He once again held up the Zaoyang lance, and slammed it down on Li Shimin's head.King Qin is in danger, and there is no hope of life.

7
When Wang Shichong's hero Shan Xiongxin threw his spear at Li Shimin again, Li Shimin had already retreated to a broken wall, and there was no way out behind him.Just at this moment of life, a general with a face like charcoal came behind Shan Xiongxin on horseback.It was too late to stop the horse, and it was too late to say hello, only to see the steel whip in the hand of "Heitan", like lightning, hit Shan Xiongxin's head violently.

Shan Xiongxin raised his lance and was about to smash it down, when he suddenly heard a strong wind coming from behind him, he dodged immediately, and the lance in his hand was still aimed to smash down, but it was delayed for an instant.Li Shimin took advantage of this opportunity, leaned his body, and the Zaoyang lance fell on the place where he was standing, until the sparks were all shallow, and there was a deep pit about a foot under the broken wall.Before Shan Xiongxin raised his spear again, Yuchi Jingde received a whip on his shoulder.A strong arm fell off, Zaoyang Leng fell to the ground, the man also rolled off the horse, and Shan Xiongxin fell to the ground with a bang.

Li Shimin raised his eyes and saw that Yuchi Jingde had come to him, got off his horse, knelt down on his knees, and said:

"The late arrival of the escort surprised the King of Qin."

Li Shimin nodded appreciatively to him, and said, "You came just in time, go and capture Shan Xiongxin alive."

Yuchi Jingde left the horse to Li Shimin, and said: "It's too chaotic here, please get on the horse, King Qin, I'll catch Shan Xiongxin." After that, he turned around and was about to catch Shan Xiongxin, when he saw several generals rushing out of Shan Xiongxin , Behind them, thousands of Zheng Bing followed.Shan Xiongxin usually takes great care of the generals and soldiers, but now even if they sacrifice their lives, they want to save their commander.Shan Xiongxin straddled one arm, because of the excessive bleeding, he was already weak.A hero needs to die standing up.Shan Xiongxin struggled and stood up unsteadily.When he saw several of his generals and thousands of soldiers coming towards him, he suddenly gained strength and shouted: "Leave me alone, go and kill Li Shimin!" Li Shimin rushed forward.

Yuchi Jingde was startled, so he had no choice but to give up Shan Xiongxin, hold the steel whip in his hand, protect Li Shimin, and rush out.

Shan Xiongxin's surprise attack this time was all-out, and his strength was very strong.And because Tang Jun was not prepared at all, Tang Jun didn't drive Zheng Jun away until dawn.Shan Xiongxin couldn't catch Li Shimin, so he was whipped by Yuchi Jingde instead. He was seriously injured and returned to Luokou.

Li Shimin occupied Luokou, and finally cleared all the periphery of Luoyang.So he discussed with everyone that he should strike while the iron is hot and capture Luoyang.At this time, a messenger came to report:

Gaozu Li Yuan sent general Li Daliang to conquer Fancheng, Juzhou, Huazhou and other places, and had firmly restrained the Zheng army in Xiangyang, making Wang Shichong lose the last army that could support him.

Li Shimin was overjoyed when he heard the news, raised his hand, looked west at Chang'an, and said excitedly: "Thank you, Father, for taking Luoyang for me. You have worked so hard. My son will live up to my father's expectations and take Luoyang in one fell swoop." After saying that, He personally led the army, left Luokou, and marched to the city of Luoyang.

When Wang Shichong heard that Li Shimin's soldiers were approaching the city, he personally led his troops to confront Li Shimin across the river at the Qingcheng Palace in the northwest of Luoyang City.

"In February and March in Yangchun, the grass and water are the same color". "There are falling flowers from time to time, and the fragrance is far away with the flowing water."Outside Luoyang City, the spring scenery is charming.Wang Shichong climbed up and looked far away, but he couldn't see the charming spring scenery. He only saw Li Shimin's tents, which were tightly arranged and neatly arranged without any gaps. He couldn't help feeling in his heart:
"At such a young age, with such experience in camping, it's no wonder he was able to defeat Xue Ju and Liu Wuzhou all the way!" Thinking of this, he sighed softly.Thinking of his most powerful general, Shan Xiongxin, who was seriously injured, there is indeed no one in his tent who can defeat Li Minmin.After thinking about it, he couldn't help becoming timid, and suddenly saw Li Shimin walking forward surrounded by dozens of generals under the willows on the other side of the river. Gehe said to Li Shimin:

"Now that the Sui Dynasty is dead, you built Tang in Guanzhong, and I built Zheng in Henan. I have never sent troops west to invade you. Why did King Qin lead troops to occupy our land in Henan?"

Li Shimin laughed when he heard this, and said loudly: "The world should belong to benevolent people. Now everyone in the world admires my Datang's benevolence and submits to me one by one. Only you, Wang Shichong, don't admire benevolence and dare to confront me. That’s why I came here.”

When Wang Shichong heard this, he was about to get angry, but when he thought about the situation in front of him, he could only suppress his anger and said coldly: "Now Luoyang City is strong and dangerous, and my generals under Wang Shichong are like clouds. If King Qin really wants to attack, he will only end up losing his troops. In the early years Li Mi is an example. Even if King Qin has more soldiers than Li Mi, both sides will suffer in the end. Why don't we both stop our troops and make peace, so that our subordinates will not suffer tragic casualties? Isn't that a good thing?"

Li Shimin smiled proudly when he heard this, and said: "Swallows know the lofty ambitions. My Li family will replace the Yang family. This is the destiny, and it is what the people expect. How can you wait until your last breath and make the people suffer from division? If you can comply with the destiny and show compassion for the common people, then you should open the gates of Luoyang to welcome my king's teacher. Otherwise, when I attack Luoyang, the king will die!"

When Wang Shichong heard this, he was extremely ashamed and angry, and said loudly: "If you measure you, a young child, what you can do to Luoyang is nothing but overestimation."

Li Shimin didn't want to continue arguing with him, and said with a bright smile: "This king was ordered to take down Luoyang, the eastern capital of the Sui Dynasty. You have no possibility of making peace except surrender. If you still persist in your obsession, within three months, this king will definitely destroy Luoyang." , I have to remember." After saying that, he raised his whip and rode back to the camp.

Wang Shichong watched Shimin disappear into the billowing dust, laughed sinisterly, and turned around and left.Hundreds of guards followed closely behind.

80,

Three days later, Li Shimin made all preparations and decided to attack Luoyang on a large scale.It's a bright and beautiful spring day.The generals and soldiers of the Tang army were all high-spirited and ready to fight.Li Shimin personally commanded Yin Kaishan, Hou Junji, Yuchi Jingde, and Qu Tutong to divide into four groups, each leading [-] elite soldiers, and attacking the city from all sides day and night.When Wang Shichong saw it, he didn't panic. He commanded the defenders to attack the Tang army with cannons, flying stones, eight bows and arrows.

The cannon flying stones used to defend the city of Luoyang were carefully developed by Wang Shichong. Each cannon flying stone weighs more than [-] catties and can be thrown more than [-] steps. It is very powerful.The eight bows and crossbows are even more amazing, the arrows are like the spokes of a car, and the arrowheads are like giant axes, they can be shot five hundred paces away.The four-way Tang army, the vanguard soldiers carried the ladders and rushed bravely towards the high Luoyang city, but before they could get close to the city wall, most of them were killed by crossbow arrows at [-] steps, and the rest failed to advance [-] steps. Injured by flying stones.Outside the city of Luoyang, like a slaughterhouse, the attacking Tang army suffered heavy casualties.This was the case for more than ten days in a row, and the morale of the Tang army was severely damaged.At this time, the general who surrendered to the King of Qin with Yuchi Jingde was looking for a chancellor. He thought that the Tang army would be defeated, and took advantage of this to collude with Liu Wuzhou's old troops in an attempt to escape and rebel against the Tang Dynasty.The matter was revealed and he was executed by Li Shimin.

Although the rebel generals were killed and equal, Luoyang was still unable to attack for a long time, and morale was still declining.Li Shimin was at a loss for what to do for a while, feeling depressed.Many generals under him became suspicious of Yuchi Jingde again because of their betrayal.It is believed that some old generals of Xunxiang and Liu Wuzhou have rebelled, and there is no doubt that Yuchi Jingde must also rebel.They all demanded that Yuchi Jingde be imprisoned.Even Qu Tutong and Yin Kaishan, who once appreciated Yuchi Jingde very much, came to Li Shimin to say:
"Yuchi Jingde just surrendered to my Great Tang, and he didn't really believe in my Great Tang in his heart, let alone love him. This man is very brave and nostalgic for the past. Now, his good friend was found and killed, he must have If you have a grudge in your heart, you will definitely seek an opportunity to rebel. Now that we are in a critical period of confrontation with Wang Shichong, keeping such a person in the barracks will do more harm than good, it is better to kill him to avoid disaster."

Li Shimin shook his head and said, "My king's views are different from yours. If Yuchi Jingde wanted to betray me, how could he fall behind in finding a relative? From this point of view, Yuchi Jingde is loyal to my Tang Dynasty. You must get along well with him, treat him like a brother, and don't have the slightest suspicion."

Qu Tutong and Yin Kaishan listened and nodded in agreement.Li Shimin asked Qu Tutong to invite Yuchi Jingde to come, and said in front of Yin Kaishan and Qu Tutong:

(End of this chapter)