Amid the earth-shaking war drums, the attacking hammers were launched. These were three attacking hammers made of a thousand-year-old giant wood. The hammer head was filled with pig iron and the hammer body was filled with dense handles, weighing ten thousand pounds. They were lifted by two hundred soldiers. Hundreds of people stood on both sides to carry hammers, and three hundred people each raised shields to cover them.

The huge siege ram was like a black centipede, walking slowly towards the city gate along the pine tree road. Behind them, Li Shimin personally led 20,000 cavalry soldiers to line up and waited for the city gate to break open and then rushed into the city.

At this time, the Tang army's heavy crossbow had suppressed the enemy. Round of long crossbow arrows shot towards the top of the city. The sound of jingling came one after another, and gravel splashed on the battlements.

The main general Lei Shimeng was anxious. He saw the siege rifle slowly approaching the city gate through the cracks of the battlements, but his soldiers were so pressed by the powerful crossbow arrows of the Tang army that he could not raise his head. He shouted anxiously: "Prepare to roll the wooden stone!"

Hundreds of soldiers hugged their waists and piled up three-foot-long rolling wood and dozens of kilograms of stones on the top of the city. They did not dare to look up and could only throw the rolling wood and stones down the city by throwing them.

Most of the suspension bridges were cracked into five or six pieces and lying on the soil. The fire had been extinguished, but the sparks were still dotted on the suspension bridge that was burned to carbon. The dark red flames disappeared and disappeared. Dozens of Tang soldiers rushed up and swung their axes and slashed them hard, completely smashing the suspension bridge.

At this moment, the rolling wooden stones on the top of the city fell like raindrops. Dozens of Tang soldiers were caught off guard and were hit by stones and wood, and fell to the ground screaming.

The commander who was commanding the city to hit the city was furious and roared, "Crash the wood!"

Two hundred soldiers accelerated suddenly, carrying the attacking ram and hitting the city gate. "Boom!" A loud and earth-shaking sound, ten thousand kilograms of force hit the city gate. The city gate shook violently, and sand and stones on the city wall fell down. Many soldiers on the city wall fell in pain. The huge impact force when they hit the city almost broke their hearts.

A desperate feeling spread throughout the city. Many soldiers realized that the city general could not defend it. Without heavy weapons to defend the city, the city gate would sooner or later be broken. Moreover, Li Shimin personally led the army to attack the city, and the morale of the army began to collapse. Many soldiers took advantage of the chaos at the city, took off their armor and ran down to the city.

More and more soldiers fleeing, and the soldiers rushed down the city frantically and shouted: "The city is about to be broken, the city is about to be broken!"

Lei Shimeng could no longer stop the soldiers from escaping. There were only more than 300 people left on the 4,000 city wall. Lei Shimeng shouted in despair: "Dump down with stones!"

Dozens of soldiers around him were carrying stones and smashing them down desperately. At this time, another round of thousands of large crossbow arrows shot, and dozens of soldiers were shot to the ground one after another. Lei Shimeng was also shot to the left shoulder by an arrow. The huge arrow force overturned him to the ground, and the tip of the arrow came out from his back. The heart-wrenching pain almost fainted.

In the roar of unison, the siege rifle hit the city gate again, and the city gate could not hold on again and was knocked open. Hundreds of Tang soldiers followed the siege rifle and rushed into the city.

Seeing that the city gate had opened, Li Shimin waved his sword and ordered: "Kill in, the stubborn ones will kill you!"

Twenty thousand cavalry suddenly launched, with horses galloping, shouting and killing sounds shook the sky, waving swords to kill the city, and the cavalry rushed into the city like iron streams.

Lei Shimeng sighed, turned his sword and committed suicide.

In the palace, Xiao Xian was wearing a mourning uniform and kowtowed in the Taimiao to apologize to his ancestors. At this time, the Minister of the Secretariat Cen Wenben rushed over and shouted in panic: "Lord, go quickly, the city is about to be broken!"

Xiao Xian was very calm and threw three incense sticks to his ancestors. Then he walked out of the hall and said to Cen Wenben, "Although the heaven does not bless the Liang Dynasty, it will not bless the Tang Dynasty. Although Zhang Xuan defeated me, he was the one who won the world. You can take advantage of the city to go to Zhongdu to join him. Ming Gong has the talent of the prime minister, and I believe Zhang Xuan will definitely use it."

Cen Wenben cried and said, "Please go out of the city with the empress!"

Xiao Xian shook his head, "There are ministers in the world who fled, and there will be no monarch who fled. Please leave quickly!"

Seeing that the lord refused to leave, Cen Wenben couldn't help crying and kowtowed three times, turned around and left the palace. He hid in his relative's house. Ten days later, Cen Wenben pretended to be a scholar and left Jiangling, hired a passenger ship with ten taels of gold, and took a boat to Jiangdu.

The city was already in chaos. The people cried and called their parents and fled in scattered places. The iron cavalry rolled on the streets, and many people were unable to hide. They were killed by Tang cavalry and were killed by Tang army cavalry.

Li Shimin led three thousand cavalry to the front of the palace. At this time, the gate of the palace opened, Xiao Xian blew his hair and walked out alone. He shouted to Li Shimin: "Only Xiao Xian is the only one who died, and the people are not guilty. Please rest assured the Qin King, don't kill them!"

Someone who knew Xiao Xian told Li Shimin that this person was the traitor Xiao Xian. Li Shimin admired his courage and turned around and ordered: "I ordered the entire army to stop the suppression, the army's discipline and soldiers entered the city, and the cavalry retreated outside the city to assemble."

Li Shimin waved his hand and a cage carriage slowly drove forward. Li Shimin said sternly: "I treat him with courtesy, please!"

Xiao Xian took a last look at the imperial palace and tears flowed out of his eyes. He gritted his teeth and quickly walked into the carriage. The iron door was locked, and five hundred cavalry guarded the carriage and headed towards the camp outside the city.

After capturing Xiao Xian, Li Shimin's heart finally fell down. He immediately ordered martial law throughout the city, the army took over Jiangling City, and appointed Zhou Faming as the prefect of Nanjun, ordered Lei Shimeng's body to be buried with generous gifts, leaving five thousand troops to temporarily guard Jiangling City. He led the army northward and escorted Xiao Xian and his daughter Xiao Yuexian back to Chang'an City.

On the fifth day of the fifth month, Wen Yanbo, the envoy sent by Ziwei Pavilion in the Northern Sui Dynasty, and Ling Jing, also arrived in Guanzhong to prepare to negotiate with the Tang Dynasty on the aftermath of the war.

Hundreds of Sui cavalry guarded the envoy's carriage and passed Pujin Pass and entered Guanzhong. Although this was Wen Boyan's second mission to Chang'an, unlike the first mission negotiation, he had no foundation for his mission and was really uneasy.

In fact, not only did he not have any clues, but even the prime ministers of Ziwei Pavilion did not know how to negotiate with the Tang Dynasty. They only had a letter from the lord brought back by Ling Jing, and there were some details in the letter that did not explain, which made the prime ministers really embarrassed. In the end, they unanimously decided to let Ling Jing, who had a little understanding of the situation, accompany Wen Yanbo to Chang'an with him.

Wen Yanbo had dealt with Ling Jing when he was in Youzhou. Ling Jing was still Dou Jiande's planner at that time, but after they returned to the Northern Sui Dynasty, the two had no contact. Ling Jing was in the military, while Wen Yanbo was the Minister of Rites, so the two had no chance to deal with each other.

This time they went to Chang'an together, and they talked all the way. Both of them were knowledgeable people, and they had a very speculative conversation and their relationship became very harmonious.

Wen Yanbo looked at the scenery outside the car window and sighed, "It's still two days away from Chang'an. To be honest, I really don't know what Your Highness needs us to talk about. Just give them the spoils. If they don't want to, do you still need to negotiate such a thing?"

Ling Jing smiled and said, "Actually, I didn't understand it at the beginning. I woke up a little when I crossed the Yellow River at noon."

Wen Yanbo was overjoyed and hurriedly said, "Brother Ling, please don't fight the puzzle."

"When I left Jingle County, His Highness King Qi also led his army to Hetao. Although Hetao was not a territory of the Tang Dynasty, our capture did not violate the agreement between the two sides, but I heard from Xuanling that Zhang Changxun had secretly surrendered to the Tang Dynasty. Wuyuan County and Yulin County actually belonged to the Tang Dynasty. I believe Li Yuan knew about this and was furious.

Moreover, the strategy of capturing Hetao was to point the sword at Guanlong. How could Li Yuan not know that there were the iron ore in Diaoyin County and Song Jingang in Yan'an County. The Tang Dynasty had too many troubles and needed to negotiate with us. We beg us not to continue going south.

Then the question is, we want to destroy Liang Shidu and Song Jingang. This is a matter of justice and openness. It is obvious that it doesn’t make sense if you want us not to intervene. Therefore, it needs to be negotiated between the two sides. Who will destroy Liang Shidu and Song Jingang? What should we do if we can’t destroy it? I think your highness asked us to go to Chang'an to discuss this matter with the Tang Dynasty, and it is definitely not as simple as dividing the spoils."

Wen Yanbo was enlightened and immediately understood. He immediately thought of the last negotiation and said with a smile: "I understand, it should be related to the last negotiation. The last negotiation had already discussed how to divide Xiao Xian's territory. What if the Tang army did not keep its promise? So the battle situation in Hetao forced the Tang army to keep their promises and hand over our counties. Otherwise, the Sui army would directly enter Diaoyin County and Yan'an County, destroy Song Jingang, and the Northern Sui army would arrive in Shangjun. This also required us and Li Yuan to explain clearly in front of each other. Brother Ling said right?"

Ling Jing smiled and said, "I think we are guessing."

The two laughed together, isn't that the case? They didn't even have a direction on their mission, and were confused, and sat in the carriage and thought it was self-righteous.

Wen Yanbo was also a little worried that they were really guessing. What if His Highness Qi had no such intention at all?

At this time, Ling Jing felt something and smiled and said, "This time I really understand. I want to divide the troops into two groups. I will get off the carriage and go alone. My brother will go to Chang'an alone. Then we will meet in Chang'an."

Wen Yanbo thought about it and immediately understood, "Brother Ling means that His Highness King Qi will have specific instructions to the Chang'an Intelligence Agency?"

Ling Jing nodded, "Because Wuyuan County had not yet been taken down, so I have something to say to you. I believe that you have taken it down now. Then Your Highness will definitely send a letter to the Chang'an Intelligence Agency to inform them of the content of this negotiation."
Chapter completed!