Chapter 84: The Sui and Tang War (14)

The confrontation between the Sui and Tang armies of Sui and Tang dynasties had reached the fifth day, but the unfavorable news of the Tongguan Road caused the war to begin to change subtly. The Tang army obviously could not continue to confront each other. In the end, the pressure of the decisive battle was heavily pressed on the Tang army, and they became passive.///c.m

For Li Shimin, it was not just a serious situation on the battlefield, but a more serious crisis occurred in Chang'an City. King Li Yuanji of Qi accidentally seized the command of 40,000 defenders in Chang'an.

Tang Feng reported that the King of Qi had raised more than 2,000 dead soldiers and was secretly transferred to the Qi Palace in the city in batches these days.

All the information points to a fact that the King of Qi is likely to be planning a major action. Li Shimin knew very well that this so-called major action could only be one, and the King of Qi is going to seize the throne.

In the big tent, Li Shimin was looking at a piece of information that Zhang Gongjin had just sent. The prince sent the secretary Wang Gui to find Zhang Gongjin, hoping that the Eastern Palace and the Qin Palace would join forces to deal with the King of Qi.

The continued deterioration of the situation in Chang'an made Li Shimin worried, but he had to cheer up and deal with the current battle situation. His opponent was Yang Yuanqing, with an elite force and nearly twice the number of people than him. If this battle fails again, the Tang Dynasty will be over.

The crisis of the battle forced Li Shimin to face the battle, and the fear of failure made him unable to make up his mind. He was in an extremely painful dilemma.

At this time, Fang Xuanling walked in slowly with his hands behind his back. He didn't need to report to Li Shimin's tent. He walked not far from Li Shimin and looked at Li Shimin with pity. The young coach had not been sleeping for two days and really didn't want to give him any worse news.

Li Shimin was pressing his forehead to ponder, but suddenly felt something. When he looked up, he saw Fang Xuanling and asked hoarsely, "Is there anything wrong with him, sir?"

Fang Xuanling stared at Li Shimin's eyes that were red due to insomnia. He sighed softly and said, "Does Your Highness care about the Sui Army in Tongguan Road?"

Li Shimin shook his head, "How could I not care? It's just that the crisis of the Tongguan Road is still within my tolerance range. After all, they only have 10,000 troops, and they are led by Cheng Yaojin. I think he should not dare to attack Chang'an rashly, and at most he will show off his power in Guanzhong. As long as we block the news, our morale will not be affected."

Fang Xuanling bit his lip, "I advise Your Highness to launch an offensive! Don't wait any longer."

Li Shimin was shocked. He felt something was wrong. Fang Xuanling never said this. What happened? He stared into Fang Xuanling's eyes and asked slowly: "What happened?"

Fang Xuanling sighed slightly, "I just received the latest news that Shi Wanbao has surrendered to the Sui army in Tongguan."

Li Shimin felt that his eyes were dark, his body shook, and he almost fainted. Fang Xuanling hurriedly stepped forward to support him, "Your Highness!"

Li Shimin pushed his hand away and shook his head, "I'm fine!"

He took a deep breath. The thing he was most worried about finally happened. The Eastern Front was lost and the situation in Guanzhong was over. Are they really finished?

Li Shimin suddenly raised his head and stared at Fang Xuanling, "Sir, what should I do now?"

Fang Xuanling sighed in his heart. In fact, he advised Li Shimin a few days ago to take a desperate bet and fight the Sui army. If he can win, then after defeating the main force of the Sui army, he would immediately rushed to support the Eastern Front. There might be a glimmer of hope, but Li Shimin did not adopt his own plan. Now the Eastern Front has been lost, the overall situation has almost been determined, and their hopes are already slim.

But Fang Xuanling couldn't bear to let Li Shimin despair, so he asked in a deep voice: "Is Your Highness willing to adopt my plan?"

Li Shimin nodded, "This time I will definitely follow the advice of my husband."

"Okay, I have two strategies. Your Highness can choose one. Your Highness will immediately fight the Sui army. At all costs, as long as we can defeat the Sui army, we can also return to the capital to collect 40,000 troops, and then launch an offensive to the Sui army on the eastern front. Perhaps we still have a glimmer of hope. This is an offensive strategy. Secondly, Your Highness retreats to Chang'an and concentrates its forces to defend the city. If you can defend one day, you will count on the hope of the Sui army retreating on its own. This is a defensive strategy. Should you decide whether to attack or defend, your Highness decide!"

Li Shimin nodded slowly, knowing that he could not choose to defend himself.

"Tell me my order and beat the drums and gather the generals!"

...........

In the Sui army camp, Yang Yuanqing stood on the sentry tower and looked at the Tang army camp. He received the news that Cheng Yaojin broke through the Tongguan Road and entered Guanzhong, and also received the latest information on the surrender of Tongguan. He knew that Li Shimin was almost unable to bear it. He either today or tomorrow, the Tang army would inevitably attack him in large numbers.

Behind him, tens of thousands of Sui soldiers were ready to prepare, waiting for the order to fight. Luo Shixin next to him was even more eager to try. He was too eager to see this head-on war.

At this moment, the earth-shaking drum sound suddenly came from the Tang army camp opposite, "dong-dong-dong!" The drum sound was long, and this was the order for the army to assemble. Yang Yuanqing narrowed his eyes and came indeed.

"Your Highness, send troops to form a formation!" Luo Shixin shouted in extreme excitement.

Yang Yuanqing looked at the sky. It was just after noon. He slowly shook his head, "Tell me my order, stick to the camp, and don't go to war!"

Luo Shixin was stunned for a moment and did not recover for a long time. Yang Yuanqing patted his shoulder and said earnestly: "The more anxious the Tang army is, the less anxious we are. Our goal is to win, not to have temporary gains and losses."

Luo Shixin nodded slowly, and he understood what Yang Yuanqing meant.

The gate of the Tang army camp was wide open, leaving only thousands of troops to guard the camp, and the remaining 40,000 troops were pressed on the entire line. The army came out of the camp and was laid in black on the field.

The walls of the Sui army camp were ten miles long. The Tang army divided into three points to attack the enemy camp. Li Shimin led 20,000 troops to attack the west gate of the Sui army, Yuchi Gong led 10,000 troops to attack the northern line, Hou Junji led 10,000 troops to attack the southern line, and the three armies were separated by two miles each, and they could attack at points and gather quickly.

Li Shimin was wearing a golden helmet and a sword in his hand, and stared at the Sui army camp with sharp eyes. The situation was developing towards the most unfavorable side. Yang Yuanqing did not go to the battle, which shows that he probably knew the Sui army's breakthrough on the eastern front.

Li Shimin sighed inwardly, he had no choice. When he swung his sword, Li Shimin shouted loudly: "Beat the drum and attack!"

The war drum sounded, and the drum sounded densely. Tens of thousands of Tang troops launched, shouting and rushing towards the Sui army camp, like a rolling black wave, with murderous aura soaring into the sky.

The Sui army's board wall was two zhang high and divided into two upper and lower layers. There were thick wooden boards in the middle, and shooting holes were all on the upper and lower layers. Thirty thousand Sui army soldiers stood in two upper and lower layers, holding military crossbows in their hands and waiting for battle.

There are four thousand powerful crossbowmen deployed at Zhengxi Gate, which is also one of the killing weapons of the Sui army to deal with cavalry. The six-stone powerful crossbow operated by the two was replaced with ordinary arrows, and the effective range of killing can reach 250 steps, which is twice as good as that of a normal two-stone crossbow.

In the middle of the camp, there is a wooden tower that is as high as five meters high. This is the command tower of the Sui army. From the tower, you can see all directions of the camp. At this time, Yang Yuanqing stood on the tower and watched the Tang army come overwhelmingly.

As the commander-in-chief, Yang Yuanqing did not directly interfere in specific operations. He only cared about the coordinated operations between the army. Although Yang Yuanqing made careful arrangements for the large-scale attack of the Tang army, he seemed very relaxed at this time. He knew that it was not difficult to defeat the Tang army.

He has 80,000 elite Sui army in his hands, while the Tang army has only more than 40,000 people. The Sui army is almost twice the enemy. Regardless of the right time, place, people and people, the Sui army has the absolute advantage. If he cannot defeat the Tang army under this situation, it will be a strange story in the world. More importantly, the Eastern Front has been broken and the general situation in the world has been decided.

The overwhelming Tang army was getting closer and closer. They carried thousands of ladders and ran towards the Sui army camp. Infantry in front and cavalry in the back, getting closer and closer, three hundred and two hundred and fifty steps, and had already entered the range of powerful crossbow bows. However, the Tang soldiers did not realize that they had entered the range of being hunted and did not raise their shields. They usually only had to defend against enemy bows and arrows until one hundred and fifty steps.

The head general of the Sui army on the center line was Niu Jinda. He stared at the Tang army entering the range of the giant crossbow and shouted, "Shoot!"

Two thousand powerful crossbows were shot out at the same time. They used not iron arrows, but ordinary crossbow arrows, with a range of up to 300 steps and a killing distance of 250 steps. "Crack!" A crossbow machine sounded, and two thousand crossbow arrows rose into the air, as dense as rain, shooting towards the Tang soldiers who were rushing towards him.

The army screamed, like a line sweeping across, and seven hundred people fell to the ground. The charge general Li Xianjun suddenly realized and shouted loudly: "Raising the shield to fight!"

Thousands of Tang soldiers raised their shields and their running speed began to slow down. Soon, the Sui army began to shoot in full swing. The rain of arrows shot by 30,000 Sui army was so dense that it covered the sky, like a swarm of locusts flying all over the sky.

Although Tang soldiers raised their shields to greet each other, the casualties were getting bigger and bigger, and the casualties continued to increase in the order of thousands of people, and the fields were filled with Tang soldiers who were shot in arrows.

Seeing that Tang army suffered heavy casualties, Li Xianjun couldn't help but run to Li Shimin and shouted: "Your Highness, brothers have suffered heavy casualties, let's take it down first!"

Li Shimin clenched his teeth, "Who dares to retreat, behead him!"

Helplessly, Li Xianjun had to turn around and run forward. Li Shimin personally raised the drumstick and beat the war drum hard. The sound of the attacking drums resounded throughout the earth. After suffering seven or eight thousand casualties, the Tang army finally rushed to the Sui army camp, lay wooden boards on the trench, and leaped past. A wooden ladder built a wall, and the Tang army soldiers began to bravely climb the wall.

The battle flags were waving on the command platform and changing the military deployment, the defense of the Sui army began to change. The lower level was still crossbowmen, shooting arrows outward from the arrow hole, while the upper level crossbowmen retreated one after another, standing dozens of steps to shoot arrows outward. Nearly 20,000 spearmen rushed to the upper level of the board wall and fought fiercely with the Tang soldiers who rushed up. The two armies fought bloody battles inside and outside the board wall.

Li Xuanba and Hou Junji were responsible for attacking the southern line. They also faced strong shootings from Sui army crossbowmen, with heavy casualties. But soon, Tang soldiers rushed to the wall and fought fiercely with the Sui army guarding the camp.

"Do away from me!"

Li Xuanba was so angry that he couldn't suppress himself by the attacking war drum. He had been waiting for this day for a long time. He swung the hammer and rushed forward frantically, swinged the hammer and smashed it hard, and smashed it on the wall with two hard hammers. Two muffled sounds were made of two big holes in the wall. Several Sui soldiers inside the wall were smashed and flew out. The wall was smashed violently and mud fell down.

Li Xuanba was overjoyed. He swung his hammer and smashed hundreds of Tang soldiers to support him. He shot arrows densely at the Sui army on the wall, suppressing them from attacking Li Xuanba.

In fact, the wall around Li Xuanba could no longer stand, and the wall was shaking violently, causing the wall to shaking. During the series of attacks by Li Xuanba, the wall in front of him finally collapsed, opening a gap about two meters wide.

Li Xuanba roared, swung his hammer, and rushed into the Sui army camp first. Hundreds of Tang soldiers rushed in. At this time, just fifty steps away, Luo Shixin held a large iron spear in his hand and stared at Li Xuanba coldly, waiting for him for a long time.
Chapter completed!