At the fourth watch, Tao Aizhi hangs down from the basket.
Li Zheng camped several miles away, and he had to run all the way. He was exhausted and out of breath before running two miles.
Tao Aizhi put his hands on his knees, bent over and took a deep breath, then continued running after taking a moment.
"Ouch!"
Suddenly, Tao Aizhi tripped and fell. When he tried to get up, a knife was pressed against his throat.
The secret sentry of the Datong Army has been hiding in the grass.
Tao Aizhi said quickly: "Take me to see the commander of your army quickly and let me know if there is an urgent military situation!"
As soon as these words came out, the secret sentry did not dare to delay, and immediately searched Tao Aizhi's weapons, and then led him towards his own camp.
Li Zheng was quite surprised to learn Tao Aizhi's identity and couldn't help but laugh: "How dare you leave the city, aren't you afraid that the governor will kill your brothers?"
"Whirring whirring……"
Tao Aizhi was almost exhausted. Although he was young and powerful, he was still a man of letters. After running for several miles, he had already exceeded his physical limit.
After entering the camp, Tao Aizhi changed to walking slowly. He walked into the commander's tent and was still panting. He took a moment to catch his breath, then cupped his hands and said: "I lied about surrendering, made an appointment with the governor, and seduced the general after three days.
Siege the city."
Li Zheng asked: "Then when do you think we should attack the city?"
"General, please send troops immediately to attack the city at five o'clock tonight. The governor will never think of it!" Tao Aizhi said.
Tao Aizhi left the city at 2:30 at night, running and stopping all the way. When he met Li Zheng, it was almost 3 o'clock. He asked Li Zheng to attack the city at five o'clock, which meant that the Datong army gathered at night and carried out the attack.
Running up the city ladder for several miles, the total time required must be about two hours.
"Tonight?" Li Zheng didn't dare to gamble. He didn't know much about Tao Aizhi and didn't know much about the situation in the city.
The most important thing is that in order to gain the governor's trust, Tao Aizhi brought his whole family into the city, and Li Zheng had no hostages at all.
Time was running out, Tao Aizhi said anxiously: "General, don't hesitate, tie me up quickly, I will be a hostage myself. If things fail, kill me. It's a great opportunity tonight, the governor knows that I will be out of the city at the fourth watch, and he will never think of the general."
Attack the city at the fifth watch!”
Tao Aizhi was willing to be a hostage. After hearing this, Li Zheng was finally moved and asked, "Tell me your plan."
Tao Aizhi quickly explained: "Governor Wang Zhiliang is very cautious. There are more than 11,000 defenders in the city. They are divided into three groups to defend the city in turn. They change their defenses every morning and evening. Moreover, they only allow two quarters of an hour before the change of defenses.
He knew which regiment was training to defend which place. The city gates without urns were all blocked by him. The gates with urns were all guarded by his own soldiers."
"He is a man who knows how to defend the city. No wonder you haven't taken action." Li Zheng nodded.
Tao Aizhi continued: "Tonight, my second brother will guard one place in the south city, my third brother will guard one place in the north city, and my fourth brother will rest in the military camp in the city. I have already given instructions. At the fifth watch, three torches will be lit on the south wall.
.As soon as the general attacks Nancheng, the fourth brother will set fire to the city. The second brother will assist the general in Nancheng, and the third brother will wait for an opportunity to disrupt the situation in Beicheng."
"Besides you four brothers, who else knows about this?" Li Zheng asked.
"Only a few close servants know about it. General, don't worry, they will never leak the secret." Tao Aizhi said very firmly.
Twenty years ago, there were only four men left in the Tao family, one of whom was an old man who was dying.
The Tao family's tens of thousands of acres of land were entirely supported by their trusted servants. They were afraid of trouble between their servants and their tenants, so they treated people very leniently. The monthly payment of the slaves and the land rent of the tenants were the best treatment within dozens of miles.
Moreover, Tao Aizhi had long promised to the few confidant domestic slaves in the army that as long as they helped the Datong army capture Changsha, they would be freed afterwards. These domestic slaves were in a more urgent mood than Tao Aizhi.
"Assemble the army, bring no baggage, only siege ladders, and set off immediately after gathering!"
After Li Zheng made up his mind, he immediately took action.
He did not tie up Tao Aizhi, but threw him in the camp and asked the food transport team to take care of him.
Li Zheng actually didn't have many soldiers, only 1,500 regular soldiers, 1,500 peasant soldiers, and the rest were civilian food transport teams. Originally there were 2,000 regular soldiers and 2,000 peasant soldiers, but 500 of each were divided and went south to help Huang Yao attack Xiangtan.
There were only 3,000 soldiers left, but the 11,000 defenders were too frightened to come out.
Because Wang Zhiliang, Wang Qisheng and others did not think that the bandits had only three thousand soldiers. They included Li Zheng's grain transport team, and overall they had nearly ten thousand soldiers.
It can indeed be calculated that Li Zheng's grain transport team, after entering the battle, is estimated to be more powerful than the newly formed regiments in the city, or at least their fighting enthusiasm is much higher.
Three thousand soldiers gathered at night and brought the ladder. It took a total of 30 minutes, and there was still one and a half hours left.
Li Zheng personally led the troops, neither hurry nor slow, and moved forward quickly without running.
It's only a few miles away, and it takes one and a half hours to arrive, which is more than enough time.
There is a small river to be crossed in the middle, and there are dozens of Li Zheng's boats on the river.
These ships gathered in Xiaohe at night, not far from Li Zheng's camp. During the day, they dispersed to Liuyang River and Xiangjiang River to serve as sentry boats to explore news trends everywhere.
The more than 7,000 regiments defeated by Hu Dinggui's night attack took most of the day to cross a small river.
It only took Li Zheng and his three thousand men to cross the river at night in forty minutes.
When they arrived at an ambush far outside the city, it was not yet five o'clock in the morning. Li Zheng ordered all his soldiers to lie down on the ground, because the mosquito bites at night were so distracting.
Li Zheng took out his telescope to observe. After waiting for a long time, he finally saw the direction of the south city wall and lit three torches as a signal.
"quick!"
All the soldiers held pieces of bamboo in their mouths and silently followed Li Zheng as they trotted and charged.
Before he could reach the moat, he was discovered by the defenders on guard.
"Dang-dang-dang-dang!"
A gong sounded from the tower, and a sentry shouted in horror: "The thieves are coming, the thieves are coming!"
The defenders in the city were in a panic, but they were much better than those in Xiangtan and did not collapse and flee directly. They were mainly the king's conscience soldiers. They arranged the city defense matters very well and taught the regiment gentry various coping methods.
Wang Zhiliang lived and ate on the city tower. After he was awakened and saw the chaos everywhere, he immediately ordered: "It's too late to heat up the oil and gold juice. Prepare to throw rolling stones and logs. Also, call all the soldiers who are on rotation in the city." Defend the city!"
These orders were conveyed by Wang Zhiliang's confidants, and the defenders on the nearby city wall gradually stabilized.
However, the city was in chaos. Tuan Yong, who was on duty to rest, almost blew up the camp due to the noise in the city. The prefect Wang Qisheng and the county magistrate Yang Guanji each led their officials to comfort them, and at the same time organized the yamen to carry out various auxiliary work.
Changsha City is very lucky. The governor, prefect, and county magistrate are all officials who can do things and dare to do things.
At this moment, a fire suddenly broke out in the city, causing chaos among the rest of the army who had not yet assembled yet. The prefect and county magistrate had no choice but to lead people to put out the fire first.
Wang Zhiliang felt something was wrong, and various signs indicated that there must be internal agents in the city.
He subconsciously thought of Tao Aizhi, but he couldn't believe it.
Because the Tuan Yong recruited by the Tao family accounted for 40% of the total number of defenders in the city, how could Changsha City be defended once the Tao family became traitors?
Moreover, the Tao family is a wealthy local family with tens of thousands of acres of land. How could they take the risk of becoming a thief?
Another thing is that Tao Aizhi went out at the fourth watch, and the thieves came at the fifth watch. This kind of night march without advance preparation, and it had to be carried out so fast, Wang Zhiliang asked himself that it was impossible to do it, those soldiers were too many
What a high level of discipline!
Wang Zhiliang walked towards the Tao Jiajun section of the city wall and was furious: "How dare you, thief!"
Braziers have been lit on various sections of the city wall, but the Tao Jiajun section is darker. None of the braziers have been lit, but three torches have been erected, obviously for signaling.
500 peasant soldiers feigned an attack on another section of the city wall, and the remaining 2,500 Datong troops all rushed towards the place with the torch signal.
Tao Jinzhi stopped pretending and shouted with all his strength: "My sons, follow me to kill officials and rebel."
"Kill, the young master has surrendered to King Zhao Tian!" Several close servants shouted, they were grassroots commanders.
The Tao army was initially confused and frightened, but under the shouts of their slaves, they quickly realized that the rebels attacking the city were their own. The thousand Tao army here quickly attacked the friendly troops next to them, catching them by surprise.
We agreed to defend the city together, why did you become thieves?
The gentleman surnamed Zhang further away quickly understood what was happening. He felt that the officers and soldiers would be defeated. In order to save the family, he quickly shouted: "My sons, follow me and join King Zhao Tian! Kill!"
The Tao family's army has a thousand men, and the Zhang family's army has 500 men. They attack the friendly forces in the middle from the front and rear.
The leader of the group in the middle was named Li. He was brought by Governor Wang Zhiliang. The main purpose was to isolate the local group, but now they were facing an inexplicable attack. The group only resisted for a little while, and then they knelt down and surrendered. A few were captured.
If you are in a hurry, just jump off the wall. If you fall, you will at least break your leg.
Wan Sitong, Hu Dinggui, and Chen Fugui have successfully entered the city. The addition of Datong soldiers has completely lost the suspense of the battle.
At this moment, the fire in the city has not been extinguished, and the regiments who are taking turns are in chaos. Most of them run to put out the fire, while a few go to the tower to help in the battle, and some escape into civilian houses to hide.
Wang Zhiliang wanted to gather troops to resist, but Tao Yunfeng suddenly rebelled in Beicheng.
The fire and chaos in the city, the battles on the north wall, and the battle on the south wall created the illusion that there were rebels everywhere. Those regiments who had not trained for several days were so frightened that they fled one after another. They left the city wall,
I want to run and open the city gate.
Although the city gate defenders were all brought by Wang Zhiliang, they were also temporarily trained regiments. Instead of stopping the opening of the city, they actively opened the city gate and abandoned the city in the darkness to escape.
"Surrender, we surrender!"
Datong's sergeants, together with Tao's army and Zhang's army, defeated two groups of enemies one after another on the south city wall. The rest stopped fighting and fled if they could. If they couldn't escape, they surrendered and begged for mercy.
Wang Zhiliang was preparing to fight to the death, but the soldiers around him fled one after another. Some of them, with evil intentions, simply pushed Wang Zhiliang to the ground.
"Surrender, we surrender, we have captured the governor!"
Li Zheng glanced around the city and said to Tao Jinzhi: "Take people to put out the fire. All the surrendered officers and soldiers will also go to put out the fire!"
Wang Zhiliang stopped struggling, closed his eyes and waited for death. He felt that he was finally free.
