At the third watch, more than 500 thousand-stone chariots and ships carrying 25,000 soldiers, led by Lei Wanchun, left Wen County and continued to march eastward along the Yellow River.
Liyangcang is one of the four famous granaries in the world. The other three are Guangtongcang, Huiluocang and Heyangcang. Two of them are in Luoyang and one is near Chang'an. Liyangcang is a large granary that stores grain in Hebei.
Since the Sui Dynasty, Hebei has been the largest grain-producing area in the world, and this record remained until the An-Shi Rebellion.
The Anshi Rebellion severely damaged Hebei, with a sharp decline in population and a sharp decline in grain production. Eventually, Jiangnan became the world's largest grain-producing area, which lasted until thousands of years later.
At present, there are only 2,000 people guarding Liyangcang, and Tian Chengsi is unable to allocate more troops. He has a total of 30,000 people to attack Xiangwei, of which 20,000 people besiege Jixian County, and 9,000 people occupy Xiangzhou. At the same time, they must reorganize and train the soldiers.
We really can't spare more troops to defend Liyangcang.
More importantly, according to the agreement reached by Tian Chengsi and Li Baochen in advance, the supplies in Liyang warehouse should be divided equally, half for each family. Therefore, even if there are two thousand defenders, each family will send a thousand men, fighting each other like black eyes.
Keep an eye on each other, and no one is allowed to leave privately until the war is over.
Liyang is not just a warehouse. It is Liyang County first. A warehouse city was built in the south of Liyang County. It is similar in size to the county seat. There is a Cao River that leads directly to the Yellow River. There are many ships parked in the Cao River. Military camps are located in the county seat and the warehouse.
In front of the city, two thousand people were stationed in the military camp.
In addition, there are also soldiers patrolling the Cangcheng. However, the structure of Cangcheng is quite special. It is divided into two inner and outer walls. The inner city is the warehouse area. Management is very strict and only specialized warehouse management personnel can enter.
The outer city is a defensive area. Four hundred soldiers on duty at night patrol the outer city wall. They are not allowed to enter the warehouse area. These are rules learned from painful lessons. If you are not afraid of outside thieves, you are afraid of internal thieves, especially when you are on duty.
Soldiers, they will definitely take advantage of Cangcheng and think about how to secretly sell food and supplies to make money.
There are two entrances to Cangcheng. One is the north entrance, which is the management entrance. The door is not big. There is a wooden door on the outside and an iron door on the inside. The iron door is usually closed with a big lock. The wooden door on the outside is not closed. Mainly because
Soldiers need to change the guard.
The second is the south entrance. The south entrance is the water gate. This is also the largest entrance and exit of Liyang Granary. Food supplies must go through the water gate. Even the grain transported by carts has to be transported to the Cao River to change boats and enter the granary through the waterway.
At the third watch, more than 500 thousand-stone chariots and ships docked at the Yellow River twenty miles away from Liyangcang. The chariots and ships stretched out their planks and rested on the slope of the mud bank. Groups of soldiers rushed up the river bank and headed up the slope.
Run.
Half an hour later, all 25,000 soldiers came ashore and gathered on the shore. Under the moonlight, Lei Wanchun could vaguely see the outline of the county town in the distance. He had already sent a dozen scouts to investigate the situation.
At this time, Lei Wanchun's deputy general Yu Changyang, who is currently the commander of the Longyou Navy, stepped forward to report: "General Qi, the army has been assembled!"
Lei Wanchun nodded, "Send the order to rest where you are and wait for news from the spies!"
Yu Changyang rushed to let the soldiers sit down and rest. About a quarter of an hour later, near the fourth watch, the scouts came back.
The leading scout actually brought back a warehouse official. This warehouse official was responsible for managing the Cao River and lived in a hut by the Cao River. He was captured and brought back by the Tang Army scouts.
"General, the number of enemy troops is about 2,000, of which 400 are on duty in Cangcheng. We have captured an official in charge of the granary. General, feel free to ask him!"
The soldier pulled him, and the official came forward and bowed down, "I'm just a warehouse clerk. I have two young children to support at home. I beg the general to spare my life!"
Lei Wanchun saw that he was about forty years old, thin and small, with a sad face, so he smiled and asked: "What is your name, and how many years have you been a warehouse clerk?"
"The villain's name is Cao Shan. He has been a warehouse clerk for twenty years and is responsible for managing the ships on the Cao River."
Lei Wanchun comforted him and said: "Please explain carefully, I will not kill you, but if you have meritorious service, I will promote you!"
"If you don't dare, I must explain it honestly."
"How many soldiers are there in Liyangcang?"
"Reporting to the general, Liyangcang is a double city wall. Soldiers patrol the outer wall. There should be about four to five hundred people tonight. The general may want to ask about the inner warehouse. There are no soldiers in the inner warehouse and only thirteen warehouse officials are on duty.
Enter the villain, there are fourteen people in total."
"What do you mean?" Lei Wanchun didn't understand for a moment.
"Cangcheng built two inner and outer walls, one foot apart. Soldiers patrolled the outer walls, but food and supplies were isolated by the inner walls and out of reach of the soldiers."
"Why is it arranged like this?"
"This is a lesson learned! In the past, soldiers were patrolling the inner warehouse of Liyang. It was probably one winter when Wu Zetian was in power. I forget the specific year. The soldiers burned a fire in the inner warehouse to keep warm. They set the barn on fire and burned down the surrounding area.
There were tens of thousands of stones of grain. Later, when soldiers entered the warehouse, they had to search their bodies and were not allowed to bring any kindling.
Later, there were repeated cases of grain theft. It was found that the soldiers were on duty at night and stole the grain and sold it, resulting in a loss of hundreds of thousands of grains. In the fifteenth year of Kaiyuan, Liyangcang was rebuilt and an outer city wall was added. The soldiers
They are not allowed to enter the inner city and can only patrol the outer city walls."
Lei Wanchun asked again: "If there is a military disaster, will the warehouse officials set fire to the grain and grass and burn the grain and materials?"
Cao Shan shook his head like a rattle, "Absolutely impossible. First of all, no fire is allowed in Cang City, and it is impossible to set a fire. Secondly, we have clear regulations that you can surrender in the event of war, but no one is allowed to destroy Cang City.
Even Anlu Mountain, Shi Siming and we all surrendered, because if we surrender, we can take it back, but if we destroy it, it will be gone. From the Sui Dynasty to the present, Liyangcang has never been destroyed, and the same is true for several other granaries."
"How high is the outer city wall? How many ways can we go up?" Lei Wanchun pondered for a moment and then asked.
"Reporting to the general, the height of the inner and outer city walls is the same, three feet, but in fact the outer city wall is shorter. Enter through the north gate, and then there is a corridor on the left and right to go up to the city wall. There is no other passage. The outer gate is a wooden door.
It can be broken open with wood, but it is not very strong, but the inner warehouse door is an iron door and is locked from the inside. I can notify them from the mouth of Caohe to open the door."
Lei Wanchun was overjoyed, "As long as you can open the inner warehouse door, I will let you be the deputy manager of Liyang warehouse!"
"The villain will definitely do it!"
At this time, Cao Shan remembered something again and said quickly: "Yesterday evening, a team of more than a hundred people came. I heard that he was a senior official of Wei Bojun. He is currently in the county. I don't know who he is. We are all guessing.
I’m here to collect food.”
The senior officials of Wei Bojun let it go first, while Lei Wanchun was concerned about seizing Liyangcang.
It would not be too late to deal with the other party's senior officials after seizing Cangcheng. Lei Wanchun didn't pay much attention to this senior Wei Bojun official who was urging food supplies.
After asking about the situation, the team set off. Lei Wanchun divided his troops into three groups. General Han Ju led 5,000 men to stay behind to guard the ship. Yu Changyang led 15,000 men to attack the military camp. Lei Wanchun personally led 5,000 men to capture Liyang.
warehouse.
Before the fifth watch, the team reached Liyang Cangcheng. Yu Changyang led 15,000 people to surround the enemy camp. Lei Wanchun led 5,000 troops to break open the wooden gate and attack the city from the corridors on both sides. Although they encountered
Arrows were fired intensively, but the heavy-shielded soldiers still raised their shields and rushed to the top of the city, killing more than a hundred people in one breath. The remaining soldiers were so frightened that they had no way to escape, and they knelt down and surrendered.
The battle in the military camp was faster and simpler. Fifteen thousand Tang troops surrounded the camp. Yu Changyang ordered an arrow formation to shoot. Three rounds of arrows killed more than a thousand enemy troops, leaving less than 400 people to surrender.
The Tang army annihilated all the enemy soldiers guarding Liyangcang at the cost of only slightly injuring dozens of people.
At this time, in Liyang County, a soldier got the news and hurried into a compound.
The soldier reported urgently: "Lord! There are Tang troops outside the city."