The opportunity was fleeting. Shortly after Li Chengdan's suggestion, two Tang Army cavalry appeared outside the South City Gate and the North City Gate.
Pei Xiu led 10,000 cavalry to besiege the south city gate, and Nan Jiyun also led 10,000 cavalry to besiege the north city gate.
At this time, even if the Yan army wanted to retreat, the chance was gone.
In the Tang Army's camp, Li Ye also stood on a high point and looked at the county town. The city wall in Lantian County was too short and the defense was too weak. It was easy to attack the city.
After several days of contact, Li Ye has gradually figured out the weakness of the enemy's commander-in-chief, Ashina Chengqing, who is not courageous enough. In fact, this is also a common problem with counselors as commanders. Counselors are very thoughtful about problems, but because they think too much,
So I have a lot of worries, and I tend to be hesitant and timid when doing things.
He obviously still had about 40,000 people, so he could open a battlefield and fight the Tang army, but Ashina Chengqing just didn't have the courage.
Maybe he wanted to wait until his morale recovered before fighting, but he didn't understand that only when the general is courageous will morale be high. If the general is timid, the soldiers will not fight hard either.
Ashina Chengqing doesn't understand and doesn't dare to take the initiative. If he blindly adopts a defensive strategy, he will only become more and more passive.
At this time, a soldier came to report, "Your Highness, the county magistrate is here!"
Li Ye nodded, "Take him to the big tent and wait for me. I'll be back soon."
Shen Huan, the magistrate of Lantian County, was invited over by Li Ye. He was standing in front of the sand table in the tent, looking at the sand table curiously. This was the first time he had seen this kind of map. It was very intuitive, and it was like a map of war.
sharp weapon.
"Just let Magistrate Shen wait." Li Ye quickly walked into the tent.
Shen Huan quickly saluted, "See you, Your Highness!"
"Where is Magistrate Shen from?" Li Ye asked curiously.
"I am from Wuxing, Huzhou."
"That has something to do with the prince?"
Li Ye suddenly thought of Shen Zhenzhu, the beloved concubine of Prince Li Yu, Li Shi's mother. Shen Zhenzhu disappeared in history and became an unsolved historical case. Of course, it was not unsolved. She must have been killed by An Lushan's bandits.
Historically, after An Lushan entered Chang'an, in order to avenge his son, he frantically retaliated against the Li clan and relatives. Almost all the clan members who had not had time to escape were killed, and their wives and daughters were also captured and humiliated in the camp.
In the end, they all have to die.
But in his era, some deviations occurred in history. Most of the princes and grandsons escaped. Shen Zhenzhen also followed her husband into the East Palace in advance, and finally escaped successfully. She should be in Lingwu County now.
Shen Huan smiled and said, "It's a bit related, but my humble position is that I was a Jinshi in Tianbao for ten years!"
Li Ye nodded and said with a smile: "I was the one who was abrupt!"
He walked to the sand table, picked up the wooden pole and pointed at the Lantian County Road: "How many years has County Magistrate Shen stayed in Lantian County?"
"When Beizhi became an official, he served as the chief clerk in Lantian County. He was promoted to county magistrate this year, but the county magistrate ran away. In order to protect the people, Beizhi accepted the appointment of Yan State and became the county magistrate. Beizhi did not betray the Tang Dynasty in his heart."
Shen Huan spoke very frankly, he had a clear conscience,
Li Ye said calmly: "I'm not here to find you to hold you accountable, but I want to know the condition of the houses in the county. Are there many wooden houses?"
"Basically, they are all wooden houses. This is the Zhongnan Mountain area, which is rich in wood. There is no soil to bake bricks. County residents adapt to local conditions and use wood to build their houses."
“Are there any large open spaces in the county?”
"Originally there were quite a few, but many people from Chang'an fled, occupied all the open space, and built a large number of simple houses. Now only the area around the Chenghuang Temple is slightly empty."
"Where is the City God's Temple?"
Shen Huan pointed to the west of the county with a wooden pole, "It's in the west of the city!"
"By the city wall?"
"It's very close to the city wall, just a row of houses away, maybe thirty steps at most."
Li Ye nodded, "I understand!"
Of course, Li Ye wanted to attack Lantian County with fire. In order to seize food, the Yan army drove away all the people in the county. Li Ye immediately thought of attacking with fire. Originally, he was worried that it would hurt ordinary people, but now he has no worries. , and even burning down the whole city was simply a God-sent opportunity.
I guess Ashina Chengqing also regretted it! He drove away the people in the city and killed thousands of old people who didn't want to leave, but he lost his human shield. This is God's will!
Li Ye immediately summoned the generals to deploy tonight's battle plan.
"Everyone knows that I am cutting wood today to prepare a siege ladder, but in fact this is just an illusion. It is for the enemy commander in the city to see. My real strategy is to launch a fire attack tonight. We still have five hundred fire kites. There are still two thousand kerosene balls, which is the guarantee of our victory. Everyone, the decisive battle will be tonight. I hope everyone can cheer up and we will annihilate the enemy in one battle."
Everyone cheered up and their eyes were full of expectation. Li Ye pointed at the North City Gate with a wooden pole and said to Hei Spear, the leader of the Modao Army: "The enemy will definitely break out from the north gate. Use the Modao Army to block the enemy. Army breaks out!"
"I humbly obey orders!"
"Then the South City Gate!"
Li Ye said to Guan Pei: "You lead 10,000 crossbowmen to block the south city gate and sprinkle it with caltrops. If the enemy breaks through, they will all be shot without surrender."
Guan Pei bowed and saluted, "Obey!"
Li Ye then said to two Yingyanglang generals, Xu Haiying and Liu Zheng: "You two will each lead five thousand crossbowmen to assist the heavy armored infantry, and together you will besiege the North City Gate!"
The two agreed together.
Li Ye nodded and said to Pei Xiu and Nan Jiyun: "You two each lead 10,000 cavalry to encircle and suppress the city wall. If it is a Han Yan army, you can accept the surrender. The foreign barbarians will all be killed."
"Follow the order!"
Li Ye slowly looked at the crowd and said: "Our goal is still Chang'an, but tonight will be our battle to establish our authority!"
At two o'clock in the morning, the Tang army began to take action. One team after another rushed out of the camp and headed for their respective deployment positions. However, they did not approach the city wall immediately to prevent being discovered by the enemy. They were all far away.
The first to be deployed are two hundred Fire Harrier catapult launchers, which are lined up one mile away from the east city. The three hundred cyclone cannons will be the last to launch, and they need to wait patiently.
A group of spies deployed by the Yan Army near the Tang Army's camp outside the city were also paying attention to the movements of the Tang Army's camp. This group of spies consisted of about ten people and was one of three teams of spies. They were deployed in the southwest, three miles away from the county seat. , observing the movements of the Tang Army’s camp in a forest.
At this time, a burst of crossbow arrows suddenly came from behind them, and the Yan army spies fell off their horses with screams.
The leader of the spies and the other two spies were so frightened that they ran away for their lives.
Immediately, hundreds of cavalry rushed out from the depths of the woods. They were Tang Army scouts, led by Scout General Zhang Dian. He was responsible for encircling and suppressing the spies around the Tang Army. He had already killed two teams of spies, and this was the third team.
He had been keeping an eye on this spy for a long time. He asked for other confessions and found out that the Yan army only sent three teams, so this was the last spy.
Hundreds of Yan army scouts rushed out and surrounded the remaining spies. The leader desperately broke out and was killed by a burst of arrows. The remaining two spies were so frightened that they quickly dismounted and surrendered.
Zhang Dian immediately interrogated the two spies and learned that the Yan army had indeed deployed only three spies. At this time, all the Yan army spies outside the city were destroyed.
At this time, a dense flock of birds suddenly appeared in the east of the city, and there were dots of stars in the sky, which were burning ropes.
The soldiers guarding the city suddenly saw the dark flying fire kites, and immediately sounded the alarm, "Dang! Dang! Dang! Dang!"
The whole city was in alarm, and Yan's troops woke up from their sleep one after another.
Two hundred fire kites burst into flames as they crossed the city wall, like a phoenix bathing in fire, turning into two hundred blazing firebirds and flying in all directions within the city.
