As soon as Li Shimin and his party passed through Xuanwu Gate, the gate of Xuanwu Gate was immediately closed tightly, and then the front door was also closed tightly.
Immediately afterwards, a large number of archers suddenly appeared on the city tower, with their bows and arrows drawn, aiming at Li Shimin and his party below the city.
After seeing this scene, both Li Shimin and Jiang Shang were shocked. They did not expect to be ambushed at Xuanwu Gate. After all, the palace guard was Li Maozhen.
Li Shimin had doubts about Li Si, and even doubted Li Chunfeng, but he did not doubt Li Maozhen. The reason was that Li Maozhen was Li Xiaogong's son.
Li Xiaogong was Li Shimin's most trusted uncle. He loved Li Maozhen very much and loved Li Maozhen very much. Although the two were not real brothers, they were better than real brothers.
Of course, the main reason why Li Shimin did not doubt Li Maozhen, apart from the relationship between the two, was because of Li Xiaogong.
There is no way that Li Xiaogong would betray him, and if Li Maozhen rebelled, where would his own father be? He would definitely be accused of being unfaithful and unfilial.
But what Li Shimin never expected was that Li Maozhen not only betrayed him, but also ambushed him by the Xuanwumen. He wanted to repeat the Xuanwumen incident again, which was simply killing people and killing his heart.
Li Shimin could accept the rebellion of Hua Xiong, Li Jue and others, but he could not accept that Li Maozhen also betrayed him. He could no longer suppress the anger in his heart and roared to the top of the city tower:
"Li Maozhen, do you know what you are doing?
What is wrong with you as a brother? Why did you betray me? betray your own family?
Did you consider your uncle and his old man when you did this?"
Li Maozhen, who was on the tower, looked even more guilty after hearing this.
Li Shimin was sorry for Li Xiuning, sorry for Yang Jian, and sorry for the common people and the aristocratic family in Guanzhong, but he was the only one who was sorry for Li Maozhen. On the contrary, he was sorry for Li Shimin.
Therefore, Li Maozhen had no face at all and did not want to see Li Shimin, so she simply closed her eyes and ordered softly: "Fire the arrow."
Shoot an arrow?
After receiving the order, nearly half of the crossbowmen did not move. After all, the person below was their lord. However, Li Maozhen's cronies fired their arrows decisively.
The other half of the crossbowmen saw that so many people had fired their arrows, and whether they fired their arrows or not, they acted in rebellion. So they gritted their teeth and fired their arrows together, and began to shoot the people under the city.
Whoosh, whoosh, whoosh...
Arrows fell like raindrops.
[Ding dong, Jiang Shang's skill 'Bing Ancestor' effect 3 is activated. When he serves as the commander-in-chief, all generals under his command command 1 and the entire army's force is 2; when not serving as the commander-in-chief, the force increase effect is halved; when more than half of the casualties are killed, the force of the entire army
1 again;
Li Shimin: Commander 100 (2), Force 100 (12), Intelligence 99 (2-1), Politics 103, Charisma 81 (1-20); Taiqing Sword 1;
Currently, Li Shimin's armed forces are all 1.
Li Shimin's force increased to 102;
Jiang Shang's force rose to 87;
...]
"Escort."
Under the increase of 'Bing Zu', the combat power of the guards who entered Xuanwu Gate was greatly increased, and they all responded very quickly.
The personal guards holding shields quickly stood beside Li Shimin's carriage and protected both Li Shimin and Jiang Shang.
As for the guards without shields, in this limited space, they have nowhere to hide even if they want to. No matter how powerful they are, there is only one final outcome, and that is to die from being pierced by thousands of arrows.
"ah……"
"No, I vote..."
Screams sounded one after another.
In the blink of an eye, nearly half of the thousand personal guards guarding Li Shimin were killed by random arrows.
The remaining people either block as a team, or use the corpses of their companions as shields to support themselves, but this is obviously not a long-term solution.
[Ding dong, more than half of the army’s casualties have been killed. Jiang Shang’s skill ‘Bing Zu’ effect 3 is activated again. When the casualties exceed half, the whole army’s force will be 1 again;
Li Shimin's current strength has increased to 103;
Jiang Shang's force rose to 88;
...]
Under the effect of two consecutive skills that increased the entire army, all guards, including Li Shimin and Jiang Shang, all received a 2-point increase in force.
If this was a field battle, even if Li Maozhen's troops were several times theirs, they would still be able to win. But unfortunately, this was an ambush, and they could only suffer a passive beating.
"how so?"
Looking at the guards falling around him, Jiang Shang clenched his fists unconsciously.
He worked hard and thanklessly for his old accomplice Li Shimin, who did not seek fame or profit. All he did was save his life to save Taoism, but he did not want to become the culprit of Li Shimin's downfall.
Despite all the calculations, Jiang Shang did not expect that Li Maozhen would also rebel, otherwise he would not have allowed Li Shimin to fall into the trap of his own accord.
The impact of Li Maozhen's rebellion was undoubtedly extremely significant.
Although the rebel forces in Chang'an City were powerful before, they did not surpass Li Tangfang by much. Generally speaking, the two sides were evenly matched.
But now Li Maozhen's rebellion has become the last straw that breaks the camel's back. The rebel forces have overwhelmed Li Tangfang, and Li Cunxiao has also entered the city.
Now, let alone suppressing the rebellion and regaining control of Chang'an, it would be difficult for Li Tang to protect himself.
In Jiang Shang's view, for Li Tangfang today, the top priority should be to withdraw from Chang'an and preserve his strength, which is the best strategy.
But the key point is that even he and Li Shimin were trapped and died in Xuanwu Gate. It was a question whether they could survive, let alone withdraw from Chang'an.
Now we are in a desperate situation of no life or death.
Li Shimin, who was hiding behind the shield, saw that there were fewer and fewer people around him. He gritted his teeth and asked, "Mr. Jiang, what should we do now?"
Jiang Shangze smiled bitterly and said, "We can only try to delay as much time as possible."
If there were steps to climb the city, then they could at least counterattack, but this Xuanwu Gate didn't even have stairs to climb the city, so there was no other way but to sit back and wait for death.
Now Jiang Shang can only hope that the outside world can quickly lead you to discover Li Maozhen's rebellion and rescue them, but this possibility is obviously slim.
400
300
200
In less than a stick of incense, 80% of the thousand elite guards who entered the Xuanwu Gate were directly shot to death by arrows from all directions, and their bodies were all covered with arrows. Their death was miserable.
When Li Shimin's side was reduced to two hundred, the arrow rain from the tower suddenly stopped.
Li Maozhen ordered the initiative to stop firing arrows. The reason why he did this was not because he wanted to spare Li Shimin or because his arrows were not enough, but because the remaining people below all held shields and formed a turtle formation.
There is no gap in the defense.
Ordinary arrow attacks can no longer affect the opponent. Only heavy crossbows such as bed crossbows and siege crossbows can break through the defense of the turtle shell.
But in order to defend Chang'an, Li Shimin had transported all the heavy crossbows to the fourth gate, and not even one was deployed in the palace.
Without the heavy crossbow, Li Maozhen had no other choice but to send troops to break Li Shimin's turtle shell.
squeak……
The front door opened slowly, and thousands of Tang soldiers walked in slowly, but there was still no figure of Li Maozhen among them.
Thousands of rebels led by Li Maozhen began to form formation after entering Xuanwu Gate, and the front gate was closed again.
Looking at the front door that was gradually closing, Li Shimin was filled with despair. Where was his way out?
Looking at the rebels lined up, Li Shimin walked out of the shield formation and roared towards the city tower: "Li Maozhen, if you want to kill me, just do it yourself. Why send these people to die?"
But what he responded to was an arrow, and Li Maozhen still didn't come forward.
After Li Shimin knocked the arrow away with his sword, he quickly returned to the shield formation and gritted his teeth and said: "This thing is greedy for life and afraid of death."
He originally thought that if Li Maozhen ended up personally and had to kill Li Maozhen, he would still have a chance of survival, but he didn't expect that Li Maozhen would be so cautious. He only had so few people left on his side, and Li Maozhen didn't even show up.
Dare to join the battle in person.
What Li Shimin didn't know was that Li Maozhen didn't join the war, not because he didn't dare to join the war, but because he had no face to see Li Shimin, so he deliberately avoided the war.
Thousands of rebels entered the scene, and after forming their formation, they immediately took steady steps and surrounded Li Shimin's shield formation.
Seeing this situation, Li Shimin made a decisive decision, withdrew the shield formation, and personally led the two hundred remnant troops to fight back, and they fought with this group of rebels.
Li Shimin was betting that after the melee started, it would be difficult to distinguish between ourselves and the enemy, and Li Maozhen would stop firing arrows.
Otherwise, he would not only have to face the siege of this group of rebels, but also have to resist the bows and arrows of the crossbowmen on the tower, and he would be killed sooner or later.
Facts have proved that Li Shimin made the right bet.
If the two sides had not mixed up, then Li Maozhen would definitely have ordered the arrows to be fired, because this would also help Li Shimin be eliminated faster.
But now that the two sides have become one, and there is no distinction between you and me, if they are shooting arrows, wouldn't they just shoot their own people together?
If he really does this, how will he convince the public in the future?
[Ding dong, Li Shimin’s skill ‘Zhenguan’ effect 4 is activated, the entire army’s generals have 1 force, and part of the enemy’s morale is reduced.
Currently, Li Shimin's armed forces are all 1.
Li Shimin's force increased to 104;
Jiang Shang’s force rose to 89;
...]
"Kill..."
"Traitor, suffer death..."
"Fuck you uncle..."
The guards, who had been passively being shot but could not fight back, naturally felt extremely aggrieved. At this moment, they completely vented their anger and started slashing at the rebels with roars.
[Ding dong, Li Shimin’s skill ‘Sword God’ is activated, his force is 4, and his current force has increased to 108;]
After Li Shimin cut off the three spears that were thrust at him with one sword, he slashed with all his strength and cut off the heads of the three soldiers together.
"Tang Gong is brave."
After Jiang Shang praised him, he also whipped one of the rebels to death.
Although Jiang Shang fought for half his life, he could only go into battle personally a handful of times. Because he was a Confucian general, there was basically no need for him to go into battle in person. He did not want to be forced to go into battle in person to kill the enemy in his later years.
Of course, this was Jiang Shang's own doing. If he had not waded into this muddy water, naturally he wouldn't have had so many things happen.
Li Shimin's situation was similar to that of Jiang Shang. Now he was forced to participate in the war in person, but his strength was much stronger than Jiang Shang's, and more and more rebels died under his sword.
As Li Shimin personally participated in the battle, the remaining 200 personal guards once again received an increase of 1 point in force, and a total of 3 points in increase in force were obtained.
They are elites to begin with, otherwise they would not be able to serve as Li Shimin's bodyguards, and their combat effectiveness in desperate situations is even more frightening.
To put it bluntly, the comprehensive combat power of the 200 personal guards gathered around Li Shimin has surpassed elite battalions such as the Xuanjia Army and the Flying Bear Army.
On the other hand, the rebels had become traitors inexplicably. Many people did not dare to kill Li Shimin, and their morale was lowered by "Zhenguan".
With their hands tied, Li Maozhen's thousand rebels were not only unable to take down Li Shimin's two hundred remnant troops, but were suppressed and beaten by the other side.
[Ding dong, Li Shimin’s skill ‘Zhenguan’ effect 3 is activated. When commanding a large army to fight, the overall quality of the entire army will be greatly improved. The greater the disparity between the enemy’s and our own forces, the stronger the combat power of the army will be to the enemy. 】
As soon as the 'Zhenguan' effect 3 came out, a thousand rebels were completely defeated and began to rapidly reduce their numbers. Soon nearly 500 people were killed, but Li Shimin only lost more than 30 people.
Seeing this, Li Maozhen couldn't help but frown. After all, with this posture, if all the thousand people below were killed in battle, they might not be able to kill half of Li Shimin's people.
Just then.
boom……
A huge explosion came from the direction of Tang Gong's mansion.
Li Maozhen looked intently and saw that the Tang Palace was filled with gunpowder smoke, and the main hall had collapsed, while other buildings were still collapsing one after another.
Obviously, an extremely fierce battle was breaking out in the Tang Palace. It was most likely caused by Li Yuanba and others besieging Li Cunxiao. Otherwise, there would never have been such a big commotion.
"We can't drag it out any longer."
After groaning, Li Maozhen personally led two thousand soldiers to join the battle to solve Li Shimin's big trouble as soon as possible.
squeak……
The front door of Xuanwu Gate opened wide again, and this time Li Maozhen finally went to battle in person.
"kill……"
[Ding dong, Li Maozhen’s skill ‘Gun God’ is activated, force 4, basic force 101, Qiwang Spear 1, sweat horse 1, current force increased to 107; ]
With the addition of two thousand fresh troops, this naturally doubled the pressure on the guards. After all, each of them had to deal with the siege of more than ten enemies. No matter how elite the soldiers were, they could not withstand such an attack.
But they have no way out, not even surrender. They have no other option but to die in battle. Is there anything more desperate and difficult than this?
After half a stick of incense, the guards began to lose their strength, and were eventually annihilated by the rebels who were more than ten times their own size. However, they also defeated eight times their own enemy force.
Li Shimin had a thousand personal guards, and Li Maozhen wiped out the first 800 people without losing a single soldier, but the last 200 people paid a heavy price of 1,600 people.
At this point, only Li Shimin and Jiang Shang were left on the battlefield, back to back, still fighting stubbornly.
"Mr. Jiang, if you were captured alive, would you be loyal to Ying Hao?"
Li Shimin's voice came from behind.
Jiang Shang couldn't help but be startled when he heard this. In the previous battle, he was also seriously injured and his brain was a little confused, so he couldn't react.
Before Jiang Shang had time to reply, a sword penetrated him from behind.