Chapter 2606: Killing Immortal Flying Knife, Lu Ya VS Zhu Rong
Chapter 2466: Civil strife in Chang'an during the Great Victory of Haojing (1)
Ba Ling City.
"The troops have retreated. The Qin army has retreated."
As the Qin army retreated like a tide, a burst of cheers suddenly sounded in Baling City.
After three days of intense defense, Baling City was no longer as tidy as it was three days ago and became extremely dilapidated, with wounded soldiers and corpses everywhere in the city.
Seeing that the Qin army finally retreated, Li Mu and Jiang Shang could not help but secretly heave a sigh of relief.
The Qin Army's siege troops on the third day were all the main force of the Qin Army. The offensive was so fierce that they didn't know how they survived that day. Fortunately, they managed to persevere.
"General, you haven't slept a wink all day and night. This is freshly cooked chicken soup. Drink it while it's hot."
Li Mu looked at the chicken soup in front of him and said, "Send it to General Yang Jian. He hasn't slept for three days and three nights, and he hasn't eaten. He has to eat."
"promise."
The battle between Yang Jian and Sun Lingming only lasted for half a day and ended with Yang Jian voluntarily giving up.
Because it was still a war of attrition, and the main purpose of his trip was to help Li Mu defend Baling City, not to defeat Sun Lingming.
Yang Jian returns, and together with Lei Zhenzi and Yang Ren, there are three war gods in Baling City, and they are obviously not that easy to fight.
Sure enough, the siege on the first day, even with the command of Wu Qi and Sima Cuo, ended in failure, and the overall combat strength of the surrendered army was still weak.
On the second day, Wu Qi asked the main force of the Qin army and the surrendered army to attack the city together. The total attack intensity was twice as strong as yesterday.
Faced with such a strong offensive, Li Mu also exerted his defensive ability to the extreme, and finally defended the city for the next day.
On the third day, the main force of the Qin army attacked the city and attacked the east and west gates at the same time.
Even Li Mu, who had been promoted to Commander 105, was unable to command in such a situation. He had to get rid of Jiang Shang to help him guard one gate, and he could barely survive the third day.
But what to do next?
Judging from the intensity of the siege on the third day, even if all the defenders in Baling City were defeated, they would not be able to last for ten days, let alone a month.
At this thought, Li Mu was filled with confusion and didn't know where to go.
Jiang Shang saw everything about Li Mu, and after seeing this scene, he comforted: "General Li Mu, the Qin army suffered heavy casualties during the three-day fierce attack. Wu Qi is a general who cherishes his soldiers, and the Qin army's pension is so high."
, I think he will suspend his offensive, at least he will not continue his deadly attack."
Siege warfare is also divided into levels. The highest level is a deadly attack regardless of casualties, which is to break the city in the shortest time.
If the attack is brutal, tens of thousands of people will be killed or injured in one day.
This is how the allied forces of the princes attacked Tokyo, because those who attacked the city were Japanese surrendered troops, so it didn't hurt no matter how many people died.
But if you are one of our own people, not many people will do this because the price is too high.
The siege method that is second to the deadly attack is siege. This siege method is a war of attrition. It does not care about the duration of the siege. It mainly kills the enemy's troops and wears them down bit by bit. Therefore, tens of thousands will naturally be enough.
Much smaller.
Jiang Shang's guess was correct. Wu Qi was indeed prepared to postpone the offensive. After all, a strong attack regardless of casualties would cause too many casualties. It was simply not worth losing tens of thousands of soldiers for the sake of a mere Ba Ling city.
When Li Mu heard this, he immediately became happy and asked, "Really?"
Jiang Shang pretended to count with his fingers and said, "The possibility is as high as 70%."
If it had been anyone else, he would have slapped him in the face, but after getting along with him these days, Li Mu already believed that Jiang Shang was a great fortune teller, so he followed Jiang Shangdel's tricks.
"That's great, sir, Ba Ling Wuyou is here."
Li Mu left happily, mobilizing the troops in the city and making arrangements for tomorrow's defense.
Jiang Shang looked at Li Mu's back, but his smile gradually solidified, and said to himself: "Why do I feel so uneasy?"
Jiang Shang thought about it but couldn't figure out the reason. After all, with Li Mu and him here, Ba Ling didn't show signs of breaking the city.
Could it be that Wu Qi was preparing to attack the enemy until Ba Ling City was destroyed?
But if he did this, even if he defeated Ba Ling City and the Qin army suffered too many casualties, Wu Qi would still be doing more harm than good.
It is impossible for Wu Qi to do this with his wisdom.
After thinking about it, Jiang Shang couldn't think of the reason, so he planned to use the astrology of good times and bad times at night to try his luck and test the good and bad luck.
After nightfall, Jiang Shang glanced at the brightly lit Qin Army camp in the distance, and then looked up at the starry sky.
I saw that the emperor star belonging to Ying Hao suddenly bloomed with splendor, while the king star belonging to Li Shimin became increasingly dim and even threatened to fall.
Jiang Shang was shocked when he saw this: "How could this happen? It was fine a few days ago. Although the king's star is dim, it is not in danger of falling. How come it suddenly dims so much?"
Judging from what the astrology showed, Li Shimin was probably going to die.
As for the exact reason, Jiang Shang didn't know, but he knew that Li Shimin was the grandson of Uncle Taiqing, and that he also had Li Yuanba under his command.
Even if Li Shimin loses to the Qin army and cannot defend Guanzhong, he shouldn't fall, right?
"What's the reason?"
After Jiang Shang thought hard, he finally thought of a fucking reason, and said to himself with some uncertainty: "Is it because Ba Ling was defended and the previous two small victories made Li Shimin feel that the Qin army outside Chang'an City was not invincible?
Victory, so you want to go out of the city and destroy the 30,000 Qin troops outside Chang'an City?"
The reason why he is not sure is because in Jiang Shang's opinion, it is impossible for a smart person like Li Shimin to do such a stupid thing, but if he thinks about it carefully, he has done quite a few stupid things, so it makes more sense.
.
"No, it's impossible. Does Li Shimin really want to go out of the city to fight the Qin army? Doesn't he know that among the 30,000 Qin troops outside the city, 15,000 are cavalry?"
As soon as this thought appeared, Jiang Shang's forehead suddenly broke out in cold sweat.
It would be fine if Li Shimin won when he went out of the city, but if he lost, he and Li Mu would toss and toss around Ba Ling, finally gaining a little advantage, but all of it would be gone in one fell swoop, and the situation in Guanzhong would also be at a loss.
Room to maneuver.
There was a time when Jiang Shang thought that Li Shimin was also a wise man, but now he only thinks of him as a pig teammate.
What are you doing out of the city? Wouldn't it be better to stay in Chang'an and defend until Chang'an city is breached, then escape back to Hanzhong?
Why did you risk your life to go out of the city and fight the Qin army?
Although Jiang Shang didn't know whether Li Shimin would do this, but once he did, it would be very likely that everyone's efforts would be in vain, so he had to find a way to get Li Shimin to kill this terrible idea.
.
Jiang Shang hurriedly went to find Li Mu, because only Li Mu could contact Li Shimin, and then wrote a letter in front of him. The content of it was naturally to advise Li Shimin not to leave the city.
"General Li Mu, this letter must be handed over to Duke Tang as soon as possible."
Seeing Jiang Shang being so anxious, Li Mu couldn't help but ask, "What happened?"
"It's too late to explain. You go ahead and I will explain to you later."
"good."
After Li Mu released the homing pigeon, Jiang Shang told his guess, but Li Mu's face was full of disbelief. He obviously didn't believe that Li Shimin would make such a decision, but felt that Jiang Shang was making too much fuss.
What can Jiang Shang say about this? He can only say that he is just taking precautions.
What Jiang Shang and Li Mu didn't know was that the homing pigeon they released was shot down by the vulture team organized by Wu Qi not far from Baling City.
Although there are not many people in the vulture team, only a dozen or so, each one of them is an expert archer. If you put them on the grassland, they would be vulture shooters.
They can even shoot down eagles, but how can they not hit pigeons? Even in the dark.
The next day, the Qin army continued to attack the city, and as Jiang Shang expected, the offensive was indeed much weaker.
Wu Qi was obviously worried about the casualties and was reluctant to continue the attack, so he slowed down the attack.
Seeing this, Li Mu focused all his attention on defending the city, but Jiang Shang was a little distracted, because after so long, there was still no reply from Chang'an, which was obviously abnormal.
Jiang Shang quickly found Li Mu and said, "The carrier pigeon released yesterday must have been intercepted by the Qin army, otherwise it would be impossible for there to be no reply until now."
"What should we do?" Li Mu asked.
"After nightfall, release all the homing pigeons at the same time, so that the news may be sent back to Chang'an."
Li Mu was obviously a little reluctant when he heard this. After all, if all the carrier pigeons were released just because of your guess, then he would have no way to communicate with the outside world.
Jiang Shang saw Li Mu's reluctance and persuaded Li Mu after some persuasion.
This time Li Mu released hundreds of carrier pigeons at the same time, carrying the same letter. Naturally, it was impossible for the Qin Army's vulture team to shoot down all of them. Jiang Shang's message was finally taken to Luoyang by the carrier pigeons, but unfortunately it was already gone.
It's late.
When Jiang Shang's letter reached Chang'an, Li Shimin had already led his army out of the city and started a decisive battle with Wang Jian, and did not see Jiang Shang's letter at all.
In the evening of the next day, more than 200 homing pigeons flew from Chang'an to Baling City. After 90% of them were shot down, more than 20 more flew into the city.
After Li Mu ordered his people to collect the carrier pigeons, they took off all the bamboo tubes tied with them, and the contents inside were all the same, that is, Li Shimin was defeated in the battle of Chang'an and returned.
"how so?"
After reading this, Li Mu felt dizzy. He couldn't believe that Li Shimin had really left the city, and that his 60,000-strong army could not defeat Wang Jian's 30,000-strong army.
Jiang Shang's face was also extremely ugly, but he still suppressed the uneasiness in his heart and read all the contents on the letter, hoping to get more information from it.
Jiang Shang guessed from the beginning that if Li Shimin went out of the city to fight, the chance of defeat would be as high as 70%. But if 60,000 were fighting 30,000, even if he lost, it wouldn't be such a disastrous defeat, right?
The Tang army led by Li Shimin had a total of 60,000 troops, including two elite battalions, the Xuanjia Army and the Feixiong Army, which were twice as powerful as the Qin Army.
As for the generals, Li Shimin had Li Yuanba, Ma Shanwei, Gao Siji and other powerful generals under his command, and he also received support from Ji Fa, Nangong Shi, Xiao Sheng, Cao Bao and many other Taoist disciples along the way.
In addition, Shen Gongbao, who was the inheritor of both Yuqing and Shangqing sects, after receiving a letter from the Taoist sect, in order to repay the kindness of the Yuqing sect for teaching, he also went to Guanzhong to help the Tang Dynasty.
In addition to coming by himself, Shen Gongbao also deceived Lu Yue, who was traveling with him and was preparing to take office in the Song Dynasty.
Shen Gongbao told Lu Yue not to go to the Song Dynasty to take office, but to come with him to help Li Tang. After all, helping Li Tang was equivalent to helping the Song Dynasty.
Although Lu Yue was strong, his brain was really not very good. He was fooled by Shen Gongbao's words and believed him. He took five apprentices and two junior brothers and went into Guanzhong with Shen Gongbao to help Tang Dynasty.
In other words, Li Shimin's lineup this time includes not only Li Tang's powerful generals, but also elite disciples from the three Taoist sects. The talent lineup is extremely luxurious.
Whether it is the number of troops or the lineup of generals, Li Shimin is superior to Wang Jian. Logically speaking, even if he cannot win, he should not be defeated.
But the fact is that Li Shimin not only lost, but also suffered the worst defeat in his life, without even the slightest suspense.
Why did Li Shimin, who had an army of 60,000 and many powerful generals, suffer such a tragic defeat this time?
The reasons are somewhat complicated, but they are nothing more than two major factors, internal and external.
The external factor is that just when Li Shimin and Wang Jian were fighting, civil strife in Chang'an also broke out as Li Shimin expected.
But one thing exceeded Li Shimin's expectations, that is, the traitor exposed in this civil strife search was not a long-planned rebellion, but an abandoned son deliberately exposed by Li Si.
Li Si knew very well that Li Shimin had a back-up force in Chang'an, and there were more than one. If he raised troops after Li Shimin left the city, he would most likely fall into a trap.
Li Shimin believed that there were people from the Qin army in Chang'an City, so he did not hesitate to leave Chang'an and lure the snake out of its hole. If Li Si did nothing and continued to lurk, Li Shimin would not let it go.
After weighing the pros and cons, Li Si decided to divert trouble to the east, so he planned a rebellion and deliberately exposed all the family members who had turned to Da Qin. But in fact, these people were all his abandoned sons, and his purpose was to
Let Li Tang turn his attention to all the aristocratic families in Chang'an City.
Under Li Si's operation, twenty-one major clans in Chang'an City launched a rebellion at the same time after receiving the signal. The number of their rebels was not too large, but the momentum was extremely large, and everyone in Chang'an City knew about it.
Some families saw that there was a rebellion in the city, and the momentum was so great that Li Shimin could not come back for the time being. They thought that Li Tang was going to be doomed, so in order to save the family, they joined the ranks of the rebels.
However, what the heads of the families who launched the rebellion and the generals belonging to these families never imagined was that the people who encouraged them to launch the rebellion not only failed to cooperate with them in the rebellion, but also used the Tang army in the same city to suppress them.
－－－－－－Digression－－－－－
A four thousand word chapter, today’s update, and yesterday’s guarantee