In the past two days, the atmosphere in Tongguan City has become extremely depressed. The soldiers and civilians in the city are in a state of panic. The news that Li Zicheng was captured by the imperial court has already disturbed people's hearts. Although the superiors denied it vigorously, but then the war started in Chaoyi, and all denials and explanations They all became pale and weak, and nine times out of ten they believed that it was not groundless.
Everyone firmly believes in one thing. If Li Zicheng is captured, Dashun will collapse in an instant!
Dashun's army thought so, and so did the people under Dashun's rule.
But just when people were at their most chaotic and military morale at its lowest, news suddenly came that more than 100,000 troops from the imperial court were gathering towards Tongguan. Their advance troops were only fifty miles away from Tongguan, and it was rumored that the two sides had already started fighting outside the city. There were several fights, with winners and losers.
Hundreds of thousands!
Tongguan is in danger!
When the house leaked, it rained continuously all night, which made the soldiers even more disheartened and the people even more panicked.
If Li Zicheng had not been captured, how could the imperial court suddenly launch an attack with more than 100,000 people! No matter who you leave, don't panic.
Just when the morale of the army was almost shattered, a thunder struck on a sunny day: Li Guo and King Chuang were back from Dali!
Well! ? …
In an instant, the soldiers and civilians in the city were confused.
When the evil storm first started, there were rumors that King Chuang had not been captured, but that it was just a trick of Li Yan on the other side. King Chuang was actually secretly inspecting defense elsewhere and returned soon... But even with such rumors, at that time A large part of the people were still at ease, or half-confident, and then a war broke out in Chaoyi. Li Guo went to take command, but King Chuang, who said he would be back in a few days, was nowhere to be seen, so people's hearts collapsed.
Then you know that when this is about to collapse, the two men are back!
King Chuang was still so majestic and domineering, and Li Guo was still expressionless and restrained and resolute. The two of them strolled around the city and the military camps in the streets and alleys. The military morale in the city was settled and the people's morale was a little calmer.
"How come there are 100,000 officers and soldiers? It's just a bluff. They can only be 20,000 at most. It's no doubt a dream to break through my copper-walled city!" Li Zicheng shouted from a high altitude. The morale of the army was shaken. The roar spread for ten miles, and he vowed to attack the officers and soldiers in one fell swoop in the future. Defeated!
That night, in the meeting hall, Li Zicheng was sitting upright with his forehead on his hands and his eyebrows lowered. Li Guo had a solemn expression. Several generals told them one by one the military information they had recently inquired about: officers and soldiers are stationed in Pandou Town. There are five thousand soldiers and horses, including more than 3,000 cavalry. The main general is said to be the fierce general Ma Ke. Lingbao, which is dozens of miles behind, is led by Wu Sangui and the main force of more than 10,000 people is stationed...
Main force? Li Guo raised his eyebrows and snorted coldly, and someone immediately added: "There are still several troops from Luoyang who are gathering in this direction. It is expected that they will reach Shaanzhou in five days at most..."
"There are approximately more than 50,000 troops and horses in total, as well as artillery from the Shenji Battalion..."
"It is said that Wu Sangui's Guan Ning cavalry is also here..."
"There are also the emperor's personal guards and soldiers and horses from the Beijing camp..."
Li Zicheng's head got bigger and he put his hands on his face without saying a word. Li Guo frowned: "Fifty thousand soldiers and horses...the soldiers and horses of the Beijing camp are not to be feared, but...Wu Sangui Ma Ke...The terrain around Tongguan is full of mountains, rivers and ravines, which is not suitable for horse fighting. Although Guan Ning's cavalry is said to be invincible, it may not be able to display its abilities here...Have you ever sent troops to test it?"
"After Ma Ke garrisoned Pandou, the first few groups of nearly a hundred cavalry arrived to reconnoiter the city. Li Mazi from the east gate sent three hundred cavalry to fight with him several times on the Yulingye slope ten miles away. Each had its own victory or defeat. I heard that Ma Ke was brave and his subordinates were really powerful..."
Li Yan narrowed his eyes: "Li Mazi is famous for being aggressive, which is not a good thing. If you say that Ma Ke is so powerful, then Li Mazi has suffered a hidden disadvantage."
The general felt a little ashamed: "I did suffer some losses, but Ma Ke may not have gained much benefit..." Before he could finish his words, Li Guo interrupted him with a wave of his hand: "They are just some appetizers, who can take some?" Being cheap has nothing to do with the overall situation, and it should not be used to affect the morale of the army. Since the battle of Songjin, Ma Ke has not been as good as before. The dog eunuch bringing him here is just a bluff and cannot fool me."
The generals nodded, and another said: "What if we don't take advantage of the fact that the main force behind them has not yet assembled, and defeat Ma Ke first?"
Li Guo shook his head: "We are holding on to Jintang, why should we sacrifice our strengths and take advantage of weaknesses to fight in the wild? In a word, the most important thing is to defend the city and then defeat it in the wild!"
Outside Hejin City, Luo Hu and Ma Bao continued to chew the leg of lamb and continued to scold Qin Songwang in the city. Their mouths were dry from saying good and bad things, but this guy was determined to fight with himself. I can't stand it anymore.
Damn it, after the city is broken, he must be captured and skinned alive to vent his hatred.
The two of them had a slightly leisurely day. Because they had not received any information about Li Yan's reinforcements, they did not want to waste their troops in attacking the city. He wanted to wait for the information about the reinforcements from the officers and soldiers, wait for the baggage from the rear to cross the river, and then do it in one fell swoop. Live together!
It's just that they waited for a whole day, but Mao didn't wait. There was no movement from Li Yan, and the baggage from the rear suddenly stopped coming. This made Luo Hu and Ma Bao confused, and they hurriedly sent people to the camp. Li asked.
Soon, the military order came!
"Surround Hejin without attacking, divide your troops and advance along the river towards Puzhou, and attack from behind!"
Although the two Romans were young, they were not foolhardy. They jumped up from the ground in an instant. Hejin was basically a springboard, and Puzhou was the ultimate goal. Li Guo was going to attack Li Yan's home base of Puzhou directly. !
It's so exciting, so exciting!
As direct descendants of Li Zicheng, the two of them in Rome empathize with each other and hate Li Yan so much that they would dream of peeling off his skin and cramping his muscles to drink his blood. Especially in their view, Li Yan betrayed them and stepped on them to kill them. Now, He rose to prominence in the imperial court!
I've put up with him for a year!
So the two immediately began to make arrangements, dividing their forces to surround Hejin, and then advance towards Puzhou. However, it was hard to decide who would leave and who would stay, and how many troops they would leave. Everyone wanted to go to Puzhou to fight Li Yan!
The two decided to throw dice to compare, but in the end they still couldn't understand each other. Seeing that it was not an option to continue like this, they couldn't send people back to ask Li for advice. This would make him look too incompetent and he might even get scolded. So in total, there are more than a thousand officers and soldiers in Hejin City. It is enough for him to leave two thousand men. This small number of people cannot attack the city, but it is enough to surround him and prevent him from getting out. Moreover, neither of them can There is no need to stay, everyone goes to Puzhou to work for Li Yan!
The two people outside the city were excited, but Qin Songwang in the city was complaining endlessly. He thought that reinforcements would arrive in two or three days, but after five or six days of hard work, not to mention reinforcements, not even a chicken feather was seen.
Is it possible that Li Shuai wants to die without saving him?
This is impossible. Everyone knows about Li Yan's trust, not to mention that he is still his direct confidant. Putting aside these, Hejin is the northern gate of the Yellow River defense line, which is very important. How can he ignore it.
There is only one possibility. There is also a war situation in Puzhou, and it is even so critical that there is no time to separate.
Puzhou is the base camp of officers and soldiers, and the city is the eyes of the thieves. Now that it was pulled out, the thieves would not be willing to fight back and even fight back crazily. Now that Hejin was suffering from heavy pain and no reinforcements had been seen for several days, Qin Songwang used this to infer that something was going on there. .
If this is the case, I'm afraid that this will be a disaster for me! Although Qin Songwang did not want to think about the worst result at this time, he knew clearly in his heart that surrender was impossible, because he would still be killed if he surrendered. Instead of dying in humiliation, it was better to defend the city and die, and still survive. Famous Qingshi.
But...he still had a doubt in his mind. It was understandable that there were no reinforcements in Puzhou for several days, but why Luo Hu could clearly break the city in one fell swoop, but for the past two days, he had been idly basking in the sun outside the city without doing anything. What is he waiting for?
Waiting for the siege baggage?
The city had been besieged for several days. The baggage should have arrived long ago. Qin Songwang was puzzled. He looked up at the night sky. The moon was bright and the stars were sparse. There were bonfires lit outside the city. The bandits were singing and drinking. In the past few days, they had plundered the surrounding villages. There is no shortage of food, drink and fun.
Huh? Qin Songwang, who was patrolling the city, suddenly felt that something was wrong, but for a while he couldn't say what was wrong. This made him extremely anxious. He pointed outside the city and asked his subordinates: "Have you ever felt that something was wrong?"
Your subordinates were talking to each other casually, saying that the noise was not as good as yesterday, there were more bonfires, and the rebel army was tired. Qin Songwang frowned when he heard it, and suddenly he had a flash of inspiration. The rebel army was far less powerful than it was during the day!
The rebel army besieged the city for several days and attacked from time to time. Qin Songwang could see at a glance at the top of the city that there were not ten thousand but eight thousand of them, including thousands of elites. Of course, these elites who belonged to the old camp of the rebel army did not participate in the siege. Maybe they felt that they were not needed, or maybe they were I don't want these elites to be harmed in vain.
But these are not important.
The important thing is that suddenly, Qin Songwang felt that there were many fewer soldiers and horses outside the city.
There are not many bonfires outside the city at night on weekdays, but the noise is extremely loud. The bandit soldiers can even curse the city all night long, with all kinds of obscenities. However, tonight the noise is much less, and there are only a few shouts and curses. But there were obviously more bonfires.
The thieves are obviously covering up!
But when did they leave?
In the past few days, he had been eating, drinking, and eating in the city for almost 12 hours. He didn't even notice that the rebel army secretly split up and escaped. Why did they leave, and where did they go?
After some guessing with his subordinates, Qin Songwang concluded that the rebels quietly dispatched a group of troops and left at dark while dinner was being served. As for how many troops were dispatched and where they went, he could not determine.
But it is certain that there will be trouble elsewhere, otherwise the duck that has reached its mouth will not be able to leave without eating it!
This made him puzzled but he couldn't help but breathe a sigh of relief. After all, the rebels had withdrawn their troops and left, and Hejin's pressure suddenly eased, and he might be able to hold on for a few more days.
