Huang Chao's soldiers and horses gradually approached Chang'an City until a few days later.
The former pioneer Qiao Qian was reprimanded and left in Huazhou because of his tragic defeat at the hands of Li Yunze.
He was replaced by Huang Chao's general Shang Rang, who was named the Pioneer of Pingtang.
With the lessons learned from the past, Shang Rang acted very cautiously and delayed for several days before arriving at Chang'an City.
The delay of just a few days gave Li Yunze valuable time to reorganize the city defense.
When they came over, there was no one visible outside the city.
Not only were there no personnel, food or items, there were not even any larger trees.
The famous willow trees that dominate the bridge and break willows were all chopped off and dragged into the city.
If the bandits want to build siege equipment, they have to go to the distant Qinling Mountains to cut down trees.
Shang Rang rode his horse to the outside of the city and looked at the city wall carefully.
Needless to say, Chang'an City is tall and majestic.
As the capital of the country, all kinds of defense facilities are also available.
More importantly, Shang Rang saw that the city wall was covered with soldiers, shining in the sun, which was really intimidating.
"How is it possible..." Shang Rang was shocked, "Where did the imperial court get so many soldiers?"
There are really so many soldiers, why weren't they sent to Tongguan before?
In an instant, Shang Rang was planning to withdraw his troops to defend Tongguan.
Fortunately, he was experienced and finally breathed a sigh of relief after observing carefully for a while.
"They are all new recruits. I'm scared to death."
After he breathed a sigh of relief, he was extremely envious of the court.
It is indeed the largest, richest and most important city in the world, Chang'an, to be able to produce so many weapons and equipment for so many people.
Even though they all wear the same armor, there is an essential difference between recruits and veterans.
The veterans were not afraid of life or death. Even when they saw the enemy troops outside the city, their faces were calm and composed.
But the new recruits couldn't do it. Many of them had just put down their hoes. Looking at the so many thieves outside the city, they looked frightened and gulped wildly. Their legs and feet were so weak that they couldn't even hold weapons.
When engaging in battle in this state, either the enemy will scare the recruits into dropping their weapons and running away as soon as they come up, or the recruits will be too weak to resist but will be killed.
There is nothing we can do about this.
If you want to make a change, in addition to daily training, the most important thing is battlefield experience.
The more you walk out alive on the battlefield where life and death can happen in a split second, you will naturally ignore life and death and become a qualified veteran.
Li Yunze has already extended his advantage to the limit. He defends Chang'an City, which has the strongest defense in the world, and has the best equipment and logistics.
This is hundreds of times better than being dragged out into the wilderness to fight, and in the end it all depends on your fate to survive.
Shang Rang responded quickly and arranged for people to build a batch of simple siege equipment.
Don't even think about ladders, goose carts, or shield carts. They simply built hundreds of long ladders, and then arranged for manpower to launch a tentative attack.
How strong your opponent is can only be known after defeating him.
It was a very standard exploratory siege. First, a large number of crossbowmen came forward and fired at the defenders all the way to the bank of the moat.
Immediately, the cannon fodder ran over carrying an extended ladder and set it up on the moat.
It was just a tentative attack, so there was no need to fill in the moat. And if you want to fill in the moat of Chang'an City, it is really a big project.
The moat of Chang'an City diverts living water, and eight rivers surround Chang'an's living water.
After crossing the moat unsteadily, we faced the city wall.
Originally, there were a large number of defense facilities on both sides of the moat.
There are everything from rejecting the antlers of a horse to trapping a sheep in a wall.
After all, that was two hundred years ago.
Over the past two hundred years, these defense facilities outside the city have been demolished and buried. It has long been turned into buildings, houses, fields, etc. for other purposes.
After all, it was at the feet of the Emperor, in a prime location just outside the city wall. From the aristocratic families in the capital to the common people, they can take advantage of it. Who will take care of it? The loss of defense facilities will lead to a decline in defense capabilities.
Of course, most of these illegal buildings have been demolished by Li Yunze, and those that cannot be demolished will be burned directly to prevent the thieves from taking advantage of them.
Even Li Yunze couldn't do anything about this kind of thing. In just a few days, even if he drove an excavator, he couldn't restore the defense facilities outside the city that had been destroyed for two hundred years.
So Shang Rang only made a tentative attack and successfully reached the city wall.
Shang Rang, who was watching the battle carefully, saw that the long ladder successfully leaned on the city wall, and immediately stroked his beard and smiled, "It's just that..."
Before he could finish his words, the counterattack on the city wall began.
First, there was a rain of arrows all over the sky, including several nearby Eight Ox Crossbows that also turned on their shooting mode.
The target of the missed arrow was not the cannon fodder climbing the ladder, but the crossbowmen covering the moat.
How could these crossbowmen, who were wearing leather armor at most, be able to withstand such a level of arrow rain.
After several rounds of arrow rain, most of the crossbowmen who were covering the shooting had already laid down. The nearby ground was filled with arrows, as if a field of arrows had grown.
Without the cover of the crossbowmen, those who were climbing the wall were unlucky.
The defenders mustered up their courage, or in other words, after Li Yunze appeared at the top of the city, they had no choice but to raise thunder stones, rolling wood, ash bottles, gold juice and the like to smash down the cold swords of the soldiers around Li Yunze.
Although the hit rate is not high because they are too panicked, the victory is that they are safe enough and have enough numbers.
The thieves climbing the wall kept falling down like dumplings.
When the defenders used the pull fork and directly overturned the ladders, this test attack came to an end.
With an expressionless face, Shang Rang called for the troops to retreat, began to choose a place to set up camp, and arranged for men to go to the Qinling Mountains to chop wood.
Whether it is building a camp or building siege equipment, a large amount of wood is essential.
Originally, this kind of work could be left to the captured cannon fodder, but unfortunately the walls around Chang'an City were clear and there were not many mice for them to catch, so the sergeants in the army had to do it themselves, which naturally caused a lot of complaints.
On the city wall, looking at the bustling bandits in the distance outside the city, Li Yunze frowned slightly, "Look down on me?"
It's a war, be serious.
Turning a blind eye to the defenders and going about their own business, is this looking down on the defenders and assuming that they dare not leave the city to fight back?
Li Yunze immediately turned around and told the soldiers behind him selected from Boye Army and Fengxiang Army to "recruit men who are skilled in bows and horses to follow the general out of the city to defeat the enemy. The appearance fee is one hundred guan per person, and the battle merit will be additional."
There are not many professional warriors who are afraid of death. As long as the price is in place, it doesn't matter if they follow the general through fire and water.
So Li Yunze quickly gathered a group of hundreds of cavalry.
After putting armor on his horses, Li Yunze led the cavalry out of the city from Yanxing Gate and detoured for several miles to the Shangrang Army barracks outside the Spring Gate.
The military camp had just been established and the fences had not even had time to be erected.
The supplies carried by the army were being moved to the ground. Some sergeants had already gone to the Qinling Mountains to cut wood, and some were busy building military camps.
In one sentence, it is to be in an unprepared environment.
"Huang Chaojun's combat effectiveness is not strong, but this vanguard general is too smart." Li Yunze on horseback originally thought it was a trap, but after careful observation, he did not detect the trap at all.
There was nothing much to say, so he pulled down his visor, held his horse in hand, and rushed over at a high speed.
The charge of hundreds of cavalrymen with flying hooves immediately brought a shocking panic to Shang Rang's troops.
Shang Rang was indeed careless. When he made a tentative attack before, he noticed that the defenders in the city were all rookies who could not find the entrance for the first time. He immediately felt that as long as he was well prepared, a sheep attack from east to west would be enough. Successfully captured.
The rookies are naturally not scary. Being able to stand on the city wall is already a sign of courage. How could they dare to go out to fight outside the city?
And it was getting late, so if you didn’t want to sleep in the field at night, you had to build the camp as soon as possible.
The smooth ride all the way from Lingnan made him so conceited that he thought everything could wait until tomorrow as it was getting late.
Needless to say, the result was that the unprepared Huang Chaojun was severely hit by hundreds of armored cavalry.
Not to mention the human losses, the torches scattered everywhere and the burning of a large amount of baggage were really fatal.
If Li Yunze could have an elite force of ten thousand soldiers at this time and take advantage of the situation to go out of the city to cover up the attack, he could directly defeat Shang Rang's troops.
It's a pity that he only has rookies in his hands now.
When Li Yunze and the armored cavalry left in style, Shang Rang looked at the mess all around and gritted his teeth, "Go back and find General Chongtian."
He could see that there was an elite group of people guarding Chang'an, and the generals under their command were very powerful. He couldn't take it down by himself, so he had to find Huang Chao's main force.
Li Yunze, who returned to the city, first distributed rewards to the armored knights.
This is necessary. If the reward is not in place, these warriors will immediately turn their backs. Even the emperor dared to beat him up on the spot.
Afterwards, he met Prime Minister Lu Xie who came to talk to him about something.
When Lu Cide heard that the bandits had entered the city, he wanted to commit suicide.
But later I learned that the rebels who entered the city were wiped out by officers and soldiers, so I was curious and wanted to see the situation.
At this glance, I saw various families running away.
The Lu family also ran away, but Lu Xie could not leave.
The conflict between him and the eunuch group has reached its peak, and even if he follows the emperor, he will not end well.
He was cruel and stomped his feet, and simply stayed to help Li Yunze handle the civil affairs, planning to wait until the city of Chang'an was destroyed before committing suicide.
Seeing Li Yunze, Lu Xie's first words were, "General, His Majesty's edict has arrived."
Previously, Li Yunze sent a eunuch to send a message to the fleeing emperor, saying that the city of Chang'an was not lost and he was asked to come back.
After hearing the news, Li Xuan was indeed worried.
But he was persuaded by Tian Lingzi.
Tian Lingzi said, "Chang'an City is not lost now because Huang Chao's army has not yet arrived." If Your Majesty goes back now, wouldn't he be throwing himself into a trap? '
Li Xuan expressed his deep understanding of this. How could the city of Chang'an be as dangerous as his own?
But the benefits should be given, after all, Li Yunze now defends Chang'an City.
Although I don’t know where Li Yunze came from, for the sake of his surname... yes, it’s not about merit but surname. He was directly given the title of Commander of the Shence Army, Jian Jingzhao. Yin's position.
There is no doubt that the position is very high.
But the prerequisite is that Chang'an City can be defended.
If you cannot defend it, you will either be defeated and die, or you will be punished after fleeing.
Li Yunze didn't pay much attention to the reward.
Historically, Li Zhenmao, who was just a team leader, was able to become the commander of the Shence Army. It was natural for him to do it.
What he cares about is "Has His Majesty come back?"
Lu Xie had a look of disdain on his face, "How can you dare to come back when people like Tian Lingzi are around?"
Li Yunze and Lu Xie spat in unison.
"Dog eunuch!"
