Chang Yuchun carefully gave Lai Hong some advice, selected tens of thousands of elites, gave them titles, picked bells from their horses, and headed straight to Hailing City.
As Chang Yuchun expected, more than 60,000 of the 70,000 Wu-Chu allied troops originally stationed in Hailing City were dispatched. 20,000 of them surrounded the remnants of Qin Ming and Hua Rong, and the other 40,000 were ambushed in the overgrown areas. At Yongpinggang, whenever Chang Yuchun led his troops to come for reinforcements, he would attack with fire first, intercept and kill on all sides, and annihilate Chang Yuchun's tribe in one fell swoop.
The defenders in Hailing City were less than 10,000, and most of them were Chu troops. The troops were disorganized, their combat effectiveness was low, and their defenses were lax. Only when Chang Yuchun led his troops to fight under the city wall did the defenders on the city react.
"The one who climbs the city wall first will be rewarded with a thousand taels of reward and will be promoted to one rank!"
Chang Yuchun was fully armored and personally led the charge. The morale of the Sui army was greatly boosted, and they all climbed towards the city wall without fear of death. There was no general in charge of the overall situation in Hailing City, and the army was disorganized. After barely resisting the Sui army's attack for more than an hour, the entire line collapsed, the suspension bridge was cut off, and the city gate was opened. Chang Yuchun led his troops into the city like a tide and captured alive the civil servant Li Baiyao who was staying in the city.
The defeated soldiers in Hailing City fled out of the city in panic, and went to Xunlong Ridge in embarrassment to seek reinforcements.
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At the foot of Xunlong Ridge, Liu Zhiyuan looked at the Sui Army's Qin-character banner on the main peak with an ashen face, his eyes showing terrifying murderous intent. Although doctors rescued him, his right arm was not saved and he became a one-armed general. The most important thing is that his strength has been greatly reduced after losing his right arm. If Yang Gao tests him in front of him at this time, he will find that his strength value has dropped from 98 to 85, from a first-class The fierce general quickly transformed into a second-rate general.
Looking at his empty right arm, Liu Zhiyuan couldn't help but cursed: "Qin Ming, you'd better pray that you die soon, otherwise when I kill Chang Yuchun and capture the main peak, your life will be worse than death!"
"Urgent report, urgent report!"
There was a rapid sound of horse hooves, and a Wu Army scout dismounted from his horse at the camp gate, ran and rolled into the camp, and shouted, "Urgent report, urgent report!"
"Why are you working in such a hurry? The sky won't fall!" Liu Zhiyuan had been in a bad mood. He couldn't find a place to vent his anger. When he saw the scout looking like this, he immediately stepped forward and scolded him harshly.
When the scout saw it was Liu Zhiyuan, he immediately raised his hands and said with a smile: "General Liu, you are not just a villain, but the matter is really urgent!"
Liu Zhiyuan glanced at the scout and asked, "What happened?"
The scout replied in a low voice: "For General Liu, yesterday Tian Yuchun led his troops to surprise Hailing, and now Hailing City has fallen into the hands of the Sui army!"
"What?" Liu Zhiyuan's eyes widened, and he quickly came to his senses and shouted at the soldiers who had just been attracted by his voice: "What are you looking at? Everyone, go back to your seats!"
After driving away these soldiers who were joining in the fun, Liu Zhiyuan whispered to the scout: "You, follow me!" He immediately turned around and left. The scout followed obediently.
Liu Zhiyuan led the scout to a secluded place, with a sudden murderous intent in his eyes. He spoke late and then quickly, and suddenly pulled out his sword with his left hand, and instantly slashed the scout's throat with a knife.
"Woo!"
The scout clutched his neck in pain, looked at Liu Zhiyuan in disbelief, and slowly fell to the ground.
Liu Zhiyuan carefully disposed of the scout's body, then returned to the main tent to find Wu Yunzhao and Shen Faxing, and informed them of the fall of Hailing City.
After listening to Liu Zhiyuan's story, Shen Faxing said with dissatisfaction: "Liu Zhiyuan, why did you kill Gu's scout?"
Liu Zhiyuan said expressionlessly: "If I don't kill him, the news of the fall of Hailing City will immediately spread like a plague, and by then you and I will have no intention of fighting!"
"Then it's not your turn to kill him. It's not your turn to decide whether my subordinates, Shen Faxing, will live or die!" Shen Faxing stood up and looked at Liu Zhiyuan with anger and said, "To beat a dog, it depends on the owner. If not If Gu leads his army to rescue you, I’m afraid you won’t even be able to deal with Qin Ming’s five thousand troops!”
Seeing that the situation was not good, Wu Yunzhao hurriedly acted as a peacemaker, "Your Highness, King Wu, please calm down. Now that the Sui army is suppressing the country, we should still cooperate sincerely to fight against the powerful enemy. We must not engage in internal fighting!"
"Hmph!" Shen Faxing snorted heavily and slowly sat in his seat without even looking at Liu Zhiyuan.
Seeing Shen Faxing sit down, Wu Yunzhao breathed a sigh of relief, turned to Liu Zhiyuan and asked, "Zhiyuan, look at the current situation, what should we do next?"
"What else can we do? Retreat immediately!" Shen Faxing suddenly stood up again and said loudly, "Our more than 60,000 people can only rely on the food stored in Hailing City. Without Hailing City, we will not be able to survive." We will be out of food for five days, are we still waiting here to die if we don’t evacuate?”
"No retreat! Absolutely no retreat!" Liu Zhiyuan also raised his voice at this time, "As the enemy retreats, we advance. Chang Yuchun is well versed in military art. If our army retreats south, he will chase and kill us. By then our army will There must be heavy losses!”
"That's better than the whole army being wiped out!" Shen Faxing yelled, not to be outdone.
Liu Zhiyuan glanced at Shen Faxing with disdain and said in a deep voice: "Who said that our entire army would be annihilated? Now that Chang Yuchun is leading his troops to attack Hailing, his camp will definitely be empty. We will treat him in his own way." body, raid his camp and seize his food and grass! "
Shen Faxing snorted coldly, "It's a joke. You said it yourself. Chang Yuchun is well versed in military art. Wouldn't he think that you would sneak attack on his camp to get food?"
Liu Zhiyuan said in a neither humble nor arrogant tone: "You have to try it, this is our army's only chance to turn defeat into victory!"
"Madman, you are really a madman!" Shen Faxing shook his head, "Gu will never joke with the lives of his soldiers. Now that Hailing has been lost, there is no need for Gu to stay here. Gu will return to Wu County now!"
"King Wu...King Wu!"
Wu Yunzhao was very anxious when he saw this and shouted quickly. But Shen Faxing quickly walked out of the tent without even looking back.
Looking at Shen Faxing's retreating figure, Wu Yunzhao sighed helplessly and asked Liu Zhiyuan: "Zhiyuan, what should we do now?"
Liu Zhiyuan said bitterly: "Shen Faxing is timid and afraid of getting into trouble. We can't stay in Jiangnan now. I'm afraid we have to leave Jiangnan!"
Wu Yunzhao asked doubtfully: "Zhiyuan, do you want to defect to Li Mi?"
Liu Zhiyuan shook his head, "Although Li Mi has the qualities of a hero, killing Zhai Rang is undoubtedly a bad move. Although he is powerful now, he will be dead in less than three years. Let's go to Guanzhong and join Li Yuan!"
"Li Yuan!" Wu Yunzhao was startled, "Zhiyuan, are you crazy? Guanzhong is thousands of miles away from here. How did we, tens of thousands of people, get to Guanzhong?"
Liu Zhiyuan shook his head, "There are not tens of thousands of troops, only I will go to Guanzhong with you!"
"What?" Wu Yunzhao was obviously surprised again, "It's just you and me?"
Liu Zhiyuan explained: "Yun Zhao, most of the tens of thousands of people under our command are from Jiangnan. If we let them follow us to Guanzhong, firstly, the target will be too big, and secondly, there will be people with different intentions in the army, and none of them will be able to leave. , it would be better for you and me to go and join Li Yuan. With our talents, we will be put to great use in the Tang Dynasty. By then, a comeback is still unknown!"
