Fang Xuanling did not follow Li Shimin for too long, but he knew this young coach better than anyone else. Fang Xuanling could understand the helplessness and worries in his heart. He knew that Li Shimin was unwilling to fight on both sides and wanted to give up Hedong, but Li Yuan refused. This was actually a kind of pain for the general, and he was forced to do it even though he knew he could not do it.

"You have to consider this issue from the perspective of your father. Don't he know the difficulty of fighting on both sides? He also knows, but he wants to plan the overall situation. His eyes are the world. If he loses the barrier of Hedong, Guanlong will be in a threat, especially a powerful hero like Yang Yuanqing. Hedong is the place where your father started and the foundation of the emperor. It is like your father's child, and he will never give up anyway."

Li Shimin sighed, "I know he can't bear to leave, but we paid too much for this unwillingness. My uncle was killed and 20,000 elite soldiers were lost. I guess the 50,000 troops in Taiyuan were finished, and the 70,000 troops in my hands. How much can I save in the end? We can't ruin our dream of the world for the sake of unwillingness."

"But if you don't fight in a fight, you don't have the attitude of rescuing your brothers at all. How could you explain to your father?" Fang Xuanling pointed to the fundamental point.

Li Shimin looked at the sky outside the tent, and slowly stood up and issued an order: "Tell me my order, and order Yuchi Gong to be the chief general and lead 20,000 troops to attack Huoyi County."

.........

‘Dong!Dong!Dong!’ The sound of war drums sounded and the horns were sobbing. Twenty thousand Tang troops carried dozens of siege ladders to fight towards Huoyicheng.

Huoyi City is three meters tall and made of huge rocks. The front of the wall is very smooth and the large stones are densely built. There is no joint to be found for climbing. The top of the high wall is convex, like a cliff formed by waves. The wall is very wide and can be used to walk three carriages side by side.

Five thousand Fengzhou Sui army was deployed on the two-mile-long city wall, and they made sufficient preparations. Not only were there hundreds of thousands of arrows, but also thousands of barrels of turbulent oil, and three hundred crossbows, which could shoot three-foot-long arrows hundreds of steps away, and only three soldiers could control them.

The east city of Huoyi County is close to the cliff and has no way to stand. A hundred steps away from the west city is the surging Fen River, with rocky rocks under the city. It is impossible to organize the siege. There are only open areas on the south and north.

Cui Pojun knew very well that the enemy could not come from the north, so he only deployed more than 300 guard soldiers on the wall of his north, and the remaining 5,000 were defending the south city. Huoyi County itself did not have a moat, but in order to protect the city gate, just a few days ago. The Sui army dug a dry ditch two meters wide and one meter deep in front of the wall, which was covered with sharp gun stabs and pulled up a high suspension bridge.

"Prepare the bed crossbow!"

Seeing that the enemy's vanguard had rushed to five hundred steps, Cui Pojun issued an order, and three hundred crossbows were twisted at the same time, and arrows as thick as thumbs and three feet long were quickly placed into the arrow groove. The arrow soldiers held a hanging knife in their hands and waited for the order to shoot.

The crossbow was not placed on the battlements, but was built at the back of the city wall with three hundred six-foot towers. This was actually a reserved platform for placing the catapults, but the catapult had no time to transport it from Fengzhou, so it was used to place three hundred crossbows. The crossbow was seven feet long and four feet wide, and the huge bow arms were eight feet long and must be skewed with a pair of winchs. Two soldiers were responsible for twisting the strings, and one soldier was responsible for firing arrows and firing. This crossbow was improved by the Fengzhou Military Weapons Bureau and could shoot three large-scale arrows at the same time. It is a powerful weapon to defend the city.

Cui Pojun stared at the enemy troops rushing to the ground. The dense siege soldiers were covered with the sky, like a huge black carpet in the wilderness.

At this time, the enemy had rushed to 300 steps away and had entered the effective killing range of the crossbow. Cui Pojun shouted loudly, "Start!"

The drums sounded loudly on the top of the city, and three hundred crossbows were fired at the same time. Nearly a thousand large arrows shot towards the enemy with a strong and fierce penetration. The powerful penetration of the soldiers and arrows shot through the shields and armor. The blood mist was blowing, and screams were heard. Nearly a thousand people fell to the ground, and many arrows even shot through two people.

When the Tang army rushed to two hundred steps in the siege, the second round of the crossbow was fired again, and the big arrows shot into the dense crowd, and the soldiers wailed.

When Yuchi Gong saw two rounds of arrows at the city wall, more than 1,500 people were killed. His eyes turned red and he waved his sword and shouted: "Mr. Qin has an order. Those who rushed to the city wall will be promoted to the next level, and they will be rewarded with a thousand yuan!"

Ten thousand Tang troops finally rushed to the city wall, and the battle of bows and arrows suddenly broke out. The dense arrows on the city and below the city formed a huge net of arrows, covering the sky. Soldiers were constantly caught in arrows, screaming and falling down to the top of the city, with corpses under the city.

Siege ladders were placed on the top of the city wall, and groups of soldiers climbed and attacked the top of the city wall. Arrows on both sides were like raining, shooting from both sides to the enemy's ladder, but the siege ladder was six feet wide, and three people climbed the city at the same time. The people on both sides used shields to guard the flanks, and one of the middle also used a shield to hold the front. The big rocks were smashed down. The people in front rolled and fell down the city wall, and the people behind rushed up.

Seeing that the enemy's siege was tenacious and refused to retreat, Cui Pojun ordered: "Burn the ladder with tincture!"

The order was issued, and a bucket of turbulent oil poured head-on, the fire burned on the siege, and the tongue of flames spread down the siege stairs quickly. The soldiers on the siege also started to burn, screaming loudly in horror, jumping down the city regardless of everything. Many people fell directly into the drought ditch and were pierced by the sharp spearhead...

On a mound in the distance, Li Shimin and dozens of generals were watching the battle. Looking at the sea of ​​fire on the city wall and under the city, the generals' eyes were filled with shock. They were all the first time they had witnessed the fire battle of the Fengzhou army.

Li Shimin was speechless, but he felt extremely regretful. These were all his elite troops, but in order to give his father an explanation to die. So what if he captured Huoyi County? Is he really going to counterattack Taiyuan? He finally sighed and ordered: "Send the order to withdraw the troops!"

‘Dang!Dang!Dang!’

The bell to withdraw the troops rang, and more than 16,000 remaining soldiers retreated like a tide. Yuchi Gong looked ashamed and stepped forward and knelt down on one knee to apologize. "I am humble in my position and lose my soldiers and generals, and I cannot capture the city. Please punish the general!"

Li Shimin shook his head, "It's not your fault, withdraw his troops and return to the camp!"

The army withdrew from the camp. In just two hours of siege, more than 4,000 people were killed or injured. This loss made Li Shimin depressed. As soon as he arrived at the central army tent, personal soldiers came to report, "Report to the general, Hedong County urgently and quickly send a message!"

Li Shimin was excited and turned around and asked anxiously: "Where is the letter?"

A personal soldier sent a quick letter. Li Shimin opened the quick letter and hurriedly read it. He couldn't help but be shocked and angry. His brother Yuan Ji had already gone to Wencheng County to the west to escape to Hedong County. Taiyuan City was lost three days ago. What made him even more furious was that Yuan Ji did not send anyone to tell him that he was still here to attack Huoyi County and go to Taiyuan to save him.

Li Shimin pondered for a moment and made a resolute decision, "Transfer my order and the army will withdraw back to Linfen County."

.........

Just as Li Shimin led his army to retreat south to Linfen County, the Fengzhou army also made strategic arrangements. Yang Yuanqing appointed Xu Shiji as the governor of the left army, Luo Shixin as the deputy general, and led 30,000 troops to seize Longquan County; he also appointed Li Jing as the governor of the right army, and Su Dingfang as the deputy general, and also led 30,000 troops to capture Shangdang County;

Yang Yuanqing personally led 30,000 elite troops south to Huoyi County and confronted Li Shimin's army head-on. At the same time, he ordered Pei Xingyan to lead 10,000 cavalry back to the pass and recapture Yan'an County.

In Taiyuan City, 30,000 elite troops had already assembled, waiting for the order to set off. Just as the commander Yang Yuanqing was about to set off, the headmaster of the Fengzhou General Administration Du Ruhui rushed from Fengzhou to Taiyuan City.

"I didn't expect that I would come here so soon!" Du Ruhui laughed, following him, following Hu Cao Sen's Military Wei Zheng.

Yang Yuanqing punched him on the shoulder and said with a smile: "I just sent someone to Fengzhou to announce the good news yesterday. You came today. I thought you were flying over with wings. Why are you doing so in a hurry?"

Du Ruhui smiled, "You have made great contributions and made money in war, but you left me in Fengzhou. I won't suffer this loss. If you have any oil and water, you have to share it evenly. If you don't come, you may not even have any soup left."

Everyone laughed, and Yang Yuanqing also found that Du Ruhui gradually became cheerful and humorous, no longer as taciturn as before, which was a good change.

Yang Yuanqing blinked and smiled, "Since I want to divide the oil and water, I will take you to the warehouse to see what you can divide?"

He said to Wei Zheng again: "Wei joined the army just in time. It is your responsibility to see the money of the housekeeper in the future. Let's go together!"

Yang Yuanqing also temporarily delayed his departure and took Du Ruhui and others to Taiyuan City Cangcheng.

Taiyuan City is like Yulin City, a special construction of a Cangcheng. Cangcheng is located in Taiyuan City, located in the northeast corner of the city, covering an area of ​​hundreds of acres, with hundreds of warehouses of all sizes, and a water gate, an artificial trough canal leads to the Fen River. All materials are transported by ships.

Most of the materials piled up in Cangcheng were transferred from Jinyang Palace. At that time, Liu Wuzhou's 150,000 troops attacked Taiyuan. Li Yuan urgently ordered Li Yuanji to transfer all the materials in Jinyang Palace into Taiyuan City.

At this time, Cangcheng was stationed by three thousand troops and was heavily guarded. On the way, Yang Yuanqing briefly introduced the situation of attacking Taiyuan City to Du Ruhui. The group walked into Cangcheng, and everyone's attention changed from attacking Taiyuan City to warehouse supplies.

At this time, Du Ruhui suddenly remembered something, took out a letter from the horse bag and handed it to Yang Yuanqing, and said apologetically: "I have forgotten it, this is the letter of family that Mrs. Pei asked me to bring to you."

Yang Yuanqing took it and looked at it. It was his wife's letter to him. He was not in a hurry to read it. He put it in his arms. Du Ruhui bowed and smiled and said, "I want to congratulate you."

Yang Yuanqing knew that he was referring to the fact that his second wife Chuchen gave birth to a son. He had known this for a long time. Shortly after his Eastern Expedition, Chuchen gave birth to a son, which was his third son, named Zhizhi. Not only that, not long ago, my concubine Lucha also gave birth to a daughter, named Yang Xin. So far, he already had three sons and three daughters and had a big family.

"Let's take a look at the warehouse first. Do you know how many soldiers Li Yuan left us? He will definitely give you a surprise!"

.......
Chapter completed!