The third emperor of the Sui Dynasty

Chapter 951 One wave of unrest, another wave of rise (seeking tickets)

Seeing the walls of the Sui army's barracks opened wide, tens of thousands of troops swept out mightily, the soldiers of the Tang army in Jiangyuan City were in an uproar.Han Wei on the tower had seen the total strength of the Sui army. Judging from the scale of the attack, even if Pei Xingyan had not dispatched with all his strength, there might not be many soldiers left in the battalion.

"General, this is a god-given opportunity for us to defeat the Sui army." When the Sui army reached the city, Han Wei's deputy general Quan Hongshou had also seen the size of the Sui army's strength. Now his mood and thoughts are exactly the same as Han Wei's, pleasantly surprised They intersected and said: "The Sui camp is located between Jiangyuan City and General Li, and judging from the size of the troops attacking in front of us, there must not be thousands of troops staying in the Sui camp. The general thinks that we should cooperate with General Li. Once the camp is lost, the Sui army fighting against General Li will inevitably suffer from turmoil, morale will plummet, and they will fall into a predicament where they cannot take care of each other."

"Yes, General! General Li has traveled a long way here, and the soldiers are exhausted. Compared with the Sui Army who is waiting for work, our soldiers are not durable. We can't let the Sui Army's cavalry perform to their full potential, let alone sit and watch General Li and the others fall into a bitter battle. .”

"General, if the Sui army returns to support the camp, it will give General Li another chance to cover up and kill them. Let's send troops."

"General, let's send troops."

The rest of the generals spoke out in support of Quan Hongshou.

"General, the camp of the Sui Army has surrounded half of Jiangyuan City. Even if the entire camp cannot be captured, we must take the opportunity to destroy it so that our army can connect with General Li and the others nearby. We can continue to stay in the city and wait for death." What's the difference?" Seeing Han Wei's hesitation, Quan Hongshou said loudly, "If General Li and the others who are fighting to the death are defeated, Jiangyuan City, which is isolated and helpless, will not be able to defend at all. The soldiers of the whole city attacked the Sui army camp."

Facing the fiery gazes of the generals seeking to fight, Han Wei took another look at the carriage behind the Sui army's central army. Although he didn't know what the use of this thing was, he knew that what the generals said was very reasonable, so he acted decisively. The order said: "Go on and order all the soldiers to gather in the northern city. Once the two armies engage in battle, immediately open the city gate and attack the Sui army camp. Be sure to cooperate with General Li and wipe out Pei Xingyan's army outside the city."

"The last general obeys orders." The generals clasped their fists and saluted, quickly dispersed, commanded the soldiers from the headquarters to go down to the city, and assembled at the north city gate, waiting in line for the order to attack.

Han Wei on the city saw that all the troops were ready, immediately lowered the suspension bridge, and issued an order to open the city. He also quickly got off the city and mounted his horse.

Immediately, the whole army filed out and flocked to the Sui army camp several miles away.

……

At this time, the Tang army outside the city also marched quickly, preparing to face the Sui army.

Li Xiaochang has a total of [-] troops. In addition to the main force of Tongchang County, he also includes all of Liu Hongji's mobile troops. This is Pei Xingyan's large-scale march into Tongchang, and Liu Hongji made a response decision. In order to reduce the pressure on Shu County and improve the efficiency of the army , he appointed Li Xiaochang as the general manager of the Jiannan march, allowing him to respond flexibly to Pei Xingyan.

Li Xiaochang knew that his soldiers were far less elite than the Sui army, and when he saw the smoke billowing from the fire, he led the whole army south. As for Tongchang's defense, he was handed over to Liu Hongji.

Before he demonstrated in the Sui camp, he really wanted to lure the Sui army out of the camp in order to observe the enemy's reality, but when the Sui army really attacked in a big way, he was deeply surprised. Otherwise, it will be the result of the collapse of the whole army.So he raised his hand and ordered loudly: "The whole army is in formation to meet the enemy."

The [-] army was divided into four in the vast wilderness, and they fought in formation.The central army, the left and right wings, and the reserve army stretched across several miles.

When they finished forming, everyone felt the ground tremble, and saw a dark cloud sweeping from a distance, the sky and the earth seemed to have changed colors, and the huge hoofbeats made the ground tremble.It was the cavalry of the Sui army coming to kill, and the horses of the Tang army began to snort uneasily, and the hands of the soldiers holding their spears tightly were sweating.

A black line quickly appeared, sweeping towards the Tang Army formation with an unstoppable force, Li Xiaochang smiled cruelly, what he had been waiting for was this moment: "The crossbowmen are ready!"

Fifteen thousand crossbowmen lined up, the crossbowmen responsible for long-range shooting lined up in front, and the short-range archers lined up behind, forming a staggered lineup of far and near.

The six thousand crossbowmen lined up in three rows, one zhang apart, the first row squatted down, and two thousand crossbowmen rose from the ground, coldly aiming at the overwhelming Sui army that was rushing towards them.

The iron cavalry of the Sui army was getting closer and closer, and the murderous aura seemed to destroy everything in the world into dust.

Pei Xingyan, who was under the banner of the rear army, saw Tang Jun's arrow array in the distance, but there was a smile mixed with weirdness, cruelty and relaxation on the corner of his mouth.

In fact, Li Xiaochang's coping style and the Jiangyuan army's attack were all expected by him. In today's battle, he will not only defeat Li Xiaochang, but also capture Jiangyuan City. It can be said that his ambition and risk are both It is quite big, but he commanded the most elite first army among the ten armies of the Great Sui Dynasty, and he had thousands of beehives and crossbows, so he never thought about his own defeat. The opposition was as expected, and they raised their spears excitedly and shouted: "Split!"

"Split!"

With the big banner pointing south, the Sui army on the right, which was located south of the central army, drew an arc, and under the leadership of general Mai Zhongcai, killed the Jiangyuan army that had just left the city; Jie, led the former cavalry to seize the position of the right army, which also exposed the cellular car crossbow located in the middle of the central army to the front of the battlefield, and Qian Jie's department became the right wing of the car crossbow army, taking on the task of covering Once the honeycomb crossbow shows its power and defeats the Tang army's arrow array, then he will rush into the Tang army's central army at the same time as the left army in the north of the central army. As for the left and right wings of the Tang army, they will be handed over to the two rear troops headed by Pei Xingyan and Liu Rengui. to deal with.

"This is..." Li Xiaochang in the distance was about to give the order to 'shoot', but he saw the Sui army's right army and the central army suddenly draw an arc, rushing to the south, and a car appeared behind the front army of the Chinese army. A carriage drawn by two horses, with the front door wide open.

But seeing that these carriages are completely different from the chariots in the records, although their appearance is a bit strange, they are not much different from ordinary carriages. The whole body seems to be made of solid wood and is dragged by four iron-clad wheels. In the area, the front part is a "person" chariot ridge with one side high and one side low, and the rear part is the same as a normal carriage, falling to both sides in a smooth manner. At this time, two soldiers in front of each carriage put the "person" chariot The ridges are placed on both sides of the carriage. From a distance, the carriage seems to have two wings.

Li Shousu, the commander of the marching army, changed his expression greatly, and said to Li Xiaochang in a very anxious voice: "Captain, quickly order the crossbowmen to stop fighting and retreat immediately."

As Li Shimin's confidant, he not only had contact with the Tubo general, but also knew that the Sui army had a very powerful crossbow. Once it broke out, it would hunt down the enemy like a violent storm. The main force was killed by this kind of crossbow, which made the Sui army's iron cavalry kill the whole army. According to the information obtained by Li Shimin, when Yang Tong won the victory and returned to the court, he killed this huge chariot. The crossbow was left to Pei Xingyan, and now nearly a thousand carriages appearing on the battlefield for no reason, ten percent of them are the desperate and terrifying crossbow.

Because it was blocked by the former army and bannermen before, it could not be seen, but now as the former army slid to the south, the bannermen retreated, making the crossbow hideously exposed in front of the Tang army's middle army.

"Is this a chariot of the Sui Army?" Li Xiaochang obviously didn't know the existence of chariot crossbows, he looked at the chariot crossbows lined up in a row, and was inexplicably surprised.

In the Spring and Autumn and Warring States period, the chariot was almost one of the standards for measuring the military strength of various vassal states. However, with the passage of time and the rise of the cavalry, the chariot sadly withdrew from the stage of history due to various defects and drawbacks. Now on the battlefield.

"Governor, this is not a chariot, but a powerful crossbow. The main force of the Tubo massacres these crossbows." Li Shousu saw that time was running out, and if he retreated at this time, the crossbowmen in front would surely Scattering the rear army array to provide convenience for the Sui Army's iron cavalry who watched the tiger's delay, he immediately roared loudly: "Quickly order the sword and shield soldiers to kill and cover our army's arrow array."

"The soldiers with swords and shields press on." Li Xiaochang understood this when he heard this, and quickly ordered according to Li Xuansu's suggestion.

When the horn sounded, a team of two thousand shieldmen on standby quickly rushed to the front from the gaps in the arrow array, putting their shields in front and covering the crossbowmen behind them.

……

"Hehe..." Pei Xingyan saw that Li Xiaochang reacted quickly and used the shield array to cover the arrow array tightly, and sneered: "Just a wooden shield with skins wants to block the arrows of the honeycomb crossbow? This is just a daydream. The cavalry is ready to attack the Tang army's central rear, and the crossbows are fired."

When he gave the order, he heard shouts of killing and screams from the south, but it was the right-wing cavalry commanded by Mai Zhongcai who had already started fighting Jiangyuan's army. Shooting arrows around the Tang army, like peeling pine cones, hunting Tang army soldiers layer by layer
On the side of the Chinese army, the orderly standing tall on the command vehicle heard Pei Xingyan's order, and immediately waved the command flag and gave instructions to the Che Nujun to launch. It was so big that it almost covered the shouts of killing on the southern battlefield.

Pei Xingyan stared coldly at the shield formation in front of him like a falcon. In fact, he didn't need to look, he knew what kind of tragic scene it would be.

This cellular crossbow was only used once on the snow-covered plateau. Due to its great power, ferocity and brutality, Yang Tong did not wantonly throw it into the civil war.But he is not a saint or a saint, but a person who is also alive and has selfish thoughts. Naturally, he will not be pedantic to treat enemy soldiers with equal treatment, women's benevolence, and hypocrisy.

If there was a choice between Sui and Tang soldiers, Yang Tong would not hesitate to slaughter a hundred Tang soldiers for the safety of a Sui soldier.Therefore, when he received Pei Xingyan's request of "whether to use the cellular crossbow", Yang Tong simply answered the eight words "play by ear and consider as appropriate".The implication is that if Pei Xingyan thinks it can be used and must be used, don't have any worries and burdens at all, and you can use it as much as you want.

Now that Pei Xingyan has driven these cellular crossbows to the battlefield, he obviously thinks that it is time to use them, must use them, and use them to the fullest.

"Buzzing, buzzing..." The honeycomb crossbows placed in the front line have long been waiting in full force. When the sound of drums came, thousands of honeycomb crossbows suddenly launched, and a black cloud of crossbows rose into the sky, as if they were hungry. Like locusts that have lived for 1 years, they roared towards the enemy shield formation ahead.

The soldiers of the Tang Army did not have iron shields, not because the iron shields were heavy, but because the Tang Dynasty was forced to withdraw from Guanzhong, and they were always impoverished and lacked pig iron. They all imported iron ore from the Sui Dynasty and smelted it into iron. , and then cast weapons, iron armor, and arrows (arrowheads), and more than half of the iron ore "imported" each time is a stone that cannot be smelted but looks like iron ore, so the scarce iron is cast first Weapons, armor and arrow clusters, so the soldiers naturally have no iron shields to use.

The shields they use now are mainly wooden shields covered with two layers of leather. Ordinary arrows can't shoot through them at a distance of eighty steps, but they can't defend against crossbows.However, when Li Xiaogong was trapped in Chongling County, he accidentally discovered that the double-layer rattan shield made of Laoshan rattan was extremely strong after drying, and even holding a crossbow in his hand could not penetrate it. The characteristics of the shield's stickiness and lightness have been spoken out, which also made the rattan shield the first choice of shields for the Tang army. However, it is not easy to collect Laoshan rattan, and it is also difficult to weave, and the time for them to prepare is too short, so the number of rattan shields is not much. Now Still mainly wooden shields.

But whether it was a wooden shield or a rattan shield, what they were facing today were not ordinary crossbow bolts, but iron crossbow bolts fired by honeycomb crossbows.

The weight of the iron crossbow combined with its flying speed gives it a strong impact and penetration in the air. When the arrow hits the shield array, there is only a burst of "crackling" sound, and the iron crossbow penetrates the shield. The wooden and rattan shields pierced through the simple leather armor of Tang soldiers.

The shield array shattered and collapsed under the dense rain of arrows, and the shield players and archers hiding behind had no time to react and turned into hedgehogs. Amidst the tooth-piercing creaking sound, this wave of iron crossbows knocked Tang Jun away. The army plowed out a death zone formed by blood pools, hell on earth, and some soldiers of the Tang Army kept leaning forward and fell forward slowly, but the second row of crossbow arrows that followed immediately came, and the powerful The iron crossbow straightened some corpses, and then they fell backwards.A crossbow bolt that pierced through the corpse caused cruel and merciless killings to the Tang army's arrow formation behind.
The third row of arrow clouds roared again, and the dense crossbow arrows shot through the soldiers' leather armor like a violent storm, causing Tang soldiers to roll to the ground one by one.

The crossbowmen of the Sui Army, who were in charge of operating the crossbows, skillfully moved the crossbows up, into the crossbows, and fired the crossbows. They fired at the front in turn. After only three rounds of shooting, the shield and arrow formations were broken. The [-] soldiers who made up the two formations There were not many remaining soldiers of the Tang army, and the heavy losses caused the Tang army's murderous aura to quickly subside, and the formation began to be chaotic.

"Hiss!" The ashen-faced Li Xiaochang gasped. Seventeen thousand soldiers accounted for as much as [-]% of the total force. The Sui army used dense and terrifying crossbow arrows to kill them to pieces, and the range of the chariot crossbow was far beyond that of the normal bed crossbow.

For the current plan, we can only launch a desperate offensive to destroy the Sui army's crossbow array, otherwise, the enemy will launch endlessly, how can this be achieved?As for retreating, Li Xiaochang never thought about it, nor did he dare to think about it, because once the order to retreat is issued, the morale of the various Tang armies that have collapsed will definitely trample on each other, giving the Sui army cavalry a chance to cover up and kill them, not to mention Taotao behind them Where can the Minjiang River flowing southward go?

Thinking of this, Li Xiaochang decisively issued an order to the [-]-man cavalry on the two wings: "Order the two wings to charge, and the Sui army's crossbow array must be broken."

When the Tang army beat the attack drum, Pei Xingyan saw a huge commotion in the Tang army, and gave a bloodthirsty order: "Order the car crossbow to continue shooting arrows at the left and right wings. After three rounds, the cavalry will attack!"

In fact, the crossbowmen did not need orders at all. They had already corrected the direction of the crossbow array spontaneously, and then pulled the hanging knife, only to hear a loud "buzz", and the bowstring was ejected strongly. Each cart had thirty iron crossbow bolts Soaring into the sky, they formed a large cloud of arrows with the surrounding iron crossbows. This time, instead of attacking the cavalry in front, they were divided into two, bringing the two [-]-man cavalry teams on the left and right flanks of the Tang Army into the cover of the iron crossbows. Inside.

Thousands of honeycomb crossbows fired three rounds each, and the arrows were as dense as rainstorms. The iron crossbows were so powerful that they could shoot through both men and horses. The [-] cavalry and horses of the Tang army who had already charged fell to the ground with arrows, and the dead bodies piled up The Sui army's arrows were so fast that the Tang army's cavalry rushed forward and were shot down. In addition, the left and right cavalry were fired with hand crossbows. Even if the Tang army's cavalry suffered heavy casualties, they still could not rush within a hundred steps. Wherever they went, the Tang army's corpses were scattered all over the field, blood flowed into rivers, and the whole army was heartbroken, and some soldiers began to turn around and run away.

Seeing that the time was ripe, Pei Xingyan immediately issued a general attack order: "The whole army presses up and completely annihilates the Tang army."

Immediately, the trumpet was blowing, the battle flag was flying, and the long-prepared Sui cavalry army attacked, overwhelming the front. The Tang army's chaotic front army instantly fell apart, turned around and fled, and the rear army was swept away.

On the other side, Mai Zhongcai, who successfully annihilated the Jiangyuan Tang army, also led his army to join the encirclement and suppression lineup, and directly attacked the rear of the Chinese army where Li Xiaochang was located from the south, killing the already loose and chaotic rear army to the point of crying, Howling and screaming.

At this time, the soldiers of the Tang army were like frightened birds. They threw away their helmets and armor, and fled northward along the Minjiang River. They no longer had the will to continue to set fire to resist. The great Sui cavalry killed many corpses and blood flowed like rivers.

Pei Xingyan ordered Liu Rengui to lead the army to take over Jiangyuan City, which had not yet been opened. He broke free from the shackles of the commander, and led the guards to attack the small group of the Tang army, which was slightly organized and attempted to counterattack. Generally, more than a hundred soldiers of the Tang army died under his horse alone.

However, Pei Xingyan, who was looking for the stubborn Tang army, was soon attracted by another thing. Li Xiaochang's commander-in-chief was drifting northward among the chaotic army not far away. Pei Xingyan was overjoyed and shouted: "Brothers, Follow me to kill the enemy and make meritorious service!"

"Kill!" All the soldiers followed closely behind the general, and bravely killed the enemy.

Seeing that Pei Xingyan was as fierce as a tiger, and the collapsed ordinary soldiers were either killed or avoided, Li Xiaochang's personal soldier Xiaowei gritted his teeth and led more than [-] people to charge Pei Xingyan with a roar, while Li Xiaochang was in another Under the escort of his own soldiers, he continued to flee northward.

"Those who stand in my way will die." Seeing Li Xiaochang walking away, Pei Xingyan swung his lance to face him furiously. He was so brave that he knocked several people off their horses in the blink of an eye. During the war, if they abandon the master and run away in danger, the relatives in the family will bear it on their behalf. On the contrary, if they die in battle, they will be rewarded heavily by the master.So these people knew that they were dead, but they could only stop them desperately, bursting out with unimaginable power, and they were inseparable from the personal soldiers led by Pei Xingyan, and even gained the upper hand for a time. When they wiped out this 'army of dead soldiers', Li Xiaochang had fled far away, unable to catch up.

At this time, thousands of cavalry led by Liu Rengui rushed into Jiangyuan City like a bolt of lightning, causing this hub in central Shu to fall into the hands of the Sui Dynasty, which also meant that the Tang Dynasty was divided into two, becoming an unconnected north and south Two, and Wenshan County, except for Wenshan County and Beichuan County, which borders Jinshan County, each has a few thousand defenders, and the north is in a state of no troops.

However, Pei Xingyan did not stop at Li Xiaochang, and ordered Mai Zhongcai and Fan Qin to lead [-] fine cavalry to chase north. In the three counties of Shang'an, the Tang army's strategy in the north was deeply compressed to the three counties of Dangchang, Wudu, and Shunzheng, so that Wang Fubao, Yao Junsu, and Yuchi Gong could be concentrated and wiped out.

. . . . . . . . . . . . .

At dusk, corpses were strewn across the field in the northeast corner of Jiangyuan City, the battlefield, and blood flowed into rivers. The soldiers of the Sui army were commanding the prisoners to collect the corpses and burn them together.

When the distance is sufficient, the honeycomb crossbow with a shooting range far beyond the ordinary is almost invincible on the battlefield. It is a pity that Li Xiaochang decisively led the remnants of the defeated generals across the Minjiang River when he was unable to recover, and then abandoned his horse and rushed into the forest , not only got rid of the Sui army's pursuit, but also turned south. It seemed that he was going to gather the Beichuan and Wenshan armies. The [-] troops who came to support Jiangyuan County were completely lost.

Mai Zhongcai had no choice but to let Fan Qin lead half of the troops back to return to his command. He continued to go north according to Pei Xingyan's instructions, and cooperated with Zhou Shaoze and Laiji on the other side of Baishui to recover the whole territory of Tongchang.

Fan Qin, who had already returned, reported to Pei Xingyan with a face of shame: "General, forgive me for being incompetent in the end, but in the end Li Xiaochang escaped."

"Okay, we won this battle easily after all! As for Li Xiaochang who is not good enough to escape, just run away." As the saying goes, monks who can escape can't escape the temple, Pei Xingyan didn't pay much attention to Li Xiaochang's life and death, and asked: " By the way, where is General Mai now?"

"In terms of time, General Mai should have passed Tiyi County and marched northward along Baishui." After Fan Qin answered, he introduced Mai Zhongcai's plan: "General Mai only has [-] soldiers, so we can't go too deep. In the enemy's territory, we are planning to find a ferry in the Dengzhi Mountain area at the junction of the two counties of Tieyi and Tongchang, and welcome General Zhou and the others across the river, and then attack Tongchang County, which has a small number of troops. After General Ji's troops joined forces, they attacked Shang'an County in the north and drove the Tang army out of Tongchang County."

"This is a reasonable arrangement, and I have no objection." Pei Xingyan sighed, and shook his head regretfully: "It's a pity that our troops are too scattered, and we need to go south to join forces with the Holy Master, otherwise, we can kill him in one fell swoop." Xiang Dangchang. But the matter has come to an end, the northern Tang army can only be handed over to the Lintao Ninth Army, Hanyang Yaojunsu, Hanchuan and Pingwu Seventh Army to fight. As for the [-] soldiers of General Mai Afterwards, [-] people will be divided into southwards. The remaining [-] elite soldiers are more than defensive and not aggressive enough. It is impossible for our First Army to wipe out the Yibei Tang Army. For the present plan, we should seize the entire Wenshan area. It is necessary to go to Shu County and meet with Shengshang."

When everyone heard these words, their faces became strange.It never occurred to me that after Pei Xingyan ate Li Xiaochang's [-] reinforcements, even Liu Hongji was going to take it down. This appetite and ambition is no one else, but it seems that the credit for going to fight Li Shimin in Shu County is greater, right?

Pei Xingyan thought for a while, then called out in a deep voice, "Qian Jie."

"The last general is here." Qian Jie responded and strode forward.

"The main force of the Tang army in Wenshan has been defeated by us. You lead your troops to advance southward along the Minjiang River and take charge of recovering the counties on the east bank. The main force of our army recovers the counties on the west bank. If there is no accident, we will join forces in Wenshan County, the county government. "

Now that the goal of Ding Jiangyuan has been achieved, and there is no Tang army at the turn of Tongchang and Wenshan, there is no need for him to waste time here. Although there are still two Tang armies in Beichuan and Wenshan, Pei Xingyan does not think that the two The entire army plus Li Xiaochang's remnants and defeated generals can stop the imposing First Army. What's more, Yang Tong has already blocked Mianzhu Pass. Even if Li Xiaochang wanted to return to Shu County, he would be powerless. If the north cooperates with them in fighting, then Li Xiaochang still has to finish playing in Wenshan County.

"The last general obeys orders." Qian Jie excitedly clasped his fists in reply, this was the first time he led an army to act alone.

Not long after Qian Jie left, a school lieutenant escorted a large group of people over and saluted: "General, in order to rescue Jiangyuan City, Li Xiaochang sent all the soldiers to go into battle lightly, but he brought a large number of craftsmen with him. Build siege engines on the spot."

"Be sure to treat them kindly." Yang Tong added to the soldiers of the Sui Army that if they encountered skilled craftsmen on the battlefield, they should try to capture them alive instead of killing them.Pei Xingyan now also realizes the importance of craftsmen to all walks of life, especially in the military, which has played an indelible role. If a new weapon is created by a sudden inspiration, one skilled craftsman can be worth [-] elite soldiers.

"Here." The captain responded, and said: "And I also found a middle-aged scribe, who seems to be a high-ranking official of the Tang Dynasty!
"Oh?" Pei Xingyan followed the prestige, and saw a middle-aged literati with a handsome appearance and a refined temperament walked over under escort. Although he looked a little embarrassed, he was calm and calm.

It can be seen that the other party's calmness and calmness are not stubborn, let alone pretending.

"What's the name of this gentleman? Can you tell me the name?" Pei Xingyan always respected such a courageous person in etiquette. With a wave of his hand, the two soldiers retreated, and a literati turned his head in front of him. I can't afford any waves.

"Shi Lu Deming, the marching commander of the Governor's Mansion in Tongchang, has seen General Pei." Lu Deming straightened his clothes and bowed his hands in a salute.

Pei Xingyan felt that the name sounded familiar, thought for a while, then remembered it, and replied with a smile: "It turned out to be Master Lu who wrote "Classic Explanations", "Zhouyi Notes", "Zhouyi Jianyi" and "Yi Shiwen". sorry."

"General Pei actually knows the old man's clumsy work?" Lu Deming's reputation in the Tang Dynasty is not very famous, maybe even Li Yuan has never heard of him, but he never thought that this young general of the Sui Dynasty not only knew himself, but also He read all his hard work in one breath.

Pei Xingyan smiled and said: "The Holy One is very concerned about talents in various industries, and specially asked someone to draw up a list of talents from all over the world. Mr. Lu's name is listed on the first page of 'Literature', so I remembered it as soon as I heard it."

"So that's how it is." Thinking of Yang Tong, in order to make literati learn from a family and select scholars from imperial examinations, he called the world's famous Confucian scholars to gather in Luoyang. Lu Deming nodded silently, thinking that Yang Tong should have heard his name from some famous Confucian scholars, so he asked his subordinate civil servants to pay attention to it.

Lu Deming actually didn't dislike Yang Tong, because he came from a poor family and knew too well the difficulties of poor people in studying.As for the aristocratic family and the seven great noble families... He still quite agrees with many of Yang Tong's practices.

Pei Xingyan knew that Lu Deming played a huge role in cultural inheritance and classics. He was afraid that he would make mistakes in Yizhou, so he said: "Since it is Mr. Lu, I can't deal with it. Let someone escort you to Luoyang first. When the war is over, Let the Holy One decide, what do you think?"

Lu Deming smiled wryly and said, "Does the old man have a choice?"

"When you arrive in Luoyang, Mr. Lu will have something to choose." Pei Xingyan said with a smile: "You can choose a sutra from the 'Thirteen Classics' at will, and then compile a set of unified and reasonable annotations as the standard model for this sutra."

"..." Lu Deming's face turned dark when he heard it.

"Since Mr. Lu has no objection, let's make a decision like this." Pei Xingyan didn't say anything anymore, and arranged for Lu Deming to be brought into Jiangyuan City first, and then Liu Rengui arranged for escort to Luoyang.

. . . . . . .

The fighting in Jiangyuan City has just stopped, and the soldiers of the Sui Army are enjoying the joy of a brilliant victory, while the Shunzheng County under the same sky is raging with flames of war.

The icy arrows are like flying locusts, cutting through the sky over and over again, raging on the city walls of Shunzheng County, the county government. Even if the guards are protected by shields, there are still powerful crossbow arrows breaking through the gaps in the shields from time to time, or breaking the shields , hunting the soldiers of the Tang army behind the shield to the ground, the blood gathered at the top of the city into a winding red trickle, looking from a distance, it looked like the face of a demon, which looked hideous and terrifying.

"Boom~" The moat has been filled with sandbags, the suspension bridge has been burned, and the city rushing vehicles hit the city gate again and again, not only making loud noises, but also the solid city walls seem to be trembling.

"The rolling logs, the rocks, the kerosene, all of them are brought up and thrown down!" Duan Zhixuan swung his knife and knocked away an arrow that was coming towards him, and roared loudly at the earth-colored soldiers.

"General, we can't defend anymore, let's evacuate as soon as possible!" A small school begged.

"We can't retreat." Duan Zhixuan's eyes were a little red. Who would have thought that this army was so terrifying, and it was cavalry to attack a city with [-] troops. In front of his eyes, the opponent didn't even get off the horse, but used the strong bow and crossbow in his hand to suppress the defenders on Shunzheng East City so that they couldn't raise their heads. Back and forth filling soil, banging on the door.This made Duan Zhixuan helpless.

A few soldiers of the Tang army picked up a log, and everyone worked together to raise it to the height of the battlements. However, in just a moment, each of these soldiers was hit by at least a dozen arrows, but when they heard a 'bang', The rolling log fell on the top of the city and hit the bodies of these soldiers heavily.

"Damn Yu Chigong, you don't talk about martial ethics at all." In Duan Zhixuan's military career, it was the first time he fought such an aggrieved battle. So embarrassed, but now facing the not-so-famous Yu Chigong, he was beaten so badly that he couldn't lift his head.It's really embarrassing and embarrassing.

"Boom~" There was another dull crashing sound, at least three ramming vehicles crashed into the city gate at the same time, and Duan Zhixuan could even hear the piercing sound of cracks in the gate's hinges and bolts.

"Put up the shield for me, and the archers will fight back with all their strength!" Duan Zhixuan tried to counterattack and suppress the opponent with bows and arrows again.

The few remaining shields immediately gathered in front of him. The archer drew the bowstring again and shot the arrow with all his strength. Unfortunately, the arrow that pierced through the air was powerless when it was about twenty steps away from the Sui army cavalry. Falling, once again proved that after they shot the bed crossbow arrows, they had nothing to do with each other except to be beaten passively.

Although the cavalry could not charge up to Shunzheng City on horseback, the terrifying Liannu completely defeated the Tang army in terms of range. No matter how talented Duan Zhixuan was as a general, there was no way to make up for the gap in weapons and equipment, and he could only feel extremely sad In vain, he watched the arrows from his side fall powerlessly in front of the opponent's army formation, and the horse's mouths that opened from time to time, as well as the huge eyes, seemed to be mocking himself.

"Send more soldiers to the city, and block the city gate with bricks, stones and wood!" Although he was very angry, the reality told Duan Zhixuan that Shunzheng's city gate was almost finished. As for rushing out of the city to meet the opponent, he thought I didn't even think about it, because it was no different from courting death, and then maybe I could only use the advantage of the terrain to fight street fighting with the opponent.

"General, if we continue to fight like this, I'm afraid the city gate will not be broken, and our brothers will be shot down by endless arrows!" Seeing that the corpses on the top of the city were getting thicker and thicker, the deputy general's eldest grandson An Ye looked at Duan Zhixuan very sadly, and now he even suspected that the black-faced general named Yu Chigong deliberately slowed down the speed of breaking the city, in order to attract Tang soldiers to the top of the city, so that they could be hunted clean.Then he occupied the entire city gracefully and without bloodshed.

Duan Zhixuan said loudly with no expression on his face: "The city wall is our most advantageous defensive weapon. We must not give up on it unless we have to. Now that the city gate has not been breached, if we withdraw the soldiers, the Sui army will hit us." Break through the city gate and enter the city. So no matter what the price is, I will go up there!"

"But general..." Changsun Anye said bitterly, "If we keep so many people on the city wall, it will be useless except for being beaten."

"It's not that it's useless, but it can buy us precious time to deploy our troops." Although Duan Zhixuan didn't want to admit it, he knew that the city gate might not be able to be defended, so he told his eldest grandson Anye without looking back: "Cui Junsu You have already brought a force to the city to set up defenses, General Changsun, you will bring your troops into the city to set up defenses, prepare to fight street battles with the Sui army, and let them know what an inch of territory and an inch of blood mean."

"The last general obeys!" Changsun Anye, with his shield on his head, began to direct the soldiers of the headquarters to withdraw from the city, and go to both sides of the street to choose places to deploy defenses.

On the city, due to the lack of a force, the bloody and corpse-filled city wall aisles were much vacant.

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I am very grateful to the book friends for the "mysterious world view, Pie Kong's heartbreak, the ambition of a foreigner not to fall into the sky, DeAr_fengbao, Yuxitaxiujia" awards, thank you.

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Note: "Yi", "Poetry", "Book", "Zhou Li", "Book of Rites", "Yi Li", "Zuo Zhuan", "Book of Filial Piety", "The Analects of Confucius", "Erya", "Mencius ", "Biography of Gongyang" and "Biography of Guliang" are collectively called the Thirteen Classics.

(End of this chapter)