Traveling through the troubled times of Sui and Tang Dynasties

As mentioned earlier, before Li Yuan ordered Li Shimin to encircle and suppress Luoyang, the eastern capital, he had already made a lot of preparations, including sending Xu Maogong to Hebei to shake hands with Dou Jiande.

Originally, with Xu Maogong's good eloquence, it was not difficult to convince Dou Jiande that he was sincere, but the bad thing is that he should cooperate with foreign forces here, and an alliance between the two armies must be impossible.

Outside, of course, Wang Shichong's messenger arrived, and sent a sincere and touching letter of appeal for help, promising various benefits after retreating from the enemy. Inside, there were people in Dou Jiande's barracks who could not see the alliance between the two armies.

As mentioned earlier, this person is Meng Haigong, the leader of the Eighteenth Route Anti-King Alliance when they formed an alliance.

When Meng Haigong and Gao Tansheng led the two anti-armies to meet in Wagang, they talked about their swords, saying that the eighteenth anti-kings would follow Wagang's lead, and at the same time instigated the relationship between monarchs and ministers within Wagang.Because of this, Xu Maogong also made a fatal mistake in encircling and suppressing Yang Guang in Siming Mountain.Xu Maogong believed the slander of Gao and Meng, and suspected that Luo Cheng would let go of the faint king Yang Guang because of Yuwen Chengdu, so he removed Luo Cheng from the list of siege on the top of the mountain and ordered him to guard the foot of the mountain. The encirclement and suppression of Ming Mountain allowed Yang Guang to escape by chance. If not, Yang Guang would have died under the encirclement and suppression of Siming Mountain long ago, and there would be no subsequent battle for the jade seal in Yangzhou City, with countless casualties.

This is a mistake.Afterwards, Xu Maogong felt deeply guilty because he suspected Luo Cheng's younger brother because of a few words from others, and he couldn't forget it for a long time, and hated Gao and Meng who were sobering.

In the Battle of Siming Mountain, Gao Tansheng was beaten to death by Li Yuanba with a hammer. Meng Haigong was also frightened by Li Yuanba's brute force. His army was defeated, so he simply surrendered to Dou Jiande and became one of his generals.

In the evening, after Dou Jiande had finished entertaining Xu Maogong, only his confidants and followers were left in the main tent.

Some of the confidants said to Dou Jiande: "King Xia, now Li Yuan occupies Guanzhong, Wang Shichong occupies Luoyang, the eastern capital, and we live in Hebei. It is a three-legged situation. Sooner or later, this pattern will be broken. Now Li Yuan has to attack Wang Shichong. , and even sent people to form an alliance with us, we might as well stabilize Li Yuan first, wait until they are almost finished fighting, and then we will come out in full force, catch him by surprise, and reap the benefits of the fisherman. Now let Xu Maogong stand still, just to paralyze Li Yuan, Let him think that we are really allied with him, so that he can relax his vigilance, and then we will attack him by surprise..."

Dou Jiande frowned lightly in thought, nodded occasionally, as if he agreed with this suggestion.

"Hmph... I'm afraid that by then, we will be alone and helpless, only to be annexed by Li Yuan."

"General Meng, what do you mean?" the counselor who spoke before asked.

It was Meng Haigong who choked with him just now, and Meng Haigong snorted coldly and said: "Li Yuan is now a strong army, and good generals are gathered together. How can we be confident that we can defeat him and reap the benefits of the fisherman? Don't wait for him to clean up Wang Shichong before he comes to clean us up." , then we have the worry of dying lips and teeth cold."

The counselor was displeased: "General Meng, how can you increase the morale of others and destroy your own prestige? After all, our Xia army has more than [-] elite soldiers, and King Xia's subordinates are full of capable people. Why are you not Li Yuan's opponent?" What's more, after Li Yuan captures Wang Shichong, he will be injured and the army will be exhausted. At that time, I will send troops to capture his Chang'an city in one fell swoop."

"Haha..." Meng Haigong looked up to the sky and laughed, and it took a long time to stop. He turned a blind eye to the counselor's scowling face, and only looked at Dou Jiande and said, "I'm afraid King Xia has never seen Luo Cheng's ability with his own eyes. He is not an ordinary person, not to mention his high martial arts skills, he is even more proficient in Qimen Dunjia and formation techniques."

"I heard that Luo Cheng is just a boy who is less than ten years old. General Meng thinks highly of him." The counselor said contemptuously.

"If you want to put it this way, he was only fifteen when he, Cheng Yaojin, Qin Qiong and others revolted in Jinan Prefecture. Now, although it has not passed the double tenth, he has set up a flag on Wagang, broken the formation of long snakes, and Siming Mountain is forcing Killing Yang Lin, riding alone in the sea of ​​fire in Yangzhou City to save people, which thing didn't he do? You literati can take down half of the country when you are writing so much."

"You, you..." Meng Haigong's counselor blushed at what he said, hating himself for being a civil servant and being ridiculed by military commanders like this.

When Dou Jiande heard this, he frowned and asked, "Is it really so powerful? I've heard of Luo Cheng's name at that time, but I don't know the details. Please tell me what you know in detail."

Meng Haigong recounted all the rumors in the market about how cold-faced and cold-faced the gun is, and there are many exaggerations in it.In fact, Meng Haigong persuaded Dou Jiande and Wang Shichong to join forces to resist Li Yuan because of his selfish motives.

Now the group from the original Wagangzhai occupies a very important position in Li Tang's court. If Dou Jiande is really persuaded by Xu Maogong this time to form an alliance between the two armies, then his position will be embarrassing.

There was already a gap between him and the Wagangzhai group because of Siming Mountain's encirclement and suppression of Yang Guang, and there was even more grievance with Na Luocheng. To Dou Jiande, he was just a surrender and his status was not high. Once Tang Xia formed an alliance, Is there any good fruit for him to eat?

Therefore, Meng Haigong would rather Dou Jiande and Wang Shichong form an alliance to attack Li Yuan and Wagang's group together, rather than watch Dou Jiande and Li Yuan get mixed up.

Seeing that Dou Jiande had listened to what he said and remained silent for a long time, Meng Haigong knew what he said, and Dou Jiande really listened to it.

Meng Haigong said again: "King Xia, Tang's military strength is so strong now. Luo Cheng is very powerful, and Qin Qiong and others are helping. In comparison, Zheng's military strength is much weaker. The development of the situation must be defeated by Li Yuan. Wang Shichong, if this is the case, then we are in danger. The subordinates are also considering the overall situation. We might as well rescue Wang Shichong. Wang Shichong is defending in Luoyang City. We attack on the outer city wall and surround the Tang army. We will definitely defeat the Tang army. Defeat the Tang army Afterwards, our two armies joined forces, took advantage of the victory, and went directly to Li Yuan's Chang'an City to capture Chang'an. Wang Shichong was weak, and since he wanted to seek help from us, he could only follow our orders and surrender. It will be a matter of time, if he insists on not submitting, he will be killed, and then our family will become the dominant family in a three-legged confrontation, and we will rule the world just around the corner."

"Okay, just follow what General Meng said!" Meng Haigong said that Dou Jiande was full of fighting spirit. Just imagine, who would not want to rule the world.

Dou Jiande immediately asked, "What about Xu Maogong?"

Killing intent suddenly appeared in Meng Haigong's eyes, he made a beheading gesture and said, "He must not be allowed to report back."

Dou Jiande immediately sent someone to arrest Xu Maogong, who would have thought that although the tent was pitch black, there was no figure of Xu Maogong on the bed.

It turned out that when Xu Maogong saw Meng Haigong and Dou Jiande talking intimately at the dinner party, and looked at him with deep eyes, he knew that the alliance might not be possible. At the beginning, there was a gap with the people in Wagang Village, but now I am afraid that they will not stand on my side.When returning to the camp, he saw a man and a horse, who looked like messengers, were welcomed into Dou Jiande's main tent in a hurry, and he thought of Wang Shichong who was far away in Luoyang City.

After returning to the tent, he tossed and turned and couldn't sleep. The more he thought about it, the more wrong he became, and he escaped from Dou Jiande's camp at night.

Dou Jiande was furious because he didn't catch Xu Maogong, and ordered to send troops that night, intending to rescue Wang Shichong.

At the same time, Liu Wuzhou's army, which received Wang Shichong's request for help, will stop now. The most important thing is that the Turks have stopped now. The previous attack on Taiyuan was when Yang Guang was still in power, and the Luo family army was still in Wagangzhai. Those who have no conflict of interest, if they fight Li Yuan at this moment, it will be tantamount to declaring war with the Luo family army, uh... this matter still needs to be discussed in the long term.

At the same time, Wang Shichong, who was in Cijian, could hardly bear it anymore!

Ever since Luo Cheng came under the city wall, he hadn't fought a formal battle.

On the opposite side, in the big camp of the Luo family army, the Luo character flag was planted carelessly in the center of the camp, and the tents were well tied up.With the help of the Weishui River and the Yellow River, materials transferred from various places started from Chang'an City and were continuously sent here.

Therefore, compared with Wang Shichong's troops who were besieged in Cijian, who were not fed or warmed, the Luo family's army was full of greasy food.

In the daytime, it should not be considered the daytime, Luo Jiajun got up to train before the rooster crowed.First, he was fully armed and ran fifty laps around the city with a large, square burden on his back.Wang Shichong's guard wanted to scold all eighteen generations of his ancestors. If you say you people run, you run. Why do you still shout?After a few days in a row, the guard of Cijian almost had a nervous breakdown. As soon as his eyelids drooped, the deafening chants came, scaring people so much that they almost fell off the city wall.

When it was getting light, people started training.

Build an aerial platform about seven or eight feet high, and let the soldiers fight one-on-one on it; divide them into two teams, red and blue, with about a hundred people in each team, and shuttle and fight each other in the overgrown grass. Obviously, the training officer If it wasn't chaotic enough, a fire was set in the weeds, and the smoke was billowing, so smoky that you couldn't even see the figure clearly, let alone decide the winner.Also, depending on the surrounding terrain, climbing the mountain with bare hands, damn, I really think of myself as a monkey!

Not to mention fighting, when practicing fighting, some soldiers hit earthy gray sandbags, and some hit dark gray sandbags. Wang Shichong's troops defending the city didn't pay attention to these details at first, but one day they accidentally Seeing a few people who looked like soldiers packing sandbags, I realized that the earthy gray bags contained beans, while the dark gray sandbags contained iron filings, and suddenly the wind was messy... You are all practicing iron sand palms what? !

Not to mention the iron sand palm, there are also those who smashed their heads on the tree, ten times in a row, and the tree fell...

Nima... what kind of training is this?Are you going to die forever? !

At night, the Luo family army camp was quiet.It should be said that when it gets dark, the opposite side becomes quiet.But this place is really eerily quiet, the entire camp is empty, no guards, no soldiers, no one can be seen, the lights are dark, it is scary to look at.

You want to say no one?Then you are not afraid to break in and have a look, don't you see that the lessons learned by our nephew, General Wang Da, is right in front of you.Tell me, where are your tens of thousands of horses hiding?

Watching such a group of desperate people swaying under your nose all day long, Wang Shichong's soldiers feel that the whole person is not good, so is it still necessary to beat them? !

The brothers guarding Cijian are suffering a lot. When will this kind of day be the end? It’s better to surrender the city directly, but you can’t surrender. King Zheng’s order to kill a hundred is still hanging around his neck, so there are people everywhere in the city. People panic.

Wang Shichong's plan to form a group of five to monitor each other and report those who defected to the enemy, really had some effect at first, after all, it really meant beheading!

In the first three days, the ready-to-movement heart of the defenders of Cijian died temporarily, and life-saving was the most important thing.But on the night of the fourth day, something happened again——

Among the twelve generals who stood at the forefront to defend the city, five had their throats slit, and the murderer has not yet been seen.

Who do you think did this?Even if he thinks about it with his toes, he knows, except for the Luo Jiajun on the opposite side, he doesn't think about it.Come on, they can even climb a mountain with bare hands, is it difficult to climb a city wall? !Is it difficult? !

On the fifth day, the number of guards guarding the city was doubled. In the early morning of the next day, it was found that there were a few fewer. As a result, they were found in a corner of the city and died with their throats cut.

For three days in a row, instead of stopping this kind of thing from happening, it became more and more serious. Not to mention Wang Shichong's generals were scared, even Wang Shichong himself was scared, so he quickly withdrew from Cijian, and the brigade protected him. Withdrew to Luoyang City.

Although, before Wang Shichong left, he gave repeated orders to the defenders how to defend the city stubbornly, even if there is one soldier in the battle, he should not abandon the city and flee.But as soon as he left, the ghosts believed in him and surrendered one after another. The first one to surrender was the Cijian city guard who Wang Shichong urged thousands of times before he left.

It can be said that Cijian was beaten down without a single soldier.

Luo Cheng was standing under a big tree in a grove not far from Cijian, holding a pile of weeds in his hand, feeding a tall horse in front of him, saying to himself: " The groom said that you have a stubborn temper and refuse to eat. Look, how thin you have become. I said, who did you follow your temper? Even your master doesn't have your temper..." Luo Cheng said As he spoke, he thought of Yuwen Chengdu again, raised his head, and sighed deeply, not knowing where he is now, why he was still alive, but refused to come to see him.

Are you hating yourself?Hate yourself for the demise of the Sui Dynasty.Now that he had executed Yu Wenhuaji, if he found out, he would probably hate him even more.Thinking of this, Luo Cheng felt a little irritable, and stretched out his hand to stroke Sailong's five-spotted horse's mane: "Your master is not dead, so you should obediently listen to the groom, eat and sleep well, and meet your master when he comes back. "

The five-spotted horse seemed to understand what he said, and raised its head to the sky and let out a long cry.

"You can't wait to see him, right?" Luo Cheng looked at Ma'er, "Don't worry, he will definitely want you after you have fought with him for so many years, and as for me...he may never want to see him in his life Me." Luo Cheng lowered his head and murmured, his tone indescribably lonely.

Just at this moment, there was a sound of horseshoes in the forest.

Luo Yong took a closer look, why did his general seem to be wiping away tears secretly? He specified that he was wrong, how many times has his general been blown up with gunpowder, and he has never cried no matter how painful it is, how could he be at this moment? cry?Rubbing his eyes quickly, he turned over and immediately said, "General, what's wrong with you? Could it be that you are crying?"

"Crying...crying for your head, who is crying. It's just that the bugs flew into the eyes just now, and it hurts so much."

"Oh, it's like this." Luo Yong chose to believe it without hesitation, he felt relieved, and then remembered the purpose of his trip, "Hey, General, why are you still wandering here, the army has already entered the city, Everyone is waiting for your order, how will the captives and the common people in the city arrange it?"

Luo Cheng raised his head, sweeping away the decadent air just now: "Come on, let's go and have a look."

"Alright." Luo Yong followed closely behind.

When approaching the gate of the city, Luo Yong glanced at Luo Cheng and said, "General, this horse is throwing a temper tantrum. It has to see you to eat properly. You said you have so many things to do. If you are marching and fighting, it is impossible to walk it every day. Hey Does it eat grass and drink water?"

"It's none of your business."

Luo Yong wanted to say something, but was choked by his words. He nodded after a while, and muttered softly: "Everyone is dead, you have to remember him all the time, isn't this embarrassing yourself..."

Luo Cheng froze, without saying anything, he reined in his horse and walked straight into the city.