A thousand soldiers were getting closer and closer to the city gate, and the sound of footsteps was particularly neat on the wooden board of the suspension bridge. On the top of the city, the soldiers hiding behind the battlements were so scared that their legs became weak. Many people fell directly to the ground and could not get up at all. At this moment of war, their weak human nature was fully exposed.

Di Yan was so nervous that her legs were shaking. She kept encouraging herself and resisted waiting for everyone to come into the city. But at this moment, an accident happened. The two archers were so scared that they finally collapsed. They shouted, stood up and ran down to the city.

This shout alarmed the rebels who were walking into the urn. The leader Lang General was stunned for a moment, waved his hand and "stop moving forward"

He looked at the city in surprise. Di Yan was so angry that she wanted to kill the escaped man with one arrow, but at this time she didn't care about holding the responsibility. The footsteps under the city had disappeared. She immediately shouted in a low voice: "Ring the clapper"

Several archers beat the bamboo arch together, and the crisp sound of archers suddenly rang out on the top of the city. Three thousand archers appeared at the same time, drawing bows and shooting arrows into the urn. Suddenly, arrows were like rain, and dense arrows shot at the rebels in the urn. The rebels were caught off guard and a large number of people were shot over.

Although the rebels were wearing regular army leather armor, almost all the arrows were shot at the top of the city. The arrows were heavy, the sharp tips of the arrows were slender and sharp. In addition to the gravity from top to bottom, it made it extremely lethal and became a famous armor-breaking arrow. Except for the strongest Mingguang armor, general leather armor could not resist the attack of such arrows at all.

The rebels were killed and injured. Even the leader of the Lang general was shot like a hedgehog by arrows and horses. He died tragically on the spot. The soldiers in the urn city howled and rushed out, trampling on each other, and became a mess. Di Yan suddenly thought of something and shouted: "The archers from the south shot arrows outside the city."

She drew her sword, rushed to pull the soldiers, pointed the sword at the battlements and shouted, "Go over there, go and shoot arrows outside the city."

Groups of soldiers ran towards the battlements without aiming. They opened their bow and shot arrows to the suspension bridge outside the city. Hundreds of rebel soldiers rushed across the suspension bridge and fled south, but the arrows shot from the top of the city shot over the ground. At this time, drums were loudly sounded on the top of the city, and battle flags were waving. The archers' successful ambush encouraged all the soldiers. They shouted with excitement, pointing at Li Yuanjia and scolded him.

Li Yuanjia was stunned. He never dreamed that there would be so many soldiers on the top of the city, with thousands of people shaking and running back. Many of them were injured with arrows. Li Yuanjia felt a little shaken.

At this time, Li Chen rushed up and shouted: "Father, Yangzhou will not have so many troops. This must be the temporary recruitment of civilians and soldiers, with a maximum of more than a thousand soldiers in the state."

A sentence reminded Li Yuanjia that he could not give up Yangzhou because of this small setback. His plan would be done. At this time, all the vanguard soldiers fled back, and nearly half of the 1,000 people lost. The Yangzhou city gate rumbling closed, and the suspension bridge also creaked. The drums and gongs were heard on the top of the city, and cheers were heard across the city, as if Li Yuanjia's army had been defeated on its entire line.

Li Yuanjia's army came in a hurry, and did not carry siege weapons, and even tents. Faced with the wide moat and towering city walls, Li Yuanjia had to order a detour to the north gate and occupy the houses outside the north gate as a temporary camp. He sent more than a thousand people to the nearby woods to cut down trees and prepare to make a simple siege ladder.

Night gradually came, and the large residential houses outside the north gate had been occupied by Li Yuanjia's thousands of troops, and their property was plundered. The laughter of officers came from the brightly lit taverns. Dozens of young women who had not escaped were caught by the rebels, stripped off their clothes and locked them in several large houses. Groups of soldiers kept coming in, and the crying of women could be heard faintly.

But this kind of arbitrary behavior did not make Li Yuanjia feel inappropriate. He knew that the soldiers were very depressed and needed to indulge their animal nature in order to keep them working for themselves.

Li Yuanjia stood at the table with his hands behind his back and stared at the Yangzhou map on the table for a long time. He had been in Yangzhou for ten years and knew the city of Yangzhou well. He knew where the loopholes in Yangzhou City were?

That is, Yangzhou City is too big, without an army of more than 30,000, it is impossible to defend the city. No matter how many civilians Lin Qing recruits, there will inevitably be loopholes in the city defense. This requires him to patiently search. As long as he finds the loophole, he can attack the city in one fell swoop. The waiting time is very long, but taking down Yangzhou City is in a blink of an eye.

At this time, the eldest son Li Xunzhi rushed in angrily, "Father, you can't indulge the soldiers like this. They are actually women. They must stop them, and this will lose the hearts of the people."

"But if we stop them, we will lose our morale."

Li Yuanjia said coldly: "Why do you think these soldiers are working hard for us? They are just for making money or for women? They will maintain their morale by giving them sweetness, otherwise they will run away overnight, do you understand?"

"But how can such an army command the world?"

Li Xun丨I could not accept my father's indulgence theory. He blushed and argued with his father: "If you want to make a fortune, you will give it to them in the future. It's not possible now. Now you must maintain military discipline. Only those in Yangzhou will obey our call and recruit more soldiers."

"As long as you have enough money and food, recruiting soldiers will not be a problem. My son is worried too much."

"Father, that's not the case, the people's hearts"

"Enough"

Li Yuanjia finally became angry and interrupted Li Xun with anger! Distinguishing, he said angrily: "I know what to do, I don't need you to teach me."

Li Xun丨knelt down and said in tears: "If the father is unwilling to accept his child's advice, let the child go back to Jiangyang to defend the city. At least the child can defend Jiangyang, and we still have a way out."

Li Xun's "retreat" reminded Li Yuanjia, what should he do if Yangzhou City cannot be taken down?

When Li Jingye raised an army in Yangzhou, he first crossed the river to the other side of the Yangtze River to seize Runzhou. However, Li Jingye was determined to fight the northern expedition and did not obey Luo Binwang's strategy. He first seized Suzhou and Yuezhou and established a separatist foundation. As a result, he was defeated by Li Xiaoyi in one battle.

If you can't take Yangzhou, you can retreat to Runzhou, and then go south to capture Suzhou and Yuezhou, establish a foundation in Jiangnan, and avoid taking Li Jingye's mistakes back then. Thinking of this, Li Yuanjia nodded, "Since you are going back to Jiangyang, I can give you 1,500 troops, but not back to Jiangyang County, but occupy Jiangyang Wharf and protect the ferry. If the situation in Yangzhou is not good, we will cross the river to Runzhou immediately."

Li Xun丨Kowtowed and said: "Children obey orders"

Li Yuanjia handed him a golden arrow, "Take three battalions and go south immediately."

Li Xun丨After receiving the order, he hurried away. Not long after Li Xunyin L left, the third son Li Chen rushed in and said anxiously: "Father, why did you let your elder brother lead the troops away?"

"There is too empty in Jiangyang, especially when our ferry is parked on the pier. If we don't protect it well, we will have no way out."

"But... our army is not large in number, so we will separate some of the troops. How can we seize Yangzhou?"

"The Yangzhou defenders are all mobs recruited. When they really fight, they will collapse at once. Tomorrow we will burn the houses in the north of the city, and then I pretend to withdraw the troops. You lead hundreds of elite troops to ambush outside the city. Once the city gate is opened, you will go to seize the city, and I will fight back to pick you up. In short, if we can't capture Yangzhou tomorrow, we will cross the river to Runzhou."

Seeing that his son wanted to object again, Li Yuanjia stopped giving him a chance to speak and said coldly: "I have decided."

Li Yuanjia's eldest son Li Xun丨Although his literary talent is weak, it does not mean that Li Yuanjia is also as reckless and unwise as his youngest son Li Chen. If he had not been blinded by his ambition to be called emperor, he might not have risen. Of course, he knew that Yangzhou was prepared and his chances of winning were not high in capturing the city. Turning around to attack the unprepared Runzhou was the best strategy.

If he hadn't been unwilling to give up Yangzhou, he might have crossed the river and killed him to Runzhou tonight. Seeing that his father's attitude was firm, Li Chen was disappointed and had to give him a tribute and retreat silently.

The rebels seized hundreds of houses outside the northern city. Li Chen was in charge of the front army and had a thousand men under his command. His father Li Yuanjia was in charge of the central army, with more than two thousand men. The rear army was brought back to Jiangyang by his eldest son Li Xunzhi. At this time, there were only three thousand men left in the rebels.

In a small house, Jiu Zhi was sitting alone at the table drinking. His name was Jiu Zhuang, and he became the warehouse manager under Li Chen's tent, in charge of military supplies. But in fact, the army did not have any supplies for him to take charge of. He only had an empty position. Jiu Zhi was good at dating people. He belittled himself, elevated others, was generous, and spoke nicely. In just half a day, he met all the officers under Li Chen's tent and fought with everyone.

At this time, if he hadn't been waiting for news from Li Zhen, he would have gone to the restaurant to drink wine with everyone.

At this moment, a knock on the door came from outside the house, "Who is it?" Jiu Zhi asked in a muffled voice.

"It's me, Zhong Shun'er"

Zhong Shun'er also mixed into Li Chen's team with Jiu Zhi. He and several other guards pretended to be Jiu Zhi's friends. Because they were tall and strong, they were selected as personal guards by Li Chen.

"Come in"

The door opened, and two people flashed from outside. One person in front was Zhong Shun'er, and the other person behind was a strange face. Jiu Zhi was slightly stunned, "Who is he?"

The person behind came forward and bowed, "See the deputy lieutenant of Ma Song"

Zhong Shun'er smiled and introduced: "He is the chief of the state army, named Ma Song, a local, and the commander asked him to send a letter to the deputy lieutenant."

Ma Song took out a letter from his arms and presented it to Jiuzhi with both hands. Jiuzhi opened the letter and read it. He jumped up in shock, "When is it now?"

"You reported to the deputy lieutenant, now you have less than two updates."

Jiuzhi breathed a little relieved. In the letter, Li Zhen said that he launched an attack at the third update to help him act well. He did not say how to do it, but just let him act according to the opportunity.

Jiuzhi asked again: "Does the commander have any other letters to tell me?"

Ma Song shook his head, "Just this letter, nothing else."

"I understand. When you go back, tell the commander. I can't guarantee that you can prepare early at the third update and use the fire as the sign."

Ma Song turned around and left, Jiu Zhi paced back and forth in the room worriedly. How should he do his inner response? Damn it, don't do it, don't stop, and do it harder.
Chapter completed!