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Volume 5 Breaking the Array Chapter 22 Lying on the Ice (4)

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    When a person is forced into a corner and has no choice, he feels helpless but happy.

    ¡°At least now you don¡¯t have to worry about making a choice. If you go down one path, you won¡¯t regret it even if it leads to a dead end.

    Li Kuo wrote a family letter as a younger nephew and sent a close friend to send it urgently to Uncle Gao Shigao, the Jianghuai Jiedu envoy who was serving in Yangzhou, hoping that he could take care of him for the sake of the two family friends.  My mother and my wives and concubines.

    Tangzhou is not far from Jiangdu. Half a month later, Li Kuo received Gao Shi's reply.  In the letter, Gao Shi first praised Li Kuo's heroic deeds in resisting the enemy, and then said that the old lady and others were all well and should not worry about Yunyun.  As for the Di newspaper issued by the imperial court, Gao Shi did not receive it for some unknown reason, so he did not know about Li Heng's order to encircle and suppress him.

    This gave Li Kuo some peace of mind. As long as Gao Shi had not received the imperial report from the court, everything would turn around.

    Li Kuo was determined to completely relieve his relatives from the fire and water, so he wrote a letter to Gao Shi to express his longing for his relatives.  And he cautiously made a request, hoping that Gao Shi could come forward to send his relatives to Tangzhou City if possible.

    Half a month later, Li Kuo also received a reply.  To Li Kuo's surprise, Gao Shi readily agreed.  But he also said that now is the time when we are working together to fight the enemy. Jianghuai and other places are fully supporting the front line, and they are short of manpower. He hopes to send Li Kuo's family to Tangzhou after some time.

    After receiving this reply, Li Kuo was overjoyed. After writing a letter to express his gratitude to Gao Shi, he finally came out of the shadow of this matter.  At first, he thought it was because the rebels had captured many places and the government's decrees were blocked, so Gao Shi was not reported.  But if you think about it carefully, this possibility is extremely small.  After all, Jianghuai is now actually in the hands of the Tang Dynasty. If it is understandable that some states and counties in Henan Province did not receive the Di Bao, how could Jianghuai Yangzhou not receive the Di Bao.

    So there is only one explanation for the matter. Gao Shi received the Di newspaper but pretended not to receive it!

    In this way, he can send his relatives to Tangzhou.  If the court investigates him afterwards, he can blame the incident on not receiving the Di report.  Such a move that kills two birds with one stone is something that only a genius like Gao Shi can think of!

    After Li Kuo felt at ease, all his thoughts were focused on the safety of the Tangzhou area.  Although Sun Xiaozhe had always kept a certain distance from Tangzhou City, Li Kuo felt that it really upset him, so he led 10,000 cavalry out of the city and took the initiative to have a field battle with Sun Xiaozhe.

    Although the rebels were outnumbered, they did not take advantage of them at all.  Sun Xiaozhe obviously did not expect that Li Kuo would lead his troops to attack. He was in a panic and was killed by Li Kuo and was completely defeated.

    Under the leadership of Li Kuo, generals such as Dou Qing, Xian Yuyucheng, Wang Xiaochun, and Zhou Wuwei fought bravely. The soldiers worked together to defeat the powerful enemy and beheaded more than 3,000 people and captured more than 5,000 people.

    Luoyang was shaken for a while, and An Qingxu was very angry and ordered him to quickly lead his defeated army back to Luoyang to report on his duties.

    No matter how angry An Qingxu was, Li Kuo's battle inevitably aroused the fighting spirit of the people of the Tang Dynasty. People in various prefectures in Henan Province who had already fallen rose up one after another to denounce the traitors.

    It¡¯s nearly May, when the wheat is ripe.

    Outside Suiyang City, there are endless golden wheat fields.  As soon as the breeze passes by, the waves of wheat are blowing, which is very pleasing to the eye.

    It¡¯s just that the defenders in Suiyang City don¡¯t have the leisure to appreciate such beautiful scenery.

    Three months have passed since 100,000 rebels besieged Suiyang City.  Although everyone still insists on defending the city, there has been no reinforcement from the imperial army for a long time. Every night, they are suddenly awakened by the sound of the rebel siege trumpet. Even the iron-clad people cannot resist such torture.

    Many soldiers became timid, and some even took advantage of the darkness to escape from the city.  After Zhang Xun learned about this, he ordered his confidants Lei Wanchun, Nan Jiyun and others to lead fifty warriors each to wait until nightfall and hide behind the city wall, preparing to capture the absconding soldiers.

    As expected, Nan Jiyun, Lei Wanchun and others captured a dozen soldiers who were preparing to escape from the city at night.  After a round of interrogation, Zhang Xun determined that they were spies, and ordered the swordsmen and axemen to display their heads to the public, and hang their heads on the top of Suiyang City as a warning to others.

    Zhang Xun even cried in tears at the top of the city, expressing his willingness to live and die with Suiyang City.

    Since then, no one dared to escape at night. Although everyone knew that there was little hope of persisting, they all stood on Zhang Xun's side and vowed to advance and retreat together with Mr. Zhang.

    Yin Ziqi's several overnight sieges were heroically repelled by Zhang Xun's soldiers. The rebels had more than 100,000 soldiers, but they could do nothing against Suiyang City.

    "Sir Zhang, the rebels are harvesting wheat outside the city to use as military food. We can't just watch them act recklessly under our eyes!" Xu Yuan said.Zhang Xun cupped his hands and admonished him: "Now that the rebels are in short supply of food and grass, they must concentrate on harvesting wheat. If we attack at this time, the rebels will definitely flee in panic if they are not prepared!"

    Zhang Xun thought for a moment and said, "What Brother Xu said is good, but the effect of the attack is not optimal at this time. It's better to do this."

    Zhang Xun walked up to Xu Yuan and whispered something in his ear. After hearing this, Xu Yuan could not help but raise his palms and praise: "Master Zhang, what a clever plan. This plan will definitely severely damage the morale of the rebels!"

    Ten miles outside Suiyang City, the rebel commander Yin Ziqi was pacing with his hands behind his back with a sad look on his face.

    Under the orders of His Majesty Emperor Dayan, he led one hundred thousand elites to besiege Suiyang City for three months, but they could not even capture the Wengcheng.  If Suiyang City cannot be captured before autumn, it will definitely affect his old man's overall war plan. His Majesty the Emperor will definitely be very angry, and he will inevitably be in trouble.  (Note 1)

    The worst thing is that there is a problem with the army's food supply.  All this must be attributed to Li Kuo.  If it hadn't been for him burning down the grain stores in Luokou Granary, how could the army's food supply be so tight now!

    Damn it, to think that he, the commander-in-chief of the army, is forced to do this job of supervising the harvesting of wheat straw, is simply a price drop!

    Yin Ziqi took out a piece of white silk cloth from his sleeve, wiped the sweat from his temples, and looked towards the head of Suiyang City not far away.

    ¡°Hmph, that guy Zhang Xun is just clinging to the right location, how dare he leave the city?  Being so nervous is indeed a bit overwhelming.

    "Send my order to everyone to harvest more quickly!" Yin Ziqi glanced at the soldiers working in the wheat field and ordered coldly.

    "I have the order!" The soldier hugged Yin Ziqi's fists and happily accepted the order.

    Seeing that everything was arranged properly, Yin Ziqi felt a little calmer.  At this time, he felt that the noon sun was very dazzling, and he couldn't help but feel sleepy.

    Yin Ziqi shook his sleeves, yawned, then got up and walked towards the shade of a tree not far away to take a rest.

    ¡°Woo-woo-woo-woo!¡±

    "Ohh Ohh ohh!"

    The sound of sharp and low horns came into his sleep, startling Yin Ziqi.

    "What happened? What happened?" Yin Ziqi got up subconsciously, rubbed his sleepy eyes and looked in the direction of Suiyang City.

    "Reporting to the commander-in-chief, the Tang army suddenly started blowing horns and beating drums at the top of the city for some unknown reason!"

    Seeing Yin Ziqi shouting loudly, a soldier ran up to him and reported loudly.

    "What the hell are they doing! If you have the ability to go out to the city to fight, you have been hanging around in the city all day long to avoid fighting, but now you come to play this game with me!"

    Yin Ziqi snorted coldly and ordered: "Don't worry about it, tell my generals and order the soldiers to continue harvesting wheat!"

    As soon as this order came out, the rebel soldiers all laughed at the self-foolish behavior of the Tang people.

    After a while, they selectively ignored the horn sound at the top of the city.

    ¡°Dong-dong-dong!¡± ¡°Dong-dong-dong!¡± ¡°Dong-dong-dong!¡±

    Soon after, the horn sound gradually stopped, but the sound of golden drums came again from the top of Suiyang City.

    Yin Ziqi snorted coldly and said: "Why, after blowing the horn, you started beating the drum again? Can you use some new tricks? Order everyone to bury the pot and make rice, and ignore the teasing of the Tang Dynasty!"

    Yin Ziqi glanced at the city head with disdain and ordered in a deep voice

    Note 1: Wengcheng: Wengcheng is a semicircular or square gated town built outside the city gate (there are also special cases inside the city gate) in order to strengthen the defense of the castle or pass. It is part of the city wall in ancient China.  The two sides of the urn city are built together with the city wall, with defensive facilities such as arrow towers, gates, and battlements.  The urn city gate is usually not in the same straight line as the city gate it protects to prevent attacks by weapons such as battering rams.

    PS: Do you think Zhang Xiaotanhua is a model of resourcefulness?  Guess what happens next!
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