What do you call tasteless? For Li Er and Duan Lun, the artillery thrown into the Fenshui River by Huoyi and Sui troops was fucking useless! It's a pity to lose it. Retrieving it will take time and effort, and it will definitely give the Sui army in Hedong an opportunity to engage in a war of attrition. Even if they can retrieve it in the end, Li Er and Duan Lun will have to pay a heavy price! Don¡¯t think that fishing a few artillery pieces from the Fenshui River is that simple. Affected by climate change and human factors, the current flow of the Fenhe River is indeed not that large. However, during the Sui and Tang Dynasties, the water flow of the Fenhe River in reverse direction could support the Guanzhong Movement. When the grain reaches Jiangxian, the grain can be transported directly from Linfen to Guanzhong down the river. The Fen River in the Queshu Valley area has a large drop and complicated water flow. With the technical means of the Sui and Tang Dynasties, it is impossible to fish a piece of grain from such a river. Even if it is possible to achieve a cannon weighing more than a thousand kilograms, the difficulty will definitely not be that small. What was even worse was the harassment and destruction by the Sui army. As soon as they got rid of the pursuit of the Taiyuan army, the Huoyi Sui army immediately stopped at a place only twenty miles away from the artillery sinking site, and immediately began to build camp fortifications and put out a No matter how hard they tried, the Taiyuan Army would not let the Taiyuan Army take away the artillery. As long as Li's army tried to retrieve the artillery, they would definitely be attacked and destroyed by the Sui Army. There was some meat on the chicken ribs anyway. In order to eliminate the nightmare in their hearts, the Taiyuan Army decided to give it a try anyway, so after a little discussion, Li Erduan Lun also came to stand on the spot. Battalion, while building fortifications to resist the Sui army's attack, they also selected soldiers who were proficient in water skills to go into the water to find artillery, and tried to pull the artillery ashore directly with ropes. It was only after the sailors went into the water that Li Er realized that he had thought too simplistically, because at the position where the Sui army left the artillery, not only was the water flow extremely fast, but there were also many height differences. No matter how good the water quality was, it would be difficult for the sailors to dive to the bottom of the river and find it. The artillery was still in danger of being washed away by the current. Two sailors were sacrificed, and it took a lot of effort and a lot of time to finally find an artillery piece. When they tried to pull up the artillery piece with a rope, the Sui army had already When they came to kill them, they were still under the command of Liu Heitai himself. It was only about forty miles away from Huoyi, which greatly facilitated Liu Heitai's replenishment of troops to the front line. He was determined to use artillery as bait to consume a large amount of the Taiyuan Army's effective forces. Liu Heitai did not consider the cost of casualties at all. , personally went to the front line to command and supervise the battle. Two fierce generals, Wang Xingben and Cao Qing, took the lead and led the charge together. Although the Taiyuan army, which was exhausted and had not had time to establish a strong camp, tried its best to resist, it was still unable to withstand the Sui army's fierce charge at all costs. After being hit, he was forced to retreat to avoid the sharp edge, and the artillery that had been pulled away from the bottom of the river was thrown back into the bottom of the river. Then more damage came again. Taking advantage of the opportunity to temporarily repel the Taiyuan Army, the Sui Army hurriedly threw a large amount of earth and rocks into the sunken cannon, making it more difficult for the Taiyuan Army to salvage, and then hurriedly retreated to the temporary camp twenty miles away. Rest and wait for the Taiyuan Army to salvage again. When Li Er and Duan Lun came back, not only was the sky bright, but the difficulty of salvage had also increased a lot. Soldiers are not made of iron. Li Erjun did not get much rest from midnight on the second day of March to the morning of the fourth day of March. To make matters worse, Duan Lunjun had to add in the physical exertion of the seventy-mile rapid march. He was as tired as if he were up and down. Mangy dogs with their spines ripped out one after another. Therefore, even though Li Er and Duan Lun were still unwilling, they did not have the courage to salvage while resisting Liu Heitai's possible attack at any time. They could only find a gentle slope to set up camp near the north of the cannon sinking site and rest while While preparing to salvage, Liu Heitai, who had no need for these pig iron artillery, was not in a hurry to launch an attack. The two armies temporarily ceased their activities and maintained a state of confrontation. Linfen County, where Liu Heita's main force is located, is only two days away from Queshu Valley, while Taiyuan requires at least four days of urgent marching from Queshu Valley. Li Er and Duan Lun are very aware of the impact of this difference, but Li Er and Duan Lunwan Unexpectedly, Liu Heitai's Linfen rear army had already arrived at the foot of Huoyi City in the evening of the same day. Although they had not yet arrived at the battlefield of Shen Pao, with only more than 5,000 troops, they immediately broke through. The balance of power in the entire Queshu Valley battlefield shows that the Sui army, which has more than 15,000 combined troops, has enough troops to easily rotate and fight. The combined armies of Li Er and Duan Lun only have more than 8,000 troops. In terms of military strength, Already at an absolute disadvantage, fighting a war of attrition with Liu Heita would be tantamount to seeking death. Although they already understood that Liu Heitai wanted to take advantage of the situation and drag his army into a war of attrition, the scented bait Liu Heitai put into the water was too tempting, so Li Er and Duan Lun still did not decide to give up. After discussion, Later, Li Er and Duan Lun simply chose to continue the confrontation with Liu Heitai for the time being, and sent a fast horse to Taiyuan to report the matter to Li Jiancheng. They kicked the ball to Li Jiancheng and asked Li Jiancheng to decide whether to go south with all his strength and seize the artillery? Or should we just give up and let Liu Heitai get the artillery back? It was Li Jiancheng¡¯s turn to make a difficult decision. In fact, when he received the news that the Sui army¡¯s artillery had secretly arrived at the Huoyi battlefield, Li Jiancheng had already made preparations to send troops to reinforce Queshu Valley, not for others.Yes, in order to guard the only natural barrier in southern Taiyuan, it is actually very convenient to send troops to help Li Er and Duan Lun grab artillery at this time. But Li Jiancheng also saw through Liu Heitai's tactical purpose to force the Taiyuan Army to fight a war of attrition. Once the Taiyuan Army was led by Liu Heitai and fell into a quagmire of attrition, then even if the Taiyuan Army succeeded in grabbing the artillery, it would probably be more of a loss than the gain. The Sui army took advantage of it - because Chen Sangliang's current foundation was so strong that he didn't feel any pain even if he lost all the main force in Hedong. In the end, it was Yin Kaishan, a veteran of the Taiyuan Army and the legendary Jin Chanzi's grandfather, who made Li Jiancheng determined. Yin Kaishan pointed out: "Liu Heitai had sinister intentions, and his purpose was indeed to drag our army into a war of attrition, but for his sake To achieve this goal, the main force of the Hedong bandit army has also been thrown into the Queshu Valley battlefield. At present, the main force of the Chen bandit army is not ready to go out. If the main force of our army goes south at this moment, it may be dragged into a war of attrition by Liu Heitai. , but there is also hope to annihilate Liu Heitao's main force first. If so, our army can take the opportunity to capture Linfen and obtain a large number of grain and grass supplies used by Chen Yingliang's main force to attack our army, and then completely disrupt the overall plan of Chen Yingliang's traitor and use offense as defense. , seize the opportunity to completely defend the enemy from outside the country." After thinking for a while, Li Jiancheng nodded, and then said in a deep voice: "Since offense is defense, let's just bring Dou Jiandu into the battlefield now and invite him. Immediately sent troops from Fukouxing to the west to Shangdang County, passing through Biyuan and Hechuan, attacking Liu Heitai's flank, and attacking Linfen with our army, making it difficult for Liu Heitai to take care of him, and completely disrupting Ying Liang's brother's plan. "Comprehensive plan." "Commander Zuo, the Biyuan and Hechuan roads are not easy to travel, especially if they are not suitable for large-scale army marches. It is unlikely that Dou Jiande will answer," Yin Kaishan reminded. "Promise Dou Jiande half of Linfen's money and food. If he marches this way, he can also take over the currently empty Shangdang County. Dou Jiande will be tempted." Li Jiancheng replied calmly: "I don't need him to send out the main force to help me. To attack Liu Heita, all he needs to do is send out a side force and give more valuable gifts to his subordinate Wenwu, so he doesn't have to worry about convincing him." Seeing Li Jiancheng's confidence, Yin Kaishan didn't say much and just nodded in agreement. The best thing about this was that Li Jiancheng immediately summoned his ace messenger Wang Gui and ordered him to go to Linming with heavy gifts to meet Dou Jiande. He asked Dou Jiande to send troops to Shangdang County to attack Liu Heitao's flank, and told Wang Gui not to be stingy with gold and silver. , you can safely use it to bribe Dou Jiande's subordinate Wenwu. But Li Jiancheng was still uneasy about one thing, and reminded Wang Gui: "Dou Jiande is too upright and does not allow his subordinates to seize people's money, food and land. Most of his subordinates are not rich and are very greedy for gold, silver and jewelry. He bribed them to speak for us. It's very easy, but he has a confidant who is an exception. You must not try to bribe him. "" May I ask Governor Zuo, who is he?" Wang Gui asked carefully. "Wang Fubao." Li Jiancheng replied casually: "Our army's inside information shows that this Wang Fubao is not only Dou Jiande's right-hand man, but also like Dou Jiande who despises wealth and values ??righteousness. He hates corruption and bribery. If you bribe him, he will definitely be furious and attack you." Dou Jiande's informing might have backfired, causing Dou Jiande to refuse to send troops in anger. Wang Gui carefully remembered Li Jiancheng's instructions, and then rushed to Linming under the escort of cavalry to ask for help from Dou Jiande. Li Jiancheng. Then he immediately made arrangements for the expedition, leaving Li Yuanji, Pei Ji, Feng Li and others to guard their home base in Taiyuan. He, Yin Kaishan, Zhang Lun and other generals led an army of 30,000 people to go south and rushed to Queshu Valley to reinforce Li Er and Duan Lun. On March 13th, I arrived in Jiexiu and officially joined the Queshu Valley battlefield. Before Li Jiancheng's reinforcements arrived in Jiexiu, Liu Heitai had already fought three more battles with Li Er and Duan Lun in the Shenyang Artillery Area. He forced Li Er and Duan Lun to fight a war of attrition regardless of casualties and refused to give up. The artillery Taiyuan army did not dare to withdraw from the battlefield, so they could only build a stronghold on the mountain and defend it. Although the camp was not captured by Liu Heitai, they paid a considerable price. After hearing that Li Jiancheng personally led the reinforcements to arrive, After Jiexiu, Liu Heitai, who successfully achieved his goal of exhausting the main force of the Taiyuan Army, withdrew his troops and conserved his strength to retreat to Huoyi to defend the city. Before leaving, Liu Heitai wrote another letter and shot it into the Taiyuan military camp, openly declaring: "If you like our army's artillery, just fish it out. Our army's artillery has been soaked in the river for ten days. It has long been It's soaked. If you like it, feel free to take it back and use it." Li Er and Duan Lun were exhausted and injured by Liu Heitai and could only watch Liu Heitai's troops retreat in a swaggering manner! After leaving Queshu Valley, by the time Li Jiancheng led the main force to Lingshi, Liu Heitai's entire army had already withdrawn to Huoyi City to rest. Li Jiancheng had no choice but to salvage the artillery while discussing the next battle plan with Li Er, Duan Lun and others. In fact, there is no need for much discussion. Now the main force of the Taiyuan Army has gone south to Lingshi. It is impossible for the trip to be in vain. The main force of the Sui Army is still in great power.?The preparations for the expedition were delayed. At the same time, Huoyi's Sui army also suffered a lot of damage in the previous battles. With such a good bargain hunting opportunity, a retail investor would rush forward, so Li Jiancheng, Li Er and others immediately decided to continue to attack Huoyi. Yi's decision also decided to devote all his efforts to capture Huoyi and seize the initiative in a decisive battle with the main force of the Sui army. Without the Sui army's troubles and sabotage, after two full days of hard work, the Taiyuan army finally picked up nine artillery pieces. What made the Li brothers depressed and puzzled was that these cannons made of pig iron seemed to be real. It was as if it had been soaked in river water. During the test firing, the shells fired with too little gunpowder had no power at all. A little more gunpowder would be even more powerful - they would explode directly and injure people. One of the cannons exploded in the chamber, and even The explosion killed two Taiyuan Army soldiers on the spot, which made the Taiyuan Army soldiers resist and dare not light the fire again. It also made Li Jiancheng and Li Er completely dead in their thoughts of using these artillery to break through Huoyi City. But it doesn¡¯t matter if you don¡¯t have artillery. In the Cold War Age without artillery, siege warfare can still be fought. Historically, the old Li family was able to capture Huoyi City by relying on soldiers chewing weapons and climbing with bare hands. Now the Li family brothers have the upper hand on local battlefields, and they still have the upper hand. Can you be afraid of Liu Heitai, who had already injured himself in the battle at Queshu Valley? So the Li brothers still led their troops towards Huoyi City, and the third Huoyi War began. The Sui army had already begun to defend the city. Although Liu Heitai still had rear troops available in Linfen, most of the military supplies and grain used by the Sui army's main force in the Northern Expedition were piled in Linfen City, so Liu Heitai never went to Huoyi again. He added another soldier and ordered Wei Ziqi and Huo Shiju to defend Linfen City with all their strength and not to send troops northward without authorization. He personally took command of Huoyi City and commanded the defenders to fight against the Li brothers. Just like how they had punished Pang Yu, the Li brothers repeated their old tricks. Once again, Li Er led a small number of troops to the city walls to provoke Liu Heitai, in an attempt to provoke Liu Heitai and lure him out of the city to fight. Li Er once even went to the east gate of Huoyi to scold and ridicule Liu Heitai. Tao is just a little handsome thief. He is still as timid as a mouse after being lucky enough to reach the position he is today. He dare not go out of the city to fight with him. He asked Liu Heitai to come over and fight him for three hundred rounds. . Li Er's move was of course useful for Pang Yu, who came from a noble family, but it had no effect on Liu Heitai, a gambler and rogue. While dragging several generals to gamble in public in the city to show his contempt for the Li brothers, Liu Hei Min retorted, "Li Erlang, you are a shameless and dishonest villain. Back then, you were captured alive by our army on the battlefield of Huoyi. In order to survive, you begged for mercy in front of our King of Tang. We, the King of Tang, let you go." Go back, what did you promise us again? When will you deliver Li Jiancheng's head?" Li Er, who had been suspected of Chen Sangliang's divorce plan, was furious and immediately yelled at Liu Hei. Min ignored him and continued to gamble and make money. Li Er scolded him until his saliva dried up, but it had no effect, so he could only retreat back to the camp angrily. Fortunately, the Li brothers did not have much hope in this. During this period, they were still building siege weapons, and the next day they began to use toad trucks to fill the Huoyi moat. Liu Heitai commanded the army to attack with bows and arrows, and fought with Taiyuan. The army fought fiercely. Three days later, most of the moat at the east gate of Huoyi was filled by the Taiyuan army. Both Li Jiancheng brothers went into battle and commanded the army to launch a very fierce attack on Huoyi. The Sui army of Huoyi rose up to fight under the command of Liu Heitai, relying on their condescending advantage. The terrain repelled the Taiyuan Army's attack with strong defense, and caused the Li brothers to pay a lot of casualties in the siege. In fact, Li Er was more afraid of fighting tough battles than Chen Sangliang. Whenever he was in trouble and had to attack a fortified city at high speed, Li Er, like Chen Sangliang, would immediately think of opportunistic plots. Seeing that Huoyi's city was strong and Liu Heitai's command was effective, It is not certain to capture Huoyi by force, and there will definitely be heavy casualties. On the night when the attack failed, Li Er found Li Jiancheng and made two suggestions to Li Jiancheng. The first was to divide his troops and go south to attack Yangxian and Yueyang (today's Subao Town, Hongdong County), so that Dou Jiande might send The reinforcements that arrived also forced Linfen to put pressure on Liu Heitai, forcing Liu Heitai to return his troops to save the grain fields. The second suggestion was the most cruel. Since Liu Heitai was just a little thief under Hao Xiaode before, and he attracted countless jealousies after being reused by Chen Sangliang, Li Er suggested spreading rumors that Liu Heitai was afraid of Chen because of the defeat in Queshu Valley. Sang Liang pursued the responsibility, and because Huo Yi was surrounded and feared for his life, he was shaken and secretly contacted the Taiyuan Army to beg for surrender, and asked Liu Heitai's unconvinced subordinates to report him, so as to alienate the relationship between Liu Heitai and his generals, and even more The treacherous and suspicious Chen Sangliang became suspicious of Liu Heita and took the opportunity to make trouble from him. Li Jiancheng, who was also a master of strategy but didn't like to take risks, accepted the two suggestions from his second brother after just a moment's calculation and decided to send Yin Kaishan to lead an army of 5,000 people south to attack Yangxian and Yueyang, and then immediately discussed it with his second brother. How to frame the conspiracy to frame Liu Heita and immediately start to implement it From a small surrender commander to a high-ranking official, he quickly climbed up?Liu Heitai is indeed very jealous of his colleagues. Li Er's move really hit his vital point, but the danger to Liu Heitai and the Sui army in Hedong is not the only one. On the same day, Li Jiancheng's envoy Wang Gui successfully arrived at Linming City, Dou Jiande's hometown, and immediately delivered a large number of valuable gifts to Dou Jiande's poor subordinates. He met Dou Jiande the next day and asked Dou Jiande to send troops on behalf of Li Jiancheng. Go up to the party and attack Liu Heitai's flank. Wang Gui soon discovered that his gift was completely free. In fact, not only the civil and military personnel under Dou Jiande coveted the Shangdang, but even Wang Fubao, the general of the Dou army who Li Jiancheng did not dare to bribe, was in favor of sending troops westward to seize the Shangdang. The party looked down on Hedong, waiting for an opportunity to advance into Guanzhong. However, Wang Fubao did not send troops to the battlefield in Hedong now. He directly faced the main force of the Sui army who was about to send troops to Taiyuan. He suggested that he should capture Shangdang and hold on to the danger, and wait until a better opportunity arises before sending troops to attack Hedong. Wang Fubao's suggestion was certainly good, but it was a pity that Dou Jiande was too loyal and trustworthy. He did not want to go back on his promise to Li Jiancheng. At the same time, because Li Jiancheng just begged Dou Jiande to send a partial force to the Hedong battlefield to threaten Liu Heitai's flank, he accepted it. Dou Jiande, who had benefited from Wang Gui, felt that they should not break their promise. Even if they did not send out the main force, they would still send a partial force of about 10,000 people to help Li Jiancheng. In the end, Dou Jiande made a final decision and decided to accept Li Jiancheng's request and send out 10,000 troops. Go to the Hedong battlefield to help clean up the accomplices and lackeys of the country-stealing thief Chen Sangliang. It was easy to make a decision. When Dou Jiande asked who could take on this important task, that is, who dared to lead a partial army to help Li Jiancheng, the brave generals under King Changle all shut their mouths, and then exchanged a few glances with each other. These fierce generals and brave generals unanimously suggested: "Your Highness, General Wang Fubao is good at fighting, wise and brave, and is worthy of a big task. The generals and other generals unanimously believe that General Wang should take on this responsibility!" Wang Fubao was originally opposed to entering Hedong now. , and then saw a group of colleagues pushing him to the front, of course he refused with great anger. But Dou Jiande also felt that Wang Fubao, the most capable and wise man under his command, was the most reliable in this matter, so he forced Wang Fubao to accept the order. Wang Fubao, who was loyal to Dou Jiande, had no choice but to accept the order obediently. Seeing Wang Fubao's gloomy look, the Dou army generals who were almost going crazy with jealousy of his achievements felt very happy and secretly said: "Go! It's best to die on the battlefield east of Hedong and never come back!"