Zhao Jiqing, the second and fifth son, sold Jinyong City and suddenly opened the city gate in the dark night to welcome the Sui army soldiers into the city. But whose family has no loyal ministers? Wang Deren, whose surname is only Wang but not a relative of Wang Shichong, is more or less worthy of the word loyalty. He still brought some Zheng Army soldiers who were loyal to Wang Shichong to resist desperately, and indeed caused a lot of casualties and troubles to the Sui Army soldiers. At one time, they almost recaptured The city gate opened by Zhao Jiqing. However, no matter how desperate Wang Deren and a small number of Zheng Jun's loyal and brave soldiers were, they could not turn the tide of the war. Fighting back to the door was just a reflection of their past. Seeing that the facts proved that Zhao Jiqing's dedication to the city was genuine, he was somewhat worried beforehand that this was Liu Heitai, who was trapped by the enemy, no longer had any worries, and immediately led his main force to charge. He quickly regained control of the city gate and quickly advanced into the city. No matter how Wang Deren and other loyal and brave men of the Zheng Army blocked the counterattack, they all failed. They could not stop the Sui army soldiers from charging into the city in an endless stream. Jinyong City is a conjoined city composed of three small cities. Seeing that the middle city that was betrayed by Zhao Jiqing could not be saved, Wang Deren once planned to withdraw to the west city and continue to hold on. Unfortunately, the Sui army was as familiar with the situation in Jinyong City as he was. Liu Heita's subordinate Cao Qing, his capable thug, had already blocked Wang Deren's westward retreat in a roundabout way. After Wang Deren was blocked in his westward advance, it was already too late to turn around and head east. Liu Heitai's main force had already blocked his retreat and quickly surrounded him. Wang Deren led Hundreds of remnant soldiers were unable to escape, and there were fewer and fewer soldiers around them. The injured Wang Deren sighed and had no choice but to kill himself to thank Wang Shichong. Seeing that the situation was over, the remaining defenders surrendered one after another, and the most important acropolis of Luoyang, Jinyong City, also followed. He fell into the clutches of Chen Sangliang. On the second night after successfully capturing Jinyong City, good news came from Heyang. After days of hard fighting, the Hanoi branch of the Sui army led by Qin Qiong and Fan Wenchao finally captured Heyang Gucheng, opening up the line with the main force of the Sui army. Direct contact allowed the Sui army's grain transport ships to reach Heyang to provide supplies to the Sui army. General Qiu Huaiyi of the Zheng army who was trapped in the isolated city died in battle, and his deputy general Xi Bi led his remaining troops to flee south back to Luocheng. Chen Sangliang was overjoyed when he heard the news, and immediately ordered Qin Qiong to divide the partial division into two. Qin Qiong would lead the southern crossing and push back to Luo, and Fan Wenchao would lead the eastward march to Linqingguan to prevent Dou Jiande from attacking Hanoi. He also ordered Qiu Division to lead five thousand troops. Go and attack Huiluo to share the pressure on Qin Qiong's tired army. As a result, it turned out that Chen Sangliang's arrangement was a waste of effort. Xi Bian and the remaining Heyang army only returned to Luocheng to rest for a little more than a day, and then immediately fled to Luokoucang. The Sui army's forwards had just arrived at the city. , with only a few hundred people left in Luo City, the defenders immediately opened the city and surrendered. Qiu Shili and Qin Qiong successfully joined forces at the city gate. After the successful rendezvous with Qin Qiong's partial division, the Sui army seemed to be more powerful. However, he knew that after three consecutive battles in a short period of time, the main soldiers of the Sui army who had been fighting for years were actually a little tired and had almost no rest. Qin Qiong's partial division, which was forced to join the battlefield in Hanoi, and Liu Heitai's army, which had been confronting the main force of Zheng's army before, were even more exhausted. Their soldiers were seriously injured and needed time to rest and rest. It was difficult to launch another attack in a short period of time. Large-scale war. But it was not bad. The soldiers of the Sui army were seriously exhausted, and the Zheng army was even more serious. The soldiers suffered more injuries and suffered greater physical losses. The battlefield advantage was still firmly in Chen Sangliang's hands. At the same time, Chen Sangliang had previously formulated the strategy of holding grass. The rabbit-killing tactic also determined that the main force of the Sui army did not have to rush to attack Luoyang Imperial City. Therefore, after Chen Sangliang discussed with a group of accomplices and staff, they simply did not rush to launch an eastward expedition to attack Luokoucang and Hulao Pass. They allowed the Sui army soldiers to rest on the spot, and at the same time ordered the people and prisoners of war to dig deep trenches. Build high fortifications and build fortifications to surround the Imperial City of Luoyang, so that in the next step, they can divide their troops and march eastward to effectively trap Wang Shichong. They also cruelly enslaved the people, but Chen Sangliang's methods were undoubtedly much more vicious than Wang Shichong's. Taking into account the plight of the people in Luoyang who were short of food and salt, Chen Sangliang not only provided food for the people serving the corvee, but also promised to pay everyone a salary after the construction was completed. With half a catty of salt and three hundred cash as wages, the poor people happily picked up their hoes and worked as almost free volunteers for Chen Sangliang. The project progressed very quickly, and the trenches and walls were completed in seven or eight days. After taking shape, a fort higher than the city wall was built outside Longguang Gate so that the artillery of the Sui army could directly penetrate into the palace city at the core of the imperial city. During this period, the Zheng army in the city did not leave the city to prevent the Sui army from building siege fortifications, which disappointed the unfilial son-in-law Chen Sangliang, who was hoping to weaken his father-in-law some more. At the same time, the Sui army soldiers also robbed and killed a slave. Zheng Jun's messenger who slipped out of the imperial city found an autographed letter written by Wang Shichong to his eldest son Wang Xuanying from his body. In the letter, Wang Shichong not only asked Wang Xuanying to defend the two important places of Luokoucang and Hulao Pass with all his strength, but also asked Wang Xuanying. To come forward on his behalf, he must ask Dou Jiande to send troops to help. Once Dou Jiande is confirmed to send troops, no matter what method he thinks of, Wang Xuanying must send the news to Luoyang Imperial City. It was precisely because of the seizure of this letter that Chen Sangliang immediately ordered to strengthen the attack on Luoyang Imperial City.The lockdown was tight and it was strictly forbidden for the father-in-law to contact his brother-in-law. However, even Chen Sangliang himself did not expect that this move had an immediate effect. On the afternoon of March 27, the Sui Army patrol A Zheng Jun messenger was indeed brought to Chen Sangliang, and he also presented a letter sealed with fire paint. At first, Chen Sangliang, who didn't take this seriously, asked with a relaxed expression that Zheng Jun's messenger was sent by his brother-in-law Wang Xuanying to contact Wang Shichong. However, when he opened the letter and took a closer look, Chen Sangliang's ferocious smile became clear. His face suddenly froze, and he was so shocked that he almost opened his mouth and screamed. Fortunately, he woke up in time. In order to avoid affecting the morale of the army, he quickly closed his crow's mouth, waved to the scouts who were escorting the prisoners, and said: "You did a good job this time. , go down and receive the reward, and continue to keep an eye on the roads for me. If the rebel messenger comes, be sure to stop it, and I will still get a reward." Several scouts were overjoyed, and hurriedly saluted and left, and then said goodbye. Sang Liang also ordered the guards to temporarily escort Zheng Jun's messenger outside the tent to wait for disposal. After Zheng Jun's messenger was taken away, Fang Xuanling, Yuan Tiangang and other accomplices, who had long noticed that Chen Sang Liang was looking wrong, hurriedly asked: " Your Highness, what happened?" "Dou Jiande is coming." Chen Sangliang replied with a gloomy face: "As I wished, Dou Jiande has decided to personally lead the army to help Wang Shichong, but what surprises me is that Dou Jiande is coming. He made up his mind so quickly, now we are in a hurry." After that, Chen Sangliang handed the seized letter to Fang Xuanling and others. When Fang Xuanling and others took the letter and looked at it carefully, It was found that the content of the letter was indeed that Wang Xuanying reported to Wang Shichong that Dou Jiande had agreed to send troops, and that Dou Jiande would personally lead the army to rescue Luoyang, but the date of sending troops had not yet been determined. At the same time, it was also revealed that Dou Jiande was at the court meeting on March 16th. This decision was announced on. In addition, Wang Xuanying also reported a small matter to Wang Shichong, that is, Wang Shichong's former military minister Dai Zhou gave Wang Xuanying advice and suggested that Wang Xuanying abandon Luokou Cangcheng when necessary and concentrate his troops to secure Hulao Pass first. In order to ensure the tactical initiative on the Luoyang battlefield after Dou Jiande's reinforcements arrived, although Wang Xuanying felt that Dai Zhou's suggestion was reasonable, it would be a pity to give up Luokou Cang, which still had some food left, so Wang Xuanying did not dare to make the decision. I can only ask Wang Shichong's opinion on this with the letter. After reading this letter, Fang Xuanling, Yuan Tiangang and other accomplices inevitably looked sad, because the Sui army's siege fortifications had not yet been completely completed, and it was not yet guaranteed that some partial troops could be used to block Wang Shichong's way out of the city. The main force was eastward. After entering, the troops will be empty, and Wang Shichong may have the power to fight back. More importantly, the Sui army has not yet captured Luokoucang and Hulao Pass, which are strategically important. Once Dou Jiande's army rushes to Hulao Pass, the main force of the Sui army will be completely lost on the Luoyang battlefield. Dou Jiande had the final say on the tactical initiative, when and how to fight, but the main force of the Sui army could only be passively beaten, and was in an extremely disadvantageous situation. After thinking for a moment with a frown, Chen Sangliang said helplessly: "There is no other way. We can only divide our troops to attack Hulao Pass and Luokou Cang. We have to take down these two ghost places first. Only then will we have the opportunity to defeat Dou Jiande and Wang Shichong. Otherwise, let alone defeating them to siege the city, it will be difficult not to be forced to retreat by Dou Jiande. " "But Wang Shichong still has about 18,000 troops in the imperial city. After our main force moves eastward, what if Wang Shichong takes the opportunity to launch a counterattack?" Qu Tutong said worriedly: "Not to mention that it is impossible for us to stop all Wang Xuanying's messengers, even if we can stop them all, when we see our main force heading east? Come on, old fox Wang Shichong will definitely seize the opportunity to launch a counterattack?" After scratching his head and thinking for a long time, Chen Sangliang made up his mind and said: "The main force will stay in Luoyang, falsely using my banner, I will personally lead the partial division to attack Luokou. "Hulao Pass and Luokou Pass are both Wang Shichong's lifeblood, and their total military strength exceeds 100,000. Thirty-eight thousand, we only attack with a partial force, and we are not very confident with our weak strength. Also, our explosive siege tactics have caused Wang Shichong two heavy losses, and Wang Xuanying's side may have taken precautions. , If you want to quickly capture these two important places, it will be even harder." Chen Sangliang was silent, carefully calculating the number of troops and siege tactics in his mind, and then suddenly remembered something, and hurriedly held the letter in his hand. Feng Deyi greeted him: "Feng Neishi, bring the letter, and I will take a closer look." Feng Deyi, the flatterer, hurriedly presented the newly captured Wang Xuanying letter to Chen Sangliang, and Chen Sangliang took it again Looking carefully, he kept thinking about all kinds of dirty ideas in his mind, and then soon, Chen Sangliang, who was short of everything except bad water, his eyes lit up and he said happily: "There is a way!" Fang Xuan, who knew Chen Sangliang's abilities well. Ling, Yuan Tiangang and others are busyWhen asked if there was any good solution, Chen Sangliang did not answer. He handed the letter to Feng Deyi again and said: "Feng Neishi, brother Qiao Song, you are all calligraphy masters. Quickly take a look at it for me. Is there any anti-counterfeiting mark in Wang Xuanying¡¯s handwriting on this letter?¡± Feng Deyi and Fang Xuanling quickly took the letter and looked at it carefully, and then quickly reported: "Your Highness, there is a secret note. There are two secret marks in the handwriting. There is also a small ink dot on the lower right corner of the letter. It may be a secret note." "Very good!" Chen Sangliang was overjoyed and hurriedly ordered: "You guys Someone, immediately forge a letter written by Wang Xuanying for me. The handwriting must be exactly the same, but the secret note cannot be imitated, and the small ink dot in the lower right corner cannot be dotted. " Feng Deyi and Fang Xuanling, who rely on pens for their livelihood, agreed together and even fought for it. Then he asked: "Your Highness, what is the content of the letter?" "There is no need to write anything special." Chen Sangliang said with a smile: "Just copy this letter from Wang Xuanying once, without changing a word." "Why? ?" Fang Xuanling and Feng Deyi were dumbfounded and asked in surprise: "You copied Wang Xuanying's letter and deliberately made it a fake letter that could be seen by the enemy. Why do you want the enemy to see the same thing? "Wang Shichong can't see the original, but he can only see the forged original." Chen Sangliang shook his head like a rattle and said with a smile: "As for the reason, You can imagine, if you were Wang Shichong and saw this letter and found out that it was a forgery, what would you think? " Following Chen Sangliang's instructions and thinking about it carefully, Feng Deyi was the first to come back to his senses. Come on, he blurted out: "Trap! This is a trap set by your Highness! The content of the letter must be false. Your Highness, you have ulterior motives!" "It's still the cleverness of the internal history." Chen Sangliang praised his character and apologized. Feng Deyi, who was indeed very smart, smiled and said: "Since Wang Shichong has determined that the content of this letter is a forgery and that it is a letter we deliberately arranged for him, what will he think when he sees us dividing our troops and marching westward? ""Lead the snake out of the hole!" This time it was Yuan Tiangang's turn who had been completely led away by Chen Sangliang. He came to his senses first and said in surprise: "Wang Shichong saw the false message that Dou Jiande was about to send troops, and saw that we were dividing our troops to go west. He would definitely do it. Thinking that we were trying to lure the snake out of the cave and set a trap to lure him out of the city and annihilate him, he did not dare to leave the city easily to fight. In this way, our divided troops could take the opportunity to attack Dahu Lao Pass and Luokou Cang eastward without going too far. Worried that the rear is in danger!" When the Sui army's civil and military officials suddenly realized, Chen Sangliang quickly shook his head and said: "No, it's much more than that! More importantly, there happened to be a content in this letter, which was that Wang Xuanying asked Wang Shichong if he could. At the critical moment, we should abandon Luokou warehouse, which is no longer as important as Hulao Pass, and give priority to securing Hulao Pass. After Wang Shichong saw this content, he would definitely think that we wanted to induce him to agree to this suggestion, and then take the opportunity to easily capture Luokou Pass. Luokou Cang, then Wang Shichong will definitely try his best to send an order to Wang Xuanying, asking Wang Xuanying to hold on to Luokou Cang with all his strength and not give us any loopholes. If this happens, we will have a better opportunity! " "Your Highness, what better opportunity do we have? "Qu Tutong asked quickly. "Of course we are pretending to attack in the east and attacking in the west, attacking Luokou Cang openly and actually taking Hulao Pass. "Chen Sangliang sneered and said: "The opposite is true. First attack Hulao Pass, close the door and beat the dogs, and then take Luokou Cang! " After a lot of calculation, a group of accomplices and lackeys finally figured out the real purpose of Chen Sangliang's conspiracy. Although they all knew that attacking from the east to the west, first taking Hulao Pass and then taking Luokou Cang, it was not something that could be done just by talking, but out of concern for Chen Sangliang had absolute trust in the deception, and all the accomplices nodded in praise. Then very quickly, Chen Sangliang first ordered Feng Deyi to forge a letter for him, and then told Fang Xuanling: "Brother Qiao Song." , you know my relationship with Duan Da. Write a letter to Duan Da for me, urging him to kill Wang Shichong and surrender to the city. Your tone should be as sincere as possible, and you might as well give a bigger reward. " Fang Xuanling sang his promise, and then asked with some worry: "Your Highness, how can this surrender letter be delivered to Duan Da in the city? There's no way we can deliver the letter directly to Duan Da? " "Who said that this letter of mine is for Duan Da to read? "Chen Sangliang asked with a smile. "Who is that for? "Fang Xuanling was stunned again, and then after seeing the obscene smile on Chen Sangliang's face, Fang Xuanling quickly came to his senses, slapped his forehead and cursed that he was stupid, and then immediately wrote for Chen Sanliang. The letter summoned Duan Da. So, of course, what was supposed to happen happened at night. That night, the envoy Wang Xuanying brought from Luokoucang took the letter to Luoyang Imperial City in the dark. At the west side of the city, he loudly asked to identify himself, and the imperial city defenders used a hanging basket to hang him up behind the city.The envoy was quickly received by Wang Shichong in person. He told a story about his thrilling letter delivery, and then immediately presented the so-called letter written by Wang Xuanying to Wang Shichong with both hands. What happened next was very simple. After opening the letter from his precious son and reading the contents, he found that there was no anti-counterfeiting code as agreed in advance. Wang Shichong, who was very clear-minded, did not even blink an eyelid and immediately ordered the guards to take down the unlucky messenger for torture. Then, before Wang Shichong's guards could take action, the unlucky envoy who knew something was wrong had already confessed as if he were pouring beans through a bamboo tube, explaining that he had been captured by Sui army officers on the road, and was personally received by Chen Sangliang. After being bribed by Chen Sangliang with gold and silver official positions, he came to betray him again. The unlucky messenger gave a thorough explanation. He even reported to Wang Shichong such details as Chen Sangliang had already opened the letter and read the contents. He also reported that Wang Xuanying had announced at Luokou Cang and Hulao Pass that Dou Jiande was about to personally raise troops. Good news of help coming. However, it is a pity that the old and cunning Wang Shichong said that he could not believe any of his words. While continuing to interrogate various details, he ordered the guards to search him carefully. Then, very naturally, Chen Sangliang wrote to Duan Da: The surrender letter was naturally found from the middle of the unlucky messenger's clothes. Next, the unlucky ancestor happened to meet Chen Sangliang, a shady and unlucky messenger. Even if he had ten thousand mouths, he couldn't explain it clearly. Every truth he said immediately became a possibility for Chen Sangliang. Nonsense directed by Liang. Therefore, even though the unlucky messenger repeatedly stated that the clothes he was wearing were given to him by Chen Sangliang, the suspicious Wang Shichong still refused to believe a word, except ordering him to be taken outside the palace and tortured to interrogate his confession. Naturally, as Chen Sangliang expected, Wang Shichong picked up the fake letter, which was actually a real letter, and studied it carefully to study the real purpose of the unfilial son-in-law's move. "We can't say that Wang Shichong is stupid, nor can we say that Chen Sangliang is smart. It's just human nature. Knowing that the letter is a forgery, Wang Shichong, who is extremely smart, can only study the letter in reverse. Then, even more logically, Wang Shichong quickly concluded that his unfilial son-in-law had taken some actions in the past few days, and it was very likely that he was trying to lure the snake out of his hole by showing off to the enemy. He could not fall into the trap no matter what! Then very quickly, the judgment that Luokoucang was likely to be in danger in the near future immediately appeared in Wang Shichong's mind. The effect was better than Chen Sangliang expected. Wang Shichong quickly called three close guards and asked them to disguise themselves as ordinary people and leave the city overnight to take different roads to Luokou Cang to bring Wang Xuanying an oral instruction: "Prioritize the defense of Luokou Cang." ! Some Hulaoguan troops can be appropriately deployed to strengthen the defense of Luokou Cang. Chen Thief is likely to attack Luokou Cang in the near future!" The three guards agreed. After memorizing Wang Shichong's instructions, another guard said cautiously: "Your Majesty, Thief Chen's army has a tight blockade. If the junior ranks cannot survive Chen Thief's blockade, can they return to the city immediately?" "Don't worry." Wang Shichong received with a smile: "Chen Thief's blockade is very tight, but I can conclude that, You will definitely break through Chen's blockade tonight, because Chen wants you to deliver the message to me." When the three guards were dubious about their promise, Wang Shichong prepared another fake letter with the same content for each of them to prevent unfilial piety. The son-in-law deliberately let one or two go and captured one of them, so that if the guard was accidentally captured, he could offer the letter in exchange for his life and find an opportunity to escape and come back. However, when he saw Wang Xuanying, he had to explain that he did not need to read the fake letter. Seeing Wang Shichong's thorough arrangements, the three close guards felt relieved and left. "You little thief, you dare to play tricks with me, you are too young!" This was Wang Shichong's innermost thoughts.