Turbulent Times Chapter 1204: In fact, I just want to live

Facts have proved that Changsun Shunde's worries were right. Li Yuan summoned his subordinates and the principals of various powerful families to discuss for a whole afternoon, but they failed to reach a consensus, which instead deepened the rift within Li Yuan's group.

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In the Shisha Village of the Li Family Army on the southeast side of the River East bordering Shanggu County under the rule of the Far East Army, when Li Shimin returned to his room after patrolling the battalions, the confident expression on his face suddenly disappeared.

Changsun Wuji, who just arrived from Chang'an City the day before yesterday, was sorting out the paperwork. Seeing Li Shimin's serious expression, he asked, "Second Young Master is still worried that the King of Tang will not be able to part with Hedong, and do you agree to take the land of Sichuan and Shu?"

"Even if father can give up Hedong, the idea of ​​agreeing to take the land of Sichuan and Shu is useless, because father can't make the decision alone." Li Shimin sighed, sat down and took the wine handed over by Changsun Wuji and drank it He took a sip and said solemnly: "If I'm not mistaken, those people in Chang'an City will find it difficult to reach a consensus. Even if they are forced to reach a consensus, it will be after Taiyuan City was captured by Wang Junlin, but by then it may be too late."

Changsun Wuji also looked ugly, and said angrily: "Although I haven't received the exact information, I can be sure that the Pei family and the Wang family have probably secretly contacted Wang Junlin."

Li Shimin nodded, then shook his head and said, "I'm afraid that it's not just because of the contact, but because he directly chooses to be loyal to Wang Junlin."

Changsun Wuji thought for a moment, nodded and said, "That's right, I haven't considered enough. The foundations of the Wang family and the Pei family are both in Hedong. Now everyone with a discerning eye knows that it is difficult for us to keep the river. The habit of doing things all the time must have chosen to be loyal to Wang Junlin."

Li Shimin sighed, and said: "So I never thought that my elder brother would be able to defend Taiyuan City."

Changsun Wuji sarcastically said: "I'm afraid that the son has not thought of this, and he still wants to rely on the Wang family and the Pei family to defend Taiyuan City. When the time comes, these two families will chop off his head and send it directly to Wang Junlin." Not good."

The light in Li Shimin's eyes flickered, and there was an extremely dark meaning flashed by, but his face was full of worry, and he shouted: "Come on, arrange a messenger to send a message to my elder brother immediately, and tell him to be careful." Wang and Pei."

Changsun Wuji didn't dare to look into Li Shimin's eyes, worrying about seeing something he shouldn't see, but lowered his head while filling him with wine, and couldn't help thinking to himself: "The second son reminded the son at this time, obviously It's too late, but Tang Wang must have thought of this, and probably sent someone to remind the prince at the first time."

Li Shimin solemnly arranged for the courier, explained it himself, made strict demands, and repeatedly told the courier that he must bring the message to the prince, took a sip of the wine that Changsun Wuji handed over, and said with emotion: "Sometimes I really envy Wang Junlin. Everything is decided by him. The civil and military officials and the army under his command all work together with him as the core. Unlike us who seem to be powerful, but everyone Everyone has their own interests to consider, especially the powerful families, they are not loyal at all, whoever can benefit their family, whoever can threaten their family's survival, will compromise with whomever."

Changsun Wuji said with a smile: "Second Young Master has the world in mind, and when he takes charge of the world in the future, he will have the opportunity to eliminate these powerful families and become a veritable Ninth Five-Year King."

"Wuji, don't talk nonsense." Li Shimin glanced at his eldest grandson Wuji, and didn't refute his ambition, but obviously didn't want to say more, so he gently exposed the topic, seriously

Said: "It's too late for my father and others to make a decision in Chang'an. Let's start preparing according to the plan! The main force will be withdrawn to Sichuan and Sichuan within half a month. When you make a decision, you will occupy the entire Sichuan and Shu."

Changsun Wuji said solemnly: "Second Young Master acted without permission, because I'm afraid that King Tang will dislike Second Young Master afterwards."

Li Shimin shook his head with a decisive look on his face, "There is nothing my father can do if he doesn't like me. If he does something big, he will stop it, and he will continue..."

At this time, there was a rush of horns outside.

"Yuchi Jingde brought people to attack the Ten Killing Village again."

Li Shimin and Changsun Wuji looked serious, and with the help of the soldiers, after putting on their armor, they rushed out surrounded by a group of soldiers, and soon they came to the top of the ten-killed walled city.

The defenders on the top of the city have already started to prepare for the defense of the city in an orderly manner, and it is not necessary for Li Shimin to personally command it right now.

It's just that Li Shimin looked through the binoculars for a while, and his face became even uglier.

"Damn it, the ones who attacked the city were our people who were defeated and captured last time." Li Shimin gritted his teeth.

"Isn't Yuchi Jingde afraid that the captives will turn against him?" Changsun Wuji looked in disbelief.

Li Shimin also looked puzzled, and said: "This is what I don't understand, but this is not the first time that **** Yuchi Jingde used prisoners to attack the city, but none of the prisoners turned against him, even I personally After persuasion, these prisoners were actually indifferent, and they were desperate during the siege, and I don't know how Yuchi Jingde did it."

Elder Sun Wuji couldn't help feeling chilling when he heard the words, and said solemnly: "Wang Junlin is surrounded by many capable people and strange people, and some monsters have strange methods, which is really unheard of."

Hearing Changsun Wuji say this, Li Shimin thought of the strange man who claimed to be No. 1, and thought that this strange man had great powers, and he had shown strange abilities in front of him to shake his mind, but he failed to assassinate Wang Junlin , it can be seen that there are at least some experts around Wang Junlin who can match the strange man who claims to be No. 1.

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Outside the city walls on the west and south sides of Taiyuan City, the military flags covered the sky and the sun, and the camps stretched for several miles. It was already the fourth day since Wang Junlin led the troops from the Whirlwind Camp to Taiyuan.

Taking Taiyuan City is the core of Wang Junlin's capture of the entire Hedong chess game. As long as Taiyuan City is captured, the blow to Li Yuan Group will be unparalleled, and the confidence in sticking to other counties will be minimized.

Because, Taiyuan City not only has a thick and strong city wall, but also has all kinds of defense equipment in the city. Three defensive lines, and even the Taiyuan defenders carried out peripheral defense in the trenches.

This is the experience gained by Li Shentong when he attacked Wang Junlin's camp held by more than 10,000 people last month with the experience of more than 30,000 casualties. Bian sent an order to dig these two trenches around Taiyuan City, following the example of the camp of the Far East Army at that time.

Wang Junlin led a large army to the outside of Taiyuan City four days ago. After seeing these trenches, he did not want to lead troops to attack this big city in the traditional way.

Not to mention anything else, just to fill up these two trenches and the moat, it is unknown how many people will be killed or injured.

So, no matter how worried the Li Yuan Group was about Taiyuan City, in fact, after Wang Junlin surrounded the west and south sides of Taiyuan City, he never attacked Taiyuan City, and the two sides appeared to be very harmonious.

But in the eyes of Li Jiancheng and other generals of the Li family army in Taiyuan City, the reason why the Far East Army has not launched an attack on Taiyuan City is because the Far East Army came in a hurry and did not prepare siege equipment and weapons.

For this reason, Li Jiancheng also told the generals that this is an opportunity given to them by God to make them better prepared. Therefore, during these four days, Li Jiancheng led the army to make various preparations for defending the city very seriously. Really very attentive.

Li Jiancheng was also worried, but in the end he saw this as his chance.

For a long time, in the Li Yuan Group, Li Jiancheng, as the heir of the Tang Dynasty, has the status of a prince, but his prestige in the army and generals is obviously not as good as that of his second brother Li Shimin, and he can also feel the love of his second brother Li Shimin. Ambition, so Li Jiancheng has been a little worried.

So, he thinks that the death of his uncle Li Shentong has given him a great opportunity. As long as he can defend Taiyuan City and wait for the reinforcements to arrive, he can greatly enhance his prestige in the Li family army and make up for his shortcomings. plate.

In this regard, Li Jiancheng is full of confidence, because Wang and Pei have expressed their full support for him to defend Taiyuan City, and they will definitely spare no effort in providing people, money and food.

Li Jiancheng did some calculations, with the support of these two families, plus the defensive preparations made by his uncle Li Shentong outside Taiyuan City, no matter what happens, he will be able to defend for three months!

However, what Li Jiancheng didn't know was that the two families did indeed spare no effort, but they spared no effort to rush to break the city from the inside of Taiyuan City.

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Although there was no attack on the city, in order to convince Li Jiancheng that the Far East Army had been trying to attack the city and was preparing to attack the city from the outside, so as not to suspect Pei and Wang, Wang Junlin ordered his troops to take it easy Preparations for the siege are underway.

Teams of troops from the Whirlwind Battalion galloped outside the city, provoking the defenders of Taiyuan City.

In a further distance, people from the engineer and supply battalion drove the prisoners captured in the battle by the Fen River a few days ago, and brought in horse-drawn carts the long and straight giant logs. For the giant cedar trees that were brought in, the people from the engineer and supply battalion found a dense cedar forest and collected thousands of giant cedar trees as high as five or six feet high.

Next, under the witness of the Li family army at the head of Taiyuan city, the craftsmen in the engineering and supply camp used these long and straight giant trees to start making various siege weapons.

For example, ladders, this kind of ladders with a width of several feet hooked the city, and the army could rush to the top of the city in groups.

On the top of the city, Tang Wang Shizi Li Jiancheng rode a horse on the wide south city wall, holding a telescope to check the Sui army's siege preparations, his face was full of confidence.

However, apart from him, the staff behind him, the Taiyuan government officials and the generals all had a trace of fear that could not be concealed, and the soldiers were even more worried.

Standing behind Li Jiancheng are his staff and officials who have always assisted him, as well as Li Shentong's confidant general Xia Houduan, Taiyuan left-behind governor Shi Doudan, Sima Liu Dewei, military recorder Yu Wenxin, Wei Weisi Shaoqing Liu Zhenghui, Wang Xu, the prefect of Taiyuan County, and dozens of generals.

The battle has been fought to such an extent that everyone knows that their Li family army is not an opponent of the Far East Army at all. Half a step away.

So, facing the upcoming offensive of the Far East Army, everyone's heart is full of fear and various thoughts of wanting to survive.