I

  Chapter 249 247 [Seize the city at night]

  On the fourth watch, Tao Aizhi came down from the basket.

  Li Zheng camped several miles away, he had to run all the way, and he was so tired that he was out of breath after running two miles.

  Tao Aizhi put her hands on her knees, bent over and gasped for breath, slowed down and continued running.

   "Ouch!"

  Suddenly, Tao Aizhi was tripped by someone, and when she tried to get up again, a knife was already pressed against her throat.

  The secret sentry of the Datong Army has been hiding in the grass.

  Tao Aizhi hurriedly said, "Take me to see the commander of your army quickly, and let me know if there is an urgent military situation!"

  As soon as this remark came out, the secret sentry did not dare to delay, and immediately searched Tao Aizhi's weapons, and then ran to his camp with him.

  Knowing Tao Aizhi's identity, Li Zheng was quite surprised, and couldn't help laughing: "You dare to go out of the city, aren't you afraid that the governor will kill your brothers?"

"Whirring whirring…"

  Tao Aizhi was almost exhausted. Although he was young and vigorous, he was a literati after all, and he had already exceeded his physical limit after running for several miles.

  After entering the camp, Tao Aizhi changed to a slow walk, and was still panting after entering the handsome tent. He slowed down for a while, a little calmer, cupped his hands and said: "I lied about surrendering, and made an appointment with the governor to lure the general to attack the city in three days."

   Li Zheng asked: "Then when do you think the city should be attacked?"

   "General, please send troops immediately to attack the city at five o'clock tonight, the governor will never expect it!" Tao Aizhi said.

  Tao Aizhi left the city at 2:30 at night, running and stopping all the way, and it was almost 3:00 when he met Li Zheng. He asked Li Zheng to attack the city at five watchdays, which was equivalent to the Datong army gathering at night, carrying the siege ladder and rushing for several miles. The total time-consuming must be about two hours.

   "Tonight?" Li Zheng didn't dare to gamble, he didn't know much about Tao Aizhi, nor did he know much about the situation in the city.

  The most important thing is that Tao Aizhi took his whole family into the city in order to gain the trust of the governor, and Li Zheng had no hostages at all.

Time was running out, Tao Aizhi said anxiously: "General, don't hesitate, tie me up quickly, and I will be the hostage myself. If the matter fails, kill me. Tonight is a great opportunity. The governor knows that I will leave the city at four o'clock. I will never think of the general." Siege at the fifth watch!"

  Tao Aizhi was willing to be a hostage herself. Li Zheng was finally moved when he heard this, and asked, "Tell me about your strategy."

Tao Aizhi quickly explained: "Governor Wang Zhiliang is very cautious. The more than 11,000 defenders in the city are divided into three groups to take turns defending the city, changing defenses every morning and evening. Moreover, only two quarters of an hour before changing defenses, let them People know which regiments practice where to defend. The gates without urn city are all blocked by him. The gates with urn city are guarded by soldiers brought by him."

   "He's good at defending the city, no wonder you haven't done anything." Li Zheng nodded.

Tao Aizhi continued: "Tonight my second brother guards one part of the south city, the third brother guards the north part, and the fourth brother rests in the barracks inside the city. I have already ordered that at five o'clock, three torches will be lit on the south wall As soon as the general attacks the south city, the fourth brother will set fire to the city, the second brother will support the general in the south city, and the third brother will wait for an opportunity to disrupt the situation in the north city."

   "Aside from your four brothers, who else knows about this?" Li Zheng asked.

   "Only a few confidant house slaves know. Don't worry, the general, they will never leak the secret." Tao Aizhi said very firmly.

  Twenty years ago, there were only four men left in the Tao family, and one of them was an old man who was dying.

  The tens of thousands of acres of land owned by the Tao family are all supported by their trusted servants. They are afraid of troubles between house slaves and tenants, so they treat people very generously. The monthly money of house slaves and the land rent of tenants are the best for tens of miles around.

   Moreover, Tao Ai had already made a promise to those confidant domestic slaves in the army. As long as they help the Datong army capture Changsha, they will be freed afterwards. These domestic slaves are more urgent than Tao Aizhi.

   "Assemble the army, without luggage, only with siege ladders, set off immediately after assembly!"

  After Li Zheng made up his mind, he acted immediately.

  He didn't tie Tao Aizhi either, but just threw her in the camp and let the grain transportation team take care of it.

   Li Zheng actually doesn’t have many soldiers, only 1,500 regular soldiers and 1,500 peasant soldiers, and the rest are all civilian food transport teams. Originally, there were 2,000 soldiers and peasant soldiers, but 500 each were allocated to go south to help Huang Yao attack Xiangtan.

   There were only 3,000 soldiers left, but the eleven thousand defenders were too frightened to come out.

  Because Wang Zhiliang, Wang Qisheng and others did not think that there were only three thousand bandits. They also counted Li Zheng's food transportation team, and the overall strength was close to ten thousand.

   It is indeed possible to calculate this way. Li Zheng's food transport team, after entering the battle, is estimated to be more brave than the newly formed regiment in the city, at least the enthusiasm for fighting is much higher.

  Three thousand soldiers assembled at night and took the ladders. It took a total of 30 minutes, and there was an hour and a half left.

  Li Zheng led the troops himself, and he marched quickly without rushing, without running.

  It's only a few miles away, and it takes one and a half hours to arrive, which is more than enough time.

   There is a small river to cross in the middle, and there are dozens of boats belonging to Li Zheng by the river.

  These boats gathered at Xiaohe at night, not far from Li Zheng's camp. During the day, they would go to Liuyang River and Xiangjiang River to serve as sentinel boats to investigate the news of various places.

   It took more than half a day for the more than 7,000 regiments trained by Hu Dinggui to cross a small river.

  It only took 40 minutes for Li Zheng's 3,000 people to cross the river at night.

   Came to ambush far outside the city, and it was not yet five o'clock. Li Zheng made all the soldiers under his command lie on the ground, because the mosquito bites at night made people upset.

  Li Zheng took out his binoculars to observe. After waiting for a long time, he finally saw the direction of the south city wall and lit three torches as a signal.

"quick!"

  All the soldiers, with bamboo slices in their mouths, followed Li Zheng trotting and charging silently.

   Before rushing to the moat, he was discovered by the guards on guard.

   "Dangdang Dangdang!"

  The gong sounded from the top of the city tower, and a sentinel shouted in horror: "The bandit soldiers are coming, the bandit soldiers are coming!"

  The defenders in the city were in a panic, but it was much better than that in Xiangtan, and they did not collapse and escape directly. Mainly Wang Zhiliang's confidant soldiers, who arranged the city defense affairs very well, and also taught the regiment and training gentry various coping methods.

Wang Zhiliang lived and ate on the top of the city tower. After he was awakened, he saw the chaos everywhere, and immediately ordered: "It's too late to heat up the oil and gold juice, and prepare to throw rolling stones and logs. Also, call all the soldiers who are resting in the city." Defend the city!"

  These orders were conveyed by Wang Zhiliang's confidants, and the defenders of the nearby city walls gradually stabilized.

   But the city was extremely chaotic. Tuan Yong, who was on duty to rest, was almost blown up by the noise in the city. The prefect Wang Qisheng and the county magistrate Yang Guanji each brought officials to appease them, and at the same time organized government servants to carry out various auxiliary tasks.

  Changsha City is very lucky. The governor, prefect, and county magistrate are all officials who can and dare to do things.

  At this moment, a fire suddenly broke out in the city, causing chaos in the city again to the rest group Yong who hadn't assembled yet.

  Wang Zhiliang felt something was wrong, and there were signs that there must be bandits inside the city.

  He subconsciously thought of Tao Aizhi, but couldn't believe it.

  Because the brave regiment recruited by the Tao family accounted for 40% of the total number of defenders in the city, once the Tao family surrendered, how could Changsha City be able to defend?

   Moreover, the Tao family is a local rich family with tens of thousands of acres of land, how could it be possible to take the risk of being a thief?

   What's more, Tao Aizhi went out on the fourth watch, and the bandit soldiers came on the fifth watch. This kind of night march without prior preparation, and it has to be done so quickly, Wang Zhiliang thought he couldn't do it, how disciplined those soldiers are!

  Wang Zhiliang walked towards the part of the city wall of Tao's army, and suddenly became furious: "How dare you, a thief!"

  The braziers have been lit one after another in each section of the city wall, but the section of Tao's army is relatively dark. None of the braziers were lit, but three torches were set up instead, which were obviously used to signal.

  500 farmers and soldiers went to another section of the city wall to feign an attack, and the remaining 2,500 Datong troops all rushed to the place where there was a signal from the torch.

  Tao Yuzhi stopped pretending, and shouted loudly: "My sons, follow me to kill officials and rebel."

   "Kill the officials and rebel, the young master has defected to Zhao Tianwang!" Several confidant house slaves shouted, they belonged to the grassroots commanders.

  Tao’s army was at a loss and fearful at first, but under the shout of their slaves, they quickly realized that the rebels attacking the city were their own people. The one thousand Tao family troops here quickly rushed towards the friendly army next to them, and suddenly killed the friendly army by surprise.

   It was agreed to defend the city together, why did you become a thief?

  The gentleman surnamed Zhang farther away quickly understood what happened. He felt that the officers and soldiers would be defeated, so in order to keep his family, he quickly shouted: "My sons, follow me to seek refuge with Zhao Tianwang! Kill!"

  Tao's army had 1,000 men, and Zhang's army had 500 men, attacking the friendly army in the middle from front to back.

  The leader of the regiment brave in the middle is surnamed Li, and was brought by the governor Wang Zhiliang. The main purpose is to separate the local regiment braves, but now they are facing inexplicable attacks. The regiment warriors only resisted for a while, and they knelt down and surrendered one after another. A few were killed and jumped over the wall in a hurry. If they fell, they would at least break their legs.

  Wan Sitong, Hu Dinggui, and Chen Fugui have successfully boarded the city, and the addition of Datong soldiers has completely lost the suspense in the battle.

  At this moment, the fire in the city has not been extinguished, and the rest of the regiments are in chaos. Most of them ran to fight the fire, a few went to the tower to help the battle, and some escaped into the houses to hide.

  Wang Zhiliang wanted to gather troops to resist, but Tao Yunfeng suddenly jumped back in Beicheng.

  The fire and chaos in the city, the battle on the north wall, the battle on the south wall, created an illusion that there were rebels everywhere. Those brave regiments who hadn't been trained for a few days were so frightened that they fled one by one. They left the city wall and wanted to run to open the city gate.

  The guards at the city gate, although they were all brought by Wang Zhiliang, are also part of the temporary regiment of bravery. Instead of stopping Kaesong, they took the initiative to open the city gate, and abandoned the city to escape in the darkness.

   "Surrender, we surrender!"

  The soldiers of the Datong Army, leading the Tao Army and the Zhang Army, defeated two groups of enemies one after another on the southern city wall. The rest don't fight, they can escape if they can, and if they can't escape, they surrender and beg for mercy.

  Wang Zhiliang was about to fight desperately, and the soldiers around him fled one after another. Some of them were black-hearted, and they simply pushed Wang Zhiliang to the ground.

   "Surrender, we surrender, we have the governor!"

  Li Zheng glanced at the city, and said to Tao Yuzhi: "You take people to put out the fire, and all the officers and soldiers who surrendered should also go to put out the fire!"

  Wang Zhiliang stopped struggling, closed his eyes and waited for death, he felt he was finally free.

  (end of this chapter)