After being restless for many days and experiencing a battle during the day, Li Zhongwen's suffering was no different from that of any leading general.
What made him feel quite reassured today was that the rebels were indeed not good at attacking the city, and with sufficient troops in the city, he could completely hold Jiexiu City and wait for reinforcements to arrive.
But he still couldn't sleep, mainly because Jiang Baoyi was too worrying.
He had read correctly before. This man's ability to lead troops was really not very good. Even though Jiang Baoyi patrolled the camp every day, his prestige in the army was very shallow.
On the first day when the enemy attacked the city, they were able to climb to the east wall of the city. When he heard about this later, he broke out in a cold sweat.
At this time, he was thinking whether Zhang Lun should be transferred to Dongcheng and lead the troops to defend Dongcheng on behalf of Jiang Baoyi?
This idea was shattered after he got the letter from the enemy shooting into the city.
After looking at the scrawled letter of persuasion to surrender, Li Zhongwen actually understood that this was probably a countermeasure by the enemy. Otherwise, how could such a letter be casually shot into the city and come into his hands easily?
But things are like this, even if you understand, you still have to guard against it.
Zhang Lun was from Daizhou and had served as a general in Yanmen. Not counting these, there was a gap between the two before.
Even if he is not worried about Zhang Lun repeating himself and continues to reuse Zhang Lun, what thoughts will Zhang Lun have after receiving this letter persuading him to surrender? Given his suspicion and fear of Li Zhongwen, will he be moved by the letter?
Thinking of this, Li Zhongwen couldn't sit still for a moment. He got up and wanted to ask someone to prepare his horse and go to Nancheng to see Zhang Lun.
But then he sat down again, and what he thought about was the words that his nephew sent someone back to report.
There are more than 10,000 enemy troops under Nancheng. The troops are very powerful and appear to be elite. However, there is no movement today. Zhang Lun is the garrison of Nancheng, and his demeanor is leisurely. However, he repeatedly wants to divide his troops to defend the east and north of the city.
Thinking of this, Li Zhongwen was horrified.
Could it be that Zhang Lun had a different intention and had already secretly communicated with the enemy?
In fact, by this time, the rift between the generals in the city had widened silently, and there was no possibility of making up for it.
What follows is a matter of course.
Li Zhongwen did not dare to go to Nancheng anymore, and immediately ordered someone to summon Zhang Lun to see him. This was what he thought was the most normal test out of suspicion.
If you don't have ulterior motives, you will definitely come to see me. As for after meeting...
Naturally, he can no longer be allowed to lead troops to defend the city. Whether to stay with him to counsel military affairs or to take it directly depends on what Zhang Lun says. In fact, what matters is not what Zhang Lun says.
It was Li Zhongwen's mood.
It's hard to say who is right or wrong in this matter. Li Zhongwen felt that there was nothing wrong with what he did, but Zhang Lun didn't see it that way.
Whether it was a test or something else, how could Zhang Lun dare to come now?
Zhang Lun is not a kind person, and his loyalty is far inferior to that of Li Zhongwen and Jiang Baoyi. He has been resented and resented after being repeatedly squeezed out by the two.
Now that he is under unwarranted suspicion, how could he come to Li Zhongwen and throw himself into a trap?
That is to say, he was not willing to surrender to the enemy at this time, so he just excused himself by saying that the enemy troops under the city made frequent movements at night and that he could not leave and would wait to see each other again tomorrow.
In fact, he thought he was worthy of Tang Gong. After all, he did not listen to his confidants, surrendered to Kaicheng, and sold off all the Tang troops in the city.
Since you two bastards can't trust me, then I will guard the south of the city and lead my men to fight for a way out when things get urgent. In this case, who can blame us?
He thought he was kind enough and didn't stab others in the back.
But when Li Zhongwen heard the report, he had already concluded that Zhang Lun had evil intentions. If he was still allowed to be stationed in the south of the city, he and others would die without a burial place.
As a result, Jiexiu City was very lively that night.
Li Zhongwen first ordered Jiang Baoyi to sit in the north of the city on his behalf and guard the gates on both sides. On the other hand, he led his trusted generals to gather soldiers and horses and headed towards the south city.
Li Zhongwen made a decisive decision here, preparing to kill Zhang Lun and nip the disaster in the bud. As for whether he killed him wrongly, what would be the consequences of killing a military general like Zhang Lun before the battle?
Li Zhongwen no longer cared about thinking about these things. Even if he did, he just thought that Zhang Lun was a lowly family member and he should be killed. As long as he could defend the city, no one could blame him for killing Zhang Lun in the future.
Li Zhongwen?
To be honest, the situation could reach this point in just a short period of time. In addition to the reason for the early rift between Zhang Lun and everyone, I am afraid the most important reason is that he does not have a high-ranking family background.
If Zhang Lun was also from a wealthy family, would Li Zhongwen be so decisive today? Of course not, he could keep using trash like Jiang Baoyi, so how could he not tolerate Zhang Lun?
Yes, in the final analysis, it was just a matter of killing Zhang Lun, and there was no further trouble.
Is Zhang Lun prepared?
That must be true. Since joining the Tang Dynasty, Zhang Lun has worked hard and never complained. No matter what grievances he suffered, he rarely complained in front of others.
Because he was very able to position himself correctly and never bared his teeth with the disciples of the big clan, he was actually a rare and good general among the Tang army.
If Li Po had not stirred up troubles, Zhang Lun would have done a lot in some wars during the chaotic times of the late Sui Dynasty, although he was not well-known.
There are so many heroes in Lingyan Pavilion, they are either relatives of the Li family or generals of Prince Qin's palace. To put it bluntly, how many of them can live up to their reputation?
If Zhang Lun had voted for Qin King Li Shimin early, it would have been more than enough for him to occupy a position on top based on his military exploits.
Of course, no matter what, Zhang Lun was furious after hearing the news about Li Zhongwen gathering troops, and all the grievances came to Zhang Lun's mind at this time.
And he deserves to have led the army for many years, and he has not been carried away by anger.
Because Li Zhongwen's seizure occurred so quickly, his first thought was that it was impossible to lure enemy troops into the city at this time.
In the dark of night, even if the army entered the city, Zhang Lun would not be able to reap the benefits. In the chaos of war, Zhang Lun's head might be taken away by someone.
Maybe someone would enter the city and just guard the city walls and gates, sit back and watch the Tang army fight among themselves, and wait until dawn to clean up the mess.
Fight with Li Zhongwen?
Zhang Lun also shook his head secretly. Although the troops and horses he led were elite, they were too few. If they were surrounded by Li Zhongwen in the south of the city, they would definitely be in trouble.
At this time, he even regretted that he should not have repeatedly given in before. If he had more military power, he would have more choices at this time.
Being able to think of so many things only shows that he is very sober, and his talents are beyond the reach of Li Zhongwen and others.
Then it is very clear what he will do next.
He immediately ordered people to summon his confidants, and said in front of everyone: "I have served Tang Gong for several years, and have achieved countless military achievements, but I have never been reused. Today, Li Zhongwen has repeatedly ignored me, and now he wants to lead troops to attack.
What do you think I should do?"
What else is there to say? These generals have been with him for many years, and they all follow his lead.
After hearing this, there was an immediate uproar. Some said that they should immediately lead troops to have a fight with Li Zhongwen, while others said that it would be better to open the city, lure the enemy troops into the city, and kill the traitor Li Zhongwen.
These people followed Zhang Lun, and they were no less arrogant than Zhang Lun. If Zhang Lun hadn't suppressed them, people's hearts might have dispersed long ago.
Now that Zhang Lun had a relapse, every one of them who wanted to escape wanted to kill someone to vent their anger on the injustice they had suffered.
Zhang Lun waved his hands vigorously to calm everyone down, and then said loudly: "In this case, are you willing to listen to my orders?"
The generals responded loudly and geared up, showing no signs of rebellion at all. Instead, they all seemed confident and confident.
After a hasty discussion, the first unlucky thing was that the Nancheng garrison general who had already received the order from General Li Zhongwen wanted to cooperate with Li Zhongwen internally and externally to eliminate Zhang Lun.
Naturally, their reaction was not as fast as that of Zhang Lun, who was well prepared. The result of their too slow reaction was that except for those who saw the opportunity quickly and fled in panic, everyone else was killed.
Before the rest of the Nancheng garrison could move, Zhang Lun ordered his men to open the gate of Nancheng, led more than 2,000 soldiers, rushed out of the gate and surrendered to the enemy.
When Li Zhongwen led his troops into Nancheng, he only received news of Zhang Lun's escape.
He punched the air and cost more than a dozen lives. Li Zhongwen almost vomited blood because of his anger. He symbolically ordered people to strictly investigate Zhang Lun's remaining members in the army, and then ordered people to close the gate of Nancheng and let his trusted generals
Lead the troops to defend it.
He also inspected the Nancheng military camp to appease the troops. After working for half a night, he had to face the siege army outside the city. Between physical and mental exhaustion, the confidence he had in defending the city last night had long since disappeared.
This rebellion started suddenly and ended very quickly. It did not cause much actual damage to the Tang army.
But the hidden scars are shocking.
After half a night, at dawn, the morale of the Tang army had plummeted after hearing this.
Who is Zhang Lun? Everyone in the Tang army who has been stationed in Jiexiu for more than half a year knows it very well.
Of the three generals and deputy generals, only Deputy General Zhang has the most military exploits. To be honest, as long as Deputy General Zhang stands at the top of the city, the soldiers will gain a little more courage.
This is Zhang Lun's prestige among the ordinary soldiers of the Tang Army. Not to mention Jiang Baoyi, even Li Zhongwen, the general manager, is somewhat inferior.
Zhang Lun's rebellion dealt a huge blow to the morale of Tang's soldiers. If the enemy took advantage of the situation and took advantage of the situation, giving the Tang army a blow in the head, this time it was like a hammer.
This directly hit the morale of the Tang army to the bottom.
This would actually be a very scary thing in normal times, let alone in front of the two armies.
If someone is unlucky, someone will benefit.
In the middle of the night, while the Tang army in the city was still cleaning up the aftermath, Li Po had already seen Zhang Lun, a bearded man, in the Chinese army's tent.
For Li Po, who has seen many strange things, this is still a very strange thing. He just used a countermeasure based on guesswork, but he never dreamed that the effect would be so amazing.