The next day, the wind blew wildly, and even the flags rattled. The Yong army's array retreated 300 steps away from the Xiangyang city wall. Suddenly, the shield array of the front army opened to both sides, leaving a corridor for people to walk.
road.
The atmosphere suddenly became very solid. Li Siye high-fived while riding a horse, and a trembling old woman walked out among the thousands of troops with a cane, and slowly walked to the city wall and stood still.
The soldiers of the Tang Army on the city wall were still wondering what the enemy meant by sending an old woman. Guard Zhang Xun suddenly became nervous. He lay on the wall and looked carefully, and shouted in surprise: "Mother!"
"Mom! My child is unfilial and has landed you in the enemy's camp."
The old woman staggered to the city wall, and her figure staggered more and more. Zhang Xun's eyes felt as if bricks were in his eyes, and he punched the wall with his fist in hatred.
Guo Ziyi said angrily: "What a despicable act! Even as enemies, we cannot do such a despicable thing. Li Siye has no regard for human ethics and is a beast!"
Pugu Huai'en behind him snorted and said, "What is a traitor but a beast?"
The old lady's thin body stood between the two armies, taking on a mission that she should not have undertaken. Her voice was hoarse and she said: "Son, mother should not have come to this place at this time, but we, the Zhang family in Puzhou, are all
They were kidnapped by Li Siye and brought to Xiangyang City, and they threatened my life to persuade me to surrender, but there was nothing I could do."
After she said these words, there was a deathly silence over the entire Xiangyang City. Someone secretly turned their attention to Zhang Xun. Guo Ziyi also glanced at Zhang Xun melancholy. He was not worried that Zhang Xun really wanted to
The clan surrendered to Li Siye. Before deciding to call Zhang Xun to guard Xiangyang, Guo Ziyi had learned all about his personal experience and could conclude that this man was a man of great loyalty and righteousness and would never betray the imperial court.
But this kind of behavior will have a disgusting impact on the morale of the army, making the lieutenants and soldiers worried that Zhang Xun will sell them to save the lives of his family.
"Mom, you can't have both loyalty and filial piety, and your son can't..."
The old lady suddenly said: "How can I not know that loyalty and filial piety cannot be balanced at the same time? How can I, with my broken body, or the Zhang family, be compared with the Tang Dynasty? But if I don't take advantage of this opportunity,
Come, I will be satisfied if I can see you safe and sound and take a look at my son."
"Although my mother is old and dim, how can she not know the righteousness? My son is loyal to the country and defends the city against rebellion, and I cannot hold you back."
The old woman's heart skipped a beat, and she suddenly pulled out the bun from her bun and prepared to stab her neck. The two soldiers standing behind her were frightened and hurriedly grabbed her arm. She was too old to act.
Slow and no longer agile, they grabbed my arm and took away the hairpin.
"Quickly!" Li Siye quickly shouted to stop her: "Don't let her commit suicide. Bring the old lady back quickly."
Two soldiers helped the old lady back to the military formation. Zhang Xun looked at his mother's emaciated back, his heart so painful that it almost broke.
Li Siye's method of using relatives to coerce Zhang Xun failed. Not only was he unable to blackmail the other party, but it actually made Zhang Xun more hostile to him and strengthened his determination to defend the city.
He had no choice but to stop today's siege and ordered people to send Zhang's family members and Zhang's mother away in Puzhou and escort them back to the north.
Of course, Li Siye's methods were not the only ones. He played Guo Xi's card in front of Xiangyang City and asked Guo Xi to go out as the censor to persuade him to surrender.
Today's Guo Xi is no longer the young man he was before, and he no longer has the high-spiritedness and fear of life and death. When he was captured, he wanted to die, but after Li Siye sent people to escort him to Chang'an, the other party had no intention of killing him and instead gave him a gift.
Give high-ranking officials generous salaries, build high-rise mansions for them, and select beautiful women from all over the place to fill them.
Guo Xi just refused to accept it at first, but he was fascinated by the flowers in front of him. The beauties sent by Li Siye tried their best to get close to him. In the end, under the double blow of extravagant life and sensual desire, the third son of Guo abandoned his bottom line and started to enjoy.
He himself also compromised with Li Siye and was eventually corrupted.
As the saying goes, someone's mouth is soft when they eat, and their hands are soft when they take it. After surrendering, Guo Xi had to write a letter to his father Guo Ziyi according to Li Siye's request, and in his words he implicitly persuaded him to surrender, but Guo Ziyi wrote back and reprimanded him.
Of course, Li Siye's demands for him were more than that. When he led his troops south this time, he took Guo Xi with him and ordered him to persuade his father Guo Ziyi to surrender.
He rode alone to the city and shouted loudly to the top of the city: "Father! The imperial court has never had any trust in you and has secretly restricted you many times. Otherwise, how could it have been defeated to this point? King Yong respects you, father."
Be prepared, only by abandoning the darkness and turning to the light can the Guo family be able to flourish."
"shut up!"
Guo Ziyi was so angry that his beard trembled, and he slapped his palm on the city wall. The prince-in-law Guo Wen took off the long bow from his back, pointed it at Guo Xi at the bottom of the city with both hands full, and shot at Guo Xi: "Bah, shameless traitor! You have brought shame to our ancestors.
Throw it home! I really want to kill you, a beast, so that you will not continue to smear the Guo family."
Guo Xi was so ashamed that he could only lead his horse back, came to Li Siye and crossed his hands and said: "My lord, Guo Ziyi and Guo Ming are very stubborn and refuse to submit. They are so humble and helpless."
Li Siye gave him a cold look and waved him away.
They continued to attack Xiangyang with artillery. The city wall was crumbling under the artillery fire. The fortress was destroyed by artillery fire during the day. At night, Zhang Xun organized his men to work overtime to build the wall. As the siege progressed, the supplies in the city became increasingly poor, and they also looked for
No glutinous rice is needed to fill the gaps in the blue bricks.
After three months of siege, Li Siye found that it was impossible to capture Xiangyang in a short time. He might fall into a protracted siege. I am afraid that a siege was the only way to capture Luoyang.
Jingmen Pass behind Xiangyang is secretly providing Xiangyang with grain, grass, bricks and other materials. If we want to capture Xiangyang, we must completely cut off the traffic around it and turn it into an isolated city.
He ordered Li Huaixian to lead 50,000 troops to bypass Xiangyang and attack Jingmen. Guo Ziyi received the news in advance and ordered Pugu Huai'en to lead his troops to guard Jingmen to protect Xiangyang and the material channels in the rear, and prepare to go out of the city to deal a cruel blow to Yong's army.
Li Siye further gathered troops around Xiangyang City, and the total strength of the troops had expanded to about 300,000. The army passed through the border in a mighty manner, and the flags covered the sky and the sun as they marched.
Li Huaixian led only one of them. He mobilized most of the Xuanwu artillery battalion and aimed at the city wall of Jingmen Pass to bombard. Since Jingmen had not been prepared for war and the city wall had not been repaired, it was quickly broken by Li Siye and started from Jingzhou.
The access road from Hejiang City to Xiangyang was blocked, and Xiangyang completely turned into an isolated city.
Li Siye decided to leave Tian Chengsi, Duan Xiushi and Li Huaixian near Xiangyang, leaving 150,000 troops behind. He ordered the three of them to surround Xiangyang City tightly and not allow a grain of food to enter the city. He dispersed the remaining troops and stationed them.
Along the Jiangbei coast, I returned to Chang'an.
There are many reasons why Li Siye returned to Chang'an, but the most important thing is that his rule in the north is not yet stable, especially in the Central Plains. Many officials still miss the Southern Tang Dynasty, there are a mix of old and new officials, and the big Shandong surnames are dormant.
Not willing to go out and stay on the sidelines.
At this juncture, the various military governors assigned to the border areas are easily attracted by certain people. There are still many undercurrents hidden under his stable regime that seems to be about to be unified.