I

At the fourth watch, Tao Aizhi hangs down from the basket.

Li Zheng was camped several miles away, and he had to run all the way. He was exhausted and out of breath before running two miles.

Tao Aizhi put his hands on his knees, bent over and gasped for air, then continued running after taking a moment.

"Ouch!"

Suddenly, Tao Aizhi tripped and fell. When he tried to get up again, a knife was pressed against his throat.

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

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

As soon as these words came out, the secret whistle did not dare to delay, and immediately searched Tao Aizhi's weapons, and then led him to run towards his camp.

Li Zheng was quite surprised to learn Tao Aizhi's identity and couldn't help but laugh: "How dare you leave 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 powerful, he was still a scholar. After running for several miles, he had already exceeded his physical limit.

After entering the camp, Tao Aizhi changed to walking slowly and was still panting when he entered the handsome tent. He calmed down for a while, and then he 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 what day do you think we should attack the city?"

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

Tao Aizhi left the city at 2:30 at night, running and stopping all the way. When he met Li Zheng, it was almost 3 o'clock. He asked Li Zheng to attack the city at dawn, which meant that the Datong army gathered at night and carried the siege ladder to attack for several miles. The total time required must be about two hours.

"Tonight?" Li Zheng didn't dare to gamble. He didn't know Tao Aizhi well and didn't know much about the situation in the city.

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

Time was running out, Tao Aizhi said anxiously: "General, don't hesitate, tie me up quickly, I will be a hostage myself. If things fail, just kill me. Tonight is a great opportunity, the governor knows that I will be out of the city at the fourth watch, and he will never expect the general Siege the city at the fifth watch!”

Tao Aizhi was willing to be a hostage. After hearing this, Li Zheng was finally moved and asked, "Tell me your plan."

Tao Aizhi quickly explained: "Governor Wang Zhiliang is very cautious. There are more than 11,000 defenders in the city. They are divided into three groups to defend the city in turn. They change defenses every morning and evening. Moreover, they only let go two quarters of an hour before the change of defenses. He knew which regiment was training to defend which place. All the city gates without barbicans were blocked by him. All the city gates with barbicans were guarded by his own soldiers."

"He is someone who knows how to defend the city. No wonder you haven't taken action." Li Zheng nodded.

Tao Aizhi continued: "Tonight, my second brother will guard one place in the south city, my third brother will guard one place in the north city, and my fourth brother will rest in the military camp in the city. I have already given instructions. At the fifth watch, three torches will be lit on the south wall. .As soon as the general attacks Nancheng, the fourth brother will set fire to the city. The second brother will assist the general in Nancheng, and the third brother will wait for an opportunity to disrupt the situation in Beicheng."

"Besides you four brothers, who else knows about this?" Li Zheng asked.

"Only a few close servants know about it. General, don't worry, they will never leak the secret." Tao Aizhi said very confidently.

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

The Tao family's tens of thousands of acres of land were entirely supported by their trusted servants. They were afraid of trouble between domestic slaves and tenants, so they treated others very leniently. The monthly payment of domestic slaves and the land rent of tenants were the best treatment within dozens of miles.

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

"Assemble the army. No baggage, only siege ladders. Set off immediately after gathering!"

After Li Zheng made up his mind, he immediately took action.

He did not tie up Tao Aizhi, but threw him in the camp and asked the food transport team to take care of him.

Li Zheng actually didn't have many soldiers, only 1,500 regular soldiers, 1,500 peasant soldiers, and the rest were all civilian grain transport teams. Originally there were 2,000 regular soldiers and peasant soldiers, but 500 of each were divided and went south to help Huang Yao attack Xiangtan.

There were only 3,000 soldiers left, but the 11,000 defenders were too frightened to come out.

Because Wang Zhiliang, Wang Qisheng and others did not think that the bandits only had three thousand soldiers. Including Li Zheng's grain transport team, they totaled nearly 10,000 troops.

It can indeed be calculated that Li Zheng's grain transport team, after entering the battle, is estimated to be more powerful than the newly formed regiments in the city, or at least they will be much more motivated to fight.

Three thousand soldiers gathered at night and brought the ladder. It took a total of 30 minutes, with one and a half hours left.

Li Zheng personally led the troops, moving forward quickly without any hurry or slowness, without even 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 be crossed in the middle, and there are dozens of Li Zheng's boats on the river.

These ships gathered in the creek at night, not far from Li Zheng's camp. During the day, they dispersed to Liuyang River and Xiangjiang River to serve as sentry boats to explore news trends everywhere.

The more than 7,000 regiments defeated by Hu Dinggui's night attack took most of the day to cross a small river.

It only took Li Zheng and his three thousand men to cross the river at night in forty minutes.

When they came to ambush far outside the city, it was not yet five o'clock. Li Zheng asked all his soldiers to lie on the ground, because the mosquito bites at night were disturbing.

Li Zheng took out his telescope 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, holding pieces of bamboo in their mouths, silently followed Li Zheng in a trot and charged.

Before he could reach the moat, he was discovered by the defenders on guard.

"Dang-dang-dang-dang!"

A gong sounded from the tower, and a sentry shouted in horror: "The thieves are coming, the thieves are coming!"

The defenders in the city were in a panic, but they were much better than those in Xiangtan and did not collapse and flee directly. Mainly because he was the king's conscientious soldier, he arranged the city defense matters very well and taught the regiment-trained gentry various coping methods.

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

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

However, the city was in chaos. Tuan Yong, who was on duty to take a break, almost blew up the camp due to the noise in the city. Magistrate Wang Qisheng and county magistrate Yang Guanji each led officials to comfort them, and at the same time organized government officials to carry out various auxiliary work.

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

At this moment, a fire suddenly broke out in the city, causing chaos among the rest of the group who had not yet assembled yet. The prefect and county magistrate had no choice but to lead people to put out the fire first.

Wang Zhiliang felt something was wrong, and there were various signs that there must be thieves in the city.

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

Because the Tuan Yong recruited by the Tao family accounted for 40% of the total number of defenders in the city, how could Changsha City be defended once the Tao family became thieves?

Moreover, the Tao family is a wealthy local family with tens of thousands of acres of land. How could they take the risk of becoming a thief?

Also, Tao Aizhi went out at the fourth watch, and the thieves came at the fifth watch. Wang Zhiliang asked himself that he couldn't do this kind of night march without any prior preparation, and it had to be done so quickly. What a high level of discipline those soldiers had!

Wang Zhiliang walked towards the Tao Jiajun section of the city wall and was furious: "How dare you, thief!"

Braziers have been lit on various sections of the city wall, but the Tao Jiajun section is darker. None of the braziers were lit, but three torches were erected, obviously for signaling.

500 peasant soldiers feigned an attack on another section of the city wall, and the remaining 2,500 Datong troops all rushed to the place with the torch signal.

Tao Jinzhi stopped pretending and shouted with all his strength: "My sons, follow me to kill officials and rebel."

"You are rebelling by killing officials, the young master has taken refuge with King Zhao Tian!" Several close servants shouted, they were grassroots commanders.

The Tao family army was initially confused and frightened, but under the shouts of their slaves, they quickly realized that the rebels attacking the city were their own. The thousand Tao troops here quickly attacked the friendly troops next to them, catching them by surprise.

We agreed to defend the city together, why did you become thieves?

The gentleman surnamed Zhang further away quickly understood what was happening. He felt that the officers and soldiers would be defeated. In order to save his family, he quickly shouted: "My sons, follow me and join King Zhao Tian! Kill him!"

The Tao family's army has a thousand men, and the Zhang family's army has 500 men. They attack the friendly forces in the middle from front to back.

The leader of the group in the middle is surnamed Li. He was brought by the governor Wang Zhiliang. The main purpose is to isolate the local group, but now they are facing an inexplicable attack. The heroes of the regiment only resisted for a little while, and then they all knelt down and surrendered. A few of them jumped over the wall in fear of being killed. If they fell, they would at least break their legs.

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

At this moment, the fire in the city has not been extinguished, and the regiments who are taking turns are in chaos. Most of them ran to put out the fire, while a few went to the tower to help in the battle, and some escaped into civilian houses to hide.

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

The fire and chaos in the city, the battles on the north wall, and the battles on the south wall created the illusion that there were rebels everywhere. Those Tuan Yong who had not received any training for several days were so frightened that they fled one after another. They left the city wall and wanted to run to open the city gate.

Although the city gate defenders were all brought by Wang Zhiliang, they were also temporarily trained regiments. Instead of stopping the opening of the city, they took the initiative to open the city gates, abandoned the city and fled in the darkness.

"Surrender, we surrender!"

The Datong sergeants, together with the Tao Jiajun and Zhang Jiajun, defeated two groups of enemies one after another on the south city wall. The rest stopped fighting, ran away if they could, and surrendered and begged for mercy if they couldn't.

Wang Zhiliang was preparing to fight to the death, and the soldiers around him fled one after another. Some of them, with evil intentions, simply pushed Wang Zhiliang to the ground.

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

Li Zheng glanced around the city and said to Tao Jinzhi: "You lead people to put out the fire. All the surrendered officers and soldiers will also go to put out the fire!"

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