Seeing such a perfect opportunity to kill Li Mi being ruined by someone, Liu Wenjing was furious. Looking up, he saw the mace-wielder was a military general with a tiger’s back and bear’s waist, thick eyebrows and large eyes, who was now glaring at him angrily: “Taking advantage of someone’s misfortune – is this the conduct of a good man?”
Hearing this, Liu Wenjing felt both angry and amused: “On the battlefield, all stratagems are fair in war.” Before his words had finished, he was already attacking with his blade, wanting to fight quickly and decisively to kill Li Mi.
What Liu Wenjing hadn’t expected was that this person was even more troublesome than Li Mi. His pair of double maces were used with divine skill – no matter how he changed his attacks, he couldn’t break through his defense.
Seeing more and more Wagang Army soldiers surrounding them, Liu Wenjing knew he no longer had a chance to take Li Mi’s life. Continuing to entangle would only cost him his own life here, so he had to grit his teeth and retreat on horseback. The mace-wielding general didn’t pursue Liu Wenjing, but instead picked up the unconscious Li Mi and returned to camp.
On the battlefield, although Yuwen Huaji’s soldiers had forced the Wagang Army to retreat step by step, they were ultimately long-starved bodies and couldn’t maintain this state indefinitely. Indeed, before long, they began to show fatigue again, even more severely than before.
Yuwen Zhiji knew that now they had to let them eat, so he had Yuwen Huaji order a halt to the attack and cook all the remaining rice for them to eat.
At the same time, a horse was racing toward Luoyang’s city gate in the dimming twilight, with Liu Wenjing on its back shouting: “I have urgent news to see Duke Zheng!”
After shouting several times in succession, a voice came from the city wall: “Who are you?”
“I am a deputy general under Duke Wei, with urgent matters to report to Duke Zheng. Please relay the message.” Duke Wei referred to Li Mi, and Duke Zheng was Wang Shichong.
Hearing this, the soldiers hurriedly asked: “What matter is it?”
“I can only speak when Duke Zheng arrives.” Seeing that Liu Wenjing wouldn’t budge, the soldiers had to say: “Wait here, we’ll go report to Duke Zheng immediately.”
“Time is urgent, please hurry.” Under Liu Wenjing’s urging, the soldiers hurried away. After waiting about half an hour, Wang Shichong appeared on the city wall. This man had a typical protruding lower jaw face: “What happened to Duke Wei?”
Liu Wenjing knew this person must be Wang Shichong without doubt, and immediately said: “Reporting to Duke Zheng, Duke Wei fought a great battle with Yuwen Huaji at Tong Mountain and suffered a great defeat. Duke Wei was even severely wounded and specially ordered this last general to come here to request Duke Zheng’s support, otherwise the consequences will be unimaginable.”
Wang Shichong said in shock: “What did you say? Li Mi was defeated and severely wounded?”
“Yes, the Yuwen Huaji brothers are sinister and cunning. They shot and wounded Duke Wei with arrows. His life and death are now unknown. The army’s morale is unstable because of this incident, and they’re being forced to retreat step by step by Yuwen Huaji’s army. The situation is extremely critical!”
Wang Shichong remained silent for a long time. He knew Li Mi’s capabilities – that someone of his ability would actually be defeated by Yuwen Huaji and his brother was truly inconceivable. But… looking at the messenger, he was covered in blood and didn’t seem to be lying.
Seeing that he hadn’t spoken for a long time, Liu Wenjing said anxiously: “Duke Wei went to eliminate the rebellious party of Yuwen Huaji under His Majesty’s orders. Now that something has happened, if Duke Zheng doesn’t send troops to assist, I’m afraid it will disappoint Duke Wei and all the generals and soldiers. Moreover, after Yuwen Huaji defeats Duke Wei, his next target will be Luoyang City. Once they rest their troops and replenish their provisions, they will surely become Duke Zheng’s greatest threat, and should be eliminated as soon as possible.”
Wang Shichong’s eyes flashed with shrewd light. After a long time, he nodded: “What you say makes sense. However, organizing the army takes time. I’m afraid the earliest I can send troops to battle is tomorrow. Go tell Duke Wei that he must hold on until then.”
Hearing this, Liu Wenjing hurriedly said: “The current battle situation is urgent – how can we wait until tomorrow? Please, Duke Zheng, you…” Before he could finish speaking, Wang Shichong had already disappeared from the city wall, making him curse silently “old fox.”
This old fox clearly didn’t want to send troops out of the city. He probably also had the idea of letting Li Mi and Yuwen Huaji mutually destroy each other. But if Wang Shichong didn’t send troops, Li Shimin’s strategy couldn’t be achieved. What could be done?
Liu Wenjing nervously pondered – there had to be a way, there had to be…
Indeed, he really did think of a method and hurriedly shouted: “I always thought Duke Zheng was an upright, trustworthy person, but I never expected him to be someone who breaks faith and betrays righteousness! Duke Zheng betrays my Duke Wei today – tomorrow, wait to face our Wagang Army’s two hundred thousand troops. I wonder if Duke Zheng will still be able to defend Luoyang then.”
Sure enough, not long after this statement, Wang Shichong appeared on the city wall again, staring at Liu Wenjing with deep suspicion: “Two hundred thousand troops?”
Seeing that he had successfully attracted Wang Shichong’s attention, Liu Wenjing hurriedly said: “At our Wagang Army’s peak, we once had a million troops. Although there’s been some reduction now, it’s still not just a mere dozen or so thousand troops. It’s just that Duke Wei feared that the battle of Luoyang would harm our army’s foundation, so he left two hundred thousand troops at Jintang City, not to be used unless absolutely necessary. Today, Duke Zheng sees our army suffer a great defeat in battle with Yuwen Huaji but doesn’t extend aid – then tomorrow these two hundred thousand troops will definitely level Luoyang and let Duke Zheng know the consequences of breaking faith and betraying righteousness!”
Liu Wenjing spoke these words with passionate indignation, yet with much grief and anger mixed in. For a moment, it really did intimidate Wang Shichong, who rolled his eyes and said: “Where are you going with this talk? How could I be someone who breaks faith and betrays righteousness? I just said that since I’ve formed an alliance with your Duke Wei, I definitely won’t stand by and watch. It’s just that mobilizing troops takes time, and gathering provisions also takes time. I can’t just rush out of the city to fight without any preparation.”
Hearing his tone soften, Liu Wenjing quickly continued: “This last general understands, but given the current situation, even if the brothers fight to the death, they can’t possibly hold out until tomorrow. Please, Duke Zheng, send troops as soon as possible.”
Wang Shichong remained silent. In fact, he wished nothing more than for Li Mi and Yuwen Huaji to perish together, but the two hundred thousand troops mentioned by Liu Wenjing made him hesitate. In the end… were these two hundred thousand troops real or fake?
Wang Shichong turned to a figure beside him: “Brother Duan, what do you think?”
Standing beside Wang Shichong was none other than General Duan Da, who had Wang Shichong’s deep trust. When the gate officer had gone to report earlier, he happened to be discussing matters with Wang Shichong, so he came to the gate together.
After pondering for a moment, Duan Da said: “This last general believes that what this person says is eighty to ninety percent false.”
“How can you tell?” Facing Wang Shichong’s inquiry, he slowly said: “If Li Mi truly still had two hundred thousand troops, when he couldn’t take Luoyang for so long previously, why didn’t he summon them? With the forces Li Mi had, plus two hundred thousand troops, he would have already broken through Luoyang long ago. Why would he rely on these dozen or so thousand men to fight us to the death until now? Additionally, if we save Li Mi today, he will become our greatest threat tomorrow. Such a thankless task, in this last general’s view, is really not worth doing. Taking a step back, even if Li Mi truly has two hundred thousand troops in hand, with our forces in the city, we may not be unable to defend. Furthermore, didn’t he just say that Li Mi was severely wounded and fell from his horse? Perhaps he’s already dead by now. Without a leader, loose as sand – no matter how many soldiers there are, they’re nothing to worry about.”