This woman had laced the tea with aphrodisiac, forcing him to have relations with her. He felt nothing but hatred, let alone any affection. Saving her was pure delusion. When the day of her sentencing came, it would be this fool’s death day! With his influence, killing a criminal imprisoned in jail would be no difficult matter.
Compared to Xin’an, he was more worried about Yunyi. This woman was the complete opposite of her sister—extremely shrewd. Although Yunyi had no evidence, continuing like this would always be a hidden danger.
He either needed to find a reasonable explanation to dispel her suspicions, or else…
Looking at Li Yuan’s side, he had brought the first assembled five thousand troops to Chunming Gate, which had already fallen into chaos. As previously reported, the city gate had been opened by someone. Dozens of soldiers were working together trying to close the gate, but every time they got it halfway closed, they would be overwhelmed by enemy troops pouring in from outside. Although Wu Shiyue, Pei Qiancheng and others tried their best to block them, more and more enemy soldiers were breaking into the city.
Li Yuan had no time for detailed questions. He made a decisive decision: “Close the city gate immediately. No matter the cost, we must hold this position and not let the enemy break through.” He knew clearly that as long as the city gate didn’t fall, with his military strength, Chang’an City would not be lost.
“Yes!” The five thousand soldiers answered in unison, drawing their weapons and charging toward the enemy. Li Yuan himself quickly ran up to the city wall, where Du Ruhui was drawing his bow and shooting arrows. Black sharp arrows flew out one after another with piercing sounds through the air, each arrow landing precisely on enemy soldiers!
“Your Highness!” Liu Hongji was also up there. Seeing Li Yuan appear, he hurried over.
Li Yuan frowned tightly. “What exactly happened?”
“When this subordinate arrived, this place was already in chaos. According to a surviving gatekeeper who managed to escape, two hours before the enemy attacked the city, a firework had risen into the sky from within the city. Just before the attack, another firework rose from outside the city, and immediately a figure darted out from the darkness. Of the gatekeepers present, only he survived by falling injured, while all others were killed. Then the figure opened the city gate. If not for a patrol squad happening to pass by, defending the gate to the death and sending someone to notify the prince’s mansion, the enemy would have already swept straight in by now.” After Liu Hongji quickly related everything he knew, he continued: “Based on the gatekeeper’s description, they seemed to use fireworks as signals. Additionally, someone recognized that the person who opened the gate was Duan Li, who had previously joined the Second Young Master, claiming to be a hunter.”
“Duan Li…” Li Yuan murmured the name once, then said: “Shimin mentioned this person to me, saying he possessed great strength and could easily lift stone lions.”
“Exactly. At the time, the Second Young Master even had people investigate his background. Only after confirming his claims were true did he keep him in service. Who could have imagined that everything was fake—he was a spy sent by Luoyang.”
“Wang Shichong?” At Li Yuan’s inquiry, Liu Hongji nodded: “Ruhui and I rushed here together. He recognized these as Wang Shichong’s troops, led by Wang Shichong’s trusted general, Duan Da.” After a pause, he added: “If not for Duan Da taking an arrow from Ruhui just now, causing chaos in his army, Chunming Gate would have been completely breached already!”
“Excellent!” After praising him, Li Yuan asked: “Was Duan Li captured?”
“This person has immense strength and is cunning and shrewd. He has already escaped the city to rejoin Duan Da’s main force.” Liu Hongji continued: “According to this subordinate’s estimation, the Luoyang troops attacking this time number at least seventy to eighty thousand. If Chunming Gate can be held, that’s good, but otherwise… the consequences would be unimaginable!”
While they were talking, Li Yuan looked out toward the city as if sensing something. He saw a middle-aged man covering his shoulder, staring at him with a sinister gaze.
Liu Hongji said beside him: “Your Highness, that person is Duan Da!”
At this moment, the originally chaotic enemy forces outside had regrouped. Under Duan Da’s command, they began attacking the nearly closed Chunming Gate with full force, bringing massive wooden battering rams to assault the gate.
Concentrating their entire army’s strength to attack one position was undoubtedly enormous pressure for the defending soldiers. With each impact, many soldiers fell, but until reinforcements arrived, they could only defend desperately.
Li Yuan watched the area below the city wall in silence. The garrison within the city was only thirty thousand, with the remaining large armies stationed outside the city, belonging to him, Jiancheng, and Shimin. Without their orders, no one could mobilize troops at will, unless they discovered Chang’an City in crisis and sent troops, but that would have to wait until after daybreak. Could they… hold out through the night?
Just then, the massive wooden ram that had been pounding violently suddenly stopped. The surroundings became eerily quiet, but no one relaxed because of this silence—instead, they became even more tense.
“Duan Li!” Liu Hongji’s alarmed cry drew Li Yuan and the others’ attention to a figure outside the city. They saw him ordering the soldiers carrying the battering ram to retreat, then shouldering the massive wooden beam that required nearly ten men working together by himself. He walked toward the direction opposite the city gate, and when he was about twenty or thirty zhang away, he turned around. By the light of the moon and torches, Li Yuan saw the cold smile on his face. The next moment, he was already running toward the city gate at full speed—he intended to use the momentum of his charge to smash open the gate.
Liu Hongji understood his intention and immediately paled, shouting to the soldiers below who were locked in a standoff with the enemy outside: “Hold the gate! You must hold it!”
Before his shout had ended, the wooden beam, propelled by Duan Li’s charge, crashed heavily into the city gate, smashing it more than halfway open. The enemy troops, encouraged by this, all surged inward like a tide.
Pei Qiancheng and others were below, fighting desperately with the soldiers breaking through. As they struggled to hold on, Duan Li retreated once again. Du Ruhui knew he intended to repeat the same tactic. If he was allowed to do it again, the city gate would definitely be smashed open.
Thinking of this, he immediately nocked an arrow and aimed at Duan Li below. Almost the moment the arrowhead was aimed, Duan Li sensed it and looked up at Du Ruhui on the city wall. The next moment, a mocking smile curved his lips.
Almost at the moment he smiled, Du Ruhui suddenly released his grip. The sharp arrow shot toward Duan Li like a meteor with a piercing sound through the air. He had aimed for Duan Li’s right eye.
Just as the arrowhead was about to pierce into Duan Li’s right eye, he suddenly raised the wooden beam on his shoulder slightly. “Thunk!” The sharp arrow embedded in the wooden beam, its feathers trembling continuously!
At the same time, Duan Li began running toward the city gate again, carrying the wooden beam with the arrow stuck in it. Du Ruhui’s expression changed dramatically. He grabbed two arrows with his other hand and shot them at Duan Li again. Although the latter was running, the result was the same—the arrows were blocked by the wooden beam Duan Li used as a shield, missing their target once more.