After pacing back and forth countless times, Li Jiancheng finally stopped and stared at the several people standing before him, saying, “After thinking for so long, do you have any solutions?”
Xue Wanche and the others exchanged glances with each other. Xie Shufang cupped his hands and said, “Reporting to Your Highness, the only plan now is to wait for reinforcements from Chang’an City.”
The veins on Li Jiancheng’s forehead bulged as his face turned extremely ugly, saying, “For me, what difference is there between this and opening the city gates to let Xue Ju enter? What I want is not to wait for reinforcements to rescue us, but to win!”
These words were truly too difficult for Xue Wanche and the others. With low morale among the soldiers and their numbers less than half of the enemy’s, winning… how could it be easy!
“But…” Before Xie Shufang could continue, Li Jiancheng had already raised his hand to interrupt, saying without room for argument, “I don’t care what methods you use, but this battle must be won!”
This battle, the Great Tang might still be able to afford losing, but he… absolutely could not afford to lose!
Seeing Li Jiancheng’s resolute attitude, Xie Shufang had no choice but to swallow the words on his lips and instead joined Xue Wanche and the others in pondering ways to break the siege.
If Li Yuanji had not suffered a great defeat, if the eight great commanders had not left the city and been unable to return, defeating Xue Ju would not be difficult. But now… it was truly difficult!
This night was exceptionally short for Li Jiancheng. It felt like not much time had passed before dawn light began to appear on the horizon, with the morning sun gradually rising from the clouds. But what made Li Jiancheng despair was that despite thinking bitterly all night, they had not come up with a solution and remained helpless against Xue Ju’s great army besieging the city.
At this moment, Li Yuanji was also caught in a dilemma. He had originally intended to retreat directly to Chang’an, but thinking of Li Jiancheng trapped in the city, he hesitated. He knew clearly in his heart that after this disastrous defeat, they had lost the best opportunity to defeat Xue Ju. Although Li Jiancheng still had two hundred thousand troops, he was in a passive position, only able to defend the city desperately. Once Xue Ju broke through the city, the consequences…
Li Yuanji had the deepest emotional bond with him, and this was also trouble he had caused, so he intended to return to provide aid. But yesterday’s battle had cost him troops and generals – of the eight great commanders, only four remained, and of the eighty thousand soldiers he had brought out, some had fled, some had died, leaving fewer than forty thousand. With this small capital, wanting to fight against Xue Ju, whose morale was high, was simply wishful thinking.
Could it be… he really could only withdraw to Chang’an? But by the time Chang’an organized an army to come to the rescue, the city would probably have been captured long ago, and his elder brother’s life or death would be uncertain.
What to do? What to do?
Just as Li Yuanji was restless and anxious, Liu Wenjing proposed a suggestion to him: temporarily not return to Chang’an, but join forces with Li Shimin who was nearby. The latter had successfully intercepted Zhong Juqiu, and the fifty thousand troops in his hands had not suffered much loss. If this fresh force joined them, it would be enough to resolve Xue Ju’s siege of the city.
“No!” Li Yuanji was most unconvinced by Li Shimin. Hearing now that they wanted to seek aid from the latter, he was naturally unwilling ten thousand times over and immediately rejected Liu Wenjing’s proposal.
Liu Wenjing was sharp-minded – how could he not know Li Yuanji’s thoughts? He cupped his hands and said, “This subordinate understands Your Highness’s difficulty, but Xue Ju’s great army may attack the city at any time. Please, Your Highness, consider the greater good!”
Li Yuanji’s cheek twitched. He knew Liu Wenjing was close to Li Shimin, so from the beginning, he had been quite displeased with the latter. Now these words were even more grating to his ears, and he said coldly, “Are you implying that I don’t consider the greater good? Even if you break the sky talking, Second Brother only has fifty thousand troops, while Xue Ju has five hundred thousand. Do you really think they can fight one against ten and turn the tide of battle?”
Liu Wenjing did not become agitated by his words but said calmly, “Your Highness and the Prince of Qin both fought their way out of mountains of corpses and seas of blood. If Your Highness cannot win, the Prince of Qin naturally may not be able to win either. But with these fifty thousand fresh troops, the chance of rescuing His Highness the Crown Prince would greatly increase. Your Highness stopping here is probably also because you cannot rest easy about His Highness the Crown Prince!”
These words from Liu Wenjing struck Li Yuanji’s heart, making him secretly grit his teeth. This fall had truly been a great one. Hmph, he would definitely settle today’s humiliation with Xue Ju in the future.
All this was talk for later. The urgent matter at hand was to make a decision quickly: whether to withdraw to Chang’an or go join forces with Li Shimin’s fifty thousand troops to jointly plan Li Jiancheng’s rescue.
Although Li Yuanji was arrogant, he was not entirely ignorant of priorities. After much deliberation, he finally said coldly, “Pass down the order, march immediately and join forces with the Prince of Qin.”
As they led their forty thousand remnant and defeated soldiers to join Li Shimin, Xue Ju once again began massacring prisoners. The four words “lives as worthless as grass” received their best interpretation at this moment, with corpses piled up like mountains, and this mountain kept growing higher and higher.
Having learned from that previous hard lesson, no matter how Xue Ju cursed or provoked this time, Li Jiancheng resolutely would not show his head or send out troops until he had thought of a strategy.
But since Xue Ju had come this far, he would definitely not return empty-handed. After killing thousands of prisoners, he began ordering attacks on the city. Of course, arrows from the city came down like rain, blocking their advance. But after paying the price of over a thousand lives, they successfully forced the city to exhaust its arrows, and Li Jiancheng and the others could only watch helplessly as they forcibly crossed the moat and gathered beneath the city walls.
Xue Wanche personally went up to the city tower to command, sparing no cost to prevent them from climbing up the tower. This battle was exceptionally fierce. Although the defenders held the advantage of terrain, under wave after wave of attacks, many still died, and even Xue Wanche was slashed on the arm by a soldier who had climbed up.
This continued entanglement until the first watch, when Xue Ju finally ordered a halt to fighting, to wait until tomorrow to fight again, vowing to capture the city.
At the same time, Li Yuanji’s remnant army finally joined up with Li Shimin’s group, jointly discussing strategies to deal with Xue Ju. Li Yuanji naturally wanted to avenge his previous disastrous defeat – from childhood to adulthood, he had never suffered such a loss. However, after Li Shimin’s careful analysis, he believed they had no certainty of victory. If they were defeated again, it would truly damage the Great Tang’s vitality, so he decided to focus on rescue and would not engage Xue Ju unless absolutely necessary.
“Now Xue Ju is besieging right under the city. How does Second Brother plan to resolve the siege of Gao City without engaging him?” Li Yuanji asked this question stiffly, because no matter how he thought about it, he felt this was impossible. The enemy had clearly seen them – was it possible they wouldn’t attack?
Li Shimin tapped the long table with his finger, “tap tap,” one tap after another, his sword-like eyebrows tightly furrowed. Although he had made the decision, the method of implementation had not yet been conceived.
Du Ruhui nearby showed signs of wanting to speak but stopping. Li Shimin said, “Whatever you’re thinking, just say it.”
“Yes.” Du Ruhui cupped his hands while addressing Li Yuanji, “What does the Prince of Qi think is most important to Xue Ju, who has come on a distant campaign?”
Li Yuanji said dismissively, “Naturally Chang’an City. Isn’t that what he came for?”