Chapter 1054: The Battle of Shuanghe City Begins
On the watchtower of the Langya Army camp outside Buqi City, Xi Zhicai carefully told Ye Laixiang about his plans for the time he was away, and Ye Laixiang knew that he was the most suitable person to be the envoy, so he didn't say anything more, but listened carefully. Every time Xi Zhicai said something, he wrote it down on a piece of paper. The two of them discussed on the watchtower for an hour before coming down. Afterwards, Xi Zhicai, under the escort of hundreds of troops, took the things prepared by Ye Laixiang and headed towards Qingdao, while Ye Laixiang returned to the camp to arrange the follow-up matters.
Two days later, when Huangfu Chaobo's fleet arrived at Shuanghe City, they heard the deafening shouts of killing from Xicheng before they docked. They hurriedly got off the boat, and Huangfu Chaobo rushed to Xicheng under the escort of two thousand soldiers.
At this time, Shuanghe City was crowded with people everywhere. Fortunately, the dock had stopped building ships, so tens of thousands of people were arranged in the dock. The nearly 300,000 people who squeezed into Shuanghe City had no time to move away, so Xiahou Yuan was also anxious to capture Shuanghe City, hoping to capture all the people here to make up for the sparse population of Beihai.
Entering the city from the east gate, Huangfu Chaobo did not stop, passed through the city all the way, and prepared to go directly to the west wall.
Shuanghe City is located between two rivers, and outside its east wall is the dock of Shuanghe City, so Xiahou Yuan can only attack Shuanghe City from the west wall if he wants to attack Shuanghe City.
Not long after entering the city, Huangfu Chaobo saw Zhao Dian, the county magistrate who had just received the news and hurried from the county government. He was also one of the first batch of warriors trained by Huangfu Chaobo.
"Zhao Dian, your subordinate, pays respect to Lord Tang!" Zhao Dian led a group of officials to the ground and bowed;
"Okay, get up, when did Xiahou Yuan's army start attacking the city?" Huangfu Chaobo took two steps forward, helped him up, and waved to the other officials;
"Reporting to the Duke, the siege started today, and we have been preparing for the siege in the past few days."
"Where are Liu He and Li Gui?"
"General Liu is in the west of the city, and General Li has led his troops across the river to the dock to take charge of defense."
As the group was talking, they had already arrived at the West City. At this time, this round of fighting on the top of the city had ended. The county lieutenant Liu He, who had received the notification, was already waiting for Huangfu Chaobo on the top of the city. Seeing them climb up the city wall, he hurried forward to greet them.
"My Lord, I pay my respects to you! Please forgive me for not being able to use the formal etiquette while wearing armor!"
"No problem, how is the war going?"
"My Lord, Xiahou Yuan's army began to gather three days ago, and only started the formal siege today. Today, they have launched two rounds of attacks on the city wall, both of which were repelled by me. The dock also launched two rounds of attacks, both of which were repelled by General Li's troops. Judging from the situation today, they should not launch another attack." Liu He looked up at the setting sun and replied;
Huangfu Chaobo nodded and said to Dian Wei and Gao Shun: "Raise my flag and the flags of the Iron Wall Camp and the Xianzhen Camp, and tell Xiahou Yuan on the opposite side that I am here."
"Woo woo..."
As the sound of a horn sounded, several general flags slowly rose on the tower of Shuanghe City. The highest flag was embroidered with the three characters "Duke of Tang", and the two flags next to it were "General Dian of the Wuwei Camp" and "General Gao of the Guard Army". Seeing this, Cao Cao's army knew that Huangfu Chaobo had arrived with his personal guards. For a moment, Cao Cao's soldiers were discouraged. Such a strong city plus Huangfu Chaobo's personal guards could not be easily captured.
In contrast to the situation of Cao Cao's soldiers, the news of Huangfu Chaobo's arrival caused a sensation in the entire city. The worries that Cao Cao's attack brought to the soldiers and the people disappeared when the banner of "Duke of Tang" was raised.
Watching Cao Cao's army retreat, Huangfu Chaobo left the city wall and returned to the county government. This time he did not come for the battle in Shuanghe City, but because of the island base. Just now on the city wall, he suddenly thought of a problem, that is, whether it was Liu He, Li Gui, or Zhao Dian,
they did not have the experience and ability to command tens of thousands of troops to defend the city, while Xiahou Yuan on the opposite side was different. He was a general who could compete with Xu Rong and Huang Zhong. After Xu Rong and other generals withdrew, there were indeed some omissions in the defense here.
Thinking of this, Huangfu Chaobo decided to order the other three schools' guards to be transferred to Shuanghe to assist in the defense of the city, and he also planned to leave Guo Jia here, and he would be responsible for coordinating and arranging the wars between the troops. Only Shuanghe City can be arranged in this way, but how to arrange the defense of Qingdao City, Huangfu Chaobo was temporarily entangled.
You must know that Xi Zhicai was also a top military advisor in the Three Kingdoms period. If he had not died early, his status would probably not be lower than Guo Jia. In addition, there was another general Xu Sheng under Ye Lai Xiang. In terms of Qingdao's defense, I still thought too simply.
As he walked, Huangfu Chaobo said to Guo Jia: "Feng Xiao, Shuanghe and Qingdao need to be defended for at least half a year, so that all the people can be moved to Youzhou, but Xiahou Yuan and Xi Zhicai are not easy to deal with, and whether it is Liu He, Han Wei, or Li Feng and Ji Bao, it is estimated that it will be difficult to resist the attack of the two armies. How to deal with this matter?"
Guo Jia didn't care about Huangfu Chaobo's worries, and said: "My lord, you are too concerned. Now that we are ready to build a sea base, the relocated people can be relocated to the islands first for resettlement, and then slowly transported to Youzhou. Therefore, the two cities don't need to be defended for half a year, only two to three months are enough."
Huangfu Chaobo was stunned. Yes, why should we send them to Leting every time? We can send the people to the islands first. Although these islands cannot accommodate hundreds of thousands of people for a long time, there is no problem with temporary resettlement. In this way, we can transport them back and forth every few days, and it won't take much time even if there are only 30,000 to 50,000 people each time.
Seeing that Huangfu Chaobo had already thought of it, Guo Jia said, "As for the problem of defending the city mentioned by the lord, although the generals are not capable of commanding tens of thousands of troops, the two cities are small cities, and the soldiers and horses deployed on the city walls at a time are actually only a few thousand people. It is impossible for the lord to have the tens of thousands of people mentioned by the lord. The battle, what's more, the lord intends to transfer all the guards. Although the generals of the guards only command a few thousand soldiers, their ability is enough to command a large army, so the lord does not need to worry at all. What's more, it is still unknown whether the battle in Qingdao can be fought."