Chapter 944: Battle of Shouchun (10)
Less than half a quarter of an hour after Huang Wudie's troops retreated, the soldiers of the next round of attack launched an attack on the city head amidst the sound of trumpets, and a new round of fighting began again.
The fighting in Shouchun City continued like this. Not only that, in order to better undermine the morale of the defenders, the three princes outside the city also began to harass them at night. Although Ji Ling also organized his army to go out of the city to conduct two night attacks, they only had limited effect on Sun Ce's army.
Anton's army had a large number of cavalry. Yuan Shu's army was discovered by the cavalry as soon as they left the city. In the end, they failed to steal the chicken and lost a handful of rice. Of the 5,000 soldiers and horses who left the city for a sneak attack, less than 200 of them fled back to the city. The rest were either wiped out or destroyed. Captured by Anton's army.
Cao Cao's army had a large number of troops and had arranged enough patrols outside the city. Yuan Shu's army was not able to take advantage.
In this way, by the end of August, the three princes lost nearly half of their troops. However, the three armies successively added some troops, and the army was still maintained at around 200,000. Yuan Shu's army also lost 50,000 to 60,000 troops. This is not the most important thing. The most important thing is that the morale of Yuan Shu's army is getting lower and lower. Even if the morale of the soldiers who can fight is low, it becomes more and more difficult to fight against the princes' armies. It's difficult.
In Shouchun City, in the palace, Emperor Zhong's Yuan Shu, who had been besieged for nearly a month, had become haggard and unkempt, and could no longer see the high-spirited emperor's face when he first ascended the throne.
More than a year of war had already made Yuan Shu anxious, and the war in the past month had made him even more anxious. Although Ji Ling, the paper framer of the Zhong dynasty, tried his best, he still could not save the looming Zhong dynasty.
Ji Ling used almost all the methods he could think of, such as alienation and night attacks, but Yuan Shujun's situation was getting worse.
On the east city wall, Ji Ling looked at Cao Cao's soldiers who had repelled them again, then looked up at the sky, and finally breathed a long sigh of relief. Today's war is finally over. A month has passed since the beginning of the war. For a long time, Ji Ling had hardly been down the city wall. A few days ago, he started to lead his personal guards to participate in the war.
A month of fighting has caused Yuan Shu's army to suffer 40,000 casualties, more than 10,000 serious injuries, and even more minor injuries. The only soldiers and horses that were truly uninjured were the 10,000 imperial guards guarding the palace.
Looking at the exhausted soldiers on the city wall, Ji Ling knew that after a month of fighting, many of the soldiers were on the verge of collapse, but he had no time to care about this now. After calling the deputy general and explaining something to him, Ji Ling hurried toward the palace under the escort of his own soldiers. This was something he must do after the war every day.
Under the protection of more than a hundred personal guards, Ji Ling walked quickly through the streets of Shouchun City. Nowadays, there are no people in Shouchun City. Whether they are ordinary people or members of the aristocratic family, they all stay at home, waiting in fear for the end of the war. One good thing is that there are many soldiers in Shouchun City, so Ji Ling did not recruit civilians to go to the city, so the situation in the city is still stable. Now there is no one else on the streets in the entire city except patrolling soldiers.
When Ji Ling hurried to the palace hall, Shu Shao and others were already waiting in the palace. What surprised him was that the emperor had already sat on the throne. Ji Ling was so frightened that he knelt down and said, "I pay homage to your majesty! "
"General, please excuse me." Yuan Shu raised his hand towards Ji Ling with a tired face and said, "General, how is the battle at the top of the city?"
As soon as Ji Ling got up, Yuan Shu asked;
Ji Ling smiled bitterly, bowed and replied: "Every city wall has ended today's fighting, and the armies of the princes have withdrawn their troops and returned to their camps. However, the morale of our soldiers is low. I...I would like to ask your Majesty to make preparations in advance."
Everyone was shocked, has it reached this point?
"General, why is this so? There were only tens of thousands of soldiers and horses in Xiapi City at the beginning. Under the attack of Cao Cao's 100,000 troops, they could still sustain it for more than a year. Now we have nearly 200,000 troops in Shouchun City, why can we only support it for more than a month? Has the situation reached this point? Have we lost too many troops?
I will issue an order to recruit troops immediately! "When Yuan Shu heard this, he hurriedly asked;
"Your Majesty, the situation is different. At the beginning of the Xiapi War, although there were only tens of thousands of troops defending the city, all the generals knew the army's strategy, so they were able to motivate the soldiers to fight to the death. Later, I led troops to support, and tens of thousands of troops were stationed outside the city. , and the city are the horns of each other, and the soldiers are at ease, only then can this be achieved. "
"But things are different in Shouchun City now. Since last year, the army has been defeated one after another, losing troops and ground, and morale has continued to drop. And now Shouchun only has a single city left, with no reinforcements from outside, and the soldiers have been fighting continuously for more than a year. , so we are tired.”
After Yuan Shu heard this, he murmured after a while: "I see. No wonder when I summoned ministers to discuss matters, so many people did not come. Either their family members are seriously ill or they are unwell. I see..."
When Ji Ling heard this, he didn't understand what was going on, and immediately turned his head to look at Shu Shao. Seeing this, Shu Shao quickly explained to Ji Ling in a low voice that it turned out that Yuan Shu had just seen that today's war was about to end, so he wanted to summon all the ministers to discuss the matter. We went to see if there would be more troops. As a result, out of more than 20 important ministers, only Shu Shao and a few others came to see him, and the rest excused themselves with various excuses.
"Shu Zi Qigan!" When Ji Ling heard this, he immediately became furious. He didn't care that he was in the main hall now and said to Yuan Shu: "Your Majesty, I request that these officials who have no king or father be killed!"
After being yelled at by Ji Ling, Yuan Shu came to his senses and calmly stopped the furious Ji Ling, saying: "My dear minister, there is no need to be like this. I am very relieved to have you here. Let's discuss how to repel the enemy."
"As for repelling the enemy, it is actually not possible," Yan Xiang beside him suddenly said;
"Oh! My dear minister, please speak clearly!"
"Your Majesty, the general just said that the reason why the battle situation is unfavorable is because of low morale. Now it is September, and winter will soon come. At that time, the enemy can retreat without fighting. So if the morale of my army is greatly boosted, it can hold on for another one to two months."
Yan Xiang's words made everyone's eyes light up. Yes, winter will soon come. In winter, it will be cold and freezing. Not to mention attacking the city, even if the army stays in the wild for a long time, there is a risk of collapse. In this way, the princes' army will most likely retreat. Even if they do not withdraw from Jiujiang, the siege of Shouchun will be lifted. Moreover, the defenders in the city only need to restore their morale, not to mention one or two months, even half a year will be no problem. Even if the morale is only restored by a few percent, it will be enough to support them for several months.