Chapter 949: Breaking Through the Outer City of Shouchun
Just here, the south wall suddenly heard another earth-shaking shout, followed by the sound of "The city is broken! The city is broken!" The sound could even be faintly heard from the west wall a few miles away.
At this time, the imperial guards on the top of the city could no longer stop the collapse of the soldiers defending the city.
"The city gate has been broken, those who surrender will be spared!"
"The city gate has been broken, those who survive will be spared!"
If the previous shouts were just a threat to the soldiers defending the city on the wall, then the current shouts were a relief for them. After a large wave of soldiers fled, some soldiers who did not have time to escape began to try to put down their weapons and surrender, but the soldiers of the Iron Wall Camp in front just ordered them to squat on the edge of the city wall and wait for the friendly troops behind to gather.
Seeing that the soldiers who surrendered earlier were not really slaughtered, more and more soldiers of Yuan Shu's army stopped running, and threw down their weapons and squatted aside automatically.
Soon, Dian Wei led the soldiers of Tiebiying to the tower, and at this time, Wang Ran also led another group of soldiers to the other side of the tower. Seeing this, Dian Wei shouted: "General Wang, the tower is in your hands. I will lead people to open the city gate and lead the army into the city."
Wang Ran quickly replied: "General Dian, please rest assured, the tower is in my hands."
With a roar, he led the soldiers to kill the defenders of the tower.
An hour later, about two quarters of the evening, with a rumbling sound, the west gate of Shouchun City was finally opened amid the cheers of the Anton Army.
So far, the three walls of Shouchun City in the east, south and west were successively captured, and Shouchun City was broken!
At this time, Shouchun City was in chaos. As early as when Cao Cao's army captured the East City, the city had already begun to be in chaos. Ordinary people who received the news that the East City Gate had been breached no longer cared about the soldiers patrolling in the city. They rushed to take their already prepared items and ran towards the West City. The streets were full of people running for their lives and injured soldiers.
The rumors of the past few days have frightened them all. After receiving the news that Cao Cao's army had entered the city, the chaos in the city could no longer be stopped.
What Huangfu Chaobo didn't expect was that his words would come true. Cao Cao really killed people in the East City, killing people like a river. Later, Huangfu Chaobo learned that the reason for this was that Cao Anmin was injured during the siege and was almost cut in half by a captain under Ji Ling. Fortunately, Cao Ren reacted quickly and rescued him quickly, and killed the captain on the spot, but Cao Anmin didn't die and lost half his life on the spot.
Cao Cao was already angry because he had fallen into Yuan Shu's trap. In addition, the attack without regard for casualties in the past few days had caused heavy casualties to the Yanzhou army. Now his nephew was seriously injured and unconscious, which made Cao Cao furious and almost fainted on the spot.
In a rage, he issued an order not to take any prisoners. Cheng Yu's persuasion did not make him withdraw his order. Fortunately, under Cheng Yu's persuasion, Cao Cao ordered the generals not to break through the area agreed upon by the three parties.
Cao Cao's move made the city more chaotic. Countless people and soldiers desperately fled to the west of the city, which gave Huangfu Chaobo a big advantage. Afterwards, the city stabilized. According to statistics from the Andong Army, nearly 200,000 people were captured and captured in the outer city area alone, including about 140,000 people, and more than 50,000 prisoners and soldiers.
However, at this time, the soldiers of the Andong Army were racing against time to seize various places in the city according to the prior arrangement. By the afternoon of Shen, the entire outer city of Shouchun was completely controlled by the armies of the three princes. Huang Zhong arranged soldiers to maintain the stability of the occupied area while leading 20,000 troops to the outside of the inner city to join the armies of the other two princes.
When the three armies arrived outside the inner city, Ji Ling had already led 20,000 troops to retreat into the inner city. Together with the 10,000 imperial guards of the imperial city and the 10,000 soldiers and horses that Ji Ling secretly arranged to retreat into the inner city in the past few days, there were more than 40,000 troops in the inner city at this time.
Although Shouchun City was breached, only the three walls of the east, south and west were captured, and the northern wall was still under the control of Yuan Shu's army.
The distance between the outer city, inner city and imperial city on the northern wall was not far, and there was only a narrow passage between the three walls.
The passage was about ten feet wide, and with the walls several feet high on both sides, it was impossible to launch an attack, so the three armies did not choose to launch an attack from the north. Moreover, after the three armies arrived outside the south gate of the inner city, they did not rush to attack the inner city. Everyone could see that Yuan Shu's army had made full preparations in the inner city.
Seeing this, Huang Zhong ordered: "Order the army to stop on the spot, send someone to report the situation in the inner city to the general, and ask the general to make a decision!"
If it was just a matter of his own army, Huang Zhong could indeed make the decision himself, but now it involves the other two armies, so after a little consideration, Huang Zhong decided to report the situation to his lord and wait for his decision.
Cao Cao's army was led by Cao Ren, who led his troops to retreat 300 steps away and sent people to report to his lord outside the city gate. Sun Ce's army was led by himself, but only the two remaining armies had to ask their lords. In addition, the army had been fighting for a day, and the soldiers were tired. It was just right to take this time to rest, so he also led the troops to retreat a distance, but he did not leave his soldiers and did not take off his armor.
By the time Huangfu Chaobo hurried to Huang Zhong's army, it was already the beginning of the Wu hour, which was around seven in the evening. At this time, the sky had basically darkened, and the inner city walls were lit with densely packed torches, illuminating the entire inner city walls inside and out, as bright as day.
The three armies stopped a few hundred steps away from the city gate, with 15,000 Sun Ce troops in the center, 20,000 Cao Cao troops and 20,000 An Dong troops on both sides.
Seeing Huangfu Chaobo rushing in with Pang Tong and others under the protection of the guards, Huang Zhong was slightly startled, then immediately reacted and hurriedly led the generals to greet them.
"The general greets the general!"
"Generals, please stand up!"
"Why did the general come in person?" Huang Zhong said; "The city is not stable yet, can the lord easily take risks?"
"It's okay, not to mention that there are thousands of Dian Wei and Gao Shun's troops guarding." Huangfu Chaobo shook his head and said, "What's the situation now?"
Huang Zhong saw that things had come to this point, and he didn't say any more, and introduced the current situation in detail. While listening to Huang Zhong's introduction, Huangfu Chaobo carefully observed the defense of the inner city hundreds of steps away. Thousands of Yuan Shu's imperial guards on the top of the city were waiting in a serious battle formation, with bows on the strings and swords out of the sheaths, quietly watching the army attacking the city.