Volume 10 Chapter 285

Chapter 285

Yue Ze looked at the indignant Li Xin and said solemnly: "No matter what, Chuan Mo has broken the main force of the Zhen army. We must rush to attack Xitang before Chuan Mo and his army, so this battle must be fought quickly and decisively!"

No matter how poor Zhen is, Xitang is the capital after all, and it is stockpiled with a large amount of Zhen's wealth. Whoever can enter Xitang first will undoubtedly take the wealth of Zhen for himself. Yue Ze does not want the fat meat that has been bitten to his mouth to be taken away by others.

Tang Yin, Ling Shuang, and Li Xin also have this idea. Fortunately, they are now much closer to Xitang than Chuan Mo and his army. There are only two obstacles left, Huaning and Tongcheng. It is not impossible to capture Xitang before the Chuan Mo coalition arrives.

After everyone discussed the next tactics, they immediately took action. The coalition forces of the five countries, with a million troops, began to march towards Huaning.

Huaning is one of the citadels of Xitang, but it is also a big city with more than 150,000 garrisons. The main commander is Zhao Huan, the general of Zhen State.

Zhao Huan is a famous general with outstanding achievements in Zhen State. He was born in an ordinary family, but he was able to sit in the position of general in the court where hereditary nobles were in power, which shows his extraordinary ability.

Most of the battles he commanded before were victory over the majority with the minority and the strong with the weak. Li Hong arranged him in Huaning with obvious intentions, hoping that he could create another miracle and help him resist the westward advance of the coalition forces.

Although Huaning's city defense is not weak and the main commander is a famous general of Zhen State, the coalition forces of the five countries have millions of people, so how can they take a mere city seriously?

After the coalition forces arrived in Huaning, Yue Ze and Li Xin couldn't wait to propose that the whole army launch a fierce attack on Huaning before even setting up the camp.

Tang Yin also wanted to test the opponent's strength. Yue Ze and Li Xin took the initiative to ask for a fight. He took advantage of the situation and let the An and Huan armies take the lead, and the Feng, Yu and Zhen armies supported them.

Yue Ze and Li Xin did not take Huaning seriously at all. Since Tang Yin arranged them to be the vanguard, they accepted it without hesitation.

Soon, under the mobilization of Yue and Li, the An and Huan armies launched a full-scale attack on Huaning City.

Before advancing, the soldiers of the two armies used the catapults in their respective armies. In order to hit the defenders and the city defense to the maximum extent, the An and Huan armies borrowed more than a hundred city-breaking crossbows from the Feng army.

Under the continuous attack of the catapults and city-breaking crossbows, the walls of Huaning were in pieces, and the broken and shot arrows were everywhere.

After a long period of fierce attack, the soldiers of An and Huan formed a neat square formation and began to advance towards Huaning City.

When the phalanx of the An army and the Huan army was less than 20 meters away from the wall of Huaning, the catapults and crossbows in the rear stopped firing.

As soon as they stopped, the soldiers of the Zhen army who had already taken shelter under the city immediately rushed to the city wall and launched a fierce counterattack against the An and Huan army camps that were already close outside the city.

The arrows of the Zhen army were extremely fierce, and round after round of arrows were shot, and the dense rain of arrows fell all over the sky. At the same time, the catapults arranged in the city had started to start, smashing huge stone bullets into the coalition camp.

The An and Huan armies also launched a counterattack. The archers shot arrows at the city wall, covering their own siege soldiers to set up ladders and climb up the city wall.

The shooting between the two sides was fierce and cruel. The defenders were in a high position and had the cover of arrow crenels, so they naturally had a huge advantage. The An and Huan armies outside the city were different. The soldiers were all exposed to the arrows of the Zhen army, and countless casualties were shot.

However, the An and Huan armies that attacked the city this time were very tenacious, mainly because Yue Ze and Li Xin had issued a death order that all soldiers could only advance and could not retreat. Anyone who violated the order would be punished by military law.

They did not want their army to be seen as a useless person with nothing to show for its appearance. If they could not seize the opportunity to show a certain fighting power now, then they might not have the opportunity to show it again in the future.

It was driven by this mentality that the An and Huan armies used all their strength in the siege.

If the two armies had such a strong desire to win and fighting will from the beginning, they would have won many victories in the battle against Zhen. Now they are brave enough to know shame, but they happened to run into the famous general Zhao Huan.

Zhao Huan had made perfect arrangements for the defense of Huaning. Under his command, the Zhen army resisted very tenaciously. For the city walls, the Zhen army prepared a large number of wooden boards and bamboo poles in advance. When the coalition forces outside the city shot arrows, the Zhen army used wooden boards for defense, which not only minimized the damage, but also allowed them to use nearby materials to pull out the arrows nailed to the wooden boards and reflect them back to the enemy. When the coalition forces set up the cloud ladder, the Zhen army used bamboo poles to pick up the cloud ladder and did not give them the opportunity to climb. At the same time, the rolling logs and pounding stones on the top of the city rolled down continuously like snowflakes, and the catapults set up in the city were also constantly hitting the rear camp of the Anhuan coalition forces, which brought huge casualties to the soldiers of the two armies.

The siege started from noon and lasted until noon. The Anhuan army of more than 400,000 people was blocked outside the city by more than 100,000 defenders. Not only did they make no achievements, but they also suffered heavy casualties.

At this point in the battle, Yue Ze and Li Xin, who were watching the battle, were a little anxious, and cold sweat oozed from their foreheads. Why is it so difficult to attack a mere Huaning City with only over 100,000 defenders? Why can't our army of over 400,000 break in?

The two were puzzled. Tang Yin glanced at them from the side and saw that they had no intention of retreating and wanted to continue the attack. He nodded secretly, and then shook his head.

He nodded because the two of them finally had the courage to lead an army into battle, but shook his head because they felt that they were too proud of themselves and insisted on fighting even though they knew they couldn't win.

He pondered for a moment and said calmly: "Brother King Yue, Brother King Li?"

Yue Ze and Li Xin seemed not to have heard anything and were still staring at the battlefield ahead. Tang Yin had no choice but to increase his volume and call them again.

"Ah?" At this time, the two of them finally came to their senses, looked at Tang Yin with a look of contentment on their faces, and asked, "Brother Wang, do you have any advice?"

Tang Yin said seriously: "Don't fight anymore. Our army has come a long way and is exhausted, while the enemy is waiting for work and is well prepared. If we continue to attack forcefully, I am afraid that not only will there be no gains, but the casualties of the soldiers will increase!"

Yue Ze and Li Xin had already thought of retreating, but they didn't want to. First, they couldn't get off the stage, and second, they felt unwilling to do so.

Li Xin frowned and said: "Brother Wang, we have been attacking for so long now, and the defenders have suffered heavy losses. Wouldn't retreating at this time give the enemy a chance to breathe? In my opinion, we should all go out into battle. Let’s take down Hua Ning in one go!”

The enemy suffered heavy losses? Why didn't I see it? Tang Yin secretly laughed in his heart. He only saw that the Anhuan and Huan armies suffered heavy casualties during the attack. The corpses under the city wall were piled up almost one meter high.

"It's better to withdraw our troops first. After we have rested and recuperated, it won't be too late to attack again!"

Before Yue Ze and Li Xin could answer the question, Lingshuang said: "Brother Wang, since our army has been attacking for so long, it is a pity to withdraw our troops now. It is better to follow the wishes of the two brothers Yue and Li. Formation, besiege Hua Ning from all sides, even if it is a copper wall, it cannot withstand our millions of troops!"

Tang Yin frowned. He had a lot of troops, but Hua Ning's city defense was not weak. What's more, he had traveled a long distance and the whole army was exhausted, while the Zhen Army was at its peak. It would not be right for the whole army to attack now. A wise move.

Thinking of this, Tang Yin glanced back again and smiled bitterly to himself. He hadn't even set up camp yet, so now he chose to attack with the whole army, which was more like a desperate attempt to break the boat.

Seeing that he was silent, Lingshuang said quietly: "Three of the four kings have decided to go to war with all their troops. Could it be that Brother Wang is determined to go his own way and has to temporarily withdraw his troops?"

After hearing this, Tang Yin immediately understood that Lingshuang was still angry with him.

Yue Ze and Li Xin also heard the smell of gunpowder in her mouth, and hurriedly smoothed things over: "Brother Wang's concerns are not unreasonable. If we wait until the whole army has rested before attacking, we will be sure of victory. However, our top priority is to rush in." The two armies of Sichuan and Mozambique captured Xitang before, so they shouldn't spend too long here in Huaning. Therefore, if we need to rest and recuperate, we can wait until we capture Xitang, and we will have plenty of time at that time."

After all, they still wanted to attack with all their troops now. Tang Yin showed a wry smile. Three of the four kings agreed. If he tried to block it any more, it would be too domineering and unpopular.

He no longer expressed any objection, smiled calmly, shrugged and said: "Since everyone thinks that the whole army should go out to fight now, then let's continue to fight. However, I must remind everyone that even if we can capture Hua Ning this time, we will still suffer casualties. Not too small.”

Yue Ze and Li Xin looked at each other and did not dare to answer. Ling Shuang chuckled and said, "Brother Wang should also understand that casualties will inevitably occur in a war."

Tang Yin took a deep look at her, nodded and said no more.

Under the insistence of the three kings Lingshuang, Yueze and Li Xin, the coalition forces changed from the initial attack of Anhuan and Huan armies to a fierce attack by the whole army.

An's army and Huan's army continued to attack the west, Feng's army mainly attacked the south, Zhen's army mainly attacked the east, and Jade's army mainly attacked the north. The five-nation allied forces used all their strength to launch a siege on Huaning City.

Just as Ling Shuang said, no matter how strong Huaning's city defense is, no matter how tenacious the defenders are, after all, their troops are limited, and there is a qualitative gap between their overall strength and that of the coalition forces.

As soon as the coalition forces launched a siege from all sides, Hua Ning's defenders immediately showed the disadvantage of insufficient strength and overstretch.

Especially the two sides where the Feng Army and the Zhen Army were the main attackers, soldiers from both armies broke through to the city wall from time to time. Although the defenders resisted desperately and repeatedly pushed the Feng Army and Zhen Army back to the city wall, they also paid the price of huge casualties. of.

Seeing the all-out attack of the coalition forces as ferocious as wild beasts, Huaning's city defense became precarious. At the critical moment, Zhao Huan showed a decisive and calm side. He urgently recruited all the people in Huaning City to participate in the city defense and resist the coalition forces.