Volume 10, Chapter 745

Chapter 745

As for the Feng Army, according to Tang Yin's instructions, the Pingyuan Army mainly attacked Zhuyang County; the Tianying Army mainly attacked Hengshui County, and the Baizhan Army stationed in Baima and Yishu counties cooperated; the Ninth Army and the New Army mainly attacked Kawakou County. Read the full text . .

Let's talk about the Ninth Army and the New Army. They thought that it would be easy to capture Kawaguchi County, just like the previous counties captured without any bloodshed. In fact, it was just the opposite.

As soon as the two armies entered Kawaguchi County, they were attacked by the Kawaguchi local army.

The Kawaguchi Army did not ambush the main force of the Ninth Army and the New Army. They did not have the strength. Instead, they quietly went around behind the two armies and attacked the logistics supplies of the Ninth Army and the New Army.

The scale of this battle was small, and the Kawaguchi Army did not have many troops, but they were very elite. They caught the logistics and supply teams of both armies by surprise, and a large amount of food, grass, and military supplies were robbed and burned.

After hearing the news, Qi Heng's cavalry led a group of cavalry and quickly turned back for reinforcements, but when they returned, Kawaguchi's army had already disappeared without a trace.

Qi Heng was extremely resentful that he suffered such a huge loss without even seeing the enemy in person. He immediately ordered the Ninth Army and the New Army to take Tingkou City in Kawakou County directly.

Tingkou City is located to the north of Kawakou County. If the Feng army wants to penetrate deep into the hinterland of Kawakou County, they must first capture Tingkou as a foothold.

According to the intelligence report, there were only more than 5,000 local troops inside the pavilion, while the Ninth Army and the New Army had 200,000 troops. Taking the pavilion was a piece of cake.

In the siege battle, the Ninth Army could only play the role of cover and coercion. It was impossible to expect the heavy cavalry to rush up the city wall to attack the city. The task of frontal attack naturally fell on the new army.

Since its establishment, the New Army has been in the midst of battles and has extremely rich combat experience. It is of course no problem to capture a small town guarded by only 5,000 people.

Liu Zhang only sent two regiments to fight. In his opinion, this was enough. It was impossible for the defenders to withstand the fierce attack of 20,000 of his own soldiers. But it turned out that he was wrong. After the war started, it was far from going as smoothly as he imagined.

The resistance of the five thousand defenders was extremely tenacious and fierce. The two regiments of the Feng Army attacked and were repulsed. After several rounds of charges, they all failed in the end and suffered a lot of casualties themselves.

Faced with such a situation, Liu Zhang was quite surprised, but it was already getting late after the battle, so he could only order to withdraw his troops and wait until tomorrow to fight again.

Back at the military camp, as soon as he entered the central military tent and his butt was still hot from sitting, Qi Heng came to the door angrily.

Qi Heng was very dissatisfied with the New Army's siege today. The mighty Central Army Corps could not defeat a small town garrisoned by only 5,000 local troops. When word spread, it was not only the New Army that was embarrassed, but also his Ninth Army.

In the Chinese army's tent, Qi Heng pointed at Liu Zhang's nose and shouted angrily in front of the new army generals: "What kind of bullshit battle are you fighting today? You can't even defeat a small town of 5,000 people. How did you become the commander-in-chief of an army?"

Although Qi Heng is a Mo man, and there is no official reinstatement now, his qualifications in the army are comparable to those of Liu Zhang. Lao Xu stood up and said with an apologetic smile: "General Qi, I was indeed wrong in today's battle. General Qi also Please calm down and take a seat!"

"How can you sit still now?" Qi Heng had a hot temper. He came and went as quickly as he came. He clasped his waist with his hands and paced back and forth in the tent, shaking his head and saying angrily: "Since entering Kawakou County, our army is not going well. Now the logistics team is attacked, and now the attack is blocked. Isn't this a joke for the Pingyuan Army and the Sky Eagle Army? "

"Yes, yes, yes! General Qi is right!" Liu Zhang nodded in agreement.

In fact, he was very depressed because he did not capture the pavilion. He felt even more puzzled and unbelievable. Twenty thousand versus ten thousand, the Feng Army versus the An Army, the Chinese Army versus the Local Army, our own side had an absolute advantage in terms of military strength and combat power. How could it be possible? Can't beat it?

He turned to look at the two commanders of the 7th and 8th Corps, who were mainly attacking today, and asked: "General Mao and General Gong, when you two were commanding the siege, did you think there were really 5,000 defenders in the city? "

After hearing his question, Qi Heng stopped and looked at Mao Yi, commander of the 7th Corps of the New Army, and Gong Dan, commander of the 8th Corps of the New Army without blinking.

Mao Yi's face was full of shame, he lowered his head and whispered: "There are indeed only a few thousand defenders, but...but..."

"But what? Say what you have to say in one breath!" Liu Zhang said in a deep voice.

"However, there are many spiritual cultivators among the defenders." Mao Yi whispered. As soon as he finished speaking, Gong Dan immediately continued: "Yes, there are many spiritual cultivators wearing Anjun armor among the defenders. It is unclear how many there are, but they are definitely not a minority. These spiritual cultivators are abnormal. It’s amazing, even if our soldiers managed to rush to the top of the city, they would quickly defeat them..."

"This does not become an excuse for you to wait for a disadvantage in the battle!" Qi Heng snorted coldly.

Mao Yi and Gong were both red-faced, their heads lowered, and they said in a trembling voice: "The general is not going well in battle, please punish me."

Liu Zhang waved his hand. The battle had already been fought like this, so there was no point in punishing them anymore.

He pondered for a moment, turned to look at Qi Heng, and asked, "General Qi, do you still remember that when we were in Yuzhen, the king seemed to have mentioned once that rangers from all over the country gathered in Kawaguchi County."

Qi Heng blinked, frowned and tried to remember. After a while, he said vaguely: "It seems...that's what happened! Liu Zhang, do you think there are rangers among the defenders in the city?"

"There can only be this explanation, otherwise, where do all those spiritual practitioners come from?" Liu Zhang said dimly: "It seems that the news the king received is true. Kawaguchi County... I'm afraid it's not as easy to fight as we imagined!"

He was full of concerns, but Qi Heng grinned and said: "If it's true, it's a good thing."

"What do you mean?"

"The king has always hated rangers. If Kawaguchi County really gathers many rangers from all over the country, then it is a great opportunity for you and me to make merit." Qi Heng's eyes rolled, and he was so happy that he couldn't close his mouth.

"Tomorrow, I will go to the battle myself, and I want to see how many rangers there are in the defenders in the city." Qi Heng suddenly became high-spirited and said excitedly.

Bai An and Yan Yan both nodded and said to Liu Zhang: "General, tomorrow we will go to battle with General Qi!"

Liu Zhang did not refuse. It was embarrassing enough that he failed to take down a small city in Tingkou on the first day. If he failed to take down the city on the second day, the morale of the whole army would be greatly affected. Therefore, tomorrow's siege must be successful and failure is not allowed.

Thinking of this, he cheered up and said seriously: "Except for the seventh and eighth corps who stayed in the camp to rest, the rest of the corps will go to battle tomorrow! The first and second corps will focus on the north city of Tingkou, the third and fourth corps will focus on the south city of Tingkou, the fifth and sixth corps will focus on the west city, and the ninth and tenth corps will focus on the east city. Tomorrow, all generals must work together and take down Tingkou in one go!"

"Yes!" All the generals stood up and took the order.

However, before the new army could go out to fight the next day, late at night, the An army in Tingkou sent a small group of elite troops to sneak attack the East Camp of the Feng army.

The New Army and the Ninth Army were an infantry corps and a cavalry corps respectively. The camps were not combined, but were set up separately, with the New Army camp in front and the Ninth Army camp in the back.

The An army that sneaked into the camp had only 200 people, and they sneaked into the camp of the New Army. Relying on their familiarity with the terrain and the lack of precautions by the Feng army, the An army successfully infiltrated the camp and burned the granary located in the East Camp of the New Army.

The flames of this fire soared more than ten meters high, illuminating most of the East Camp of the New Army.

After receiving the news from the soldiers below, Liu Zhang ran out of the tent in a hurry without even wearing his armor. When he got outside, he could see the fire in the East Camp clearly from the central army tent.

Liu Zhang took a breath and asked the soldier who reported the fire: "Where is the fire?"

"It's... our army's granary!"

"Ah?" Liu Zhang's head buzzed after hearing this. The logistics team had been attacked before, and their own food and grass had not been replenished in time. If the granary with the army was burned again, their own food would be cut off. What would the 100,000 soldiers of the army eat next?

At this time, Liu Zhang's eyes were red with anxiety. He pushed the soldier who reported the fire away, untied a warhorse outside the sleeping tent, jumped on it, urged the warhorse, and ran quickly to the East Camp.

The guards around were startled and shouted: "General, be careful, general, slow down!" While shouting, they swung their legs and chased after him.

Liu Zhang didn't care whether the guards behind him had caught up or not, and kept urging the warhorse to run wildly. Not long after, he ran to the place where the fire broke out in the East Camp. He looked up from his horse and saw that the huge granary had turned into a sea of ​​fire. There were countless Fengjun soldiers pouring water to put out the fire, and many soldiers were desperately trying to rescue food from the sea of ​​fire. Shouts were heard everywhere. How could this happen! Seeing this, Liu Zhang was also dumbfounded. How could the enemy army of only 5,000 have such courage to sneak attack the army camp of 100,000 people? How could the An army of Kawaguchi County be so powerful?

He urged his horse to rush into the crowd and shouted to the Fengjun soldiers around him: "Put out the fire! Put out the fire quickly! Who knows where the enemy who sneaked into the camp is now?"

"Report to the general, the enemy has run away!"

"Where to run..."

Before he finished speaking, suddenly, whoosh, whoosh, whoosh, more than a dozen crossbow arrows suddenly flew over him. This change came too suddenly. No one could have imagined that someone in the crowd of Fengjun soldiers would shoot cold arrows at Liu Zhang.

If Liu Zhang was on guard at this time, even if more crossbow arrows were shot at him, they might not be able to hurt him. But now his mind was on the burning food and grass, and he never thought that there would be enemies hiding among his own soldiers.

With the dull sound of arrows piercing his flesh, Liu Zhang screamed in pain and fell off his horse.