Final Volume Chapter 100
After less than ten days of siege, most of the local troops in the Sichuan Army had been killed or wounded. Afterwards, Yang Zhao issued military orders to the heads of various counties, and like the previous military orders, he still recruited local troops.
The local governments had no local troops to provide, so they had no choice but to capture able-bodied men from house to house in the local area. Moreover, this time they could not even provide decent armor and weapons, and the captured able-bodied men were directly escorted to the front line of Jinsha City.
The bloody battle in Jinsha City has been going on for nearly a month, and now it has entered a weird cycle. The main central army of Sichuan State did not directly participate in the battle at all, and completely pushed the local troops to the front as cannon fodder. The local troops were no longer Sichuan people, but all Zhen people. The casualties in the battle were basically all Zhen people. As the main attacking party, the Sichuan Army had an incredible zero casualties.
Yang Zhao has now made up his mind to use the Zhen people to consume all the rebels in Jinsha City, at least most of them, and then his army will press forward. At that time, he can easily take Jinsha City and wipe out the rebels like a whirlwind.
His idea is very good. The battle situation is becoming more and more unfavorable to the Zhen army led by Li Shu. Although the Zhen army can repel round after round of fierce attacks by the Sichuan army every day, they also have casualties. Today, 1,800 people are injured, and tomorrow, hundreds or thousands of people are injured. Accumulated every day, the casualties are tens of thousands.
So far, Yin Li has been away for more than a month, but there is no sign of reinforcements. What's more terrible is that the food and grass in Jinsha City have been severely consumed.
I don't know how long it will take for Yin Li to come back. Li Shu can only order the whole army to control the rations, from three meals a day to two meals a day.
The Zhen army in Jinsha City has gradually felt the pressure, and Yang Zhao outside the city is also under pressure. His tactics of using a chastity man to fight a chastity man were not recognized by all the generals of the Sichuan Army. Lu You was one of them. However, Lu You and Yang Zhao had a close personal relationship, so it was not easy for him to confront him in person, so he did not say much. Among the generals, Chen Lihua and Chai Song were the ones who most clearly expressed their opposition to Yang Zhao's tactics.
During the meeting, the two of them had pointed out more than once that Yang Zhao's tactics were problematic. Even if they were used only once or twice, there would be endless troubles, not to mention that he had to use them all the time.
Yang Zhao sneered at their opposition, and finally stated in public that Chen Lihua and Chai Song were the least qualified to talk nonsense in front of him. Under their command, the Sichuan Central Army of 400,000 was beaten by the rebels and only tens of thousands were left. This was not only a humiliation for the Sichuan Army, but also a humiliation for the Sichuan State. Chen Lihua and Chai Song were both sinners of the Sichuan State.
As the saying goes, it is better to hit someone in the face than to hit him in the face. Yang Zhao publicly accused and even humiliated Chen Lihua and Chai Song. How could these two bear it? Besides, their military ranks were still equal, and Yang Zhao had no right to hold them accountable.
Chen Lihua and Chai Song were so angry that if the generals had not stepped forward to mediate, they would have fought with Yang Zhao in public.
Later, Chen Lihua and Chai Song jointly wrote a letter to the court, detailing everything Yang Zhao had done in Jinsha City.
Soon the letter was sent back to Zhaoyang, the capital of Sichuan. Many ministers felt that it was nothing after reading the letter. Even if Yang Zhao's methods were a bit radical, it was for the sake of the Sichuan soldiers, so it was understandable.
However, after reading the letter, Xiao Xiang was furious and wrote a reply to Yang Zhao in person.
In the reply, Xiao Xiang denounced Yang Zhao for acting without regard for the consequences, being short-sighted and lacking foresight. Sichuan State did not fight and run away from Zhendi and Zhenren, but wanted to occupy and assimilate them, to make Zhendi a permanent part of Sichuan State territory, and to assimilate Zhenren into Sichuan people from generation to generation. Now, Yang Zhao is so self-righteous that he forcibly recruited Zhenren to fight Zhenren, and let Zhenren kill each other, and he still boasts that he is smart. If he continues to do this, I believe that it will not take long before Li Shu's forces are not eliminated, and Zhendi will have a second, third, or even more "Li Shu". By then, rebellions will break out. When will Chuan Kingdom be able to completely quell the chaos in Zhendi?
Although Yang Zhao is a great contributor who helped Xiao Xiang ascend to the throne, Xiao Xiang was not polite to him on issues related to the vital interests of Chuan Kingdom. The words in the letter were extremely tough, ordering Yang Zhao to immediately stop his tactics, repatriate all the forcibly recruited Zhenren, and use his Chuan army soldiers to directly attack Jinsha City.
It can be said that Xiao Xiang's stop was timely, but the damage caused by Yang Zhao's tactics had already occurred, and it was not something that could be wiped out in a moment.
After receiving Xiao Xiang's letter, Yang Zhao shrank his neck after reading it. Even if he only read the letter and didn't see Xiao Xiang in person, he could feel Xiao Xiang's anger between the lines.
Yang Zhao, who was so fierce and tough, compromised after receiving Xiao Xiang's letter. He followed Xiao Xiang's order and repatriated all the local troops, and also allocated part of the military pay to them as travel expenses.
After repatriating the local troops, the Sichuan Army began a real siege. On one side was a strong attack by 400,000 troops, and on the other side was a desperate defense by more than 100,000 troops. The fierce battle between the two sides lasted for more than a month.
In this more than a month, the Sichuan Army had attacked the top of Jinsha City countless times, and was finally pushed down by the Zhen Army countless times. The wall of Jinsha City had been broken countless times, and finally filled with the bodies of soldiers from both sides countless times.
After more than two months of fierce fighting, the wall of Jinsha City was already riddled with holes, and the outside of Jinsha City was already full of corpses.
Fresh corpses covered the rotten corpses, and then the fresh corpses gradually rotted and were covered by fresher corpses. The ground was full of black corpse water, and the bloody and foul smells in the air were disgusting.
The current Jinsha City is like a huge meat grinder, which grinds the soldiers of both Sichuan and Zhen every day.
At this time in the battle of Jinsha City, both the Sichuan Army and the Zhen Army were exhausted. The 400,000 troops of Sichuan State were reduced to more than 200,000, and the hundreds of thousands of Zhen Army were only 70,000 or 80,000. This was a bloody battle with human flesh piled up in the name.
Compared with the Sichuan Army, the Zhen Army, which was besieged in the city for more than two months, was undoubtedly more difficult. The food and grass in the city had been eaten up long ago. The starving Zhen army soldiers could only eat people. When they had eaten up all the corpses, they ate the wounded soldiers. When they had eaten up all the wounded soldiers, they rushed into the city to eat the people...
The medicines in the city had also been used up. Once the Zhen army soldiers were injured, there was no medicine to treat them. They could only do simple bandaging. Those with strong physique and good luck might be able to survive. Otherwise, they could only wait for the wounds to become inflamed, ulcerated, and finally rotted and died of blood loss.
The Zhen army had resisted the Sichuan army for more than two months. Including the time when Yin Li left earlier, it had been nearly three months in total. But in these three months, not to mention that there was no sign of reinforcements, Yin Li did not even send back any news.
Now most of the Zhen army soldiers no longer have any expectations for Yin Li, believing that his going to Chiyue to borrow troops was fake, and that he was afraid of the Sichuan army’s strength and fled in the face of the enemy.
Li Shu was very stubborn, insisting that Yin Li would never abandon him, and that he must have been blocked from borrowing troops. He believed that with his intelligence, he would be able to convince Chi Yue soon and lead reinforcements to rescue him. Li Shu said this, but in fact, he was also desperate for Yin Li in his heart.
But he couldn't say that, at least he had to leave a glimmer of hope for his soldiers, otherwise, his morale would collapse across the board and he would no longer be able to resist the strong attack of the Sichuan Army.
Where is Yin Li now? The soldiers of the Zhen Army really guessed it right, he didn't go to Chi Yue at all. It's not Yin Li's style to do something knowing that it's impossible.
Previously, Li Shu had borrowed 30,000 soldiers from Chi Yue, but in the battle of Wangxi Plain, 30,000 Chi Yue soldiers were killed. Chi Yue has already lost more than 30,000 elite soldiers in vain. Now if he asks others to borrow troops again, Chi Yue will never lend them again.
The reason why Yin Li said that he was going to Chiyue to borrow troops was just to give Li Shu and the soldiers of the whole army hope, and also to find an excuse for himself to leave Jinsha City. If he directly stated his intention, not to mention that Li Shu would not agree, the soldiers under his command would also oppose it.
As time went by, this protracted bloody battle in Jinsha City entered the fourth month, which was also the most difficult month in the entire battle.
The soldiers on both sides, who were exhausted, were at the end of their strength. The soldiers on both sides gritted their teeth and fought. Since the city defense weapons of the Zhen army had been exhausted, it was easier for the attacking Sichuan army to attack the city wall, and the number of face-to-face hand-to-hand combats between the two sides began to increase rapidly.
For the Sichuan army, it is easy to attack the top of the city now, but it is too difficult to attack the city from the top of the city. Facing the fierce counterattack of the Zhen army, the Sichuan army rushed up and was beaten back. Often after a whole day of fierce fighting, the Sichuan army could hit the top of the city no less than fifty times, but in the end they were all beaten back by the Sichuan army.
The close combat between the two sides on the city wall did have one benefit for the Zhen army, that is, their food became sufficient. In the following time, the walls of Jinsha City were full of corpses mixed with bones, and bones were mixed with corpses. It was no different from hell, which also made the Sichuan army soldiers who rushed to the top of the city feel a sense of fear from the bottom of their hearts.
When the fourth month of the bloody battle in Jinsha City passed, the Zhen army's troops were less than 30,000. The remaining Zhen soldiers were skinny, with deep eye sockets and protruding cheekbones, looking like ghosts. Of course, the Sichuan army was not much better. It can't be said that nine out of ten camps were empty, but at least six or seven were empty. Most of the company camps that were originally set up around the city became empty camps, and the main forces were concentrated outside the east gate of Jinsha City.
Feeling that the rebels in the city had reached their limit, Yang Zhao now began to plan a final blow to the rebels defending the city.
(To be continued)