Chapter 296
At this time, Tang Yin did not know the news that Liang Qi and Shangguan Yuanrang had successfully attacked Tongmen. The Tianyuan Army of 400,000 had arrived at the county seat of Lehu County, Xibai TXT Download.
An army of 400,000 people surrounded the huge Western City and set up camp around the city. Looking up, the tents were connected to each other, and the edges could not be seen at a glance. Inside the camp, flags were fluttering, embroidered ribbons were fluttering, and soldiers were Like Lin, its momentum can only be seen in wars between vassal states.
Before the Tianyuan Army arrived at Xibai City, Geng Qiang didn't feel anything. But now that the troops were approaching the city, Geng Qiang stood on the top of the city and looked out. He couldn't help but feel frightened secretly. There was a chill behind his back. At this time He regretted a little, regretting that he really shouldn't have cared about his face and insisted on staying in Lehu County to resist Tang Yin's army. The Tianyuan Army was so large in number, could his own army of less than 100,000 resist it?
Seeing that Geng Qiang's face was ugly, his eyes were looking straight at the enemy camp, his fists were clenched tightly, and his nervousness was naturally revealed. A counselor named Qu Rang next to him advised: "My lord, don't worry. Our western city has thick walls and strong defenses. Even if the enemy has millions of troops, we will not be afraid!"
Qu Rang was one of the main fighting factions under Geng Qiang. Geng Qiang wanted to stay in Xibaicheng to resist the Tianyuan Army, which coincided with his intention. Another counselor, Yu Junze, shook his head and said quietly from the side: "The Tianyuan Army claims to be 500,000 strong, but our army is only 80,000. Once a war breaks out, how will we resist?"
snort! Qu Rang sneered in his heart when he heard this, but pretended to be calm on the surface and asked, "What does Mr. Yu Jun mean..."
"When His Highness the Second Highness joined forces with the 400,000 Ning Army to attack Tianyuan County, they were defeated by the Tianyuan Army before they even reached Tianguan. The Second Highness died in the battle, and more than half of the 400,000 Ning Army was lost. This shows that the Tianyuan Army is definitely not Tang Yin is by no means easy to grieve for the mob. Now that Tianyuan's army is approaching the city, our army wants to resist half a million with 80,000, which is not realistic. I hope you can make arrangements early!" Yu Jun said seriously.
"What arrangements are there?" Geng Qiang looked at Yu Jun.
"While the two sides are not at war yet, if your Excellency can take the initiative to offer the city, surrender to the Tianyuan Army, and turn the conflict into friendship, it will be a blessing to the hundreds of thousands of people in the city, and a blessing to our officers and soldiers. Tang Yin will definitely use you. If you wait for both sides If you hand over your hands, there will be no room for maneuver in the situation. Even if you want to surrender, you will..."
Before Jun could finish his words, Qu Rang's face turned red with anger and he shouted: "How brave! In front of the two armies, you actually persuaded me to surrender to the enemy. What are your intentions?" As he spoke, he turned around. He bowed to Geng Qiang and saluted, and said in a deep voice: "Sir, Yu Jun's evil words have deceived the public and shaken the morale of the army. Your Excellency, you should be punished according to military law!"
Geng Qiang looked at Qu Rang, then at Yu Jun, and sighed secretly. These two counselors were his confidants. One of them was responsible for fighting and the other was surrendering. It sounded reasonable, but from the bottom of his heart, Geng Qiang still hopes to fight.
He was silent for a moment, then waved his hand and said: "I am deeply grateful for the kindness of your Majesty. Even if I die on the battlefield and my body is wrapped in horse leather, I will never betray your Majesty. No matter who you are in the future, you can never surrender lightly. Otherwise, you can Don't blame me for being ruthless!" After saying this, he glared at Yu Jun fiercely, flicked his sleeves, and walked down the city.
"Haha, Mr. Yu Jun, did you hear what I said?!" Qu Rang glanced at Yu Jun proudly and quickly followed Geng Qiang.
Qu Rang and Yu Jun were both Geng Qiang's confidants, but they had always been at odds with each other and always had different opinions. They were in intrigues and secretly competing with each other.
Yu Jun looked at Geng Qiang's leaving figure, looked up to the sky, sighed, and murmured: "Using a mantis' arm as a chariot will lead to his own destruction. The general will be stupid and thousands of people will suffer!"
Hearing this, the soldiers standing guard all around shrank their necks in fear. Someone stepped forward and whispered softly: "Sir, please don't say that again, in case it reaches the ears of your Excellency..."
Yu Jun waved his hands, shook his head and sighed, and walked slowly down the city.
Geng Qiang did not listen to Yu Jun's advice and took a posture of holding on to the city.
At the same time, Tang Yin was also discussing the strategy of attacking the city with his soldiers.
Although the Tianyuan Army is coming fiercely and with great momentum, there are also hidden dangers. Lack of food and grass is a big problem.
With the power of three counties to support an army of 500,000, the food and grass could only be considered adequate. Liang Qi and Shangguan Yuan asked the commander of 100,000 and three water troops to sneak attack Tongmen and take away a large amount of food and grass. This reduced the Tianyuan Army's food and grass. The reserves were already very tight, and then another batch was burned by Mao An. The problem of insufficient food and grass was immediately exposed. Now, Tianyuan County, Guannan County, and Jinguang County have transported all the food reserves to the army, but even so, the food in the army It is only enough for one month, which means that the war must be ended within one month, otherwise, the Tianyuan Army will be in a dilemma of having no food to eat.
Because of the problem of food and grass, the mood of the officers and men was very urgent. In the Chinese army tent, the generals headed by Xiao Muqing all suggested that they must launch an attack on Xibai City immediately, and strive to capture Xibai within three days, and then use all their strength Attack Yancheng.
Tang Yin felt that what the generals said was reasonable, and immediately issued an order for the entire army to attack the city.
Before attacking the city, Tianyuan Army also sent an envoy as usual, holding a white flag to the gate of Xibaicheng, asking Geng Qiang to come out and speak. When Geng Qiang reached the top of the city, the envoy was moved with emotion and reason, and advised Geng Qiang to surrender the city. Geng Qiang was determined to fight, but he could still listen to the words of the Tianyuan Army envoy. He immediately ordered a volley of random arrows to shoot the envoy to death.
Unfortunately, the envoy became a target for Peng's army at the foot of Xibai City. He and his horse were shot into hedgehogs. Geng Qiang shot and killed the envoy of the Tianyuan Army, completely losing the possibility of negotiation between the two sides. Tang Yin issued an order. The Pingyuan Army attacked the east gate of Xibai City, the Chifeng Army attacked the west gate, and the Direct Army attacked the north gate. The Tianyuan Army harassed the west gate and attacked from all sides.
As Tang Yin's general conveyed the message, the Tianyuan Army who had traveled a long distance immediately went back to the fierce battle to attack the city without taking any rest.
This battle was very difficult for both sides. The city defense of Xibaicheng is indeed strong. It is a county town in itself. The city wall is high, thick and extremely strong. Moreover, since the Tianyuan Army raised its troops, Geng Qiang has been strengthening the city defense of Xibaicheng, so that the city wall can be built on the original basis. It was raised to more than half its length, and there were so many sticks, rocks and other defensive weapons on the city top that they piled up like a mountain. With 80,000 soldiers, they are at a commanding height, making it easy to defend but difficult to attack.
The Tianyuan Army's siege equipment has now been transported to the army. Large siege weapons such as trebuchets, city-breaking crossbows, army-breaking crossbows, and movable arrow towers have brought huge siege weapons to the defenders on the top of the city. Threats, rush vehicles designed to break through city walls and thunder vehicles designed to break through city gates also put great pressure on the city defense.
The two sides started fighting, arrows flew back and forth, huge rocks shuttled through the air, and scores of soldiers fell under the powerful fire of arrows and crossbows. Countless soldiers were smashed into meat patties by the flying boulders. There were shouts of killing and screams on the battlefield. There were sounds, fires, and smoke billowing all over the city walls. A life-and-death fight was going on everywhere. Not to mention the city walls, there was a whole layer of corpses piled up in the moat, and the river water was dyed scarlet. Bloody water.
This was a tragic battle in which the enemy suffered one thousand losses and we suffered eight hundred losses.
The Tianyuan Army attacked the city in the morning and continued until late at night. The siege army was replaced by one regiment after another. Many regiments had already fought for three rounds, and the officers and men were extremely exhausted.
The situation in Xibai City was not much better. How could the 80,000 soldiers withstand the 400,000 Tianyuan Army attacking from all sides? With a shortage of manpower, Geng Qiang directly ordered the guards around him to arrest people in the city. , as long as they were strong men, they were all brought to the top of the city. They didn't even have armor. They were only given a spear each and immediately participated in defending the city.
Under Geng Qiang's almost crazy persistence, Tianyuan Army took the lead in retreating. Tang Yin accepted Zhang Zhe's advice and temporarily stopped attacking the city and rested first. The retreat of Tianyuan Army made the soldiers on both sides breathe a sigh of relief.
After only one battle, only 50,000 of the 80,000 defenders in Xibai City were left. As for the number of strong men who died in the battle, there were countless, and the casualties of Tianyuan Army were also upwards of 50,000. Looking at the battlefield, there were corpses all over the ground. and weapons, as well as arrows sticking into the ground like straw. Such a brutal battle is rare.
It can be said that the strength of Xibai City is beyond the expectations of Tang Yin and his generals. With such a strong city defense and such tenacious resistance, it would be considered fast to capture Xibai City in ten days or even a month, let alone three days.
"damn it!"
In the Chinese army tent, Shangguan Yuan Biao pulled his neck and shouted: "If Geng Qiang hadn't ignored the life and death of the people in the city and captured a large number of people to resist our army, we would have invaded the city long ago!"
Geng Qiang's use of coercion to capture strong men to participate in the defense of the city was indeed something no one expected. Xibai is the county seat and is the largest city in Lehu County. There must be more than 500,000 people in the city alone. Excluding half of the women and half of the old, young, sick and disabled, there must be hundreds of thousands of strong men. If Quan was captured by Geng Qiang and participated in the defense of the city, this would more than double the defensive strength of Xibai City.
At this time, even Qiu Zhen, Zhang Zhe, Zong Yuan and other clever counselors looked sad, feeling that this battle would be difficult to end in a short time, or it would turn into a protracted tug-of-war and war of attrition. Of course, this is the most unacceptable war for the current Tianyuan Army.
Tang Yin paced back and forth in front of the handsome case. After walking for a while, he stopped, looked around at the people in the tent, and said quietly: "No matter how strong the defense is, it will have weaknesses. Even if it is a solid piece of iron, it will have weak points. Everyone, who has a plan to destroy the city? "
After hearing this, everyone lowered their heads and no one said anything.
Seeing this, Tang Yin felt heavy in his chest, saying that when he attacked the city, everyone spoke in unison, but now that the attack was thwarted, they all became mute. He took a deep breath and said: "The Western Hundred City is strong. If our army cannot attack it for a long time, the army will run out of food and will be defeated without a fight. Since no one has a good strategy to break the city, let's forget about withdrawing our troops and return to Jinguang County to farm first. Bar!"
"No sir!" Upon hearing this, everyone raised their heads and stopped him in unison.