Chapter 331

Tang Yin and his group went to Mo State quickly and left even faster. They were in Mo State for less than ten days, but their influence on Mo State was immeasurable.

There was no conversation on the way. Tang Yin and others followed Zhao Ju's caravan, went out of the border of Mo State, entered Baguan, and then returned to Xibai, the county town of Lehu County, from Baguan.

It took Tang Yin almost two months to go back and forth. During these two months, a lot of things happened. The first was Ningguo's counterattack on Tongmen.

The news of the fall of Tongmen shocked the entire Ning State. It can be said that the whole country was in an uproar. After Ning Wang Yanchu learned about this, he did not delay for a moment and immediately ordered Ningguo's general Kong Jie to lead 200,000 troops to Tongmen, and issued a death order, regardless of any cost, to recapture Tongmen.

Kong Jie accepted the king's order and led 200,000 Ning troops from Ningdu Liangzhou. He rushed all the way and arrived at Tongmen in just half a month. After the troops arrived at the city, the Ning soldiers did not rest and immediately launched a large-scale siege. The west gate of Tongmen was strong, with high walls and thick walls, which made it easy to defend but difficult to attack. Kong Jie came in a hurry, and the army was short of large-scale siege equipment. To launch the siege in a hurry was like using people to pave the way. The 200,000 Ning army was hit head-on by the 80,000 Sanshui army, and countless casualties were caused. Outside Tongmen City, corpses piled up like mountains and blood flowed like rivers.

The 200,000 Ning army attacked the city for three consecutive days, but not only did they fail to enter the city, but they also suffered heavy casualties. The generals and soldiers were miserable.

When the Ning army was still attacking on the fourth day, Liang Qi saw that the morale of the Ning army was low and the personnel were exhausted, so he ordered Shangguan Yuanrang to lead all the 5,000 cavalry in the city to fight out of the city and meet the Ning army.

Shangguan Yuanrang led 5,000 cavalry to suddenly rush out of Tongmen, just like a knife directly into the Ning army's siege team, killing the Ning army camp in chaos, the front army was defeated, and the soldiers trampled on each other, killing and wounding countless people.

Five thousand cavalrymen chased the enemy from the front of the Ning army all the way into the Ning army camp. They were unstoppable. The Ning army could not resist and abandoned the camp and fled. The five thousand cavalrymen chased the enemy for ten miles, and then returned victorious under the order of Liang Qi.

After this battle, most of the 200,000 Ning army were killed or wounded, and they were no longer able to attack the city. Kong Jie led the remaining soldiers and retreated to Liangzhou.

Upon learning of Kong Jie's disastrous defeat, Yan Chu not only dismissed his title of general, but also reduced his official position and title to the bottom, and then ordered another general of Ning State, Ming Xiaotian, to lead the 200,000 elite central army of Ning State to Tongmen.

Ming Xiaotian was an old general of Ning State, very good at using troops, and was deeply trusted by Ning Wang Yan Chu. Although he led the central army of Ning State and rushed to Tongmen, he did not immediately order an attack on the city. Instead, he ordered the entire army to camp and rest, while trying to find out the news in Tongmen, and at the same time waiting for the baggage in the rear to be transported to the army.

Ming Xiaotian faced the Tianyuan Army as if he was facing a formidable enemy this time. He was very cautious and did not dare to be negligent. His son Mingxuan had been a prisoner of the Tianyuan Army, and he was impressed by the cunning of the Tianyuan Army. Since the Sanshui Army stationed in Tongmen was on high alert, although Ming Xiaotian sent a large number of spies, he did not get any valuable intelligence.

He stayed outside Tongmen for ten days, and only after all the supplies were transported to the rear did he make a tentative siege. The elite of the Ningguo Central Army is indeed incomparable to other legions, and they are assisted by large siege equipment. Although it is only a tentative attack, it is still very sharp.

The Sanshui Army defended the city and resisted tenaciously. When the Ning Army attacked, their counterattack was still fierce. Arrows rained down from the top of the city, and rolling logs and stones did not stop for a moment. The catapults in the city fired huge stones from time to time, smashing into the Ning Army's siege formation, causing great damage. In addition, the city-breaking crossbows and army-breaking crossbows carried by the Sanshui Army also brought considerable threats and troubles to the Ning Army, especially the city-breaking crossbows, which were originally used to break the city, but now used to defend the city. The range of the powerful shots from a high position was astonishing, and it could even pass over the top of the Ning Army's formation and directly shoot at the catapults behind the Ning Army. The catapults were fragile, so how could they withstand the impact of the wooden stakes? After two catapults were damaged by the city-breaking crossbows, Ming Xiaotian immediately ordered the catapults to be withdrawn, but once the catapults were withdrawn, their range could not reach the top of the Tongmen city wall, and they lost their function.

After a round of tentative attacks, Ming Xiaotian immediately realized that the enemy troops in Tongmen were numerous and well-prepared, and it was impossible for his 200,000 people to attack Tongmen by force, let alone capture Tongmen in a short time.

Afterwards, Ming Xiaotian ordered the entire army to retreat and station outside the west city of Tongmen, neither attacking nor retreating, and to stand still and confront the Sanshui army occupying Tongmen. At the same time, Ming Xiaotian sent someone to rush back to Liangzhou to see King Yan Chu, and asked Yan Chu to give orders to the two brothers Zhan Wushuang and Zhan Wudi in Fengguo, and let them lead the Ning army to attack Tongmen from the inside of Fengdi, and cooperate with his 200,000 central army to launch a pincer attack, attacking Tongmen from both the east and west sides, and there was no need to worry about Tongmen not being broken.

After receiving Ming Xiaotian's memorial, Yan Chu immediately accepted it, and then sent a letter by carrier pigeon to order Zhan Wushuang and Zhan Wudi to retreat quickly and assist Ming Xiaotian in attacking Tongmen.

At this time, the Zhan brothers had already known the news of the fall of Tongmen. After the original defender of Tongmen, Zhang Xiaoting, fled, he surrendered to the Zhan Wushuang brothers and asked them to lead the army back to rescue Tongmen immediately. Zhan Wushuang and Zhan Wudi knew the importance of Tongmen to them and wanted to rescue it, but the Tianyuan Army had already occupied Lehu County and could attack Yancheng at any time. Without the order of King Ning, how dare they mobilize the army privately?

After receiving the pigeon letter from Yan Chu, the Zhan brothers breathed a sigh of relief. Without hesitation, they immediately led their troops west to attack Tongmen.

The 200,000 Ning troops commanded by the Zhan brothers were like the last trump card in Zhong Tian's hand. The two brothers led 200,000 Ning troops to evacuate Yancheng and go back to attack Tongmen. Zhong Tian immediately panicked and went out of the palace to meet the Zhan brothers and asked them to stay in Yancheng.

Now Zhan Wushuang and Zhan Wudi felt annoyed when they saw Zhong Tian, ​​and they didn't look good to him. Moreover, they had the order of King Ning in their hands, so they ignored Zhong Tian at all and forced to move camp overnight and lead the whole army to Tongmen.

The Ning army withdrew, not to mention Zhong Tian was stunned, even his civil officials and military generals were scared and didn't know what to do. With the Ning army helping to defend Yancheng, they still had the confidence to resist the Tianyuan army. Now they were the only ones left to defend the city. How could they resist the Tianyuan army of nearly 500,000?

The panic first spread from the royal court and soon spread to the whole army and even the whole city. The 200,000 central army soldiers that Zhong Tian had finally organized were panic-stricken and had no fighting spirit. All the soldiers felt that a disaster was imminent.

Let’s talk about Zhan Wushuang and Zhan Wudi, who led 200,000 Ning troops and rushed to the east city of Tongmen, forming a pincer attack with Ming Xiaotian and his group outside the west city. Now, the Sanshui army stationed in Tongmen will face 400,000 Ning troops, and they will be attacked from both sides.

With only 80,000 people defending an isolated city and resisting 400,000 enemy troops, any commander would panic, but Liang Qi was able to keep his composure. He divided 50,000 of his more than 80,000 soldiers, led by Shangguan Yuanrang, to guard the east city to resist the 200,000 Ning troops of the Zhan brothers, while he only led more than 30,000 people to guard the west city to resist Ming Xiaotian’s 200,000 central army.

Because of the obstruction of Tongmen, Ming Xiaotian and Zhan Wushuang and Zhan Wudi could not meet, and could only communicate with each other through pigeons. Soon, the two sides agreed on a time and prepared to attack the city together.

On the agreed day, 400,000 Ning troops launched a fierce attack on Tongmen from the east and west sides. According to Ming Xiaotian, the first battle was a decisive battle, and he and the Zhan brothers invested all their troops.

This fierce battle could not be described as bloody and cruel. Tongmen had become a huge meat grinder, constantly devouring the lives of soldiers on both sides.

The battle lasted from early morning to late at night. Under the desperate resistance of the Sanshui Army, the 400,000 Ning troops were blocked outside Tongmen City and did not enter Tongmen at all.

Seeing that the Ning army was about to attack the city overnight, Shangguan Yuanrang, who was fighting alone for the first time, was extremely excited. Without any discussion with Liang Qi, he handed over the command to a corps commander. He used the same trick again and led the cavalry to suddenly rush out of Tongmen and break into the Ning army's camp at night.

When the 400,000 troops of his own side attacked the city together, the enemy did not defend the city to death, but counterattacked. This was indeed beyond the expectations of the Ning army. The soldiers under Zhan Wushuang and Zhan Wudi were caught off guard by Shangguan Yuanrang's sudden attack. The soldiers in the front threw away their helmets and armor and retreated backwards in groups.

Because it was too dark, the Ning army in the rear could not see the situation in front clearly, but still pushed forward desperately. The retreat and the collision caused chaos in the entire Ning army camp. The soldiers pushed and trampled on each other. Without the enemy's attack, the casualties caused by themselves were already huge.

Zhan Wudi saw a cavalry force coming out of Tongmen, which was unstoppable and caused chaos in his siege camp, so he immediately rushed to fight. As soon as he came up, he happened to run into Shangguan Yuanrang who was the first to rush in. The two were old acquaintances. After meeting, they immediately fought each other without greeting each other.

Zhan Wudi was a brave and fierce general. His cultivation and spiritual martial arts could rank among the top three in the entire Ningguo, but compared with the brave and invincible Shangguan Yuanrang, he was still a step behind. The two fought for more than 30 rounds. Zhan Wudi gradually had only parrying attacks and had no power to fight back. After fighting for more than ten rounds, Zhan Wudi was already beaten by Shangguan Yuanrang's three-pointed double-edged sword. He was out of breath and dared not fight anymore, so he turned around and ran away.

Shangguan Yuanrang knew that Zhan Wudi was one of the commanders of the 200,000 Ning army, so he would not let him escape easily, so he urged his horse to chase him.

The two of them, one running and the other chasing, started a chase in the huge Ning army camp.

Zhan Wudi went out to block and hold off Shangguan Yuanrang for a short time, but the well-trained Ning army still took advantage of this gap to calm down. When Shangguan Yuanrang chased Zhan Wudi, the Ning army soldiers had prepared dozens of tripping chains to meet Shangguan Yuanrang.

No matter how good Shangguan Yuanrang's riding skills were, he could avoid one or two tripping chains, but he couldn't avoid all of them. It didn't take long for Shangguan Yuanrang's horse to be tripped by a tripping chain, and he and his horse fell to the ground. The surrounding Ning army thought they had an opportunity and swarmed forward, but they went up quickly and fell even faster. With a few flashes of cold light, the Ning army soldiers who rushed over were all cut off by the spiritual waves, and their limbs and arms were scattered all over the ground.